Catch Up!

Well...what an overdue catch up for me in blogging!  Have been very busy with work and home stuff like laundry chores, tidying, children routines, etc and MARKING...what a chore!  Nowhere near enough time dedicated to the more pleasurable pursuit of The Granny Stripe purely through lack of time and a "too tired" feeling taking over the compulsion to try and get it finished.  I did manage some rows at the tail end of the week and so the last round of colours is now finally underway.

The weather in my part of the world has been glorious and so uncharacteristic for this time of year.  It has been quite disorientating as we'd normally be coping with gloomier skies and chillier weather.  BUT I am not complaining.  Our summer was pretty mediocre really so this is all a bonus.  Yet these balmy conditions can make you seem lethargic - well me certainly!  What has been a bonus is that my lonely sunflower brought home from the (growing and nurturing) efforts of some of my class way back in the early summer did manage to flower.  I had really thought it would not achieve a flower but it has and it is proudly standing to attention facing south towards the sun!  So that has been a cheerful sight to see it unfurl its yellow, sunny petals.

My sunday roast mentioned in my last post was a success and the crackling on the pork joint a triumph and totally scrummy. 

Pork ready for the oven-sadly forgot to take a photo of the triumphant cooked version with oodles of crackling!

Melting the choc and butter

The chocolate brownie dessert also went down well, especially with the real vanilla ice cream accompaniment.  I did feel very proud of myself making this dessert from scratch.



Chocolate brownie just out the oven!

Ammonite inspired lighting down the promenade

Anyway, to make the most of the hot weather, we decided to do a family outing to Lyme Regis on Saturday.  It took us approx an hour and half in the car and we enjoyed a lovely drive through the countryside there (coming home the M5 on the way back).  As we approached the descent into the town itself I was struck by how lovely it looked with its very nice looking array of shops and tea shops, bunting zig-zagging across the main street and full of people enjoying a day out in the sun.  In fact, lots of people obviously had the same idea as us because as is usual for such days, parking was a nightmare.  However, we were lucky to get a spot to tie us over for an hour before the search and hunt for a new space was on.  The boys and I were able to chill on the pebbled beach while Dad had this chore to do! Hee hee!!!  We had an enormous amount of yummy chippies to eat whilst soaking in the sun, a splash and explore in the shallow waters, looking for unusal holey pebbles, then a stroll down the promenade.  I managed a sneaky peek into a couple of shops!  It was quite refreshing for us all to have a family jaunt out!  Orignally, we'd set out to try and find the Jurassic Coast where one can see fossils and traces of real, live dinosaurs from long, long ago!  But, we weren't entirely sure of the location so settled for just some relaxing time in Lyme Regis itself.

View from the sanded beach area looking possibly to the Jurassic Coast place

Had to show this fantastic cake made for my god-daughter's birthday last Sunday.  How awesome is that-not made by me sadly but a very talented baker who I work with.

Well, that's my catch up in brief.  Hope to be back later with more progress in The Stripe. 

Have a good week!