Strange

I have a secret. Something I've learned to keep to myself after years as a 'northerner' living down south.

Having been met with sheer amazement, nay abject horror, when mentioning this particular quirk of mine to the native southerners, I now keep my mouth well and truly shut when it comes to the mention of that very dirtiest of words......

.......autumn.

It's not so much the word itself that causes folk to step back in fear, more the statement that I happen to love this season more than any other.

How could I love the end of summer? The cooler days? The darker evenings? The damp mornings?

Well I do. I love all those things about autumn and more but by far my favourite things are these:

We reclaim our forest from the summer crowds.
We can take poor old Moog out for forest walks without her wilting in the heat.
We don't have to sit in queues of summer traffic for hours on end.
Foraging for freebies from Nature's larder.

The unique smell of the forest in autumn.

Today, Mr Moog was adamant that we should not waste a glorious autumn day at home, so off we headed to a very secret bit of the New Forest where we knew from past experience there were treasures to be found.

We came home laden with rosehips - now steeping in readiness to make rosehip syrup; sloes - a bit early but now in the freezer to immitate an early frost, ready for turning into sloe gin; and of course, blackberries - now bagged up into five generous portions and sitting in the freezer, ready for winter puddings.

Naturally, we had to test some of our harvest just to make sure.



Blackberry and apple crumble, made with homegrown dessert apples, and served with delicious Mackies vanilla ice cream ( BOGOF at the Co-op right now!).

So now, I'm going to say it. LOUD. AND. PROUD.....

I LOVE AUTUMN!!!

xxx

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Those of you who've been with me all year will know it's been an eventful one in the House of Moog. I, for one, will not be sorry to say goodbye to 2009.

There have been some bright spots, of course.

Learning to knit socks and nurturing a new found obsession with all things knitterly has gifted me many happy hours whilst life goes mad around me.



The latest pair off the needles - in never-to-knit-again Noro Kureyon. Pair #18 - since February!


Two weeks ago we even managed to reacquaint ourselves with the beach. No-one would believe we lived on the south coast if they saw how little we visited it.

However, thanks to my homemade 'do something different everyday' advent calendar we HAD to go to the beach on 'Eat chips on the Beach' day. This, of all things, recharges the batteries.


Especially when beach huts....

....and rocks, are involved.

So, the turkey and cranberry sauce are a'waiting. Mince pies, pigs in blankets and raspberry trifle are on the list for tomorrow. Beds for m-i-l and f-i-l will be made up in the morning. Toilets will be cleaned. Moog's stocking will be stuffed.

Wine will be opened - a bit.

Finally, to spread a little Christmas love here's a treat.

Lots of love and a VERY Happy Christmas xxxxx

Very quick!

I'm not really here! Pretend you haven't seen me!

We've been invited to a wedding reception next May and I've been researching the 'hotel vs taxi vs one of us drives' scenarios.

During this research I came across this fab fab bit of hotel customer service info - scroll down a bit and read the 'terms and conditions explained' bit.

We may have to stay here cos they sound like loads of fun!!!

Hope to be back tomorrow with thanks, awards and the Christmas tree photos :-)

xxxx

....whoosh......that was the week whizzing by!

Is it me or has this week flown by?

Oh heavens - is it me or do I sound like an old biddy?

Don't answer that!!

Autumn is well and truly here. The leaves are colouring up. The mornings are misty. I am awakened most mornings to the sound of the foghorns on the river - I love being able to snuggle down under the covers for a few minutes more listening to the ships.

To welcome the autumn we reclaimed the forest at the weekend. The grockles summer visitors have gone home and it's all ours again :-)

We went to a new to us part of the forest. The delightfully named Deadman Hill.


One person, in particular, was very pleased and headed to the nearest ditch to celebrate. B***dy idiot!


Small people made shelters for pixies - apparently....


...and mossy beds for fairies.....


.....lined with white stones to help the fairies find their bed in the dark - apparently :-)


Moogsdad and I indulged in a fungal foray - just looking....no picking...too scared we might pick something deadly!

We reminded ourselves just why we love living here and how much the forest means to us. We won't leave it so long next time.

I don't wish to overload your senses but there's even been crafting happening this week!

A brief dabble in the dark arts of papercrafting. Using a super-cheapo Tesco notebook....


.....my new fabby index tab punch from Stampin' Up.....


...and my favourite Basic Grey papers (complete with selvedge!)....to make me a new diary.....with only one or two tiny mistakes when it came to writing all the dates in by hand....y'know minor errors like writing 2008 instead of 2009 for the first three weeks of January....


I even got to make the other two of these that I cut out last week and they've gone into the you know what.




I had a couple of great charity shop finds today but they will have to wait for daylight before I can show them off.

I also found this fab website with loads of great tutorials all in one place. They must be great because I found me on there (yes really!!!!) and even better my superbly brilliant Aussie buddy Jodie !! Maybe you all know about this already and I'm waaaaay behind but I liked it :-)

I rather like this that I found on there.

Here's hoping you all have a wonderful weekend.

love xxxxx