A spontaneous seaside jolly!

On Saturday, Mr Croak and I decided to join Mum, Dad and Molly dog for a day at the sea. Checking the train times we discovered that one was leaving in just under 40 minutes... the thermos was filled in record speed, ham sandwiches made, bananas thrown in the bag (never the best move!) and we just got to the train on time!

It was a beautiful journey on the Borth express - lovely scenary and we were at the sea in time for luncheon!

Sadly all the shops were shut up (and looked like they had been for some time), even worse - the chip shop was shut too which was devastating news for all! We had a lovely walk on the beach and then again at Ynyslas.

It was Molly's first time at the sea and she loved it! Did lots of running in between everyone to check we were all ok.

Strolling along on the river...

What What! Have just arrived home from a lovely walk along the river in the sunshine, and have taken some snaps to show you. Had a lovely day yesterday too, Mr Nutkin bought a paper, which we perused, and did crossword, did a food shop, then some baking, and dinner making, and watched Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Black Swan - Dawn Treader: FAB! Black Swan: Creepy.

For baking, I made nutmeg and vanilla biscuts in a variety of shapes, and iced them with a lemon curd icing. Also made a garlic foccacia - which I have just had for lunch - and jerk ribs for supper.
SO, here's the Lambeth Walk....
 

I live in Lambeth

From Vauxhall Bridge

How sad.

A Henry Moore

The Tate Britain

And Britannia herself (?) on top

Tree identification please... I suspect a London Plane

With fun pompom seeds

Boat cafe on the other bank

Busses on the bridge

Boats on the water

Wow a castle! Lambeth Palace actually I think

What a fun, although slightly alarming, lampost

H's of P

This darn chap too ages to pap - kept diving under and popping up miles away - umm cormorant?

Sadly, an abandoned Christmas tree

View downriver

Just missed the launch of this absurd form of transport

No boring benches here!

Vauxhall Bridge - with people along it representing all sorts of things

Like this lady, um, Geography?

Ah, my fave, Battersea Power Station

So that's my walk. On a lovely sunny day too. And loading the photos took all afternoon - too many maybe.
Made a cauliflower curry for supper, Parsnip soup for next week lunches, and there's some bread in the oven.

Tired now zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

New Year's Resolution

I love a New Year's Resolution... although am a bit over keen and often make a) too many and b) too unachievable!
However, back in 2008, I decided to do 'A drawing a day' and am thrilled to say I only missed 3 days! And have 2 sketchbooks to remind me of what happened that year. It's not quite time to try that again, as towards the end of the year it became a challenge and I began to resent it not enjoy it!

This year I have gone for something similar, but broader - a bit of craft a day (not entirely happy with that name but struggling to find something better). Basically I can draw, sketch, paint, knit, sew, crochet, collage, felt etc. I'm not yet certain if baking should / could count... will see what Tippity Nippet, Nubby Tope and Hoppy Spadge have to say.

So, we're on the 9th already! and what have I been up to? Well, the answer is mainly Knitting! I knitted my first pair of socks last week and gave them to Dad for his birthday on the 7th! here is the work in progress...

 I have a lovely new sketchbook to document things done in... not many pages were used with the socks - just pattern, yarn and needle info for if I want to make the same again later in the year!

And here they are! The finished article!

Had a call from Dad last night who said that the socks had survived the road test, were warm (a little too warm for the mild weather!) and very cosy, the seams didn't rub and they were still in one / two pieces! Hurrah!

I have two steady knitting projects that I am going on with - one is a v neck tank top that I was given the wool and pattern for at Christmas - a friend of mine also has this but in a different shade of wool - not sure who'll finish first! Am also working on a neck warmer on circular needles too - will post results when it's grown a bit. Have done a few rows of each of those today.

I have a growing selection of knitting kit - having only really started knitting a couple of years ago and recently getting more into it, the house seems to have knitting needles and associated tat everywhere! Yesterday I decided to do something about this issue...

 

 It was hours of fun! All my things are now rolled up safely in my Knit Kit! Loved doing the freehand machine embroidery for the writing!

New!

Happy New Year!

Yes a severe lack of blogging of late, but hopefully that is now a thing of the past. I'm embarassed to say that I think it was October I last wrote so we'll have a mini catch up...

Here are some Christmas biscuits I made - gingerbread foxes and squirrels! Yum!

I wore my reindeer dress (hard to find other appropriate times to wear such a garment so it had a few outings over the festive period!)

We had an oversized Christmas tree and covered it in the old decorations - these are my favourites! the wonky old robins!

Went to Birmingham to do a bit of Christmas shopping and saw that the bull was looking very fetching in a winter knit!

Had lunch at the German Market ...while Christmas shopping!

 

Knitted.... a lot! there were several Knitted Christmas Cushions this year!

 Scoffed chocolates from the advent calendar I made last year (pockets can hold up to 4 Quality Street chocks...)

Had a lovely time wrapping pressies in front of the fire while watching films...

Had great fun arranging Christmas pressies into a shoe box! (this was early on in the day - it was re-arranged throughout the day with each new addition!)

Also ate a lot and walked a lot! Had a lovely time relaxing, knitting, seeing family (some via the wonders of technology, others in person!) and doing a crazy puzzle of a car boot scene!

Will blog again soon about my New Year resolution and how it's going so far...

Bloggers Block

What an abominable lack of blogging! My apologies to all, and a firm promise to mend my ways for 2012. I have I believe, bloggers block as I keep meaning to write something but cannot think of a single thing, I will attempt to remedy this by writing a few things that come to mind, and see how we get on...

My avocado plant is drooping and, I suspect, dying as a result of over-zealous repotting. This makes me sad.

I have a new tea-cosy, courtesy of AuntAl, which is currently keeping warm my excessively large yellow teapot.

The jacket potatoes are in the oven and smelling wintery. We are having them with salmon and leeks, if I buck up that is.

I enjoyed Christmas very much, and feel that I was thoroughly spoilt. Getting everything back to London was a logistical nightmare and we were rescued by a lovely man called Mark.

New Year was lots of fun. Menu was Steak&Ale Pie, Pork&Cider Cobbler, Mash and Carrots. Yum. Except for the stew in the eye incident, from which I have just recovered.

My Lindt Mini Chocolate Reindeer is staring at me, defying me to eat it. And my packet of rolos is getting smaller without me going near it....mystery

I am determined that this is the year that I shall become a bonifide children's fiction author.

So, not so blocked after all. TTFN