Shocked and appalled.

Frankly, my rage is outed. I cannot believe how many blog posts I'm reading lately where the authors are, gasp, taking down their decorations. STOP IT NOW! In my house it is against the actual law to even whisper a suggestion of taking the tree down before Twelfth Night.
*rocks gently back and forth in a corner muttering*

Hahaha I can't bear to take my tree down. It takes me so long to put the flipping thing up! Plus, and my  photos do not do it justice, it really is beautiful this year, not that I'm obsessed or anything.

So...before the sad bleak day when my downstairs returns to its bare, empty, ( dusty -omg tinsel hides a lot of dust )  boring existence, the one thing I will be doing is cutting up my Christmas cards beautifully to add to my stash. This year I managed to match tags with paper easily.
One of my favourite's being this Father Christmas.

I also note down all the senders who will be my list for next year! Except this year I didn't find said list until it was too late. A lot of my cards just said 'to you all' because my crap memory wouldn't bring names of spouses and children to mind in time!

A quick look at some of the obscene amount of presents bestowed upon me by the HG! He does like to collect things! He is a marketing man's dream ( as am I if I'm honest! ) but today I will be using my  new non stick foot to make a bag - photos of course to follow!

I also got so much more! New boots, now walking trainers, more crafty bits n bobs, including this sock loom 

I've already made a start, took it off, and started again! Photos next time. I got loads of other stuff too, perfume, chocolates, slippers, books etc like I said, spoilt rotten! 

My turkey was fabulously cooked to perfection by yours truly! 

Miss 22, her beau and Freddie came for Boxing Day 

Pretending he's camera shy! He's so big now but still as yummy! 

Right am away to my chores* 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *spoilt rotten quite ridiculously this year* Radiostar 

*faffing in my craft room

Merry Christmas 2016

Well, after a stormy Christmas Eve and being woken by a power cut at 3.30am, I'd like to wish you all A MERRY Christmas.
The power cut didnt wake me per se, the fact it switches on a hi fi in our room we never use and it causes the CD drive to constantly open and close. If that wasn't annoying enough, then there's always the gadzillions of house alarms going off from over the way. Clearly advertising to all the burglars that no one is home because NO ONE IS GETTING UP TO TURN OFF THE FREAKING ALARM.

ANYWAY.
It is Christmas Day. I plan on having. Fabulous day. The house is set. The fridge is full to bursting and knowing my loved ones are safe and warm keeps my heart happy. Before I leave you with some photo montages I just want to chat Christmas presents.
First, the best Christmas Present I've ever had - discovering today an APP that lets me text my best friend in the whole wide world for free. She is in America. We love it!
Second - I thought I was getting the best present ever for my dad ( and the HG )
I think it's an epic fail. They are a set of crampons that fit over boots to give extra grip on snow and ice and what I wanted them for...muddy fields. They look like items you'd find in a medieval torture chamber. Chains and lots of sharp metal teeth that are curved and huge.
My dad and now the HG have a new hobby. It involves time spent in farmer's field's a lot. With a set of headphones on and a stick. Yes it's metal detecting. The only thing they'd be detecting with my wonder present is their own feet!!!!!!

Anyway Miss 22 is coming for Boxing Day so it keeps the presents thing going for longer!

Well, I hope you all have a lovely peaceful day and it all goes well. The hat is the very first one I've knit on circular needles in the round. I had to use the magic loop ! It's for Miss22 and it will match her new wellies! 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *may your sprouts be perfectly cooked* Radiostar xxx

Hi everyone!

I've about 6 half finished posts in my drafts - I really really miss the blogger app. I love putting photos in posts but it really is a ballache when you blog either on an iPhone or an ipad due to the stupid way the screen moves around and how you can't see the add photos bit properly. I've still 2 days to go at work including two discos tonight. I'm not staying all night though as I've my Asda shopping coming betwixt 6 and 7. I've a few presents to wrap but I do t feel festive yet despite all my trimmings being up.
On Monday afternoon my day was made by my FAVOURITE ever ever pupil coming back from High School looking for me. It made me all smiley. Yesterday I tested a little cherub I've been doing daily intensive reading with. In five weeks they've improved from a starting reading age of 5y7m to 6y11m. I'm beyond proud of them. We will carry on in the New Year...if I can...
One of my classes based colleagues is retiring ( lucky thing ) and I've a feeling I'm going to be pulled from my role back into full time classroom TA work. Which is not what I want. If I'm in class, who will do the bereavement counselling I did yesterday? Who will do the anger management work I did yesterday? Who will do the work on social skills and friendship I did yesterday? Who will touch base with three other kids who feel unloved and unwanted? Some might think I'm a waste of resources but actually the impact my current role is having is all positive- for those certain individuals and for everyone around them!
Thanks for well wishers wondering where I am. I'm just lurking! This is my first year without Miss 22 at home on Christmas Day. It had to happen but will seem odd. Fingers crossed the forecast stays good and she'll be here Boxing Day. But just overnight. They both have jobs to get back for. Which is great. I'm very proud of her. The words in the card for Mr 19 from his boss made me cry. I will share them next time. Because right now, it's 6.24am and I am still in my warm cosy bed!
I'll be back soonish hopefully getting the draft posts posted! They are mostly Christmas tree focussed!

Lots of love from
Rachel *no time to think of witty insert* Radiostar xxx

How do you eat yours?

Malteasers - pop a whole one in, carefully chisel the chocolate off the outside, silently smug if you get it off in arcs! Then suck the honeycomb ball till it sticks to the roof of the mouth.

Yoghurts - Peel the lid away from you, to avoid being splattered and then lick it clean, blatantly ignoring any scaremongering of your parents warning you of the dangers of cutting your tongue, look on in horror if someone in your family uses a spoon to scrape the lid. Next is either use your tongue or finger to get the thick ridge of yoghurt around the rim of the pot. Eat the rest with a teaspoon. ( I am civilised you know )

Crisps - only if they are light in colour will they be eaten. Large ones, are held up and admired, then licked clean of all flavour before being crunched!

Fry's Turkish Delight - remove and eat all chocolate with teeth. These are excellent for this. Good thick chocolate! Eat squidgy pink stuff last.

Sunday Dinner - Always leave the Yorkshire till last to mop up any gravy. Look on aghast at your son ( remember he doesn't *do* gravy )  who eats them FIRST?!! What is this monster you raised?

Kitkats - chisel off the chocolate with teeth from all the top and sides ( you sensing a theme? ) but never the bottom. Then, disect , lengthways each layer of wafer and fondant. I just lolled at myself then, imagining being described in a David Attenborough documentary about the skills and dexterity I'm using to extract the goodness from the kit Kat.

Crunchies - one of my favourite chocolate bars - chisel and lift off slabs of chocolate off the top and sides. Not the bottom. It's generally too thin. Then suck a piece of honeycomb till it melts.

~~ I'm actually trying to think of a chocolate bar I DON'T chisel the chocolate off first, but am struggling!~~

Chips - must be barely brown and only just cooked. Causes no end of arguments in this house. The HG complains if the chips are anaemic. I hate dark chips. They are burnt to me.

Toast - the same as crisps and chips - barely brown! The HG calls it warmed bread. We have 'toaster control wars' in our house. I like it just done with butter and loads of jam. He likes it well browned with a scraping of butter and jam. What is wrong with him?!

Pasta - I actually like it if it's slightly over cooked. I don't like it al dente! Would you be surprised if I told you the HG likes his just done? I have to dish up tea in our house with military precision.

Soup served with bread - I never ever ever ever have buttered my bread to have with soup. He does.
Bacon butties - I never ever ever butter my bread for a bacon butty. He does. It's how we've been brought up differently!


What about you n yours?


Lots of love from

Rachel *hope I didn't gross you out too much* Radiostar xxx

Cold hands, warm heart.

That's what my beloved Nanna used to tell me. Well, as I blog away here in my radiator less bedroom with open chimney in it, I'm reckoning my heart must be at blast furnace temperature.
Thank you to all those who mourned the passing of Little Theo in my last post.  He is buried at Miss 22's inlaws. Though I rather fancy she was seriously considering a state funeral, with the cavalcade driving slowly cross country to our house so he could be laid to rest with the remains of all his predecessors in our hamster cemetery. Maybe she thought people would line the streets and throw mini flowers like forget me nots at the car!

The red boots are still in the house and I may wear them today! I don't feel too Christmassy yet. I've bought a few presents but no wrapping done alas. It's not December yet anyway. But I can't wait to get my tree up. I've bought some teeny led lights on copper wire to wind in amongst my Kitchen silk flower display I've got going on on the window sill. It doesn't sound attractive but it's beautiful turquoises and I love it! I bought the lights at Asda after looking at them for weeks. I went to Asda for a top up shop last night. £70 just for basics. The HG is eating me out of house and home. I have set him with the task of meal planning next week. He complained and moaned but I said I a man sick of thinking what to have for tea all the time. It does my head in. I am quite happy , in fact, I adore eating left overs, but he has never ever done it with me. I think it stems from him having the same pan of stew on the go for the week when he and his dad had a bachelor pad together!
So far his suggestions have been - and I laughed because he started off by saying "and I don't want chips"
Cottage pie
Spag Bol
Mince pie - a plate pie, with chips and peas!!!
Hmmmm.
That's it so far. Well that's mince on the shopping list so far....
At least his appetite is back!

It's his birthday on Saturday, so once that's out of the way I can think about Christmas. The tree might go up earlier this year as it's Mr 19 who will be getting it down out the loft. I've just got to pre Christmas clean first. Furniture out and skirtings cleaned etc. That's a job for Sunday. The day of rest!!

I have made some Christmas sausage rolls though. They are in the freezer. I don't know if I showed you them already. Half of them I mixed the sausage meat with half a packet of pork and mushroom pate. Just to see. Oh my stars it was delicious! 

Right, I must away to my chores*

Lots of love from

Rachel*redboots* Radiostar

* Get washed n dressed for work!

Note to self..

I must stop buying boots! But the are in the sale and so warm and comfy!! I've been keeping my eye out for some in the Amazon deals and for once struck lucky!!

The tan boots are some old faithfuls but so comfy! The navy ones are Rieker boots and comfy from day 1. As are the red boots, but the sole isn't up to

Much. But they are soft red leather and so lovely. Want to keep them but probably won't!  The black ones are by rocket dog? I'm not a label person at all. As long as I like them and they are comfy, I'll have 'em! 

Now for some knitting news...hardly news but there's blocking going on. These are two

More little waistcoats and I went a bit fancy and added a couple of flowers to one! 

There's also a matching beret going on...( hope to finish it after I've blogged! ) 

I've doubled stranded the wool to

Make it thicker and warmer. 

A new knitting project to be unveiled soon...involves this..

.

And I'm planning on making two bags, one with this gorgeous map of the world oilcloth and the liberty kit one! 

Just need to get motivated and find the time. 

Things are pretty slow here really. I think there's a hefty dose of the big fat Fed Ups going around too.  A lot of it is to do with the fact I'm going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark. 

I do like being snuggled up in bed when it's so cold outside. I will admit to breaking out my full flannette sheets/duvet cover combo. However, still only one Autumn tog quilt. Full fat version is being saved until its Baltic. 

I have sad news. RIP littleTheo.. 

He was nearly 2 1/2 years old and we know they don't last forever. 

You may remember this post...

http://eternally28.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/murdiddlyurder.html?m=1

And then this one 

http://eternally28.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/hamster-search-squad-can-stand-down.html?m=1

He was a well loved lovely little hamster. Why oh why do we put ourselves through this heartbreak??

I was going to do a post on the Christmas Adverts but I haven't got time now! But I did think the Sainsbury's one with the Gogglebox families on it was GENIUS!

Right, I must away to my chores*

Lots of love from be from Rachel *So many crafty projects, so little time* Radiostar

*knitting

I THINK I DID IT!

It appears I can now get some photos to work after following online forums. I had to allow pop ups etc. Anyway I now can't scroll down to the end to do my signing off! So can't have everything! 

So, before they all disappear, let's get some show n tells done before work! 

Clever Freddie...

Montage of the jumper. Pam's quilt was very useful for blocking. The HG picked the design of the jumper. I don't actually like it! 

Nice and clean  after a bath and my dove shower gel, needed because of a muddy romp round the park. 

Floor shot of jumper! 

 My new hair colour in my quest to revert to my normal hair colour - this IS is quite like my normal hair colour!  and go grey gracefully whilst hiding the roots!

Sleepy Freddie dreaming up ways of getting into mischief. On Pam's quilt.
Mischief like this....

Has Blogger gone totally tits up?

I tried to post photos onto my google plus thingy what I rarely go on because I can usually then use the photo tool on the dashboard to add them here in my posts. I could barely do one at a time. I kept getting error messages. If I click on the ' use photos from my phone' option, it only has a select few to choose from and the latest ones it goes back to is June.

The reason I do my blogging off my iPhone n iPad is because my laptop is knackered. Well, it's the charging jack and the battery. The battery holds zero charge so it has to be permanently plugged in. The charging jack is so broken that the connector has to be jammed in *just so* for the power to flow that even a 1mm shift will cause the laptop to just shut down. Can you imagine how annoying that is????
I don't really want to buy another laptop. With only my wage coming in for the foreseeable too I could do without the expense because it's not an essential thing we need.

The three nights away in the New Year, in the luxury log cabin we holidayed in August in, is however, an essential we need!! Booked it on Friday. Knee jerk reaction! Plus I don't go back to school until the NINTH of January! Doesn't it sound so far away! The glorious 9th! Far more civilised than the brutal return of the 2nd of last year!! Who needs money anyway?!

Anyway back to my technical issues. After trying and failing to send feedback about the fact photos do not want to work for me, except the feedback page kept freezing I'm now here via the google chrome app. About to try again. Let's see what happens. I feel like I'm a Google Slave now. No choice but to give in. Grrrr
 Take just now for instance, I tried again and failed to add any pics.
I took screenshots. Oh the irony. Tried to send feedback. No joy. Even typing this is laggy.
 Tried again just now. The whole thing froze. This IS NOT putting me in the best mood ever. I refuse to give in though and go to the dark side - i.e. WORDPRESS. I love Blogspot, I just wish they'd sort it out pronto! Going to try again to give feedback once I've pressed publish. I just sent feedback begging them to get this sorted!

The show and tell is done. I just can't show you yet! I can tell you though...
The HG's jumper is finished and it fits like a dream! Hooray!

Lots of love from
Rachel *cheesed off beyond belief* Radiostar xxx

Pork chops disaster

You know the phrase ' no point  crying over spilt milk' well I'm changing it to pork chops. Not that they are spilt. But that they are Out. Of. Date.
With the HG being home and ravenous I'd stocked up on shopping when I had the chance to go with a friend. I bought some lovely looking outdoor reared French trimmed pork chops and put them in the fridge. But because my fridge was full of probiotic yogurt and yoghurt drink things ( see other blog ) the pork chops went in a drawer. Delicious and varied meals have been made by me EXCEPT I FORGOT TOTALLY ABOUT MY FRENCH TRIMMED OUTDOOR REARED CHOPS and they were out of date by five days!! At first I was so GRRRRRR about this waste. But then, decided in the grand scheme of things, it's really not worth crying over chops at £4. It wasn't worth the risk of food poisoning either. So in the bin they went. Not that it stopped me developing the same symptoms as food poisoning.

Yesterday was a Big Day. I woke at 5ish after no sleep ( mind you I'm blogging here at twenty to two in the morning after falling asleep at just 11pm ) feeling a bit 'off it' . I think my hysterical throat had come back and the pizza I'd scoffed as a late tea had lain heavy. So stress, late ( lovely ) pizza and the fact five members of staff had been off with a tummy bug meant I was bathroom bound for the foreseeable. Except I couldn't be. Me and the HG had to get to a 9.45am appointment.
I took deep breaths, I also took alka seltzer - which ALWAYS settles my stomach, deflatine  for the wind too n bottom and two Imodium to keep things in place let's say. My sister took us to the hospital and we waited in the waiting room. I know I should have probably stayed away but there was no way on earth I was missing this consultation.  I got hotter and hotter. My tummy was gurgling and churning. Eventually we were called in. The doctor looked at me a couple of times, I'm wondering now if he thought 'she's going to barf all over my desk any second'. I think I was getting a bit squirmy. Even The. Best. News. In the. World. didn't stop my tummy ache. Anyway the minute we got out I ran to the loo to be sick. It was non productive. I composed myself and we got in the car n came straight home. Thanked my sister, fussed Freddie. 'Ran' to the bathroom and spent a good old length of time in there let's say. Then I took to my bed. Took more painkillers and sips of iced water. I was raging, albeit weakly. We'd had the best news ever and I was feeling wretched. I think it was probably more nerves and stress than the school bug because even though I date the risk or want anything to eat I felt better once I was fully empty. People at school had the illness for days. I stayed in bed. Updated friends and family on the Good News, watched a bit of telly, read a bit and slept a bit.
During this time the HG was downstairs. He was,therefore, in charge of Freddie. Freddie had had a whale of a time. I know this because the HG came upstairs and told me that my rug had big bald bits in it now!! Freddie had had a jolly old time pulling all the tufted bits out at two sides of the rug. We have a big through lounge dining room. Freddie's cage is in the dining room on this rug. Normally he plays with his toys in the lounge where the HG chair is. The cage is also behind the HG chair. The HG  said Freddie had taken some of his toys in the dining room and was playing. Ohhhh no, Freddie had used his toys in a bid to distract from his new game of 'Let's pull the tufts out of Nanna's rug'.
Hmmmmm.
The HG had thought, he's quiet, but obviously at the minute moving is tricksy, so didn't discover the game until a large bit of the rug had been stripped!!! Freddie was thoroughly told off and slunk away, head down, tufts of rug sticking out of his mouth!!! The little git!
Couldn't stay cross at him forever! I think the rug can be fixed. The HG struggled to picked up the tufts off the floor and put them up high. So tomorrow I'll have a go at rug repairs tomorrow. If it looks a mess I'll have a go at trimming it. If it unravels I'll get rid of it. There's no point crying over puppy ruined rugs either. It's a lovely rug that I got in the Next sale for £40. There'll be others.
I feel like I've been holding my breath for two and a half months and I'm certainly not going to let a few tufts of wool tip me over the edge! Naughty Freddie!
His Mum n Dad came back last night. Miss 22 offered to buy me a new rug but I told her I don't want her to.

Here is the naughty boy! 

On the rug he hasn't chewed. He was five months old yesterday.  He's staying til Sunday morning and  I'm going to miss my little shadow. Nose pressed to back of my legs where ever I go in the kitchen. Sat at my feet when I wash up. I'm glad I feel better because I missed him yesterday! 

To solve the photo thing I'm having to put the photos I want onto my google plus profile so apologies if you've seen them twice now.  

Although I can only see this one of Freddie to add and I know there's at least 20 others I posted. I think I will have to look at getting my laptop sorted. The charging point has had it n will only stay on if the wire is held 'just so' and it holds no battery. Bloody Blogger should not have withdrawn its App. 

Right I think I'm going to publish this and try to get comfy n nod off. The HG is awake too now. He's sweating. I think he's going to need more antibiotics. 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *relieved* Radiostar xxx 

Almost there

I'm almost there with the show n tell. Just not 100% finished.
We've been looking after Tigger from Winnie the Pooh disguised as a stocky little Springer pup who is 5 months old today. He is as good as gold mostly. If he can, he'll nick your slippers. If he can, he'll bring his sucky toy up on the couch. If he can, he'll put everything in the garden in his mouth! It's worse than having a toddler. He moves a lot faster than a toddler! He has these mad half hours where he tears up and down chasing a rubber pig. He's so fast! It makes me laugh and laugh so much. He's like a thing possessed when he does it!
I've been whistle training him and it's not taken long at all. He'll hurtle towards you after a few pips and then sits at your feet. He LOVES doing tricks and learning. But nowhere near am I as good a trainer as some of the people on you tube if you search for 'five month old springer . I've had to put him in Time Out a few times. When I come in from work, he's so wiggly and excited but then he's jumped and mouthed a few times. So Time out for Freddie is just to close a door on him and say Time Out. He hates it. He's young enough to want to be with us all the time still. After ten seconds I open the door and say be calm. First time it took four time outs. Now it's one. Yesterday when I got in all his wiggling n wagging was floor level with no jumping n mouthing so hooray! Too funny for the HG is when a little puppy clambers up on my knee n puts his bum in my face n settles. I don't think Freddie knows how much he has grown!
It's been a great distraction. Work has been busy since we went back on Monday and even though it's a seven week term we are rapidly running of time to do things!

Oh and I've discovered why my app doesn't work, blogger and google decided not enough people use it and so have taken it down. A very unpopular move because it was so easy to use. A lot of schools used it for the children to blog from too. So I'll have to figure out the best way to get any photos on here, as Blogger open on Safari on an iPhone or iPad is a bit pants.

Miss 22 and her young man are flying back from their holiday in the Canary Islands today and are staying until Sunday. So they can resume full responsibility for picking up the poop! Freddie's  fed a certain amount of puppy dried food a day and a few treats when training.  How that translates into the amount of poo he produces is mind boggling. Although the cold n frosty morning was great! Easiest poop scoop ever!! It'll be fab to see them both too of course.

Me n the HG have a very important appointment this morning.

So I'm off to look at blogs as a distraction before I get up and let the puppy out for his morning rampage around the garden!

Lots of love from
Rachel *doesn't know what she'll do when Freddie goes home* Radiostar xxx

You know you 'learn something new everyday'?

Here's my new nugget of knowledge.
Let me set the scene....
Yorkshire Pddings. They can be tricksy little gits at times. Huge billowy sky scraper puffs of crisp in the outside, softer and beautiful on the inside tasty or
Taste the same frisbees.
Thanks to it being half term AND being confined to barracks, there's a lot of telly watching going on. Yesterday, there was one of those Heston BloomingheckImnoteatingthat's programmes on.  He was trying to make a massive YP. Originally called Dripping Pudding, back in the day - the day being the 1609s or something. Apparently, Dripping Puddings were better Oop North, in particular, Yorkshire - probably spoke about by rich and wealthy Southern travelling folks and Yorkshire Pudding stuck!

ANYWAY, I bet some of you know this already... but the reason for them turning out flat could be that the fat is TOO HOT when you pour the batter in. I know,I know - the fat has to be sizzling hot, but a couple of degrees too high means it sets the batter too quickly meaning it CANNOT rise! So I now can sleep easier at night knowing my YP fails have been scientifically explained by Heston!

I would insert a photo but I still can't!

In other news.
It turned freezing yesterday. I pegged out my washing and my fingers hurt. My washing hung limply all day refusing to dry and when I brought it in at 4, my fingers froze again and it was as wet as it was when it'd gone out. So that's it now until March. Unless we get a sunny windy day and it's something that can't be tumbled, the drier and my Beautiful Lakeland Airer it is!

The show and tell us almost there. Not quite. I was going to yatter on about something else but I've totally forgotten now.

As Half Term's go, I've had better. Went to town on Monday with my sister n her brood. Went out for breakfast Tuesday with my work chums. Pottered about a bit at home yesterday and repeat that today. Normally pottering is my favourite- but enforced pottering is making my teeth a bit itchy. Setbacks for the patient are to blame, not the patient. But this won't last forever.
Miss 22 is coming tonight with her young man and the pup. They are jetting off to the Sun this time tomorrow so we are Freddie sitting! I might have been to TK Maxx and bought him some new toys. We shall see. We've also got a book and a whistle to have a go at training him with it just to keep us all amused!

Right that's it, time to do the Ward Rounds

Lots of love from
Rachel *Barbera Woodhouse* Radiostar xxx

The extra hour

For someone currently stuck in insomniac mood, it's a killer. Because I seem to be having my extra hour betwixt 4 and 5. Yesterday it would have been 5 and 6. Far more civilised. I will spend the day whinging!

We watched a truly heartwarming film ( NOT! ) last night. Called The wee man, based on the true story of Paul Ferris and gang warfare in Glasgow. Left nothing to the imagination. Brutal.

Tea was sausage casserole, mashed potatoes and Savoy cabbage. It was delicious as we've not had it in months. I do laugh though as I have to scrape off all the casseroley bits for Mr 19! He is so fussy sometimes. He doesn't do gravy either. I often wonder if he was switched at birth.

I'm on the cusp of revealing a show and tell. Hopefully I'll make enough progress today with it to get my 'Tah-darrrh' moment. However, how the flipping heck I'll show you will be tricksy. I'm writing this on the web and the add photo link is a bit useless on the iPad. My trusty Blogger App seems to have gone Tits up. I'm sure I'll work my way around it. When I click the photo button and add photos from my phone, it only brings up photos from months ago! In fact I just tried it now and the whole thing froze! Useless.

If I could post a photo, it would be of Sir Freddie Holmes. Miss 22 has bought the puppy a new coat, in what can be only described as a deerstalker style. He looks super snug and cute in it. He's grown so much. He looks more or less like a grown up dog. He's coming for his week's holiday on Thursday night.

I baked. For the first time in forever. I made a double batch of Aunty Olives. Half I made traditional and the other half, I added flour to make it less wet, I also added stem ginger chopped up and a glut of the syrup from the jar. These made thicker, slightly softer biscuits but still delicious! I can't take a photo to show you as they didn't last very long.

I did a stock take of my Tin cupboard. You should be grateful I can't add photos right now because I'd be treating you to a shot of it! Without copying down the whole inventory, I have about 15 tins of soup in, 8 tins of tomatoes, 8 tins of beans and a whole list of tinned pulses I must have bought when I was feeling wholesome. The top shelf is for sweet stuff. 4 tins of condensed milk! Might go down to three today if I make some millionaires shortbread! Loads of tinned fruit and evaporated milk. ( Sunday tea pudding from my childhood ), some mincemeat, jam and emergency rice pudding! Can you believe I'm chatting away about tinned food. I think there's a lot of snobbery about using tinned and frozen food. But it's all good stuff, preserved at its best!

The reason I cleaned out my tin cupboard is because of a dream I had. This weekhere has been TWO programmes on about flipping Edible Dormice. ( What did the Romans ever do for us???? ) Think one was the ITV version of Countryfile and the other Autumnwatch. Both told the viewers of how they are vermin and pest controllers are having more and more call outs to homes because of them. My dream was that I was over run with mice. The Tin cupboard was the only one not to be cleaned out in Summer. I had to check. But I had no evidence of mice, edible or not!

I'm looking forward to watching the new TV programme tonight about Britain's first woman serial killer. The trailers look good. It was dark enough yesterday for lighted candles in the daytime. Dark nights are perfect for cosy sofa viewing. The only good thing about the dark. Readers of this blog from the beginning - if there are any originals out there - will know me by now and how I hate the dark mornings and dark nights with a passion. I much prefer the Summer. Although I'm glad it's colder though I've yet to wear a coat. The heaviest I've gone is a denim jacket. I've only had to pop the heating on a couple of times as it's often colder inside my house than outside!


It's now 5.26am ( 6.26 really ) so I'm thinking about getting up and having a brew. I'm thinking too now, which IS the real time? Did we fettle with the clocks to put them on or back? Just what time IS it??  Does it really make that much difference? Really????

Lots of love from

Rachel *hates dark mornings* Radiostar xxx

Friday morning

It was a typical Autumnal morning start. Dark and misty. I thought I'd been transported into a Sherlock Holmes novel! But the Sun is now shining and all is calm. Well, it would be calm if it wasn't for me breaking the silence with Tena strength coughing. A non productive dry thickly annoying cough. It's given me a headache.

The other part of my Creat and Craft order came. Some lovely jelly rolls. I paid £9 each. A quick look on google sees them £9 and up with p&p to be added on top so I'm satisfied they are bargainous enough!

I think I'll have a go with these later this week! Maybe for some bags. I dunno! I might have a bit of time betwixt seeing to my patient who came home yesterday. 

Anyone got any ideas/patterns/projects for me?? 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *Ward Sister* Radiostar xxx 

Nothing to show and tell

Zilch
Nada
Nowt
Bugger all

I've done no cooking, no baking, no making.
I've not even been knitting or stitching.
TV watching is minimal




I had had a fleeting thought of writing a little poem but couldn't think of anything to scan with that third line! My brain is fooked to put it bluntly.

Oh  - just added the 'kitchen' line. Maybe there's life in the old matter yet.


I've done no cooking, no baking, no making.
I've not even been knitting or stitching.
TV watching is minimal
And you should see the state of my kitchen.

But I am up to level 1032 on Candy Crush thanks to my love affair with waking up through the night.


I am sure normal service will be resumed shortly.

Never has so little been done by one person before!

Lots of love from
Rachel *truly idle hands* Radiostar xxx

It is with regret

That I announce the annual 'Putting away of the sandals and flip flops' has happened. I am back in boots. I think I can account  for 87 and a half percent of my current grouchiness to my feet being besocked and encased. Although my favourite boots in the world are like putting slippers on. This will be their fifth year. I should have bought two pairs. I big pink fluffy heart them. 

I love how I match my bedroom radiator! 

Freddie says he'd love to update you with his antics but he has only got little paws and the typing fatigues him. Plus he is back in Newcastle now, so could I possibly regale his fans for him?! Cheeky boy!

Here he is fast asleep on the settee. 

Doesn' t he look so comfy?! I was ready to go to bed. I just said 'Bed Freddie' and down he got straight into his crate. He's so clever! 

I taught him how to 'roll over' so that's now added to his repertoire. But wait until you see this next pic. 

The instructions go..

Sit 

Down

Wait 

Wait

Wait

Waiiiit

Wait

Go on then!! 

Now I don't know about you, but I'd not last too long if someone put the human equivalent on my mitts! Maybe a couple of rolos or something! 

These are not rolos, these are delicious and nutritious chicken liver training treats that are gentle on the stomach! How amazing is Freddie?!! 

He was also playing a game of 'choose the toy' 

Miss 22 would ask 

Where's the pig or where's the ball and he'd identify it correct every time - until I videoed it! We tried to give him a choice of three but by then he was high on delicious, nutritious, gentle on the stomach chicken liver treats and got giddy! 

Here he is with said Pig. It grunts and it's hilarious watching him play with it. Of course it was me who got it! 

As promised, here are two of my create and craft purchases! 

That's the bag kit, was about £13 I think. Which for the Liberty fabrics I'm assured is reasonable and this sweet book full of sweet makes! 

 Just now need to find some time! 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *meeting herself coming back these days* Radiostar xxx 

Look who's back

I surprised Nanna and Grandad by going to their house when they were out. I asked mum to take a photo of me, to show Nanna  I missed and loved her so much I was hugging her slipper. 

It was lovely to get fussed over and get lots of sweeties. I'm here till the weekend. 

You can see me here getting ready for bed with my soft cuddly blanket and teddy bear. 

Back soon! 

F xxx

Sunny days

I'm still pegging out with much success thanks to these lovely tropical days and I'm still in sandals! The temperature does drop in the evening this so it was quite cosy in bed last night because I took the Summer 4.5 tog off and switched it to the 10.5 Autumn one. 

I've also switched my little Summer bear collection...

 ...for my Halloween collection! These are some of my most very very favourite bears. 

Talking of Bears........

You know how I go to the Very posh garden centre from time to time? Well they have an absolutely amazing Christmas display section. It's huge and draws people in by the thousands. Anyway, it's started to be assembled and I just love this tree. I mean who wouldn't love a tree made up of soft cuddly polar bears and the occasional plush penguin? 

Cute...but not as cute as Freddie! 

He'd like to thank you all for encouraging him in his writing and he tells me he'll be back to write for you again the next time he comes over on a sleepover! 

Erm, not much else to say really as life is being commanded by the Universe right now. But thank you all for popping over there and leaving me little messages. They mean a lot. I've just not much time really to reply yet. Each time I get back or there's a new update it takes a good hour ringing everyone and letting everyone else know. He's a well loved popular being is my HG! 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *joined Create and Craft TV's club today and ordered some stuff that will mostly likely feature on this blog at sometime* Radiostar xxx 

My first post by Freddie

Well, hello folks. My Nanna has been telling me about her two good bloggy chums Poppy and Ted and what. Clever. Doggies they are for blogging, so I thought I'd give it a go. I hope you don't mind if I'm not as eloquent as they are, but I'm only 14 weeks old and still learning.

Ted's Blog Post

 My Mum and Dad brought me to see my favourite Nanna - I always wag my tail for her the most and get all wiggly and giggly. Sometimes I get soooo wiggly and giggly I get a bit dribbly - and not from my mouth! We stayed for two sleeps and I was 'A. Good. Boy.'  I also am ' A beautiful. Boy ', ' Nanna's. darling. Puppy.' and ' Freddie No'. Though I'm not as keen on that last nickname because it always means the delicious thing I'm tasting in my mouth gets taken off me. 

One of my most favourite places at Nanna and Grandad's ( apart from the giant brown comfy bed - more on that later ) is the kitchen. Nanna is ALWAYS in there. It smells so nice. She especially likes me sneaking up behind her, when she's in the Cave of Good Smells. I know because she gets all excited with me. 

We've had some lovely meals ( made by Nanna, washed up by Nanna - my Mum and Dad must be exhausted because they do a lot of sitting down and Nanna always mentions something about waiters and hand and foot?  ). I showed off my new tricks to Nanna. I sat, I lay down, I gave her my paw - I'm not sure why they always want my paw, I high fived and I waited - she gave me the DELICIOUS little cold, hard, green sweeties. I also. Took. Them. Gently. 

Mum and Dad went out for a while which meant Nanna and Grandad were mine. Grandad plays with me. I bring him all my toys including the noisy duck. He doesn't realise I'm trying to give him the duck, because every time I bring it back, he throws it away again. He must like my big blue knotty rope though because we always have a tussle over it and he won't give me it back. When he thinks Nanna isn't looking, he lets me lick lots of tasty things. He eats this white stuff in a pot with a metal stick, but I just use my tongue. It's delicious. 

Here I am on my big brown bed. I say it's mine, but I'm a very generous puppy- I do share it with my folks. As soon as Nanna or Grandad went out of the room, I leap up, and curl up just to keep their spot warm. 

Clearly my Nanna doesn't think I'm warm or comfy enough because she gave me this big comfy blanket to lay on. 

She said it came all the way from a nice lady in Wales and that someone called Ben would know how great in feels to snuggle in!

Nanna did make me Get Down though when I brought my favourite toy up for a play. She said it was wet and stinky. I don't know what that means.

Here I am, laid out on my favourite fluffy rug, resting my eyes. It's hard work being a puppy! That's all from me for now. I'm off to see if I can get that long plastic snake back off Grandad. We had the most fun playing with that. I loved running away with it in my mouth. It was black and white. Grandad said that Nanna would tell me off because she needed it to measure things. It was just so fun to chew though. And I didn't believe him anyway. Nanna? Tell me off???? I don't think so!

I'm going to spend a full week with them in November when Mum and Dad go on holiday. I can't wait! 

Lots of love from 

Freddie xxx 

October 1st 2016

All of a sudden, it seems like the weather has realised it's October. It's chilly, damp and windy. September has seen me too hot and grouchy because of it. My bloody heels are rubbed raw and blistered from having to wear shoes when it was too wet for sandals. Grrrr.

Thought I'd share a couple  of my  newest favourite Freddie shots. 

Freddie at the beach pretending to be a kite! 

A rare shot of him being still! He's so clever and now gives his paw, lies down and stays on command.

He's growing fast. He's actually in my house, right now. Miss 22 and the beau and puppy came last night to surprise the HG. 

 These were my  glittery efforts for yesterday's Macmillan coffee morning held at school. Quite apt right now, as we have our own Macmillan nurse. I'm not going into it here but I think if you click my name in the profile bit you'll find a new separate blog. 

Quick, let's have a chuckle. 

Yesterday I was reminded of my very favourite pupil who left last year. The one who has had in in stitches for a long time. Well the teacher I worked with used to run a weekly raffle. There'd be a big box of prizes and the children were rewarded randomly for effort, good work etc with a raffle ticket. The draw took place on a Friday afternoon. 'And the winner is' would be performed by the teacher along the lines of 

Teacher: Class, stand up.

And the winner is....

A girl, ( so all the boys would sit down )

This girl has.......blonde hair ( so all the brunettes would sit down ) 

This girl is wearing black shoes etc etc 

The kids love it. 

This was the first time for our new class. 

T - Class stand up.

And the winner is.......a boy ( girls sit down )

This boy is.......not wearing shorts ( boys in shorts sit down )

This boy is.....wearing a school jumper..

Me to Favourite pupil who is suddenly very busy with something - what ARE you doing??? 

FP - Putting my jumper on!!!! 

Let me tell you, that day we ran two raffles and we might have 'fixed' the outcome of the second draw! FP went home a happy child! 

Right I'm off to make breakfast for my brood and to have some Freddie love! 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *please don't comment about the other blog on here because I won't publish them* Radiostar xxx 

Hunt the pic final day

Today is the last day for submissions. I had started this post yesterday and committed the fatal error of saving it to drafts. Gone.

So this is my second shot at it. 

Here are all the categories and I'd got up to number 8. 

9. THOUGHT - using screenshot photos for this category

This one above makes me laugh.

This one below makes me sad.

10. GLANCE

I can easily see what I need at a glance.

11. SPECTACLE

Rarely am I see outdoors without my anti wrinkle defence system, aka sunglasses, of which I have loads. Tenuous link - spectacle - spectacles! 

12. INSPIRATION 

Harry on his first day in Year one just three weeks ago. If he can be so successful at school with the little vision he has, then I can do anything.

13. SIGHT

14. BEAUTY 

A pint of cold shandy on a warm, sunny day.

15. ARRANGEMENT

Largest flower arrangement ever? 

16.  GRACE

I bet there have been a few 'Your Grace's' round this posh din table at Castle Howard.

17. WEAKNESS - Oh I have so many! 

Choosing was tricky 

But 

I cannot resist the lure of new wool and a new pattern! Especially at bargain prices. 

18. ELEGANCE 

The most elegant room in my house! 

19. SMELL or AROMA

The perfume from my Rhapsody in Blue rise in full bloom is sweet and does stop people at my front wall to lean over for a sniff! 

20. HAPPINESS 

My house all decked up for a cosy Christmas. 

And now fingers crossed, thus post does not do this 

Like it's been doing for ages. I've reposted the photos from Number 13 about six times now! I cannot be bothered to do it again!! 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *fingers crossed it works this time* Radiostar xx