Baking and a little knitting

Rebecca popped over for the afternoon this week, which was lovely and we had a kitchen spree.

First we made another batch of lip balm, this time lime and bergamot, very zingy and fresh.

The we decided to make a batch of carrot and walnut muffins

They were lovely, moist and very yummy, we shared the batch and I had to hurry to take a photo before they all disappeared.

Today we had to pop into the garage to have our brakes checked, they were making the most awful noise. Luckily they did them whilst we waited and replaced all four calipers and brake pads, I was getting a bit concerned as to the final bill, but was pleasantly surprised and relieved at the invoice.

We carried on to Rebecca´s for a cuppa and to collect a parcel, lovely to see her and have a catch up.

As we were leaving she showed me a plant that had self seeded, it was quite amazing and I had never seen anything like it.

The pod was approx. 3" long

One of them had burst and this is what was inside

Gossamer seed heads, very light and fluffy, tightly packed together 

The inside of the pod was covered in a soft membrane similar to that of a horse chestnut, for protection

Some had spilled out and covered quite an area, so Rebecca very wisely decided to collect them before more of them self seeded.

It´s getting a little cooler in the evenings now, you can tell as suddenly the furries are looking for a nice lap to perch on and enough for a little knitting. 

Whilst on a recent skype call to Daniel and the girls, I noted that dolly didn't have a very varied wardrobe, so I´ve hunted about the various knitting sites and found a dress and cardi, start Christmas pressies early!

It´s usually impossible to knit with Benji on my lap, but he was so comfy and tired he completely ignored the tickling yarn and clicking needles.

Well, another weekend, enjoy what ever you choose to do

Take care

xcx

Another new start

Feel a bit of a fraud! Here I was having a tad dar moment of having internet then I disappear again!
Bit of a catalogue of errors really, I went out on to the bancarles and fell down a huge hole made by the boar, smashed my left knee down, badly bruised but still functioning, just! That was on the Monday, then on Friday we had a day of fine mountain mist and drizzle and the courtyard gate began banging in the wind, so annoying, so I went out to shut it, turned around and slipped on the wet tiles on the slope, yup! straight on the knees, then to add insult, because of the slope I was unable to get up again.
So I sat and pondered, hubby was well away in the lounge and due to the thickness of the walls was unable to hear my cries for help. I even resorted to banging against a metal bucket to raise attention, nope, nada, zilch, it was raining quite heavily by then, hubby eventually came near enough to hear me and I was rescued, nothing broken just badly bruised and very wet.

Been nursing myself, taking it easy and gently going about daily life. So now, feeling better, (Just don't touch the knees) I thought I would share the hand sewing I have been doing during the summer

This was a project I took to the UK back in May, as I hate to be without something to do, and so I continued, it has been quite nice sitting in the warm shade hand stitching all these little blighters together. Then came the next stage....

Piecing it all together on a background design sheet. So now slowly stitching everything together, eventually a cot quilt.

Do you sometimes get to the stage where you think "what can we have for lunch, something different"?

So today I tried slicing sweet potatoes, grilling for 20 minutes then using them to create a pizza, very different but certainly gluten free, well worth a try,

So, hope you have all had a wonderful weekend, catch up soon

take care

xcx

Back online

We have internet!!!!!!!! Yeah..........
At long last we are now back with internet, what a long and frustrating road we have been on. Our provider of 9 years suddenly announced our poor connection was that we were suddenly too far away!? So had we upped and moved our house, certainly got the feeling they couldn´t be asked. Then it was too much interference and too many holiday makers using the system and they wouldn´t review the situation until late September.

We managed to find another provider with a complete package to offer, we waited for the engineer, and waited, only to be told that he had visited the plaza (which is way below us and we know does not receive signal) but not the house and refused all pleas to try again properly. We knew we could get 4g via the wireless because that's the system we use for the house line.

We tried another provider, 4g wireless router, fast connection and lots of bandwidth. Ok it does pop in and out sometimes but its so fast. Now I can catch up on blogs, Ancestry, courses and more. Yes!!!

I´ll leave you with our new visitor who is very industrious and seems to be growing by the day.

She has been named Doris, and already has quite a following, just be careful where you walk at night!

Back soon, take care

xcx