Shock Announcement!

This is the last delicious Steamed Suet Pudding with Homemade Raspberry Jam that will be passing my lips for a good while!  After puffing and panting up hill and down dale during my Summer Hols I met a few of my Demons and I came to a few conclusions!  I will be trading the pudding for more more of these:

I have not weighed myself for about three years!  Silly Billy!  It is now official I have done something that I have resisted for so long, I have joined 'Slimming World', my target weight is about 2 stone over what I weighed the last time I jumped on some scales!  When I reach that target I will still have about 3 stone to lose!  That is pretty heavy!  No wonder I have been puffing and panting.  Where did all that weight come from?  Aaah!  Must be the love of baking.  Hopefully I can still blog delicious recipes but they won't cause a cardiac calamity.  Today I have been busy making 'Low Fat' Turkey Burgers, and 'Sin Free' Meatloaf to put in the freezer.  Henry said "But Mom you won't be you, if your not. . . . . . "   "Not what,  Henry?"  He was actually gonna use the 'F' word!  Euan doesn't quite know what has hit him as we went out yesterday me walking and him on his bike and today I left the car behind for the school run and carried his scooter when I went to collect him.  He loved scooting home, while I puffed and panted behind.  Day 2 of Diet   Healthy Eating Plan, I am not seeing any results yet!!!    

Purple Haze Crochet Craze

It has been a while since I have shared a crochet post, so I thought it is time to show what I have been up to.  I love starting new projects and have great difficulty completing them!  I may adopt the 'One a Day' method which appears to be getting very popular.  I can manage one 'Mini Granny Square' a Day and still dabble with the numerous other projects I have on the go.  I was inspired by the scarf I spotted in a shop window in Glastonbury High Street.

Part of me wishes I had bought this scarf, but if I had of bought it I would be thinking I should have made my own....can you see what type of person I am?  I dread to think who made the scarf because whoever it was, wherever they are, they were not paid enough if it can be sold at that price!  I don't know if machines can make Granny squares, if they can I want one!!!  I have to admit with all my crafting projects there is something comforting, therapeutic and gratifying about the good old Granny.  I love the Granny look.  I didn't have the colours to replicate the 'Shop Window Scarf' but somehow in my stash I have collected several shades of purple, it wasn't deliberate and I don't know how it happened.  Somehow purples have infiltrated my stash more than any other colour.  Good job I like 'The Colour Purple'.  I am hoping to be wearing my Granny Scarf with pride some time over the next couple of months.  Yin and Yang, I love Granny Squares but Oh sewing in all those ends....

'Warning' Long Rambling Post with lots of Holiday Photographs!

Euan was very proud of his big pile of sand, it is called 'The big mountain'!  Has you ever seen 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'?

Henry was very proud of his 'Big Hole' I think he was trying to reach The Antipodes.

Lacey loves the beach too.

The Cornish coast is excellent for swimming, once you are all kitted out.  Beach shoes are necessary to avoid Weever Fish.  They have spines that can give a painful sting if they are trodden on.  Does anyone actually know if they can sting through shoes?  There are a lot of surfers, body boarders and Surf Schools in Cornwall.  The Life Guards did a brilliant job keeping everyone safe.

The boys enjoyed splashing around.

They practiced their swimming, while I enjoyed the views...

and breathed in the sea air.

The Beach at Bude was very busy.  My Mom was well organised so we could enjoy a flask of coffee on the beach.  I was happy not to swim in the sea, I did consider it though as I liked the idea of being rescued by a Life Guard.  The furthest I got was to roll my trousers up and have a paddle.  We had to have the customary 'Fish and Chips' at the seaside on one occasion.  On other trips we indulged in the odd Proppa Cornish pasty or two!  It may be a while before we visit Cornwall again so it really had to be done.

We also had a trip to the small Cornish village of Boscastle.  This was an interesting little place.  I loved the stone houses and the setting.  Boscastle had a terrible flood in  August 2004.  It has been predicted as a once every four hundred years event.   It was hard to imagine the devastation seven years ago, on our visit in August 2011.

The village has recovered well and it was a thriving little tourist village on the day of our visit.  We enjoyed Cornish ice cream.  Euan had 'Charlie Chocolate' Flavour, Mom and I were more adventurous with 'Lavender and Honey' Flavour.  Dad stuck with good old 'Rum and Raisin'.  Euan and I visited the Witchcraft Museum.  We enjoyed looking at the Mandrake roots and strange artifacts.  It was interesting to learn about the history of the persecution of 'Witches' and to read accounts of witchcraft trials.  Much of the museum was destroyed in the flood, but 90% of the artifacts were saved.

The flood level is marked on the door of the Museum, you can just about make out the green rectangle on the left hand white door.
As I start back to work tomorrow after a Summer of adventures, I have decided to make this a bumper post and share my holiday snaps.  I have one more visit I would like to share with you.  In a previous post I talked about the Grave of King Arthur at Glastonbury Abbey.  This was a visit to discover the place of King Arthur's Birth, Tintagel Castle.  We parked the car in 'King Arthur's Car park, walk past King Arthur's tea shops and gift shops and started a steep decent down a hill past some classic Cornish views.

I have a few sprigs of Montbretia that grows in my garden.  In Cornwall it is a prolific wildflower.  Beautiful.

This flower always makes me think of Cornwall, it lines almost every road you drive down.
English Heritage own the site at Tintagel.  Which has a Website here.  This is one of the sites that is said to be Camelot Castle, home of King Uther Pendragon, King Arthur's Father.  Many pilgrims visit the site and attempt to search out the truth.   I am not sure I discovered the truth, but if I thought climbing Glastonbury Tor was hard work this place made it look like small fry!  When you had climbed down the steep hill, you had by my definition a massive climb up to the Castle.  I saw about half the site and was more than happy to leave it at that!  Besides they have a Facebook page Here I can learn more from that!  Poor Euan seems to have inherited my Vertigo and got quite upset, he refused to go any further and was only happy on flat, solid ground away from the edge!  Even the beautiful view of 'Merlin's Cave' didn't wash with him.

It certainly is a magical place.

How it was built right up there I will never know and more to the point who would want to?

I am not sure if the gentleman in the left of the picture is real or not, he seems to be carrying a sword and a knights helmet.  I may have captured a photograph of an apparition!

My parents managed to get to the summit, but kindly assured me I did not really miss anything.  There was however a 'Well' right at the top.  I have a thing for wells.

I can't quite believe I managed to take this photograph from such an elevation.  I do not put myself in the situation to get a 'bird's eye view' very often and of course 'What goes up, must come down!'  I am not too ashamed about the traffic jam I caused on the decent as Euan and I clung to the handrails and crawled like crabs, slowly all the way to the Gift shop!  We very sensibly paid through the nose to take a Land Rover trip back up the very steep hill to 'King Arthur's Car Park', where we purchased another Cornish Pasty, Cornish Clotted Cream, Scones and Strawberry Preserve.  You gotta keep your strength up in these situations.
I think it is about now I end my story of Summer holidays and Adventure, I have my work bag to sort and my shoes to clean for tomorrow.  The boys are back to school on Wednesday.  It is sad, but in a strange kind of way I can settle down, back into routine and have a bit of a rest!  Bob the budgie and the chickens are glad to have us back.  I may even squeeze in some craft time again.

Congratulations 'Give Away' Winner

I used Random.org for my random number generator and it chose 53 - Kareno. 
Kareno left a lovely comment and said she retired three days ago,  so she sees plenty of crochet and blog reading in her future for relaxation.  Congratulations Kareno, if you could get in touch and let me know where to post your prize I will be delighted to get it in the mail asap.  The crochet projects should keep you out of mischief now you are a lady of leisure.  Maybe retirement is lucky for you, you should get a lottery ticket!  xxx

A massive thank you to all of you who entered and who continue to take the time to read and comment on my blogging escapades.  I really do have fun with the whole kaboodle and love to see you all here.

Give Away Reminder

REMINDER for your chance to win a copy of the above book: 

Click this link to enter

My apologies to anyone who has had trouble with the link, if you have left a comment here I will be happy to enter you into the 'Give Away'.

Back to reality!

This has been our 'home' for the last week.  It really has been quite an adventure and I am sure I will sleep well tonight back in my own little bed.  I am glad to be back safely in Blogland too.

Euan was the only one that could fit through this pretty, little door without banging his head.

The painted Yurt beams were very pretty, as five of us shared the Yurt we were packed in fairly tight at night!  Like Cornish Pilchards in a tin.  We were very secluded at the bottom of a hill backing on to woodland.  We were just two miles from the fantastic Cornish coastline.  The setting was a community farm and we got quite used to the sights and sounds, pigs, sheep, ducks, chickens and roosters!
The website for the farm states:

"We have chosen a place in North Cornwall, where the wind blows in from the Atlantic and there is a feeling of being wild and free. Trelay is a thirty acre farm within one of the areas that make up the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We are two miles from the coast and our land includes bluebell woods, a wet meadow an orchard and a large hay meadow with sea views.
We have pledged to live lightly on the Earth. To care for each other and our visitors, to grow our own food where possible, to aim to collect our own energy and interact fully with the local community. The essential values of our group are freedom, acceptance and respect – respect for each other and for our land, our trees and plants, our animals and our buildings.
There are currently fifteen of us across a wide age range, with children and grandchildren. We live independently in our own private spaces but come together often to eat, socialise and work towards our community objectives. We make our day-to-day lives as satisfying, rewarding, and fulfilling as possible. We work hard but we also have fun."

 

We did not join in with the 'community' but we enjoyed the peace and tranquility of life in 'Our' Yurt.  Evenings were spent around a Fire Pit, mastering the art of building a fire and keeping it going.  It kept the boys busy running to and fro for fire wood and bashing and sawing it into fire sized pieces.

Henry admired his newly discovered skills, I don't think we have to worry about him becoming an arsonist as he used nearly a whole box of matches to start each fire!

Euan enjoyed the fruits of his labour as I lifted the Marshmallow toasting ban!
We all went to bed smelling like smoked bacon.

Seriously, this was our 'Compost' toilet and our 'Solar' shower cubicle!  We really didn't get used to this and will not take our bathroom for granted for a long while to come.  When we got home I heard Euan in the bathroom say "My own little toilet!"  Thankfully we could use other shower and toilet facilities up on the farm. Not everyone can say that they have showered in a barn with a heavily pregnant sow.  Not everyone would like too!

This was the view from our Yurt.  The hill was quite a challenge when it came to moving in and out.  My dad became an expert with this trusty old wheelbarrow.  He got very fond of it and would have liked to have brought it home if he could.

How ingenious!  Someone took the time to make it a wooden wheel when the original wore out!

The children helped with the chores and we sent Henry to collect water from the farm.  This is what he returned with!  He half filled a five litre container before it occurred to him this may not make a good cup of tea, or be very good to wash in.  He asked for directions to the tap and got confused as the 'Wormery' had a tap on it!  He bought us a quantity of nutrient rich worm fertiliser!!!  We didn't send him again!  I will worry about him when he eventually leaves home!  He better not go too far away...

Lacey had a fantastic time as there was an abundance of large sticks, she is an excellent baton twirler.

We missed our chickens!  We had daily adventures along the Cornish coast that I will share in posts over the next couple of days.  On return to the farm from the beach on our last night, there had been quite an event in the barn.  Maggie the Sow, who had been resting uncomfortably for a couple of days had been a clever girl.  It amazed us (as we are 'Townies') she had delivered piglets.

There were six piglets when we arrived.

This little boy was only ten minutes old.  Very cute.  Esther, one of the residents on the farm was doing a fantastic job as a midwife.  Maggie the pig is obviously very loved and taken care of.  I am not sure if my boys were in awe or shock when we witnessed a seventh piglet born.  I found it awesome.  By Morning there were eight piglets all together.  They are 'Gloucester Old Spots' and have the most gorgeous markings.  I think they are Maggie's fourth litter.   Half have already been sold for meat!  I can see vegetarians in the near future in our house!  As the penny is dropping concerning where sausages and bacon really comes from!  We did turn down the invite to a 'Hog roast' at the beginning of the week and there is no way we would have accepted after witnessing this little miracle.  Life on a farm for a week was an education in more ways than one.  I think we managed to take the Glam out of glamping, but we did have a character building, full on Yurt experience.  It is the sort of experience everyone should try at least once, unless you are content to live it vicariously via the blog of some weary soul!  I am not sure where this final statement comes from but it seems like wise words to me, I wanted a character building experience and they do say:
"What doesn't kill you,  makes you stronger!"