Tuesday 22 November

It has been almost a month since my last post and I didn't mean to be gone so long - life just sort of got in the way, as it has a habit of doing. And somehow blog writing always gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list.

We spent a few days in Holland a couple of weeks ago. It was lovely to be back 'home' for a couple of days, but we were all slightly under the weather when we left and as I tend to squeeze in everything I want to do in a very short time, we all got quite tired and came back ill. I spent three days on the sofa with a tummy bug and feeling very sorry for myself.

All back to normal now though, and despite not firing on 4 cylinders, we still had a good time. 9yo is now a firm believer in Sinterklaas again, despite having some serious doubts before we went, which is very sweet but makes me wonder if he will still want to go and see Sinterklaas when he's 15...! We did lots of retail therapy, visited a new-to-us town and fed our cultural side too.



The next few weeks are set to be quite busy, with lots of social events. I'm also squeezing in lots of crafting, all small things to be given away, some of them secret, some of them less so. It means I have lots of project bags all over the house with a project for every occasion and causing me to wonder if I'll ever finish everything on time and remembering that every year I tell myself 'never again'!

Scarf for dad - I love the way the stripes work up


Several cloths for my monthly swap

It's well and truly late Autumn here now. When we went to Holland, we still had lots of leaves on the trees but Holland seemed to be a week or so ahead and we had lots of mist and even some ground frost. Coming back to the UK it seems we're slowly catching up and in the last week or so most of the leaves have gone and we've had the mists as well, making for some mysterious landscapes...


It makes me want to cook winter food even more so than normal, and this was Jamie Oliver's Wedding Pie for Kate and Wills. The pastry was a dream to work with and even better to eat. It's a recipe from his latest series on Channel 4, and when he showed us this dish, he told us that if you make this for someone, you can expect a proposal. I'm afraid he let me down there a bit... !

But as the pie was so incredibly good, I think I'll let him off (both B. and Jamie Oliver...;-)