27th November
Weeks are rushing by, we are coming up to my favourite time of year, the baking run up to Christmas and I have no time to be ill, dam this rotten bug that has had me bed ridden and not myself this week. As Lady Macbeth said, I'm misquoting here, "Out dam bug, out!"
The weekend was full of fun and frivolity with two wonderful and very different bloggers, pop over to two of my favourite women in Oxfordshire the twisted yarn and in the nicki of time to see my posts on Blogfest please do pop over to the two posts earlier this week, Blogfest, Blogfest, the day and Blogfest, the speakers fascinating stuff and thank you to those who are contributing to the discussions too. Nerves permitting as a direst result of Blog fest I am going to be tweaking the blog somewhat, some of you may notice my background has changed and I have moved my Twitter feed up to the side bar, please follow there to and help me learn about this social platform, any advice from you on Twitter? I have also added a side bar for my Instagram, you can click on a picture to enlarge it and see the caption too, I tend to post on Instagram different pictures everyday. Are you on Instagram too?
 |
| A great day out meeting and listening to inspirational women and the odd man |
Doughty's are wholesale fabric sellers that travel all around the country selling their wares every week. Some of the material I had seen in a local fabric shop for double the price. Needless to say I bought far more meters than I needed to but oh so exciting. Just feast your eyes. Maybe they will be visiting somewhere near you soon too.
 |
| Doughty's fabrics in a local village hall |
Until I was a married woman some oh so odd twenty plus years ago I hade never made a Christmas pudding or cake. Our home was always filled with Scandinavian makes and any English treats we wanted were shop bought. Marrying an English man who loves to cook my culinary senses were sent into over load and we now have our Christmas pudding tradition and along with many partake in Stir up Sunday. The last Sunday before Advent when families come together to make the pudding with everyone in the house whether involved in the baking or not, taking a turn to stir the pudding and make a wish. You do need to begin the night before you make it as the dried fruit needs over night soaking, but its worth it. We use good old British Delia Smith
 |
| Stir up Sunday Christmas pudding |
Despite having unseasonably mild weather we had a good frost covering this week too. The only reason I am happy about this is that I can now go foraging for sloes and begin making sloe gin, yummy! Do any of you have sloe gin or other alcoholic beverage recipes you care to share with me? It's the season coming up...
 |
| We've had our first frost |
On a mid week night we decided to open some fizz with the mother in law, decadent and wonderful. Bliss
 |
| Mid week tipple |
I visited a primary school last week and noticed the below display board and was truly shocked at how much sugar was contained in some of these items. Pardon the pun but it's food for thought. I have been toying with trying to go sugar free and even bought a book a few months back but it seems so hard. Have any of you tried to eliminate sugar from your diet? If so how did you go about it and did you notice any benefits?
 |
| Shocking amount of sugar |
Sharing with you my five photos from this week and cheekily the last one from last week and linking in with the lovely Amy Do pop over and see what others are sharing. I love all your comments and sometimes it takes me a day or two to reply, but reply I will as I love the questions and discussions that can evolve.
♥ Hope you are all keeping happily busy ♥
Remember from Tuesday, December 1st, I will be posting daily as is my tradition.
I would love you to join in with me
