Sunday

 Morning, everyone.  Sunday begins and it's really nice here at the moment, a bit like yesterday morning, in fact.  That soon changed to cloud and rain in the afternoon but we will see about today!

The house is smelling delicious at the moment as I'm early roasting my Sunday chicken.  I like to do this, slice the meat cold and reheat what I'm needing for the meal.  I just think you get more out of it that way and it does make clearing up after the actual meal so much easier if the roasting part has already been done.

I haven't picked anything for a few days but this is my little harvest for yesterday.

Quite a lot of tomatoes but they need a few days to ripen off and several are split so I will soften them and push them through a sieved for pasta/pizza sauce.  I'll put the chillies in the freezer, the cucumber is over now - the last two fruits are the most peculiar shape!  And the runners keep running!

The little Advent cross stitch that Beth gave me is now ready to put away until Dec 1st.  I have replaced the terrible fabric with some good aida that I had and I have marked out the squares with thread so I can dive straight in.  I've also found a site that does free cross stitch lettering patterns and I have the pattern for Christmas and 2025
I'm doing it six squares across and five down and the middle row will be for the lettering. so it says 20  Christmas 25 (each number in a little square).

And I was excited that one of my Twelve Days of Christmas gifts arrived yesterday morning.  I won't show it now though, wait until after Christmas.

I'm going to wrap them all up, get the bags ready and get Beth to put them into the bags so I have no idea what is where.

Plans, plans, plans - but, after all, we only have two and a half months before Advent starts!

One plan that is now finished is this.

I've been making this for ages.  It's a made up pattern although the granny square is a familiar one - Sunburst, I think it is called.  I bought the yarn specially and it was a bit of a jump off the cliff because I had no idea if it would work but it did, it's finished at long last, and I like it.  Phew.

A bit of detail.

It looks better on and will be good under leggings and a patching jumper, I think.  Now the questions is shall I wear it for the Knit and Stitch show next month.  It's all indoors so I won't need to worry about coats, etc, but will it be too hot?  I'll ponder on that one.

Ooops, I've just been summoned to the kitchen by the smoke alarm - I forgot to turn on the extractor fan and the kitchen was smoky from the chicken roasting in the air fryer!

Yesterday was just one of those pottery, getting little things done.

I sorted out my memory box and discarded a load of cards from way back when, keeping just the ones that are now special to me.  I got some lovely messages from parents, children and colleagues when I retired and it was fun to read through them again - they made me feel that maybe I had made a difference in some small way.

I did some more yarn sorting and into those plastic storage cases.  It's all looking better now although I realise that I need to get my act together with all my counted cross stitch stuff too.  That's for another day, another week, probably!

I realise I have quite a lot of what you might call Christmas colour yarn, including some sparkly yarn.  That's good.

Late afternoon, I drove over to the Riverside precinct to have a look round some shops.  I looked in Home Bargains, HomeSense, Matalan and Food Warehouse.

I really wanted to go to the last but it was too good an opportunity to miss really.  I wasn't that spendy either - in HB I got some jars of roasted red peppers that were less that half the price of those in Morrisons - how can that be?  In HS I found a book and some soap for my Twelve Days bags, Matalan was a big disappointment with drab and dreary clothes (don't they get that people need cheering up at the moment) although there was some fun seasonal tableware which I don't need (no, I didn't) and then into FW where I got what I had set out for which is some of their SW ready meals which I am going to try and review (on t'other blog) this coming week as well as some wraps and the chicken that is now roasting and which worried the smoke alarm so much.

(better go and close the back door again; it's getting cold)

Actually, looking back, I did quite a lot but it didn't feel like that.  The best kind of day.

Today is more of the same.  The chicken is now cooked and I'm going to chill with a second coffee, my hooks, yarn and a free Hobbycraft pattern to make these.  Aren't they nice?

(photo and pattern from the Hobbycraft site).

And then I need to stop because how many autumnal pumpkins does anyone need?

(Don't say 'none'!)

Finally and most important, please may I ask you to spare a thought and/or a prayer for my friend Stephanie and her husband, Ian.
Ian is in hospital today for a procedure tomorrow.  He has a condition that makes this procedure very risky but it absolutely needs to be done.

Please pray/hope/whatever you do for medical skill, that everything is successful and that Ian comes through and is stronger and more healthy afterwards.

Thank you.

Have a lovely day, everyone.  Take care, stay safe and be happy and I'll see you again tomorrow.  Bye.