Tagged!

Well hello there - how are you? Good I hope. I was so happy (and just a tiny bit astounded) to be tagged this week by Josie Kitten. As part of the tag I have to nominate 2 blogs that I enjoy reading - here lies the problem! I love so many blogs that it was nearly impossible to choose. In the end, I plumped for the following 2 which are relatively new discoveries for me:

First is Cathy at The House with the Blue Door: I love her blog for her knowledge of nature, her ability to quote bits of poetry and her absolutely gorgeous garden shed - I have serious shed envy! 

The second is Pat at Lilly my Cat: for the great makes, travel, books and, of course, the gorgeous Lilly!
So ladies, if you'd like to accept the tag you have to copy the logo below, link back to this blog and nominate 2 others to be tagged. Have fun!

My Bank Holiday weekend was a quiet, stay at home affair - partly owing to the weather:

This was taken at about 8am on Saturday - rain, rain and more rain!

.... and partly due to this:
Impending AS levels, meaning that E had her head stuck in a book for the entire weekend.

I decided that I'd just take a few snaps of what I got up to at home instead. It was rather cosy with the rain drumming down. So here goes - my weekend .......

Porridge with banana and maple syrup for breakfast:

Starting to stitch together my hexies:

Making Ottolenghi's caramelized garlic tart - it uses 3 bulbs (note bulbs not cloves!) of garlic - lucky we weren't going anywhere! It is delicious though; the recipe can be found here. I substituted cheddar for the goat's cheese as that's the one thing I don't like to eat - it smells of goat to me!

Lighting my scented candle to try and mask the smell of garlic!

Nipping outside to take a photo of the Wisteria - I do love it when it flowers but it takes an awful lot of watering. It's quite sheltered beneath the eaves and unless you water it like mad when the buds first start to appear the little blighters all fall off!

It smells lovely too:

Then back indoors for a cup of tea and a bit of this:

Sunday it seems lovely first thing - with that fresh, post-rain smell. This is a close up of the Magnolia which the girls bought R for Father's Day last year. We planted it in the garden but the deer decided it was delicious and ate it all! In an attempt to save it it's been moved onto the patio and look, it's starting to grow! Sadly, look at all my beloved blossom in the background. At one point, E looked up from her book and thought it was snowing.

Not long afterwards, however, and the rain's back:

A little baking was needed to cheer us up. This is the carrot cake from The Great British Bake Off book and very nice it is too!

I caught Hamish sitting on the sofa, in a rare patch of sun, having a look at one of my library books:

Borscht for lunch - recipe from Cranks to be found here. Delicious, but preparing all that beetroot does leave you caught red-handed!

I made one of attic24's jam jar cosies for a few small blooms. Such a quick and easy to follow tutorial and it uses those tiny amounts of yarn that are too small for anything else. I can see a few more of these springing up around the place.

Afternoon tea and crumpets while I ponder which loaf to make:

..... and here it is, my loaf of the week - Beer Bread:

Very easy to make, smells divine and doesn't, according to E, taste too 'beery'!

Well, that was my Bank Holiday. A very quiet stay at home one. It was lovely but, after high winds all yesterday (finishing off my lovely blossom completely!), I'm beginning to feel a little stir crazy. I think I need to get out and about a bit today - get some fresh air. I might get my bike out again and blow away a few cobwebs.

Whatever you get up to this week, I hope it's a good one. Toodle Pip for now. x