"Although I speak from my own experience, I feel that no one has the right to impose his or her beliefs on another person. I will not propose to you that my way is best. The decision is up to you. If you find some point which may be suitable for you, then you can carry out experiments for yourself. If you find that it is off no use, then you can discard it." Dalai Lama...

Tuesday 21 December 2010

A quiet day at home!!!!

Staying at home today as Alan needs the car to get to work.
Emily got up at 6am ( was supposed to wake me to but for some reason didn't! ) with him to see the Eclipse.Didn't get to see it but they had a lovely early morning chat and she then went back to bed where she is still snuggled fast asleep at 10.30.

We have guests coming for tea tonight. My plans for my day at home look a little like this.

Freeze batches of veg tomato sauce ( made yesterday)  to be used in various meals over the next month or so.

Make a roasted butternut squash and red pepper soup for lunches over the holiday period.

Use the very ripe bunch of Bananas I bought at a knockdown price to make banana bread.

Make a sweet potato cake and ice it for pudd tonight.

Make a caramel sauce to go with the sweet potato cake or ice cream.

Boil and then roast potatoes.

Make Parmesan chicken nuggets (baked in the oven)

Hoover and generally give the place a quick once over.

Help Milly tidy her room in readiness for a sleepover tomorrow night.

Still in my nightie so better get a wriggle on!


Wednesday 8 December 2010

Snowy garden...

I know so many of you will be looking at very similar scenes, but it it worth me recording it on here because we rarely see this amount in our part of Cumbria.










Friday 3 December 2010

Argyll

Our first view of the cabins...


The view from the decking of our cabin.



Within ten minutes - clothes off - through the snow on the decking-  into the hot tub :-)



The interior of the lodge.



The cabin was advertised as having a log fire but had a wall mounted living flame fire.Slightly dissapointed at first, but it actually wasn't missed at all.









A clean and comfortable base for the next four nights.

After attending the welcome meeting at the campsite retreat the next morning, we went for a short walk to the beach near the loch and picked some mussels with the intention of cooking them - we forgot about them - and left them on the counter in the kitchen all day, so I had to throw them away! After a dip in the tub and some lunch we set off to explore one of the walks close to the campsite.








Alan was used as target practice all the way along the path :-)

Bulls eye!







Making the first Snow angel!



Back to the lodge after an hour or so.


Snow cones in the hot tub!!


When we were in the lodge we spent many a happy hour reading and watching TV.Milly had a blank sketch book and spent hours drawing and colouring.She created some wonderful images.

She has a signature style and enjoys drawing figures and designing outfits on them.They all have enormous eyes and a side fringe .





She started to add some jewel stickers to her later designs.
Hours and hours of colouring and sharpening crayons :-)





Time spent watching the sun go down.




The next morning was spent lounging around and then we set off after lunch to go to Loch Fyne to do a tree house walk we had heard about at the meeting.




It was windy and cold and required numerous layers but the snow was deep and soft and the walk wasn't too arduous.














The tree house was rather under - whelming!



Worth climbing up though..



Not a bad view,





a good place to munch on the chocolate bars we had taken with us...



Back down the track.




Time to do another couple of snow angels.


 
Mine.



Emily's.


Thursday - we decided to visit Helensburgh and have lunch.Our first home as a married couple was on the married quarters near there. I lived and worked in Helensburgh for a couple of years but couldn't remember much of it at all!!

Back home to the cabin for yet more lounging and hot tubbing :-)

We spent a wonderful, relaxing, peaceful time in a beautiful setting.The snow made it quite magical and sitting in the hot tub with the snow swirling around us is a memory I will treasure.