Tuesday 10 February 2015

This Week

Hello! What a cold week it's been! Still no snow, but very chilly. Thank you, everyone, who commented on my last post. It was so nice to read all of your kind comments about my hand-made books. I shall definitely make a little tutorial when I make my next one. 
I've done very little crocheting lately as we're coming to the end of term here and I'm feeling a bit frazzled and lacklustre. I've even frogged my pale blue scarf because I wasn't happy with how it was looking. I don't think the combination of garter and moss stitch was working, so I started again in blackberry stitch which went a bit wrong and am now trying double moss stitch. See what I mean? I've been a bit restless, and am looking forward to re-charging my batteries in half term next week. As a result I haven't got anything much to show for my efforts recently, so I've been trying to just go with the flow and enjoy the things around me.

Indoors on the windowsill my amaryllis has flowered and is quite a beauty, rich red and multi-flowered. I'm always amazed that the stem is strong enough to hold the flowers up, they are so enormous. 


There's even a second stem emerging which I hope will bring a second set of blooms.


As the evenings are lengthening noticeably now, I've been going outside for a breath of fresh air in the garden after work. There's a fair bit of tidying up to do out there, but I'm doing my best to ignore it and look for flowers. I was delighted to find that one of our hellebore plants is blooming away in the corner of the garden, and I hadn't noticed. Hellebore flowers tend to droop and hang their heads, so I always put them in a dish of water to appreciate their stunning patterns of dark speckles and pale stamens.


At the end of last week I decided to make cakes for my work colleagues to celebrate the fact that it was Friday. I made orange and almond cupcakes from this recipe, and they weren't in the least bit healthy but very delicious. They went down well with our coffees at morning break. I kept these back at home too for the three of us to enjoy.


Just outside the back door the winter-flowering honeysuckle is covered in tiny blooms, and smells so sweet that I picked some stems and brought them indoors. They're not the most spectacular flower so I added a hellebore for a bit of interest. They made a pretty little winter posy.




So there we go, some lovely things that I've been enjoying recently.

(Before I go, I must mention the fact that I recently discovered that I'm a 'no-replies blogger', and I had no idea! I just want to say that I like to be friendly and do love to hear from you all, so apologies if you've ever tried to contact me by e-mail and not been able to. I'm pretty sure I'm contactable now and have sorted it out. I still have the odd blip with the technological side of blogging, but am learning fast!)

10 comments:

  1. Beautiful flowers and those cupcakes look delicious - lucky work colleagues! Bring on Half Term; we are so ready for it, even though this term is a relatively short one. Enjoy a well earned rest. x

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  2. What a magnificent amaryllis, they really make a statement don't they. I bought my Mum one for Christmas - a pure white one which is looking stunning and giving her lots of pleasure. I love your clever idea of putting the hellebore into a bowl as well. Must try out your cupcake recipe, oh dear I need to get back to Slimming World but am finding it hard to get motivated. xx

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  3. Your amaryllis is looking lovely & healthy. The cup cakes sound good, I like anything with almond in the list of ingredients.

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  4. Hello Cathy

    Your amaryllis is beautiful. I love the lighter shades of red, and the dark centre, it makes the petals look paper thin.

    What can I say about your mouthwatering cup cakes they look absolutely delicious

    luv
    irene
    xxxx

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  5. Your flowers are beautiful shades just bursting with spring promise :) I think a lot of people are feeling very lack lustre at the moment - hang in there it will pass x

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  6. Thnaks for showing us these beautiful flowers ... we need them ! we need spring !!! I wish you a very lovely week end !

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  7. Beautiful flowers;)
    Whising you a lovely weekend;)

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  8. I'm trying to focus on the flowers but all I can see are the cupcakes. Yum.
    Amalia
    xo

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  9. I know how you feel about resharging! Fingers crossed your get some time for that soon! I lost my crojo a bit last month (I think it was because I only used one colour for the blanket I made) but I got it back with my poncho this month! Yay!

    Wish I could steal one of the cupcakes! Yum!

    Take care
    Anne (Crochet Between Worlds)

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  10. I love Amaryllis, such bold colours in the post Christmas months. It is annoying when you find your are a no reply blogger, I didn't realise for months until a kind lady told me. All those comments that went into the ether. Take care xx

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