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Saturday 28 January 2012

What makes me Happy

Sometimes when I get away from work early I rush home and get to see daylight.

When I leave for work it’s dark and cold.
And when I come home it’s dark and cold.
But sometimes, on very rare occasions I get home and its still daylight.
And on those very rare occasions that I do get home and if its still daylight I take Daisy out for a walk.
She always gets nice walks, but I do miss the evenings we had in Summer when it was still bright when I got home. So when it’s light enough to go for a longer wonder around the village we go off the beaten track and head over the golf course to the sea.
She runs around and I pad over the sand away in my own little world, day dreaming and planning, and letting my imagination flow where it will.
Daisy on the other hand runs like the wind, drags seaweed along with her, and snaps her little teeth at any shells coming into shore riding on the small waves.

Sunday 15 January 2012

If you phone i won't pick up!

I won't pick up if you phone.  I will be watching the last Sherlock in the series.  I will be glued to the TV, sitting on the sofa with a pot of tea ready.  You see i can hardly only have a cup, what would happen if i wanted some more tea...sky+?  But then I'd only be dashing around the kitchen like a woman possessed?
So please, don't let anyone in the family interrupt my scheduling, its the last one!

Saturday 14 January 2012

There are still some things around..

Every where i pop my head in blogland there are some more Spring stories and pretty pastel flowers.  Up here in the North of Scotland its still a bit frosty and there is still sleet coming down on us every so often, we don't have any spring things yet or pretty pastel flowers.  We still have cold.  We still have wet, and inside of the house we've still got some decorations I've forgotten to take down....oops, bad luck.  So here they are now, not to be seen until the end of this year!
Lots of cook books, and a bit of home made decorations 
Darn flash!  I do love Paddington 
I love my cookbooks, very varied and good to read up and get lots of ideas from 
Even the cups got a little tinsel on them
This corner doesn't look too festive... 
oops, i spoke too soon! 
these lights are staying up, no matter what month it is, i love the light glow in the evening 
All the bags piled up on the sofa ready to go into the loft.  Poor rabbit, he cant see a thing! 
The tea shelf, just a wee bit of tinsel still hanging around.  I promise this week its all coming down, all the bits i thought id gotten earlier, I'll find and put up in the loft!

Monday 9 January 2012

Last of the Christmas Presents

This is the last of the Christmas presents.  TH gave me money to buy a Barbour in the January sales.  The jacket i liked best of all wasn't in the sales, but at least i watied it out.  I'm the sort of person that will inevitably buy it the day before it gets reduced by half!
I love my new jacket so much.  I go the olive one as the liberty print is the prettiest one, i think anyway.  With the jacket i got the choice of a free gift.  There were lots of options like lovely Barbour hats and scarf sets, but then i spied the thing i really wanted...a new little coat for Daisy Dog.  I think this is a bargain, although i wouldn't actually spend the £32 for the dog coat, i certainly thought it was fine to pick it as the free gift.  I'm going to have to take pics of her in her little new wax outfit.  I love the smell of Barbour's as my Uncle had a sports shop and i grew up in amongst that lovely waxy smell.  They are really good value too as i plan to send it away every so often to get fixed and altered.  Well, by that i certainly mean that MY jacket will be sent away for....not Daisy's!

Saturday 7 January 2012

January is here!

Oh January, I used to think you awful. You used to be plain and boring after the excitement of December, November had Bonfire Night, October is our anniversary and Halloween, and before that is the general excitement of Autumn. January used to just be exam time at University, or thawing snow.

This year is really quite different. Not only is there no snow, but the garden is completely untended to, and although it’s mild, oh my gosh is it windy-and the whole place looks a mess. This is not helped by the fact the fence is half blown over, the gate has been whipped off, and rubbish is strewn across the place from toppled over bins and recycling totes, and a busy, busy Autumn meant the place was never really tidied after Summer in the first place.

This means that on top of the normal things like sowing sweet peas (if you want to get lovely strong ones), I need to dig everything over. I would like to grow my own potatoes this year too, so will have to get a move on and start to chit some of the many varieties taking up vast corners of garden centres at this time of year.

January is actually quite exciting this year. My friend Holly who was involved in a terrible accident has an amazing outlook on life which has completely rubbed off on me. I feel like last year was a bit ‘Urgh’, I think lots of people have thought that. There seems to be a general consensus-certainly around the coffee table-that yes we did get through it, and yes we should learn whatever lessons it’s taught us, but it was a bit of a long hard slog.
I think we are still in comforting food mode, but a bit more ready for fresh things with bite too. Re-heated second helpings of Christmas and New Year dinner are long forgotten! We’re planning on going on holiday with my family this year and getting a villa in Cyprus for two weeks, so like last year I think I'm going to be having lots of Greek and Cypriot food as we’ll be booking our flights early and I tend to get in holiday mode early…very early! There is loads of gamey foods available, and we’re incredibly lucky that our local butcher has such a wide supply of really good food. Living by the sea means that we’ve got a massive choice in fish namely; John Dory, Mussels, Oysters, Scallops and Turbot. There are bundles of root vegetables about for filling up on, and the clementine’s are always there for a burst of colour.  I'm living by the BBC foodie website here which is full of really great ideas from a range of really great names.

Most of all I think its time to get like Paddington Bear and make some marmalade with Seville oranges!

I'm hoping to have a busy year, I'm planning to go out and do more, this means lazing about less, but with working one normal job means I spend less time travelling. I hope that I'm busy actually doing fun things, or at least a chore I need to do. I don’t want to fill my time with travelling, I don’t want to fill my time with nonsense I don’t want to do, and I don’t want to spend time with people that drain my energy. Those are pretty much my new year’s resolutions-but probably something that you should subscribe to in general-and something I should have had the sense to actually act upon long before now.

Thursday 5 January 2012

Blog ♥ Love ♥ Swap

Ooops i seem to have signed up to another swap!!

Have a wee look here to see information about the swap at the lovely 'Gem's Country Life Dream' blog

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Thank you Santa

Thank you Santa.  I knew you loved me!
I'm a sucker for products and love anything by Philosophy as well.  I love sparkles and prettiness.  I'm a girly girl.  Yup, i have to walk the dog through the muddy foot-paths, but if i could I'd do it all in a long dress (six inches deep in mud!!)

Lots of little treats! 
Sparkly glosses to sweep over my lips-must moisturise first!
Ooh i can't wait to have a pamper day!

This is what we do

This is what we do...
when it gets too warm inside, when we wish to feel the crisp air on our noses.
when we want to go for a walk, when we want to see something other than the inside of the fridge.

when we want to feel healthier, when the dog starts to feel restless. 
when the sun is starting to give into twilight, when the warmth seems so far away. 
when we need to feel the harsh winds from the North Sea, when we want to see wildlife. 
when we need to feel small and the weight needs lifted from our shoulders. 
when we are tired from doing nothing,  
 when we need to get out of the house,
when we want another view of the village, 
another view of the things we always see and need,

We get the dog on a leash and taken 'em for a long, long walk.  We come back dirty, rosey in the nosey, happy, and very, very sleepy.

Monday 2 January 2012

New Year Walkies

The air was fresh and calling to go outside.
Daisy Dog and i walked over the golf course 
and on to the beach 
it looked empty from here..... 
or not!  I guess everyone had the same idea!  It was nice getting lots of "Happy New Year" calls from strangers. 
The harbour and bay looked beautiful 
and luckily the tide was out so there was plenty of beach to share with other walkers
our friends live over the way, but i guess they were still wrapped up warm inside 
so we threw our selves on the sand and stamped our feet...OK, Daisy rubbed her nose in the sand and came up shocked and sneezing!