A Walk in the Woods

Hello dear friends and readers !

I hope you've all had a great weekend. Ours was very chilled, we are enjoying the last weekend before the Little People go back to school. On Saturday it felt like summer was still in full swing, I had about 6 loads of washing fluttering in the heat and gentle breeze, whereas yesterday was a much cooler affair, with not a small amount of rain, it feels like autumn has arrived. I did actually contemplate putting the heating on.

Anyway, back to my post. There are some woods near us called The Coombes, only 10 minutes drive away, but we'd never been. Not because we didn't want to, but because we weren't exactly sure where they were. I realise this seems faintly ridiculous. They seemed to be a kind of well-kept secret, which of course makes them all the more enticing. I'd asked friends before how to get there and the reply was always "oh its really easy, just go along this road a bit and they are there on the right". Still I could never find them. The other appealing thing about them is there is sometimes a secret cafe there too. I really wanted to be part of this secret gang who had been to the secret cafe, so I asked another friend for Really Detailed Instructions, and hurrah, she came good.

So yesterday morning I announced to my very grumpy family that we were going to find the woods, and go for a walk. Little Tomboy was grumpy because she was stuck on the xbox game she was playing. Little Miss was sulking because it was the morning and she is nearly a teenager, and those two things don't mix. Mr 14 was asking his usual autistic-person-detailed-questions - what will it be like ? how long does it take to get there ? how long will we be there ? what is there to do ? what will WE actually do ? will it be busy ? And Mr EC said flatly he wouldn't go. Undeterred I told them all that they were coming, like it or not. And then it started to rain.

Anyway, after several arguments about raincoats, ipads and headphones, we finally got everyone ready to go,  and loaded up the car. Off we drove, following my friend's directions. We found "the little track", but "the field on the left", where we were meant to park, was locked, and there were no "teacups hanging from the trees". We did see another car, and another family next to the car so we went and asked them if we were in the right place. We were ! We had found the secret woods. Hurray! But the secret cafe was closed. Booooo.

But we were there now, and the dog was at fever pitch by this point, so we decided to stay and go for a walk anyway, despite the now quite persistent rain.

Things started off quite grim, Mr EC was quite grumpy because the secret cafe was closed. I think he'd been secretly looking forward to a cream tea. Little Miss complained Very Loudly about getting wet. Apparently this was my fault: even though I had suggested wearing a raincoat might be a good idea, she had refused to wear one. It was extremely muddy, her nice new trainers were in danger of not looking quite so new. Again my fault even though I had suggested she might like to wear her old ones. I will admit that at this point I was thinking that this waslk was a really bad idea, and I was losing the will to live, but then we noticed a massive area of blackberries.

I LOVE picking blackberries so all the grumpiness of the others fell on deaf ears as I pounced on the blackberry bushes. I fished a dog waste bag out of my pocket, and Mr EC said to me "eurgh are you really going to use a poo bag to collect them ?". I pointed out that it was currently empty so technically at this point it was just a "bag" and yes, I really was going to use it. Well that was it. They all joined in and the grumpiness totally vanished. Suddenly everyone was in full swing, enjoying themselves, chatting and laughing, and helping each other to reach the high ones. (Everyone knows they are the best ones.)

Amazing how such a simple activity can transform everyone's moods! We picked blackberries for ages, Little Miss and I saving ours for later, the others eating as they went along. The patch of brambles stretched a really long way so we got loads. I could have spent all day right there, in the rain, but the others started to get twitchy so we finally gave up and carried along on our walk.

My friend had also told me to look out for "blue arrows painted on logs" but it wasn't clear what they were directing us to - the secret cafe, a hidden carpark ? pot of gold at the end of the rainbow ? We never did find out as we only ever saw one anyway.

It was a gorgeous walk. As it was in the woods this meant there were no sweeping vistas or amazing views but there was still plenty to catch one's eye.

The horses had obviously been through recently ....

And indeed we happened upon some deserted little stables in the midst of everything ....

Everywhere we looked there were signs of autumn's arrival: the leaves turning and falling, berries appearing, nuts and seeds littering the floor.

But still the odd summer bloom just clinging on ....

I love being out with my family like this, just the five of us - six if you include the dog - no technology, just fresh air and nature in all its glory. These times feel so precious, I know the days where we will all go out really are numbered as my older two increasingly spend more time with their friends, so whether it's bucketing or boiling its just lovely to be out together, chatting, pointing things out, laughing, running with the dog. It feels so wholesome and right somehow, just us versus the world.

Despite the rain the walking was so enjoyable. There were mossy banks to scampered over ....

Hidden pathways to explore ....

Little ponds waiting to be discovered ....

And wood piles to clamber over ....

Very excitingly in this pile of rocks we found a painted stone ....

In our area over the summer there has been "a thing" where you paint a little rock and hide it. You also look for other rocks and keep them when you find them. There is a facebook group where you can leave messages saying what you've found, or, what you've hidden, and roughly where. Sort of a swap-cum-treasure-hunt-cum-geocache. I'd been meaning to find some stones to paint but had never got around to it, so we hadn't really looked for any either. MrEC and Little Miss spotted this one, nestling amongst the logs! Super exciting! I really couldn't believe it! It seems amazing that we could find such a little stone in such a big area! We decided to keep it, that is the point, its not stealing, don't worry. So we now have a nice little souvenir of our walk. And we did gather a whole load more to paint and hide some time.

At this point we realised we had come full circle back to the car. This was by design, Mr EC has a built in human compass that I simply don't have, I hadn't really noticed that he was leading us in a big circle. Left to my own devices I'd be hopelessly lost.

When we got home we were all starving, so I got lunch underway. As we had so many blackberries, out cam the ingredients for a crumble ...

Its a really, really simple recipe:

Put 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 100g flour in a bowl and rub in 50g butter (which has been cut up into small pieces) until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Stir in 3 tablespoons of sugar and 3 tablespoons porridge oats (optional).

Wash blackberries, and chop up 3 apples, mix into a casserole dish with a small drizzle of lemon juice, and a large spoonful of sugar. Cover with the crumble topping.

Bake at 200 degC until top is crunchy and middle is cooked.

While the crumble was cooking we had a really simple lunch of carrot soup - not homemade - and crusty bread - also not homemade.

And for pudding we had the crumble ....

(I forgot to take a photo before we all dived in lol)

... and every last bit was eaten. the word "divine" was used. Praise indeed!

I'm so happy we found the woods, and next time we hope to find the secret cafe and then we will really be part of the secret club :)

Til next time,
Jillxxx

Card making (1)

Hello dear friends and readers !

Are you a hoarder ? I am. I try to deny it, and I tell Mr EC off for keeping random boxes of god-knows-what - mostly cables it seems (what is it with men and cables ???) but in all honesty I'm as bad. Its just my hoard is prettier and more fluffy. Ball of wool anyone ?

One of the things I keep is old cards, or to be more precise the fronts of, or pictures from, old cards. I've been doing it for years, and very, very occasionally I even put them to good use by making some handmade cards. Meanwhile the months go by, I forget to buy cards for birthdays and the pile of card making stuff sits untouched and my friends feel unloved.

So I've been meaning to sit down and make a load of cards for ages, and today seemed like a good time to do it as my other job for today was laundry. About 8 loads of it. Where does it all come from ? Are there some children living here that I haven't noticed yet ?? In between putting the machine on, hanging stuff out, bringing stuff in, rearranging the washing line for optimal clothes peg usage, I put together a few really easy cards. I know a lot of card making peeps make lovely fancy cards: my imagination/design skills are not that great so I like to keep it simple. Plus I can make them faster that way which is great if you're looking for instant-gratification.

So I thought I'd show you the cards I made today, to demonstrate how easy it is to make some quite nice cards (or maybe they are hideous, I find it really hard to tell when I've made them lol) with some really basic supplies, and not much skill!

The basics that you need are:

- scissors, pencil and ruler, and of course card blanks. Or just plain card if you are feeling confident enough to be able to fold it exactly in half. 

- decorative card and/or paper. I got a lot of mine free with magazines, or have leftover stuff from the days of crafting with the children ....

- card toppers - most of mine come from bits and pieces of old cards. I have a few packs of things that are labelled "card toppers" but I've no idea where they came from! Probably given to me by someone clearing out their stash. I seem to be a magnet for that sort of thing (not that I'm complaining).

- this picture below is a really good example of reusing an old card. The original card had 16 cupcakes on it, I was able to chop it in 3 to give me 3 little rows of cupcakes each with a "happy birthday" sentiment, (one row of cakes ended up having to be trimmed to close to the edge) and I can use each little row for a new card.

- sentiments - obviously these can be hand-written or stamped, but I found this pack of 100 little sentiments in the poundshop - yes, 100 for £1. Bargain!

- bits of ribbon, trim, twine are all useful for little touches

- shaped hole punches are handy, and glue obviously. But the one non-essential item that I consider to actually be essential is a guillotine. Mr EC bought ours years ago, before we got married so its a good 17 years old. We've used it loads, for making our wedding invitations, kids party invitations, cutting up laminated things, and now of course card making. You could just use scissors or even a ruler and craft knife, but if you're anything like me, manually chopped up stuff will look like a pre-schooler has made it. So personally I'd recommend splashing out on a guillotine, they can be really cheap - this one on amazon is less than £8.

- I also have a Sizzix Big Shot manual die-cutting machine. I mostly use it for hearts, circles, flowers and butterflies, but you really can make lovely cards without it. Mine was a birthday present from Mr EC, and whilst its not essential, it is fun and I love it!

So that's the supplies covered! Here are the cards I made today and a bit of blurb about each of them. Oh and also all the sticking was done with a cheapy gluestick.

Here I used pink checkered background paper, with 3 die cut hearts. I wanted to fit 6 hearts on but even my smallest heart die they were too big to all fit. 3 on their own looked a bit lost somehow until I added the vertical striped to match. I also thought of putting a smaller heart on top of the ones shown, but it was starting to look a bit fussy, so I left it as it was. Then I added the "Happy Birthday" sentiment.

I used this flowery card front from an old birthday card which already had this sentiment on it. So I just guillotined it down to size and stuck it on the card blank. The sentiment is stuck on with foam dots so it has a pleasing 3D effect.

Next is quite a fun girly little card. The shoes etc and the "Happy Birthday" sentiment came from an old card. I guillotined it to size, and also guillotined some coordinating background paper. It was quite hard to decide which colour to use for the background, the main picture has so many colours in it, you'd think anything would match, but nearly everything looked horrible! I think/hope this one works. Though this is a prime example of where I can't decide if it actually just looks a bit rubbish!

Ooooh I do really like this one. I have a few papercraft magazine and took inspiration for one of those for this card. Its really very simple but I quite like the layered effect. I started off with the background paper of pale blue with lots of little cards. I decided to pick out the colours of the stars in the decorations. The red trim is some hessian bordering stuff that I found at the poundshop. I used my die-cutter to cut circles and stars to layer over the background and hessian. The paper for the stars is from a pad of paper that claims to be handmade. I'm not sure how true that is, but its that sort of paper that has a lumpy bumpy texture. This would be a  nice one for a chap I think, but could easily be copied in a more girly style.

I started off with the piece of an old card that has the sentiment on it - and it also had some swirls and a lovely 3D butterfly. I managed to find a piece of very lightly patterned paper that matched the pinky-red of the main card, and then I die cut another butterfly, and used a heart stamp for some mini hearts. I think this would have looked just as nice without the second butterfly, and maybe with a few more hearts.

Again I started off with the main image which came from a new home card. We last moved home 15 years ago so that's how long I've kept this one! Bonkers!! Anyway I cut it out free-hand as it had a sort of wonky look to it. Then layered it over some grey and white patterned paper, and also layered on a white die-cut plaque shape, and then a "Best Wishes" sentiment. You could easily just cut or guillotine a rectangle instead of the plaque shape.

This was another magazine-inspired card, and is by far the most fiddly of the cards I've made today. I found some stripey paper which had came with some sheets in checks and spots of matching colours.

I guillotined down the stripey paper to make the edge pieces, then using guillotine, scissors, and glue, I made some little flags and looped the over the twine. The twine is fixed at the back with sellotape and then I kept the flags in place by gluing down a couple of them. Then stuck a little sentiment on top.

Another really really simple card. I guillotined down some blue card as the background. The balloon decoration again came from a card that I received absolutely years ago. It's balloons painted on a piece of acetate and the original card had an aperture so you saw through the balloon window but I decided just to put some white card behind it. This meant when I layered it over the plain blue card, the background of the balloons stayed white not blue. Does that make sense ??! And of course a little sentiment added at the bottom.

I've currently not got any plans for tomorrow - no, not even any laundry - so I'm planning to make a load more cards while my stuff is all already set out! I might bore you with some more pictures too. And well done if you read this far!!!

Til next time,

Jillxxxxx

ps no idea why my images look so grainy today but I have to go and start dinner now so they will have to do!!! Sorry!

Summer Holidays 2017 - Donaghadee - Part 1

Hello dear readers and friends!

I can't believe there is only one full week of the school holidays left, its gone sooooo fast. We've had a great summer though: I was in Northern Ireland in our holiday house for a month, with Little Miss and Little Tomboy - MrEC and Mr14 joined us for the last 2 weeks.
Our holiday house is in a little town called Donaghadee, which is close to the town of Bangor.
(There is also a Bangor in Wales, so don't be confused, I am talking about Bangor Co. Down). The photo below is Bangor Marina which always looks really pretty but appearances can be deceptive - it is often really really windy.



Close by the marina is the Red Berry Cafe, we often go for lunch here, they serve lovely salads, though the kids prefer the waffles with cream, chocolate and marshmallows - can't think why !!!?!!
In NIreland it's all about the bread: soda bread, potato bread, veda bread, and - best of all - wheaten bread. Wheaten bread with proper butter is aMAZing. Don't confuse it with soda bread. Soda bread, though also amazing, is white, very soft, and tends to be baked in a circle and served in quarters which we call soda "farls". Wheaten bread is brown, much rougher, made with wholewheat flour and oats, and with added treacle for the colouring. It is often baked in a loaf tin so it can be easily sliced. Soda bread is gorgeous toasted with butter and jam, wheaten bread can be eaten the same way but is a marvellous accompaniment for soup or smoked salmon, or as the base of an open prawn sandwich. Actually all this talk of wheaten bread is making me crave some - you can't buy it easily in the south of England, so I guess I'll have to make some! Watch this space for another post ...

We were amazingly lucky with the weather, and had loads of lovely days out. As we are National Trust members we visited Mount Stewart a couple of times. Normally we walk around he lake there, but this time we chose to go in the opposite direction towards the Temple of the Winds. You can see the view of it on approach up the hill.



Mount Stewart House dates back to the mid 1700's, and the Temple of the Winds was added later in that century by the then owner, Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry. The Temple of the Winds is so called as the design is based on the "temples" in the Meditarranean seen by Robert Stewart on his tour of Europe, and as you can imagine its location at the top of the hill, is quite windy.




There is a gorgeous view though ...

Of course there are also trees to be climbed ....

... and no visit is complete without a photo beside the beautiful Canadian geese mural ...

We also visited CastleWard which again is owned by the National Trust, it's a lovely property with a large estate which sweeps down to the shores of Strangford Lough.

 

You can see Castleward in the middle, near the bottom, on the map below.

This map is a photo of a painting (not by me I hasten to add!) that we have hanging in our downstairs loo - as you do !!!! You can see just north of Castleward is Audley's Castle. In my family we call is "Audrey's Castle" as we have an Auntie Audrey! No, she doesn't own it !! We walked from Castleward along the shore to Audley's Castle, stopping at various bays along the way to skim stones and soak up the sun.

If any of you are Game of Thrones fans you may be interested to know (or indeed know already) that a lot of Game of Thrones is filmed in Northern Ireland. Most of the rugged sea scenery is the north coast of Antrim for example, and the scenes at Winterfell are filmed at Castleward. Audley's Castle field was also the setting for Robb Stark's camp, and various other scenes. There are lots of Game of Thrones tours and hikes all over the place! It's helped the tourism industry in N.Ireland immensely as people from all over the world make a trip to see the Game of Thrones settings.

Just further east from Castleward is Strangford, from where there is a ferry that goes across the Narrows to Portaferry. Usually on the way home to Donaghadee (which is just north of Ballywalter - but not on the map) we take this ferry - its a small car ferry which takes about 10 minutes - and its fun to stand on deck with the wind in your hair, watching Strangford receding whilst Portaferry edges closer.

This is a view from the ferry of another ferry - the spare ? an old one ? - but basically the same as the one we were on. You drive on one end and straight off the other when it lands (is that the right word lol) at the other side.

Little Tomboy came on deck with me as Little Miss didn't want to, so she stayed in the car with Pixie.

And here are views of Portaferry from the ferry ...

It reminds me a it of Balamory (anyone in the UK with small children will know what I mean!)

I so love going home home to Norn Irn. There is something about the pace of life that means we are just so relaxed from the minute we arrive. Every day tasks aren't as boring, when its sunny it feels like a real treat, and when its not the wind blows away the cobwebs and the rain makes everything so green and lush. Even the food shopping is made more exciting by the presence of the aforementioned wheaten bread and the local shop sells amazing yoghurts. And that's before we even talk about the ice-cream .... and the local cafes .... in Donaghadee, which is pretty small there are about 10 cafes and umpteen restaurants. We are so lucky.

Where last summer was filled with sadness after my Dad had passed away, this summer felt a little lighter, though there were always be a Dad-shaped hole in my life and of course even more so when we're in Norn Irn. Nonetheless my heart is so happy when I'm there, aaaaah I feel relaxed just re-living these memories as I type.

I'll be back with Part 2 soon. Hope you've had a lovely Bank Holiday if you're in the UK, and a lovely regular old Monday if you're elsewhere.

Til next time,
Jillxxxxx