Monday morning

More views from Hyde Hall

And so the holiday ends.  Time has been handed back to the great god, work.  Planning is done, resources prepared - main, simplified, extended and really challenging for the G&T children (yes, four different levels), the title page for the new theme is ready for photocopying and today we start learning the songs for the Christmas Show.  Ho hum!

It's been nice though.  I feel I've had a rest.  Can't ask for more really.

Sunday morning



I wonder what she did with the middle.  Pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin cookies?

 As regular blog readers will know, I do like to support local businesses, especially those set up by mums from school.  Last week I posted about Just Jules cakes and today it's the turn of Inspire Floristry, a flower arrangement business run by a mum I've had a fair bit to do with over the years as I taught her older daughter as well have having her little one in my class right now.  Very autumnal, very Halloween-ish and it looks lovely on my dining table!  It was a little End-Of-Half-Term treat to myself.

I had a lovely day with DG yesterday while his mum went to a cat show.  We played make believe, we went out to the local pub for lunch and then he disappeared upstairs to play.  I heard him banging around for a while and then realised it had all gone quiet so went up (as you do) to see what was up, to discover him fast asleep on one of the spare beds.  Bless him, he has had a busy week this week.  Maddison Heights on Monday, the London Eye, etc, on Wednesday and Disney on Ice ('absolutely brilliant' said he afterwards) on Friday.  All organised by his school's Discovery Club.  Fantastic.

A loved her scarf.  She raved about it in my facebook mailbox and then came over to chat.  As a result we have a Cunning Plan.  I'm saying no more now as it might not work, but we will see.

Sadly, today is the last day of the half term break.  It's been a lovely week in which I did manage to do a lot of the 'specials' I had planned, although not necessarily in the 'right' order!  Ikea, Hyde Hall, lunches out, plenty of r&r, Hobbycraft . . . what's not to like there?  It's been very satisfying all round.  Shame about the bedroom, shame about the housework, shame about the ironing - but one must get ones priorities right!
And talking of priorities - the planning is done and printed, so that's good too!  See, I'm not just a pretty face . . . well, not a pretty face at all, in fact!  :0)

Footnote:  for all my lovely readers - please do feel free to leave a comment if you want.  Comments are good (and any that aren't will be deleted anyway!) so I'd love to hear from you.

Saturday morning



An interesting bench at Hyde Hall, but I wouldn't think it's all that comfortable, would you?


I got to bed uncharacteristically late last night, or rather early this morning, so am up correspondingly late now.  I know some might say seven is not late but it is for me!  The reasons - I was watching Murder on the Orient Express (the Finney version) and knitting a scarf and just didn't feel tired!  Actually, I didn't feel tired when I finally went up to bed, but fell asleep pretty quickly.

One of the things I bought from Ikea was a memory foam pillow.  Not one of the lumpy ones, one of the shaped ones.  The memory foam topper has eased all the aches I used to feel after a night's sleep, all except for neck and shoulders, so I though it was worth the money to give it a try.  It felt odd - different - but I ended up finding it very comfortable and woke this morning without the usual aches, so I'm feeling hopeful that it will be the answer.

Diane (Good Morning Early Readers) would be proud of me.  After making a scarf for DD with the can can yarn she told me about, I used the remainder to make a shorter scarf suitable for a little girl, being flouncy, pink, purple and lilac, and with a hint of glitter about it.  I gave it to the little girl two doors away, who was thrilled to bits.  Her mum also liked it and messaged me to ask if I could make one for her in teal.  As it happened, very coincidentally, one of the balls I bought from Hobbycraft was just the colour she wanted, so I got going last night and finished it just as the Poirot finished.  That's an indication of how fast it knits up, for sure.

Today is going to be a busy day.  DD is going to a cat show so I have DG all day.  George is coming to make the garden look nice, DG and I are out for lunch, I have to wait in for a flower arrangement delivery and I have to go into school at some point, although I'm beginning to think that the latter isn't going to get done.  It's not a disaster if it doesn't, it just means I have to bustle around a bit longer next week.

And I MUST do some ironing!  Must, must, must!  Boring!

Friday evening

Leaves at Hyde Hall - yes, it was raining!

Well, we finally made it, DD and I.  We got to Ikea, did our shopping, got a lot of what we were looking for, came back home and had a late lunch together to make up for not doing it on Wednesday.  A very pleasant day indeed.  And now I am tired .

We were about half an hour ahead of the crowds in Ikea.  As a result, it was pretty pleasant with room and time to wander around without too much bumping and jostling.  DD found the furniture she wants, I found some white serving dishes but the paper napkins I wanted weren't there.  I wanted red and green - Christmas green, not Ikea green.  They did have red napkins, but only small ones, so I will need to look elsewhere.  We found boxes for the Christmas gifts and I got a box that will be ideal as a story box.  We found plastic bins that will be great for storing recycling stuff.   We got Christmas wrapping paper and . . . oh, lots of things.  And we didn't have to queue for ages at the checkout.

That's the last time I'm even going to think about going to Ikea until after the New Year sale has well and truly finished though.  It's a nightmare in there sometimes!

Friday morning

There were lots of these cherry trees with the most enormous fruit.  I'm guessing they are ornamental.  Plenty of food there for the wildlife, that's for sure.

The woodman.  Very cleverly put together and watching over an area that is dure to be developed as an environmental and educational resource.  The log piles are already in place, dotted around on the grass and they've started tree planting too.

I'm in a bit of a hurry this morning so won't post much now, but I will be back later!  I came in to put up these few more photos from yesterday.  Hope you like them.

Thursday evening

Well, we went, Lesley and I, despite the rain, to Hyde Hall for our Autumn visit.  It was just mizzling when we left Chelmsford, seemed to be clearing when we got there, reasonably dry while we had an early lunch, OK when we set off up the hill, and then it started.  Down came the rain!  For a short time it was quite heavy, but we were under the trees and didn't get the worst of it.  The rest of the time it was steady but not too heavy.  As we walked down the hill again to the shop it stopped raining!  And you know what - it didn't make any difference.  We still had a lovely time.

Lunch was scrummy.  They make a good soup at Hyde Hall.  Last time it was roasted red pepper and sweet potato soup.  This time it was good old leek and potato, absolutely delicious.  The sort of soup I would like to make myself.  A proper, home-made texture, well seasoned and piping hot.  With it we had a big chunk of walnut bread.  I strongly recommend it to anyone who visits.

As we wandered through the shop to the entrance, we noted several things to look at more closely at the end of the visit.

It may have been raining pretty steadily as we explored the gardens, but it really didn't matter.  After all, what are brollies for?  It was very different to the last time we visited, at the start of the Summer holidays.  Then the flowers dominated, demanded attention, totally swamped the more subtle beauty of the foliage.  Today the autumnal colours dominated.  Reds, yellows, purples and oranges all jostled for attention.  It didn't seem in the least bit dull as we wandered down pathways, across lawns and over bridges.  There were still a few, increasingly bedraggled, reminders of summer but the asters, dahlias, grasses and berries caught and held the eye.  It was wonderful, and I took enough photos to keep this blog illustrated for several days to come.

Finally we wandered back to the shop and spent a lovely half hour or so perusing all that was on offer, buying here and there, putting back more than we put in our baskets, always with Christmas very much in mind.  We both tried a perfume tester - mine was rose and Lesley's was peony.  They turned out to be stronger than we expected and we ended up driving back to Chelmsford with open windows to avoid being gassed! 
I found a little Christmas tree cutter, so small that I had to hold it in my hand as it would have slipped through the gaps in the basket.  At the checkout, both ladies looked, admired and asked where I got it from.  As I put in my PIN number, one of them slipped off and returned with two, one for each of them and they were hurriedly ringing them up as we left the shop. 

So - all in all a lovely day, despite the rain.  I'm glad we went.

Thursday

Yesterday was a very odd mix of sun and showers, clouds, varying temperatures and rainbows.  It's obviously been raining overnight but seems to be dry at present so fingers crossed.  It would be just my luck to have pouring rain today.

I haven't had very much good fortune with my plans this week.  Monday's Ikea trip didn't happen, yesterday's lunch out didn't happen and if it's simply bucketing with rain I guess today's planned trip to Hyde Hall won't go ahead either.  But let's not be pessimistic - yet!

When Lesley and I went to Hyde Hall in the summer, we promised ourselves that we would go again when autumn had landed.  I'm very much looking forward to it and have put my camera on change to ensure I have enough battery power.  I keep thinking I ought to get a better camera.  Mine is very old now, the viewing window is tiny, you can't see what's on it in the sun and the zoom and close up are not so good really.  Things have moved on so much and prices have dropped considerably.  I paid just over £400 for my camera, including bag, etc, which, at the time, was a middle of the road price.
Anyway, it will have to do for now and I'm sure it will catch the autumn beauty of Hyde Hall in a very  satisfactory manner.

The green tomatoes are all gone now, made into chutney.  There's a number of red ones ripening in a bowl on the window sill, but they won't last long.  A couple of breakfasts and a salad should see them off and that's the end of their story this year.  Thinking ahead to next year, I am umming and ahing about getting grafted plants again.  Certainly they were very trouble free, no issues apart from a wee tough of blight, caught early and dealt with without any further problems.  They cropped quite heavily.  However, they were very slow growing and late ripening, which was frustrating and they were very expensive.  I shall have to ponder . . . plenty of time now.