January Scavenger hunt.

I have been so bad with this months scavenger hunt

Regular readers of my blog may notice some of the photo's have already been used before. 

I will try harder next month. 

 

2 

(2 lovely scones)

Blur

(friends at tea)

Company

(this bear was accompanied by a friend and her little lady)

Entrance

(Temple church Bristol)

in my bathroom

(the print on the Jim Shore in the bathroom)

in season

(it should not be in season but was taken on the 21st January in Bristol)

in the distance

(this was taken at Bristol train station, as the tracks went round the corner, I enjoyed playing with some of the  effects on the computer)

information

(all the things you should not do)

mess

(this is what happen's when I cook)

odd

(odd peculiar as this is a mirror)

sort

(well organised cakes, yes a bit of a stretch)

Warning 

( I have never seen this before, it is a bit worrying) 

Sunday tea.

After yesterday's stress and trauma We had a friend round for Sunday Tea.
She has been responsible for my lovely afternoon tea books that I was lucky enough to have for my Christmas and birthday presents.

Afternoon tea is so fab, I love the whole ritual and am glad that I am able to do this from time to time.
So last night and this morning was spent, cooking and baking and preparing.

We have a delightful mismatch of china that we have accumulated over the years. So here are the pictures of our tea.

For Sandwiches I made, Ham, Smoked Salmon with soft cheese and of course cucumber. Along with an egg and watercress roll. 

I have decided to put in my wish book a pair of serving tongs as well as some sugar tongs. (I have a little handbag book that reminds me of things I want/need. It has useful measurement's in as well such as the collar size of my father in law and the size of the dining room fireplace.)

Now I have to work on my scones because these were a little to moist and a bit flat, they tasted nice enough and I served them with clotted cream and strawberry jam. 

For the pastry's I made some little tarts, they were made with a sweet pasrty, some sweetend cream and fresh fruit. they tasted lovely, However they could have been a little more pretty. 

They tasted scrummy. 

Now the 2 cakes under the tartlets on the stand are a rich dark and white chocolate brownie and a honey and poppy seed mini loaf cake. 

Brownies are yum and the loaf cakes go very nicely with the tea. I made 4, but 1 sliced was more than enough for the tea table.

Finally I made cup cakes. 

Now I need to improve upon my icing as it does look like it was done by a 5 year old.  However the contents were yum. 

It was not just the food that made it such a nice afternoon, it was the company and the whole ritual of afternoon tea, the good linen, the nice china, taking time and conversing. A very nice way to spend the afternoon and a perfect antidote to a horrid day the day before. 

Hope you all have a happy week. x 

Yes today was stressful!

A big thing happened today, but I will get to that later....

This morning we had to take the dogs to the vet for their annual MOT. Now for anyone with older dogs will know that this is not straightforward, now us people we go in with a list of things we know needs attention, then the vet adds some more.

Now dog 1 is going to get some new treatment for her arthritis as she is struggling with her joints. This will mean lots of trips in the next few weeks.

The other bits and pieces are related to her age and getting older so are best left alone in an old lady. 

(she still is so beautiful) 

Now dog 2 we had as a rescue pup and he has always had bad teeth, we brush them and he has lots of bones and chews but sadly he needs to have a tooth out so will be going in in the next couple of weeks. 

(we have not told him yet, that's why he looks happy)

So over the next few weeks we will be seeing a lot of this.

Now that was not the stressful part of the day. 

We have been helping someone over the past few years. This help has been emotional, practical and financial.  In October things took a turn for the worse for him  and as he was in a bad way, no home, no job and feeling very low,  We gave him a place to stay. We gave him food. We gave him clothes. We gave him support. 

I am sad to say, he left today. In the 3 months we supported him he gave us nothing but lies. 

We are gutted. 

It is not just being out of pocket financially it is about trying to do all you can for someone and them throwing it back in your face. 

As I said yesterday every ending is a new beginning. 

We get our guest room back and as we are having friends and relatives coming from overseas it is much nicer for them to have a room to stay in rather than a blow up bed in the dining room. 

 Here is my blank canvas, I have cleaned down the woodwork but its still quite grubby, luckily the paper we did for Older Daughter is still in good condition so we will just need to repaint the woodwork.. 

(talking of daughter's last night our younger daughter went out at 8.30pm for a drink with friends she came back in the early hours of this morning with a mohican, a trendy one with hair at the sides not shaved.) 

Well, back to the room. here it is. 

The bed will be going as we are changing it for a small double, apart from that all the furniture will be staying. the wardrobe unit hides the boiler and was built for us a few years ago. The little chest makes a fab seat/ bedside table/toybox.

Also the darkwood ercol corner unit. we love it and it used to live in the sitting room before we got a larger sofa. it is handy as storage and has its own charm.

I am looking forward to making the changes and of course I will share them with you.

As I said earlier on in the week, security is important. When someone lies to you and takes you for a ride you have to take precautions.

New locks are in.

I am now off to do some therapeutic baking.

Time for an ad break.

Well today I was working from home. I don't know what working from home means to other people but for me its about having some peace and quiet. I still have to get up, start work on time, be dressed and to be ready to go to the office if needed. Our office is so busy that home is a chance to crunch through some stuff. It means I miss out on the distractions from the office with nothing but 2 snoring dogs and radio 4 for company. By the miracles of modern technology I can still access my emails and everything. now 99% of my emails that I get at work are work emails (yes by boss is pleased) However we still get the odd funny one as well as the occasional send this to 20 people and something might happen (yes I hit delete). Now today we had a great one. It was an email containing old adverts. How fab. these are my favourites.

  

They are certainly of their time. I dread to think of the new mother getting drunk on blatz beer whilst breastfeeding! 

This weekend is going to be a stressful one. Then I am hoping for an end to one of our stress factors. Endings are always sad but often inevitable. An ending is always a new beginning. 

Tonight, I am going to treat myself to a nice hot bath with some lovely smelly's and my cook book, deciding what to bake on Sunday. 

Friday nights rock. 

xxx

Happy weekend everyone. 

Theatre night.

Last night we went to the Theatre. We were invited by our good friend M and her partner.

Now the theatre is in Reading. So I tried to finish work on time and failed, not by much but that extra half an hour was significant. So I arrived home late, dumped my stuff, changed my clothes and off we went (with no dinner as I was late and we had to leave). We plugged the postcode into the trusty satnav and off we went.

Now I am not the best person for geography but. Even I can tell that when you are 20 miles away from Reading it will not take 10 minutes. However according to our sat nav it would. I kept an eye on it and every time a minute went by the due time went up by a minute. I pointed this put to LSP.

It raised 2 concerns, 1 we had no idea when we would get there, 2 we were no longer confident it knew where we were going. However we ploughed on. We did end up in the middle of Reading getting caught in the one way system shouting back to the Sat Nav that there was no way we could make a U-turn as it was either illegal  or deadly. Good friend's M's partner did his best to guide us through by phone but that really did not help.

Eventually we got there  with minutes to spare, I think more by luck than anything else.

This is what we went to see. 

Richard Mayhew, a Scottish man living in London, encounters an injured girl named Door on the street one night. Despite his fiancée's protests he decides to help her, but that unfortunately also means that he suddenly ceases to exist for regular people and becomes real only to the denizens of 'London Below', whose inhabitants are generally invisible and non-existent to the people of 'London Above'. He loses his house, his job and nearly his mind as he travels London Below in an attempt to make sense out of it all, find a way back, and help Door survive as she is hunted down by hired assassins.

In London Below the various familiar names of London all take on a new significance: for example Knightsbridge becomes "Night's Bridge", a stone bridge whose darkness takes its toll in human life;The Angel, Islington is an actual Angel,  London Below is a parallel world in and beneath the sewers. Its inhabitants are the homeless, but also people from other times, such as medieval monks, as well as fictional and fantastical characters. (source Wikipedia) 

Now the theatre is tiny, but the cast was excellent. considering they are an Am Dram group, the quality of the acting was great. 

here is a little bit about the theatre. 

The Progress Theatre was established in 1946 by a young, enthusiastic and futuristic group of Reading people as a voluntary theatre group in Reading to present new and challenging productions.

The first production was staged in 1947 and for five years performances were in Palmer Hall, West Street. The Mildmay Hall in The Mount was found to be available for rent from the Co-operative Society who agreed to its use as a theatre. The members together with families and friends, converted it into a working theatre and the first production was in October 1951. In 1963/64 after a massive Fund Raising campaign, the Freehold of the building was bought (thanks to a fair selling price from the Co-op).

The basis of the present Foyer was built at that time together with other, then modern, facilities. With other alterations and extensions over the years, Productions are still staged in the same building: it now seats 95 people and includes Disabled Access . http://www.progresstheatre.co.uk/about-us/

it was a great night, we arrived home at midnight tired and hungry but went straight off to bed. 

Tonight is a much more ordinary affair as we are both tired out.

Stir fry for dinner, made with ready cooked pork from the freezer, with mixed frozen stir fry veg, noodles and some sauce. yum. Last night I was given a belated birthday present. 

It looks lovely and is crammed full of lovely treats. I am going to make my first cake from it on Sunday as good friend M, is coming over for lunch...

My main problem is what to choose. 

Why our youngest daughter climbed through the window.

Security is important and we have a new lock on the door. this is a super lock to prevent someone breaking in from the outside and unlocking the door. you have to have a key!

This is good.

However, while we were getting used to working it out. We managed to lock ourselves in the house. Yes all 3 of us. So YD, had to go outside through the window and open the door. We will get used to it! (it was funny)

Today I had a rare compliment at work. yay. and came home to another birthday pressie. its a lovely owl cushion and an east of india keyring from my SIL. I have been very lucky this birthday.

Tonight for dinner I am cheating. I came home via tesco and bought their family dinner for £6 so we have pie, mash and sweetcorn for dinner and apple crumble for pudding. I am just a bit pooped today (and forgot to get the pre cooked mince in gravy out the freezer this morning).

Stress level's are running a bit high so having a bit of pudding and some treats are in order for tonight. I am going to go through my pattern book and choose something to sew.

I do feel a bit guilty about going to Bristol and only looking at the shops. So much culture and we only ventured to Cabots Circus. However we did have 1 surprise treat.

Temple Church was founded c.1147 by Robert of Gloucester, the powerful illegitimate son of Henry I, who held Bristol Castle and great estates in the area. He granted land to the Knights Templar, who built upon it one of the round churches for which they are famed. Medieval rebuilding imposed a more conventional plan, though slipped up slightly with the leaning tower. The church was gutted by bombs in 1942. Its shell can be contemplated in the secluded Temple Gardens.

It was well worth visiting, so quiet and peaceful. (and just behind our hotel). 

Happy Tuesday everyone.