Summer in Chains

I haven't done much in the way of creativity this last week but I did find a fossil lurking in my witches cauldron. The cauldron has had no attention for years but due to a kitchen re-vamp the cauldron was unearthed and you won't believe what I found inside. Last year's summer covered in cobwebs and tied down in chains. Before it got a clean up I thought I would take a photo 'cos I thought it looked quite arty and then I did a bit of digi manipulation and came up with the above image. I like it!


I've had a busy weekend...well busy for me! Still recovering and still on treatment but it was good to have visitors and I'm so thankful for young Marton our friend from Hungary who assembled some additional new kitchen units for us. John and I have a larder cupboard each now to house our hobby stuff. In my case its largely baking equipment and in John's case its his home brew stuff. I have my art and craft stuff in the spare bedroom and John has all his other stuff in the garage, garden, shed, greenhouses and loft. What a hoarder he is!

I still love playing with my mini cupcake maker and made some minis for breakfast. The butter cream is actually made with olive spread, not butter, so its nice and healthy and tastes nicer too. Each one an individual luscious mouthful and so quick and easy to make...smile!

Think I will make a card with my summer in chains image and show it next week... Bye for now.

Re-cycling Christmas cards

Two blogs in one day. My goodness, things are looking up! It goes to prove how creative I've been over the last week. Something that I have sadly lacked for too long. Its good to have my mojo back.

Christmas might be the last thing on people's minds right now but I couldn't help playing with last year's Christmas cards and re-cycling them. I have some mount board scraps that I squirrelled away several years back just in case they came in handy one day and I guess that day, or week or month has arrived. Time certainly slips away when you're having fun.

An ever breeding collection of cut outs from used Christmas cards, glitter glue, ribbon, peel offs, flowers and embellishments and my trusted glue gun and more took over the dining table like some rampant alien species until I was left with a six inch space to work on, so then I removed myself to the kitchen breakfast bar for more space. Crafter readers will know what I'm talking about at this stage and I'm sure there will be a smile and giggle or two.

My idea was to decorate mount board making them into plaques supported on plastic stands...the type that small plates are displayed on. My first effort took me absolutely ages but as I progressed each one got easier to make. The only trouble is I have run out of plastic stands and I can't remember where I bought them many moons ago. So now, my dining table is clear again, at least until I find more stands.





Maybe I will be able to raise a bit of money for worthy causes, next Christmas.

This one is my favourite.

Withered apples and all that stuff

What to do with withered apples? I have to say they stored well in my wooden fruit bowl and although now wrinkled and drying out they were still edible. Apparently, last week was Bramley apple week but I never got round to buy any, let alone make anything with them which is a pity because Bramleys are the best cooking apples. My withered apples were the Gala variety and as I loath wasting food I just had to do something with them.

withered gala apples

I found a recipe for a cake tray bake and using a bit of adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying and a few additions I was able to create a recipe that was gluten free and happy with different kinds of fruit. My maths teacher would have been proud! I cored and chopped the apples but left the skin on and tossed them on top of the cake batter. The result was a scrummy cake, especially with squirty cream...yum! 

apple cake with cream

blueberry cake with cream

Blueberries work well too and my family love the cake so it was a bit of a scramble to get my fair share. 


Honestly! You would think they would consider who baked the cake in the first place...never mind she says, smiling.

blueberry cake tray bake

I'm really enjoying the discovery of baking all over again and experimenting with gluten free recipes makes it an exciting challenge. I bought a blank recipe book from Home Bargains the other day for only £1.99 or something near. Ridiculously cheap anyway. I have called it Nana's recipe book and aim to fill it with tried and tested family recipes, some of which I will enjoy making with my grandchildren.

making a mess

My first entry was a recipe for cheese scones which I made with the help of granddaughters Natalie and Jasmine...did I say help? Mum wasn't about so we had great fun making a mess on the breakfast bar. There were some squabbles as to who did what and I had to play referee at times but it was all worth it. 

more hands on mess

Amazingly, these scones had no egg in the mix and in the mayhem I forgot to add baking powder but I was amazed at how they turned out. They were the best cheese scones I've ever made. So maybe I shouldn't have been adding egg all these years. 

cheese scones

Natalie showed her appreciation by spreading hers with jam! Cheese and jam scones??? There's no accounting for taste! I suppose the added bonus was that the girls washed up and dried afterwards. What more could a Nana ask for? The scones were meant to be for Dad but I'm not sure he managed to get any.





Next playtime, the girls and I will make a scrapbook page about our baking fun afternoon. That should be fun...smile.

Retreat to Ampleforth

Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire is set in breathtaking scenery. My recent visit with a party from my parish church coincided with the worst snow of the winter so far but it didn't deter us and we had an amazing weekend staying at the Grange in the Abbey grounds. 

The buildings are as impressive as the landscape and I enjoyed exploring parts of the grounds and taking photographs, some of which are shown below.

The driveway from the main road into Ampleforth Abbey grounds. The Grange is centre background. It was very warm and clean comprising bedrooms, refectory, a chapel and a room for socialising and talks and a lounge and library on the top floor. We were very comfortable there.

This group of trees stood together in majestic dialogue in the snowy grounds.

The Abbey of the monastic community of St Benedict. The community also has a resident college for boys and girls and an apple orchard in site producing such drinks as apple brandy and liqueur. Monks from here serve eleven parishes in England and have also established a monastery in Zimbabwe.

The rear of the Abbey buildings shown here look out at stunning views across North Yorkshire.

The Abbey is as beautiful and impressive inside as it is out. This is the corridor to the Abbey church entrances.

Inside the Abbey is far bigger than this photo shows. It is actually huge and the ambiance amazing. On Sunday we joined the students for morning mass and the abbey was filled to capacity. They were all so well behaved and attentive to mass they were a credit to their teachers.

The monks and staff were very welcoming and looked after us well. Food was plentiful and they were kind enough to make some gluten free dishes. Even snacks of gluten free shortcake and scones served separately on doily decorated plates. It felt like they were made especially for me!

                                                                                   

Chicken curry with a choice of rice or potatoes and broccoli

Gluten free plum and almond cake with custard. 

         

Doreen and me in the lower guest refectory having lunch.

A lot of the oak furniture in the Abbey was created by Robert (Mouseman) Thompson who lived in Kilburn in North Yorkshire. I found this mouse under our dining table.

We socialised on Saturday night in the Grange. The bar was open and we sang Geordie and Irish songs.

The following day we said our farewells to Ampleforth. It had been for me a spiritual journey and experience I'm not likely to forget. I think many others felt the same way. 

From Matins at 6 am with hooded monks in the dimly lit Abbey to coming together in prayer with one of the monks, Father Matthew, in the Grange and a full itinerary of devotions in between, felt at times a little exhausting and almost like a boot camp. But one well worth taking part in! Father Matthew finished off by giving us a prayerful talk on Sunday before we left for home. He had been very good and attentive to us during our stay. 

Despite the snow the roads were clear and we made good time getting home by coach...taking our lovely memories home with us.

I'm already thinking about going to Medjugore in September!

Santa was good to me

Grandaughter Amber with Santa, 2007

Last night I finally got round to playing with my Christmas toys, yeah! A new CD/Radio player in pink!!! will keep me company in my craft room. New CDs are the gorgeous Neil Diamond, The Very Best Of and Alfie Boe, Storyteller. Listening to Alfie singing Bridge Over Troubled Water at the moment....sad but nice. My husband John bought me all of this bar the Neil Diamond CD for Christmas despite me saying he hadn't to spend too much but he loves splashing out at Christmas. I got him his favourite Laphroaig whisky, Thornton's chocolates, vintage Old Spice and the very last issue of the Dandy comic. 

I thought my new camera would be a challenge as everything seems to be so highly tech these days. Its a Nikon Coolpix and it has a rechargeable battery. Yes!!! That's just what I wanted. I managed to install and charge the battery. Installed the memory card and took some sample shots. It has a clever gadget that zooms in and out or goes landscape at a simple touch and it also does videos but I'm leaving that part till later. I tried installing the photo edit software that came with it but my lap top didn't want to know. Never mind! I was still able to upload photos using my resident Serif software. So far, I'm pretty pleased with myself. Oh no! I've just caught sight of my old Kodak digi camera. The one that has served me well for many a year now sitting on a shelf looking all forlorn...feeling sad now...how can I be so fickle...I will miss you little friend.

Alfie is still singing and is up to the Shine a Light track with a gospel edge to it. Very enjoyable!

Last night I finished off my playtime by baking some gluten free scones using a recipe from one of two gluten and lactose free cookery books given to me by my son Drew and his lovely wife Kelly. I'm delighted to receive such a thoughtful present crammed full of no nonsense recipes.  I'm sure I will be using them often in the future. I'm very pleased with how the scones turned out. Nice and light with a soft texture but not too crumbly. Just right! I omitted the sugar as I prefer plain scones that can be used with both sweet and savoury fillings and these scones do the job perfectly.

My wonderful daughters were very kind giving me toiletries and jewellery with which I will pamper myself. Thank you girls and family for such lovely gifts this Christmas.

I'm not a good knitter but sooooo wanted to do something for our tenth grandchild due early January. She will be the first child of our son Drew and lovely daughter in law Kelly. My mother knit a teddy for Drew when he was very small and so I thought I might keep up the tradition and knit one for this baby, though for health and safety concerns (eyes, nose small parts etc, baby will probably not be able to play with it until three years old...I'm not sure! I hope Mr Floppy will be able to sit some where in baby's view until that time. I've called it Mr Floppy for obvious reasons. He is nice and soft and not stuffed too full so that he is rigid but remains nice and floppy.

We have had snow blizzards today and with Christmas decorations now around the hearth its lovely to be at home enjoying being cosy. Mr Floppy seems to like sitting on the mantle piece in the midst of all the good cheer. I hope he will like his new home and new human baby friend. It won't be long now !

Christmas Market at Harrogate

A white penetrating frost came with the morning on Tyneside but there was also a clear blue sky which heralded what I hoped would be an enjoyable day out to Harrogate Christmas Market in North Yorkshire. Heading south we soon hit banks of freezing fog and the blue skies were gone. Instead we were blanketed in  grey mist with a very pale and watery sun that offered no heat whatsoever.

The coach we travelled on was freezing and by the time we got to our first stop at Thirsk my toes felt like they would drop off. We spent two hours at Thirsk and my prime objective was to get a pair of fur lined boots. I was lucky and thankfully my toes were a lot warmer for the rest of the day. While at Thirsk we also browsed around the market and John bought me three cyclamen plants, two red and one white, for my birthday. They are very pretty and hopefully will last throughout the Christmas Season.

Needing to warm up we decided to get a hot drink and a snack and visited the Yorks Tea Rooms in Thirsk where I enjoyed gluten free toasted muffins and Christmas spiced tea while John had the best ever bacon sandwich in granary bread with salad garnish and a generous cup of latte.

We continued our journey through eerie landscapes but by the time we got to Harrogate the mist had lifted a little and it wasn't so cold. 

                            

We had three hours at Harrogate and headed straight for the Christmas Market. It was packed with people and difficult to stand still long enough to check out the festive stalls. We did manage to buy some speciality cheeses. Cheddar with Ale and Mustard, Goat Cheese and cheese with Garlic and Chives.

We also took time to visit Santa's reindeer!

The penetrating cold was setting in again and we looked for a restaurant to get warm and have something to eat. It seemed that everywhere was full, brimming at the seams with 45 minute waits for tables. We were lucky to  get a table at the Petit Bistro, which is anything but petite when you get inside and although we waited a considerable time for our meals we were able to enjoy hot drinks first and get warmed through again.

The busy order of the day spilled out into the main shopping area of Harrogate and Christmas shopping was in full swing. I would have loved to spend more time there but next time I will visit mid week when there shouldn't be such crowds of shoppers.

Festive lights and Christmas cheer were abundant each way we turned and it was good to bring the Christmas spirit home with us.