Kindle

Whoo Hoo!!! look what me gorgeous hubby has bought me today :-) :-)

I'm sooo happy....   It means that he can have the use of his again.  I never thought I would ever want one as I love the feel of a book, but these are just so convenient.  It will be really useful when we go on holiday in the caravan as we wont have to carry the weight of about a dozen books and now we both have one there will be no arguing who is going to read first.. lol  The touch screen is fab, you can  hold it with one hand and still turn the pages.  There are lots of free books to download if you look so I will never be short of something to read.

At the moment I am reading "The Sugar Girls"  its about the girls who worked in the Tate and Lyle Sugar Factory during the 1940's, I am really enjoying it. My friend Margaret over on the MSE forum asked us all to make a card based on our favourite book or film and I chose to make one with the Sugar Girls theme, which  you can see here, its just a bit of fun.

What are you reading at the moment?

Hugs
Karen xxxx

Birds

We were sat watching the birds feeding and my hubby took this lovely photograph of a Chaffinch and Blue Tit, when we looked closely at the Chaffinch we noticed he had a tag on his leg.  Philip has searched the internet to see if we can find any info on it but have come up with nothing. Does anyone know why?

Look at me I can swing upsidedown........Oh hurry up let me on the perch!!

Thank you for looking

Karen xxx

Spicy Butternut squash and Tomato Soup

Ssshhhh   I think its stopped raining.......don't tell anyone.......lol.....

As promised I have made my soup today, its so simple and delicious and very quick to make it also freezes beautifully.

 On my plate we have the
Butternut Squash a pack of Chopped Tomatoes, about 2 tablespoons of Tomato Puree, 2 onions, 3 carrots, 2 sticks celery, 2 peppers or whatever is going soft in the fridge, garlic I used a teaspoon of Lazy Garlic, 2 stock cubes any variety, salt  and Chilli powder to your taste, it all depends on the strength, mine is hot so I added the tip of a teaspoon.  Roughly chop everything.

 I also had this Brocolli stalk that was in the bottom of the fridge so that got chopped up too.Nothing goes to waste here.

 Add everything to a large pan, I used the pressure cooker and cover with about 1pint of boiling water

 When cooked I use a stick blender in the pan and give it all a jolly good blitz.  If you think its a bit thick you can let it down. I usually freeze it thick then when I reheat use a drop of milk to thin it a bit.

Here is the finished soup, you can add a swirl of cream if you have any lurking but its nice as it is with a crusty roll.  We shall have this today for tea followed by a nice fresh fruit salad and yogurt. All fat free and healthy :-)

Enjoy your day and I hope the sun is shining for you.

Karen xxx

Thursday... its still raining!

Thursday is our usual shopping day and I try my best to get everything we will need for the week.  I have stopped menu planning and just have an idea in my head of what we will eat over the week. Lean meat and lots of lovely fresh veggies are a must in our house, low in fat and calories and they taste yummy.  We always call in at Ald! and check out the Super 6, today I looked at the meat in the chiller and came across these lovely lean Pork steaks 6 for £3.99, I was a little dubious at first as they are from Denmark but thought what the heck they look nice.

 We had some over wintered leeks in the garden

 and some nice veggies. My 3 little pans are so useful for this.

 We had a very delicious dinner and we were both stuffed!!

The other 4 steaks have been wrapped up and popped into the freezer for a later date.

We ate our meal in the conservatory tonight and were treated to the Vulcan Bomber flying round doing a test flight, the first of the season. It flew over our garden at about 200ft, the noise was incredible but my hubby loved it.

Just going to watch a bit of tv and have some fruit, back tomorrow with my Spicy Butternut squash & Tomato Soup.........

Karen xxx

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!

Rain, Rain go away!!  I don't know about you but I'm getting a bit fed up with this rainy weather. Its just about stopped for the moment but this morning was torrential and driving on the motorway was horrible. I just want a few nice sunny days (well ok lots) to get cracking with the garden.

 We had a trip out this morning to the garden centre at Brigg with my Mum and Dad, it was extremely  busy with quite a few coaches in the car park.  After a lovely browse round we had lunch in the restaurant followed by a nice coffee....mmm yum!! Then we picked up the bits we had seen earlier, I spotted this lovely colourful little plant for £1.99 and couldn't resist it.  Its actually 3 small plants in one pot, I do love a bargain :-) I thinks it looks well in my spotty teapot and cheers up the kitchen no end.

 A little bit of prettiness on such an ugly day.

Hope you are all enjoying your day, despite the weather.

Karen xxx

Struggling with the New Blogger?

If any of you are like me and finding the new blogger a little frustrating, there is a fabulous post on this ladies blog Frugal in Norfolk it might help you.  Please leave her a nice comment too.

Have a lovely Sunday

Karen xxx

Plymouth

Wow how time flies, I can't believe its so long since I last posted.  During my absence we have been down to see my lovely youngest son and his family down in Plymouth, we had an absolutely fabulous 5 days.  The weather was perfect, we were so lucky to have so much sunshine, think that must have been summer!! and we are straight back to winter now.  Here is my son with my 4 year old grandaughter Danielle, she is growing up so quickly.

 Eating one of the cupcakes I took down with me.  The Lemon Meringue Pies survived the journey and were all well received.

 Having a squeeze with grandad.

 Down on the sea front, it was a bit blowy and it looks like a bad hair day for me. Danielle was more interested in taking a photo of her dad taking a photo of us.

 This is the Tamar Bridge, taken from the doorstep of my sons Mum and Dad in laws house. Its all lit up at night.

 And lastly the Plymouth Wheel down on the Hoe. £8 per person for a ride.

Can't wait to go back again and see them all.

A great big Hello to my new followers, thank you for looking and I hope you will comment from time to time, its lovely to have you all on board.

Thank you for looking

Karen xxx