Back in the habit.

You realise you are getting older when your youngest takes you out for a special night and this weekend I was treated to an evening in London. Okay I wasn't first choice, that would be Emily but she was unable to attend as she was flying back from five weeks travelling Europe.

At the station and boy was it cold. 

What a wonderful feeling to be leaving this town behind for a few hours.

Arriving at London Waterloo, with the crowds all pushing and shoving and at that point I realise why I don't travel to London very often. 

Down to the tube, my own personal nightmare!

And arriving at Oxford street, luckily enough only four tube stops later.

Five minutes to spare so a very quick look at Liberty, a first ever for me and very beautiful it is too, outside and in.

Then back to the Palladium, to see.......

Starring tonight, for the last night (there's a drum roll here)......

Whoopi Goldberg

This was Jourdan's second attempt to see the show with Whoopi starring. Having previously secured tickets and catching the train with Emily up to London, both extremely excited, they were on the tube and saw this. Unfortunately she had had to fly back to America on the very same day they were going!

They still had a brilliant time though.

 But, quite by chance on another tube ride a couple of weeks later Jourdan found this, she was coming back to do the five performances she had missed previously and priority booking was made available to the previous ticket holders.

So here we are, back to see Whoopi.

Inside the theatre and 10 minutes later and there was not one spare seat. Our seats were excellent, first row in the royal circle.

Half time

And home again, to an unexpectedly quiet tube.

We got home about 12.30am, after such a lovely time together and such an excellent musical. The only downside was my camera batteries ran out.

Thank you Jourdan, for a lovely night.

x

Oranges and Lemons

Is it coming up to that time already? Should I really be thinking about Christmas yet?

Yep guess so, a little cooking anyway.

 Some homemade mincemeat. Looks lovely, smells lovely and I'm sure if you like mince pies (unlike me) it will taste lovely too come December.

And today, three Christmas cakes, cooked and ready for feeding with that extra brandy over the next couple of months.

But mincemeat aside I'm really not ready to see all the Christmas stuff in the shops yet, but it's there from tinsel to stockings and cards to cakes. How long before everywhere you go there will be piped carols through the sound systems? I'll give it four or maybe five more weeks. However there are a couple of houses around here that Christmas can't come soon enough and you can guarantee they will have all their very 'tasteful' (and I say that in a very sarcastic way) decorations up by the end of this month.

It's getting colder!

It's getting colder, a little bit more each day. More jumpers are coming out of hibernation and all those crocheted blankets are coming onto their own, but so far I've still managed not to turn the heating on!

The leaves are turning their beautiful Autumn colours and it's just wonderful walking through the woods.

The summer flowers have done really well at hanging in there.

But this morning see's the first frost, heralding the winter months and the colder weather to come. 

A new throw.

I need an evening project, one that you can just sit down with when everyone is fed, the chickens are locked up, I've done my running around, oh no hang on that's not until 10 some nights! Okay then, for that time when you get to sit and get your hook out, or when it's raining hard, which seems to be most if the time lately.

With this in mind I started a new lacy, quite lightweight throw.

It's not big, just eighty squares. But I got it into my head that I needed to complete 10 squares a day. These squares were very quick and easy, no changing colours on each round as the variegated yarn does that for you and only five rounds per square.

The pattern is from here.

So obviously this just took a little over a week!

Then put it all together

And do the border

So there you have it, one completed throw, made and finished in 10 days.

But what do I do now??

Run for it girls!

The chickens keep appearing in the garden, out of their fenced off area. I've plugged up the holes in the fence, but they just keep on coming. "How is that happening?" I hear you ask.  Here's how!!

Bertie, the food thief, is at the bottom of the pecking order in the chicken world and will usually get told to leave by Florence (the white one) who herself was at the bottom, it's done wonders for her self esteem. But this time they have definitely used Bertie to their advantage!