Monthly Archives: September 2018

It’s Friday, Thank Goodness!

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ac0680ad7caf39a7eade2141beb13b43--happy-weekend-quotes-quotes-friday

It has been a very strange week, this week.  Youngest got himself a part-time job to fit in with his studies etc and it was working between 3.00am and 7.00am filling the vans for UPS for that day’s deliveries!!!  He has always, as has Eldest, been very good about getting up in the morning and they were never late for school as they were always up and bouncing about.  However I thought that getting up at 2.00am everyday would be a strain so I was setting my alarm for 2.00am just to make sure he was up!!!! 

He did get up but it was getting a little later as the week went on and by Thursday he and I were about on our knees!!!!  Needless to say he has decided it is not the right job for him and has left!!!  Both he and I then, of course, slept in this morning as we were both shattered!!!  DH was also away on Wednesday night for work and I never sleep well when he is not home, even with snuggle bugs Treacle on the bed!!!

I popped out today to get some flowers for our friends tomorrow and their 50th.  They are having a party in the Village Hall with a band and for supper it is fish and chips!!  So much nicer on cold evenings than a buffet and what a great idea.  I will get pictures!!!  Also did the grocery shopping and got back in time for lunch with Youngest and then managed to catch up with my work.  I am determined I am not going to get behind, it is just too much then to catch up on.

Youngest is coaching tomorrow morning between 7.00am and 9.00am (definitely better times!) and DH is going with him to help with the swimmers and then we are taking Youngest to the train station so he can go and visit Girlfriend at her Uni and then DH and I are going to the Ploughing Match in Southwell, not far from his childhood home.  There are always exhibits from how they used to plough with the heavy horses as above and of course the modern version with tractors.  It is great fun watching the tractors race across the fields ploughing but in a race.  Again I will get pictures.

The weather is set fair for the weekend with warmer temperatures tomorrow and cooler on Sunday which will be ideal to get in the garden and start getting it ready for winter. 

I have also had, in the last couple of weeks, some new Followers so Welcome along for the ride (!), thank you for following me and I hope you enjoy this journey we are on.

This is Treacle today, soaking up the Indian Summer rays!

I hope you lovely lot have a wonderful weekend, whatever you are up to.

Hugs & Love, Susie xx

#TBT.

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For #TBT today here are the Boys from fifteen years ago, 2003, in the garden in September.  When I look at the planting in the pictures and compare it to now, it has really grown!!!

Eldest aged Eight.

Youngest aged Four.

Oh to go back to then. 

Half of my Baby quilt is quilted, just need to get the other half done and then the binding sewn on.  I also sorted out my sewing room.  I don’t know if you remember but Youngest gave me this (below) a couple of Christmas’s ago and I have kept it like this as I loved it so much, but decided that I should now open it and put things in my sewing room.  The scissors are great.

Today was house job day and I got my work done too, its amazing how much you can get done in a day by getting up at 4.00am!!!  DH was away again and I couldn’t sleep, so got my work done in the wee small hours and then started the cleaning after breakfast!!!  Treacle was just confused!!! 

Today has been another glorious, one last gasp at summer, day with warm temperatures.  Treacle has been making the most of it outside on the patio again.

Happy Thursday everyone.

Hugs, Susie xx

The Wednesday Wag.

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Good Afternoon everyone and welcome to our Indian Summer we are having in a very sunny Derbyshire today!

As it is so lovely today I will show you a little bit of my most excellent garden.  Mom and Dad think it’s their garden but really it is alllllllll  mine!

If you look over to the right you will see how lovely the plants are looking in this wonderful sunshine.

I am loving the late summer look.

If you look up you will see just how blue the sky is today.

Not a cloud in the sky.

I hope you enjoyed that lovely warm tour today and thank you for using “Treacle View©”!

Woof, Treacle x

Autumn Tuesday!

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Our trees are starting to turn as Autumn continues its march towards Winter.  However tomorrow and Thursday it is due to be 20°C again although falling to 3°C at night!  The last few days have been very chilly but I have resisted turning our heat on because of the next two days!!!  However if it continues to be cool then I will be putting the heat on!!!!

Treacle has taken to curling up in her basket very small as she had her fur cut last week and its gone cold!  It always happens!!!

Speaking of weather they have forecast, at the moment, for us to have a very hard Winter with lots of snow like 2010 when this picture was taken.  We had not had this amount of snow in a long while and you can see how deep it was and this was just the amount of snow which had fallen overnight!!!  They have also forecast a White Christmas but the weather people are notorious for getting the forecasts wrong so we shall see!!!!

Like this past weekend when they forecast heavy rain for the whole weekend, so DH and I planned on doing jobs inside all weekend, and yet it was quite nice!!!!  We still did the indoor jobs just to get them done, especially before October as every weekend in October has a swimming or compering event on, in fact we don’t have any weekends free at all.  So looking forward to November!  I know you are not supposed to wish time away but I just know it is going to be manic!!! 

Speaking of Christmas, or were we?  Well they are getting things into the shops for Christmas already!!!  Anyway I have arranged to go with my good friend, Jayne, Christmas shopping in November.  I don’t know how much shopping we will get done but it is a great excuse for a day out in Nottingham and to have lunch and even if we don’t spend much we get to see all the Christmas displays which is always great.  Can’t wait.

I am doing quite well at the moment keeping up to date with my work and house jobs etc and I do think that makes things easier for me.  I have started on the second baby quilt getting it quilted and hope to finish it by the end of this week.  This coming weekend on Saturday day time DH and I are hoping to go to a ploughing match over in Nottinghamshire, near to where DH was born and if the weather is kind I will get some pictures.  Saturday evening it’s our Friends 50th Anniversary Dinner which we are looking forward to.  Sunday we will be doing a little bit more in the garden if the weather is kind. 

DH had his tooth fixed on Friday but it is still sore, the Dentist said it will be for another week or so but hopefully he will not need any more visits or treatment.  The Dentist is still not sure what happened but hopes that he has fixed it now!!!!! 

We have a few birthdays coming up in October too, DH being one of them at the end of the month but as we are away for our Anniversary at the beginning of November I think he will wait for his presents then!!!  It is always a very busy few months in the run up to Christmas which is why by the time I get to Christmas Day I feel as if I have run a marathon!!!  Hey ho!

I hope you are having a great week, whatever you lovely lot are up to.

Hugs, Susie xx

#TBT.

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You know all that glorious Summer weather we had and the drought?  Yep well all the water that disappeared over all those weeks has come back down today!!!!  You cannot see too well in the picture above, but the water running down our Hill was just incredible.  The plants, I can assure you, do not need watering!!!!

Throwback pictures to Goose Fair which will soon be on again at the beginning of October

DH and I took the Boys down to London at the October Half Term school holiday in 2005, Eldest was ten and Youngest was six!  They, like we, have always loved bookshops and they always came out with books whatever the time of year, toys were only bought at Christmas and Birthdays but if we went into a bookshop no matter what time of year they came out with books.  I think this helped them to love books as much as we do.  As you can see Youngest got himself a chair and was quite happy.  This was Hatchards in London and we spent quite a few hours in there.

Eldest above sorting out the books of what he would like to buy.  They also spent their own money on books a lot of the time too.

Of course a trip to London is not done unless you go down the River Thames on a boat, which the Boys loved to do no matter how old they got.  The River is far too interesting to take time out looking at Daddy taking a picture, but I did!!!

I hope you are having a thrilling Thursday, it’s almost Friday!

Hugs, Susie xx

The Wednesday Wag.

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I was at the Spa on Monday for my bathing ritual and there were only a few other dogs in with me, so it was very relaxing!

Front View

Right View

Left View

Mom has washed all my beds, my quilt, my collar, my towel and Teddy so we all smell so much better.

The weather is still nice so far but it will not doubt start to get cool, especially as I have had my Airecut!

Of course I had to have several hours sleep to recover!!!!!!

I was also busy keeping Mom safe whilst Dad and Youngest were away over the last few days.  Sleeping in her bed was a real chore!!!!!

Woof, Treacle.

 

Talking TV.

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As you know Masterchef Australia is one of my favourite reality TV shows and this year it was its 10th season.  I don’t know if you watch any reality TV shows but certainly with the cookery show there is always someone, out of the 24 contestants who is annoying!!!  Either the way they come across or the way they relate to the other people or just existing!!!!!!!

This year it was this person, Michelle, who as her job describes herself as a “writer”  when actually she just has a blog!  SO for all of us with blogs we can now describe ourselves as writers!  She never admitted to any problems in any of the episodes with any of the tasks and whatever they were cooking she had always done it already or always made that dish at home.  To me she was the worst person to be on the show because she never learnt anything from the chefs or the events, as she had done it or seen it or eaten it all before and I believe she really wanted to be on the presenting side rather than a contestant.  Fortunately she was eliminated early on, on Gordon Ramsey week and so we did not have to listen to any more of her wittering!!! 

There is a new advert out with Emilia Clarke for a new perfume from Dolce & Gabbana where she is singing as above.  I am amazed by her teeth!!!  Whether it is the red lipstick but I cannot  see how she can get that many teeth in her mouth, they are amazing!!!!  Love her in Game of Thrones and I do hope when the final series airs next year it is a good ending, but having read all the books I don’t think George R.R. Martin will be that kind to us, as he loves killing off main characters!!  In fact I am going to get all the books out and re-read them.  There is so much more in the books than on the show, so if you like the show and have not read the books, do so, you will get a lot more from them.

As you know quite a few of the TV shows I watched every season have finished so I have been scouting around the channels looking for some new shows and I have found this.  “Instinct” with the great Alan Cumming.  It is about an ex-CIA Officer who has left to join the world of academia but is asked to consult by the New York Police when a murderer starts to use his book as a blue print for his murders. So far, we are on Episode 4, it looks quite good and I am hoping it will continue.  

Finally back to this year’s Masterchef there was the incomparable Nigella Lawson Week.  I just love her whole style and her recipes are amazing and you can actually read her cookery books and she is so funny.  In fact she could write fiction.  Her recipes are very good and you can change elements in them and they still work. 

This is one of my favourite Nigella books and I have made lots of the dishes out of it.

DH and Youngest are both back tomorrow and I will be reversing Mondays schedule of collecting them from the airport and train station but not so early thank goodness.  It has been quite strange just Treacle and I at home and when there is no one else at home I leave all the lights on downstairs!  Silly I know but it makes me feel better!!!

I have been busy at my desk all day today with work and then called round to see a very good friend in the village whose birthday is on Thursday, but I could not see her on the day so I had a nice catch up with her over a cup of tea!!!

I hope you have all had a great Tuesday, tomorrow’s Wednesday and then it’s almost Friday!!  DH is getting his tooth hopefully fixed then so he can eat properly.  Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be okay but we are feeling the effects of high winds and it should be okay at the weekend but next week the temperature is due to fall a little making it more Autumn like.

Have a great Wednesday, Treacle will be here tomorrow.

Hugs, Susie xx

Done a Days Work Already!

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As I write this it is 7.00am BST and I feel like I have already done a day’s work!! I had to drop DH off at the Airport at 4.30am for his flight to Germany and I got back at 5.15am to then pick up Youngest to take him to the train station to get his train to Manchester, to then get back and at 8.30am I am taking Treacle to the Spa!!!!  I will then run some errands before I pick her up again about 12.30pm.  Once we get home and had lunch I think I will go back to bed!!!!!!

DH and I got some more tidying in the garden done over the weekend and these are the last of the tomatoes.  I have put in some Spring vegetables and hopefully they will survive over the Winter.  I have also planted my Spring bulbs.  We also put away the patio furniture as it was nice and dry.  Here are a few pictures of the new plants.

We trimmed the wisteria as it needed it and I just now need to “feed” it and hopefully it will be happy and grow next year, fingers crossed!!

I also tidied my little grow house and put some seeds in for Spring too.

We emptied the pots of the Summer flowers and planted Spring bulbs.

Treacle was busy helping!!!!

She then spent the rest of the afternoon snoozing!

The weather is starting to get a lot cooler, especially at night, so I decided to make cottage pie for dinner the other evening!!!

Off now for my third taxi run with Treacle to the Spa!!!

Have a wonderful Monday and great week.

Hugs, Susie xx

Monthly Friday Book Club.

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Hi everyone and welcome to my monthly

Friday Book Club. 

This is one of the books I read whilst I was away on vacation.  Jeffery Deaver is one of my favourite authors and his books do not disappoint. He has written quite a few now and with a number of heroes but my favourite by far is the Lincoln Rhyme thrillers.  His writing is very easy to read and you really do fall into the story and several hours can go by before you know it.

For any of you who have not read a Lincoln Rhyme book he was a Police Captain in charge of the New York Forensic Department when an accident left him a paraplegic but his brain still as sharp as ever.  Over the course of the books he has been able to gain more movement although still in his special automated chair, he is now able to go out and visit some of the scenes.  He is ably assisted by Amelia Sachs and others who help to solve the most mysterious of cases. 

“The Cutting Edge” is about someone targeting Couples who are engaged and about to get married.  What has he got against marriage, or the couples and why does he want them to die?  Diamonds take centre stage and as we know diamonds are a Girls best friend but not when someone is trying to kill you.

As you know I love mystery books and in particular the police procedural ones, such as Bones but I particularly love Lincoln Rhyme.  Jeffery Deaver has never fallen into the trap of just writing a book for the sake of it as his publisher needs to publish each year, as I think Lee Child has. 

If you want to start reading the Lincoln Rhyme books it begins with “The Bone Collector” where we are introduced to Rhyme and Sachs and the others , which was made into a film starting Denzel Washington as Rhyme and Angelina Jolie as Sachs (although they changed her name in the movie!).

I have also seen Jeffery Deaver and listened to him read the first chapter of his new book and met him afterwards and got him to sign the book.  He is a very interesting man, having had several careers but I think the best of which is being an Author and can recommend any of his books to you.

Have a great weekend, whatever you are up to and remember to set some time aside for reading. 

Hugs, Susie x

The book I got signed by Mr Deaver a few years ago.

 

#TBT.

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For #TBT today I am only going back to last Saturday, so not throwing back too far at all!!

Eldest’s Birthday has lasted for several weeks now since he was away for the actual day!!!  Saturday we all went out to celebrate and he got another piece of cake!!!! We went to Mr Man’s Chinese Restaurant in Wollaton Park, Nottingham. 

Eldest and Girlfriend.

Youngest and Girlfriend.

My Boys!

The rest of the party, Emily, James, Lily, Mel, Charles and DH!

DH looks a bit stern in this picture as does Charles, they did have a great evening but DH is still not well with his tooth and mouth and is on yet another set of antibiotics.  He will be seeing our Dentist next week to hopefully get if fixed!!  He is still not eating well. 

It was a lovely evening and great fun.  DH and I are out this Friday evening at a Retirement party for one of the Consultants at one of the companies we work with.  Italian this week!!!  It really is not helping my diet much all this entertaining!!!!

This has been delivered to the Grandparents-to-Be for them to take to The Netherlands when their new Granddaughter arrives!!!  They now know they are expecting a little girl but think the colours and patterns are wonderful as the Mom-to-Be hates pink, so relieved I didn’t know it was a girl and included any pink in the quilt!!!!!  They loved it and I am sure Jenny & Chris will.  Baby is due on October 1st and I will let you know when she has arrived.

It has been a busy week work wise and today is House jobs day and tomorrow I have some errands to run before we go out.  DH is compering an event on Saturday evening and we may get some jobs done before he goes there and Sunday will be also getting jobs completed.  Saturday evening I will be in my sewing room, getting on with the second quilt and hopefully later sorting out my sewing room which has not been done since we got back from vacation.!

After Treacle’s sleepy day yesterday she is ready and waiting to help with all the jobs!!!  That means following me from room to room as I get things done as she does not want to miss out on anything!!!

Happy Thursday everyone.

Hugs, Susie & Treacle xx