Lockdown 3 - day 27

 

Good afternoon, how is your Sunday going? As yesterday blogger has put my photos in reverse order!

Above are all the finished projects for January. I end the month with two works in progress, the Honeycomb cushion cover and my new cardigan. I currently don’t have anymore requests so I should be able to work on them through February.

It’s hard to believe that this time last year we were just 17 days away from our New Zealand trip, it feels like a lifetime ago now. So much has not happened!! We long to go away for a break but know it’s not possible. The more you read the less likely getting out of the UK looks for this year. Sigh ....

More overnight rain bought the river levels up and over the meadow to Houghton today so we walked the common towards Godmanchester. Very wet and underwater in places but with a bit of soggy deviation we got round.

The crows were busy in the tree tops building their nests. It was good to see and hear so much bird activity today.

This was the sight that met me when I opened the front curtains this morning, so pretty. We are calling them Sunday sunrises as it’s a week since the last one like this

Dinner tonight will be slow cooked boned shoulder of lamb with couscous - I was pleased with myself for tackling the boning, Peter normally does it, but he got a new boning knife so I thought I’d give it a go - it’s sharp! 

I also made a cherry Bakewell tart for dessert, as I had made a pie base from some leftover pastry the other day and it needed using, well that’s my excuse anyway

Enjoy the rest of your day

Lockdown 3 - day 26

It’s one of those days when blogger decides to put your photos in reverse order. I don’t have the will to struggle. So in reverse order we have 

work so far on my new cardigan

Start of my new cardigan!

Flowers in the ditches 

My boots after walking through the swampy grass

Flooded pathways 

The Manor gardens under water again

River levels up again 

Yet another wet cold day, we have had rain, sleet, wind, temperatures are dropping again, it really can’t make up its mind. 

Our walk was just around the village between rain showers. I posted off the dungarees and boots, and that’s about it really. 

We had leftover pizza from last nights takeaway for lunch and Peter is making us Cajun prawn tacos for dinner this evening. Planning meals is about the only excitement we get round here at the moment. What about you? Doing anything exciting, do tell 

Lockdown 3 - day 25

If you can’t fight wear baggy trousers!  I’m really not sure about these dungarees but hopefully the recipient will be happy. At the end of the day she chose the pattern!

We decided to go for a walk along the guided busway today. Walking in we noticed that the river had burst its banks yet again in St Ives so did wonder if the busway path would be flooded. Of course it was!! As were all the surrounding fields. We managed to walk along the top near the busway timing our dash between buses.... not that they are currently very busy

This was as far as we got as we decided the water stretched too far on this section to safely walk along the top

The photo below made us laugh, we were wondering how long she had sat there? Had the water risen? Did she climb over the back of the bench? Or risk the water over topping her shoes? She seemed quite happy sat there swinging her feet.

This afternoon I made these bootees to go with the dungarees.  This pattern I’ve made lots of times.

And before I go, an elderly neighbour made us laugh today. Chatting she asked had we had our vaccine yet. We said no. She then said all her neighbours had had theirs as they were over 80. We told her we expected we’d be a long way down the list being in our mid and late 60s to which she replied “of course you are still kids”. Made our day. Have a good weekend x

Lockdown 3 - day 24

 

Wet walking today, puddles everywhere. It rained all through the night but luckily had stopped by breakfast. We walked as usual, struggling to find enthusiasm for the same walks. We do them on a rota system but as two of them follow a similar route for part it feels very much the same. 

We walked through Hemingford Abbots and out on the common towards Godmanchester. It was all soaked. Fortunately last nights flood warning came to nothing.

We found these aconites hiding under a bush, a little pop of colour

Talking of pops of colour, my Monday bargain buds are pots of gold today

And some of the polyanthus that I got in Aldi two weeks ago are brightening up the kitchen window sill

I am working on the straps for the dungarees now so on the home stretch, I’m still not sure I like them but I guess I don’t have too. 

Dinner this evening will be chicken breast stuffed with leftover haggis in a creamy sauce, I’ve not decided what to serve with it yet. It will either be a mixed salad or a mix of cabbage

It’s hard to believe that we are nearly at the end of January. Eleven weeks since we returned from France. Those Christmas presents taunt me every time I go into the room. Goodness knows when we will be able to return or to even see our local daughter and grandchildren properly again. I just hope that the sacrifices we are all making are going to work this time. Only time will tell. Keep safe, chin up, keep doing what you’re doing even if it is repetitive xx

Lockdown 3 - day 23

WIP Wednesday - I’m working on these dungarees. Not too sure how they will turn out. I’m not too keen on how they look on the pattern but the recipient’s mummy liked them, what do you think?

I feel they are very full in the leg but I guess once I start decreasing for the waist they won’t look so bad!  The bib front will be striped with plain straps which cross over the back. I plan on putting extra buttonholes so that they can be easily adjusted. 

We walked into St Ives this morning and dropped off the leftover Indian food from last night. It was very tasty but only really one portion left so Rachel will have it for her working from home lunch treat. 

That’s it from me today, not decided on dinner for tonight, possibly Mac and cheese or some kind of pasta dish. 

Lockdown 3 - day 22

A walk around the lake before it came on to rain. Still patches of snow outside but I expect it will soon be gone. Not so cold today but dull. I feel like I’m issuing a weather report all the time. It will be interesting to see at the end of the month a breakdown of the weather based on my photos.

I’ve spent sometime in the kitchen today. I made soup from some roasted veg and leftovers from last night. I had half a jar of mincemeat left so made 8 pies plus 4 with cherry jam. They should keep us happy for a few days. I then went on to make an Indian dish for dinner tonight, Beef with yogurt and black pepper, it’s a Madhur Jaffrey recipe which I used to make quite a bit. It’s actually not that labour intensive compared to some made from scratch Indian dishes. We will have it with rice and a raita and maybe some poppadoms

Lockdown 3 - day 21

Bargain of the day - 10p per bunch reduced from £1 in Waitrose. I picked up seven bunches. Can you guess I love daffodils? 

After a quick whizz around the house with the duster, vacuum and bathroom cleaner. We packed up some lunch and headed out into the sunshine. Boy it was cold. And oh so slippery. We had a hard freeze on yesterday’s snow and the roads and paths were treacherous in places. Where it had thawed we kept to the road it was actually safer!

This is a mean swan. We found a bench in the sun, sorted out a couple of plastic bags to sit on so we didn’t get wet bottoms and were just going to sort our lunch when he came out of the water and literally harassed us until we left. He got so close, spitting and hissing I was worried he would attack us before we could get off the bench. Nasty thing!

We had a good walk and managed to stay upright but can actually feel tension in our leg muscles.

Today being Burns Night we had our usual Haggis, Tatties (potatoes) and Neeps (swede) followed up with Cranachan, so good, the raspberries had a lovely flavour which was good for this time of year.   

Sat here full to bursting so no chocolate for me this evening