Its morning......

Well today was someones birthday, so I awoke early in order to start the making of his favourite fruit cake.  A boiled fruit cake. Yes I know I have made one before, but that was a long time ago.

I decided today to use an old 1970s enamel stew pot to melt the butter, water, sugar and fruit.

a little stirring....

and a couple minutes boiling, I then take off the stove and leave on the side to cool.

 

 

While that is cooling, my friend across the road and I decide to hit the Jumble sale, see what bargains we come back with this time. 

I am pleased to say I did not look at the books....at 20pence each you cannot really resist them, but I was already laden with goodies, so could not even fit them in the bag. 

What did I get....well you remember I said way back that I was collecting yarns to crochet into my winter blanket.  Well I have still a long way to go and still need more yarn.

I intend to unpick all these garments.  They are not home hand knitted so are a little bit tricky.  On that long scarf they seem to have "locked" each end stitch, which means you have to pull through the whole length of yarn.  Of course this isn't very good yarn, it is all nylon and the fibres get everywhere including up your nose, but hopefully when crocheted into the blanket, the fibres will stay in place.

Then it is lunch time - hubby bought a nice piece of fresh boneless/skinlees salmon from the supermarket.  I grilled this and added a few vegetables and potato.

I certainly won't win any competition for presentation. 

Then after lunch we went for a long drive.......with the dog in the back.  To a nice pub for a glass of cold beer.

We actually sat in the car to drink it and watch the traffic go by.  Why?  Because we don't leave our dog in the car by herself.   I found it very very relaxing, that I almost fell asleep.  Thank goodness I was not the driver.

And so we head for home.....

And I finish off the cake.....

Burnt it as usual......

and now its time for bed........another sleep, another day.....



Crochet dishcloth

As I mentioned the very start of my Blog that I intend to do  and even to try new hobbies on my road to retirement. 

I had bought dish cloth cotton some time ago and had knitted a couple of dishcloths.  But this week I decided to crochet one - from my head rather than a pattern - so the finished product is not that professional - but then it is only a dish cloth.

If I added any more rows it would prove too "heavy" for the job, so I stopped at that.

My next item was one of the dishcloths I knitted.  With all the hot water it suddenly lost its shape and ended up being long and skinny, so I unpicked that and crocheted it up and added some new cotton to finish the item.  OK it looks two tone (old and new), but lets face again, its only a dish cloth, but I have a few more months of wear from it.

Given time I will get better - but first I have to find some patience.  Yes I am very impatient with anything like this - I got to learn that it doesn't matter how long it takes.

Now.......with no more wool or cotton to play with.....it will give me time to think what to do next and purchase some more materials.