Gooseberries....

 We have four gooseberry bushes in the garden and they grow in abundance.  I can't handle the pips and so it is the other half eats them in pies, crumbles or just on their own.  This time I thought I might try and make gooseberry jam.  

I found three recipes - all different quantities of fruit, sugar and water.    Which one to choose?  I have only made jam once and that kind of worked out OK.  So long ago now I can't remember.

Once cooked I decided to push the gooseberries through a sieve - that took some effort getting all the flesh included in the liquid.  I could enjoy the gooseberry jam now. 

Add the sugar and boil til it gets to temperature.  No jam thermometer in this house, so I had to do the old fashioned way and put on a cold plate to see if it sets.  Nope and nope again - well perhaps a little after an hour.  Oh well - gooseberry jam will have to be gooseberry jelly - maybe....we shall see.

All finished, cool and and not as set as I would have liked. Bit like runny honey - so instead of on toast, I will to be poured over ice cream or use under a steam pudding.  

So that is all done and now the task of sorting my table cutlery drawer in the kitchen.  I am so fed up with all sorts.  

I have a canteen with cutlery I got as a wedding present all those years ago and I don't think they have ever left the cupboard until now.

Started to unpack them, and now have them in the kitchen drawer instead.  

That is better - I am not sure if I like them, but oh so nice to have just a few to choose from.  

Here is another drawer full in the sideboard - I don't think I will be having a parties now.  So guess I ought to get stuck into getting rid of these too.

Well that kept me busy all morning, and this afternoon was spent catching up with a friend.  I only met her yesterday for a coffee in the local supermarket, so you would think we had nothing to talk about today.  Of course we did, we are planning days out and days away. 

The day started with....

Egg omelette with banana and prunes for breakfast.   Three eggs in a jug, beaten, a quick flick under the water tap, add a tablespoon of milled flaxseed, sunflower seeds, etc., mashed banana, pitted prunes.  

Place in a frying pan 

Add a Kiwi fruit and a teaspoon of local honey. 

Normally the omelette comes out the pan in a nice tidy shape, but today it decided not too. Not pretty, but tasted delicious.  

This plate is one of a set that I bought in the 1970's, our very first dinner service.  The cups are brown on the outside and orange on the inside.  I loved them so much that I put them away into a cupboard - until about six months ago - and now I don't like them. Very dated, very orange, very brown - but they do hold some memories....so they will do for the kitchen.

I was looking in the mirror today - and couldn't believe that there are more wrinkles.  How did they appear so quickly. 

I remember when my brother and I were around ten or eleven years old, there were two books in the cabinet in the living room.  One was "On Becoming a Woman" and the other "On Becoming a Man".  Our parents had bought these for us to read and understand.  I have never seen a book yet that says "On Becoming an Old Woman" or even "On Becoming an Old Man".  So I really don't know what to expect - and you can't ask your friends because they don't know either.....and you can't ask an even older person as they don't remember what happened and when....so we all have to find that road and follow it ourselves....

Today I attended an Art drop in group, with someone I knew who was a lot older and said she would be interested to come along.  Only half way the session, she was nodding off and kept apologizing she couldn't keep awake.  As she wasn't familiar with the area, I packed up my gear and we both left for the bus home.  

The Art group is for anyone, whether you are a professional or an amateur, it does matter, it is an informal group for you to meet and sit and paint or draw.  I am still trying to get the portraits right - still not happy with my attempts and now too embarrassed to show what I did today.  

Art Work.

Last evening, I worked on the portrait again.  As I said before I am a complete beginner. Loved Art in my school days - both history and actual drawing and painting.  But at the age of 15 I left school and lived and worked and collected books from boot sales using every media there was, but never got back into doing what I loved most.  I wasn't that good in those days - so now it is more difficult to achieve - but I am trying - hard - and won't give up.  
So last night I look at the portrait again - and I did know it wasn't right, so I painted over the canvas and start again - and for the next couple hours I painted the picture of the actor I had on my phone (my phone is smothered in Acrylic paint).  

How did it go?  Well I still can't see the person in the painting.  The eyes need some improvement, so does the nose and the mouth.....yes that mouth - it isn't defined lips, it is the mouth of an older person where you have pale lips and some blue bits - I still haven't got it right - and those teeth - nobody looks like that.  I have drawn the teeth, but they are too uniform and this person has older off white teeth and set back differently.    So in the next couple days it is "paint out the mouth and try again".  

This.......

Is now this.....

A bit of a lazy day today - done the usual housework, but could not get into any of my projects.  Put it down to waking too late (8.15 a.m.).  Very unusual for me, but it does happen sometimes.  I am very much a "late to bed, early to rise"  kind of person.  I even had an hours nap this afternoon - not normal for me!

One other painting I have started is "I have eyes for you".  

In one of my quiet moments last week, decided to try my hand at eyes. Not finished yet. Since painting these, I started receiving emails with links to sites on "how to paint eyes" or "how to draw eyes". So now plenty of watching and learning to keep me occupied.

I would also like to try 3D art. Oh yes I have done a few pencil sketches of simple ones, but never quite looks the same as, for example, an artist draws a glass of water and it looks as though it is standing right there in the middle of the table and yet when it is turned round it is a completely different shape.  An optical illusion.

Tis Friday....

The end of week for some.....The time goes so very quickly that I am sitting here and wondering what I did a couple days ago.  I can't stop waking at the crack of dawn (sometimes even earlier) and thinking what I can do that isn't noisy while everyone else is sleeping. Every sound carries in this house.

Wednesday was an exceptionally busy day, carting bottles of water and making tea for the "men" (one man and a girl) at work erecting a wood panel fence at the bottom of the garden in the high temperatures.  

Still practicing with painting - I will never be able to do scenes.  Nothing looks as it should do, not on paper and now I am beginning to think that the brain has closed the doors on my fingers. So I moved on to portraits and although they may have similarities to the person, they are still not right!  So more work to do.....

 This supposed to be an actor.....don't look too close - you just won't guess as I already know the face is out of proportion.  This was acrylic on cheap canvas board.

This one in water colour on a cheap sketch pad is someone I know and I can "see her", but it isn't right. The mouth, the teeth - all wrong. 

Last night I spent a couple hours learning "How to paint mouths and teeth" on You tube. I've now to put it in practice to improve these two paintings.

Pleasant walk and games today....

Look at this beautiful under pass.  It was painted over a year ago, maybe two, the years go so fast and although there is some damage by person or persons, it still is such a beautiful art piece under one of the main roads..  

Mums stop and point out the animals - the stag, and something on the tree, and rock. The children love it.  

Off to the Board Game this morning - a scrabble table and a domino table.  Scrabble for me today, followed by a cup of tea and a piece of cake.  All good fun. 

Arrived home to find my parcel had arrived - a set of fine felt pens to try out on my Art.  Tried them out today.

So that was about it for Tuesday.  

Meet Susan and Helen....

Susan is the eldest.  She had the most lovely long hair in plaits and I used to love playing tea parties with her.  She was dressed in a green bonnet and dress to match and had a lovely well fitted pair of shoes.  She is 62 years old.  Sadly as a child I cut her long locks as I thought her hair would grow back. Here she is wearing her pink dress - beautifully made by my mother all those years ago.

Helen is one year younger - she had beautiful curly dark brown hair, and still has a good head of hair - but rather "sticky" and "clumpy" with age.  Still has bobby pins stuck in and she too has a pink dressed made by my clever Mum.  Her best dress was a long dress with tiny beads sewing in (made by my Mum) and white shoes.  

These dolls have had a hard life.  In Australia, I played with them til I was about 12 years old and then they were stored in the loft, then my parents moved and stored them in the garden shed - this was no small shed, it was a corrugated iron shed with lots of shelves, and both dolls were in a box on the top shelf  I would reckon they were there for about 7 years, and temperatures were in the 30 degrees C, and iron gets hot.  By then I was in the UK - and so the dolls were "saved" and shipped to me here.  But I just put them in the loft - again a very low ceiling loft exposed to the elements of hot summers and cold winters.  

At last I have "saved" them again - but really don't know what to do with them and yet as they have some very good memories, I don't want to get rid of them. At the moment, they are sitting on my book shelf......I moved the books to the floor to make room - after all they are special....

Father's Day

I had no idea when Father's Day began, until now when I looked it up on the internet. It had been around as far back as I could remember, that is all I knew.  In Australia they celebrate Father's Day on the first Sunday in September, but here in the UK it is the third Sunday in June.  

Sadly my father died at the end of last year, and every day I think about him, and I think about him on Father's Day today and again in September.  Today our children came to visit, and  they always bring a little something for their Father, which is nice.

I also received a bunch of flowers - and for a moment was confused why I should get a bunch today.  But they both reminded me that it was for our Anniversary at the beginning of June and I hadn't seen them since May.

We often do not  have both our children visit on the same day, so today was rather special.  Because it was a special day, I make a special cake. 

I am no expert..  This is just a cake (if I cook a sponge, it is always too heavy.  If I cook a Victoria sandwich - its neither here nor there)  This is a cake, that is tasty.  Today I put double cream and chopped strawberries in the middle and lots of cream on top and those lovely chocolate with the segments and orange flavour as the final decoration.  

What idiot irons on a extremely hot day?  I did - I had washed two large curtains this afternoon, and I stood at the ironing board with the iron sweating bucket loads for over an hour. Guess I needed to burn some calories after that cake!

Art Workshop - Water colour

Well I woke just after the crack of dawn, thinking of all the things I wanted to do today, and what needed to be done before I went to the Art Workshop.

It was just too early to start, so I read for one and half hours and then got out the knitting.  The last time I picked up this was the end of last month at the Craft evening.  Knitting before breakfast - is a little odd I know.

So all ready - art materials in the car and off we go.  Only a five minute drive and we are there.  Very hot day today, but surprisingly cool in the room all day.  Today's lesson is boats and reflections.  

I always wanted to learn - I am a beginner - I have no skill and no natural gift - and it is frustrating - so frustrating that my first attempt (not the picture above - that was the afternoon exercise), was so bad - I re-started with a new sheet - and even then the completed work was rubbish.  

The afternoon session was easier, the subject was better for a start, but still the finished work was nothing like the other students.  We had a really good teacher - an artist - who is very patient and did say to me "that is much better", but it isn't good enough for me.  I still need to find a style I am comfortable with.  Practice makes perfect - that I got to see - in time.

We finished at 4 p.m. and on the way out, this was tempting - but I didn't give in.....books for a donation in the box - nah I still got over 600 to read at home..  

The heat hit us on the way out - 34 degrees C in the car was just too much.  So glad to be home - I am totally exhausted.  

Hospital appointment...

Off to the hospital for a long awaited appointment for a check up. My last appointment was nearly 4.5 years ago and the consultant was pleased I had lost some weight.  Not that I am overweight, but shedding a few pounds makes you feel better.

It took us an hour to get there by car.  And because I didn't know how long my appointment was, I sent the other half home.  

That's me done!  Well at least until the next appointment.  That will be after the CT Scan.

Now off to the bus stop.  I had just missed a bus and had another 35 mins to wait, so I decided to go back into the hospital and look at the book stall and for 50 pence I bought Step Mother by Claire Seeber.  Having read another book by this author, I am sure I will like this one too. 

Men at work!!  It is a new experience for me to watch people work, while I sit and do nothing (except wait for a bus).  I do find some interesting people to talk to though. One young woman was half way through a conversation about tree surgeons, I think - up I popped and said "Here's my bus!".  "Lovely speaking to you - have a good day".  Well what else can you say, when you probably never see them again.  I now wonder what she had to say about a tree surgeon....one will never know!

On my way - about a 45 min journey on this bus - I start to read my book Miracle Cure by Harlen Coben.  I am up to Page 29, and because I haven't read much in the last few days, I haven't a clue what the story is about now - so I start the book again.  Then the next thing I am back in my home town.  I had dropped the book mark and the book is on my lap and I wake up and find I am staring up to the roof of the bus.  How embarrassing - I sometimes wonder if I talk in my sleep - or even snore - or have my mouth open.....not worth thinking about.

I had missed the second bus, so decided I needed a cup of tea, and I had a voucher, so it was a free cup of tea and a piece of cake.  I chose this whopping chocolate eclair, and I have to say it was tasty.  Oh dear those calories.

After lunch we decided to go to a plant stall at a local shopping area.  I am really getting into this plant thing.  

 Here is a selection of what she had.  I haven't a clue about what is what, so glad she had some labels tucked in the pots.  Not that I was any the wiser on where to put the plant and looking after it. 

We chose two shrubs which will grow to 1.5 m and 2 m respectively - and thinking of putting these around the lawn in the front to stop visitors driving on the grass.  

 Now for a round trip (walking) of the four Charity shops.  He himself was looking for DVDs and I was sort of looking at the books.  Three for £1.50 - do I need more??  Or 75p each.  I decided to go for the 75p.  . Tilly True by Dilly Court.   

Afterwards I couldn't wait to get home for a lovely cup of tea before I prepared the evening meal.

So all in all, a very busy day again......

Won a prize in the raffle again....

The usual weekly Club - we generally have something different on each week.  This afternoon it was a talk about the past and present of a town.

We also have a book table, where members can bring in books and for a small donation take another to read.  Most of the books on the table are mine (I have over 100 to pass on and only manage to carry one or two every week).  But oh dear someone came in and said "I have two Dilly Court books here, you like hers don't you?"  Well with over 600 on my To Be Read pile I shouldn't, but I did.  

And then comes the raffle.  I only buy one and I can pick which number I want - you have five tickets on the strip but only one can win. I rummage in the basket for the one I think will win, and pop the 50 pence in box.  There are only small prizes like biscuits, Mr Kipling pies etc., but all fun.  

Whoo hoo my number is picked and I have won a packet of Rich Tea.

Well that was a couple hours of fun, meeting up with people you get to know over the weeks, and being able to plan other outings between a few of us outside of the Club days. 

I also took out a Subscription for the Leisure Painter - I have the July issue on loan for a week and there is some interesting articles in there.  Now I can look forward to my own copy each month. 

Lovely hot sunny day.....

Have a very large garden, with lots of trees and shrubs and they usually fend for themselves. But I would like some plants in pots (got loads of pots),so today I visited a DIY shop, and there on the trolley outside were trays of marigolds, nine plants in each for £1.00 a tray.  Can't resist a bargain.

Last week I finished painting an old metal computer table - used old paint which was slightly grainy with age, but it did the trick, the table looks a lot better than it was.

Our lovely green shed needs a re-paint, but could I find the colour I wanted.  Well not without a lot of trouble.  I was convinced Sherwood Green was available, but the member of staff in the DIY shop, said it is an old colour you can't buy it now.  The next shade is too dark - so I decided when I got home I would look up on the computer and yes they do stock the colour I want so I ordered it online and selected click and collect.

 Very quick service - within two hours it is now ready to collect from the store.  

 So - another job for the coming weeks.

 I have these tiny weedy looking plants on my patio all along the edge of house

 ....and along the edge of the fence

and in between the paving stones where the sand and cement are missing.  I did start to pull it out, but those flowers are so very pretty it seems a shame.  I thought it was a weed, but perhaps it isn't. To be honest I haven't a clue.

I decided to make some cakes this evening - and Flynn was asleep in the other room.  So that he didn't bark when I turned on the beater, I called out that I was making cakes!

Then this face appeared - there is nothing like good old home baking - well for this dog anyhow and although I don't like him having sweet things, he does have tiny piece to see if they taste OK.  He is a good judge.  

 ...and both Flynn and I are trying to cut our sugars - these are made with very little and this time they are Gluten Free.  

 No Flynn they are not ready yet! 

 Yes they are out of the oven Flynn, but still too hot to eat... ..

...now sit and wait.  Well he did and he had a small piece of cake.  Now he has gone to bed.  for the night.