Friday 23 October 2020

The one where we got bannetons 🍞

Phew! I am finally sat down again with a reasonably free stretch time ahead of me to do a new blog post. It's only been a few weeks out of my old blogging routine and I already miss that regularity, now I feel like there's too much to catch up on and too many photos to fit into one post! I want to try and schedule in a particular time each week/fortnight to do this because I do miss it when I'm rushing around. Anyway, here we are in the depths of October and everything is wonderfully autumnal and cosy. I am still adjusting to the dark mornings though and finding it difficult to rip myself from the cosy, warm cocoon of bed each day. It's worth it though for the crispy coldness and the orange leaves.

A friend introduced me to Attic24 way back in lockdown and it has quickly become my favourite blogs to read! I've especially been enjoying this past month as she has been doing "Blogtober" and making a post each day. It reminds me of what blogging used to be like in the good old days, before social media took over and everything became instant and clickbait-y. If you're interested in crochet, nature walks, and cosy homemaking then you'll love her blog too! Whilst I'm on the topic of blogs I'll share one more, this one isn't new to me but is actually one of the first blogs I ever discovered back when I was still at school. I can't remember how I found The Dainty Squid but I've followed her ever since. She is putting out some great content at the moment as she and her husband have just bought a 150 year old mansion and are documenting their renovations and adventures there! It's so much fun! 

Back to me (Miranda quote lol, Ed and I have just finished watching the whole series πŸ˜†) - I'm kicking off with some glorious photos I stopped to take on the way home from work. Immaculate golden hour vibes. I startled some pheasants as I was taking the first one.



And also some morning golden hour, shining on Ed's bonsais and our garden gnomes. 


The last hydrangeas on a walk to the corner shop, and the first pumpkins to arrive at work.


Corners of home, my strings of hearts plants are both flowering! + a snail munching green pepper.



A hot air balloon we spotted one afternoon.


Here's the boy! The sweet ginger boy who has been missing on my blog recently! We were very pleased to say hello to Tom last week and I think he was pleased to see us as well.



The lipstick vine has got to be one of the best flowering houseplants! Look at these crazy red beauties (which I think look like tiny open mouths with little teeth hehe). It's always nice to be rewarded with flowers.


I made a lamb tagine! I found a random leaflet with the recipe and just decided to get the ingredients and make it...why not. It was very yummy and I felt like a chef.


Fallen lipstick flowers, a plastic sword found in my coat pocket, and an extravagant porridge breakfast.


This week I undertook the big job of repotting my massive philodendron, and we planted our wedding present wisteria outside the house.


We went on a nice sunny walk, maybe last week or the week before (?)...we walked high up a hill with great views and were rewarded with a rainbow at the top! There were lots of mismatched benches along the path, this one was my favourite...





We finally bought some banneton baskets for our sourdough making! and I constructed a little proving area inside the boiler cupboard where my starter lives too now that it's getting colder. The loaves ended up with a nice pattern on them from the banettons, and they were also reallllly floury on the outside because I was scared they would stick! No problems though and I'm excited for the next go already.




I went for my first run in weeks and it was lovelyyy because everything had turned autumnal since I last went, lots of leaves underfoot and I found some big conkers! It was also quite windy which made it fun. I was listening to Billie Piper on David Tennant's podcast, podcasts are what makes running doable and even enjoyable for moi. Fun fact: I wanted to be Billie Piper when I was about 7 and first got into Doctor Who. Actually I couldn't decide whether I wanted to be Rose Tyler or be Billie playing Rose HAHA. Unfulfilled actress dreams over here.






Ahhh if you haven't heard I LOVE AUTUMN πŸπŸπŸ‚πŸŒ°πŸ‚πŸ‚πŸπŸŒ°πŸŒ°πŸ‚πŸπŸ‚πŸŒ°πŸ‚



We've finally been making some progress on our front patch, Ed dug a border and we went to the garden centre and stocked up some goodies to add a bit of colour. By the time we got home it was raining a bit but we went ahead anyway and got all muddy, digging in soil is such an underrated activity! Do it! Get your hands dirty, it's so fun!!!


It still looks a bit underwhelming at the moment but we've planted lots of our bulbs from last year so it will be transformed in spring! Buzzing πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰πŸŽ‰


That's all for now! Hopefully see you here again soon πŸ’

p.s. I forgot to mention my new crochet project but that will have to wait until next time!

Tuesday 6 October 2020

Good bye furlough, hello October πŸ˜·πŸŽπŸ‚πŸ‚πŸ‚

So a couple of weeks ago, actually the day I published my last post, I found out I was going back to work! The long awaited moment finally came! After 25 and a 1/2 weeks on furlough I stepped back into the world of employment, and coincidentally the day I returned was exactly 6 months since lockdown began! What an unexpected 6 months.

My lockdown documentary project is over! Completed it ✅ But I still have lots to share so I'll keep making posts, perhaps more sporadically, we'll see. I'm still adjusting to a new routine, trying to fit everything into the days when I'm not working. 

Work uniform.
 
Firstly, our shed! πŸ„πŸ›πŸŒ»πŸŒπŸŒ± Thankfully we managed to put it together and paint it before the rain came.






A while ago now I made these fennel muffins......I'll be honest they weren't great. They were edible, I mildly enjoyed them, Ed politely tolerated them although he thought they were a bit grassy 😝 I ended up being too embarrassed to offer them to family so the remainders ended up sitting in the kitchen until they went mouldy and I threw them away. It was an experiment! 


I'm still excited about mosaic crochet, here is a little practice square I completed before I begin a bigger project. I'm making myself finish my big granny square blanket before I start anything new though.


Last week was quite plant heavy! I ended up acquiring 6 new ones (9 if you count 4 of the same type) πŸ˜‹ In my defence they were all bargains and I don't regret anything.

A baby pernettya (wanted one of these for almost a year!)


A reduced shelf croton I rescued from work.

A blue mouse-ear hosta for our hosta collection in the garden.

This dieffenbachia beauty was only £1.99 at Trago ??!

Look at her leaves 😍

I grabbed four of these free babies from work!

Looking handsome in a bonsai pot.

This one is a proper rescue mission, save the venus fly trap! 

Last time I went to my grandparents' house I came away with a bag full of apples to make my own apple cider vinegar! It's now sitting in a jar, bubbling away for the next few weeks, I'll keep you updated!



This last sourdough loaf turned out a bit...flat. A bit like an oversized pancake but it tasted good and accompanied many a good meal!



House and garden snippets.....including a bouquet of flowers my family brought when they came for a meal, and a pair of green cords from a charity shop which are perfect now that the weather has gone all Autumnal! We started hanging pictures and things on the walls last week and it makes everything feel more put together (spot one of Ed's paintings πŸ’›). Ahhh October is so cosy and nice. We put the heating on for the first time yesterday!








On Sunday we had church in the building again for the first time in about 7 months, very exciting (much social distancing, wow)! And then in the evening Ed and I went on a spontaneous trip to the cinema to see Tenet! It was so fun, we had both missed going to the cinema and the film was great too. Crazy, almost overwhelmingly fast-paced and loud, but exciting and mind-boggling. 


That's all for now! A very quick and scattered post, but hopefully I'll get into some sort of new format in this new season πŸ˜„ Happy Autumn, friends! πŸ‚πŸ‚πŸ‚πŸ☕☕🍎🍲🐾⛅πŸŒ€⛄⛄⛄