Stormy nights

The rain and wind has been relentless of late; tapping on the windows, licking around the frames. The storms have brought down all but the final stubborn leaves, making the chore of raking a light relief when it comes. Pickle takes the whistling and howling outside in her stride, although welcomed Mr M's company at 4:30am when it was truly whipping up.

Whilst waiting for my train (delays due to the wrong sort of weather) the clouds, in varying shades of grey, whizzed by overhead - an urgent delivery of rain and gloom somewhere North. Once in a while, they dared to show a glimpse of blue high above.

Unbeknown, I had my own storm brewing - a full blown migraine by the time I eventually arrived at work. One taxi ride later, I was tucked up in bed - every noise dictating the direction of my broken dreams. The sun streaming through the drawn blinds. Naturally.

Thrown together

Leftover puff pastry, bacon, spring onions, mushrooms, creme fraiche, green beans and a little bit of parmesan. Yum.

What a pickle!

Why hello there. Hope you've had a lovely weekend. So sorry for being rather aloof of late. Long hours have meant neglect in all corners of my little world. The laptop has sat tucked up in its little case, my hair hasn't been cut for god knows how long and I am no further along in the brick of the book that I embarked on two months ago! Well, enough is enough. Long hours can happen no more. Because we have a new family member.
This is Pickle. We picked her up from the rescue centre yesterday. As you can see, she seems to have already settled in and found her spot on the sofa. She's a little purrer and seems quite content lounging about - apart from her mad 5 minutes earlier this evening.

I must admit, 36 hours into cat ownership, that it's far more demanding than I thought it would be. She categorically does not like the litter tray liners. Period. We've screwed the bookcases and CD racks to the wall, but all signs are pointing to the fact that we should probably have taken down the curtains. The table lamp nearly went south during her mad moment, she is a fan of tapestry wool and the bedroom is in a state as it now contains everything that was in the sitting room - the joy of living in a flat!

But what about Blue? Now, what I didn't mention back in September was that Blue had moved away. It was so sad. We'd known him since he was a little kitten. Being in the garden hasn't been the same without him hurtling through the hedge. And if it hadn't been for him, we might not have ended up with our own little puss cat with jelly bean toes. Have a great week!

It's that time of year

A colourful rug spread out over the garden from the kitchen step to the old tree stump.
Tan, orange, yellow, green and brown. Some little, some large and some as big as our heads.

After some serious rake action, we could finally see the lawn again.
But not for long. The golden glow has returned again, thanks to last night's storm.

Hidden

These, and many others, were hiding under the fallen leaves on the lawn. We unearthed them as we started the official raking season this weekend.

The owl and the pussycat

went to sea in a calming cup of tea...

Pop anything in beautiful packaging and I'm instantly drawn to it. The illustrations are so much fun and the shortbread biscuits are a delight. More expensive than your average custard cream, but well worth it. They bobbed about on the work surface for quite a while as they were just too lovely to recycle.

And the book that's peeping out is a little Penguin book that I picked up in a charity shop.

Such a simple yet eye catching cover from 1955.

This weekend

A coffee and a catch up with a new friend
A husband back from his business travels
A hearty cottage pie
An extra hour in bed
A glorious day in the garden
An afternoon of stitching
Life almost back to normal