Spring has come!

“There's naught as nice as th' smell o' good clean earth, except th' smell o' fresh growin' things when th' rain falls on 'em.”

― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

When i came back...

Hello Blogging lovlies!!  I see that everyone has been super busy taking off all those extra layers of woolies and getting into the Spring-time mood!
I've just been working....and working.........and working, although i really must admit that i love my job, and can't believe i only started in December.
My plans for keeping busy over the weekend have been really good.  I'm pleased to say that i've done 'something' at the end of each week.  Now, im not claiming that what i've been up to is super exciting, or even very interesting to other people, but we've had a grand old time just getting up to stuff, going on walks, visiting charity shops etc...

Now i really must say that i've not been blogging a lot and that for the last couple of weeks i've been meaning to post about the BLOG LOVE SWAP....Ooops, that was a long time ago...i may upload lots of pics by way of apology.
However, i am beyong grateful to the lovely, funny and very talented Pene over at Scrap my Midlife Crisis which is such a great blog.  Now i have to admit that when clicking on links between recent posts and thereby finding this amazing blog i did firstly click because i saw a cute little westie by the name of Daisy (just like my little madam)...but you can't help but stay on the blog looking at the beautiful makes, funny pics and all round 'good banter'!  Now this very talented lady has done something else very lovely.  She has given me an award!  And (drum roll please) it's my very first one!  I feel awful that i haven't been in Blogland for ages and haven't seen it, but i promise you that as soon as i did click on my little old blog house and saw that i had comments i hadn't read i went away and posted this message right now!!!
So thank you, thank you, thank you!  I am very excited, happy, grateful and touched that you even thought of me!

Happy Valentines Day

May your day be full of nice things like hugs, kisses and special words....

Nice dinner...

Heart shaped, yummy, and very cosy for your tummy! 

Love, Sheila.x

The Weekend Part 2

The last couple of weekends have been utterly perfect. The first few in January were full of trips and brekkers in the little town. We visited friends and were visited. Guests came and were entertained, big, family dishes were cooked and cakes baked. February started as more of the same and then this last weekend was utter perfection. The Valentines Escape with TH was so lovely, so magical and so different from anything we’ve done before it couldn’t help but be special.


This coming weekend is going to be different from all of those and very difficult. This year’s resolution was to DO THINGS. It’s easy when your loved ones are close to you, but The Husband is heading away this weekend, and whenever he goes I miss him more than words can say.

So this weekend I will be brave, I will stick to my resolution, and I will do things. I will keep happy and busy and not let it slip away just because I could end up disappointed with being a bit lonely. You never know I could end up enjoying myself a great deal-slathered in a face mask watching chick flicks!

Valentines Escape

What a busy and most exciting weekend!

Upon finishing work on Friday I was picked up by TH and taken away to a lovely five star luxury hotel. The Marcliffe at Pitfodels is such a real treat to go to, and I’ve never, ever been to anywhere like it. We had such a spacious suite and a beautiful view out over the hills, fields and river Dee. We had fizz on arrival, fruit and chocolates from The Highland Chocolatier.

I spent the first hour wondering around and sitting down every so often to try and take it in, knowing fine well the weekend would pass in a flash-as it has done.  Spying the First Minister, taking tea in the drawing room and looking at the art work and floral displays took up much more time than I ever thought it would!

We went out after unpacking (i was much too concerned for my new silk dress and its scrunched up arrival in my over night bag), and headed straight into town to get some nice food and catch a movie.  When we came back we lounged around for a while and then headed for bed as i was constantly going on about making the most of our time there!

The next day we got up and had brekkers in the conservatory, and then took tea in the drawing room before going out to one of our favourite antique shops on Royal Deeside.  We headed back again for High Tea and then i nipped upstairs for a little nap before we had supper in the big conservatory.

It was the loveliest trip i have ever been on.  I have never been to anywhere so fancy and loved every single minute of it.  Unfortunately the trade off was that TH took me there to celebrate Valentines day, but also to keep me reminded of our trip while he heads away for a little while with work.  It was, however, a wonderful weekend and will never, ever, ever be forgotten!

Blog Love Swap

At the start of the year i signed up to a great looking Valentines themed swap i blogged about here.  Well through this swap I've found a brand new blog and have got emailing.  Can't wait to see how things turn out!

 

As my partners blog is quite new i did email to get some ideas, but luckily the swap is so relevant it'd be hard to go very wrong.  Ive also enjoyed being a bit pushed and dashing out to different shops for a look and ideas in my lunch break, as its in a different part of town and therefore quite new shops for me to have a nosey around!

My swap partner can be found here.

These weekends Part One

I've decided to try and be good. I want to get out more and do more. I don't want to waste my time doing mundane tasks and boring old jobs. I want to get out and walk, visit and have adventures.

 

Yes, great big exciting adventures would be great, but who really can expect to (have the energy to) have them every single weekend?  Ever since reading The Wonderful Weekend Book i have always meant to do something over the weekend, and not just use it as an extension of the working week. 

Since giving up working over the weekend, i really can do all of the lovely things i have been meaning to.

From walking around my local town, where all of these pictures were taken) to spending time in the garden, or at the Farmers Market in The Big Town.

 I want to be able to say i did something, no matter how small, i want to know that i have many, many useful and fun weekends to look forward to in a year...I'm bored with using them as chore days, I'm going out!

The Weekend

I blogged a wee while ago about a book I loved called The Wonderful Weekend Book. I still think its great and unlike fictional works, I read non-fiction more than once and keep their battered copies on the bookshelf. Over Christmas I read this one, starting and finishing in no particular place and going through the whole book.

Last year my resolution was to lose weight. I managed to lose four stone, but didn’t keep a track of it the way I wished I had. I guess when it comes to weight you either get to do a big post about how wonderful you’ve done… Or you end up having to do posts which feature beautiful descriptions of cakes, but you do have to add in that you haven’t lost what you hoped you would that week!

The up-side of my resolution last year was that its made me healthier. I was always one for long walks, but I ate so badly, now I have to admit that I'm quite proud of what I put into my body and I feel miles better because of it. There is still a little way to go, but the important thing is that I’ve got a good habit now.

That takes me nicely onto this years resolution. I haven’t blogged about it so far, but I have been doing it. This year I want to DO something in the weekend. Just like the Elspeth Thomson book I love so much. It should be easier for me to keep up blogging about it, and it makes me feel good when I achieve something, no matter how small, in the weekend. I need to catch up and start getting back into the bloggy swing, but I can’t wait to share our tiny little mini-advantures!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

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

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.