365 days project - week 16

Another week done!  Now spring has properly sprung, and lots of things are starting to grow in my garden, there may become rather a lot of tedious 'stuff in my garden' shots.  I'll have to try to be as creative as possible with them.

Day 112

Day 111

Day 110

Day 109

As I was watering the plants this evening, there was a beautiful, golden light coming from the last of the day's sun. I loved the way it was catching the red foliage of the rosebush, making everything glow.

Day 108 - Don't ask!

I have no idea what Chester was doing here! I came into the kitchen to find him like this, under his blanket, with just his paw sticking out.

He is nuts!

 
Day 107 - Chitting
 

It's been a gorgeous day today! I've been busy in the garden, getting things ready to grow so I have a lovely, bountiful crop come the summer.

I've always done quite well with potatoes over the last few years. I love digging up a fresh crop and taking them straight to the kitchen for a delicious dinner! This year I thought I'd go for some salad potatoes, so fingers crossed these are a success!
 
Day 106 - Volcanic sunset

Volcanic sunset

With all this Icelandic volcano business, we're meant to be getting some pretty stunning sunsets as a result of all the ash in the atmosphere, so I headed up the hill last night to see if I could catch some pretty sunset shots.


Unfortunately, it wasn't that impressive last night.  I've seen the sky much redder on ordinary evenings.  Still with a bit of a saturation boost, this doesn't look too bad, plus the windmill at Brill is one of my favourite silhouettes, whatever colour the sky is.

365 days project - week 15

Passed the 100 day milestone this week! Now the sun is shining, and things are getting going on my garden, I have become a bit more inspired with things to photograph (although I had a bit of a blip over the weekend when I wasn't quite feeling up to taking very inspired pictures!)


Day 105

Day 104

Tonight's dinner - butternut squash! I'm going to have a go at growing these in my garden this year as I just lurve them! It may end up like last year's courgettes and I'll end up with so many of them that I end up sick of them, but we shall see!

Day 103 - Nosey

My mum has 2 Norfolk terriers, Molly and Mabel (I'm not entirely sure which one this is!) They're so little that whenever I go around there, the first thing I see is a tiny little nose poking through the little gap at the bottom of the garden gate!


Day 102

I've been sneaking around my neighbour's garden again, as I just love the deep pink of these flowers. Oh, I do love all the spring flowers at the moment!


Day 101

I've spent the morning in the garden today.  As well as the boring jobs like mowing the lawn and picking out weeds, I managed to pick out the first of this year's rhubarb!

This has now been turned into a delicious rhubarb and apple crumble, which was really good even if I do say so myself.

Day 100 - I heart tights

Still recovering from my weekend so I'm afraid it's a rather rubbish shot tonight.  I bought these tights the other day and I'm rather loving them at the moment, so they'll have to do as today's shot.

Day 99 - Oops!

I went to visit a friend this weekend. It was such lovely weather, and there were 2 for 1 Mojitos, and by the time I remembered I needed to take my 365 shot we'd had a bottle of wine with our dinner.


This was my attempt to grab a quick shot, but as you may notice it's totally out of focus as I didn't exactly have the steadiest hand!

365 days project - week 14

An unusual thing has happened this week... I have 2 weeks off work, and the sun is actually shining! I can really make the most of the time off, and all the lovely spring light, and it feels like a proper holiday! So, here are this week's shots:

Day 98 - Blossom


It has been the most beautiful spring day today. The sun has been shining all day, and there are signs of spring everywhere. The blossom was catching the light beautifully, so I thought that would be perfect for today's 365 shot.

Day 97


How cute is this?

I needed a new recipe book, as I've just been filling an old notebook with scrawled notes up until now, and it's become just too hard to make head or tail of.

I saw this funky one in Paperchase and had to get it, so this evening has been spent transfering all my recipes to my pretty new book, and doing lots of cutting and pasting of all the bits I've torn out of magazines over the years.

Day 96 - Concentration


As it's the school holidays, we took my nephew to the Ashmolean museum, which has recently reopened after some dramatic renovation.

He was concentrating very hard on one of the games here - I think he was designing his own Roman coin at this point.

Loving the tweed jacket! My sister in law decided that it made him look like Mark Ronson, especially with the side parting.

Day 95 - Bank Holiday tea


A friend of mine came round for tea this afternoon. I haven't seen her for ages, so we had a lovely afternoon catching up on the gossip, drinking lots of tea and finishin off the last of the hot cross buns.

Day 94 - Happy Easter!


Happy Easter everybody!

For Camille's Appeal.

Day 93 - Hot cross buns


I've never made these before, so I was rather impressed with myself that they seem to have turned out ok. (Mind you, I haven't actually tasted them yet!)

I used this recipe from BBC food, and despite quite a lot of faffing around waiting for the dough to prove, it wasn't too tricky.

Day 92 - Spring Blues


There are lots of spring flowers starting to pop up in my garden now (hooray!) I love the colours of these gorgeous grape hyacinths.

For Camille's Appeal.

Happy Easter

It's the Easter holidays, so as I have a bit of time on my hands, I can get into the kitchen and do some baking. So, in keeping with the time of year, I thought I'd have a go at some hot cross buns, which I've never done before. I followed this BBC Food recipe, which was fairly straightforward, although there is a lot of time faffing around waiting for the dough to prove and kneading, but I guess that's to be expected when making bread.

The buns here before wrapping them up to prove:



It was a little tricky piping the crosses on, but once you get the right consistency, it's not too bad:



And, the finished product:



They didn't taste too bad either!

365 days project - week 13

Yay! The Easter holidays have started, so I have 2 weeks to get out and about and hopefully get a bit more imaginative with my shots. Having said that, the weather forecast isn't looking great, so I may end up with loads more indoor shots!

Day 91 - Easter fun


I picked these up at the weekend, just because I saw them in the florist and thought they were so cute and pretty!

Day 90 - Another mug shot. Sorry!



It's been another busy day, so I'm afraid it's another uninspired mug shot. I'm off out for our end of term meal, so no time tonight.

There is a reason for this shot, today, though. I've been mentoring a student teacher this year, who has been just fab. Sadly, it was her last day today, so she bought me a couple of pressies - this lovely Cath Kidston mug, and a gorgeous scarf. Luckily, she's going to be joining us in September when she qualifies!

Day 89 - Tug



My lodger bought a present for Chester - a tug rope. He loves it, so much and has been strutting around with it all evening. I'm not sure quite how long it'll last, but at least he's enjoying it for now.

Day 88 - Bunch of Spring



I went to the Covered Market yesterday, and the flower shops were just bursting with bunches of beautiful spring blooms.

I picked up these daffodils and paper whites, as they just seemed so fresh and spring-like, and they're now sititng on my mantelpiece.

Day 87 - Spring Colour



This week's Camille's Appeal theme is 'Spring'.

The clocks have gone forward, and it was a really lovely, spring day today, so I took a walk round town with my camera to snap all the lovely spring flowers coming into bloom.

I love this time of year, all about hope and renewal, so a perfect theme for Camille's Appeal. Camille and her family still need lots of support over the coming months, so please do visit the website and make a donation if you can to help Camille and children like her. Please also add any of your own spring photos to the group pool .

Day 86



There was a French market in town today. Lots of stinky cheese and crepes, but nothing too exciting, and all really expensive!

Day 85 - Little Imp!



I'm babysitting my nephew this evening. He's all snuggled up in his pjs and hat (not sure why the hat, but there you go), but did have to have a bit of a jump around on the sofa before snuggling down.