tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9524274136895250622024-03-05T03:26:18.848-08:00What Abigail did...My blog, full of the things I like doing the most.. places I've visited, walks I've been on, crafts that I've tried, baking and cooking experiments and photos I've took.Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.comBlogger61125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-72120015689281561662015-05-10T08:48:00.001-07:002015-05-10T08:48:45.509-07:00The good lifeWhen we moved into our house almost 8 years ago, I loved that the house backed on to allotments and one of the first things I did was put my name down for one. I did not expect that 7 years would go by without hearing anything about it, until one day in February when I got a phone call asking me if I was still interested in having one.<div><br><div> It was about the same time that we had decided to adopt so I had to think, will I be taking on too much but how fantastic would it be to be able to teach the children about growing their own food, also I have always wanted chickens and there may be a possibility that we could get some in the future. It would be hard work getting it straight but it would be rewarding. I finally got my keys at Easter and set to work on my plot, plot 2 which consisted of 7 raised beds, a green house with very little glass in it and a huge amount of raspberry canes growing at the end, I'd already spotted rhubarb and strawberries growing in the raised bed and a huge bundle of chives.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5lMpM20Tm0vCDLpUgngAp_VlNSzZzXXXFhqKSYhWS3vsUnqNsl6dABxaXPYf8MdN_MLwqPCMZYsObrrE9GQnGfEksZv1A6PPBChhC58wyciy78j7tVIJwx8BukJSdBXanRYeJM_JQiIQ/s640/blogger-image--1358862575.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5lMpM20Tm0vCDLpUgngAp_VlNSzZzXXXFhqKSYhWS3vsUnqNsl6dABxaXPYf8MdN_MLwqPCMZYsObrrE9GQnGfEksZv1A6PPBChhC58wyciy78j7tVIJwx8BukJSdBXanRYeJM_JQiIQ/s640/blogger-image--1358862575.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> This is what it looked like when I first got it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I was off for the Easter holidays, so I went on every other day and with the help of my mum, my friend Sandra, Matthew and my nephews Joshua, Thomas and Edward we managed to dig over all 7 beds.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC6sxID2jrekvLkAfEu8KPVkzEKq1QewyBte-lQz0UI_lY8FGkvRL_lJj3wS-JRn_bdO6NM_R_y3ss0znBrfSx9V52pQ-IFIw9CxVp2ccMegcMkm_Yw1K0bv2D-INvff5UGXdttiJxfdTc/s640/blogger-image-801459504.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC6sxID2jrekvLkAfEu8KPVkzEKq1QewyBte-lQz0UI_lY8FGkvRL_lJj3wS-JRn_bdO6NM_R_y3ss0znBrfSx9V52pQ-IFIw9CxVp2ccMegcMkm_Yw1K0bv2D-INvff5UGXdttiJxfdTc/s640/blogger-image-801459504.jpg"></a></div> So by the end of the week it looked like this.</div><br></div><div>There was still weeding to do but I decided to weed as I go, I put the potatoes in first, then garlic and onions. We moved all the strawberries we had found to next to the rhubarb and I bought two tayberry plants so I put them there too.</div><div><br></div><div>The next week I sowed carrots, parsnips, beetroot and Swiss chard seeds. I'm not sure how well these will do I've never been too good at growing anything from seed, but as with everything on the allotment it's going to be trial and error.</div><div><br></div><div>The following week I sowed broad beans against the trellis and made two wigwams and sowed peas around it, the lady from the allotment next to mine<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">(who also lives next door but one to me)</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> on the left of the picture has been really nice and helping me with everything gave me 4 baby corn plants to plant, everyone on the allotment has been lovely, offering to lend me tools and wheelbarrows there are only 5 allotments and everyone I've met are so friendly. </span></div><div><br></div><div>Which brings us to this week and this week I have planted broccoli, cauliflower and Savoy cabbage that I got from b&q for a pound each, I also have sown some turnips and leeks. I have sown some courgettes in between the peas and planted another row of red and white onions. My garlic, onions and potatoes have started to grow and I have spotted a gooseberry bush in between my rasberries and what looks like it maybe an apple tree. I have made two rhubarb crumble with my first harvest from the allotment and have given 5 people some rhubarb stalks and they are still going strong..I might make jam with some next, much to Matthew's disgust! (he doesn't like rhubarb)</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0coF3Gp72QJp5kpnHB7kK1FBWxrdMcLkZms9BOimrzEC4ipLRP4MNrYQTwi5dC7IO4fOi6ha0yk1m1Xhq4fYfstFAgxcEfy4ZvbeweZcy-WtmYLUeX6pZDdFXYDX5m4wKHhh2E70tcDeF/s640/blogger-image--1144034558.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0coF3Gp72QJp5kpnHB7kK1FBWxrdMcLkZms9BOimrzEC4ipLRP4MNrYQTwi5dC7IO4fOi6ha0yk1m1Xhq4fYfstFAgxcEfy4ZvbeweZcy-WtmYLUeX6pZDdFXYDX5m4wKHhh2E70tcDeF/s640/blogger-image--1144034558.jpg"></a></div> 5 of the 7 beds now have things planted in them,</div><div> ignore the nearest one, that's just weeds!</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipx5Vtp_kPJzVEMMDU_UavXOcn7adUYMmN8v-xS4oIUHmguDjog4amij-B0xsOuTOn3Mm-BwXH2xsXJbm-jxnymbhLrh3ITl1C4FlZ7lOPLEvy1P5CMsiP5OYkNkarbnB07LMPCO6II5fs/s640/blogger-image--429193953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipx5Vtp_kPJzVEMMDU_UavXOcn7adUYMmN8v-xS4oIUHmguDjog4amij-B0xsOuTOn3Mm-BwXH2xsXJbm-jxnymbhLrh3ITl1C4FlZ7lOPLEvy1P5CMsiP5OYkNkarbnB07LMPCO6II5fs/s640/blogger-image--429193953.jpg"></a></div> Apple tree???</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhevfnFZIrNQZ51SrSaSVZigBrxx6FVNlG2T_to74L_9R4mVIQc4gpbvW1tpt3aInfLXdYR6pwB7lnuC0xUVdc80YWoFq-OxALXaX3e7DiPOGDR_U9t4NBaKX_Cn20iT7VnRyciUoi9-28d/s640/blogger-image--1183535952.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhevfnFZIrNQZ51SrSaSVZigBrxx6FVNlG2T_to74L_9R4mVIQc4gpbvW1tpt3aInfLXdYR6pwB7lnuC0xUVdc80YWoFq-OxALXaX3e7DiPOGDR_U9t4NBaKX_Cn20iT7VnRyciUoi9-28d/s640/blogger-image--1183535952.jpg"></a></div> If you look closely you can spot a Gooseberry! </div><div><br></div><div>It feels really great when I'm over there getting muddy, pulling out massive weeds and planting things and watching them grow although patience never was one of my strong points! So at the moment it's just hoping they will grow. I also have a little robin who keeps visiting me and I like to think its one of the ones from the nest last year.</div><div><br></div><div>I will keep you posted on how things progress, thanks for reading! </div><div>Abigail x</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-5680110387320016212015-03-09T10:36:00.001-07:002015-03-09T10:38:55.382-07:00Looking forward to the future!Since my last blog something wonderful has happened -Matthew and I have decided to adopt!<div><br></div><div>Putting my inner most feelings out there for everyone to see actually meant that people spoke to me more about it and not just in a 'oh I feel so sorry for you' way. I had people contacting me and tell me about how they have suffered with infertility and decided to adopt and how they had felt then and how they now feel and everyone I spoke to about it, adoption seemed to make sense a little more to me.</div><div><br></div><div> I spoke to someone at work who is in the process of adopting at the moment to ask how it had been for her, she was so enthusiastic about it that as soon as I went home I spoke to Matthew about it, we agreed that we should try to find out some more about it, so we emailed the local council adoption service and asked to speak to someone about it. We were there for over an hour talking, hearing about the stages of the adoption process and asking questions when we came away I didn't even need to ask Matthew if he wanted to do it I could tell by the look on his face that he was as excited about it as me. We talked all night about things we had never allowed ourselves to talk about, about what it would be like to have family holidays in Cornwall, about school Matthew would be in charge of helping with Maths and I would help with English, I could teach them to bake and Matthew could teach them to play the cornet. We also just both felt it was the right time we'd done our grieving and had two years enjoying being together and our relationship has gone from strength to strength but now this is what we both want.</div><div><br></div><div>It was like a weight had been lifted off us, everyone I've spoke to whose adopted has said that they thought of the process a bit like a pregnancy, this time is to prepare for having a family and I feel exactly the same way. Since deciding to adopt I haven't felt sad for not being able to give birth to my own children just excited for the life I can give to an adopted child or children.</div><div><br></div><div>The next day telling family and friends about our decision was a wonderful experience, seeing how happy our family are and how excited everyone is for us was amazing. I also felt quite emotional that I could at last talk about all these feelings I'd be suppressing about being a mummy.</div><div> </div><div>The adoption process could take 6 months or longer, we are eager to get started and we have our first home visit this week. We have worked hard for the past two weeks, the house looked a bit like a bomb site we had dry rot in some of the floorboards downstairs so we had to take them out and replace them. We decided that whilst we were doing this we might as well do some much overdue decorating that needed doing. We are still not completely finished but we have done so much in this time that in the past would've taken us much longer, because it's given us a purpose, a need to get it done and the reward at the end of it all will be a family! </div><div>Thanks for reading, </div><div>Abigail x</div><div> </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT7WyqIOc1cnAQJX7OyvFByNjgshOFy2DBqQ7oOYXLHu3YIX50Hd9Xq16McHvNZQzSR19RKEnx9GSFnKOYfW86SVzWa8hwzdOOKknuyOGVADxrGxBWEVe2LvQDGkCbA7Mt4DYlEcfKIXzb/s640/blogger-image--985410684.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT7WyqIOc1cnAQJX7OyvFByNjgshOFy2DBqQ7oOYXLHu3YIX50Hd9Xq16McHvNZQzSR19RKEnx9GSFnKOYfW86SVzWa8hwzdOOKknuyOGVADxrGxBWEVe2LvQDGkCbA7Mt4DYlEcfKIXzb/s640/blogger-image--985410684.jpg"></a></div><br></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-70538912030750947392015-01-24T11:56:00.001-08:002015-01-24T12:14:08.694-08:00<div>I sometimes wish people could see inside my head at the constant turmoil I have with myself. If I had more money I would do IVF again. It caused me so much pain and anguish but the hope is calling out to me again, I am finding it so hard to give up that we will never have children of my own, I will never know the feeling of a baby growing inside me, I will never go through that life changing experience of holding a new born baby and knowing that it's yours, I will never get to see what our baby would look like or which of our characteristic it would have. People might say it's only money, do it! but we cannot afford it, we would have to go into debt, being childless doesn't make you rich, we have spent money on holidays, experiences things that make us feel better but they were all frugally spent. If we had saved up for the last two years instead of these holidays we actually still wouldn't have enough for IVF and we would probably have gone mad. </div><div>As a childless couple you feel like you don't belong anywhere in society, your on the outside looking in at what life is supposed to be like, for self preservation you distance yourself from people with children so it doesn't hurt so much, you can't join in with conversations about having kids. I have built up a shield I want to travel and try new things, somethings that people with children may find difficult to do and whilst we are travelling and doing all these different things I feel great and I wouldn't trade it for anything but you can't do these things constantly. </div><div>When you're at home in the day to day you realise there is something missing and it hurts, it's like a grief but there is no death, no body to mourn, nobody sees the pain or understands it. I still have not come to terms with it, I try not to think about it or look on the bright side of life but it effects me daily. I'm not looking for sympathy I just want people to understand why I am like I am, why I find it so hard to be around pregnant women or babies or people with children it's not because I don't care it's because I'm sad and yes I'm jealous and it makes me feel like a horrible person.</div><div>We could go into debt for a chance to have a baby, We might try and try and try and never have a baby then I would have nothing left at the end but a debt that I have pay back and that stops us getting on with our lives.</div><div>On the other hand I could try and try and try and it could work we would still be in debt and struggle having all the extra cost of bringing up a child and paying off a debt.</div><div>Not enough is done to help people who go through IVF, the first IVF was funded through the nhs, when we first started trying the funding was for three lots of IVF but by the time it came around to us having it it had been cut to one. This put immense pressure on us hoping that everything would go right the first time. The second we only could do with by doing egg sharing to keep the costs down and Matt's mum and dad paid for it. Egg sharing can halve the cost of IVF but you have to give away half of your eggs that are retrieved at the egg collection -if you get an odd number, say 7 the person you are sharing with will get 4 and you will get 3 this is obviously before insemination and there is a chance that the fertilisation won't work, out of 3 we had two embryos which we had put back. The other thing that is quite hard is that you have to write a letter to the child that could be born from the donated egg explaining a bit about yourself and why you donated the egg, this is because upon their 18th birthday they can legally find out about you. This is awful it feels like you are writing a letter to a child you have given up. Something I'd never want to do. I could, if I wanted find out if my donated egg resulted in a birth, I have not yet done this and I don't know whether I will. So if I decide to do it again I also have to decide whether to go through this. </div><div>You might think 'just adopt a child' but it would still mean coming to terms with not being able to give birth to our own child which is also so hard to think about.</div><div>I flit from one idea to another of what to do, all the time I'm getting older and will I at some point look back and regret my decision if I don't try again. Or someday realise I've been thinking about it so much I've missed my opportunity. I wish we didn't have these decisions to make, we are so indecisive at the best of times. I don't know what I hope to gain from telling you all this, no one can help us or tell us what to do we just have to make that decision ourselves. I think I just hope to be understood a little bit better, it's not something that's really spoken about so it can feel very lonely at times. </div><div><br></div><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZfJlxq1kaXTGUh_uSWMnqf5HUyWS5mbpyZF2rcm8X6GHW51OHEpzB3qC82LgTZ7zIuH6X3B-PTXwaNxmCxmjU8vSxhZn-hTmAt2jtf6skWv1dEl8uvYjH2oCf52Trlz75dDUbV8-4D0SZ/s640/blogger-image--1588746276.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZfJlxq1kaXTGUh_uSWMnqf5HUyWS5mbpyZF2rcm8X6GHW51OHEpzB3qC82LgTZ7zIuH6X3B-PTXwaNxmCxmjU8vSxhZn-hTmAt2jtf6skWv1dEl8uvYjH2oCf52Trlz75dDUbV8-4D0SZ/s640/blogger-image--1588746276.jpg"></a></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-87691130581724966372014-08-29T16:33:00.001-07:002014-08-29T17:04:33.905-07:00Summer holidayWell it's that time of year again when I get ready to go back to work and return to my normal routine. Before the holidays you plan to do lots, thinking you'll have lots of time to do lots of things when the reality is you don't do half the things you want to do and I always end up at this stage thinking what have I done with the last 7 weeks! <div>But I <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">suppose I have done quite a lot. Of course the beginning of the 7 weeks started with my holiday to Kefalonia. </span></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">For my birthday, 2 days after we got back I got very spoilt, with some lovely presents and we went to see 'around the world in 80 days' at the royal exchange theatre which was brilliant, unfortunately I'd been ill after I got back from holiday so I didn't feel up to going out for a meal. I baked</font><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> a cake for my nephew Joshua's birthday the following weekend, on Saturday went to Joshua's party had a play on the bouncy castle, it was a lovely day and we basically had a picnic party at the park near Susanna's house. The day after we all went back around to Susanna's for Joshua's actually birthday, we went back out to the park to play with the rocket Christiana had bought him and then played rounders with the cricket set Rebekah had got him. It was great fun. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">That week I also went to Manchester for a lovely afternoon tea at 47 King Street West with my friend Kimberley from work, I made up for not having anything to drink on my actual birthday by having a few glasses of prosecco! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I have done some crafting, I got a felting kit for my birthday so I did that. I decided to try and sell some of my crafts on eBay ( seller name abbiefh) and Etsy (shop name Abigail makes) I'd had a little bit of success with my Facebook page last year but after the holidays, funds were low and we need to start saving for our next holiday in October too so I gave this a try. I had thought that etsy would be better because it is primarilly for handmade items but so far I have only sold two things on there, on eBay I have sold about 4 things, I'm currently making christmas things to sell, so I hope these will sell as it gets closer to christmas and hopefully will help to fund more holidays! </span></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">I have started foraging for this year picking lots of blackberries at 7 acres and me and my mum went to pick winberries at Entwistle reservoir. I also bought a jam pan so I'll be making some jams soon.</font></div><div>I spent sometime with my nephews eating egg butties and watching Lego movie which Josh had got for his birthday. </div><div>I also had some lovely news that my younger sister Susanna, Josh's mum had got engaged, the wedding won't be for a while but I'm going to be a bridesmaid! Yey! I love a good wedding! </div><div>I <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">went on a helicopter flight from Kenyon hall farm, Matthew bought it me for my birthday. The flight conditions weren't great it was windy and wet but we were determined to do it and it was really good.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">We also did a horse riding lesson and an hours trek at a place called matchmoor riding school in Horwich I bought it ages ago from amazon local, it was £28 for us both and it was really good we learnt the basic and how to trot then we went on a hours trek up to near rivington pike so it was really good value for money. </span></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">I went for another meal in Manchester to Artisan with another friend Sandra from work, they do lovely food there especially the garlic flatbread! We had a lovely afternoon. </font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Finally our bank holiday was spent on our (possibly) last camping trip of the year to Staithes, I hadn't even heard of this place before this year but it's a really beautiful place it's near Whitby, we went for 2 nights and stayed at a campsite</font><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> called trig point 49 and although very basic and in some parts not very clean it was </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">a very handy location just 5mins walk from the harbour (and the pubs!). We had a lovely relaxing weekend, Max loved it on the beach and there was a lovely craft shop and a vintage shop there too. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">We have finally started decorating our bedroom but decorating is never easy in our house, our wardrobe is set into the wall with sliding doors in front so I've had to empty all our clothes out whilst we decorate so they are all in the spare bedroom in boxes, it's taking a while so unfortunately they are still there. Hopefully it will be done soon, decorating is my least favourite thing! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Oh well back to the work on Monday and it's all change at work too so I'm a little anxious about it. I know I'll be fine and it's just a case of getting back into routine, by Friday the summer holidays will feel like a long time ago! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHNhq9X_p34Wsr0u2J2XfYqxLRb36h1YRyzrQHIPMYz6Hvhnox5OWFBBgHz6FZDv5eyvXgijG6has_jMagAuFYdNthPyGOrDxcpPqdhP2iVFDcD-nKTNnYWhwUWWFWmFwT8oXECx3DZmj/s640/blogger-image-1836465358.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUHNhq9X_p34Wsr0u2J2XfYqxLRb36h1YRyzrQHIPMYz6Hvhnox5OWFBBgHz6FZDv5eyvXgijG6has_jMagAuFYdNthPyGOrDxcpPqdhP2iVFDcD-nKTNnYWhwUWWFWmFwT8oXECx3DZmj/s640/blogger-image-1836465358.jpg"></a></div><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Abigail x </span></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-63744799311732580852014-07-23T10:47:00.001-07:002014-07-30T15:31:59.713-07:00Kefalonia holidayThis years summer holiday was to Kefalonia a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, we had never been there but we knew people who had and said it was lovely. We were staying in Skala a resort on the southern tip of Kefalonia.<div><br></div><div>Accommodation</div><div><br></div><div>Our hotel was San Giorgio just outside the resort of Skala, it had 3 pools, a restaurant, a bar, a shop and a cafe. The hotel room was fantastic with a balcony with views across the Ionion sea, the shower was powerful and the king size bed was comfortable, the<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> air conditioning was very effective! Sometimes I would wake up shivering! </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> </span></div><div>We were on bed and breakfast board. The breakfast was good, not really what I am used to, it was more a continental breakfast, everyday they would have cereals, yoghurt, honey, fruit, toast, ham and cheese, then one hot item either scrambled eggs, boiled eggs or sausage and beans, they also had croissant some days or a honey sponge cake which was delicious. I do usually like a cooked breakfast whilst I'm on holiday but it was so hot I don't think I would've managed it and there enough of a selection to keep me happy. We ate at the cafe for our lunch a few times and was very impressed, the food was lovely we had chicken souvlaki on pittas, salad from the salad bar thiswas a self service and we were given a tub to fill up, we shared one and it was plenty and sandwiches, huge baguettes which was really enough to share, food and the drinks were resonably priced. We went to the restaurant twice it was really lovely and the food was as good as any you would find in the resort, on the first day I had Bekre Meze my husband had pork souvlaki which was lovely too. The second time we went I had another traditional Greek dish, Lamb Kleftiko, my husband had Beef Stifado, again both delicious. The meals cost about 23€ with drinks each time! We got bread the first night 4 big slices which was lovely and it came with garlic butter when we looked on our bill the bread was only 1€! It's also a lovely location you can sit on the balcony to three sides, either looking out to the sea, looking towards skala beach or to the hotel pool. The hotel was immaculate inside and out the gardens were beautiful and pools were lovely and good sizes. There were beautiful little coves and beaches just a sort walk from the hotel and also a few restaurants within walking distance I can recommend 'Old Times' a lovely family restaurant nearby. There is a free shuttle service to Skala that you could book on but it stops at 9pm and there weren't many shuttles in the afternoon. One afternoon we walked it once it took about 40 mins, hard work in the heat of the sun. There are also taxis from skala that cost 5€ we quite often took the shuttle bus down to town then got the taxi back. There were several themed nights a fun Karaoke on one night and on some nights there was a singer, singing well known mainstream songs earlier on then later, more traditional Greek songs and eventually ending the night with getting everyone up dancing, one of the hotel staff also did some very impressive belly dancing. On the Saturday our last night there were lanterns in the pool and fireworks and even I succumbed to the dancing but it didn't half go on I was shattered by the end! The clientele of the hotel is British people but from all over UK I heard a lot of different accents and a lot were people who had been before. </div><div>The only downsides I would say is the wifi was very weak and hit and miss, I know you don't go on your holidays to use the internet but on this occasion we needed to transfer money and we couldn't because of the wifi. Also I decided not to take my hair dryer because of recent electrical restrictions on the plane but I wished I had brought it because the one in the hotel was so weak. </div><div>All in all the<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> hotel far exceeded our expectations and we had a lovely stay here.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBllEGOXD9WroBU8uz60tt0ySw0OqN87CMfsL3UcWB4W3F6NNenjUnfY88KF1oBxBw-F3l8roeQmVM-dDiixfU2D7gv8DiMvo85Q5dI3JSBeEUAIpzAqltjSPt4Gjng9HMcdsJdojB7Xny/s640/blogger-image-1159559606.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBllEGOXD9WroBU8uz60tt0ySw0OqN87CMfsL3UcWB4W3F6NNenjUnfY88KF1oBxBw-F3l8roeQmVM-dDiixfU2D7gv8DiMvo85Q5dI3JSBeEUAIpzAqltjSPt4Gjng9HMcdsJdojB7Xny/s640/blogger-image-1159559606.jpg"></a></div><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Food</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">As you've probably guessed from my blog posts I love food so I was excited to see what Greek food was and I wanted to try all the traditional dishes. We had quite a selection some of which I'd tried before some I hadn't. The thing about kefalonia is that because it's an island it produces lots of its own food, everything was amazingly fresh where ever we went and we didn't have a bad meal anywhere.</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Here are some of the food we tried:</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bekre Meze- it was delicious it was like a stew made with beef I think it was and garlic and red wine it had pieces of feta and another Greek cheese which I can't remember the name of melted into it.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Lamb Kleftiko - lamb, potatoes, veg, herbs and feta cheese cooked in a parcel </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Beef Stifado - tomato based stew with shallots</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pork souvlaki - a marinated pork kebab served with pitta and tzatziki ( a cucumber yoghurt dip)</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Kefalonian meat pie - traditionally made with goat in but in most restaurants it's made with lamb, potatoes and herbs with a very thin pastry.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Calamari - fried squid</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Moussaka - mince with aubergines layered on top then topped with a bechamel sauce</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Olive tapenade - a olive and garlic paste which you spread on bread.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Everything was as delicious as it sounds! Of course I also had lots of feta and olives. I am going to research home to make the dishes now I'm back.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">We ate out at The Flamingo, The Pines, Old times, Mikelatos Family and Akrogialli Taverna. We also had lunch at Apagio in Fiscardo. Everywhere was lovely and we mainly got two main meals, bread and an alcoholic drink and it was never more than 25€ so it was really good value too.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4PDeICXR0wWu_W6tisUYqIh9YFInUkvIOROD1tonLr67-B37wZl_P3-Ne0UXVAPD-C_69qsc2EyzAxiwF4h74-Ib8NLCOpMSkags_lDc1t5aNSFTvnSSsrv_KgOy8pzMiOM6kPaZEBMv5/s640/blogger-image-1041737761.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4PDeICXR0wWu_W6tisUYqIh9YFInUkvIOROD1tonLr67-B37wZl_P3-Ne0UXVAPD-C_69qsc2EyzAxiwF4h74-Ib8NLCOpMSkags_lDc1t5aNSFTvnSSsrv_KgOy8pzMiOM6kPaZEBMv5/s640/blogger-image-1041737761.jpg"></a></div><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Resort</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Kefalonia is by no means a lively island like its neighbour Zante. Skala is a popular and busy resort, with huge pebble beaches with crystal clear water but it's not as traditional and quaint as some resorts in Kefalonia . There are plenty of bars, restaurants and taverns but I wouldn't say it's lively. We especially liked to spend the evenings at Metaxa beach bar, this was right on the beach and as well as serving snacks and desserts, they had really good cocktails and there happy hour(s) was 8 till 10. Most places have happy hours when the cocktails are half price but they are 7 till 9. We tend to eat late so we had only finished our meal at 9, so Metaxa was perfect for us. There is an archeological site of a roman villa with mosaics set into the floor, but after walking to skala in the searing heat we walked down to see it only to find it was closed Mondays, we didn't get a chance to go again.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Excursions</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Kefalonian island tour - we booked this through Panem tours which is on Skala high street 31€ Each( much cheaper than getting it through thomson which was 45€ each) </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Places we visited: </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Assos - a beautiful traditional harbour town with a castle above it. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Fiscardo - another traditional harbour which buildings have Venetian influence these predate all the other villages as Fiscardo was the only village which remained largely unaffected by the 1953 earthquake which destroyed 90% of Islands building </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">A photo stop looking down from a layby to myrtos beach, the beach that was used in the filming of 'Captain Corellis Mandolin' </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Mellisanni lake- a underground lake you go in small rowing boats around it and when the sun shines in it reveals amazing blue colours in the water. This had an additional cost of 6€ each</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Dragorati caves-a huge cave with massive stalagmites and stalagtites. Additional cost 4€ each.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Robola wine tour and tasting.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">We really enjoyed this trip, the only downside was we got picked up from hotel first at 7.45am and they only started the tour really at 10am after we'd picked up more people from other resorts, this meant we were also the last ones back to our hotel at 7pm. Also Assos is beautiful but we didn't have a lot of time there at all, about 40 mins it's such a beautiful place I would've liked longer here. I think this was because the coastal road was closed due to an earthquake in February which damaged the road so we had to do a detour through the mountains instead.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> It was a long day but it was an enjoyable, the British guide was very knowledgable and the Greek driver drove expertly around some pretty hairy roads. The coach was comfortable with good air conditioning.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCHHTTjKgLLHBIw0OJfj-M24xywKdoUWKD2y525n2h-CUis5gepZt9VQSUHmhFcW_rd-2a4dbEeAbQvQYMAH33Uw4AvlSqPn5utSrSOagEkBeavUlI1Nn5fIDF63FLodaTIzd8y4JRDCgX/s640/blogger-image--440955888.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCHHTTjKgLLHBIw0OJfj-M24xywKdoUWKD2y525n2h-CUis5gepZt9VQSUHmhFcW_rd-2a4dbEeAbQvQYMAH33Uw4AvlSqPn5utSrSOagEkBeavUlI1Nn5fIDF63FLodaTIzd8y4JRDCgX/s640/blogger-image--440955888.jpg"></a></div><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Zante cruise -booked through Thomson 35€ each</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">This was a 1hr cruise across to Zante (also known as Zakynthos) to the shipwreck beach, then to the blue caves for a swim stop then cruise around to Alykanas where we spent 2hrs before heading back to Kefalonia for another swim stop before heading back to Skala beach.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I had wanted to go to the shipwreck beach ever since I had first seen a picture of it years ago so this was a must, unfortunately I sometimes suffer from seasickness and this was no exception I was ok for about 20 mins then but then spent the rest of the time in the loos! By the time we got to the shipwreck beach I was just glad to be on dry land, so I didn't really make the most of the time here, it's a stunningly beautiful place, I have never seen sea as blue as here I wouldn't have missed it for the world I just wish there was another way to get there! The blue caves were equally impressive but because of feeling ill we didn't do the swim stop. Alykanas was really lovely, it had a sandy beach it was ideal for taking a dip because it was quite shallow until quite far out. Despite our illness it was a nice day and the way back on the boat was much better, even so we didn't do the final swim stop either which was a shame, but I just still didn't feel up to it. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7wcqddtpNQ-_zV3EX_FVX4pzhA1edk3XJu5gSPI5FfOM3z-dTXkep9z3tNWCzDQcZgXRMU_Dp6tZriYc0h7Ou4vT344nobsGVQDNi7t-DWuXm6DQ5_r7TbgAijeAJIN2y0W2lACqgb7Rv/s640/blogger-image--733932109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7wcqddtpNQ-_zV3EX_FVX4pzhA1edk3XJu5gSPI5FfOM3z-dTXkep9z3tNWCzDQcZgXRMU_Dp6tZriYc0h7Ou4vT344nobsGVQDNi7t-DWuXm6DQ5_r7TbgAijeAJIN2y0W2lACqgb7Rv/s640/blogger-image--733932109.jpg"></a></div><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I would like to go back to Kefalonia one day, but maybe to a different part of the island and we would probably hire a car as the roads were quite quiet and we'd be able to visit more small villages on the island. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Thank you for reading, </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Abigail x</span></div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-29784245151395827842014-06-30T11:32:00.001-07:002014-06-30T13:56:08.822-07:00Wild campIt was Matthew's birthday on 22nd June and he wanted to do a wild camp. He had done it before in May last year with his friend but they had done a rather adventurous one , wild camping beside red tarn then walking complete with huge rucksacks over striding edge ( a scrambling path with sheer drops either side) up to Hellvelyn . To make matters worse it was raining and misty and looked terribly dangerous. I said I would do a wild camp with him but I needed something a little more sedate! I also made it clear that I would only go if it was good weather! <div><br><div>It's something I really have wanted to do but it also scared me, what if something happened and we were miles away from anywhere or what if someone came and told us off for camping there! So we picked the destination of our wild camp carefully, although neither of us had ever been up to the top of the old man of Coniston we knew it was fairly easy to get to and not too far out of the town for if we did find ourselves in trouble, we also saw on youtube that other people had camped there and what it was like. </div><div><br></div><div>We went on the Saturday 21st which was summer solstice -the longest day of the year and gorgeous weather. <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">We got to Coniston for about 5.30 and set of steadily up to the Old Man, it's a lovely walk there are great views to Lake Coniston below, you walk through a disused slate mine and then eventually get to a low tarn just below the summit, we stopped to fill up our water bottles. Matthew had this nifty bit of kit a filter thar fit on the top of a platypus bottle then as you pour the water through it filters it making the water from rivers, stream, lakes and tarns drinkable. The last bit of the walk was a killer, quite steep with our heavy bags and feeling hungry the only thing that kept me going was knowing that we had a container full of chilli that I'd made in the morning for our tea.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div>We got to the summit at about 8 and it was lovely the sun was low in the sky and the views were amazing, we put up our tent facing east so that we could watch the sunrise in the morning, there was already a couple camping on the other side facing the sunset the summit is big enough that neither one of us would be disturbing the other.</div><div><br></div><div>We had our tea of chilli con carne and rice which tasted great and filled us up nicely. Max had his tea too, he was behaving really well considering there were sheep roaming about up there too.</div><div>After tea we watched the sunset and Matthew used his birthday present, an action camera similar to a GoPro to take a time lapse of the sunset. </div><div><br></div><div>And I have to say it felt magical being up there and watching the sunset and getting in my pyjamas on the top of a mountain, it felt good. I was a convert! We had chocolate and a hot drink and I had a hipflask with Baileys in and Matthew had one with brandy in. It was perfect I even had phone reception so I could post my photos on Instagram! </div><div><br></div><div>We went to bed very content and hoping to get up at about 4 to watch the sunrise. I was woken later by the sound of voices near our tent, loud voices, I assumed they had come to watch the sunrise so I asked Matthew what time it was, but it was only half 2! They walked away and I tried to get back to sleep, I was just about to doze off when they came back, one man in particular was so loud and kept singing and I couldn't get back to sleep so at 4 we got up. But as soon as we got up they left! It was so strange they hadn't even watched the sun come up, it was like they'd just come to annoy us! </div><div>But the sunrise was beautiful and again it felt like such a magical experience.</div><div><br></div><div>We had a walk planned for the Sunday which took us along the ridge to another couple of mountains then down to another tarn then back to the path we came up. It was hard going, our bags were very heavy and it was very warm, the paths were also very rocky. We set off at about 8 and only get back to the car at about 12 then went for a drink in Coniston before heading back. </div><div>I would definitely do it again although I wish I'd been able to sleep more and would probably do a shorter walk on the way back. </div><div><br></div><div>Plus it's two more things to tick off my wish list - Wildcamp ✔️ Watch sunrise✔️</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqzGx0iHCmagfFZa582gpR1bZ88eYQqNAIEjJ09vsrJd0dbmKZFWM6tKECa0m_Q_tvOJZt9J2huAWbsqEo96ZuKAGOZIcL94BF_lst4DTgsbTzRgvYZtvoJeW3GjlLWL0cGJEZgl7yNka8/s640/blogger-image--956110278.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqzGx0iHCmagfFZa582gpR1bZ88eYQqNAIEjJ09vsrJd0dbmKZFWM6tKECa0m_Q_tvOJZt9J2huAWbsqEo96ZuKAGOZIcL94BF_lst4DTgsbTzRgvYZtvoJeW3GjlLWL0cGJEZgl7yNka8/s640/blogger-image--956110278.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>Thanks for reading </div><div><br></div><div>Abigail x</div></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-91569768251630504882014-05-30T16:11:00.001-07:002014-05-30T16:11:19.990-07:00Spring watch in my back garden.Look what I found in my garden this month...<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5V6EOQ79ShL3yTz6J6iWKw47YXYMjia4JFF_twlxKflKJPQ6G5Hd4oJuoV6Z-VZP5MDT27Iw_XOxIMpHqadGLuBOTOxscH1VxitnvdbUjQVU7ebbZfllmhXk0vZo7qetSiFuFIumMQWVW/s640/blogger-image--2042993476.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5V6EOQ79ShL3yTz6J6iWKw47YXYMjia4JFF_twlxKflKJPQ6G5Hd4oJuoV6Z-VZP5MDT27Iw_XOxIMpHqadGLuBOTOxscH1VxitnvdbUjQVU7ebbZfllmhXk0vZo7qetSiFuFIumMQWVW/s640/blogger-image--2042993476.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">My mum was helping me tidy my back garden when she noticed this nest in the top of my green recycle bin as she was about to put grass cuttings in. The lid of the bin was propped open slightly from some branches that I'd cut off the trees a few weeks before. I'd seen a robin in the garden picking up bits of moss and twigs from the grass in the garden so I guessed the nest had been by her. A few days later I looked again and there she was...<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQx04J4tlNWx1rupS46q0tm7cV_RE9PnlcS-L9ESrllr8TCoK7NHeMdwO84jcFLDVbGqYKRX_Vzy5Igl8DJ1fOEg4Tl7NsGyVn5e_cOXrGdQxt616YVXVwCTSnPjfDwvggNlEa6bdl2cmt/s640/blogger-image-616922600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQx04J4tlNWx1rupS46q0tm7cV_RE9PnlcS-L9ESrllr8TCoK7NHeMdwO84jcFLDVbGqYKRX_Vzy5Igl8DJ1fOEg4Tl7NsGyVn5e_cOXrGdQxt616YVXVwCTSnPjfDwvggNlEa6bdl2cmt/s640/blogger-image-616922600.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">She had also laid 3 more eggs, I kept watching throughout the week and saw two robins coming and going, about a week later I went to check on them when we were having a bbq and was amazed to see 6 little skinny birds with there beaks open wide!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY3lqkWCAEk1AZ4goc8VcHjp-eW62Sp12NusRo3zTza_FWFp_PYZ6ZFjuJvfWGWmXHgfF3IqaQ8pSXJ_ZrThubZ7jyVEreNYIqmfhveVUSqEnrFg1ODyJ8Myi_xYtzTJ3NNxEToumB4k44/s640/blogger-image-1977088986.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY3lqkWCAEk1AZ4goc8VcHjp-eW62Sp12NusRo3zTza_FWFp_PYZ6ZFjuJvfWGWmXHgfF3IqaQ8pSXJ_ZrThubZ7jyVEreNYIqmfhveVUSqEnrFg1ODyJ8Myi_xYtzTJ3NNxEToumB4k44/s640/blogger-image-1977088986.jpg"></a></div>I continued to watch mummy and daddy robin coming and going with insects and every couple of days I checked on their progress - they changed so quickly , from this...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg8hiE2ca2yhMWstiE_vnkdj0FSF_AI-7dRSmZBZ6gitQ2oDDHcoi_EV9qI8gRkIuXyWCg0JlTFJloBoFP81WqgpyLYoIwzCPFxmB99Oet8iIzBpxx7SxukkQLXmSYgc5U4n96jqjHXl5i/s640/blogger-image-29359452.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg8hiE2ca2yhMWstiE_vnkdj0FSF_AI-7dRSmZBZ6gitQ2oDDHcoi_EV9qI8gRkIuXyWCg0JlTFJloBoFP81WqgpyLYoIwzCPFxmB99Oet8iIzBpxx7SxukkQLXmSYgc5U4n96jqjHXl5i/s640/blogger-image-29359452.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">To this...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBK0RCZoE01Lt9pR430XQFwVH0GBhH4_hh1d3gSCrL9gFOr2iD9vfk7CJE5fiR9AF1m1pjfS_OMtWq7838RV9SNNDaiob9LICyZUaa7ErPvQ-cxSL599KjrTGmGA8E5vIAkTdoOy1C1ly/s640/blogger-image-865448997.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSBK0RCZoE01Lt9pR430XQFwVH0GBhH4_hh1d3gSCrL9gFOr2iD9vfk7CJE5fiR9AF1m1pjfS_OMtWq7838RV9SNNDaiob9LICyZUaa7ErPvQ-cxSL599KjrTGmGA8E5vIAkTdoOy1C1ly/s640/blogger-image-865448997.jpg"></a></div>To this...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLebCaCv-IhPd4us8IWdiRm5BVyWonJRcyvPEEvsMwWxHGrFQCsVnT4h0CGE1y090Lco7NLxCLnlL_MacvFXbEngC_rxptfGrG6VzHbQGeR38yxOBWraOl_NEZT2QItji8cqAdfBQFzXrG/s640/blogger-image--1145281891.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLebCaCv-IhPd4us8IWdiRm5BVyWonJRcyvPEEvsMwWxHGrFQCsVnT4h0CGE1y090Lco7NLxCLnlL_MacvFXbEngC_rxptfGrG6VzHbQGeR38yxOBWraOl_NEZT2QItji8cqAdfBQFzXrG/s640/blogger-image--1145281891.jpg"></a></div>This was the last photo I took last Friday it was looking very cosy and slightly cramped when I went to check on Saturday they had gone.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBf-X2WsztMpnE4lwFPD126yyB8T79nQB3IEflZIQA-gWxU3yqDtBkKtX2qxPS07dqqwfo-1gbWzK-qbZ31kAzuO8gY3pktw4i4sG3q3agO7J_1lGdaJz_IsA2ml7Um7VJtNy4q7HRmorj/s640/blogger-image--1967119248.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBf-X2WsztMpnE4lwFPD126yyB8T79nQB3IEflZIQA-gWxU3yqDtBkKtX2qxPS07dqqwfo-1gbWzK-qbZ31kAzuO8gY3pktw4i4sG3q3agO7J_1lGdaJz_IsA2ml7Um7VJtNy4q7HRmorj/s640/blogger-image--1967119248.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I must admit to feeling a bit sad when they had gone but I was extremely priviledged to have been able to witness their progress up close. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div>Thanks for reading x</div><br></div></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-43866409867482613572014-04-29T09:45:00.001-07:002014-04-29T12:22:17.897-07:00A weekend in the LakesThe easter holidays have started many firsts for the year, for example; first picnic, first barbecue and of course, first camping trip of the year. <div><br><div>We have never been camping at Easter, always opting to go in the May bank holidays instead. Last Easter- which was earlier, at the end of March was a definite no no, there had still been snow in many places around the country and very cold even where there wasn't snow. This year, however Easter was almost a full month later than it was last year and Matthew had his heart set on camping and in the Lake District. I was a bit more warey we had had odd days of sunshine but nothing too warm and the past weeks it had been drizzling on and off.</div><div><br><div>Now I love camping, I love the cooking and eating outside, the peaceful beautiful surroundings and waking up to birdsong and the glow of sunlight hitting the tent in the morning I don't even mind the sound of wind and drizzle on the tent through the night, what I do mind is being so cold you can't sleep, getting drenched when you need to go out to the loos but most of all I hate putting the tent up or down in rain, I have done it before you end up as muddy and wet as the tent and very very miserable, also what would we do if it was raining? we had our dog Max so we couldn't take him any indoor attractions like the pencil museum ( I kid you not this is an actual museum in the Lakes! ) so we would end up in a pub all day everyday. I kept trying gentle persuasion to try and get Matthew to change his mind, 'the Lake District isn't known for its good weather maybe we could try somewhere down south!' But he was having none of it, and I must say on this very very rare occasion, Matthew was right! </div><div><br></div><div>The weather for the easter weekend was good, Friday and Saturday being the best days and the best part of the country was the Lake District, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland. </div><div>We had decided to stay in a place called Wasdale I hadn't heard of it before but we had talked about walking up Scafell Pike, England's tallest mountain so we did a google search to find out where was near, we found a walk that started and ended in Wasdale so we decided to go to the campsite there which was owned by the National Trust. </div><div>Wasdale itself is stunning, the only way I can describe it and this probably does it no justice whatsoever to the village is its like a cul de sac but instead of houses blocking the road through there are mountains! The village itself doesn't have a through road, just a road that leads you to a pub, a small church, a shop and few houses, a campsite, a car park and a farm, and surrounding them to three sides there are stunning mountains. We didn't stay at the campsite that was in the village purely because we didn't know about it, ours was about a mile out of the village near Wast water, England's deepest lake. </div><div><br></div><div>The campsite was in a great location you could walk to and from Scafell Pike direct from the campsite. It felt quite sheltered in the valley with lovely views of the mountains. It had a good shop on site, you could pitch up wherever you liked and even though the campsite was full you didn't feel like crammed in, all the pitches were nicely spaced out, the facilities were ok, although the showers weren't very warm. There were a couple of downside, you had to park your car away from the pitches and carry all your things, lots of which were very heavy to your pitch, when it came to putting the tent up the air was blue and about a 4 of our tent pegs were bent so much they had to be thrown away, the ground was unbelievably hard it felt like there was a thin layer of grass and then underneath hard gravel, eventually Matthew went to the shop and found some stronger longer tent pegs which made light work of it, he got four and used the stronger ones to make the holes for the normal tent pegs, the ground also was too hard to screw in the dog lead tether so Max kept pulling it loose. Imagine getting the stuff out of the boot and carry it over to the pitch, then trying to put up a tent in rock hard ground as well as trying to pig wrangle a extremely restless Max after being in a car for hours, who'd managed to pull his lead free! It was a challenge!</div><div><br></div><div>On the Saturday we decided to do Scafell Pike, last year we did Snowdon and that is higher so I thought this would be fine but I really found it hard tough, especially since Matthew added on a mile walking down to Wasdale to start from there when everybody else was setting off in the other direction going straight up, he had a different walk loaded into his gps so we had to do that, I did sulk for a bit! What I hadn't taken into consideration was Snowdon was a straight path up to the top, Scafell Pike was not! It was very steep and rocky with lots of turns and a few false summits, we kept walking and passing people, then resting and they passed us again, there was 2 families doing it together with 4 adults and about 5 kids ranging from about 6 to 12 years old, they kept stopping and stroking and saying hello to Max, the sometimes waning children would be spurred on by the promise of being able to stroke Max when they got to the top! The children actually put us to shame they got to the summit before us, we saw them again a few times on the way down and later on in the pub, one of the dad's thanked us and said that they doubted they would have got to the top without Max to spur them on! He's a little mountain pooch! <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div></div><div><br></div><div>It took us about 4 hours to get to the top and then about 3 hours back down, it was a brilliant sense of achievement, the weather stayed nice although very cool on the top - there was a patch of snow that had not yet melted, and the views were fantastic. I had jelly legs on the way down and the rocky paths meant if you didn't watch were you put your feet you would slip, we soaked our feet in the stream at the end which was freezing but felt great on our tired feet. I enjoyed the walk but it was hard work and I'm not in a rush to do it again! Or Ben Nevis to make it a hat trick! </div><div><br></div><div>On Easter Sunday it was a little overcast at times but we went out for the day to the nearby coastal towns of Whitehaven and St. Bees, with it being Easter Sunday there wasn't many places open in Whitehaven we walked around the harbour where we had a picnic and the pier and we took Max on a small stretch of beach. Next we went to St. Bees which was lovely it has a pebbly beach and I collected lots of driftwood to use on crafts in the future. </div><div><br></div><div>On the second and third nights we went to the Wasdale head pub, as I said before it was about a mile to Wasdale from the campsite but there was a really lovely path you could go along next to the stream which brought you out behind the pub, the Wasdale head was split into a part for hotel residents and a bar / restaurant for the public there was a sheltered outside area and a beer garden behind by the stream. The pub was very busy both nights we went, not surprisingly considering it's the only pub for miles because of this they could have charged an extortionate amount and not really bothered too much about the quality, but it was reasonably priced for food and drink, lots of items In the menu were locally sourced and everything we had was delicious I recommend the lamb cobbler just the thing to warm you up as the night got cool, dogs were allowed in the bar and welcomed. It was a very lovely pub but don't forget your torch for walking back along the road to the campsite! As we walked back, because there is very little light pollution we could see the night sky in all it's glory, you can see all the different constellations. It was beautiful! </div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDyamwm-HuobgCckjvGQ7aC-BF1W4JtT1MwLpDLqd9ULC_19nT508gN9bQ42DM-j69SdEUo08OMZJgB3q0E1y3KAYw1NYNGmqVJ74LDmr5_cq_XGa6EN_l7j2OXaIF1R4ywoB4Z7b5Fo4d/s640/blogger-image--469306264.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDyamwm-HuobgCckjvGQ7aC-BF1W4JtT1MwLpDLqd9ULC_19nT508gN9bQ42DM-j69SdEUo08OMZJgB3q0E1y3KAYw1NYNGmqVJ74LDmr5_cq_XGa6EN_l7j2OXaIF1R4ywoB4Z7b5Fo4d/s640/blogger-image--469306264.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>We had a really lovely time camping and also had time to relax and read and doze. Our legs were a bit achy after the walk but we are full of lovely memories and are ready for our next camping adventure! Only 4 more days to go..! </div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for reading, </div><div>Abigail x</div></div></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-21247725069426572342014-03-14T15:56:00.001-07:002014-03-14T17:16:36.625-07:00Meat feastLast weekend my sister and her boyfriend were staying with us and we decided to go into Manchester and check out a new restaurant that I'd heard about that sounded amazing, Christiana shares my love of food and I knew that she would love it too, the place in question was Red's True Barbecue on Lloyd street, Manchester.<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_8AmfYAA22M1A9WPleIf0ZJq4NzLqsUCEoDnR0utjGR-GRoBjNjiBLIVrkHkDHEu3bs-X4p8vQ8bCuYtVdYoWItt_H1lay5t48VREHvj5-yjthmdraGFLI0Th8kUQH4s1q7pg0coatQX1/s640/blogger-image-758329922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_8AmfYAA22M1A9WPleIf0ZJq4NzLqsUCEoDnR0utjGR-GRoBjNjiBLIVrkHkDHEu3bs-X4p8vQ8bCuYtVdYoWItt_H1lay5t48VREHvj5-yjthmdraGFLI0Th8kUQH4s1q7pg0coatQX1/s640/blogger-image-758329922.jpg"></a></div><br><div>Red's is a American style barbecue grill restaurant, think 'man v food'! This is not the place to go if your a vegeterian- it's meat, meat and more meat on the menu!</div><div>It sounded as though it could be popular and you couldn't book so we decided to go on an earlyish into Manchester. We got there at about 7 and it was already very busy as we'd expected but we were told they could fit us in for 9.30 and took our number so if they could call us if they could fit us in earlier. We had a little wander around some pubs and bars nearby for some drinks and they called us at about 9.10pm to tell us our table was ready. </div><div>We'd already been looking at the menu online so I had a fair idea of what I wanted, at first we'd agreed we'd probably just have the mains but we were so hungry and the starters sounded so good we had to try them. We ordered one each but shared them out between us, we had jalapeño poppers, pork crackling, homemade beef jerky and something called hush puppies which were a kind of a sweetcorn and jalapeño fritter with a warm chilli cheese dip. I really enjoyed them all, there was loads but we managed to eat it all! <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYHcKtuAWViXXtzB_tt3ZAD752KI3AbaGvAV43INvCbw8pdKib1I3vsbL8PGYhokPRxvOELI5JxQtNLrwlb4kwNGiQTygGczdDAKMPypn7CEwsXn5UlC-BgJbTz1xeyEZHSu9Ho5W51VuQ/s640/blogger-image-477581805.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYHcKtuAWViXXtzB_tt3ZAD752KI3AbaGvAV43INvCbw8pdKib1I3vsbL8PGYhokPRxvOELI5JxQtNLrwlb4kwNGiQTygGczdDAKMPypn7CEwsXn5UlC-BgJbTz1xeyEZHSu9Ho5W51VuQ/s640/blogger-image-477581805.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br></div>The mains were lovely too, I had pulled pork, with coleslaw and macaroni cheese, Christiana and Luke got sandwiches and shared them - the texas smoked sausage sandwich with barbecue pit beans and huge onion rings and the smoked brisket sandwich with bbq gravy with grits, then Matthew had a burger with fries, everyone enjoyed their food but Matthew said that if he was to go again he wouldn't have had the burger it was nice enough but he would've tried something a bit different. The trouble was that by this time it was about 10pm and we were all getting quite full , so I'm afraid we didn't eat it all. </div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvOipHOP7jvSxCmwBncm8smOHjCQUHvL1BRhQUPgolZ7ANh_y3wKq9ykbyXWIkigimfVMmBzGMSv63zrNJ3g4_dOmiaBDY9Ekm_wQJ96rvjFoYkmQ0N6C2jXAnzIswDwZSMA7_DzFdg0ih/s640/blogger-image-37923791.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvOipHOP7jvSxCmwBncm8smOHjCQUHvL1BRhQUPgolZ7ANh_y3wKq9ykbyXWIkigimfVMmBzGMSv63zrNJ3g4_dOmiaBDY9Ekm_wQJ96rvjFoYkmQ0N6C2jXAnzIswDwZSMA7_DzFdg0ih/s640/blogger-image-37923791.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>The style of the restaurant was quite cool, grungy with neon lights, you can see right through to the kitchens through wire fencing to the grills. It works on the idea of bbq food as a religion, the menus are like bibles and the toilets are even like confessionals, there is also a selection of sauces on the table to use with suggestions of what they work best with. It's a good atmosphere and there was a lot of good r'n'b and soul tunes playing, the only negatives I found were that the music was a bit too loud it makes that hard to hear one another or the waitress, and also I wasn't really keen on the cocktail I had but apart from that it was great. The meal cost about £80 for 4 people including drinks and tips so not too bad.</div><div>We will definitely be returning although next time we will go earlier to book in so we wouldn't be waiting so late to eat, also we probably would share two starters instead of four.</div><div>All in all it was a really lovely night! </div><div>Thanks for reading, </div><div>Abigail x </div></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-16865727560352937032014-02-21T10:20:00.001-08:002014-02-21T10:20:13.111-08:00Cocktail Masterclass at the Alchemist, Manchester.<div><br></div>I've looked into doing cocktail masterclasses before but this is the best value one I've seen by far, you need to have at least 6 people to book a cocktail masterclass here, it is £25 each and for that you get to make and drink 3 cocktails. The cocktails themselves are about £7.50 so for not much more you get to make them yourself. I managed to get 8 work friends to come but we didn't really know what to expect. We thought maybe we'd be in a room separate from the bar, other cocktail making classes I've heard of are just done at the table and the measures of alcohol are poured out for you ready and you just assemble it but when we got there we were told we'd be doing it at the bar.<div> W<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">e all sat at bar stools down one end of the bar and Ben the barman made the first cocktail that we'd be doing - the French martini apparently the only reason it's called martini is because of the martini glasses this had vodka, chambord (which is a blackberry liqueur) cranberry juice and sugar syrup topped with a pineapple foam and raspberry dust. We all had a taste so that we know what it's supposed to taste like, It sort of tastes a bit like rhubarb and custard sweets it's delicious, very quaffable! So he talked us through how we'd be making it, using the cocktail shaker and using counting to measure out the liquids - which lead to some differences in measures from one person to the next I think some people were intentionally counting slowly!! Next we each got to go around behind the bar two at a time to make the drinks, I was a bit nervous actually I was convinced that I'd drop it or spill it everywhere but it was such good fun, first measuring it out, then then shaking it, then straining it and the last bit you carefully squirt the pineapple foam out of the pressurised container you had to do it carefully, Ben said I had a good technique at that! I was very proud especially when it looked and tasted just as it should and it was great watching the others take turns at doing it whilst we drank our cocktails.</span><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXqhnBr0nCN1SReubU3ZulX-PBVNYoaUjJ2kBBSg_PYf8g-Nh48V21oLznohYaBHnRpYN80WhelqwsRtvgTk7buAbRa7VhFOrtp_EnsX0rTa9HVAaByAFrfGD8Turv9ZG3r8R2e1DynaY/s640/blogger-image-354631335.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXqhnBr0nCN1SReubU3ZulX-PBVNYoaUjJ2kBBSg_PYf8g-Nh48V21oLznohYaBHnRpYN80WhelqwsRtvgTk7buAbRa7VhFOrtp_EnsX0rTa9HVAaByAFrfGD8Turv9ZG3r8R2e1DynaY/s640/blogger-image-354631335.jpg"></a></div>The next one was a passionfruit mojito, Ben told us all about the origins of the drink and the history behind this cocktail. This was one we made it in the glass with crushed ice, it had Bacardi, lime juice, passionfruit sugar syrup, a dash of soda, mint leaves and passion fruit. Then you use a swizzle stick/ spoon to mix the ingredients around the glass then top with more ice and a passionfruit half. I didn't use as much mint leaves in mine because I'm not that keen. It was really nice and refreshing. It would be great for summer.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt3qvjCLT417ptL8XcT_Udmy5AxeLHIGkIvGTdQ1iPjoO_32ZpPHmq-OmK9y64EF7l0-_heDXrBoub-CPUsMdCGbssnH7julwPx1hT4BK3XVA8CUEs9374DZFR4Axwa9O17oovLrtx5_4N/s640/blogger-image-253276329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt3qvjCLT417ptL8XcT_Udmy5AxeLHIGkIvGTdQ1iPjoO_32ZpPHmq-OmK9y64EF7l0-_heDXrBoub-CPUsMdCGbssnH7julwPx1hT4BK3XVA8CUEs9374DZFR4Axwa9O17oovLrtx5_4N/s640/blogger-image-253276329.jpg"></a></div>The last one, 'Smokey Old Fashioned' we didn't really get to make this one, it's prepared for you and then you just pour it into the glass but it's very impressive. It's made using wild turkey bourbon, maple syrup, Jerry Thomas' bitters, oak smoke poured onto an ice ball. The oak smoke is administered by a really cool appliance it's called a smoking gun you put oak chips in the top and smoke comes out of the end. Obviously<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> we weren't allowed to use it but apparently you can buy them (they are around £60). The cocktail was ok, I'm not a lover of whiskey but it was drinkable and I really liked the smokey flavour and it was actually really nice when I had coca cola put in it for me! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9PXiWuDKM-xThfikUVt0vCD_BdDIhQiIAKUSt6VJ4uAKPIhYSkt7qpZ2m5A2GXaU5XaNRwA4v3_yeR1ilo0zY_luD1JwTA0M3JY_ciIxTX4TJ_7KFAXiEgG-J5KYD1Gq_LZJK5edScITF/s640/blogger-image--1776661030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9PXiWuDKM-xThfikUVt0vCD_BdDIhQiIAKUSt6VJ4uAKPIhYSkt7qpZ2m5A2GXaU5XaNRwA4v3_yeR1ilo0zY_luD1JwTA0M3JY_ciIxTX4TJ_7KFAXiEgG-J5KYD1Gq_LZJK5edScITF/s640/blogger-image--1776661030.jpg"></a></div><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">We were so impressed with the cocktail masterclass, the fact that you got to go behind the bar to do it like a professional!, that you get to do a few different techniques, also that Ben spent so much time with us it was about 2hrs in all and it was very informative.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">When the cocktail masterclass finished we decided to have a meal there. I had never had food there before but it was really nice and reasonable too. I had a steak sandwich with salt and pepper fries which was delicious and everyone else's food looked really good too and then I finished off the night with another two cocktails ...a Peach Bellini and a Strawberry Bellini, needless to say I was a bit tipsy by the end of it! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">It was a good night had by all and I would definitely recommend it,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Thanks for reading! </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Abigail x </span></div></div></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-32089936355950433642014-02-17T12:30:00.002-08:002014-02-17T12:37:37.126-08:0036 hours in Belfast<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
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When looking for a city break Belfast didn't spring straight to mind. Many of my recent choices of travel have been based on how cheap the flights are by searching on sky scanner. After finding a cheap flight to Belfast I had a look into it and it sounded really good.<br>
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<i><b><u>Travel</u></b></i> </div>
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The flights from Liverpool to Belfast were good arriving at about 8am Saturday morning and leaving at about 8pm Sunday. The flights were with easyjet and cost us £100 for 2 return tickets.</div>
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On arrival at belfast international airport we needed to get the 300 airport express bus to and from Belfast which was about 30 mins and cost £10.50 return each. All in all the entire travel took about 4hr including our drive to Liverpool, dropping the car at the skypark car park ( I booked these using my tesco clubcard vouchers to get £10 off so that cost £15.99) flights and transfers. </div>
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<b><i><u>Hotel</u></i></b> </div>
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The prices for hotels were a little bit more expensive than normal because of it being half term and valentines weekend, we wanted to stay central but we didn't want to pay too much, there is a travelodge which is usually quite cheap but this was £99 for the night which I found quite expensive. As we only were staying for 1 night I thought we'd stay at somewhere a bit nicer for a bit more. As I'd been searching for hotels I had seen Hotel Europa and been told about about by one of my friends on Instagram it was actually the most bombed hotel and throughout Belfast's troubles it spent a lot of time with its windows boarded up which earned it the name of the hardboard hotel. It looked really nice and I really felt like it's a landmark of Belfast in itself. I booked the hotel through onhotels.com which by far had the cheapest price for this hotel it was £118 for a double room with full Irish buffet breakfast. </div>
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The room was lovely, it was small but it it felt luxurious. The bed was huge and so comfortable. Each room has a little rubber duck that you can keep. </div>
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The hotel it's self was lovely, at night we went to the piano bar on the second floor later on for a night cap before going to bed it was very nice and busy too. </div>
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The breakfast was amazing. It had a cooked breakfast as well as continental breakfast, cereals and fruit juices. We had the cooked breakfast which included bacon, sausage, mushroom, grilled tomato, fried soda bread, white or black pudding, a choice of fried, poached or scrambled eggs. All the ingredients were locally produce and delicious. Staff were very attentive asking if we'd like more tea or coffee. I was very full by the end! </div>
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<b><i><u>Attractions</u></i></b></div>
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You can't go to Belfast without going to the titanic quarter. I had planned that we would spend all day Saturday here but we found that we only had time on the Saturday to do the Titanic experience and the Titanic dry dock and pumphouse so we went back on Sunday to do The SS Nomadic.</div>
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<b>Titanic experience</b> (£14.75 per person)</div>
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The Titanic experience building is amazing and there are great photo opportunities to be had outside, however I was less impressed with the actual attraction. It is a self guided tour which is usually staged entry but we were told it's not too busy today so you can go straight through. The first area was about Belfast the linen and ship building industries and how they grew, there are a few interactive displays which were good but a lot of reading in dim light, it felt far too busy in this first bit which made it hard to look at things also it didn't really flow well because you didn't really know which way to go so you didn't miss anything. The next bit focused on the building of the titanic you saw a part of the arroll gantry which was a third of the size of the gantry that the workers would have worked on, you then get in a lift that takes you to the top of it, and a guide tells you about the conditions for the workers. Next there is a small ride that takes you around the shipbuilding yard. I felt that the ride was a bit pointless and probably were the majority of the ticket price goes to paying for. The next bit was about the launch and for the first time you come out into the light as there are big windows in this bit. Before that I was starting to get a headache from reading in dim light. Next it showed us how the Titanic was fitted out and my favourite bit of the tour was a bit were you stood in a room and a tour of the Titanic was projected on the walls including the famous staircase. Next it told you about how the passengers and the events leading up to the titanics tragic end and you hear the survivors accounts of what happened. Then the next bit was about what happened afterwards, the news surrounding it and the inquiry into what happened. This was all very interesting. The tour finishes in a cinema that shows you the wreckage of the Titanic. I felt the second half of the exhibition was better. I did feel shattered by the time we'd finished the experience but this might have had something to do with me being up so early too. I enjoyed it mostly but I did feel that it was overpriced and having gone to the two other attractions in the titanic district I do think those were better because they were real parts of the history of the titanic.</div>
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We went to have lunch in the Galley cafe which was great, we had sub sandwiches which were delicious I had chicken with pesto and Matthew had a salami and mozzarella sub which was so big they were cut into two so we had half each. They cost £4.75 each which seems a bit pricey but the were so good. </div>
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<b>Titanic dry dock and pumphouse</b> (£8 for two with tour and free tea/coffee with a voucher from livingsocial)</div>
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The dry dock is about 15mins walk from the Titanic experience the weather was on and off showers and it was blowing a gale so this wasn't a great walk. We had the voucher which entitled us to a free tour which started at 2pm, when we got there there was a massive downpour so we had to wait 5 mins for it to die down a bit as the majority of the tour takes place outside. Luckily by the time we'd been given the tour of the pumphouse the sun had come out again. The tour was really informative and there was only us and two other people on the tour. The tour guide had photographs of the titanic when it was in the dock so you really get an idea of how big the Titanic was. After the tour we had time to walk around on our own and take photos. We got our free cup of tea and coffee when we got back to the pumphouse and warmed back up before walking back.</div>
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<b>SS Nomadic</b> (£6.50 each)</div>
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The SS Nomadic is the last surviving White Star Line ship. If you see only one titanic related attraction it should be this one, it's excellent value for money you are given a tour which lasts about an hour and then you can stay on and explore as much as you like. You are actually encourage to touch things, try things on and play the games, even the toilets are working crapper toilets! The tour takes you around the boat and through Nomadic's history from being the tender to Titanic and Olympic, then it's uses within the two world wars, then being tender to Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth before being made into a floating entertainment complex in Paris to being bought in a delapidated state and being brought back to it's birthplace in Belfast to be lovingly restored to its former glory. The tour also features holograms of the crew explaining there jobs on the ship. The tour guide was very good, it was a large group (with wide age range) but she kept everyone engaged and was really informative. We both loved it and would definitely recommend it.</div>
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<b><i><u>Belfast Landmarks</u></i></b></div>
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<b>Belfast City Hall - </b>this is a really impressive building in the centre of Belfast, built in 1906 out of Portland stone, it looks particularly good lit up night. </div>
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<b>Albert Memorial Clock- </b>erected in 1865 to commemorate Queen Victoria consort, Prince Albert.</div>
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<b>St George's Market - </b>this building dates back to 1896, it now houses a weekend market, Friday - variety market, Saturday - food & garden market, Sunday - craft, variety, garden & food market.</div>
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We went on Sunday morning and I loved it there was loads of things to buy there are greengrocers, a fish stall, a butchers, bakeries, craft stalls, jewellery stalls, local painting, antiques and gifts. There are also cafés and world food stalls. </div>
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<b>Victoria Square shopping centre - </b>I wouldn't normally put a shopping centre on a list of landmarks but this one is well worth a visit it has a huge glass dome on top and you can take a glass lift up to a viewing platform where you can see spectacular views of the Belfast skyline. </div>
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<b>Sampson & Goliath cranes -</b> these are<b> </b>twin shipbuilding gantry cranes that stand on the Harland and Wolff shipyard that dominates the Belfast skyline.</div>
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<b>Big fish - </b>This is <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">a 10' long printed ceramic mosaic fish sculpture in Donegall quay. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-dsdni.gov.uk_1-1" style="unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;"></sup></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>The Crown Bar (or Crown Liqour saloon) - </b>the national trust owns this building and you can see why it is an outstanding example of a Victorian gin palace, it is ornate inside and out. In the bar there are private booths made out of dark wood with ornate glass panels. It's like stepping back in time. Upstairs they have a dining room, as this pub was directly opposite our hotel and it was such a lovely place we decided to have food here too. It was really good - I had steak and black pepper sausages, champ, onion rings and the tastiest gravy I've ever had it was delicious. Matthew had the burger and that was delicious too. I think it's my new favourite place!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Everyone we met was so lovely and could not do enough for us, I loved the lovely singsongy accent "would you like a wee glass with your coke" it's so nice and friendly.</span></div>
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I have really fallen in love with Belfast and Northern Ireland and there is so much still that we haven't seen, I'd especially like to do a walk on the Belfast hills and up to cave hill and I definitely want to come back to explore the causeway coast. </div>
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I want to say thank you to my Instagram friends especially the ones who live in Belfast and Ireland who gave me lots of tips and hints of where to go and what to see when I said I was thinking of going it really helped me to make the most of our time there.</div>
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Thank you for reading, now I'm off to plan my next trip! </div>
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Abigail x</div>
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Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-44226208460309920472014-01-11T07:35:00.001-08:002014-01-11T07:35:05.105-08:002013 an excellent year!I have been looking back at my blog from this time last year and the New Years resolutions I made and I have to admit I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself. The main thing was to do more new things and make the most of weekends and I feel like I have accomplished that and more. <div><br><div>2013 was a very good year - the best yet in my opinion! - here's a snippet of some of the things I have done:</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj42J4ncX5RwMLcMcgbdU3FJGzRI-cwvFMGQ5tOlD4jStR9Rm4z9ca89k3CMME89krxMCEfZ9TEiwrMH3wx6_Osv5tXcDj_GrRH0fttbY0DxB6T8eS17L6heyHpTNEN7Y6KNJoU00yZi69C/s640/blogger-image--568282049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj42J4ncX5RwMLcMcgbdU3FJGzRI-cwvFMGQ5tOlD4jStR9Rm4z9ca89k3CMME89krxMCEfZ9TEiwrMH3wx6_Osv5tXcDj_GrRH0fttbY0DxB6T8eS17L6heyHpTNEN7Y6KNJoU00yZi69C/s640/blogger-image--568282049.jpg"></a></div>Row 1: St ives holiday, in the paper with work friends for red nose days, indoor bouldering, haven holiday -easter at Pwhelli, indoor skydiving, selling my christmas decorations.</div><div>Row 2: Cavtat holiday in Croatia, Easter party, summer walks, London at Christmas,foraging, Mum's 60th party.</div><div>Row 3: family parties, christmas markets in Germany, making things for swaps, taking Max on the beach in summer, and again in winter, hiking up Mount Snowdon.</div><div>Row 4: Mostar in Bosnia Herzegovina, walks and picnics in local area, my craft room is complete, barbeques, camping, making apple schnapps and other things from foraged fruits.</div><div>Row 5: pasties in Cornwall, eating al fresco, criccieth castle, New Year's Eve dressing up as Scooby doo characters, Pendle hill in the snow, autumn walks.</div><div>Row 6: Dubrovnik City walls, eating a whole crab at the rum and crab shack in St. Ives , Berlin, hiking up to hellvelyn via striding edge, going out in Manchester, making jam with foraged fruits.</div><div><br></div><div>I've loved it especially the travel and visiting new places. This year as yet we have nothing planned or booked and I don't like it really. I like something to look forward to - but then I have to remember this time last year we didn't have anything booked and look at how much we've done!</div><div><br></div><div>This year I want to continue trying new things and going new places but I'm going to give myself a bit of a challenge too this year- I want to try and blog every month of the year. Last year started out well but then fizzled out as the year went on- this year I want to keep up the momentum! </div><div><br></div><div>Happy new year everyone and thanks for reading!</div><div><br></div><div>Abigail x</div></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-16817023740296999292013-10-11T13:00:00.001-07:002013-10-30T17:00:20.743-07:00"Abigail makes.." is now open for business!I love my job and I don't want to give it up anytime soon but it's not the highest paid jobs and if I want to be able to start ticking things of my wish list I'm going to have to start getting some extra money from somewhere! <div><br><div>We have tried eBay - selling anything we don't need or use anymore and that has been successful but I like to make things as you maybe able to tell from my blog and there is no bigger compliment to something you have made, than someone liking it so much that they want to buy it! </div><div>You may also remember that number 4 on my wish list was sell some of my crafts. Which has sort of been ticked, over the summer I made some brooches to be sold at Cafe Create and so far I think one had sold.</div><div><br></div><div>Now let me tell you a bit more about Cafe Create, I found out about it from my mum who sometimes volunteers there, it's held on every Fridays 10am - 1pm, it's held in a lovely large room at the back of quite an unassuming looking building called Claremont church in the <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">centre of Bolton, you reach it from the road at the back and ring the bell and wait to be welcomed in, you are then led to a lovely airy room with tall ceilings and a gallery area up some steps, there is a shop selling lots of locally produced crafty makes from jewellery to jams and cushions to clogs! Strung up across the ceiling is brightly coloured bunting and there is a comfy sofa in one corner a craft table in another and a small children's play area. Each week members and volunteers from the cafe create team make cakes to sell. A tea or coffee and a delicious cake is just £2.50 a bargain!, there is normally a craft demonstration where you can have a go, sometimes at a small cost just to cover cost of materials. The Cafe Create members are just lovely, they make it such a welcoming environment and a lovely place to meet new people.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The one downside is because it's on Fridays I only get to go in the school holidays. I had been going since February half term and each time I would show them things that I had made and they said I should make things to sell there and their encouragement has really spurred me on to do it. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">If you want to find out more about it the website is www.createbolton.com. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjhMkDKQShUjMw771lGPLJB4VJfOpg8XKshmduA1R0LY4KFaS_W6zGstNl0AE84FIFuUhN195o0Sk8Uhk_-p50juYo8arV-gDCalL5dforlXGneoFob4UgpTG6KgQUY5RSNhoWWjxyRiHg/s640/blogger-image--1830421115.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjhMkDKQShUjMw771lGPLJB4VJfOpg8XKshmduA1R0LY4KFaS_W6zGstNl0AE84FIFuUhN195o0Sk8Uhk_-p50juYo8arV-gDCalL5dforlXGneoFob4UgpTG6KgQUY5RSNhoWWjxyRiHg/s640/blogger-image--1830421115.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> My brooches for sale at Cafe Create</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2utFmRLsFIcPxDu80sYcnliWF4thewFJx_-NO_-QzHBBvI-FBH-7xI64eT4w22NnOcPnTLCvMyMBEXfcwTTURpbNB7vjjJORl4s5PsJOHRS-9Mc84gR6-L5jLpEujE-dLqLA0nsLygkcs/s640/blogger-image--634672800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2utFmRLsFIcPxDu80sYcnliWF4thewFJx_-NO_-QzHBBvI-FBH-7xI64eT4w22NnOcPnTLCvMyMBEXfcwTTURpbNB7vjjJORl4s5PsJOHRS-9Mc84gR6-L5jLpEujE-dLqLA0nsLygkcs/s640/blogger-image--634672800.jpg"></a></div> Cafe Create </div><br></div><br></span></div><div><br></div><div>After lots of deliberation I decided on the name 'Abigail makes' on which to sell my wares. I am selling crocheted, sewn, knitted and felt items and I have decided to open a Facebook page to sell them too and it's doing pretty well I've had quite a few orders, my best seller has been little pudding christmas decoration so I'm going to try some more designs of Christmas decorations. </div></div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg86IvPDfQn_muFfoHQnmxAI-4cG5pCRhE7ST0BjuCXo6PWZJxLUNUHkuEaX9N9ABaUDoU0j2Ow1rgPhy1e-gog-xtMMRvLUkmZOYITL6W7t2TDSSvlY5n3EUrClzen2cmzLhVD399aNisK/s640/blogger-image-777815487.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg86IvPDfQn_muFfoHQnmxAI-4cG5pCRhE7ST0BjuCXo6PWZJxLUNUHkuEaX9N9ABaUDoU0j2Ow1rgPhy1e-gog-xtMMRvLUkmZOYITL6W7t2TDSSvlY5n3EUrClzen2cmzLhVD399aNisK/s640/blogger-image-777815487.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Please feel free to take a look and say hi! Www.facebook.com/Abigailmakes </div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for reading, </div><div>Abigail x</div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-73989467180666284842013-09-27T13:42:00.001-07:002013-09-27T13:42:54.397-07:00Homemade Rosehip syrupAs you will already have seen from my previous post I've gotten into foraging in a big way, finding lots of new recipes to try for each new food I forage. Well today I'm making something I have never tried before and I don't really have a clue what it will taste like either.<div><br></div><div>I have been telling friends at work about my recent foraging and jam making activities, one of the women who lives in a beautiful rural area called Entwistle was telling me about how she used to pick fruits and make jam, I promised to bring in some of the elderberry and crap apple jam that I made and the next week she came in with a hedgerow jam for me - I'd inspired her to go out and forage then make some jam! The jam contained all the fruits that are available, blackberries, rowan berries, haws, crab apples, rosehips and elderberries it was delicious. </div><div><br></div><div>She said that she would like to try making blackberry and sloe recipe but she did not know where to find some. I said I would pick her some and she said would pick me some rosehips from her garden they were rosa rugosa hips that unlike the rosehips you generally see in hedgerows it was much bigger and fatter, apparently they are a better flavour. </div><div><br></div><div>This week I am suffering from a cold, chesty cough and a sore throat- the first of the autumn season and as it hasn't even been very cold yet it doesn't bode well! Apparently rosehip syrup is well known for its medicinal properties. It's high in vitamins A, C and D as well as being full of antioxidants.</div><div><br></div><div>I found this recipe on another blog...<br><div> http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/kateys-best-rosehip-syrup-recipe-121/</div></div><div><br></div><div>It seemed very straight forward so I decided to give it ago! </div><div>Wash the rosehips (and if my sisters are reading this - yes they are the things we used to break open and put in the seeds down each other's backs as itching powder when we were little!!!)</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQcHvr3yTMNxUzRwuEtrrGS-w-BN5UiKB_W6dQKXO5fgYSpTRmNSOlZcPZPaWNZMfL8-lssdi-oEn8CuB765_GnWnMpadXw073vhKpEv7ZW8vK5W5L1KoQmKzAkl2ZHTaxHvewB53KokCA/s640/blogger-image--781674033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQcHvr3yTMNxUzRwuEtrrGS-w-BN5UiKB_W6dQKXO5fgYSpTRmNSOlZcPZPaWNZMfL8-lssdi-oEn8CuB765_GnWnMpadXw073vhKpEv7ZW8vK5W5L1KoQmKzAkl2ZHTaxHvewB53KokCA/s640/blogger-image--781674033.jpg"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div></a></div>Mince them in the food processor </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglANRkiIM499sFjaNC7O0M2RZujbjIA6XvpzVGYAN4K3f1vCYO0zMmBC-Wis3rb2dtd63zC8tUITZUrJJF1hHAw6nDORWuuX68lDKSQMdZOYSyvFE11f5tqoRiwUcVqIxGLTKSN62g6W_i/s640/blogger-image--899734386.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglANRkiIM499sFjaNC7O0M2RZujbjIA6XvpzVGYAN4K3f1vCYO0zMmBC-Wis3rb2dtd63zC8tUITZUrJJF1hHAw6nDORWuuX68lDKSQMdZOYSyvFE11f5tqoRiwUcVqIxGLTKSN62g6W_i/s640/blogger-image--899734386.jpg"></a></div>Add to a pan of boiling water, bring to boil then take off heat to infuse for 15 mins. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV1EWeRJd4yNAkfOc-SqGAiJrt6QNK8eJUiHLW5hSzN-DFSm5wgXI07uBMy7f1sOh7UShpNqnVBB45LkJkdQahdTfLzHoenUcroIhirVKDx3TpsBWKyMf-nJU0CqViF34ckMh9s7Ocfc1V/s640/blogger-image--1637084502.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV1EWeRJd4yNAkfOc-SqGAiJrt6QNK8eJUiHLW5hSzN-DFSm5wgXI07uBMy7f1sOh7UShpNqnVBB45LkJkdQahdTfLzHoenUcroIhirVKDx3TpsBWKyMf-nJU0CqViF34ckMh9s7Ocfc1V/s640/blogger-image--1637084502.jpg"></a></div>Strain through a muslin cloth and put the pulp back into the pan with more water, boil then leave for 15mins and strain again.</div><div>Do you like how I have hung the muslin cloth up to strain? </div><div>I had no idea what I was going to use for hanging it up but Matthew put a hook discreetly under the cupboard and it works wonderfully. </div><div>When the juice has drained out, put back into the pan add the sugar and boil for 5 mins.</div><div>Decant into sterilised bottles....which is were I came unstuck ... I had some Kilner bottles with the swing top lid but I hadn't sterilised bottles before, only jars, so I just did it in the same way as the jars by washing it then putting it in a low oven, I'm not sure what I did or if those bottles are meant to be sterilised like that.. it must have been too high because the plastic on the lid melted ....oops!<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBoXjAp-JKnbR8eLKvTlXWZioleZ8kXQ9RHV4xtsSG-3pCsleV0e7eqfz1NPtM3ULYVC2ZdgIRPPLHf97gGjaWHLBvIGke4rLo5nTfarmSLt8vJ_lnVgL3_1_Krmg0n8dJS5mfsaXIwFYS/s640/blogger-image--323450625.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBoXjAp-JKnbR8eLKvTlXWZioleZ8kXQ9RHV4xtsSG-3pCsleV0e7eqfz1NPtM3ULYVC2ZdgIRPPLHf97gGjaWHLBvIGke4rLo5nTfarmSLt8vJ_lnVgL3_1_Krmg0n8dJS5mfsaXIwFYS/s640/blogger-image--323450625.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <i> Sterilising bottles...fail 😟</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I've not got anymore bottles so I had to use these ones but put wine bottle stoppers in!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSmOYFApB-iSKlDpEPtw6rU0vH453F04LOTkJxba5sAyChl-S-FxOIF8YUzC7M_HxTyrG7jHQvRsR8X6oWftvBfyrNVfRQtZr7HCjTPx-6JKzClFkTwrXGZn7kKlelVaJ5Xr-IWIl6-n22/s640/blogger-image--1507012016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSmOYFApB-iSKlDpEPtw6rU0vH453F04LOTkJxba5sAyChl-S-FxOIF8YUzC7M_HxTyrG7jHQvRsR8X6oWftvBfyrNVfRQtZr7HCjTPx-6JKzClFkTwrXGZn7kKlelVaJ5Xr-IWIl6-n22/s640/blogger-image--1507012016.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The finished product..and actually tastes lovely and if it helps my cold to get better then that will be great!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Thanks for reading, </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Abigail xxx</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-8686621431207100412013-09-17T10:24:00.001-07:002013-09-17T14:30:29.447-07:00Foraging walkI've really been interested in foraging since last year we picked some winberries and blackberries, I bought a book "Food for free" by Richard Mabey that I take it out with me sometimes to try to identify any berries I see. I don't want to poison myself so I always double check on google that what I've picked is edible.<br />
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What's been good about going out walking Max everyday is that you really notice any changes in park. It was mid August when I started to see that there were lots of bramble bushes and the blackberries were beginning to ripen (it seemed earlier than usual and last year I really struggled to find any blackberries on 7 acres at all I picked most of mine from longsight park). This year there has been an abundance of them I put it down to what a good summer we have had and from August to now they have been ripening and I have been picking them. I am a bit obsessed I have filled my freezer with them, made a jam, cakes and put some into apple crumbles - I find it very difficult to walk past a ripe blackberry without picking it! I also picked a handful of raspberries which I will definitely look out for in July next year.</div>
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Last week we went for a walk up to Rivington Pike and again there was an abundance of wimberry bushes but as it was coming to the end of season it was getting harder to find them still we managed to find about 250g - enough to put in a cake. </div>
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The more I walk in 7 acres the more I'm looking around at trees and noticing berries or fruits. I noticed some small apple like fruits on a tree, I took one home research it and discovered they were crab apples. I also noticed some elderberries that were green so I've been waiting for these to ripen so I could pick them too, and I noticed some purpley berries and found out that they were sloes - I have been told I must make sloe gin apparently its lovely! But don't try to eat them straight off the tree they taste sharp and it makes your tongue very dry! Yes I did have a go! </div>
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<i> Blackberries, elderberries, sloes and crab apples all foraged from 7 acres country park</i></div>
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It was a lovely surprise that when I was out walking in 7 acres I noticed a poster for a free foraging walk being held by the 'friends of 7 acres' group and we signed up for it straight away.</div>
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It was great, held on last Sunday morning 10.30am - 12.30pm we met at the 7 acres environment centre across the other side of the park to us, there was about 10 adults and about 3 children. </div>
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It was really informative as well as learning about food that is in season now we found out about what to look for in other seasons and discovered how to identify plants, we saw burdock plants of which roots can be used to make dandelion and burdock. We saw a hazel tree without any hazelnuts (apparently there are a lot of squirrels on 7 acres!). Tried the seed of a Himalayan balsam which is high in vitamin c and tastes a bit like watermelon. Sampled some Haw berry Turkish delight that sounded very easy to make and tasted much nicer than real Turkish delight. Learned that uncooked elderberries have cyanide in them! Thankfully it's only a little bit and it's only harmful if you eat in great quantities! Smelled the leaves of a plant called sweet which smelled of licorice and is high in pectin so good for adding to jams, sampled some (very strong) birch sap wine and learned how to make it. And also told us about rowan berries and rosehips both good for making jams or jellies. Unfortunately the heavens open halfway round and we got drenched but we met some very nice people and had a lovely time. We even made it onto the website - <span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); font-family: '.HelveticaNeueUI'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap;">http://www.7acres.org.uk/</span></div>
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I now have lots of ideas of what to forage and what to make next. </div>
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<i>Thanks for reading, </i></div>
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<i>Abigail xxx</i></div>
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Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-4510197036195241062013-09-07T12:43:00.001-07:002013-09-08T05:49:16.210-07:00Summer holidays have been and gone!Well 7 whole weeks of summer holidays have flown by and this was my first week back at work, I don't really feel like I've done much over the holidays but looking back I have done quite a bit.<br />
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I've taken part in three swaps, a summer swap, a vintage tea party swap and a great British tea party swap<br />
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Made quite a few things...</div>
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I've made some brooches to sell at cafe create and sold my first one!</div>
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I've made myself a granny shawl scarf</div>
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A made some things for the swaps</div>
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And baked a few things..</div>
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I've made some scones</div>
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A delicious beef and onion pie<br />
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A chorizo and egg sausage plait and milk chocolate and peanut butter cookies for a camping trip<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFRrIaVKcYcj0cMpM9CQYDIpDvVvOH0yCvUixCoTPoNKmBeY_w-JftsNcBXR-qfLoUqSgJm5miDuUukfM27TNYbwMwLxld3Oc-u2Ed9ui2RuBJIqjuOyRlpq0oO-3sowVOeeirHX9JPy_/s640/blogger-image--1557172654.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFRrIaVKcYcj0cMpM9CQYDIpDvVvOH0yCvUixCoTPoNKmBeY_w-JftsNcBXR-qfLoUqSgJm5miDuUukfM27TNYbwMwLxld3Oc-u2Ed9ui2RuBJIqjuOyRlpq0oO-3sowVOeeirHX9JPy_/s640/blogger-image--1557172654.jpg" /></a></div>
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A birthday cake and 48 cupcakes for my mums 60th birthday.</div>
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Done a bit of DIY</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0JFxU_6Q61qyM13NZvVsiV3GyJjn5OLkOSmKDDb4UoYwIY57uekAGzRbkGA05__yqZMSOw9rPLcdQam3-IS1bone9uK9kLDzYxtUkwcVcC5fY2qGznxeGxhJPpUaR6lqboP8PdVh0kAkj/s640/blogger-image-770895840.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0JFxU_6Q61qyM13NZvVsiV3GyJjn5OLkOSmKDDb4UoYwIY57uekAGzRbkGA05__yqZMSOw9rPLcdQam3-IS1bone9uK9kLDzYxtUkwcVcC5fY2qGznxeGxhJPpUaR6lqboP8PdVh0kAkj/s640/blogger-image-770895840.jpg" /></a></div>
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Matthew made some shelves for me and I painted them duck egg blue to display all my pretty things</div>
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I've been camping near Ullswater in the Lake District for bank holiday weekend</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbs-j5ejHSA1gl4VxKjSpQOwSdotJr9RjYYaPn4R0MQqop5kMWAp7HYbDEa28nfGX1vr0VnoUGdEgwDl18gJiTQRDiB0vHKXBXl4vXZ5THKV5lVpkKB7vC_eiKXpVUk7OzyFPnCwGthoyV/s640/blogger-image--117203673.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbs-j5ejHSA1gl4VxKjSpQOwSdotJr9RjYYaPn4R0MQqop5kMWAp7HYbDEa28nfGX1vr0VnoUGdEgwDl18gJiTQRDiB0vHKXBXl4vXZ5THKV5lVpkKB7vC_eiKXpVUk7OzyFPnCwGthoyV/s640/blogger-image--117203673.jpg" /></a> </div>
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And I did my hardest walk yet up helvellyn via striding edge</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgELPOhTagjePUe2rgj472aK0VZ2O1qUkr-0uddZ2XISY7RpVYJiz3ljV9lt1k6BTVF3muYlaNeWOct1HS9UJQjTMqQxtCCettiHJX5c2yb6F7FTSiQuunF_qzLT6uILaOkgXIOtrdpLfiZ/s640/blogger-image-73638120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgELPOhTagjePUe2rgj472aK0VZ2O1qUkr-0uddZ2XISY7RpVYJiz3ljV9lt1k6BTVF3muYlaNeWOct1HS9UJQjTMqQxtCCettiHJX5c2yb6F7FTSiQuunF_qzLT6uILaOkgXIOtrdpLfiZ/s640/blogger-image-73638120.jpg" /></a></div>
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Picked lots and lots of blackberries </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEQmA6Ah3dR5c333r8Kkj4j2j6Z6-5RoQcDgXGRurXMqObiyxICWpqculJDrGgcyIkV8jOy-fL2Ja0-WAg6Ocs6o_UEE5BQqYrXzOQfurF3dx1umLyMTlZUNLeueIj2fzZx58FtA2Y3Mfj/s640/blogger-image--34802681.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEQmA6Ah3dR5c333r8Kkj4j2j6Z6-5RoQcDgXGRurXMqObiyxICWpqculJDrGgcyIkV8jOy-fL2Ja0-WAg6Ocs6o_UEE5BQqYrXzOQfurF3dx1umLyMTlZUNLeueIj2fzZx58FtA2Y3Mfj/s640/blogger-image--34802681.jpg" /></a></div>
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And organised my mum's sixtieth birthday party<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvOQI9Dv6W0PiGtuGYsBNsGsXFDu32PIZ68MBqQHKNc-E4gaZjx9mprSLmOgVmivCepxe723_BM8eFUZsiCHEKRs_Qgq061Qw2-x96L9u3nhIm7MPn1F7QN84FRZpcNV2ShW-h5Jm777rY/s640/blogger-image-1587291551.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvOQI9Dv6W0PiGtuGYsBNsGsXFDu32PIZ68MBqQHKNc-E4gaZjx9mprSLmOgVmivCepxe723_BM8eFUZsiCHEKRs_Qgq061Qw2-x96L9u3nhIm7MPn1F7QN84FRZpcNV2ShW-h5Jm777rY/s640/blogger-image-1587291551.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVi3PGVx7eXs3__1fGuWyOujSHTx3st-Sp-IYSh2ct5h2DAd7KuKyDQEOqRa7fcCmy03yi2SW0NCnMi8PZdJh2cJb7dxnktWhTkmPqgBf6DroEhZq-2x7gaMNBS1b8YzmToZQEg0IQY9ZW/s640/blogger-image-306866050.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVi3PGVx7eXs3__1fGuWyOujSHTx3st-Sp-IYSh2ct5h2DAd7KuKyDQEOqRa7fcCmy03yi2SW0NCnMi8PZdJh2cJb7dxnktWhTkmPqgBf6DroEhZq-2x7gaMNBS1b8YzmToZQEg0IQY9ZW/s640/blogger-image-306866050.jpg" /></a></div>
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So actually I did quite a lot!</div>
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Ok back to real life now..</div>
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Thanks for reading, </div>
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Abigail x</div>
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Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-44377266934693134682013-08-12T13:56:00.001-07:002013-08-12T13:59:12.699-07:00Ice cream bunting pattern<div style="text-align: center;">
I made this bunting for a recent summer swap, I liked it so much I made it for myself. </div>
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This is my first time writing out a pattern so hopefully It will be right, if you try it and have any problems please let me know. But it's fairly straightforward. Just remember at <span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">the end of each row chain 1 and turn. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjttDBF-DE_Rm3nqPv3dhWXbENF0E9P7zWgP7gkOeljXexscAMFHgU0g_KwPMGfZ7gRP8OhVopZzd3rmDzit6O7eda3otSrorEwRaac5LmSBEVwz3afatCZyM784rzmQFa1TrE8Cu-2tbGk/s640/blogger-image--941504152.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjttDBF-DE_Rm3nqPv3dhWXbENF0E9P7zWgP7gkOeljXexscAMFHgU0g_KwPMGfZ7gRP8OhVopZzd3rmDzit6O7eda3otSrorEwRaac5LmSBEVwz3afatCZyM784rzmQFa1TrE8Cu-2tbGk/s400/blogger-image--941504152.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtL6dYwwV621eHbb-H2tAxk4evA3aazO9Aa_Blj4P2ufi4-QoLDgC5BKhW-MqEiR7G-39ha50ZyM-hK2o4p3uLzWKjr23sW8egdSSJf0YDoiKA7idIuPifkrNN-KfOVlBz-OhseOTc4nOR/s640/blogger-image--1608597868.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtL6dYwwV621eHbb-H2tAxk4evA3aazO9Aa_Blj4P2ufi4-QoLDgC5BKhW-MqEiR7G-39ha50ZyM-hK2o4p3uLzWKjr23sW8egdSSJf0YDoiKA7idIuPifkrNN-KfOVlBz-OhseOTc4nOR/s640/blogger-image--1608597868.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><u>Ice cream cone</u></b> - beige yarn</div>
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Foundation chain 10 + 1, turn</div>
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Row 1: 1dc in each st (10) </div>
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Row 2: 1dc in each st (10)</div>
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Row 3:dc2tog, 1dc in the next 6st, dc2tog (8)</div>
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Row 4: 1dc in each st (8)</div>
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Row 5:<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">dc2tog, 1dc in the next 4st, dc2tog (6)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rows 6-13: 1dc in each st (6)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Row 14: dc2tog, 1dc in the next 2st, dc2tog (4)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Row 15-16: 1dc in each st (4)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Row 17: dc2tog, dc2tog (2)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Row 18: dc2tog (1)r</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Fasten off, change colour.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGKKl5C5xglcsY0BMQncXrlV5ed8c0a691lazauhbfnmZDIgHGXS59ckBVoNokTXS5a0QKQCWdTRjsXGjW4RFEGfB5quol0iEvPAt_sgctF1UYf5A6WUo5h6Gi7Q6jLBG-WqhBWgDRZmWo/s640/blogger-image--1518797295.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGKKl5C5xglcsY0BMQncXrlV5ed8c0a691lazauhbfnmZDIgHGXS59ckBVoNokTXS5a0QKQCWdTRjsXGjW4RFEGfB5quol0iEvPAt_sgctF1UYf5A6WUo5h6Gi7Q6jLBG-WqhBWgDRZmWo/s640/blogger-image--1518797295.jpg" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><b><u>Ice cream</u></b> -join on yellow, pink or mint green yarn</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Row 1: 1dc in each of the 10 st on the top of the cone (as seen in the picture)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Row 2: 2dc in first st, 8dc, 2dc in last st (12)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Row 3: dc2tog, 8dc, dc2tog (10)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Row 4: </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">dc2tog, 6dc, dc2tog (8)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Row 5: dc2tog, 4dc, dc2tog (6)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Row 6:</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">dc2tog, 2dc, dc2tog (4)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Fasten off</span></div>
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Make 2 more. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVNtoRTjLwv9qglE5Nez8x8eGVRBXJ4mLhK0Gb0BGCWN67lhvCdh9WiWvKPHpq68rNn-s3xIjBKHxWH0jB7U_xbtGKwjtcCJf_TeQLqx-gLED8v6WXKkYONgyss6V8fgDUz7mKgn-kRKIm/s640/blogger-image-795042162.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVNtoRTjLwv9qglE5Nez8x8eGVRBXJ4mLhK0Gb0BGCWN67lhvCdh9WiWvKPHpq68rNn-s3xIjBKHxWH0jB7U_xbtGKwjtcCJf_TeQLqx-gLED8v6WXKkYONgyss6V8fgDUz7mKgn-kRKIm/s640/blogger-image-795042162.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><u>Lollipop</u></b> - in yellow, pink or green yarn.</div>
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This starts from the bottom to the top of the lolly</div>
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Foundation chain 10 +1 </div>
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Rows 1- 14: 1dc in each st.(10)</div>
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Row 15: dc2tog, 6dc, dc2tog (8)</div>
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Row 16: <span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">dc2tog, 4dc, dc2tog (6)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Row 17: dc2tog, 2dc, dc2tog (4)</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Fasten off</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><u><b>Lollipop stick </b></u></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Join on the beige yarn to the 5th dc along the straight edge.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Row 1-7: dc 2</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Row 8: dc2tog</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Fasten off. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Make one more.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><b><u>Scalloped chain</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Foundation chain 200 +1 </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">5 tr into 3rd chain from hook, miss 2 st then dc into the next st, * miss 2st , 5tr into the next st, miss 2st then dc into the next . Rep from * to end.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Fasten off.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Sew in all ends, space out the lollipops and ice creams as you wish, I left a gap of 5 of the shell shapes. Then sew the ice cream or lollipop into the middle of the shell as shown on the photo. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">I hope it's right I'll only know if someone else has a go. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);">Thanks for reading and if you try it let me know how you get on. </span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969);"><i>Abigail</i> xxx</span></div>
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Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-4659810340107303852013-08-05T16:29:00.000-07:002013-08-05T16:29:39.442-07:00Busy, busy, busy!!The last few weeks working in a school is always a busy time, but these last weeks have flown and I've been so busy.<br />
I have had three more swaps to do<br />
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A family bbq,</div>
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Matthew's birthday,</div>
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A bouldering class at the climbing hanger, Liverpool</div>
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joined a knitting group,</div>
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celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary at the Oast House, Manchester</div>
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watched Andy Murray win wimbledon! </div>
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Finished the school term in fantastic style with cocktails in Manchester and singing in a kareoke pod in Tiger Tiger.</div>
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Spent alot of time bragging about my youngest sister is one of the winners of BAFTA Rocliffe Comedy writers competition which will see part of her comedy script performed with real actors at the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival and judged by a panel that includes John Bishop, and she could win a script commision with the BBC!!! <br />
so naturally I've not had as much time to do my blog!</div>
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Now I'm off for weeks for the summer holidays so I'm hoping I'll have plenty of time to do more crafts especially some decorations for my home, I've been so busy making things for other people it'll be nice to make some things for myself.<br />
But for now I'm off for a week to Cornwall!!<br />
Bye for now!<br />
Abigail x <br />
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Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-37555819780098972922013-08-05T16:25:00.000-07:002013-08-07T10:14:05.363-07:00St Ives 2013<div style="text-align: justify;">
This holiday to St Ives was going to be different than previous years, this year we were camping, we were only there for a week and we had our beloved Maxi with us!</div>
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Here are some of the highlights:<br />
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Pasties on the beach, </div>
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Blas burgers from the Halsetown Inn </div>
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I spent my 33rd birthday at Crantock Bay, were Max had his first trip in a boat and I had a little trip down memory lane when we went to Newquay where I used to go for a holiday when I was little.</div>
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We spent some days on the dog beach in St.Ives and on the Island, we went on Porthkidney beach, max played lots of ball games, we had a paddle and a swim and Max did some digging!</div>
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We went on a walk from our campsite to the knill,</div>
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on to Trencrom Hill</div>
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then on to Mount's Bay, Marazion the walk was 12 miles in total </div>
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then we went on a open top bus back to st ives </div>
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We went to Godrevy point, where we saw a kestrel (I think)</div>
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We saw a couple of seals in the harbour</div>
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we went on a 5 mile coastal walk from Lamorna cove..</div>
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..to Mousehole and back again.</div>
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And after all that we were quite sleepy!</div>
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It went way too quickly!</div>
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Thanks for reading!</div>
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Abigail x</div>
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Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-62322918030667522472013-06-18T10:57:00.000-07:002013-06-18T11:06:01.243-07:00My Instagram lifeI sometimes joke with my husband and friends that I'd quite like to live my Instagram life. Its a world were life is pretty, i go to lots of nice places, i craft, i make delicious meals and cakes! It's idyllic!<div><br>
I am not saying I don't do these thing, I do go to lots of nice places and walks and take pictures of amazing views and pretty things I see, I do like making things and even though I do say so myself I do make delicious meals and cakes!!</div><div><br>
But I do make a conscious effort not to put anything that on that would sully my lovely photo feed.<br>
<br>
If I take a picture of somewhere in my house, its sometimes staged, I keep out any clutter, only taking photos of the parts of the house (which is very few) that I am happy with.<br>
<br>
When I post pictures of crafts that I do you don't see the constant turmoil of balancing the things I have to do e.g. housework and the things I want to do, how do people do it?? </div><div><br>
It looks to the Instagram follower looking at my photo feed that our house is nice, it seems we live in a lovely area because of the photos that I take of taking the dog for a walk to the country park that's just down at the bottom of our street...sounds beautiful doesn't it....looks beautiful from the photographs, meadows, woods, a stream running through, a wooden bridge, wildlife and birds aplenty.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div>
In real life it <i>is</i> beautiful, but its right next to a council estate (on the other side of the river I might add!!) and the residents who think its a dumping ground and a place to come and enjoy the sun - by all means but then they leave cans and litter lying around and thrown into the stream. It annoys me obviously they like it there because as soon as the sun is out they are there in droves, but they leave their mess as if its not their responsibility to pick it up! It makes me sound like a snob I am a bit I suppose but only because I feel so strongly about it, its a beautiful place which should be enjoyed by all but there are people who just want to spoil that. Anyway rant over.. needless to say I don't have any photos of shopping trolleys or sofas that are dumped in the stream from time to time!</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKWoBYVTZxyySQz0WEfkQ0pRWOTOKw_7DL9CRjxqkk2ZTS3N8DhlZA4U6WLQME8yzsvWhLQS616zSecpZo1c7XuIuZoWlYuDa19jAnoHkJuq00Wr4R-dIyrF3dO-NyIyh0XKnB2XBpCCgr/s640/blogger-image--396850292.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKWoBYVTZxyySQz0WEfkQ0pRWOTOKw_7DL9CRjxqkk2ZTS3N8DhlZA4U6WLQME8yzsvWhLQS616zSecpZo1c7XuIuZoWlYuDa19jAnoHkJuq00Wr4R-dIyrF3dO-NyIyh0XKnB2XBpCCgr/s640/blogger-image--396850292.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> Not a shopping trolley in sight!!</div><br></div></div></div><div>When I was joking with a friend about this she said " yeah but why would you take a picture of that??, you're not going to show the parts of your life that you hate".<br><br></div><div>
And shes right when I post a picture on Instagram I want people to see me and my life in a good light I don't want them to see the messy, lazy, emotional side of me I want them to see the creative, happy, motivated side of me and that's OK, isn't it?</div><div><br>
It is.</div><div><br>
And here's why.</div><div><br>
Sometimes life can be rubbish, I mean really, really crap, sometimes I feel so sad and bitter if I'm being honest of not
being 'normal', not having that what others take for granted, the fact
we can't have children, the fact that money is a big issue in not
carrying on with IVF, the fact that in order to have the last IVF we had
unfunded we had to do an egg share which meant that my half my eggs
went to someone else and that was because we couldn't afford to pay
more.The fact that bad, really horrible people (see Jeremy Kyle.. the show not him although thinking about it maybe him too!) can have not one but bucket loads of children but me and Matthew who would have been <i>A</i>-ma-zing parents can't. The fact that we don't socialise with other people because most people we know, our age, have kids and are busy with them.<br>
I don't talk about it because
people don't talk about things like that and you try to be strong because whats the alternative? You let it
consume your life and spoil the things that are good. <br>
I have to remind
myself daily to focus on the good in my life and things that I am thankful for Matthew, Max, my family, my house, my job, the time we spend together the things we do and see, so in some way my I suppose
that's just what I do on Instagram - focus on the good because it makes me
feel better.</div><div><br>
And its cheaper than therapy.<br>
<br>
Thank you for reading xxx<br>
<br></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-2478246141019416512013-06-05T15:25:00.001-07:002013-07-13T14:24:05.598-07:00Late May Bank Holiday - Llanberis and SnowdonIt's a bit late but I thought I'd tell you about my bank holiday weekend just gone. We ventured back to Snowdonia but this time we were going to make it up Snowdon at long last! <div>Matthew found us a campsite in Llanberis that we could walk to Snowdon from, it was called Mountain Farm Campsite.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOP7doiqtLoLBV9mzB8KgurkoYm9ruU4CBL4Ha82VHCqq64dUCqTo_MQ8n-oqZ_HsXE7UQ3Bax57kS9u8K3E67Dq9qQtuja60eOGICCoShvL347XLb9-oKKW2mw1PQIWe5B1o2jzX_aev1/s640/blogger-image-836012434.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOP7doiqtLoLBV9mzB8KgurkoYm9ruU4CBL4Ha82VHCqq64dUCqTo_MQ8n-oqZ_HsXE7UQ3Bax57kS9u8K3E67Dq9qQtuja60eOGICCoShvL347XLb9-oKKW2mw1PQIWe5B1o2jzX_aev1/s640/blogger-image-836012434.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Upsides : big campsite ,it wasn't crowded, beautiful views of the mountains and lakes from the campsite, a few minutes walk from town, walks from campsite up to Snowdon and to Llanberis waterfall, you can look at the farm animals and ducks and chickens wander freely around the campsite.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Downsides: not many flat pitches and ground a bit rocky.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Saturday</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We arrived at the campsite and set up camp, we then followed some quite hazy directions to the waterfall off the campsite's website. We eventually found it and it was very impressive.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUUHtME8-9JVEVfnT-nGVbGlMaknMR0t-S9I-U9-Q8KoV25Yxd31njJWvDg1P0A9Cap-hEUXlf95rfq6ZO6pfA70kUXaVzO4AkAt_To4n4UzWYdR-SijoPaxN2oWmY7YBuQGLp527ZJE0p/s640/blogger-image--1305818468.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUUHtME8-9JVEVfnT-nGVbGlMaknMR0t-S9I-U9-Q8KoV25Yxd31njJWvDg1P0A9Cap-hEUXlf95rfq6ZO6pfA70kUXaVzO4AkAt_To4n4UzWYdR-SijoPaxN2oWmY7YBuQGLp527ZJE0p/s640/blogger-image--1305818468.jpg"></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">This is the top of the waterfall<br><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUUHtME8-9JVEVfnT-nGVbGlMaknMR0t-S9I-U9-Q8KoV25Yxd31njJWvDg1P0A9Cap-hEUXlf95rfq6ZO6pfA70kUXaVzO4AkAt_To4n4UzWYdR-SijoPaxN2oWmY7YBuQGLp527ZJE0p/s640/blogger-image--1305818468.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXF-rKsFEUu3vKY0pKqE2bg8SN4j16MmGlW9tJmSOVKJ3Enbxi-ZL14LRzM0t79Eix6-lsKxTwLm6ZPW83f3wLFVwhONJGASOdlU0k67NHxgPPusQSBmVYF2uXYPkIbqM6Smx8bnYpDWxy/s640/blogger-image--1378270296.jpg"></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; ">And this is the bottom of it! It was beautiful and we visited late afternoon and the light was fantastic. </div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; ">We then walked on to Llanberis and straight to the nearest beer garden for a nice cold cider.</div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikZAf-UaQqlFsphZ07qMTN9Ws7T9LkzGn3eLk5jjBNE7gE-lZPPkWnUOFKM2XIhT_9u7cPyr5_AjeWt1p-LNkqmVbEiruZVShCEDImqYsC0agX9Q3YY5nG4kwd4qBgoOKpTT72C7T5eXJX/s640/blogger-image--1820996772.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikZAf-UaQqlFsphZ07qMTN9Ws7T9LkzGn3eLk5jjBNE7gE-lZPPkWnUOFKM2XIhT_9u7cPyr5_AjeWt1p-LNkqmVbEiruZVShCEDImqYsC0agX9Q3YY5nG4kwd4qBgoOKpTT72C7T5eXJX/s640/blogger-image--1820996772.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Then back to the campsite for a barbeque!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Sunday</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Sunday was another beautiful sunny day for our walk up to Snowdon, this was my first proper hike up a mountain so we decided to go up the Llanberis path, which is longer than some routes but is the easiest path and the most popular. It is 9 miles from the summit and back and there are some quite steep sections, this bit was the hardest, the final push before seeing the summit on the other side. The train runs up alongside it and the views are amazing looking back the way we came and further towards the sea.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhokFAfRXWhgnIqhLwCjvNqkWpAIpQbwXYvWwbgwISBTNgnyYPabS86tRfCRPXawbpelNigXZqxWp4EcM_1GLSF6jWsrvysw8tgzTgd3LCwfR-5u3HCFHAgoAThLt8LhvsRgbiZf5wPF-bh/s640/blogger-image-1919001518.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhokFAfRXWhgnIqhLwCjvNqkWpAIpQbwXYvWwbgwISBTNgnyYPabS86tRfCRPXawbpelNigXZqxWp4EcM_1GLSF6jWsrvysw8tgzTgd3LCwfR-5u3HCFHAgoAThLt8LhvsRgbiZf5wPF-bh/s640/blogger-image-1919001518.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The summit is not surprisingly the busiest summit in the UK, down to the fact that you can reach it by train as well as hiking up. Throw into the mix that it was a bank holiday and a lovely day and what you get is a very busy summit! We had to queue up to get to the top, as Snowdon came into view you could see people gathering up at the summit looking like ants on an ant hill. I didn't like it very much up at the summit because it was too busy and the clouds came across for a little bit so you couldn't see the view very well. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">We moved down the mountain a little bit and sat and had a well deserved picnic.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_sPx2XkK1ePCSFS59e3oTNbROPpwhylseGC7SIebhjlRqzX5sjidsaWyRaO0RwHV0ixT0Q6u6GQYLbJiIBRAXM8XVS2-h5IN-4nNJUtUboHWmU5RLmuS9SbrhrbNOQl-ZumJb9FTHqfr/s640/blogger-image-1282813282.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_sPx2XkK1ePCSFS59e3oTNbROPpwhylseGC7SIebhjlRqzX5sjidsaWyRaO0RwHV0ixT0Q6u6GQYLbJiIBRAXM8XVS2-h5IN-4nNJUtUboHWmU5RLmuS9SbrhrbNOQl-ZumJb9FTHqfr/s640/blogger-image-1282813282.jpg"></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Love this picture, I look like a proper adventurer, Snowdon summit is behind me. I was very pleased with my achievement my first mountain, the highest in England and Wales, 1085 metres above sea level!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT_sPx2XkK1ePCSFS59e3oTNbROPpwhylseGC7SIebhjlRqzX5sjidsaWyRaO0RwHV0ixT0Q6u6GQYLbJiIBRAXM8XVS2-h5IN-4nNJUtUboHWmU5RLmuS9SbrhrbNOQl-ZumJb9FTHqfr/s640/blogger-image-1282813282.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI1KBgcpdoMhgAm0Djfu0VD3IC4_MvFTTZvpZ2GaiG7UReS3gXe3Ah6oUyBgKZJkmY3QbkwxtEhuJuBar1c5f7UMriwwbN0wyge2_l80qPgYzIcEFDwjlKh0v3LX8xDfyXdTVyg9_B5-E4/s640/blogger-image--2036524328.jpg"></a></span></div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; ">Our picnic spot, Max was just checking we didn't drop anything! You may also notice Max's backpack, Max carried his own water and folding bowls the backpack has a handle so that he can be lifted safely over stiles. Max was quite the celebrity known as 'the rucksack dog' </div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><br></div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; ">Walking back was quite hard especially the bit that was hard coming up because it was shingley underfoot and I slipped because it was loose, luckily I fell slowly and didn't hurt myself. </div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><br></div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; ">Back in Llanberis we went to a lovely pub and had a nice big burger and chips in the pub garden and a few ciders. </div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><br></div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; ">We had such a lovely day!</div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><br></div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; ">Bank holiday Monday </div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; ">Woke up to wind and torrential rain that showed no sign of stopping unfortunately so we had to just pack up in the rain. We looked like drowned rats by the end of it and it sort of put a dampener on things after such a lovely weekend. Oh well! such is life! </div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><br></div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; ">Hope you enjoyed your bank holiday too!</div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; ">Thank you for reading, </div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; ">Abigail x</div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><br></div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><br></div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><br></div><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; clear: both; "><br></div></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div></div></div></div></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><br></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-53744092522019269972013-06-01T15:49:00.000-07:002013-06-01T15:49:51.412-07:00Craft swap part 2I could hardly contain my excitement on the swap day, the #colourmeprettyswap had me worried for a bit I had got to the swap day and I still hadn't received my parcel, but it came later on in the day so I was able to open it.<br />
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It was from @_katiekookaburra and here it is :<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd8XyLQLmwJhdhfQeSBWlaT4ZNUQAvwrIlPUpDVDxHzcdgr5FltwPKrYxBMsHnEk6Cb28vHk4SwNgu6j7JertWA-SDNAbjFrY9qo9i0STdLgGzOMSQtK-HFKGnxWNI2fqWtdOHc7RHb8eh/s640/blogger-image-1251086923.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd8XyLQLmwJhdhfQeSBWlaT4ZNUQAvwrIlPUpDVDxHzcdgr5FltwPKrYxBMsHnEk6Cb28vHk4SwNgu6j7JertWA-SDNAbjFrY9qo9i0STdLgGzOMSQtK-HFKGnxWNI2fqWtdOHc7RHb8eh/s400/blogger-image-1251086923.jpg" width="395" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMMV-hGgRPIAL8qAKJmuW_IAWw9c6nFttgJ0cL3EhxnHNqSi8EJTK0CWAF5RaSQNZjilGnzDaH3klMVqqqbIgs_OssOngNEqpMliiWk1swB6zI-c17uzHkkGkMlg1b_7MiamOuQb5QaKf/s640/blogger-image-297357781.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKMMV-hGgRPIAL8qAKJmuW_IAWw9c6nFttgJ0cL3EhxnHNqSi8EJTK0CWAF5RaSQNZjilGnzDaH3klMVqqqbIgs_OssOngNEqpMliiWk1swB6zI-c17uzHkkGkMlg1b_7MiamOuQb5QaKf/s400/blogger-image-297357781.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I got a very large and pretty bag, a cute bird candle and another candle, some lovely nail polish and a nail file, cupcake cases and a very pretty card. I love everything especially the bag which I have filled with my wool stash. The only thing that I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't anything hand made in it. </div>
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And this is what I made/bought for my swap recipient @donna_marie74 : </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIJYsFWC0n-eSCipA2a_A3Z2o6x9I0r0ruyTJ93YPvVLUBEFaNoJNs7LlKoI2olZfHvl8cgVq6VV5HmMCQeY-p4L5Q3OU2zZwgaVEBXcdRhwlhGOBAfoIWP5cZeF4uN4pe5hDBXM__Zhvd/s640/blogger-image-749143071.jpg" imageanchor="1"><span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIJYsFWC0n-eSCipA2a_A3Z2o6x9I0r0ruyTJ93YPvVLUBEFaNoJNs7LlKoI2olZfHvl8cgVq6VV5HmMCQeY-p4L5Q3OU2zZwgaVEBXcdRhwlhGOBAfoIWP5cZeF4uN4pe5hDBXM__Zhvd/s640/blogger-image-749143071.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh48pMj5rAYvX6EkYqtcBfVJU20jhhzFdTdq1j0-9UN29Kk8GEzG8Faubu2WNdklpsiRl91TqMcDYFsenqTf55_WdXoAd_C3mp3e5tT4A844stVD3vvrpN-6cBZLGNcvKpBKpoR1WB19s-h/s640/blogger-image-1055165401.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh48pMj5rAYvX6EkYqtcBfVJU20jhhzFdTdq1j0-9UN29Kk8GEzG8Faubu2WNdklpsiRl91TqMcDYFsenqTf55_WdXoAd_C3mp3e5tT4A844stVD3vvrpN-6cBZLGNcvKpBKpoR1WB19s-h/s640/blogger-image-1055165401.jpg" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh48pMj5rAYvX6EkYqtcBfVJU20jhhzFdTdq1j0-9UN29Kk8GEzG8Faubu2WNdklpsiRl91TqMcDYFsenqTf55_WdXoAd_C3mp3e5tT4A844stVD3vvrpN-6cBZLGNcvKpBKpoR1WB19s-h/s640/blogger-image-1055165401.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMjGnTGtYJvNPLt8CQar5NzCKq0QixMfT8Kz4OOPTOuYQVtrdOrDvt3AngY_GP57GVh4dlxILtnL5akpQfd7nU_EjRIbeakVT9G2oRGjnnrYx2WwBuGAqY6YvyDYzWQ-E27RROwXJ1VhTp/s640/blogger-image--1485307642.jpg" /></a></span></div>
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I made a pin cushion jar filled with pink, yellow and green buttons and a crochet hook holder, I bought ribbons, fabric tape, 2 note pads and a little pad of stickers, a bag of rosy apples and a sewing kit. I really enjoyed doing it and I was so glad that Donna loved it too, part of the excitement was seeing what she thought of the gifts. </div>
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Today was the birds and flowers swap and I was up at the crack of dawn to open my swap stuff! </div>
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It was off a lovely lady called Beth @crossstitch_gal but she's just changed her Instagram name to @bethslc and here's what I got:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiJz3rh7T42D86BbB3orOaZUR9MAymBZ0E3f4jkQoNTzI3qdcgbZUMWdcqOxPUnAotrDa3hM-dsOrJtJDVt9lW0z6mKNPA9lHKdI_sNjQcFVS8IoGGtziy87UKfiVwUK8qiUONuvqkU6wg/s640/blogger-image-1909425597.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiJz3rh7T42D86BbB3orOaZUR9MAymBZ0E3f4jkQoNTzI3qdcgbZUMWdcqOxPUnAotrDa3hM-dsOrJtJDVt9lW0z6mKNPA9lHKdI_sNjQcFVS8IoGGtziy87UKfiVwUK8qiUONuvqkU6wg/s640/blogger-image-1909425597.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDYmiVYeyvI_Bb9DpuoQVTFO1cCZWi9Hqfu0f9CcihBMNl3mp2RieZpcMT6OZEKM6Fzywy0fZs-3U0LHWh1DE5QLFfx_dfEC45Hmyn3YJBIG7y9KZv9kSsju_s_Yv6dzN-2bQydJZPmD6f/s640/blogger-image-832070036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDYmiVYeyvI_Bb9DpuoQVTFO1cCZWi9Hqfu0f9CcihBMNl3mp2RieZpcMT6OZEKM6Fzywy0fZs-3U0LHWh1DE5QLFfx_dfEC45Hmyn3YJBIG7y9KZv9kSsju_s_Yv6dzN-2bQydJZPmD6f/s640/blogger-image-832070036.jpg" /></a></div>
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A really nice handmade card, a beautiful photo frame, 3x Cath kidston tissues and washi tape, some lovely pegs and a hanging bird and 2 fantastic cross stitches made by Beth herself, I think we are very alike because all the things that she's got for me are things that I would get for myself. I was so pleased I felt like it was Christmas! </div>
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This is what I sent to my swap recipient Isobel @isobelcupcakes79: </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd0jBXt8tYAPfbY5hrlKBPQPdXFBKYXLqeafXRlABI3jfjcKBtODlfwcESz8dbAnGgyQNQbxUEbrZVxrAtBGCGHGhgVUkeIEWjOhqY7hv4LloqQG_1i5qDJUOeAJcYNkKA_3ocAu85Aqtf/s640/blogger-image-1745143550.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd0jBXt8tYAPfbY5hrlKBPQPdXFBKYXLqeafXRlABI3jfjcKBtODlfwcESz8dbAnGgyQNQbxUEbrZVxrAtBGCGHGhgVUkeIEWjOhqY7hv4LloqQG_1i5qDJUOeAJcYNkKA_3ocAu85Aqtf/s640/blogger-image-1745143550.jpg" /></a></div>
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I was quite worried about this because my handmade items don't look like much, I made a cross stitch and 4 granny square hearts, I bought a personalised notepad from funkypigeon.com, a little hanging heart and a lovely bird mug and Cadbury's bubble bar. </div>
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Isobel posted the picture saying "what fabulous, thoughtful gifts!" So I was absolutely made up that she liked them.</div>
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I am definitely hooked on doing these swaps, its really nice to meet new people and make things with a focus, its such a brilliant atmosphere on the swap days seeing if your gifts have gone down well and seeing what everyone else got.</div>
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I have signed up to two more both summer related and hopefully I will get on another swap ran by @kellysmellysharpe who organised the birds and hearts swap when she posts details about it soon, I also maybe organising one with Kate @the_happy_hooker who lives in America so she will coordinate swaps for US swappers and I will do the UK swappers side which will be good if we can sort that out but a bit nerve wracking because neither of us have done it before! </div>
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Thanks for reading! </div>
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Abigail x</div>
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Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-60238586815123816032013-05-21T11:16:00.001-07:002013-05-21T11:16:29.202-07:00My very first craft swap -Part 1As you probably all know I'm quite obsessed with Instagram I especially like to follow other people who enjoy crafts, quite often they will give me inspiration for new crafts or patterns to try. <div>They are a very friendly bunch who share patterns and ideas, recipes and pass on books which have been read, there is a great community feel. At Easter I noticed that a few of the people I followed were involved in a craft swap and I was intrigued to find out more, it is set up by one person who coordinates it all, there is a theme and you must sign up to it agreeing to send a parcel of goodies based on the theme, some of which must be handmade by yourself, a card should be sent with the parcels and everything prettily wrapped, the parcels are then opened on the reveal day and everyone shares the photos of their goodies on Instagram. It works in a sort of circle where one person sends to you and you send to another person- its a huge amount of coordination needed these women who organise it deserve a medal! There is a great atmosphere leading up to it as everyone posts pictures of the swaps they send,it's such a lovely way of getting to know new people, it's great and I was eager to be part of it. </div><div>I have really jumped in at the deep end signing up to two swaps, one by @kellysmellysharpe were the theme is hearts and birds and one by @hunnypothouse which is colour me pretty, where I had to state 3 colours that were my favourites and things I liked eg, birds flowers etc to help with ideas to make/buy. I chose duck egg blue, pastel pink and pastel green, and said i liked hearts, birds, flowers, Cath Kidston style. Likewise my swap recipient @donna_marie74 favourite colours were light pink,light yellow and light green and she liked flowers ( another thing to remember is not to tell you swap recipient that you have them so its a surprise - I can say Donna's name because she got my parcel this morning! ) this swap reveal day is this Friday, although I have not received my parcel yet I know that there are lots currently in the post so hopefully I'll get mine soon. The birds and hearts swap reveal day is 1st June so there is a bit longer to wait for that one. We have had about 3 weeks to make things and for me who always has good intentions to do crafts but never get around to it, it has really given me the incentive to do them the only problem is its been absolute torture not being able to post pictures yet of the pretties I have made! The worry I have is if the things I've made and bought are good enough and liked, having not done it before I have nothing to base it on, but I think they are pretty and I would like to receive them so hopefully they will too! *fingers tightly crossed!* <div><br></div><div>Look out for part 2 where I open my swap package to see what goodies i receive and at last get to show what I have made for my swap recipient...ohhhh excited!!!!</div><div>Thanks for reading, </div><div>Abigail xxx</div></div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_3EUV7oV7f5nBYuFXzoM2pDDFHBi65klaICIylQ-wxuPBwuLsfLS_M1bh_ooHNVWKJbOws4_TC5qey6oyQ_6L9g4F7o11NGAuuplpHb8sr_okYqWxFRPXAp9D3prF4Czj39AbogQkt4BX/s640/blogger-image-1393518897.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_3EUV7oV7f5nBYuFXzoM2pDDFHBi65klaICIylQ-wxuPBwuLsfLS_M1bh_ooHNVWKJbOws4_TC5qey6oyQ_6L9g4F7o11NGAuuplpHb8sr_okYqWxFRPXAp9D3prF4Czj39AbogQkt4BX/s640/blogger-image-1393518897.jpg"></a></div><br></div>Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-37077620342421217642013-05-11T05:57:00.002-07:002013-05-11T05:57:18.743-07:00Our Adventures in the Peak DistrictThis was our first camping trip of the year, we decided to go back to Castleton in the peak district when we visited in February. We had notice a sign for a campsite which seemed to be not too far from Castleton with lots of pubs and amazing walks we thought we'd try it out. The name of the campsite is Rowter Farm Campsite, a working farm with horses, cows, chickens and lots and lots of sheep in the surrounding fields.Its facilities were basic, the toilets where in a brick outhouse which were not heated at all unlike previous places we had been where it would usually be warmer to get changed in the toilets, saying that it was clean and what more do you expect for £10 a night for 2 people and a dog. <br />
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As it turned out the campsite was not as close to castleton as we had first thought, it was a short drive but about 30 minutes walk downhill and longer uphill coming back, its a good job we enjoy a good walk especially when there is a promise of a nice drink in a pub beer garden when we got to there.The walk was lovely, we crossed fields of sheep and lambs unfortunately Max's inner sheepdog made it so that he was constantly pulling on his lead and barking, one day I'd love to let him off his lead and see what he does because he's a softy really he probably wouldn't know what to do! The weather was nice and sunny and the views across to Mam Tor and the great ridge where great we had a wander around the village then went to the pub for a nice cold cider. If you've ever been to Castleton you will know that to get there you pass through a place called Winnats Pass its a windy road with steep hills at each side winding down to Castleton, it didn't seem to bad driving down it so we decided to walk that way back to the campsite, it was so hard but finally we made it and settled down for the night having a barbeque and a fruit beer. Once the sun goes down it gets cold and it was quite windy so once the barbeque was done we closed the tent up and wearing baselayer top pyjamas, gloves and a hat I went to bed. I was awoken a few times through the night with the fear the tent would be picked up and blown away wizard of oz style, add to that the bed half deflating and it wasn't a great nights sleep.<br />
We woke to drizzle on the tent we got up had a lovely breakfast of bacon butties and set off for Castleton to meet Matt our friend who would be accompanying us on our 15 mile (!!!!!) walk. The thing about this walk that worried me was not how far we were going but that Matthew had the map on his GPS and I didn't really have a clue where we were going or if we were going in the right way.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2FYzb4KqW62feH9is5c_-mon-pgAL7jep_PFTFKV-chc8R526TEIUtX0b34wzMJZ8cq4Pvd_4PbVR-aL8MDAuKZylY9lq5M9PuSkAHztxneO-Z2vvsCzHl4FeYIeEh4EQaBH8juqMDBU/s1600/P5050067.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2FYzb4KqW62feH9is5c_-mon-pgAL7jep_PFTFKV-chc8R526TEIUtX0b34wzMJZ8cq4Pvd_4PbVR-aL8MDAuKZylY9lq5M9PuSkAHztxneO-Z2vvsCzHl4FeYIeEh4EQaBH8juqMDBU/s320/P5050067.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This cute little bridge near Edale reminded me of Hobbits for some reason!</td></tr>
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The walk was actually great fun we walked up from Castleton over the great ridge at Hollins cross through fields down to Edale a really charming little village where we stopped for a beverage at the pub, we then headed up towards Kinder Scout and eventually got to a bit were there was a stream coming down the mountain or hill (it felt like a mountain!) and lots of boulders and stepping stones to traverse to get further along the path, i looked upward and there were people higher up still clambering over rocks to get to the top and I thought we mustn't be going that way but to my surprise we were, I would have never gone if I'd had known but I actually really enjoyed it. When we got to the top we had our picnic and then we continued on our walk we only really walked around the edge of Kinder Scout there are some really odd shaped rocks up there and I would have really like to explore more but we where on a very tight schedule it was 3 o clock already the time that the guys who had done the walk had got back having set off at the same time as us and we were only just over half way around, i was beginning to think we had over faced ourselves my feet were beginning to hurt and the next bit was walking over peat bogs which made you feel like you were walking on a bouncy castle. The last 4 miles were the hardest mainly because I couldn't work out how much further there was to go. When we got back to Castleton it was about 6.30 and the only antidote for our weary feet was a pub dinner and a nice drink. I was tired and sore but had a really good sense of achievement that was our highest and longest walk so far. If we were going to go to Kinder Scout again we would set off from Edale and do a shorter walk so we could take it in more.<br />
That night I slept a bit better in the tent probably because I was shattered, we had planned spending some more time in Castleton before going home, but the weather, surprisingly for a bank holiday, was glorious so we leisurely got ready had a lovely breakfast of sausage butties and sat in the sun all morning reading my book...Bliss! We also got back home by 1.30pm so we had plenty of time to enjoy the sun in the garden too.<br />
All in all I enjoyed our weekend, although cold at times, I will go back to this campsite its great value for money but only if the weather forecast is nice and hot!Abbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-952427413689525062.post-38914211167004541472013-04-27T12:46:00.004-07:002013-04-27T12:46:56.964-07:00My Wish ListThe thing that has always kept me going after failed IVF attempts and realising that we won't be able to have children is to focus on the things that we can do and the reasons we are lucky. I have an amazing husband who is my best friend, a lovely house, a fantastic job which I love and a little dog who isn't a substitute for a child (as some people think!) but he does really enhance my life and I am so glad we have him.<br />
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We spent a lot of energy and time, putting our life on hold waiting to find out if we could have IVF, then having 2 attempts at it, in fact after we got married nearly 7 years ago it had dominated our lives.<br />
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This week we have just finished turning the room that was being saved to be turned into a child's bedroom into a craft room for me,and actually it feels great to be doing things that I really like.<br />
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I may not have children but I am going to have an amazing life I have compiled a list of all the things I've always wanted to do and I hope to do its not a bucket list because I don't want to focus on things to do before I die but it's more a ' to do' list its not going to have a limit because I want to keep adding to it. It will have a smaller things as well as bigger things otherwise I'd be bankrupt!<br />
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<li>Do a walking challenge </li>
<li>Skydive</li>
<li>Ride in a hot air balloon</li>
<li>Sell some of my crafts </li>
<li>Take a helicopter ride </li>
<li>Go to New York</li>
<li>Go to Italy</li>
<li>Visit a Greek island and Athens</li>
<li>Go to the Christmas markets in Germany.</li>
<li>Go to Hawaii</li>
<li>Go to Barcelona</li>
<li>Watch a formula 1 race live</li>
<li>Try horse riding</li>
<li>Learn to knit cables</li>
<li>Learn to knit fair isle</li>
<li>Build a campfire and make s'mores</li>
<li>Visit Sark</li>
<li>Make a recipe book of family favourites </li>
<li>Make a photo book of each year me and Matthew have been together</li>
<li>Watch the sunrise</li>
<li>Learn to make cocktails</li>
<li>Go wild swimming</li>
<li>Have a proper picnic</li>
<li>Grow my own food</li>
<li>Fly a kite</li>
<li>Make a dress for myself</li>
<li>See the northern lights </li>
<li>Do a painting to go up in my house</li>
<li>See a film at an open air cinema</li>
<li>Walk behind a waterfall</li>
<li>Visit Olympic Park in London</li>
<li>Go to London with Matthew</li>
<li>Ride an elephant</li>
<li>Visit an far east country</li>
<li>Ride on a dog sled</li>
<li>Visit the Giants causeway, Ireland</li>
<li>Visit Portmerion</li>
<li>Try skiing </li>
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I have already started to plan for some starting with booking flights to Berlin for the weekend before Christmas to see the German Christmas market, one thing we wouldn't have been able to plan so far in advance before now and it feels good to be able to now. <br />
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I will keep you informed on how I get on.<br />
Thanks for reading!<br />
xxxAbbiefhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09544536670428549554noreply@blogger.com1