National Parks

In order:
Rocky Mountain
Black Canyon of Gunnison
Arches
Zion
Death Valley
Yosemite

All beautiful
Which one do you like best?

Holiday by numbers

Now almost 1 month since I returned from
travelling across the USA East to West!

We took over 1000 pictures so can only post a few!

We travelled 5000 miles - not counting the flights
to and from the USA
Our longest train trip from Chicago to Denver took
19.5 hours. (And was fun!)
We visited 6 National Parks. More Pictures to follow!
I finished 1 knitting project during our 3 weeks of travel
We left Death Valley temp 116degrees and arrived
in Mammoth Lakes temp 46degrees and sleet!
This journey also took us from 300 feet below sea level
to 9,500 feet above.
Counting the months till we can go again!

Comfort Food

No time for blogging recently as children move out and others move back in!

Instead endless shifting of boxes, rebuilding flat pack furniture, rearranging the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedrooms in fact most of the house. Back to cooking and shopping for five - all adults now!

Sharing your house with your grown up children and their friends is both delightful and demanding!

Blissfully have three weeks away booked soon!

In the meantime comfort food - Marble cake for a birthday celebration and lavender biscuits from the Edible Garden

Yum.

Green fingers

Pesto grown from seed in homemade compost on the sunny kitchen windowsill.

Now ready to be transformed into delicious pesto -

Done

Gone

Work in Progress

Currently knitting a sparkly shawl with some wool I bought on my last trip to Australia.

The wool is sprinkled with silver sequins which become part of the fabric as you knit.

very pretty to knit in the garden with the sun making the sequins sparkle.

Not sure who this will be for when it's finished but it's lots of fun to knit - maybe I'll just leave it on the sofa looking pretty.

Sky lanterns

Filling the sky with fifty of these lanterns made for a memorable sight as dusk fell

Wedding celebrations

Two weeks ago K & J got married on a fabulous sunny day.

We decorated the village hall with a "vintage tea party theme" including forty yards of bunting some of which you see pictured here.

50 sky lanterns lit the sky as darkness fell - just one of the highlights of a perfect day

Painting more pots

Paid a return visit to the Pottery Cafe today - this time to paint some birthday presents for my mum. We decided on a fruit bowl and a jug - these pics are unglazed - glazed version to follow in due course.

Can't figure out how to turn this pic round - sorry!

Sunday in the garden

The first mint tea of the summer

Strawberries growing in baskets

Knitting in the sunshine

Perfect Sunday

Painting Plates

With only 18 days to go until the wedding - Saturday was the gathering of the "hens".

First stop was the Pottery Cafe where plates were painted as a gift for the bride to be along with a spotty teapot. Lots of fun - return visits already being planned!

Birthday cake

Judging by the number of birthday cards I received featuring cakes most of my friends and family know well what the best part of birthday celebrations is in my opinion - the cake - this year's featured fat-free sponge with a filling made from fresh raspberries and mascarpone & a frosting made from cream cheese -Mmmmmm!

In the meantime

Spring pretty much arrived while we were away with lighter evenings and some long-awaited colour in the garden.

These tulips are on the deck outside our kitchen window providing a welcome splash of colour when you look out.

It always seems like you plant loads in the cold days of bulb-planting but never seems enough when the flowering season starts!

Sunshine in Savannah

Savannah was our last stop before returning to Atlanta to fly home- just in time before the volcanic ash cloud temporarily closed the skies.

Savannah is criss-crossed with leafy squares like this one each one surrounded by beautiful old houses making for a delightful walk around the city.

The magic lives on

The southernmost point of our trip was Orlando which of course meant a trip to The Magic Kingdom first visited many years ago when our (now grown up) children were small.

Still magic!

We arrived in time for lunch and managed to fit in thirteen rides, two parades, a firework display & dinner with this as our view :)

Ochlockonee

Ochlockonee

Ochlockonee River Nature Trail stunning walk through the woods and along the river bank - literally no one else was walking this beautiful trail - so quiet that when we got back to our lonely car in the carpark the deer grazing there simply looked up unconcerned and then continued grazing.

View from my window

Perfect Pensacola

Beaches don't come much better than this! Pensacola was the first stop on our recent trip round the North of Florida and what a treat after the seemingly endless cold days of this winter to wake up and have this beach right outside your window. BLISS!

Perfect for evening walks, shell collecting and mornings lazing in the sun.

WIP

Meantime on the sewing front, I

have finally finished the top for

a new patchwork throw to go in

the lounge. We changed the sofa

covers at Christmas and put the

blue ones back on so a blue throw

seemed like a good idea - now I

just have to back it and quilt it

before it's time to change the

sofa covers again!

Finished!

Found this lovely wool when I went

to hand in my sponsor money after

the sponsored knit a few weeks ago.

One skein knitted this lovely scarf

from Joelle Hoverson's Last Minute

Knitted Gifts book.

Lots of fun to knit and very quick.

Heading off at the weekend for a couple

of weeks driving round Georgia and

Florida (with hopefully some sunshine!)

and think this pattern will make great

holiday knitting!

Afternoon Tea

Mother's Day provided a good excuse to make

some cakes, get out the teaset and enjoy a

family tea party!

Presents and cards were received by the Mums

who were there and a good time was had by all.

Brighton Beautiful

Another sunny Sunday and a walk

along the beach towards Brighton

brings you to the newly restored

bandstand, new paint gleaming

in the Spring sunshine but still

freezing cold!!

Pompoms

As the wedding plans progress plans have

been made for decorating the venue.

Options include these giant tissue paper

pompoms. This was the first attempt,

hopefully we will improve as we move to

mass production.

Signs of Spring

Despite the continuing bitter temperatures

giving the impression that Sussex has turned

into Narnia (where it is always winter) there

are signs of spring in the garden.

Surely it will warm up soon!

Custard tarts

One final comment on Lisbon: on our to do list
was "sample portugese custard tarts while in
Portugal."
We liked them so much we had some more while
waiting for our delayed flight home.
Even the airport version of this local treat was
delicious!
Ah well back to the diet now!

Lunch (2)

Aubergine and potato pie made

with tomatoes, green lentils &

this time we substituted fahita

spices for the recommended

curry powder. Serve with salad

yum

Lunch

We enjoyed lunch Portugese style sitting
outside in the sun on our weekend away last
week. Feeling happy that we didn't pick this
weekend to visit as Portugal and Spain have
been lashed with storms this weekend.

Instead this weekend I stayed at home

Did lots of laundry
Shopped for new wool
Went to a friends birthday party
Caught up with lots of old friends (at the party)
Sewed some more patchwork
Shopped for groceries
Ate Aubergine pie with tomatoes & green lentils

Close up colour

Mellow Yellow

Tiled surfaces are common on buildings in
Lisbon. Here the yellow of the tiles matches
the yellow of the local trams quite a contrast
to the current greys of the UK.

Pavement patterns

We spent last weekend in Portugal,
specifically in Lisbon, where there is
pattern everywhere you look
including the pavements.
It makes the city a pleasure to walk
around even in the unpredictable
weather of a February weekend.