Look what I made!

At long last, a photo of the coat I crocheted earlier this year. It's made from Rowan kid silk haze, and even though it took 6 months to complete I love it so much that I'm thinking seriously about making another one.

You would not believe how cosy it is for something that is so light and delicate.

A real winner I think.

Autumn part 3

I had forgotten how glorious clear autumn evenings could be.

Today was the first day of this autumn that I've needed to wear my hat. It was a chilly but beautifully clear start to the day. And the evening was equally gorgeous. Still enough light left at 5pm to go for a wander round Stirling, but crisp enough to know that we're definitely getting into bonfire, frost and jumpers time of year.

The city was looking lovely though. It fair lifted my heart to see it! Where else would you want to be but Scotland on days like today?

Autumn part 2

Look how beautifully my favourite tree is welcoming autumn.

That time of year

Well, summer does seem to be well and truly over. It may be sunny some days but the heat is rapidly disappearing. On the plus side however, the trees are turning a beautiful colour and the light is getting hazily soft. Before we know it, the mornings will be crisp and fresh, with frost hanging off everywhere and my breath in the air around me. I love winter. Autumn isn't too bad either!

Roll on Halloween,

What's cooking?

Despite how tired I can be at the end of the day, more often than not I find cooking really does make me feel better. And those days that I'm too tired to cook from scratch, I try to make sure I always have something in the freezer that I've made earlier and can just heat through. It's very rare these days that I buy in a prepared meal - even as a treat.

This is last night's tea, creamy fish pie cooked at the weekend and a portion saved in the fridge for heating up when I got home from work. Somehow it made all the trials and tribulations of the day melt away and gave me a real sense of satisfaction. As you can see I even managed to add a bit of colour with some sliced beetroot and green 'squeaky' beans on the side. Yum!

And while it seems all too rare these days, I'm pleased to say I'm not the only one. My sister has started blogging recently about some of her recipes for busy working mums, while a friend's sister dedicates her whole blog to all things cooking. Both are inspirational to someone like me who loves cooking, and hopefully to others who maybe don't like it quite so much but want to give it a try.

If you want to give it a go, why not have a look at their blogs, get out your cookery books, watch Food shows on the the TV, take out a magazine subscription, visit your library and see what's on the shelf. Whatever it takes! It's fun, you know it is.

So, after all that, what's your favourite recipe?

What's in the bag?

A couple of my fellow bloggers recently confessed to what was in their handbags, and after yet another experience of 'can't find the one thing I'm looking for' in my handbag, I thought it might be fun to chronicle what's in mine too.

So here goes...

1 x umbrella (with a shoe print fabric of course!)
1 x hairbrush
1 x elastic hair tie thingie
1 x pouch of unmentionable items (women's things!)
1 x lip balm
1 x lip gloss (from my fave new make up brand) plus 1 x lipstick
1 x handcream sample (from the lovely Lush!)
1 x eye shadow stick
1 x nail file
2 x spare contact lenses (for the same eye??)
1 1/2 packets of tissues
3 used tissues (ew, yuk!)
1 x packet painkillers
1 pair sunglasses (complete with pouch, unusually for me!)
1 x purse (fresh from Granada, Spain. Ole!)
1 x mobile phone (personal - yay!) plus 1 x Blackberry (work - boo!)
1 x USB memory stick (promotional from Stirling Castle)
1 x security pass for work (with half way decent photo for a change)
3 (count them!) x highlighter pens plus 5 x ballpoint pens plus 1 x pencil (not going to be stuck without anything to write with. Possibly nothing to write on, however!)
Various business cards (some of them mine, somewhat creased!) and appointment cards (none of them current. Anyone know when my next hair appointment is?)
Various loose 'cards', including work charge card, bank card, 2 x gift cards, 1 x gym membership
1 x old receipt
1 x used post-it note
1 x Scottish Environmental Statistics handy guide (don't say I'm not dedicated!)
3 x tomatoes (harvested on my way in the door tonight, last of the summer crop!)
1 x piece of sea glass (from my last visit home)

No wonder I can never find what I'm looking for!

And do you know the scariest thing? I'd already cleared out a whole heap of stuff before I left work today. Eeek, I think I need a smaller bag.

What's in your bag then?

Cast adrift...

I'm off this morning on the train to Edinburgh. It's a murky grey morning and the trains are disrupted, I've already had a run-in with the wrong side of bureaucracy and I'm exhausted at the end of a long and busy week, but still I'm feeling really happy.

One of the reasons for my cheerful start to the weekend can be seen in my photo at the start of this post - a cup of coffee and a yummy chocolate muffin. Yes, a muffin. A gluten free muffin. A tasty gluten free muffin that I bought at the Farmers Market on my way to the station.

The other reason is that I'm on my way to meet an old friend that I used to share a flat with and haven't seen for more than 20 years. I'm so excited!

I hope you all have equally lovely things planned for your weekends. Have fun!


STOP PRESS: I had the most amazingly wonderful and fabulous day. It might have been 22 years (no, surely not that long!) since Diane and I had last spent any time together, but it didn't feel that way. I guess that's a sign of true friends, when you can just pick up again like it's been the blink of an eye. I discovered that we'd been more alike than I'd realised when we shared a flat and if there's any twinge of sadness from yesterday, it's that I've let 22 years go by without keeping up with this lovely woman.


It definitely won't be 22 years until we see each other again - there's now a guest bed waiting for me in Shetland when I want one! Yay!!