autumn

Well, here we are all of a sudden past the autumn equinox, and there's been a definite nip in the air these past few days. The nights are drawing in now, and I've been finding myself all ready to head out into the garden after tea, only to find it's already gone dark!

So, there's not much gardening going on around here at the minute...

But there is still a little bit of outsidey-ness, and a few little day trips, which I do love oh so very much.

First up, do you see that scrumptious cake at the top of the page there? That almondy-hazelnutty-meringuey-cake? Notice the name on the serviette? That's right, that was our trip out to Betty's tea rooms with work. Oh, it was good! One day I'll be saving up and going there for a proper afternoon tea! (And it *will* be a case of saving up, since afternoon tea costs more than my current weekly food budget!)

Slightly less sophisticated, but no less enjoyable, was a little amble I took around the local area, finding myself heading into an old cemetery I'd not visited before. Bit of a grey and rainy day, but fresh, and I certainly felt like I'd earned my tea and cake after walking all the way back to the top of that hill!
Another little mini adventure this week was heading to the cathedral in town for a lunchtime sing song. The cathedral puts on lunchtime recitals a couple of days a week, and Peter sang there this week with some friends. It's not a place I go to very often, but I'm always astonished by how big it is, right there in the middle of the city.
So, altogether a bit of a bitty week, lots of zooming around the countryside on trains, enjoying work rather more than I'd imagined possible, and a little bit of PhD squeezed in there too. I am noticing rather a lack of creating things going on round here though... Hmm. Must do something about that this week! What with our friend still sleeping in my little attic working space, and all this work malarkey, all I've managed to sew this week is new lining into the living room curtains! Much as I adore that useful type of sewing, it's not really much good for pictures.

So, here's a little promise. A bit of creative crafting this week, of one type or another (possibly not sewing though!), and a bit of gardening too. And fingers crossed for a little bit of sunshine to take photos in too ;)

for today...

Outside my window... darkness, and reflected fairy lights

I am thinking... about getting an early night with a book

I am thankful for... a cheerily tiring day, wallpaper that finally stuck to the wall

From the learning rooms... a finished (for now!) phd chapter and a satisfied smile

From the kitchen... lots of veg, with grilled potatoes and a tiny bit of cheese

I am wearing... warm trousers, a jumper, and a scarf - it's getting cold out there!

I am creating... new linings for the living room curtains

I am going... to make up the bed, and possibly sink straight into it

I am reading... a book about Orkney, and being soooo impatient to be back there

I am hoping... for a more restful night tonight

I am hearing... very little other than a ticking clock, it's peaceful here right now

Around the house... walls are being painted, and furniture moved from one room to another, and back again

One of my favorite things... a little wooden bench overlooking the hills

A few plans for the rest of the week: stewing apples, making the living room fit for living in, a new phd chapter, training courses, remembering to take the car for an MOT (oops!)

More from the Simple Women's Daybook here

jolly times

Would you just look at all those colourful whirly lollipops! Just the thing for a mildly grumpity out-of-sorts day, don't you think?

I've been off swanning around London this week, something I don't do too often, but which I do enjoy very much indeed. Meeting friends (and a new baby!), wandering along the river, an afternoon in the British Museum, and lunch in a crypt, no less! Oh, and a bit of work too, almost forgot about that...

I'm back now though, and busy attending to the ordinary everyday stuff again. I'm experimenting with getting up early to start writing - oh how I do love those early mornings with the sun streaming into the kitchen!

We've got a friend staying with us at the minute, which means I've lost my little attic refuge/ work room/ sewing space for the foreseeable future. I spend a lot of time up there, and very much value having a bit of my own space. So, things have had to be shuffled around a bit.

So, here's the temporary solution, a little corner of the bedroom for me to work in for the time being.

It's not *quite* as cheery as the attic, and I get shoed downstairs at regular intervals so normal bedroom activities (dressing, sleeping, afternoon-napping) can be carried out in peace, but I'm warming to it, especially the rocking chair by the window. In fact, I'm warming to it so much that I might not want to go back up to the attic later...

Anyway, spurred on by the excitement of creating this cheery little space, I decided to tackle another little DIY job that's been bugging me for months. You know the ones, that shouldn't take more than an hour, but one thing leads to another, and another, and before you know it you're wallpapering the entire living room and replacing the windows. It's not *quite* that bad, but not far off.

Another cup of tea first, I think...

weekending

Would you just look at what we recused from a skip yesterday?? Just look! A pink colander, and a pink gingham mug! Sadly the colander is a little rusty for kitchen use, but I was thinking how cheery it would look out in my new little picnic area in the garden, all prettily planted with cheery flowers and maybe strawberries. Strawberries!!

Today the sun's shining, I'm eating pancakes and drinking tea from my new pink gingham mug, and I'm gearing up to pick up a friend's chipper to turn that huge pile of tree into tiny little wood chips. Then the next stage can start!

a cheery day out

I've had ever such a lovely day today (well, we'll skate over the trip to the dentist this morning - hmmm). I toddled into town and caught a double decker bus out to the peak district to meet up with some friends. A double decker! Goodness, i felt like an excitable small child on an adventure. It really was such a lovely journey, looking out over the moors and back across the city.

First stop, Bakewell. Would you like a little tour?

Upstairs in a tiny cafe first, for tea and toast. I love this cafe - when you order tea, you get a teapot, top up of water, cup-and-saucer-and-teaspoon, and a strainer with its own little dish. Seven bits of tea-making equipment! Makes the whole thing more of an event, don't you think?

Anyway, out of the cafe for a little walk along the river and through the park in the sunshine.

There's always so many ducks and geese on the river, and no end of people to feed them. One of the houses overlooking the river was for sale, and I had to give myself a very stern talking to indeed before I started to wander off in a fancy of living there, ambling out with leftover breakfast to feed the ducks every morning, before heading into town for tea and a piece of Bakewell pudding!

Anyway, let's not get carried away, let's hurry back over the bridge to the car instead, for the next stop.

Just a couple of miles up the road, to Cauldwell's mill.

It's a working flour mill, but we didn't have a tour today, we were heading for the cafe.

First though, we had a wander down the side of the river. How cheery to be at eye level with the ducks! And another little *tiny* pang of jealousy at the back garden of this gorgeous house!

So, after we'd worked up an appetite, it was time for a little pop into the cafe. Ooh, and it was just as cheery as I remembered! Look at those benches, and there's bunting! I've no idea why it was so empty, but it got a bit busier as we sat there.

So, more tea, of course, and a bit of cake. But which to choose? Coffee? Date and walnut? Ginger and pineapple? I chose lemon in the end, and swapped half of it for half of my friend's carrot cake. Absolutely delicious, both of them, although if pushed I might have to say the lemon had the edge.

And, of course, you can't visit a flour mill without bringing home some flour. And I just had to make some bread straight away. It should be ready soon, the smell's started drifting through the living room. Is there anything more gorgeous than the smell of bread baking?

Altogether, a lovely cheery day out, I almost feel like I've been on holiday for a week! I really must have cheery little days out like this more often. I feel nicely set up for a few days of PhDing now!

for today...

Outside my window... the sky's grey and the city lights are starting to twinkle

I am thinking... about being weighed down by my things-to-do list - always a sure sign that I'm too tired

I am thankful for... a car and a partner that got home in one piece last night - even if it was at 2am

From the learning rooms... a still-not-finished PhD chapter, but it'll be done tomorrow!

From the kitchen... yet more pancakes, of course

I am wearing... new shoes! A rather uninspiring, but comfortable, charity shop find

I am creating... extremely cheery bits of customising for my uninspiring new shoes! Photos to follow...

I am going... downstairs, to tidy up, and then to rest

I am reading... a story about a North Yorkshire rural policeman

I am hoping... that tonight will be restful, and tomorrow more energised

I am hearing... power tools from the street. So many people building, making, doing...

Around the house... a bit of sweeping and tidying and putting away, and contemplating bigger projects for tomorrow

One of my favorite things... curling up on the sofa with a blanket

A few plans for the rest of the week: chopping branches, a little creativity in the garden, starting to think about Christmas (did I really just say that???)

Not a hugely positive rambling from me today I'm afraid! I'm far too tired after last night's fiasco, and really should have taken a nap earlier. However, I didn't, so I'm heading for an early night instead. Back tomorrow with photos of my cheery little shoes project which took all of five minutes and lifted my spirits enormously!

More from the Simple Women's Daybook here

deep breaths

Well, would you look at that. I seem have made some more bunting! And mightily festive it is too, all red-and-white stripey, with little turquoise felt hearts and red buttons. Oh, so cheery! And winging its way north as we speak to a lovely friend who likes stripey things, and who I hope will love it as much as I do.

Anyway, if you're paying attention, you might be asking yourself why I'm up and sitting in front of the computer waffling on like this about bunting at ten past midnight.

I've been asking myself the same question.

Well, do you remember we bought a new car just four weeks ago? Would it surprise you to hear that the battery warning light started flashing last week? It might surprise you (if you know me well, that is) that we took it to the garage to see what was wrong. Nothing, apparently, but (and this will come as a surprise too) we booked it in for a service anyway - a level of grown up responsibility and car maintenance foresight not normally witnessed anywhere near me...

Anyway, poor old Peter is now sat in a cold service station car park waiting for the RAC, while I'm busy trying to cultivate an atmosphere of calmness and serenity for when they bring him home...

Tea, anyone?

timber...

The garden's had a little remodelling today...

It rather took me by surprise somewhat, I'm more used to dithering than action when it comes to big steps like this! But it's done now, and there's great plans for the little space - not to say quite a bit more space and light in the rest of the garden (and the house!)

Hmm, that also appears to be a rather large pile of tree to get rid of too...

weekend adventures

You know when you just fancy a day out? Not for any good reason, and not to anywhere in particular, but just the thought of heading out on a Small Cheery Expedition seems like the right thing to do?

Today was one of those days.

The plan was to head to Bakewell to a little open gardens event. I quite fancied noseying around some pretty gardens and eating tea and cake in the refreshments tent. First of all though I wanted to go to Chatsworth.

Now, I don't have a big thing for posh old houses, certainly not ones that cost £12 to get in to. I would have quite liked to toddle round the kitchen gardens, but that would have involved paying to get into all of the gardens, and given that I was off to a different gardens event, that seemed a bit daft. No, I went to Chatsworth to look around the shops.

A little bit daft, yes, but every time I've been there I've oooohed and aaarrrrrred over lots of things, then come to the conclusion I could have a go at making something similar myself. So today I wasn't on a shopping mission, I was on an investigating mission, for a little bit of inspiration.

I must say though, I wasn't quite as impressed today as I have been in the past. Which possibly had something to do with having to drive around and around and around the car park for 15 minutes before I even got as far as the shop. Hmm.

I did get myself a small treat though - one sheet of red polka dot wrapping paper. Look at it there tied up with string!

Oh, and that ice cream at the top of the post, of course. Can't forget about that. Bradwell's ice cream, butterscotch ripple, with a fudge stick, no less. I see from their website that they have a Diploma from the Ice Cream Alliance, so they must be good :)

(I'm conveniently skipping over the fact that I only had the ice cream because the battery warning light on our new car started flashing and I was busy being grumpy and annoyed because we've only had the car for three weeks when I realised I'd pulled over right outside an ice cream shop)

Oh, and I didn't get to the secret gardens event in the end at all! I got so caught up with ice creams and wrapping paper and Peak District bank holiday traffic that I couldn't face doing battle with the car park. At least i was on my own, and had nobody to tell me off for being fickle and changing my plans at the last minute....

Anyway, leaving aside tasty ice creams and wayward vehicles, I've realised I haven't yet shown off my new cardigan!

By the time I got round to taking photos though it had gone all rainy and grey again, and this is the only one that turned out anywhere near good enough. So a proper unveiling will have to wait for another day. I'm rather enjoying it though, even if the sleeves are a little bit short...

for today...

Outside my window... the sun's trying to sneak through the clouds

I am thinking... about reassessing my priorities and where I put my time and energy

I am thankful for... a positive hospital visit today and a body that seems to be righting itself without medication

From the learning rooms... a fog of despair and a mind full of drudgery (oh dear!)

From the kitchen... pancakes, mostly!

I am wearing... new red and white stripey pumps, a black-and-yellow-and-pink-and-green-and-red-and-white swirly skirt, and my new kingfisher green cardigan!!!

I am creating... a present for a friend for no particular reason

I am going... upstairs to the attic to work on a chapter, just as soon as I've finished this cup of tea.

I am reading... books about doing qualitative research, and wondering why on earth I didn't read them several years ago

I am hoping... to get all this writing done before Christmas. Fingers crossed, oh, I'm hoping so much on this one!

I am hearing... Peter curled up on the sofa with a lemsip watching a film in the next room

Around the house... washing that needs doing, floors that need sweeping, piles of things that need to be somewhere else....

One of my favorite things... a nice cup of tea, of course

A few plans for the rest of the week... Saturday morning tea-and-cake at the Women's Institute, more writing, blackberry picking, a little tidying and rearranging, taming the unruly garden, a visit to the library, and an evening in alone with the sewing machine

More from the simple women's daybook here

wedding

Guess where I went yesterday? That's right, a wedding. It's something I do none too often these days, and I must say I'm generally not a big fan of weddings, but this one really was something special.

Anything that involves a picnic up on a hillside, a quiet simple ceremony under a tree, beautiful vows to listen to each other, and be present with each other, a most excellent selection of food, and cakes (and rings!) made by the bride and groom themselves.

And plenty of tea, of course, because you can't have a picnic without a flask of tea.

I'm exhausted today, but there's plenty to be done, and the sun's shining, so everything seems more possible somehow. There's cards to be made today, and knitting to do (it's Sooooooooo nearly finished!), and a party to toddle off to later.

Is it toooooooo crazy to want to wear my cardi to the party?? I'm leaving at 7pm, so that gives me, er, four and a half hours.

Perhaps if I abandoned the washing? And the cleaning? And the work?? I might just be able to squeeze it in then....

stamping

I love stamping. It's not something I do all the time, in fact we have one stamp in our house - a hamster - which gets stamped on every to do list or shopping list that passes the kitchen table.

So for Peter's birthday I decided we, oops, sorry, that should be he, needed another one.

And what better than a hedgehog? I do like hedgehogs.

We sometimes draw little pictures of hedgehogs on to do lists, old envelopes, shopping lists (I'm sure you're getting a very bizarre impression of our lists!), and I searched and searched for somewhere I could maybe upload one of our little drawings and have it turned into a stamp.

But I didn't find anything cheery enough, so I took pencil (and screwdriver, and craft knife, and kitchen knife, and lots of other highly dangerous implements) in hand, and made one myself.

And isn't he cheery?? We're having lots of fun stamping hedgehogs on things. Because what's more fun than stamping? Hedgehog stamping, that's what!

(I'm not going to give any kind of instructions, because I kind of just botched it in what might be described as a slightly dangerous fashion, and wouldn't want to be responsible for encouraging anyone else to do themselves a mischief. There's plenty of tutorials out there for making your own stamps though - some of which I probably should have read before starting mine...)

weekending

Ooh, more lovely flowers and herbs from the garden. What can you see? Fuchsia, rocket, basil mint, spearmint, acer, St John's wort, herb Robert, and various other things that I don't recognise. How lovely.

So, after the excitement of the week's birthday celebrations, it's been a fairly mellow weekend. I've been writing, and writing, and tearing my hair out, and writing some more, but we won't talk about that, oh no, let's talk about cheery things instead.

Like bunting, Cheerful Orange Campervan Bunting, to be precise. Because at the market on Thursday, I found this material, and it was just crying out to be made into bunting, and I know someone who has the Most Gorgeous orange VW camper van, and who will very much enjoy receiving some surprise bunting in the post.

Just *how* difficult is it to take pictures of bunting?? I only ever seem to be able to do it dropped in a pile on the floor. Shall we call it an artistic pile?? Yes, why not.

And while I'm feeling artistic, here's another entirely unnecessary frivolous project I've started this weekend. This is the little draw I keep my seed packets in.

You can't quite see, but it says Cheery Seeds on the front, so you know what's in there. And inspired by a friend who's covering an entire table in pictures of flowers, I thought it needed a few vegetables stuck on it.

So here we are, half way through, because I didn't quite finish sticking the bits on and then got distracted doing something else. But that's ok, because now I can look forward to finishing it later in the week!

And what I got distracted by was, er, ferreting around in the compost bin.

Yep, digging in the compost bin, trying to see if there was actually any compost in there - which there was! I don't know why I was surprised. I didn't actually manage to dig any of it out, and I really *must* learn to crush up my eggshells a bit smaller, and *not* put whole cardboard egg boxes in there...

Anyway, look carefully at that bit of the garden, just in front of the front-door-that-we-don't-use. It's in for a bit of a makeover in the next few months. I must confess to *not* enjoying that tree very much at all, and since we don't use the front door at all, there's no point having a path to it from the pavement. So there's plans afoot, and oh how I love Plotting and Planning! And this Plotting and Planning is going to other people, possibly even *paying* other people (shocking!), and eventually, hopefully, a little table and chairs for breakfast, and picnics, and tea and cake, and evening eating and entertaining out in the garden. Can't wait!

birthday day out

Hello down there! Or up there. Can you see me in the foyer of the cinema, staring into the ceiling? What fun!

That's where we ended up at the end of our birthday day out yesterday. And where is it? Chesterfield, that's where!

Home of the famous crooked spire, a rather large flea market, and a cheery farmers' market.

Oh, and a whole load of rain. Lots of rain.

Although the sun did make an occasional appearance.

Ah well, we still managed to buy some fabric, and have a nice picnic under a tree. Tea-from-a-flask really is the best, isn't it? Well, if you're not going on taste, that is, but you can't beat it for sheer cheeriness I don't think.

Do you like my apple cake? It was extremely tasty, even better under a tree in the rain.

And do you recognise that skirt??

cars and birthdays

Helloooooooo! Goodness me, it's been a while. Things just move too fast round here sometimes. I do apologise for not popping in sooner, it is nice to have a sit down in this little cheery space!

So, what's been going on? Well, lots of walking in the park watching the sun set, of course.

And work, and writing, and general housey-gardeny activities that take up the summer days. And then there's the small matter of buying a new car - not at all an exciting activity in itself, but rather a time consuming one when you've got a small budget and a loooooong list of requirements...

Anyway, last weekend we took a small trip up to Huddersfield. Two trips, in fact, because there had to be a bit of Deciding going on in the middle. Fortunately, there were plenty of ducks nearby, and a rather jolly ice cream shop.

Anyway, it all worked out for the best in the end, and we got our new car, which is settling in nicely. It doesn't feel quite as friendly as the Old Van yet, but it's getting there. We've removed the seats, and had our very first cup of tea sitting in the back.

You see, this is going to be a Cheery Holiday Van. We used to camp out in the old one, but we never quite turned it into a proper camper, because it was damp, and the back door didn't open, and there was lots of clambering, and we never quite got round to it. But there's Great Plans for this one, and lots of measuring and sawing and sewing going on, very exciting!

Anyway, so after all that excitement, a cup of tea and a hot cross bun was needed, along with an incredibly old issue of Country Living magazine, which I have not much interest in reading, but I do like looking at the pictures, and anyway, it was free...

And do you see that knitting?? I'm half way down the second sleeve and seem to have run out of steam!! I'm not entirely sure I was gifted with enough patience for multi-needle knitting... But I WILL finish it!

After lots of deep breaths, phone calls to insurance companies, cups of tea, hot cross buns, and general running around then calming down, a nice cheery run out in the new car was exactly what was needed. You can't quite see the scenery properly in this picture, but it really was beautiful. And I'm sure the sheep thought so too. So today is Peter's birthday, so there's going to be lots of Cheerful Birthday Activities. Not entirely sure what yet - tea, I imagine, cakes, presents, of course... Fingers crossed for sunshine!