Going going gone!

The favourite Christmas cookies this year
were definitely Nigella's Christmas Chocolate
Biscuits.
Basically chocolate shortbread with icing &
sprinkles on the top.
Two tins full - now nearly all gone - though
maybe I should make one more batch for
this weekend's visit to my mother-in-law -
a self confessed chocoholic.
A good excuse if ever I heard one!

A moment of calm

New Year's Day and after all the celebrations
and busyness of Christmas with family reunions,
cooking and eating of many meals, giving and receiving
of many presents, a walk along the (busy) beach
offered this oasis of calm. The remains of the old
pier cut off from the chaotic activity of the city, the
sea calm and this patch of beach temporarily quiet
offered a quiet moment at the start of a New Year.

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.