Stuck In Spring-ter!

The calendar tells me it’s the first week of Spring but it’s actually been colder here than the first week of Winter was back in December!  We’re feeling a bit trapped between that no-mans land between Winter and Spring, hence the “Spring-ter” in the post title if you haven’t figured it out yet.

Whilst the weather makes up its mind which way to go I thought I’d show you a few photos of the last days of Winter, a bit late as they’re from the first two weekends in March, but I’ve had strep throat and my step-father is in hospital in England after suffering a nasty fall.  No broken bones, amazingly, but he’s pretty banged up and needed stitches on his face, he’s being kept in for a few days for observation and to make sure that he’s able to get about under his own steam again.

These first few are from our skiing trip to Petoskey.  We forgot the camera on the first day, which is a shame as it was beautiful and sunny and just so pretty.  These are from the Sunday when it was grey and show showery all day, it wasn’t very cold though, not much below freezing and the snow conditions were perfect.  And as Andrew always says, it doesn’t matter how dull the day, or how many people are on the slopes, he can spot me a mile off!

 

And as you can see, on Sunday we practically had the place to ourselves.  Anyone who had come up for the weekend was leaving by Sunday lunchtime for the drive home, but as we weren’t leaving until the Monday it worked out perfectly.

And on the Monday, before leaving, we walked along the harbour in Petoskey as it was a stunning day.  Actually, let me rephrase that, we walked ON the harbour in Petoskey!  Little Traverse Bay was completely frozen over, there were tire tracks on it from trucks heading out to do some ice fishing, and snow-mobile tracks too plus lots of footprints!

Back at home a weekend later and the weather couldn’t have been more different, highs of 21C soon put paid to all of our remaining snow.

Since then we’ve been back down to -8C, mostly after the official start of Spring, but at least that’s given us plenty of indoor time to continue ripping out the bathroom, which is now a big empty space, warts and all.  And we have a lot of work ahead of us!  But more on that another time.

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But I’ve Changed My Mind!!!!………

 

 

What are you up to this weekend?

Reindeer Games

I never knew I had such a “thing” for reindeers and caribou until this year.  We’re currently up in Northern Michigan, in Petoskey to be exact, that lovely place right on Lake Michigan where we like to spend some time during the Autumn.  We’ve rented a two bed Victorian cottage just a couple of blocks from the main downtown area, so we’re close to everything but just far enough away from the hustle and bustle.  While we’re up here we’re also hoping to find our downhill ski legs again, along with some cross country skiing too and a boat load of relaxation as I’m in dire need of a break.  In fact, my suitcase consisted of my outdoor gear and three pairs of pyjamas as that’s what I intend wearing all day every day while we’re at the house!  In my dreams at least!

[You lookin’ at me???]

So, those reindeer.  Every year at the beginning of December we bring home a beautiful, real Christmas tree and I spend a very happy couple of nights decorating it and the rest of the house too.  Only this year, there was absolutely no point in getting a real tree and even less point in completely decking the halls either, so I concentrated my efforts on the entry hallway so it looks nice for visitors and the family room where we spend most of our time.  That meant that I put all my favourite decorations in the family room instead of spreading them around, and it was then that my little Rudolph habit became noticeable!

[This is one of a pair I was given, must do something with his white bob-tail, he seems to have lost the original one!  And please ignore the packing supplies in the background, the Ribbon Organizers have been galloping out of the door!]

 

Of course, no big tree means that for the first time in many, many years we won’t be sleeping under one on Christmas Eve, we’ll actually be in a bed!  Not sure how we’re going to cope to be honest, it will seem most odd!!  But I’m really looking forward do the break as I’ve been very busy at work, very busy at home, very busy socially and basically, just very busy!  I’ve been burning the candle at both ends and I’m rapidly running out of candle!!

[Another gifted one, silver this time.  He lives on the end of the curtain rod as he’s much too heavy for the tree]

I’m also hoping to meet up with a lady I met on line on Ravelry, the knitting and crocheting emporium, as she lives just one block away from where we’ll be staying.  And of course I’ll be packing a knitting project or two to work on whilst we away.  It doesn’t look like we’ll be snowed in, sadly, but there is quite a bit of snow on the ski hills.

[Another gifted one, this time from a Manager at work who seems to know me quite well]

And then there’s Bou, who you’ve met before.  I have to admit that he does receive preferential treatment as he’s up here with us, having a lot of fun and getting into all sorts of mischief.  Let’s hope he makes it back home with us too!

 

[Looks like someone has been sticking their nose in the cookie jar!!]

 

I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year in case we can’t get online while we’re away (this is a scheduled post).  I have a new tablet that I bought for myself on Cyber Monday using gift vouchers from Amazon that I had but I’m still learning all about it and what it and what it does!  I’m a bit old school I’m afraid!  See you on the other side.

 

It’s Definitely That Time of Year Again

When the weather can’t make up it’s mind.  It’s Autumn one day, cool and frosty overnight with brilliant cobalt blue skies and changing leaves during the day.  The next day it’s back to summer, hot and humid, usually ending in a thunderstorm, the day after that will be positively miserable with rain and cold temperatures.  When I come in from work one day I put on shorts and a tshirt and sit on the deck enjoying the warm weather.  Then the next day I come home from work, put on sweatpants and a long sleeved top and sit indoors with my knitting and a hot cup of tea.

It’s the time of year when the front garden is starting to look like Autumn..

Yet the back garden is still resolutely Summer, not a single splash of colour to be seen anywhere, apart from green that is.

It’s the time of year where last Saturday I wore shorts and a strappy top and got my back sunburnt…. and last Sunday I was all wrapped up against the cold and cooking comfort food in the shape of a roast chicken dinner and a warming blackberry and apple crumble for afters.

It’s also the time of year when I have two pairs of pajamas neatly folded at the end of the bed.  One thick, warm pair and one thin cotton pair and I switch them around practically every night depending on whether the day was hot or cold.

Earlier in the week it was the warm pj’s with the covers pulled up tight.  The last couple of nights have been back to the short sleeved cotton ones again, last night was the cotton ones and sleeping on top of the sheets.

Yes.  It’s Fall.  It’s Michigan.  It’s very beautiful.  And I love it.

An American Four Day Weekend

Otherwise known as Thanksgiving.  We were having beef for dinner on Thursday, eschewing the popular turkey as that’s what we have for Christmas.  We were going to have an early dinner, a lunch really, but we woke up to temperatures 19F higher than normal, blue sky and sunshine, so we hit the park for a wonderful long walk instead.

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the home front we had ourselves a modest Thanksgiving dinner…… the beef, roasted to perfection, served with roast potatoes, roast parsnips, cabbage, carrots, green beans, cauliflower and creamed leeks!  And the red wine and thyme gravy on the side.  Plus of course, the pie.  Pecan in this house.  Homemade.

 

 

 

I made a couple of individual ones this year, along with the larger one.  Like the dinner, just enough for two!

As it turned out, we were very thankful indeed for that lovely warm, sunny day, as we woke to this 0n Friday morning…

 

 

And worse, this on Sunday morning…

 

 

But in between, we managed to put all of the Christmas lights on the front and back of the house and take down all the inside fall decorations and have a good clean and tidy up.  On Saturday we ventured out to the shops for a few things, not busy at all as I did a lot of online shopping on Black Friday!  Won’t catch me getting up at 5am to wait in line, no siree!  We also came back home with a Christmas tree, so that’s now sitting in the nook, in it’s stand, waiting for inspiration to strike.

And I thought if we’re in for a penny then we might as well be in for a pound (or dollar, substitute as necessary!) and go the whole hog…

 

 

But I suppose you were probably expecting that!

A Gentle End To The Weekend

The two days of the weekend couldn’t have been further apart in terms of activities, and also of noise versus peace and quiet!

Saturday was our annual pilgrimage to Thunder Over Michigan airshow at Willow Run Airport about 30 minutes away.  We spent the morning happily wandering around all the planes snapping away, and the afternoon watching the mock WWII battle and the amazing flying programme, headed by Mustang Mania and Fifi!  There were fourteen P51 Mustang’s parked up on display and later in the afternoon, eleven of them took to the air at the same time in an amazing show.  And Fifi?  A Boeing B-29 Super Fortress.  The only one flying in the entire world.  Can’t quite recall the fame of the B-29?  It was the plane that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan at the end of the World World War thus ensuing Japan’s complete surrender.  The Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima and three days later Bockscar dropped “Fat Man” on Nagasaki.  It was amazing to see a B-29 up close and personal and even more incredible to see it fly.

Sunday was an altogether different day.  For a start, we had a steady soft rain falling most of the morning so any thought of outdoor activity was scrapped in favour of a quiet but productive, indoor day.   In fact, it was such a lazy day I had to practically prod myself a number of times to get anything done at all!  I finished off a single sock and cast on again for it’s matching pair.  I tidied up in my craft room, looked at a couple of challenges and thought about sitting down and making something but couldn’t quite muster up the enthusiasm to carry it through!  In the end, mid afternoon, I decided to do a little baking, to provide some sweet little culinary delight for afternoon tea.  I remembered that I’d brought back a packet of lavender specifically for baking with from our trip to South Carolina in April and so decided that something lavendery and summer-like should be the order of the day.  A quick trip round the internet and I came up with Sweet Lavender and Lemon Scones with a lavender glaze.  Umm uhmm.  Yummy for your tummy.  This is how they turned out.

Beautiful aren’t they?  They’re very floral and aromatic but the lemon really balances any sickliness from the lavender and provides a wonderful tang.  They got two thumbs up from us at any rate, and went incredibly well with a cuppa!  The scone base is the very “short” American type rather than the more kneaded, heavier English version that you would generally associate with cheese scones, and because of this I don’t think they’d keep as well.  But in all honesty I hardly doubt that’s going to be a problem!

Lavender Scones

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more for surface (6oz plain flour)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar (2oz sugar)
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon dried lavender buds
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 stick chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/4″ cubes (about 4oz)
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk (4 fl oz or 120 ml of plain milk)
• 1 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk  flour and next 5 ingredients in a large bowl. Add butter; rub in with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Whisk 1 cup (4fl oz)  buttermilk, zest, and vanilla in a small bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir until shaggy dough forms! (Interesting terminology!!)

Transfer to a lightly floured surface; knead until dough forms, about 5 turns. Pat into a rectangle. Halve dough lengthwise. Cut each half crosswise into 2 squares. Cut each square diagonally in half into 2 triangles. Put on baking sheets. Brush with 1 tablespoons (butter)milk. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake until scones are golden and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 13-15 minutes. Transfer to wire racks; let cool.

**It’s very important NOT to over knead American style scones, just pull them together until you can shape them and cut them, otherwise they’ll be tougher and dense.**

I put my 1 tsp of lavender buds in a pestle and mortar and gave them a quick grind to release the oils but not break them up too much.  I had also made Lavender Sugar about a month ago by putting plain sugar in a screw top glass jar with about three tablespoons of lavender buds, I used this in the scones, sifting out the lavender and putting them back in the jar again.

Glaze

• Juice of a small lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
• 1 teaspoon of lavender buds ground in a pestle and mortar (grind them more finely than for the scone mixture)
• About 2 teaspoons of butter
• Confectioners sugar (icing sugar)

Method:

Put the lemon juice, and butter in a glass bowl over a pan of hot water and stirl until the butter has melted and the lemon mixture has warmed through.  Remove the bowl from the pan, add the ground lavender and place a saucer or plate on the bowl; leave for at least 5 mins to infuse.  Sieve the confectioners sugar into a bowl and add the lemon/lavender syrup, mix well to desired consistency (I prefer a thicker glaze for scones like these, two thin and it will soak in and ruin the texture, I like to be able to lightly spread it, or just about be able to pour it over.)  Pour/spread over the scones after they and the syrup have cooled down.

I like to eat mine plain, Andrew likes his split and lightly buttered, and the original recipe says serve with Lemon Curd!  I suppose what we really mean is that they’re bloody good however you have them!!  Enjoy.

The First Post of 2010

Well, another year is over, actually this time, another decade is over too. Working in IT as I do, I can clearly remember all the pallaver leading up to the new millenium, what a huge con that turned out to be! Nothing more than a major money spinner for “consultants” the world over! And so here we are, 10 years on from there and we’re all still here, the banks didn’t fail, the planes didn’t fall out of the sky and life continued as normal. It’s been an eventful ten years in other respects though, with the rise of terrorism the hunter became the hunted; wars continue to rage, mother nature showed us her incredible force on more than one occasion, and we ended the decade with a huge worldwide recession. But a new year is always a new chance, a clean slate the world over, a chance to make a difference in the world, hopefully in a good way, however, one of my favourite sayings comes to mind at the moment, and that is “The reason history has to repeast itself is because we pay so little attention to it first time around!” So perhaps not then!!

[Stockings hung by the fire on Christmas Eve]

But on to happier thoughts, we had a great Christmas once I had given myself a stern talking to about not being able to go home this year, which in hindsight, was just as well really as snow (quite a lot of it actually) brought much of the UK to a standstill with closed airports, impassible roads and people trapped in their cars. It would have been really difficult for us to travel around and see people. Crazy people trying to blow up planes landing at my local airport would also not have helped had we been travelling, so perhaps it was all for the best that we stayed in America.

[Jammies and Christmas hats on Christmas Day.  Is there anything better?]

We spent ALL of Christmas Day in our jammies, shameful I know, but so wonderfully relaxing too! We had a wonderful Turkey dinner with all the trimmings, and later, homemade Christmas Pud with homemade custard and cream! If you’ve never tried custard and cream together then you’re truly missing out on a little known culinary delicacy! Devilishly sinful, but it is only once a year!

[Yum!!]

After scarfing down those huge bowls of pud we were far too stuffed to attempt any Christmas cake, so it sat until boxing day, when we finally cut in to it to discover  a wonderful moist and flavourful cake lurking beneath the marzipan, which Andrew made and then covered the cake with on Christmas Eve.  We kept our decorations simple, firstly by deciding to do away with the too sweet icing layer, and then decorating with some marzipan offcuts and some sifted icing sugar.

[More yum!!]

Most of my pressents were of the crafting variety, having left a small wishlist carelessly lying around for Andrew to find! I also spent money from my parents and my in-laws on more crafting goodies too, so I spent a very happy few hours in my craft room after the big day having a mega clear up of all the Christmas stamps and papers, and finding spaces for my new stash. I’ll do another post in a day or two showing you all my new crafty stash.  One of my loveliest pressies though was a hand made necklace from Andrew, it’s very simple, with a large Goldstone stone wrapped in copper wire and hanging from a leather thong. I also received a wonderful book by Beverley Nicols, the first in the Merry Hall trilogy about his exploits refurbishing an old Georgian house and garden in the early 1950’s. I’ve previously read an earlier trilogy of his about a house and garden he owned in a little village in Huntingdonshire in the late 1920’s. They really are gems and come highly recommended.

My main present to Andrew was an 8gb Sandisc music player, a lot like an Ipod but without the extortionate price. It was actually brilliant value for money and he absolutely loves it….. however, had I known that he would present me with just about every cd we own to “rip” onto the laptop so he can make playlists and upload to the player, then I might have thought twice about purchasing it!! Still, it gave me a good opportunity to sit on my backside and do some more genealogy which I had been hankering after doing for quite a while.  Christmas is for spending with family right??  Nobody said they have to be alive!!!

Weather wise we had an interesting Christmas Day with sleet, rain, freezing rain and finally snow. It was impossible to walk on in the local woods so we had a couple of really nice treks around our closest town, which has a wonderful Victorian residential area that we’d never really explored before, so it was a bit of a serendipitous discovery actually.

[Very little snow left after Christmas, although it has been snowing a bit today again, maybe another inch or so]

It’s stayed really cold too with a low of -16C on Sunday morning, although it generally hasn’t been as cold as that. We also visited with some friends a couple of times too, and enjoyed some good food and even better company. One of my friends knows me too well, this was my gift from her this year, a beautiful and very stunning Phalaenopsis Orchid, I only hope my green fingers can work their magic on this beauty.

My Amarylis will be flowering soon too, I’ve never managed to time it correctly and get it to re-bloom in time for Christmas. Last year it finally flowered in May, this year at least it will be in January.

So, on that pretty note, I’ll get on eating my lunch….. that alarm going off at 6am this morning was NOT a welcome sound I can assure you!!

Seeing Stars

I think I prefer them to snowflakes when it comes to Winter decorating…. some more examples of stars to be found around my home at this time of year…

Hhm, I think these ones will be around for a lot longer than the others though!

A Thankful Weekend

Well, here I am, back to work after a four day weekend. We’ve just had Thanksgiving, so now the countdown to Christmas has well and truly begun. And would you believe there wasn’t s single scrap of crafting over the last four days? Fraid it’s true! Instead I’ve been cooking and baking up a storm, I made stuff every single day apart from yesterday! It started last Wednesday evening when I made the pastry for a Pecan Pie, and then decided to go ahead and make the pie too. On Thanksgiving Day I cooked our lovely roast dinner with all the trimmings, and then decided to use up the pastry I had left from making the pie and so knocked up a batch of Almond Slices. Earlier in the day I had asked Andrew to see how much Christmas Mincemeat we had left on the shelf in the basement, it was only a small jar and he brought it upstairs…. I had some pastry trimmings still left and a little jar of mincemeat staring me in the face! Inevitable really! I had really good intentions of freezing the little pies to save precious time nearer the big day… but I didn’t, and now they’re half gone! Oh well, I had good intentions I really did!

 

The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally Black Friday, the biggest shopping day in the year, the day when the stores open at 5am (or earlier!), and people get killed in the stampede for a cheap TV or something utterly pointless. Us? We had ourselves a nice leisurely breakfast at home and then popped into a couple of shops that weren’t usually part of the bedlam and got through all of the items on our list in relatively quick order, and then finished up by stocking up on a long list of required groceries, mainly for more baking! My baking for Friday consisted of Almond Shortbread (can you tell we like Almonds in this house??), and my so called Christmas Cookies which I blogged about earlier, click the link for photos and the recipe. We did get one excellent bargain though, I always place three Poinsettia’s in the hall, and the Black Friday special at Home Depot was wonderful, dark red Poinsettias on sale for 99cents each, instead of $3.99.

 

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, but cold, much colder than of late. About time really, it’s been so mild here that it’s been hard to convince ourselves that Christmas really is just around the corner, but the lovely frost and blue sky looked so seasonal, so we bundled up and had a nice stroll through the woods behind where we live. After a quick coffee to warm up I got on with the days events in the kitchen, I really think I only took my pinny off this past weekend to go to sleep! I was a regular little Delia! My creations for Saturday was a good batch of mincemeat, now sitting in sterilised Kilner jars in the basement to mature for a couple of weeks. Of course, the fact that I topped up the jars with brandy is going to go a long way to help with that maturity, hic! Next on the list was the Christmas Cake. I haven’t made one in years, but felt like reviving the old tradition again this year. It’s a bit late, should have made it a couple of weeks ago, but we’re only just decided to stay in America again for Christmas, completely due to the greed of the airlines who’ve jacked their ticket prices up to $1200 a person, that’s 900 quid each! Absolute daylight robbery! Add to that he cost of hiring a car, petrol to drive all over England to see people, the cost of a guesthouse in two places, plus the inevitable eating out here and there along with spending money soon makes it a very expensive trip. So bah humbug to Northwest Airlines and we’ll be spending Christmas at home this year! At least we’ll have a lovely Christmas cake to tuck in to!

 

Sunday I had a rest from baking (but not from eating!) and we headed out to Home Depot and picked up our lovely tree for the season. It’s now sitting in our open dining “nook” between the kitchen and family room, where it will soon be looking all sparkly and glittery. Orange slices for decoration are slowly drying in front of the fire, and I’ve been eyeing up the potential tree trimmings to use in displays around the house. But not for a few days though as I really like to let it settle before I start to decorate it. We also put up some Christmas lights outside, and will do the two conifers by the front door tonight.

 

So, a lot of things were achieved this weekend, just a pity I didn’t have any time for card making, but I hope to remedy that this week!  I did receive some lovely news though from the sweet people who run the Penny Black Challenge Blog that I’ve been making cards for lately.  Well I’ve only been picked as one of last weeks winners and have won a really sweet PB stamp to add to my small, but growing, collection.  I was tickled pink I can tell you!   Hopefully I’ll be back later in the week with some more festive posts.

The Mother Of All Blogposts

I knew it was coming, the mother of all blog posts, I just didn’t know when!  When I would have the time to sit down and write about what feels like the last six months, but in reality it’s probably just the one.  I blame my absence from blogland completely and utterly on the weather!  You see, if I still lived in England I’d have all the time in the world to blog because I’d be stuck indoors day after day staring at the rain coming down, because from what I’ve seen, they’re yet again having a wet summer.  But I don’t live in England, I live in Michigan and I think we’re having one of the best summers I can remember in the last fifteen years of experiencing Michigan summers!  In fact, we could truly do with a bit of rain, I look at the weather channel constantly, and I mean constantly.  I scan the radar, I refresh the page, I look, I search, I beg, I plead and I pray for some rain!  We only got one measly inch of the wet stuff in July and so far August is shaping up the same way too.  But the absolutely best bit about this entire summer has been the constant and beautiful temperatures…. right around now we’re usually to be found shirking away in doors with the air conditioner for company as we watch the mercury climb over ninety degrees every single day.  We usually experience a summer where we turn down invitations to do things outside because it’s too darn hot, where any outdoor activity has to be completed by 10am, otherwise you’d either melt with the humidity or be fried to a crisp on days when the humidity has dropped out.  You enter into your house and breathe in weeks worth of stale cooking and general living smells because it’s too hot and/or humid to open up the windows and you get used to the “white noise” of the ac humming away in the background.

[These beautiful Aurelian Lillie’s perfumed my entire garden for a few weeks in July]

But not so this year.  This year I can count on one hand the number of ninety degree humid days (two!) so I can also count on one hand the number of times we’ve had to put the ac on (also two!).  I can also just about count on one hand the number of days where the temperature has peaked out over eighty degrees.  For the most part we have woken up to glorious blue skies and spring like temps reaching between 75 and 80 almost every day.  The windows and patio doors are wide, wide open all day with fresh summery breezes blowing through the entire house.  The evenings have been cool, almost fall like, but so blissful to be able to sleep well and feel rested in the morning, instead of waking up in a sweaty, rumpled mess from hours of tossing and turning in the humid night.  I’ve lost count how many times we’ve sat outside, either at home or elsewhere, and commented on this perfect summer.

[Just one of the car shows we attended, this one in conjunction with the racing track.  Our car is the dark blue one by the tree]

[It’s held in Depot Park in downtown Clarkston, about 3 miles North of the race track, and all the proceeds go to SCAMP, a summer camp program for mentally and physically disabled children]

[The lady who brought this car with the beautiful parrots painted on the bonnet also brought a real live parrot along too.  Apparently he loves going on drives with her in the car!]

Because of this perfect summer we’ve hardly been at home, or when we have been at home, we’ve been out in the garden and not stuck indoors.  There have been parties, and camping weekends and bike rides and air shows and race weekends and car shows and picnics and entire days spent at the park, and kayak trips and barbecues with friends and heaven only knows what else.  If I started showing you photos from everything it’d be Christmas before we were done!  About the only thing that would make this summer even more perfect is a bit of rain.  But I live in hope!

There’s been a fair bit of this going on too.  The outside trim around our house needed re-painting and after considering our options and looking at prices to have it done, Andrew decided to set himself a task and do it himself!  The only problem was we have a couple of VERY high points on the East and South side of the house which involved climbing up and down a very tall ladder and a great deal of balance on his part!  It even involved climbing on to the roof of the two story entrance porch at one point.  Needless to say, I’ve spent a great deal of time in the garden finding things to do when the really high painting was in progress,  just in case!

There’s also been a fair bit of this too.  Kayaking out at the lake whenever we get the opportunity.  We even did an evening kayak one day after work which was totally awesome, the sun was setting as we made out way back to the boat launch.

[I thought this was funny… a bloke in a little boat fixing a big boat!  This “pontoon” boat belongs to friends of ours, we often kayak into the boat dock to see if they’re there and have a little chat.]

And then there were the parties, we’ve been to three in the last six weeks.  One was a housewarming, the second was a surprise birthday party and the third one was the Independence Day celebrations at Kensington Metro Park, which is where we kayak, and it involved the pontoon boat above that Andrew was fixing.

We had lots of good food to eat as we all mucked in and brought things to share,  so much so in fact, that we had to put two picnic tables together in order to hold it all.  This was the scene as we prepared our afternoon feast:

Everyone was just hanging out and chit-chatting until it was time to eat:

Afterwards we went out on the pontoon boat for a cruise around the lake and a swim for the kids:

And then back on dry land we played games for a while:

Before the grand finale…. homemade ice-cream which we made right at the park and churned it by hand.  We all took a turn at the churning, the kids first when it was really soft and easy to churn, then the women for a bit , and finally the men.  By this stage it was like a brick and the container was jumping about all over the place.  It took two of us to hold it down while one person turned the handle.  I’ve never had “real” hand made ice cream like this and it was so worth the effort.  We ate the entire can and then licked out all the utensils too!

I have more photos but I really think I need to stop here and make another post.  I also have cards to show you too so I’ll do that separately also.  I really hope I can get more time to blog again as I’ve missed it so much, but just to give you some idea, it has taken over a week to put this post together (started 10 Aug) and I’m only just finishing it today.  Lots going on, which will probably continue for a while, but I’m not complaining, we’ve had a fantastic summer so far, apart from wanting a bit of rain.  Can anyone spare me any????