TARRAGON & THYME

This morning's brekkie ended up with us having toast and cheese for OH and toast and some of my home made Autumn Medley jam which went down very nicely.  These colder mornings I have taken to eating porridge first thing or oats and fruit.  Very filling and I find when I have something like this I don't pick as much.  That is a win win as far as I am concerned. I have been in the kitchen again today carrying on with the work that needs doing before Saturday.  Things are going well and I am hoping that everything will be completed in there by tomorrow evening.  There has been a lot more in there for me to do than I had anticipated but I am nearing the end.  Another couple of cupboards have been cleaned out and re-stocked and also the top of the units have been cleared down and the items that belong there reintroduced.  There is still a lot more to "squeeze in", but we are getting there, I have had the radio on.  I normally listen to "Gold" on the ra...

  I saw a lovely post on Karen Grieve's site of Larder Love on Instagram today on how to make Toffee Vodka.  I have followed Karen's site for quite some years as she has some lovely recipes to make for seasonal use.  I had mentioned  her post on Toffee Vodka to one or two Internet Friends in passing.   For those interested the link to Karen's site is here: Larder Love I was sure that I had popped up a similar post about this quite a few years ago as the recipe had come my way from a Forum that I was a member of and which Forum no longer exists.  It was a brilliant Forum to belong to and I learned so much from other like-minded ladies who liked to make things themselves and who were not averse to helping a newbie on certain aspects learn new skills.  There was a wealth of very good advice and instruction on that Forum. One of my colleagues asked to pop up a link for my original posts which I said I would and the link is below.  Toffee Vodka Po...

I have felt a bit more with it today and have been pottering between the kitchen and the dining room, sorting out kitchen equipment that was in the dining room and getting it into the kitchen.  Emptying a couple of more tubs and fighting my way into the corner to get to the cupboard under the stairs.  A path is cleared and so I am hoping to get to the under-stairs to start emptying, cleaning and painting out the cupboard.  That will probably be late afternoon as I have some more clearing to do in the kitchen first especially in view of the fact that the Kitchen stuff is arriving on Saturday.  So I want as much in place as I can before then and then OH will be able to get the new countertop in and the two double units for underneath which is when I will then be able to totally organise those four cupboards.  The rest of the cupboards have worked out more than fine. I am finding more Christmas decorations as I am going along in the dining room in some of the boxes...

 Today I have not done anything.  My body has told me enough is enough and as I have had no energy at all, I have this afternoon sat in the warm, and done some more knitting.  It is slowly growing and so I am hoping that I will get it done this year so that I can start a new one for the New Year.  So fingers crossed I will attempt my hit list again tomorrow.  I feel a bit more with it than I did.  Just one of those things. I am also off my food a bit. I cooked home made chips and fried egg which I was quite looking forward to but when it came to eating it that was another matter. So I have been sat in the warm just resting.  It will be an early night tonight and then hopefully will be fresh enough tomorrow morning. I have also watched a couple of You Tube videos on different things which have given me some ideas for future projects as if I haven't got enough to do at the moment.  Oh well I dig myself in deeper every-time.  That's just me but ...

Very cold but very quiet. As I type this it is currently minus 1 so it looks as though it is going to be another very cold night. We had a bit of a lay in this morning preferring to stay warm before getting up and having some brunch.  Neither of us felt like Sunday dinner so that will wait until tomorrow.  I have spent most of the day either on the computer, researching some recipes and I also have been stuck in the dining room trying to sort out a few more things and finding things that I had forgotten such as my pasta drying stand.  This will go on the top shelf in the cupboard under the stairs once that is sorted, but I have given it a good thorough wash down in any event. When it goes into the cupboard I am going to cling film it to keep it ready to use and clean for the next time.  I have pumpkin that I want to use up so making home made pasta  would be a good way to use it up, that and soup.. Washing up and drying up of other items that have found has also...

A few posts back I indicated that I was working on a project that I did not want to disclose as I was not sure how I would get on with it.  Knitting is my Nemesis as I soon get bored with it. I found a tutorial on You Tube for this rather lovely blanket/throw which is worked in what we call Moss Stitch and those in the States refer to as Seed Stitch. Work has been slow, however I have been plodding on with the project, which is using some of my Mum's stash of Aran wool.  I am using a 6.5mm circular knitting needle with the wool, although I think the project uses larger needles.  I am not in a position where I could buy new needles and 6.5mm needles is the recommended size for Aran wool from what I can ascertain. I have pulled a few rows down here and there, and my casting on leaves a lot to be desired.  I have been advised to try a smaller needle for the casting on in future so I will try that in another project. I must say that it is incredibly nice to be able to pi...

What a rough night.  Better here than a lot of places and as we are in a City more protected. Nevertheless, the wind is still very rough. My hearts go out to those without power at the moment and hope they are managing to keep warm and safe. Is it me but are we starting to have more rough storms than we used to have, or is it that much more is made of this than it used to be.  I am not sure, but I suspect global warming has something to do with it somewhere along the line.  I think we are all contributing in some way or another, often innocently. I really enjoyed my evening out last night.  It kind of was peaceful and wonderful all at the same time.  Something for the senses and to calm us down, taking us out of ourselves for those few precious moments of time.  A visual celebration of all things light, and leading up to the seasonal celebrations that are Christmas.  Peterborough Cathedral is a very beautiful Cathedral with loads of history attached to...