Life at the Gables

Just a quick post to let you know that we still have all 7 signets. They are huge now and are quite willing to come and say hello, much to Mrs Swan's disgust!!

I gave myself a little treat this week and bought some Merino wool to make MY blanket with. The shades are divine and it is just soooooo soft. I'm being selfish and keeping all the soft, loveliness to myself. I still have another project to finish so this afternoon I sat in my quiet chair with my crochet and a slice of home made Dundee cake. Hopefully it won't be long before I can start my granny square with new designs I've got from my library book. I made the cake yesterday as my Brother in Law asked if I would make one for when they came up. Tomorrow, if I get time, I'm making apple crumble bars (one of my faves).

Gate - A means of entrance or exit. Show us gate in your space. The child gate I've just put up before my nephew Harry's arrival tomorrow. I've just remembered this one too. It's one in the village and I thought it was great.

Key - To provide access, or control, or insight. Find key in your space. These keys are very small charms I use in scrapbooking/card making.

Week 30 is Scrap your Independence. I've done Learning to Drive. It gave me the chance to buy my own car, travel around Europe, drive left hand drive cars in Saudi (much to the disgust of the locals!!!) and to go to new places that the local bus service doesn't reach!!! I've used more October Afternoon papers (what will I do when they run out?) and made the car reg out of black card run through my Dymo as I don't have any black tape left.

Yes, today is my one year anniversary of blogging. I can't believe that's come around so quickly. I shall have to treat myself to cake later to celebrate!! I wonder what the next year will bring?

Polychromatic - Describing many colours. Show us something polychromatic in your space! This is the 'dangling thing' (that's the technical term for it!!) I have in my porch.

As we're volunteers for TWGPP , The War Graves Photographic Project, Samuel and I made the most of the dry weather today and went to Rothes to hunt down some more war graves. Believe it or not we only had 7 to find but 2 still managed to elude us!!! Some are easy to find as they are official war grave headstones but others are on family headstones which mean reading them all!!!! The old graves in the cemetery are all black due to the vapour that is given off by the nearby distillery. If my missing 2 are down there it will be difficult to find them!!!

I was tagged yesterday by Dorothy . You had to complete the following from a book you had handy....... So this is what to do:- 1. Collect the book that you have most handy (back of a dusty shelf) 2. Turn to page 161 3. Find the 5th complete sentence 4. Cite the sentence on your blog 5. Pass it on to 5 other blogger friends So here's mine...... "We couldn't appreciate the lulls in the fire, because we were freezing our skidonies off" I'm going to pass this onto: 1. Ruth http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com/?zx=6e5cfeb4c3452538 2. Felicity http://joshyandbelle.blogspot.com/ 3. Val http://dottydotty.wordpress.com/ 4. Mandi http://mandismadmusings.blogspot.com/ 5. Gez http://gezzybscraftybits.blogspot.com/ Go on give it a go :)

The other day I had a "Day Off". No housework, no shopping, no ironing, nothing domestic at all. I sat in my new chair in the peace and quiet (away from the TV, Samuels's pals and the X-Box) and did some crochet. It was lovely to sit there for an hour or two and do something just for me. Does that sound selfish or is it OK to take a day off every now and again?

Tool - An implement, usually used by hand to aid or assist with a designed task. Show us 'Tool' in your space. I couldn't decide which tool to take a photo of so I used both. My paper piercer and scissors for scrapbooking. Essential tools for me :)

Harry Patch died today at the age of 111. He was the last survivor of the trenches in WW1. He said, at last years Remembernce day parade........ It is important to remember the dead from both sides of the conflict. Irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims." This is still true today. A day when the world is not at war somewhere still seems a long way off.

Each Friday a photograph will be uploaded that was inspired by a quote, song lyrics, a poem....in fact any kind of inspirational text. If you would like to play along, just upload a photo inspired by this text and link to this post somewhere between friday morning and Sunday evening! Here is our first 'Wisdom for the Weekend' "The sacred lamp of day Now dipt in western clouds his parting day" by William Falconer (from 'The Shipwreck') Taken on one of our many walks around the village.

The teenage years are most definitely upon us in this house as Samuel didn't get out of his pit till 11am. That's unheard of for him as normally he's up at the crack of dawn. Anyway as I was up early and had no inclination to do housework or ironing I started another LO. This time it was Week 24 - Scrap with felt. I didn't use a great deal, just a heart and a felt button tied on with string. I also dug out my Bazzil sewing templates I bought at last years GoGo weekend and have never used!!! Hey presto one hand stitched title. Apart from the fact that the sewing is a bit time consuming I enjoy doing it. I finally cut into my Cosmo Cricket Mischievous Max papers too but used it sparingly as being on a self imposed "stash diet" I'm not buying any more.

I've finished another LO this afternoon. This time it's W eek 28. Scrap with needle and or thread. I used Basic Grey Marakesh and some other PP that I don't know the name of. Ideas again, with the help of Scrapbook Trends. Only 3 weeks to go now :)

After seeing Samuel off to Torriston woods with his pal to find out about conservation and play games, after taking Mossy to the vet, after hanging the washing up and after doing the ironing I made some raspberry muffins. They smell delicious and will hopefully taste the same. The bananas get it tomorrow!!

Reflect - When light, sound, or particles are thrown back after impinging on another surface, or to think meditate or ponder. Show us 'Reflect' in your space. The pond.

I haven't done any scrapping for what seems like weeks. I've tidied my craft room on several occasions but never sat and crafted, so this afternoon while it was chucking it down I tried to catch up with Scrap Like You Mean It. This is week 29 ( I still have a few previous weeks to do!!) Scrap with THREE. Three photos, three big accents, the number three, three patterned papers, three colours...whatever you want to pick, we better find 3 of it! I used 3 different papers. Two October Afternoon and one Daisy Bucket. I also "borrowed" some idea from Scrapbook Trends without actually scraplifting any particular one!!

Yesterday saw Samuel and I down at Duncan's farm to pick our raspberries for jam (and the odd muffin). A lot of the fruit had already been picked but we still managed to get a big green punnets worth for the bargain price of £4.00. There were quite a few others there too probably with the same idea. There might be a lot of jam making going on locally this week. The Keith show is coming up so who knows? The Recipe:: Given to me by my friend Ann when I worked in the doctors all those years ago. It's always worked for me. 2 1/2 lb of raspberries 3lb of sugar (I used jam sugar as last year it didn't set with normal granulated sugar) This makes about 5/6 jars. 1:: Bring the raspberries gently to the boil then boil rapidly for 5 minutes. 2:: Remove from the heat and add the sugar. Stir over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved. 3:: Bring it back to the boil and boil rapidly again for 1 minute. 4:: Skim away any froth and pour into warm jars. Put a circ

Celebrate - To rejoice, have special festivities, to mark a special day! Show us 'Celebrate' in you space. John bought me these flowers for my birthday last year.

Receptacle - To hold or contain something. Show us 'Receptacle' in you space. An old jam jar was given a new lease of life with a crocheted jacket. It now lives on a shelf in my porch along with my other Hooky things.

Crowd - A number of persons or things gathered together, find a crowd in your space today. Arbroath Smokies waiting to be put in the smoker at the Moy Field and Sports Fair last year. The smokey smell can get a bit overpowering but the fish tastes delicious.

I've finally finished (and packed) this cushion for my Mum. It started life as a bag but I got bored making it so, with a little help from a library book of crochet flowers, I turned it into a cushion. I loved making the circle, but for a bag it was a little on the small side, so I started to make a long rectangle of singe crochet to fold over and make into the bag bit. Single crochet, in cream is very dull so after only doing a couple of inches I added some doubles round the edge and finished off with a row of my favourite, shell stitch. The flowers were really easy to make as the instructions were really clear and I managed to make them all in one night while watching the TV. I've backed it with some fleece and now it's waiting to start it's journey south to Mum's rocking chair. Now that it's finished I'll have to start something else. Oh dear more wool needed!!!!!

Nature's Beauty - Friday - Red The apple of choice at the Gables has to be red. (Me I prefer a good old Granny Smith!!!!!)

Nature's Beauty - Thursday - Pink Home grown radish. Delicious and peppery :)

Nature's Beauty -Wednesday - Purple I love this shot of the lavendar at Kew. There were fields (almost)! of it.

While we were down at Harrison Drive I showed Samuel where I used to go for my tennis lessons when I was about his age. It was a six week course with one lesson a week. I had new Dunlop pumps (as they made you play better) and had to walk there and back as we didn't have a car. He asked why I didn't go on my bike and I told him I didn't have one and he then asked if we had wooden bikes in my day!!! How old does he think I am? Don't answer that!!! Next to the tennis courts was the crazy golf and I have to say I don't think they've had a lick of paint in the last 30 years as they looked decidedly tatty. Granny opted for a cup of tea and took over the role of photgrapher for the afternoon, while Samuel and I played 18 holes!! Here he is thinking that he's won (despite a whole load of cheating)................................ and here he is after realising that he's just been beaten by his Mum!! Only by 2 shots but still a win for me :) We had j

The sun came out again today for a few hours so we took a walk down to Harrison Drive and "Granny's beach". It's not a beach like we have at home but more a patch of sand on the edge of the river Mersey!! As you can see from the photo there are the docks in the background along with the lighthouse at the end of Perch Rock (which was a fort built in Napoleonic times). Samuel decided to see if he could write something in the sand and then see it on our way back. He wrote "Don't pass this line"............................. unfortunately the tide had other ideas and had washed it away before we got off the sand!!

We're having a little shake up in our routine this week and decided to have a project week! 5 days, 5 prompts but all with one common theme - 'Nature's Beauty'.There's no end of inspiration at this time of year. You can step out into your garden, local park, beach, field, mountains. Snap the flowers, trees, landscape, people, animals. Monday - Yellow Tuesday - Green Wednesday - Purple Thursday - Pink Friday Red I haven't done any of the recent prompts with being away but thought I'd be able to play along this week after being at Kew last week. Yellow: Green: Samuel's favourite at Kew . The carnivorous Pitcher plants!!

I think everyone has heard that song at some point.......!! It stopped raining long enough today to pop over to Liverpool on the ferry. It was the law in our house as kids, that you had to go on the ferry in the summer holidays!! It's the first time Samuel can remember going on it and luckily it was dry enough to sit outside While we were on the Liverpool side Mum pointed out the church where my Great, Great Grandparents got married back in the early 1900s. It's Our Lady and St Nicholas Church and is such a lovely looking building. Unfortunately you can see the monstrosities that have gone up over the years in the name of development. One of which is completely empty!! The only part left of the original church is the tower as the main body of it was bombed during the war. It has a lovley little garden where lots of people were having lunch and it was nice to see how quiet it was especially as the pier head and a busy road are close by. We got back to Seacombe just in tim