A stroll through the woodland and country park

Last weekend we took a stroll through our local country park which we frequent quite often.  The weather was sunny but very cold so we donned boots and thick coats and spent a pleasant afternoon taking in the nature around us.

The walk took us through this wooded copse and out onto the open woodland and Hadleigh Castle that overlooks the River Thames.

I wonder if anyone's at home?

It didn't take long before a light mist started enveloping the surrounding 

hills and the sun was beginning to lose its strength, so no river view today

We are so fortunate to live where we do. Ten minutes away from the coast and downs, and yet only about 15 minutes from open countryside. Plus the added bonus of only being a 45 minute drive into London.

This pond was completely frozen over

As we came away the sun was just going down

So homeward bound for a well deserved hot cuppa.

Hope you all have a great weekend. P x

Batch cooking

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my recent post  and for welcoming me back into the 'blogging fold' again

I spent yesterday afternoon doing a bit of batch cooking. I do this once or twice a week and love that I can just dip into my freezer at any time and pull something out at a moments notice and heat it up within minutes. 

Chilli con Carne

Sliced potato topped fish bake

Lasagne - enough for six (friends round for supper soon)

We don't buy ready meals so this suits us when arriving home late or I simply don't feel like cooking!! Now that the weather has turned pretty cold here in the UK, these'll warm the cockles of your heart!

Bye for now, Px

It's all about books

Sitting here at my desk, keyboard at the ready, I'm looking for inspiration for my first blog post of the year which has been a long time coming. So, I'm glancing at my book case, crammed with all manner of reading matter. I love books, can't get enough of them. The trouble is there's only so many you can house at any one time.

This is just a small bookcase, there's another much larger one in my sitting room, one in my entrance hallway, one in the kitchen, one in my study upstairs and various nooks and crannies. Not forgetting those on my my bedside table and a great pile of books dying to be read on the floor beside my bed.

If on occasion I do take the trouble to go into town to dispose of a few books in the local charity shop - guess what - I bring another armful home with me!!

Well that broken the ice for my long awaited (by me) fingers on my keyboard once again. I must say it is very relaxing and a lovely way to spend time on a damp and foggy afternoon.

Back again soon folks.  P x

Autumn - new season and new beginning.....

As Autumn is beginning to descend upon us, I have decided to re-start my blogging journey once more.  It's been some time since I wrote anything and I must say I've missed the experience. I have been catching up with some of you on Instagram and its been great to follow and be followed but I enjoy blogging too. My dear blogging friend Connie at Crafty Home Cottage has been in touch several times enquiring about my welfare and whereabouts and it is her thought provoking words which has led me back into the fold again.

Enough for now,  but I will be back again very soon.

Happy weekend!  Px

Pink, pink and more pink

Happy Monday to you all and thank you so much for your comments on my last post.

I popped into our local village this morning and was bowled over by the pink decorations many of the local shops and businesses had put in their windows.

It turns out that this is all in aid of The Lady McAdden Breast Screening Unit - affectionately known locally as BUST - a free service for all women of any age and unconnected with the National NHS screening service.  The screening does not include a mammogram, rather a place where you can check out any lumps or bumps, pain or any other breast symptoms. A place you can get advice from specially trained breast nurses. They do such a fantastic job and all they ask is for a donation whenever you visit.

Hence all the pink - and hats of to all those who organised this fundraising week in Thundersley where customers can make donations in their local shops.

While I was there I came across one those pop up libraries. I think I wrote about this a few years ago.  Anyway it's back in the village and such a lovely idea.

Hope you all have a great week. 

P x

Floating bookshop

I love London and we often spend hours just walking around and exploring the hidden alleyways, cobbled streets, marketplaces and old buildings.  It was last year that I heard of this fabulously quirky bookshop that is known as the "Word on Water" a floating bookshop barge on the Regent's canal and so we had to go and investigate.

On our visit it was moored at Granary Wharf near King's Cross, where regular jazz bands play either alongside or on the roof.

It cruises and moors up between various locations on the Canal including The Angel at Islington and another close to the Olympic Park at Stratford.

It was a book lover's delight - so many fabulous second hand books

Its uniqueness had me enthralled

It had its own resident dog and even an old iron stove below deck

  

 This visit certainly came up to my expectations and didn't let me down.

Have a great weekend.

The clearing in the woods

What started out to be what we thought a pleasant stroll admiring the changing colours of the trees turned out to be a nightmare

Have you ever gone for a stroll through the woods, taken a wrong turn and spent what seems like hours trying to get back on track - or the very least find a clearing ahead and a road back to civilisation?  This happened to us yesterday. 

What would normally be a twenty minute stroll, lasted 1.5 hours!!  The trees were getting thicker and darker, not a bit of sky to be seen and at one point Mr M said lets go back to where we think we went wrong. Definitely a no no. I just wanted to be out. A jogger who obviously knew the woods well, did not even know the name of the road where we'd left our car but insisted that there was a road ahead if we just kept going! Ahead seemed to go on forever and getting very damp and muddy.

At last I could start to see daylight and yes - a clearing in the woods. Yay! However, it was nowhere near where we'd begun our walk and so had to put the sat nav on the phone to see where we were - a mile away - and so our walk, instead of being perhaps a mile  in length max, turned out to be 3.5 miles (as tracked on my phone app Map my Walk).

Foraging was the name of the game and after I'd scraped the mud off my boots and had a well earned cuppa finally managed to put this together for my dining table.

Moral of the story? Stick to the path - even better, buy the darned thing!!

Thankyou for all your lovely comments dear friends.  See you again soon.