Tuesday 27 September 2011

Back Soon .....

Off to Cornwall to see the family - leaving Other Half in charge.
See you soon.
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The lovely St Michael's Mount in Mount's Bay.
One of my favourite holiday visits.
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Ann x

Monday 26 September 2011

Catching Up (2)

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Probably best to go to the website (link above) first then take a look at some of the videos - make sure you view the 2011 ones - "Ironman Wales 2011 Montage" is pretty good, gives the atmosphere. The 7.00 am swim was awesome in the rising sunlight. We went to Wiseman's Bridge to watch the cyclists going by (there were over 1500 entries, so they were cycling past most of the day. After their 2.5 mile swim and 100 mile cycle ride, they then had to run a full 26 mile marathon as well! The whole day was fantastic.
Did anyone you know enter? If so, I hope they had a wonderful time.
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We all had bells and plastic 'clappers' to add to the cheering as every contestant went past.
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My sister had a great time.
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What next? - Ann x

Sunday 25 September 2011

Catching Up

Been pretty busy lately -
First of all my youngest sister arrived for a stay ...
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I am the oldest of four -
Mary 2nd sister, Myself 1st, Cath 3rd and Maggie Youngest
Our Dear Dad groaned when he thought of all the weddings!!! But they are other stories ...
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We took Maggie to Anna's Welsh Zoo . This is run by Anna Ryder Richardson who used to do house and room makeovers - can't remember the name of her programme. She now does a lot of work in trying to save endangered species and also periodically has a programme on ITV.
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Spot the new baby gibbon. (If you click on the pic it is enlarged and you get a better view.)
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Managed to get my own shot of a nuthatch!
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These are wallabies, the smaller version of the kangaroo.
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We spent a most enjoyable day and Maggie enjoyed every minute, especially the lemurs.
A lot of very good work is being done here for endangered species.
Loads of information to be found on their website.
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Then ...
Tenby hosted Ironman Wales !!!
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To be continued .....

Monday 5 September 2011

Birthday Girl .....

No - not me.
Nancy at 90!
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Preparation
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Cameras!
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Nancy in the Middle!
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Some of the cakes
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The Spread!
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Only the best china!
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The Cake (made by Val)
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"Happy Birthday to You"
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Ready, Steady, Blow .....
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Cut a piece for all
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANCY
from all your bowling friends.
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Nancy joined our Short Mat Bowling league twenty years ago
at the relatively young age of 70!
She is a regular player in her club of Hundleton.
She is full of life and fun and loves gardening and outings with her gardening club.
I hope I do half as well if I ever get to 90!
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Ann x

Sunday 4 September 2011

Today's Pickings ...

We may have a large garden, but not a lot in the way of produce.
However, we are delighted with today's pickings.
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Apples, runner beans, tomatoes, raspberries and elderberries.
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These are the autumn fruiting raspberry, don't know what kind they are, but they are enormous. We had them with yoghurt for our tea this evening. They produce more and more every day.
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Have grown tomatoes before and been quite successful, but they are not so good this year.
The small ones are very small and the large ones are mostly still green.
I am giving them some extra feed though and keeping my fingers crossed.
We are eating them everyday at the moment.
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The elderberries are stupendous. There are so many, I have no idea what to do with them.
So far I have washed and frozen some and plan to mix them with our apples for pies and crumbles. I am sure I could make a cordial too, but have to find a recipe.
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These apples are only the windfalls at present.
There are loads left on the two trees we have so we have lots to look forward to.
We have already had one lot of windfalls with rhubarb in a crumble (delicious).
I have also part cooked some down with a bit of sugar and put it in the freezer for future use.
Our apples are James Grieves and Laxton's Superb.
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Never seen so many runner beans in our life. We are eating them nearly every day and freezing, freezing, freezing. Our two freezers are full! Lots in hand for the winter.
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Talk about 'the season of mellow fruitfulness' - our autumn season has begun with 'massive productiveness!!!'
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Hope you are all having a wonderful productive season.
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Ann x