frayed at the edge

Eating chocolate at 5am!

No, this is not a bizarre new diet.  We couldn't sleep, wondering what was happening as the votes were being counted in the Independence Referendum, so we got up at 3am to watch tv.  By 5am we were flagging somewhat, so a few squares of chocolate kept us going.  I haven't really mentioned the referendum before, as the blog is my little happy space, where the nasty outside world is not allowed to intrude ....... but you would probably have guessed that I was firmly in the NO camp when I referred to Alex Salmond as the Great Haggis, the Chief Turnip, the Head Numptie etc.  We are delighted that the NO vote prevailed, and our family of nations isn't being ripped apart.

 

OK, back to the happy world of sewing!  At patch'n'chat this afternoon we had just finished our cuppa when a lady approached and spoke to me.  She waited for me to realise who she was ........ but as I hadn't seen a photo of her on her blog, the only clue I had was her accent.  I was delighted to realise that it was Susan, who is over here with her husband visiting family and having a wonderful holiday.  Maureen was entrusted with the camera to take a photo of us

 

we had a lovely chat, then all too soon it was time for me to leave.  Susan had given me a parcel, which I didn't open until I got home.  I was delighted to find this apron with OWLS!!  Thank you very much Susan!

 

....... the gift tag is cute too!

 

now for the photos that I had planned to share with you today!  Out in the garden, we are still getting courgettes, albeit tiny ones

 

the tiny beans aren't maturing

 

the honeysuckle is flowering again

 

and after three years, the everlasting sweetpea has finally flowered!

 

and of course we can't have the Friday post, without the Friday cake!  I don't know what this is called, but it was delicious.  It is made with crushed digestive biscuits, cranberries, marshmallows and condensed milk.  It is made into a log, rolled in coconut, and then chilled in the fridge

 

the weather has been a bit grey and damp for the last couple of days, but hopefully it will improve over the weekend.  Whatever the weather, I hope you have a good weekend, love Anne 

Sheepies!!

I had just mentioned to Malcolm yesterday that there hadn't been any sheepies on the blog recently (the swans have been hogging the limelight) ......... and then, this morning, there were sheepies in the field across the road!!

 

there was a definite feel of autumn when I was out in the garden taking photos this morning.  The rowan tree is laden with berries, which the blackbirds love

 

 

 

and the climbing roses are hanging on

 

 

when the post arrived this morning - woo hoo, an envelope from far-flung places

 

there were birthday cards for both of us from Lee and her lovely family in Sydney.  I think you will guess which one was for Malcolm and which one was for me!

 

I was very busy sewing at patch'n'chat this afternnon - but I wasn't doing my own sewing!  Margaret had stitched a beautiful applique panel to put on a bag for her great-granddaughter, but she wasn't sure how to stitch it on.  I started by showing her the stitch that I would use to do it ....... and ended up sewing the whole thing for her!

 

Margaret did allow me to have a break, so that I could enjoy the Friday cake - cute little cup cakes with chocolate icing and fresh strawberries

 

we have a busy weekend ahead, with our lovely neighbours (the shoe shop owners) coming over to Berwick on Sunday for a visit.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend, love Anne

 

I was just about to publish the post when the robin turned up for a bath - so here are some extra photos!

 

 

Cold porridge .......

.......... doesn't sound too appetising, but refrigerator oatmeal sounds a bit better.  As I resolutely avoid Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Pinterest, I am usually lagging behind the latest buzz, but thanks to Thimbleanna providing a link on her blog, I read this post and decided that it sounded quite tasty.  So I prepared some on Tuesday afternoon that we thoroughly enjoyed for breakfast yesterday ....... in fact we enjoyed it so much I made it again yesterday afternoon, with these ingredients

 

it should also have chia seeds in it - but I have no idea what they are (probably the latest superfood which cure all ills).  This is the oatmeal all shaken up and ready to go in the fridge overnight

 

I don't normally eat my breakfast from my footstool!  It was raining and the room was gloomy, so I took the jar over to the window to get better light for the photo.  As you can see, the breakfast is lovely and thick and creamy ....... and you can simply eat it from the jar, saving on washing up!

 

 

we had a cuppa in Cafe Crema in Berwick before we came home.  As this is a "fast" day, I had to watch Malcolm tuck into the most delicious cheese and pickle scone ...... he took pity on me and gave me a little bit!

 

Malcolm gave me a shout this afternoon to come and see what he had disvovered when he was deadheading the rose on the pergola.  A rather scary caterpillar

 

I would much rather see the resulting butterflies, which were enjoying the warm afternoon sunshine

 

I know we are still in August, but it won't be long until Christmas (!), so I thought I had better make a start to my Christmas sewing.  I looked out these three patterns

 

and made a start to stitching the first one last night

 

it's a special day for us tomorrow - but you will have to wait until then to find out why!

 

Slightly cheating?

I was busy over the weekend working away on the stitcheries.  I finished this one, apart from the dots over the i's and the polka dots

 

then I made a start to the dreaded satin stitch dots - you can see at the bottom that I outline them with backstitch, which I find helps to get the shape right

 

this morning I made a start to Stuart and Alison's kitchen blind.  First I disassembled the old one

 

then pinned the lining to the new fabric, right sides together

 

having stitched down one side, across the bottom and up the other side, I cut away the excess fabric

 

having turned the blind through to the right side, I pressed the seams then topstitched them, working on the wrong side as it was easier to see the stitching

 

it didn't take long to stitch the channels for the battens, as I could see the old stitching lines

 

then I snipped the stitches to open the seams where the battens will be inserted

 

the last job was to sew on the rings that the cords run through - I had left bits of thread when I cut them off the old blind, so I knew where to stitch them on the new one

 

I'm looking forward to seeing how the blind looks when it is put up in Stuart and Alison's kitchen

 

I have been making a very determined effort ot get on with Mrs Billings.  Each of these bags ..........

 

....... contains the hexies to make either a triangle with calico and patterned fabrics, or all patterned fabrics

 

I have also cut out lots more hexies, and am gradually filling more bags, which will then be sorted out like the ones above

 

I picked this blue fabric for the next border - although I have blue corner squares, I like the way the different blue frames them

 

now comes the "cheating".  The next border has lots of squares in it, and a further border has even more squares the same size.   So I decided to rotary cut them in batches, rather than drawing round the template and cutting each one out individually.  There are four different fabrics in each stack, which gives me the choice of twenty fabrics for the border

 

and to finish ........ although the weather has turned somewhat cooler, there are still butterflies in the garden

Short and sweet!

A very quick post, as we are going out for dinner - not that we are going far, just through the back garden gate to our lovely neighbours (the shoe shop owners).

I'll be back tomorrow with some sewing, but for today we have some pretty photos from the garden.  This is the "alien" clematis, which is now flowering for the third time

 

a second show of flowers on the dark clematis

 

the climbing rose on the pergola is very sweet (sorry about the rope, I had washing hanging out!)

the miniature rose has never has so many buds on it

 

to finish, an exciting tale from last night, although sadly there are no photos to go with it.  We were sitting watching tv just before bedtime (I was also prepping hexies) when something flew into the room.  At first we both thought that it was a very big moth ........ but then we realised that it was a BAT!  It flew round and round, before finally settlingon the floor, and Malcolm was able to cover it with some kitchen paper towel and gently lift it.  He took it out into the garden and it flew away, none the worse for its adventure ........ but I think it took a bit longer until we got over the surprise!!

 

A special weekend

Our visitors arrived after lunch on Saturday

Stuart and Alison

 

their best friends Fraser and Linsey

 

and us!

 

we spent the afternoon and early evening out in the garden, enjoying a glass of bubbles .........

 

........ before enjoying a very pleasant red wine with Malcolm's delicious lasagne (oops forgot to take a photo of the starter!)

 

I also forget to take a photo of pudding - the meringue, cream and compote was eaten, and there was just a little bit of LMP left!

 

Stuart brought us some of his first crop of potatoes.  We had them with dinner last night, and thoroughly enjoyed them

 

the visitors had brought us a box of delicious doughnuts ........ and we were all very, very naughty and had one each for "first breakfast" on Sunday morning!!

 

we went to Johnston's Mill for our second breakfast, just as I did recently.  Then the visitors headed off for home.

 

The butterflies have made a welcome appearance  in the garden, and are enjoying the lavender

 

to finish - the bottle brush was given a good talking-to, as it stubbornly refused to flower.  Unlike thhe wisteria, it did as it was told, and flowered at the weekend .......

 

 ......... but there is room for improvement!!

 

End-of-the-week roundup

I can't believe it's Friday again!  So here, in no particular order, are odds and ends from this week's photos

windsurfers 

 

on a hot sumer's day .....

 

...... you can't beat a cooling bath

 

even wasps use the bird bath!

 

cute

 

cuter

 

is this our good side?

 

free-range chickens

 

the beautiful climbing rose in the front garden

 

in full bloom

 

just going over

 

there were only four of us at patch'n'chat this afternoon, so we had rather generous helpings of our favourite cake!

 

we have very special visitrs over the weekend - I'll tell you all about it on Monday.  I hope you all have a great weekend, love Anne

Slicing and dicing

We had a leisurely breakfast this morning, then pottered back home, stopping off for a cuppa and a scone.  Oh dear, I had left the camera in my back pack in the car, so no photo!

As soon as we got home, I got busy cooking.  I started with a sort of strawberry compote, as the strawberries were very ripe

 

those of you reading this in the UK will no doubt know where my little gadget came from*

 

after slicing the strawberries, I put them in a small saucepan with some vanilla (you don't need to add any water) and cooked them gently until they were soft

 

delicious with all sorts of things ........ if you want to be good, have the compote on top of your porridge, if you want to be naughty, have it with meringue and cream.  It will keep in the fridge for a couple of days

 

we are having beef olives for dinner tomorrow, so next up was an onion gravy to have with them

 

now you have to pretend that the last photo included a piece of pointy sweet red pepper!

 

once the onion and pepper had cooked, I added some hot water and Bisto, then popped it in a jug to keep in the fridge overnight

 

then it was on to tonight's dinner, using this recipe ...........

 

........ from this book

 

I replaced the kidney with mushrooms, and made double the quantity in the recipe, so that I can freeze the remainder for future meals.  I also made two individual pies rather than one between us

 

to go with the pie, Malcolm picked some of his green beans

 

after topping and tailing them, I sliced them finely

 

you might be wondering how a pie topped with filo pastry is in a diet book, but it's because the pastry isn't brushed with butter.  The recipe says to brush the pastry with a mixture of egg beaten up with milk.  I used that the first time I made the pie, but it wasn't very good, so this time I sprayed the pastry with 1 cal spray.  We enjoyed our dinner sitting out in the sun

 

Malcolm's beans  are growing as fast as we can eat them, and my courgettes are coming along nicely

 

but to finish, a bit of a failure.  Our cherry tree has only managed to produce four cherries!

 

* yes it came from Lakeland

 

 

Very naughty .........

......... but very, very nice!  While we were stitching away at patch'n'chat this afternoon, we heard the chimes of an ice cream van, across the river in the caravan park.  Annette nipped out and asked the chap if he would come round to the shop, which he did.  I wonder what he thought when an orderly queue formed of older ladies?!

 

most of us had a "99" ......... there was silence in the room as we demolished them before they melted in the heat - and we managed not to drip on our sewing!

 

when we went over to the new flat last weekend, I didn't have any sewing organised to take with me, so I sat and twitched in the evenings with nothing to do (I twitched even more because we haven't yet got our broadband connected, so I couldn't read emails and my favourite blogs!).  So yesterday, I sorted out some sewing to take with me.  I bought these whimsical stitcheries earlier in the year at Anne's.  I couldn't decide what colours to use, so looked out an assortment of embroidery threads

 

I backed them with iron-on wadding, which gives a nice texture to the stitching 

 

of course sewing needs to be kept in a basket, so Malcolm was despatched to the loft to fetch this one, which I brought home many years ago from Indonesia

 

I think it is an appropriate basket as it looks a (little) bit like a pirate's treasure chest!

 

the garden continues to flourish in the sunshine.  Malcolm's beans are growing well

 

while I have two courgettes, the size of my thumb

 

the olives are flourishing, although I don't think we will be producing oil any time soon!

 

the small clematis flowers have shed their outer leaves, leaving these centres

 

the "taken over by aliens" clematis has now produced some "normal" flowers

 

this is the last clematis to flower

 

after we had recovered from eating our ice cream this afternoon, it was time for the Friday cake!  Yum, yum, our favourite one!

 

we will be heading over to Berwick in the morning, and if the weather stays good we will stay until Monday.  Wherever you are, I hope you have a good weekend.

A little bit of fun ..... several of you asked if we have given the octopus in our new print a name.  We haven't yet, so why don't you suggest one ....... I am sure I can find a little prize in my stash for the best suggestion!

A change in the weather

It's just as well I took these photos of the garden yesterday when the sun was shining, as today has been cloudy and windy.  Everytime I go to and from the studio, I brush against the lavender, releasing a cloud of scent

 

the planter that Malcolm made last year is looking good

 

the shady corner is thriving - I wonder if there are exotic creatures hiding in the luxuriant foliage

 

Malcolm's beans are doing well

 

as are my courgettes

 

the grape vine and olive tree are thriving in their new planter

 

at the back of the garden, the air is full of the scent of honeysuckle

I had to get a new memory card for my camera - the old one simply came apart!  When I put it in the camera this morning, I saw this little sparrow in the garden.  A quick photo to check the card was working ok .........

 

but the cheeky chap flew off as I took a second photo

 

fortunately he didn't fly far, and I was able to take another photo of him