A Mixed Bag

Hello Lovelies, 

I hope you've had a good day. I'm back, sharing the random selection of pictures I captured on my camera today. Things that made me smile.

I love the early morning sun as it shines under our silver birch tree.

It's leaves are only just beginning to start getting their autumn colour, where as my little cherry tree is the most gorgeous orange already and positively glowed in the morning sunshine.

 Here's a bit of a rubbish photo, but I took it as I was so pleased I can finally recycle soft plastics locally. I know the most important change is to try and reduce buying plastic wrapped things in the first place, but in reality that's really tricky at the moment so THANK YOU CO-OP for having recycling bins in your stores.

Out and about with my mum in law this morning we loved this beautiful window display. I especially adored the painting of a winter scene on the glass.

It was Christmassy but overall just felt like a homage to winter and I love winter.

I'm not wishing autumn away though. We went around this beautiful square of grass and magnificent mature trees. I'm sure the residents of the bungalows and flats here must appreciate having this view. I know I would. Such a great way to keep in touch with the seasons and encourage wildlife.

It was a very short walk with mum in law and I was busy this afternoon so I headed out to do a couple of miles after dark. 

It's so mild out again at the moment it was very pleasant , even a bit too warm for my coat wearing self. 

Think I'll be regretting changing to the winter duvet tonight.

Is the weather strangely mild where you are lovelies? 

Jacquie x

A Colourful Start

 Hello Lovelies,

I was out and about early this morning, walking to the shop to get some sandwich supplies to make packed lunches. What a treat the amazing sunrise was. 

I love that we are blessed with creative souls who add fun things to the streets where I live. The little wooden train planter looked extra nice with such a dramatic backdrop.

The dim light was not the best to photograph this great yarn bomb on the post-box but I think you can get the idea. It's to encourage people to help the hedgehogs. I'm so pleased that nobody has messed with this and it's holding up well after being out in the weather for a couple of months.

 

The morning was beautiful and I hung out washing....always a treat in November. You can see the fire pit needs putting away. The boys had friends over on Saturday night, to sit around the fire chatting. Eldest has an old wok he cooks haloumi in over the flames. Lagers and nibbles in the dark garden, watching other people's fireworks. Sounds great.

A few posts back I mentioned about my first house. It go me thinking about it and I looked for some photos.

This picture of the kitchen is all I could find. Aww, it might not look much but this seemed like luxury to my 21 year old self. 

Previous to this move I'd been in a shared student house with damp issues and a cellar head kitchen. Do you even know what one of those is? 

It's basically a kitchen built at the top of the stairs down into the cellar. Ours was literally about 4 feet square. It had a tiny cooker and a sink, oh and there was a sort of lift up counter top which also served as a barrier to stop you falling down the stairs if you stepped back from the cooker too far!

 Gosh I bet you think I'm making this up, but I promise  I'm not. So you can see why a new house, with a fitted kitchen was bliss, no matter how small it was....we did have fun the student house though 😂.

I'm a bit fascinated with small space living at the moment. I love watching videos about tiny houses

I'm not sure I would enjoy all aspects of this way of living but some of the spaces are adorable and the people seem to have a great quality of life, free from a large mortgage or expensive rent. 

Just look at this lovely space,  ideal for one person I think. You can see this video HERE

Don't blame me if you fall down a tiny house rabbit hole though 😇.

Did you notice the blanket Ariel is sitting on? Isn't it lovely. Perfect for this calm interior with a limited colour palette, to create a feeling of space.  

I'm always juggling for space here too. Maybe I need better storage solutions, but decluttering is my main ongoing goal. I cleared lots of stuff out of this drawer today (some to donate and some just moved). I had tried having my yarn on a shelf of my bookcase but it kept falling out and looking messy. I'm much happier with this storage.

 

This afternoon mum and I went for a little drive. We stopped here to admire the view towards the windmill. It's in the centre of the picture with a white cap.

This is the view in the other direction....looking very autumnal now.

I like cows, when they are on the other side of a gate.....hello beauties.

This evening I finally got around to doing something with all the cooking apples I keeping picking up on my walks.

 

Nothing too imaginative, just several apple crumbles for the freezer, and one for now.

Well that was quite a mixed bag of a post. I hope you found at least some of it interesting lovelies.

Chat tomorrow, all being well.

Jacquie x

Newstead in November

Hello Lovelies,

 for the first time in too long we had a trip to Newstead Abbey today. 

There's lots of different areas to explore. We started by walking through the woodland, until we came across this strange building.
 

It's a mock fort and you can read about it HERE

There were gorgeous views across the lake and I loved the autumn colours in the trees.

Up close there's still a lot of green in the leaves, unusual for November.

The large lake flows out over this pretty cascade.

And into a lower lake, populated by a good number of ducks and swans.

Lower still you come to the Japanese garden, this was my main reason for visiting today. I've never seen it in autumn and was hoping for good foliage colour.

Ooooh, I don't think I will be disappointed!

Oh my, this tree was out of this world!

Just look at these leaves. So stunning!

The amount of water in this garden is wonderful too. There's so many little bridges linking the paths.

Lets stand back and admire this wonderful Acer from a distance. The shape is outstanding I think.

I loved all the stepping stones too.

They gave a great view back towards the star tree.

This Japanese garden didn't have any gravel areas, but I preferred the water garden feel anyway. I loved these stone ornaments too.

A weeping cherry looking gorgeous framed another.

Beauty at every turn.

Just look at the amount of different ponds.

Truly magical in November. No mean feat.

There's so much more to Newstead Abbey, including beautiful Topiary.

But I'll stop there. The overcast weather didn't make of the best photos and the Japanese garden was truly the highlight on this occasion. I'm so glad I got to see it.

Jacquie x

A Different Day

 Hello lovelies, 

 there was no repeat of yesterday's pretty start, so I spent the morning doing housework.  It's not something I can do Monday to Friday as I go to help my mum in law every weekday morning.  

Today the house was empty and it gave me chance to get on. I find it so difficult when there are people cluttering up the place 😀

It reminded me of when we bought our first house in the late 80's.  If I was lucky enough to get the weekend off I could clean the whole place on Saturday morning (it was a tiny new build and there were only 2 of us) and I loved having it all tidy , knowing the rest of the weekend was free to enjoy. 

A morning of housework won't get this whole house sorted, but it does look better and still helps me to relax. 

As you can see from the pictures I did get a walk this afternoon. It was very windy and showery on and off, but I'm trying to be disciplined and do 2.5 miles everyday (at least) so that I can hopefully reach my new (lowered) 800 mile target by the end of December. 

It was pretty gloomy by the time I returned home but my cosmos in the front garden brought a welcome pop of colour. Amazingly they seem almost untouched by yesterday's frost.

Time for a cup of tea and some of my homemade tea loaf. 

I'm still using THIS recipe. It's an old favourite,  as is my mug. 

For me it really is "home sweet home" even if it's a constant battle to keep it tidy,  with 5 adults at home.

 Thankfully it still makes me happy to have a full house 🏡🧍‍♀️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️😊

I hope you lovelies are having a good weekend.

Jacquie x

The First Frost

 Having to take youngest to work for 8am is frustrating when you wake up to see a glistening frost and just want to get outside to enjoy the beauty of it. 

As soon as I got home I pulled on my walking boots and headed off. 

Frosts I have missed you.

The ice crystals and rising sun are all so magical. 

I just love being out in the cold when the air is still and the sky is this colour.

Looking up  I noticed a skein of geese...no hang on they are all white. Swans. Just wonderful.

  I ponder what type they will be. Probably our resident Mute swans. But I did hear them honk. 

I've checked up and Mute swans are so called because they don't call in flight. It seems they were most likely migrating Bewick's swans! Just on a short trip from Siberia!! 

Sorry about the rubbish photo. I don't even try and zoom with my phone camera as it's not good at that.

This sighting made me so happy, what a treat. 

The frost was rapidly disappearing by this time and the sheep looked content, grazing in the sunshine.

I loved how the sunlight made this beautiful yellow leaf really glow too.

By this time it was about 9am. Sometimes I pinch myself that I can get outdoors and enjoy all this any day of the week. Usually it just makes me smile. Today it actually made me sob. Gosh that was a surprise. 

I think it was just gratitude for the quiet days I'm blessed with at the moment. To be retired from  a job I was increasingly struggling with over the past few years is amazing. 

I know how fortunate I am to be in this position. Homemaking and caring for family is generally very rewarding.  I have a good balance of time for myself and commitments every day. I'm certainly never bored. Life is good. 

Who knows what's around the corner. Circumstances can change but I'm not going to worry about that at the moment . I'm just trying to remember to count my blessings and look for the joy in every day, one day at a time. 

Jacquie x