I looked in the mirror (and there saw myself)

Is more about planning than looking at what's here, I always think.  I remembered I wanted more than just yellow tulips, so got sunset skies for the back garden (which faces west) & pastel passion for the tub outside the front door (which faces east).  & more daffs, because they're always lovely. Sunset skies & half the pack of martinette broadcast along the lawn border. Pastel passion & the other half of martinette in the new big tub.  It was so sunny on Wednesday that I sat in the garden & knitted for half an hour.  Only half an hour, because despite the sunshine, it was chilly! Which is to be expected at the end of September.  Photos carefully taken so you can't see the junk in the garden! I went to the dump this morning to get rid of Younger Son's old mattress, & hoped to get Elder Son's old bike he had when he was 11 (which I would have taken to the donation point there) & a chunk of ca

Ah, the excitement of my life! I was back at work today, having been unfurloughed, and had to go to the supermarket on the way home. Little bit grumpy about having to go to the supermarket, as Elder Son is meant to pay for the supermarket shopping while I pay for the rent, utilities, Council Tax...  He's really got lockdown blues at the moment.  Anyway, pushing the trolley round to get 8 cartons of soya milk, 2 packs of tofu, a box of vegan sausages, vegan sausage rolls, 2 packs each baking marge & spreading marge, 2 boxes of cereal for Younger Son, anniversary card for my parents, soap refills, and some moisturiser for me, I succumbed to the impulse purchase when I saw a pretty pack of tea towels. I do actually need more tea towels, several of mine are developing a texture that would make them more useful as net curtains than drying up (wrapping scotch pancakes to keep them hot while cooking the rest of the batter, putting over the loaves of bread dough as they pro

Back to preschool today - no fun with playdough yet, today is all about filling in paperwork with families of returning children. Packed lunch is ready thanks to my lovely friends A & M for the vegan brownie birthday present! Birthday cake has all been consumed, & I didn't take any photos for you, but it was yummy! I made vegan double chocolate cherry & almond cupcakes to take to church, & my mum made vegan Victoria sponge for lunch at my parents. It was really lovely to be there with my boys (Elder Son had the day off!) & my sisters & the Youngest Nephew & Neice, as it's been so long since we've all met up.  I know we're very lucky that we all live close enough to be able to see one another and that we're well enough to do so. Flowers from Middle Sister.   Ooh, speaking of Middle Sister, I've joined her Community Choir! We had a performance last week at the Community Fun Day, which was fun. And wet.  Our choir

The dog is very happy at the moment - Younger Son's mattress is living in the living room (very medieval of us, very tiny house living - are we history bounding or being totally modern?) and doggie is loving having an extra bed for sleeping on. His downstairs bed is next to the mattress, so if he has to move, it's not too far. Or he could go to the sofa on the other side of the room. The bed frame broke, and Younger Son said he couldn't get the stuff out from under the bed so we could get the bed frame downstairs & the mattress back upstairs - because it was dusty and he has asthma.  My response to that was coloured by me being the only person in the house who actually takes inhalers for their asthma...  But, of course, what it came down to was 'who wanted the stuff gone more?'... I threw a lot of the stuff away (I mean as much as could be recycled into the blue bin, old batteries into the battery recycling pot, etc) but there remains some stuff for

This year's hot cross buns come to my kitchen via Marguerite Patten's Everyday Cookbook, using a veganised rich dough (soya milk, baking marge & egg replacer powder instead of milk, butter & egg), wholemeal bread flour (because the white flour is self raising) & 6 oz of mixed dried fruit. The recipe makes '16 - 20' & I made 16 (I know you could count them, but some might have evaporated from the cooling rack before the photo shoot) since it was easy to keep halving the dough till I got to 16. But I'm glad I didn't go for 20, as they're jolly small!  I guess they're better for being small, but I'm used to the commercial ones that are twice the size! And I clearly didn't use this recipe last year since last year, I only just got 12 on the cooking rack and the crosses are piped on. But I didn't record what recipe I did use then, so I really needed to post today!  I also made economical Easter biscuits, usi

Progress on my March socks -  Strawberry Milk by Mai Edelweiss  - is slow but I've nearly finished sock 1 It's a combination of doing more hours at work (parents who wanted their little ones at home seem oddly keen to get them back to preschool now their other children are back in school!); other craft projects (surprise gift which is currently stalled due to needing more yarn, jumper for me, oh, and could I make some dolls' clothes for work?)  This was from my scrap yarn & an adaptation of  Nix Needles Striped Autumn Jumper  which I have clearly worked without stripes 😁 but work have paid for yarn & patterns for other dolls' clothes. Also, church meetings - I'm helping at our online Alpha course, I'm on the PCC (Parochial Church Council, like school governors but for churches) and our lovely vicar has got a wonderful new job to which she is very well suited and they are lucky to have her. But it means she has left our church, wh