Thursday's Ramblings...

Well,I haven't posted for a couple of days,well properly that is as I havn't been feeling 100%.I am still trying to watch the sugar I am consuming and have finally finished the last of the Christmas chokkie{A Very large,and I mean very large Toblerone bought for me by my darling hubby} so hopefully now I can begin to get somwhere in cutting out sugar from my life.It is shocking just how much sugar there is in products we buy as well as the fat and salt that I have previously mentioned...tut tut.No wonder there are so many health problems in the world.

What I do now,when I have my breakfast is to put either some chopped up grapes on top or either strawberries or raspberries instead of the fake sugar I have been using....

For my lunch I had a nice Fish Cake which I cooked in the oven,and served it up with potato's,peas and carrots.I found it quiet filling..

As the weather was pleasant with the sun shining and blue skies I decided to go out again for my daily walk.It was bitterly cold out so I made sure I wrapped up warm.I take my camera with me in case I see some good photographic material...

The builders will soon be finished our shopping area so we are looking forward to being able to pop down there to get anything we need instead of having to trek three miles to the nearest shop.I expect that is something we took for granted where we used to live because all the shops we needed were only 500 yards from where we used to live so we were spoilt in many ways. We could quiet easily walk to them. With luck the food shop should be opening next month fingers crossed...

I have just had to run out to the kitchen because while I was busy typing this my apple that I was stewing on the hob was begining to burn so now I will be having cremated apple for dinner to go with the crackers and cream cheese I have eaten already..If the smoke detector goes off I nearly break my neck tripping over Willow as he normally runs under my feet and tries to trip me up as I rush out to the kitchen...

I had a laugh yesterday morning.I was looking everywhere for Poppy as I hadn't seen her since I got up.Stuart said he hadn't seen her so put on my coat and shoes and went off round to the garage in case she had been locked in there all night.I called out here name and expected her to come running out.No sign of her so I went round to the shed to see if she had spent the night in the company of the Guneia Pigs.Still no sign of her.I turned and walked back to the house with a bit of a heavy heart and thinking the worst that she had been run over and had crawled under a bush to die...

Stuart asked if I had found her and I said No as I took my coat and shoes off and walked back into the warm lounge..Guess what,there was Poppy where she had been all the time,sitting in her basket and looking at me as if to say 'Why didn't you look in here first.I have been here all the time'.. I really must get my glasses lens cleaned...sigh.

Watch this space folks...

Saturday Ramblings

Well it is the start of another weekend,though I expect it will go just as fast as it usually does.Didn't sleep well last night and then when I did go to sleep I never woke up until 8ish which is late for me,though not for Stuart.I only woke up because Willow was having a nibble on my arm...Ouch.
By the time we had eaten breakfast it had already been raining yet again for some time.Will it never end.!!!
Went to the shops and did our grocery shopping and amongst other things bought some more Organic eggs as well as the Free Range Chicken I bought last week,I am certainly trying.Tesco's wanted nearly £10 for an Organic one and there were more on the shelves than what there was when I popped in last week.

We were glad to get back home and got the shopping stowed away before having a quick bite to eat.By then the rain had stopped,but it still left everything damp and squidgy,urrgh.

After lunch we drove out to one of the DIY sheds to buy some more tile adhesive and grout so that Stuart could do some tile laying in the new Conservatory he is building.

On the way home I suggested popping along to the fish place along the dual carriageway near where we live to choose the Aquarium I would like to buy,with some of the money I received for Christmas.It is about time I treated myself as I never seem to always thinking of others before myself.I look at it,that I don't smoke{unlike Stuart},hardly drink and very rarely go out for a meal,so have decided to buy something that will give me lots of pleasure for many years to come.
We were in the fish shop for what seems like hours before settling on a Bowl 45 which is basicly one of the round Orb types but is made of glass.

We have spent quiet some time setting it up and have now turned on the heater after letting it stand full of water for an hour in room temperature.Stuart has now added the gravel,though he forgot to wash it first {We both forgot that one} and has added the chemicalswhich should give the water the cinditions and bacteria ready for the fish.We have been told to wait five days before taking a water sample to the fish shopto have it checked to make sure it is all going ok.
The tank is bubbling away at the moment,and I can't wait to see it full of fish.I am thinking of Neon or Cardinal Tetras,and I have been offered already some Guppies,which no doubt will end up breeding all over the place...

I will keep you all posted as to how we get on.Watch this space and Thankyou for visiting my blog....xx

Frosted Rose-Winning Photo

This photo of one of my Dublin Bay roses which was frosted on December 2oth 2007 was entered into the same competition as the Twin Suns photo and they were taken on exactly the same day.
This photo was voted into first place by the members of the garden forum and my prize was £15 worth of National Gardening Gift Vouchers which I will enjoy spending on seeds and possibly plants in the Spring ready for the gardening year.

Please bare with me as I get my head around blogging and hopefully I will have lots more photos that I have enjoyed taking since taking up Digital Photography.Thankyou xx

Twin Suns

This photo was taken on December 20th and entered in a gardening forum that I belong to.It was voted into 4th place by the members on there.....As the title shows I called this one Twin Suns,a complete fluke as the photo was taken in my friends house through her double glazed french doors....

New Day

Good morning everyone and Thank you so much for your kind comments,much appreciated.
I thought today was going to be another dry day,but now I can hear rain falling on our conservatory roof so that throws that idea out of the window.The forecast doesn't look very promising for the next few days with rain falling right through until Tuesday.Where will it all end...
My garden is starting to look like a paddy field and if I walk off of the stepping stones across the lawn then it is like a quagmire.I feel sorry for anyone who gets flooded out this time and I know that there are still lots of people having to live in Caravans because of last years floods...

I am desperate to start getting some more ground prepared over at our allotments,but dare not even think about it until it is drier..

I managed to get out again for another brisk walk round the village.I love getting out in the fresh air,well that's if you can call it fresh,cough cough..

I was watching that programme last night on the TV about how much rubbish that goes into the food we eat,salt,sugar, and fat.I am having to change my eating habits becausewhat with suffering with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome{PCOS} and now going through the dreaded menopause,these last few years I have found my weight has gone up even more and it is getting harder and harder to lose it....
I am trying hard to cut right back on my sugar intake,though it is hard with me having a sweet tooth.Once the last of the Christmas chokkies have all gone I am determined to cut down.I only eat the low salt anyway and always cut off all the fat that I can see on any meat that I buy.It is a nightmare when I go shopping because it takes hours to raed all the info on the backs of the products.I have never been one for eating lots of raedy meals and since the New Year I have started making all my own cottage & steak pies,filled with lots of good vegetables and topped with potatoes that have had no milk or cream added.I am proud with myself at saving myself a small fortune by not buying that disgusting gloop,the shops try to palm us off with.Who are they trying to kid.Their cottage pies don't even look edible as well as being laced with a cocktail of chemicals,half of which I can't even pronounce,and that is with my glasses on.
Enjoy your day everyone in all you do.Just off to find my water wings....

Willow and Poppy

This is miss feisty,Poppy.She is Willow's sister and we think she is a Tortishell on white.She has taken to Stuart and spends all night snuggled up to him whereas Willow took to me right from the start and loves to have plenty of fuss from me...

Poppy doesn't like to be picked up and fussed,but leaps from her chair over to Stuart when she wants attention.Even though Willow is the boss ambushing Poppy whenever he gets the chance there are times when she manages to give him a swipe back...

They both love catching their favourite food,mainly mice shrews and sometimes birds,but Willow likes to bring them upstairs while we are sleeping and cries a certain sort of cry to let us know he has bought us a presant.If he gets no response from us then he settles down and eats the mouse.

There is nothing worse than hearing him crunching on the bones..Yuk..

Willow and Poppy

This is a photo of one of the two cats we rescued nearly four years ago,living with his sister and mother underneath part of a dug out skip in our village.His name is Willow and when you see his sister Poppy you will find it hard to believe that they are actually brother and sister...

They were being fed on sandwiches and crisps Monday-Friday but once the contracters had left the site then they had to fend for themselves until Monday came back round..

I had to catch them with a trap hired from Cats Protection and laced with Pilchards.It was worth getting scratched to death by the little tigers and it took us months to bring them round,but now they are spoilt rotten and rule the roost...

Willow is a handsome cat and knows it...

Dry Day

Carrying on from this morning I can safely say that we have had a very pleasant day with the weather.The sun has shone all day and there has been some really good cloud formations up in the sky....

I even managed to put Punkey and Mabel out in their run to nibble the grass while I cleaned out their hutch.I have never seen such small creatures eat so much, talk about eating for England.They never seem to stop,only when they are resting do they seem to slow down a bit but I bet they are dreaming of their next meal while they are asleep...

Got some potting up done of some of my Iris plants that I had dug up in the Autumn and put them on the top staging where they can grow on a bit more before they have to go outside...

Also got some of the shed tidied up so that now looks a lot better....

I have decide that now my back is starting to feel a lot better,I am going to try and get some more walking done,especially now that the wind and rain has died down for once.I went out yesterday afternoon for thirty minutes and today I did five minutes more.Hopefully this will help me get my fitness levels back to normal ready for when we go away in September up to the Lake District again...

No wind and rain,Yipeee

We finally have got rid of all that horrible wind and rain,well for the time being anyway.I havn't been able to put out the loose bird seed for my robin because as fast as I have put it out on my birdtable then it has got blown all over my small vegetable border outside of the kitchen window so I now have grassey type weeds growing amongst the plants that edge the plot..tut.

Stuart and myself bought some small Violas before Christmas to put out in the borders.I do so love their little faces,they always seem to be smiling or is it just the way I see things. Since we got them we have had lots of rain and now the borders are saturated so they are sitting on the top of the Guneia run waiting patiently to be rescued.More rain is forecast for the rest of the week but the weekend looks like it will be fine so if by some miracle the ground dries up I mifht be able to get out there and get something done...

Managed to get out for a nice brisk walk this afternoon inbetween the rain showers and Domestic Goddess work{Housework}It is so nice to get out and get some fresh air.

I was listening to Radio 5 live this morning about a chap from Edingburgh who had been on death row in America for 20 0dd years for a death of a child in a house fire.He came to within 1 hour of death but because he had put in an appeal,then it didn't go ahead.He is now back home in Edingburgh but is very bitter as to the fact that he has lost so much time out of his life,years that were supposed to be the best years of his life..My prayers are with him and his family and I just hope he can at last get back to some sort of normal life.

Think of all the new technology that he has to learn to live with .As he said himself he feels like an outsider on a world where we take everything for granted...

The rain has started again and has been doing so for a few hours now.If it carries on then I feel like I shall be growing waterwings very soon,or turning into a Mermaid...

Rain rain go away

Well this flipping rain has been falling for quiet some hours now.When I drive along the roads round here,I can see that the rivers and streams are full and there are quiet a few areas of grassland already underwater.
I shall be most annoyed if they put people on a housepipe ban when and if we have the first hint of sun anywhere.Perhaps the powers that be will give us all a rebate on our water bills as there must now be enough fallen to last us for a little while..

I heard on the radio as well the other day that parts of Australia have had quiet a bit of rain for the first time in years...

When will it end

Well we have it very windy with heavy rains today.I feel sorry for those poor folk who lost everything last year when they got flooded out of their homes.Some of them are still living in Caravans and will do so for many more months to come.Fingers crossed that everyone will be ok today.

I have been preparing the meat and vegetables to put in my slow cooker and the smell is divine as the mixture starts to heat up.Stuart and I always had one of these on the go when we used to live in our old house and there was nothing better than to go for a nice long walk along by the gravel pits and river when there had been a good hoar frost,and to come home and tuck into a large plate full of stew & dumplings..yummy.

I will have to venture down to the greenhouse soon to feed Punky and Mabel the Guneia Pigs we took on last year from a family that had a son who started having problems and used to come out in hives..Yuk.I have had to wait until it gets light because the back garden at the moment is very wet and muddy and I don't fancy slipping over again like I have done twice already...

This is the first sunrise of 2008.It was lovely watching it slowly rise into the sky.I think it is one of the most amazing things to watch,but even when I am taking photos of both sunrises and sunsets I always make sure that I don't look directly into the sun as everyone knows this can lead to blindness...

January 14th 2007

Just started this blog thing so I will see how it goes.It is all new to me.Once I get started I will put up some of my sunrise and sunset photos that I have enjoyed taking with both my Kodak-EasyShare Camera and my new Fugi camera that I had for my Birthday...