A Grand Day Out

On Friday I packed my bag, left the builders in charge of the house, jumped in the car, deposited all the dogs in the kennels on the way past and hit the road to Berkshire.  After a detour for a coffee and chat with Mum in Manchester, I once again hopped onto the motorway and headed towards my Lovely Hubby's weekday digs in Thatcham.

It was a weekend of eating out, and then on Saturday drinking Mulled Wine from vendors and exploring the lovely city of Winchester.

The Christmas market was in full swing, with ice skaters whizzing (and in some cases staggering) round the ice ... we didn't join them the tickets were all sold out (phew), but we watched and admired.

The cathedral is beautiful, under restoration in parts but truly magnificent.

The Christmas stalls were fitted into all nooks crannies and alley ways, making the place seem alive with interest.

I loved this little door tucked under an archway .....

... and this lamp high on the wall.

The place was bustling, but everyone was in the Christmassy mood so it didn't seem too bad, and of course with the sunshine shining brightly it lifted everyone's spirits.

We paid to go into the cathedral, and deep in the original crypt was this Antony Gormley figure,  ankle deep in water reading his bible.

And I had no idea that the writer Jane Austin was buried there!

After lighting a candle for Jessie and Dad we left the cathedral and went to visit the shops along the main High Street.

This wonderful 'statue' man was brilliant and gathered quite a lot of folk waiting for his next move.

Wanting a photo for the blog I thought it only fair to deposit something in his little pot.

Lovely Hubby obliged ... and got a heartfelt bow as thanks.

We had a wonderful weekend, it was just what was needed after all the busyness at work and building work at home.  Now it's only a few days until Lovely Hubby is home for his Christmas holidays and we can relax and cosy up at home.  I can't wait ... it's starting to feel a lot like Christmas.

Advent Challenge - Day 16

A pretty little tin that I just don't use anymore.

Sue xx

Hot Dog, and We're Plastered ......

Here's a picture captured on my phone the other night.  Apologies to my Facebook followers who will have already seen this as it happened.  

Charley has taken to sitting behind or under the log burner.  I don't know how she stands the heat, but it must get to her eventually as she wriggles her way out when she's had enough and joins Suky on the dog bed in front of the burner instead of lying on the slate underneath it.

She loves it and try as I might I cannot dissuade her from going there.

My very own little Hot Dog  :-)

And at long last we're plastered ... the windy few days we've had meant that work cracked on a pace inside the conservatory and the ceiling and sides were boarded out and plastered.

It's really taking shape now.

Advent Challenge - Day 15

A simple little heart shaped white dish.  I have a set of three one of which is almost the same size as this one, so it's surplus to requirements and has already gone off to the charity shop. 

 I've chosen to take most of my donations to a cancer charity shop in Llandudno.  It is the one shop that seems to have the least stock, a lot of the others are bursting at the seams with 'stuff'.

Sue xx

It's Here ....

It's here ... one of favourite magazines of the year, it dropped through my letterbox yesterday.

I'm not ashamed to say I sit down and read it from cover to cover, as I do every week.  And then I get out my pen and put a circle round everything we want to watch or record on our Freesat box, as I do every week.

The Christmas one is somehow special though isn't it.

And did you know you can now browse the back catalogue on BBC Genome, so you can find out what television programmes were on when you were born, what you watched on your tenth birthday or even just see what you sat down to watch after Christmas dinner last year.  What a fantastic service.

Click HERE to go to BBC Genome.

The only thing I don't like about getting my subscription through the post is that I can't get rid of all the leaflets that clutter magazines up these day.  First I always pull out whatever supplement is stapled into the middle, sometimes it's an advert but this time of course it's the usual travel brochure.  Nope ... I don't want to be tempted.

Then into the recycling box go the catalogues of clothes, Stannah stair-lift leaflets, weird, wonderful and wacky gifts catalgues and the charity begging leaflets.  If they are going to waste money printing leaflets I'm afraid they are NOT going to get any of my money, the same if they send me a pen or Christmas cards or even, as I got last year, letters with 5p coins attached, I got four of those in one week, that's four lots of postage, four lots of paper and 20p in cash. 

Advent Challenge - Day 14

A magazine, this months edition of Vogue.   I used to buy it every month back in the day.  Helps plan a shop if you know what in the 'in Vogue' fashions are.  Now it's a very occasional treat.

Sue xx

Having a Grate Day

Yesterday I had a grate day!!

I was sorting through the fridge to make room for any Christmassy foods I might be buying in the next week or so.  Checking dates and seeing exactly what we had, so I don't duplicate unnecessarily.

I found I had an large open pack of Cheddar and a pack of Red Leicester nearing it's date so I grated them in the food processor, first the Cheddar and then without washing it out the Red Leicester, I don't mind a bit of multi-coloured cheese in a tub and it tastes wonderful all mixed together.

I had Parmesan style cheese already grated in the freezer, but there was a pack in the fridge way past it's sell by date so I grated that using the same grating disc (I broke my Parmesan disc ages ago), and then to make it finer I simply took out the disc and put in the blade and whizzed it all up.  Adding it to the freezer box and giving it a good shake mixed the frozen and the freshly grated together nicely, and then it was popped back into the freezer, where it now sits waiting to be used whenever it is needed, as is all the grated cheese except for the little multi-coloured box which went on my sandwich for lunch :-)

If you think about it using your food processor for a mammoth grating session means you only have to wash it out the once instead of over and over again, and I'm all for that.  I'm the same if I make a big batch of crumble mix, I will use the food processor to knock up some pastry mix afterwards.  Doing like with like is always good in my book.

Advent Challenge - Day 13

A new picture frame, that was going to be a gift for someone, but then the moment passed.  It will still make a nice gift, it's just that now the charity shop will make a pound or so out of it too.

Sue xx

What a Difference a Day Makes

What a difference a day makes when it comes to three men trapped inside a conservatory, by the weather I hasten to add ...not by me!!

The last remaining gaps were all filled with insulation boards and then work started on plaster-boarding the ceiling. 

Looking better all the time.

And apart from the hole where the Velux will fit it is now almost weatherproof and getting warmer by the day.

Although to look at the dogs snuggled up in the bed by the Aga you would think the temperatures were in the minus figures.

Rosy prefers to be a little cooler but to have more room for herself.

And before anyone complains .... other dogs beds are available ;-)

Advent Challenge - Day 12

A brand new IPod.  Lovely Hubby treated himself and then gave up on it.  It's gone to the charity shop, perhaps it will be a good Christmas pressie for someone.  Better it gone than it sat here making Lovely Hubby feel guilty for buying it in the first place.

Sometimes freeing yourself from the guilt of a bad purchase by passing it on, feels as good as the space your former clutter took up.

Sue xx

Waiting for the Weather

The Velux window can't go in until the weather is less windy and less wet, so all the roof up to the hole where it will fit and it's immediate surroundings has been done and now we are, as the title of this post suggests .... waiting for the weather.

Inside we now have first fix electrics done, we are having four new lights to replace the one set of lights on a strip that used to be in there on the wall.  Two will be up-lighters on the solid wall, you can just about see in the photo above where I drew round them to show the builder where to put in the wires. 

Luckily we can use the same light switch as there was a 'spare' switch on the socket that we could never find out what it did.

The other two lights will hang slightly lower from the ceiling, (can you just about make out the trailing wires in this photo?), hopefully over the dining table.  For this we put two tape crosses on the floor for the builder to wire above.  I hope we have our calculations right or the table will just have to sit off centre!!

As you can see there is now lots more 'cut to size' insulation in place in the roof space.

Advent Challenge - Day 11

A lovely little pudding bowl, that I think I picked up from a car boot sale.  I just have other bowls that I can make puddings in so this is surplus to requirements, and could be very useful for someone at this time of year.

Sue xx

Opening the Sealed Pot

Better late than never, everyone else with Sealed Pots seemed to open theirs last week, but events caught up with us and it just didn't get done.  So yesterday after I got back from a couple of days with Mum, Lovely Hubby and me decided to go and do a bit of Christmas shopping, so just before we set off was the perfect time to open the pot.

I'm afraid my lovely shiny tin sustained some damage getting it open, who knew double sided sticky tape was that strong!!  We had to prise the lid off with the end of the can opener to get at our pennies.

  But it was worth it .... what a lot of pennies there were!

I'm afraid we cheated and used the cash counting machine at the supermarket, (I know it cost us money, but it was easy and we chose this option), and this is the grand total after all the tinkling and re-feeding the stubborn coins back through the machine was done.

We didn't spend it on Christmas things, instead we used our £35 of Nectar points and £12 of money off coupons on wines and two bottles of Port .... and brought the money home with us.

Where I set to and minimised the damage to the lid the best I could, and then re sealed the pot for next years saving.

Sorry for the rough treatment Mr Tin but at least you are once again sealed up, as every good Sealed Pot should be.

In other news (as they say) the fascia boards and guttering have gone up on two sides of the conservatory and what a difference it makes.  We're suddenly looking a whole lot smarter.

Really smart!!

There's still the Velux and that side of the roof to do, but we have to wait for a dry and relatively wind free day for that.  Meanwhile work is cracking on a pace inside with nearly all the roof insulation now in place.

Advent Challenge - Day 10

A Christmassy magazine, discovered in the Christmas decorations box.  I remember putting it in there last year to hopefully dissuade me from buying too many Christmas magazines this year.  I have been quite good .... I have only bought two (not counting the magazines that I get on subscription), which is a VAST improvement on the many, many I used to be tempted into getting.

Sue xx.