When it gets to November, I get an overwhelming craving for citrus fruit. I love to buy paper bags full of satsumas from the market, or pile up great big oranges in my fruit bowl. When I peel them, I try and do it how I did when I was a little girl, so that the peel looks like a little person, with the stalk of the orange as the belly button! I am going to try slicing blood oranges and regular oranges, and chilling them in the fridge with a few splish splashes of Cointreau to make a grown up fruit salad!
One of my favourite things in November is when the different coffee shops start doing their seasonal coffees. Oh, the bliss of a gentle Sunday in town with the papers, and a new coffee to try. My favourite this year is gingerbread latte, but I also love maple syrup latte and have discovered that dark cherry mocha is nicer if you can stand the embarassment of asking for it with one pump less mocha and one pump more cherry! (Thanks for the tip Dan!) Starbucks used to offer a Hot Chocolate Peppermint Bliss, and while they don't do it any more, sometimes I still order a hot chocolate with peppermint syrup because it is so scrumptious!
Be very, very warned away from Nero's Latte Amaretti....sounds divine, tastes u.g.h.!
November is for me the month of vegetable soups so thick that you can stand your spoon up in the bowl, hot porridge for breakfast, and peppermints.
Usually by now I would have made my Christmas cake, and enjoyed cleaning out the mixing bowl, but I am not making it until December. Instead, I am dreaming of my first mince pie....bliss!
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Congratulations, Fairycake Girl!
I had the pleasure of receiving the most wonderful news this evening. I opened an email from the lovely Fairycake Girl, to read that she has a beautiful baby daughter named Holly. She is very tiny, so send her special thoughts.
Love, love, love to you all!
Love, love, love to you all!
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Sigh...
...fear not, I shall definitley be back later this evening or tomorrow with a lovely post about all the scrumptious tastes of November, but today I need to vent!
When I was at my last doctors appointment about my ears, I was told I would be referred to the ENT clinic. I went away quite happy, secure in the idea that there would be a goodly long waiting list. So shock, horror, when a letter dropped on my mat yesterday with an appointment in December.
Now here comes the snag. According to the letter, my GP and I had discussed the Choose and Book system, and I had chosen the appointment as detailed in the letter. The problem is that we did not talk about it at all! And I cannot make the appointment. So I went online, as instructed in the letter. I didn't mind too much that the letter sends you to the wrong part of the website, but what I did mind was that when I managed to log in, I was told there are no other appointments at all. So I called the helpline, as instructed on the website. I explained that I cannot make the appointment, and was told that there are no others.
Ok, fair enough, but I cannot go to that appointment I said. 'So you want to cancel it?' Well no, I don't..because that would mean I don't get another appointment. I still want to see the specialist, just not then. In the end she suggested I wait a week or two, and then try again in case other appointments have been added.
And this is progress? Sigh.....
Still, on to other, happier things...I just found out that I can plug the memory card from our camera right into our laptop....so I hope to be sharing more photos soon!
I hope that you are having a scrumptious evening!
When I was at my last doctors appointment about my ears, I was told I would be referred to the ENT clinic. I went away quite happy, secure in the idea that there would be a goodly long waiting list. So shock, horror, when a letter dropped on my mat yesterday with an appointment in December.
Now here comes the snag. According to the letter, my GP and I had discussed the Choose and Book system, and I had chosen the appointment as detailed in the letter. The problem is that we did not talk about it at all! And I cannot make the appointment. So I went online, as instructed in the letter. I didn't mind too much that the letter sends you to the wrong part of the website, but what I did mind was that when I managed to log in, I was told there are no other appointments at all. So I called the helpline, as instructed on the website. I explained that I cannot make the appointment, and was told that there are no others.
Ok, fair enough, but I cannot go to that appointment I said. 'So you want to cancel it?' Well no, I don't..because that would mean I don't get another appointment. I still want to see the specialist, just not then. In the end she suggested I wait a week or two, and then try again in case other appointments have been added.
And this is progress? Sigh.....
Still, on to other, happier things...I just found out that I can plug the memory card from our camera right into our laptop....so I hope to be sharing more photos soon!
I hope that you are having a scrumptious evening!
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Little Things..
I have spent today thinking about the tastes of November, and I am looking forward to a scrumptious post tomorrow! I have just been visiting some favourite blogs, and over at www.tillystea.blogspot.com something caught my eye, and I thought I would borrow it for today. I would love for you to join in and borrow it from me!
Outside my window...an empty space where our dear little car used to be...we sold it last night! (A new one is coming, but I do miss our old one!)
I am thinking...I am looking forward to snuggling up in bed in a few minutes!
I am thankful for...my lovely husband, blog friends and November days
From the learning rooms...it is almost impossible to choose just 5 favourite novels
from the kitchen...autumn vegetable soup with toasted cheese sandwiches
I am wearing...revlon red lipstick, long black skirt and black and white animal print top (really tiny print, it doesn't look as trashy as it sounds!) with a skinny black patent belt
I am creating...paper baubles made from doomed library books for my craft sale!
I am going...to bed after I finish this!
I am reading... The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory
I am hoping...the new car comes soon! And I get my Christmas cards done in time...(they arrived a week late today, and I had to send them back as they were all wrong!)
I am hearing...Carl listening to the news and setting the world to rights.
Around the house... Carl hoovered while I washed up
One of my favorite things...Christmas coffee in town...maple syrup latte, gingerbread latte, dark cherry mocha, peppermint bliss hot chocolate....mmmmm :)
A few plans for the rest of the week: making more things for my craft sale, Mum and Dad round for dinner on Friday, work on Saturday and 'Tinsel Town' on Sunday (switching on of the lights, carol singing and so on).
Care to play?
Outside my window...an empty space where our dear little car used to be...we sold it last night! (A new one is coming, but I do miss our old one!)
I am thinking...I am looking forward to snuggling up in bed in a few minutes!
I am thankful for...my lovely husband, blog friends and November days
From the learning rooms...it is almost impossible to choose just 5 favourite novels
from the kitchen...autumn vegetable soup with toasted cheese sandwiches
I am wearing...revlon red lipstick, long black skirt and black and white animal print top (really tiny print, it doesn't look as trashy as it sounds!) with a skinny black patent belt
I am creating...paper baubles made from doomed library books for my craft sale!
I am going...to bed after I finish this!
I am reading... The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory
I am hoping...the new car comes soon! And I get my Christmas cards done in time...(they arrived a week late today, and I had to send them back as they were all wrong!)
I am hearing...Carl listening to the news and setting the world to rights.
Around the house... Carl hoovered while I washed up
One of my favorite things...Christmas coffee in town...maple syrup latte, gingerbread latte, dark cherry mocha, peppermint bliss hot chocolate....mmmmm :)
A few plans for the rest of the week: making more things for my craft sale, Mum and Dad round for dinner on Friday, work on Saturday and 'Tinsel Town' on Sunday (switching on of the lights, carol singing and so on).
Care to play?
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Sight...
I thought that over the next few days I would do a little series of posts about exploring November through the five senses. I am going to start with sight...
One of the things I love about November is how things change and shift almost imperceptibly day by day, and then suddenly you blink and realise just how much things have changed. For example, every morning, I throw open our bedroom windows to let in plenty of air, and love to look at the tangle of trees outside. A few weeks ago, the leaves had turned brilliant shades of yellow and gold, but were still on the trees, almost as though they were a feather boa thrown around the shoulders of a twenties starlet. This morning, the branches are almost bear, and just one or two leaves cling on, defiantly.
I can more or less tell where I am in town by the leaves on the floor. The path to my front door is carpeted in acidy coloured hornbeam leaves, while I step off of the bus into a soft mound of golden oak leaves. If the scuffling scrunching noise as I walk comes from sycamore leaves, then I must be walking over the bridge.
One of my favourite sites in the morning is spiders webs, bejewelled with dew and glistening in the early morning haze.
Last week, dear Carl had some time off work, and every evening I came home to our front window being all aglow with candlelight. Candles and autumn leaves, the colour of November. Bare branches stark against the sky, but fuzzy through a fine haze of mizzle. A bowl of satsumas. The first patches of frosty grass in the morning, looking for all the world as though if you nibbled it, it would taste of peppermint creams.
One of the things I love about November is how things change and shift almost imperceptibly day by day, and then suddenly you blink and realise just how much things have changed. For example, every morning, I throw open our bedroom windows to let in plenty of air, and love to look at the tangle of trees outside. A few weeks ago, the leaves had turned brilliant shades of yellow and gold, but were still on the trees, almost as though they were a feather boa thrown around the shoulders of a twenties starlet. This morning, the branches are almost bear, and just one or two leaves cling on, defiantly.
I can more or less tell where I am in town by the leaves on the floor. The path to my front door is carpeted in acidy coloured hornbeam leaves, while I step off of the bus into a soft mound of golden oak leaves. If the scuffling scrunching noise as I walk comes from sycamore leaves, then I must be walking over the bridge.
One of my favourite sites in the morning is spiders webs, bejewelled with dew and glistening in the early morning haze.
Last week, dear Carl had some time off work, and every evening I came home to our front window being all aglow with candlelight. Candles and autumn leaves, the colour of November. Bare branches stark against the sky, but fuzzy through a fine haze of mizzle. A bowl of satsumas. The first patches of frosty grass in the morning, looking for all the world as though if you nibbled it, it would taste of peppermint creams.
Sunday, 16 November 2008
Popping Up To Say Hello
...well so much for my new months resolution! Well, one of them anyway. I have been happily beavering away for NaNoWriMo and am finding writing really cathartic and exhillerating, but the flipside is that there has not been so much time for blogging.
I hope to better this coming week...
Unfortunately my ear is no better, and I have now yet more antibiotics and a referral to the ENT clinic. Your good wishes have done me so much good though...thank you!
I have also been busy making things for a Christmas Craft Fayre. I am using orphaned books that would have been pulped had I not rescued them. One of the things that I have made, and perhaps my favourite, are little wreaths to hang from door handles or prop on book cases, made from holly leaves punched out of book pages.
We just discovered that we can plug the memory card from our camera right into the laptop, without any leads at all, so I am hoping for this to be a slightly more illustrated blog, too.
I have a rumbly tummy now, so I am going to potter into the kitchen for a Chai Latte, and some scrumptious tiny Cinnamon Rolls that I picked up at Ikea yesterday.
I hope your November is passing in a happy bustle of loveliness too..
I hope to better this coming week...
Unfortunately my ear is no better, and I have now yet more antibiotics and a referral to the ENT clinic. Your good wishes have done me so much good though...thank you!
I have also been busy making things for a Christmas Craft Fayre. I am using orphaned books that would have been pulped had I not rescued them. One of the things that I have made, and perhaps my favourite, are little wreaths to hang from door handles or prop on book cases, made from holly leaves punched out of book pages.
We just discovered that we can plug the memory card from our camera right into the laptop, without any leads at all, so I am hoping for this to be a slightly more illustrated blog, too.
I have a rumbly tummy now, so I am going to potter into the kitchen for a Chai Latte, and some scrumptious tiny Cinnamon Rolls that I picked up at Ikea yesterday.
I hope your November is passing in a happy bustle of loveliness too..
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