My Surprise Day Out!!

16th August 2015

My surprise was a trip to Cartmel, a beautiful village in Cumbria, for a 7 course lunch in an award winning restaurant called l'enclume, with my daughter.....

...all the staff were really friendly and the menu was delivered at the beginning of the meal but we decided not to open it until we had finished!!

Cod 'yolk' with pea shoot, salt and vinegar...

Sour dough bread, butter and pork fat

Salt baked carrot, Westcombe, cured pork and savoury

Short horn (tiny cubes of raw beef), charcoal oil, mustard, apple and celeriac

Guinea fowl, runner beans, beetroot and damson vinegar, this was DIVINE!!!

Half way through and enjoying every second!!!

Plums, kernel and honeycomb, so DELICIOUS!

A work of art using flower petals

Sweet cheese, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, sorrel and oats.

...it was a wonderful experience, all the food was served in beautiful handmade dishes crafted by a local potter....

..... all food was locally sourced.

This was a ceramic sculpture by a local artist...

Carmel had won the Gold Award for Village in Bloom....

....the Priory was well worth a visit... 

....Cartmel Race Course...

.....Cartmel Village....

...a brilliant day and a brilliant week, I feel so spoilt and blessed to have such a great family and friends.....

Feeling Spoilt......

15th August 2015

I have had a brilliant birthday week with lots of visitors and fabulous gifts and cards......

...will be experimenting with this next week!

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Apart from yesterday the weather has been good and have had lots of lovely long beach walks.

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This week I made a card for a special lady who LOVES dogs....

....this template was a free gift from 

http://janetclare.co.uk

....I had some fleece and industrial felt (a gift from Julie Broad), used my embellisher....

......forgot to take photos of the process!

I traced around the template, joined with split pins, added some stitching and a button eye and attached the top clips to a card....

.....played....

....and played!

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My daughter is taking me on a mystery surprise tomorrow trip, love surprises!!

A Fabulous Day!!

13th August 2015

Yesterday the weather was perfect, haven't been able to say that much this summer!

My sister is staying for a few days and we went for a walk along the beach......

....50 shades of blue looking west....

.....looking south...

....Jack enjoying a paddle...

....my sister....

.....me!

Our footprints, we walked over 17000 steps yesterday and slept very well last night!

After lunch boarded the tram to Cleveleys, a view of the sparkling sea all the way....

...a sculpture on the prom...

....me taking a photo of Hil taking a photo of me....

.....lovely to see so many families enjoying the glorious sunshine!

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I also made a card for someone special but will post after it has been received.

A Visit to Fairhaven Lake....

10th August 2015

My sister is visiting and we decided to go to Fairhaven Lake for a walk with Jack...

.....amazing cloud formations and quite breezy....

.....one happy and extremely dirty dog....

....good job he is going for a haircut tomorrow!!

Swans were swimming and food dipping...

.....a duck and duckling, sorry it's blurred....

.....liked this boat filled with plants...

....and grasses.

A few minutes later it poured with rain and we were all soaked!!

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This cheeky snail was feasting on my lily when we arrived home!!

Pleased to report the sun is now shining, wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow!

Another Very Busy Day!!

7th August 2015

Hello from SUNNY Blackpool!!!!

My day started at 6am when I was painting in the kitchen, next a trip to the supermarket then edging beds in the park! Lots of chatty visitors today and I was also photographing progress of the boat rebuild by two brilliant volunteer joiners.....

....10am....

..... equipment...

....midday...

...4pm, nearly finished, looking so good....

.....the council need to inspect before it can be used. 

I think I need to make a flag!

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After the park I took Jack to the beach, fabulous sky....

.....this reminded me of sponge printing!!

RD is in Ireland, on his motorbike,  my sister is coming for a visit tomorrow and youngest son is cooking Thai Red Curry from scratch for us!!!

LIFE IS GOOD!!!

Community Spirit!

1st August 2015

As you know I have been involved in my local park for  7 years and I love being part of this group.....

........this is the toddlers play area, with a 'boat' in the background....

.....last Thursday night this happened to the 'boat'....

....so many of our small visitors were  really upset so Gary, our chairman, cleared the mess.....

.....and these photos were put on our fb page, the response was AMAZING!! People offering help and funding to replace the boat!

After a few meetings with the council it was agreed we could rebuild as the base was solid, providing the work was approved before the area could be re-opened.

This morning a number of volunteers including people from the local community assembled in the park at 10am.....

.......I made some cakes....

....Tiffin....

....buttered scones....

.....Sylvia and Enid preparing the metal for painting....

....RD trying to find the screws so the charred wood can be removed and replaced.....

......some progress....

....ready for replacement floor later this week...

.....Avril laboriously sifting the sand....

.....my task was pruning bushes in the area....

.....created 5 sacks of cuttings!

The Community Payback Team were also helping and a great deal was achieved, the atmosphere was so good with many positive comments from park users.

A VERY SATISFYING DAY!

Need to spend some time in my loft space tomorrow!!