Simply Seasonal ..... The Beast from the East

Hello Lovelies,

 welcome to an especially chilly edition of my Simply Seasonal posts. This past week the U.K. has endured exceptionally low temperatures (for us) and high winds, which made it feel even colder. The weather people...or was it the newspapers.... labelled it The Beast from the East, as cold air was dragged in from the continent.

 I do love the changing seasons and I can honestly say I didn't moan about the cold...even when our heating packed up. It seems our  super duper, energy efficient, condensing boiler cannot cope with extreme cold...what !? That's not me moaning...just saying....again :0)

Anyway, despite all that there has been plenty to smile about.

1. Snow. I do love a bit of the white stuff. We don't get that much here in the midlands so it's always a novelty. And it does look pretty.

The cold weather started on Monday but the first day I was able to get out for a walk was Wednesday. Eldest's  College was closed, so we walked together.

I had been worrying about my Robin in the bitter cold and the sight of him looking so bedraggled was a nasty shock. All we could do was leave him lots of food and hope for the best.

2 ♥ Winter in the Park. Wednesday afternoon brought some sunshine, but don't let that fool you into thinking it had warmed up at all. I dashed about in the freezing temperatures to snap these pictures.
The water on the pond was frozen.

and the bedding plants were frozen in time

There was not much colour so the bright orange stems of the Dogwood were simply stunning with a white backdrop.

3♥ More Snow. On Thursday morning we woke to lots more snow. All the family was at home as the schools were closed and it was too cold for hubby to work outdoors.

after breakfast, when  I said I was going for a walk, suddenly I had lots of offers of company.

It was great to see the members of the family who usually avoid local walks at all costs out enjoying the freshly fallen snow.



Youngest couldn't resist running around in it. At fifteen he's still a big kid.

The churchyard looked so pretty

and we left extra rations out for Robin...though I did not get a good view of him as he was shy with all of us there.

Aahhh, my favourite church in the snow. Perfect.

The views were bleak but beautiful.

Good to see somebody is well dressed for this weather :0)

4 ♥ Baking By Thursday the house was cold so as well as baking THESE I extended my warm kitchen time by making  two of THESE.

Thank goodness we have this electric stove and a couple of other fan heaters.

 5 ♥ Seasonal Crochet I bought a couple of extra hot water bottles this week as the unheated bedrooms were feeling decidedly chilly. Not a problem for hubby and myself...but not great when you sleep alone. The cold areas of the house were somewhat nostalgic to me and I recalled crocheting a cover for my hot water bottle as a teenager. Actually I used to have two when it was really cold. I remembered a woolly cover meant waking up to a still  warm bottle instead of cold rubber next to your feet.  So far I have made one cover for the boys. What do you think?

I was totally inspired by Heather's gorgeous creations 

 I think it turned out pretty well for a first attempt. I love the double "polo neck" that Heather does so that was a must :0)

Here is the back...less time consuming but still nice I think.

6 ♥ The Thaw. Today the snow is almost gone and the snowdrops are once again visible...though they do look a little the worse for wear.

But best of all....my Robin survived the beast.....phew :0)

Now that the harsh weather has retreated and brother in Law has fixed the heating, I must admit I am looking forward to wearing a few fewer layers next week :0)

Jacquie x

Easy Baking ♥ Coconut and Oat Biscuits

Hello Lovelies,

 It seems March is certainly coming in like a lion across most of the UK this year.

Typically on the night we had our coldest temperatures for ages our central heating packed up.

 What to do? 1. Book a repair man (there's a big queue so he will be here next week) 2. sort out alternative heating (thankfully we have electric fan heaters)  3. Bake (any excuse to turn the oven on and potter in a warm kitchen )

I started with a very easy recipe that was a childhood favourite of mine....Coconut and Oat Biscuits....you can see in my recipe folder they are called Coconut and Quaker Oat biscuits....but any rolled "porridge" type oats will do.  I imagine the recipe originally came from the back of a box of those branded oats.

I started by weighing out 4 ounces of plain flour and 3 ounces of Oats into a large bowl.

To which I added 2 ounces of Desiccated Coconut.

 Next in a second bowl I melted 5 ounces of butter (or similar), 4 ounces of sugar (granulated would be fine) and 1 tablespoon of golden syrup. I popped mine in the microwave for a little over a minute, but you could do this in a pan on the hob.

Give the mixture a stir and tip it into the dry ingredients.



Then mix one teaspoon of Bicarbonate of soda mixed with one tablespoon of hot water,  add that to the bowl too.

Mix it all up. It's quite a sticky mixture

then put small blobs well spaced on a baking tray. I like to use baking parchment to avoid the biscuits sticking, but if you don't have any just well grease your tray

Pop them in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. The time and temperature will depend on your oven. I set my electric fan oven at 160 degrees Celsius and check them after 8 minutes as it's quiet a fast oven.

You can see they spread a lot and these possibly look a little over cooked but that is the colour you are aiming for.

My mixture made 20 biscuits.  When everybody is at home due to the weather they won't last long.


They are crunchy on the outside and chewy in the middle...and very moreish.

Here's the recipe in written form for you to print if you like.

Coconut and Oat Cookies...from Bunny Mummy Blog

Turn on your oven to 160 degrees Celcius (electric Fan)...gas mark 3-4
Line two baking tray with non stick parchment...or grease well.

Into a roomy bowl mix together  4oz (100 g) Plain Flour, 3oz (75g) Porridge Oats
and 2oz (50g) Dessicated coconut.

In a separate bowl mix 5oz (125g) Butter/ spread, 4oz (100g) sugar, 1 tablespoon of Golden syrup. Microwave for 1 minute.

Tip melted mixture into dry ingredients and mix well.

Add 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of hot water. Mix again.

Place small balls of mixture well spaced out on a baking tray.

Cook for 10-15 mins till a deep golden colour. Check after 8 mins.

Leave to cool on the tray for 2 minutes, then transfer to a rack.

They are especially delicious when still warm but keep well in an airtight container.

Enjoy :0)

Baking for a Good Cause

I'm a big fan of baking, and there's always a feel good factor when you bake for a charity bake sale, or to give to friends.

While we were out shopping this morning Eldest told me about a baking campaign to raise money for the very worthy charity Comic Relief. It's called "Bake a Million".

He explained we just had to bake something using Maltesers and then share a photo of the results on any social media platform and  Maltesers will donate £5 to the charity. It sounded too good to be true, but I happily agreed we should join in.

So after putting the weekly shop away I put on my apron and got baking. I decided to keep things simple by using my favourite (fool proof) Cake Recipe 

It's an all-in-one method... bung all the ingredients in a bowl.......

And whizz with an electric mixer......

 I've had this old Philips hand mixer since I was 21 years old...it's almost vintage :0)

I found some old chocolate chips in the cupboard, they went in too.

I do hate to see food wasted, and here's a tip I learnt from Mum. Use a soft spatula to get all the mixture out of the bowl. It's amazing how much more you can get out compared with using a spoon.

As you can see we decided to make fairy cakes.

We bought a Malteser Easter Egg especially to use for this project. Just a small one, it only cost £1. 

Once the cakes were cool we melted the chocolate egg.

 It's very easy using a pan with some water, then placing the chocolate in a heatproof container that fits snugly inside the pan. Simmer slowly and stir till the chocolate is runny.

And here are our finished cakes...Ta-Dah :0)

 Not the most professional looking creations but they were a big hit here.

Youngest came into the kitchen when they were baking and I told him they were for Comic Relief. "Oh well" he said looking rather disappointed. I had to explain that they would raise money AND he could still eat some. How great is that!
I shared these on Instagram earlier today and within an hour Maltesers had left a friendly comment to say they had donated £5 on our behalf.

Woohoo. That felt great.

So why not joint in lovelies? They will donate up to one million pounds to this amazing charity that does good work across the world. It's such an easy, fun way to join in. Just remember to share a picture of your finished cakes on any social media (like Instagram, Facebook or Twitter) and use the hash tag #bakeamillion

Happy Baking
Jacquie x

A Slow start to the New Year

Hello Lovelies

How was your new year? Ours was quiet...just how I like it. We spent the very end of 2015 enjoying good food and pleasant company at my brother and sister in laws house. At midnight we watched the fireworks in London on the telly....what an impressive sight they are these days. Somewhat less impressive was our own attempt at pyrotechnics....

this says 2016....well that was the idea :0)

As the years go by and the children get older it seems more and more precious to all link arms and sing auld lang syne and welcome the new year together.

This morning I had time to make pancakes for breakfast.......

And later hubby and  I went for a walk up a hill.........

I love to see the geology of this area........

I have never seen Beacon Hill so busy, but there was still plenty of space...and a bench to sit and share a flask of coffee and a slice of my home made Lemon Drizzle together..........

It was a rather dark and dull day, but I was surprised by all the colour you could still see if you really looked..........

In the woodland further down the hill the Beech leaves are retuning to the earth..........

and horse riders enjoy the quiet paths.........

Today this wonderfully imaginative wood sculpture caught my eye. Many families were out enoying the open space here...some even having barbecues.........

In a corner of the car par there are bird feeders I like to stop and watch for a little while........

The Great Tits were enjoying the peanut feeders..........

And it was hard to spot Mr Robin on the ground below..........

Here he is.......

Back home, after lunch I had time to use up some over-ripe bananas that my sister in law had given me........

And I also had time to write out THIS favourite recipe in my the file I've been using for years.....

My handwriting and spelling are not the best but there is something nice about hand written things, don't you think?

It's one of the things that attracted me to this diary I have treated myself to this year.........

Look, lovely handwriting and line drawings..........

I happened upon this diary as I was feeling a bit sad that calendars these days rarely seem to have the moon phases on them. I'm not even really sure why I want to know the moon phases...but I do.

This one has them daily, and the significant days in the seasonal calendar that I like to notice.
Oh look...Spring equinox....my favourite :0)

These days I put important stuff  I need to remember in my phone, simply because my memory is bad and the phone flashes an alarm to remind me!

This will mainly be a place to record a few thoughts and things to be thankful for. A slow, nature centred, inspirational place. 

It's already making me smile........

It's ring bound and printed in the U.K.  too.........

This evening I'm slowly eating home made cake......

Smelling my lovely hyacinths.......

and chatting with you kind people. Here's to the simple, gentle things in life.

This little blog of mine has given me so much mindfulness and joy over the years. Of course it would not be anywhere near as enjoyable without being able to share with you lovelies. I'm always uplifted and touched by your thoughtfulness. Thank you.
I sincerely hope 2016 will be a good year for us all.
Jacquie x