Sunday Carvery

We decided to take ourselves to Matlock today and have Sunday lunch in the garden centre restaurant. Wonderful piping hot roast turkey, roast potatoes, cabbage, cauliflower cheese, carrots, gravy and a massive yorkshire pudding.

They were holding a halloween colouring competition in the restaurant, so after we'd eaten we went to the kids area where she coloured in this picture, handed it in and it was displayed on the mirror with the other 3 pictures that were there. The draw takes place on Halloween, so we'll see if she wins.

Bramley Apple Festival

The Bramley Apple originates from a place in Nottinghamshire called Southwell (pronounced Southall). Every single Bramley Apple you have ever eaten or grown originates from this 200 year old tree.

Marion and I decided to go out today as it was nice and sunny and fairly warm and we headed to Southwell. When we finally found a parking space we walked through the town, the pavements are narrow, the shop windows are almost touching the ground and when we looked in they had apples on the windowsills.

We saw Morris dancers, which she enjoyed and we carried on walking to the Minster so she could buy herself something in the shop. Once we did that we decided to go into the Cathedral itself and found that they were holding the annual Bramley Apple Festival, a £1 donation got us in there (normally it's free to enter) and inside were lots of food stalls. We tried popcorn, smoked salmon, roast smoked salmon, salmon pate, hot chocolate and venison burgers.


Then we left there and I took a couple of photos of the shop windows and how they'd decorated for the festival, walked to the old fashioned sweet shop and then slowly made our way back to the car and home again.

Snowflake

This is stitched 1 over 1 and has a lovely effect.

It's All Getting a Little Too Much

Yes my 9 year old daughter is finding her after school activities just a little tiring at the moment, but I think it's mainly because she's had a terrible cough that is just wearing her out, she's had it for 2 weeks now.

Yesterday all day at school, hockey and swimming after school all lead to a very long day. She loves playing hockey, so wouldn't consider giving that up and she loves swimming and wants to be the next Rebecca Adlington.

Roll on half term to slow her down and recuperate and plenty of hot ribena and lucozade for energy. It won't stop her, she's always been constantly on the go - she was born with ants in her pants I'm sure because she's like a flee and won't sit still for 5 minutes!!!!

Wildlife

I really enjoyed making this zebra card.

Next week it will be Christmas all the way :)

Wonderful Weekend

The beautiful stacking jewellery box my darling daughter gave me.

Yes I had a fabulous weekend. We went down to my Aunt's house on Saturday morning, it was such a lovely hot day we were all in shorts and tshirts and after opening a bottle of champagne we went into the garden and sat chatting. Boy it was hot, thankfully I'd taken my hat.

Another bottle of champagne was opened, this time I was told to let the cork pop and it went almost to the top of the garden, which is 75ft long and not a bubble spilled over.

We had some lunch and then we all had to move to the neighbour's house two doors down to continue the rest of the day and that's where we were staying overnight. They have a heated indoor swimming pool and Marion couldn't wait to get into it. Only the 3 of us went in and Mum almost sank to the bottom after missing the last step into the pool. We were in swimming for almost an hour and then we got out for a drink, Marion gulped her lemonade down and then back into the pool and the little water babe thoroughly enjoyed herself.

We then went to our rooms to shower and get ready for the meal in the Brasserie in Woburn and the balloon is what was in the middle of the table when we arrived.

There were 10 of us altogether, myself, Marion, Mum, Dad, my Cousin Andrew, his fiance Clare, my Aunt & Uncle and Eve and David who we were staying with.

After we'd eaten the main course we waited quite a long time to have out dessert because we were so full, so my daughter and cousin started a war with the confetti. She loves Andrew to bits and he loves her just as much, they get on so well and it was so funny watching them. Marion then got Clare on her side and Andrew had no chance. I was the only one in the end who didn't have a 'naughty forty' or number '40' stuck to me lol

We had dessert, I had a raspberry sorbet it was delicious and then we were asked if we wanted tea or coffee. That came and then 5 minutes after that they came in with a cake and started singing happy birthday. I never saw it coming, normally I guess these things and I went a little bit pink. Lovely cake though.

On Sunday we had breakfast at Eve and David's and then went up to my Aunt's house. Again the weather was lovely and we had a nice relaxing day. We then popped up to my Cousin's house to see their little boy Thomas. As soon as he saw Marion he was squealing with delight that 'Mayan' (not bad for an 18 month old) had come to play, so we went up to his orchard and the kids played football with Clare, the dogs and the chickens and Mum and I harvested some of the fruit with Andrew. The apples were lovely and sweet, completely different to the ones I've got.

After an hour it was time for us to leave and Thomas kissed us all, gave Marion a big hug and said 'I wuv you Mayan'. She loves him just as much as she loves Andrew.

So a fantastic weekend had by all. That was the perfect way to celebrate my 40th Birthday :)