Ladybirds galore, a Christmas book and a cake!

After not seeing many ladybirds this year, last Monday I saw at least 20 over the road from my mum's by the little wooded area and they were mostly on the stinging nettles. (There is a handy identification sheet on the link above)

There were lots of orange ones with lots of spots.

Quite a few blacks ones with some orange markings.

One red one with lots of spots. 

There was also a funny looking, bumpy one which I think was the Pupa (it looked similar to the Pupa in my book), this photo is a bit blurry though.

I was looking for the book The Night before Christmas last week while I was in the town but I found this book instead in The Works and it was 3 for £10 so I got one for myself, my mum and my sister.

I loved this story when I was younger.

I made this cake today with my nephew, it was a packet cake my mum gave me that was going out of date.

We aren't having a very good week here the shower is broken and the electric went off last night and now there is no power to the boiler. Unfortunately, at times like this, when things are going wrong my nan takes it out on me and has a go at me quite a bit. Although I'm fairly used to it now and I tend to know when it will happen, it still upsets me and makes me annoyed as it's not my fault.

I hope you're all having a better week than me.

The Royal Standard of England

I met up with an old work friend yesterday and we went to The Royal Standard of England, the oldest freehouse in England.

We went for lunch but didn't even think about booking a table, there was a large party and all of the other tables were reserved. Fortunately, some tables were free until 2pm and we got there just before 1pm. The large party were all dressed in medieval clothes, it was quite a sight! We ordered quickly before the large group and sat at table 13, we were a bit worried because my friend and I are both slow eaters! I had the steak and kidney suet pudding and my friend had the cottage pie, the food was lovely it was fairly expensive but worth it. We didn't have the time or room for pudding! 

A couple shared our table and I thought I recognised the lady and I was right - I looked after her son at a nursery about six years ago.

I took a few photos of the inside of the pub but only on my phone so they didn't come out very well. It was really nice but quite dark and cramped inside, they had a couple of fires going, the atmosphere was nice and the staff were really friendly.

2pm came round quickly but we had both finished our meals so we finished our drinks at the bar then went to sit outside at this tree table.

We sat for a while then we went for a walk. They had a map on the website of two walks nearby but the map wasn't very clear and we couldn't work out where it started! My friend thought we should go along the track in front of the pub and she was right as it led to, what we thought was, the first turning. When we got back we realised the first turning was actually right by the pub and we had missed it as it is quite overgrown.

We ended up doing the longer walk, which was nice although a bit muddy in places. We walked through the Wildflower Meadow, there wasn't much colour but we did see lots of, what looked like, chrysalis' on certain stems. I couldn't get my phone to focus but we think they were Burnet Moth chrysalis'.

This is one that was open so I brought it home. The brown bit was inside the silky, papery part. There were quite a few the same but also a lot more that weren't open.

This was a field further along, we could see three tractors in the distance.

One tractor was cutting the grass, one was putting it into bales and the third one (below) was picking up the bale then it spun wrapping around it and dropped it off the other side. We thought this was really clever!

Some horses, the one with a cover on kept nodding at us!

Now we were on the way back towards the pub. We passed some lovely houses behind where we stood here.

We walked quite slowly and it took us about two hours but we think we did an extra bit that isn't on the map!

I really enjoyed seeing my friend as I hadn't seen her since last summer and it was a great day but I did feel completely shattered when I got home.

I hope you've had a lovely weekend too!

Hearing Dogs Late Summer Show

Today we went to the Hearing Dogs For Deaf People Late Summer Show at Saunderton. Despite the weather forecast saying it would be heavy rain and very windy, we decided to go early to hopefully miss the rain, there was a little bit but the heavy stuff started after we got home.

 I like this one with the dog peeking out of the tent!

They had lots of stalls selling all sorts of things, books, toys, about three cake stalls-these were my favourite! There was a show ring in the middle of the field where they had demonstrations of the work of Hearings Dogs, dog shows and competitions. I like this picture with the lines of clouds.

These birds look like statues! They were part of a demonstration and you could hold a Barn Owl for £1, my mum was going to do it but it started flapping and she decided not to!

I bought half a chocolate sponge cake from one of the stalls, it was lovely!

We support Hearing Dogs as my nan had a Hearing Dog but she passed away in 2010, if you look on my photos page there is a photo of Salsa. Hearing Dogs planted this rose for Salsa in their Memorial Garden. We haven't actually seen it in bloom as it's hard to get over there other than when we go to the shows/fayres.

I hope you've enjoyed your weekend.

Now summer is coming to an end...

Littlehampton August 2013

...I thought I would share some of the things I love about summer.

• Freshly cut grass, mmm...I love the smell of freshly cut grass but I haven't really smelt it this year
• Spending time at the beach (although I could do this in any season!)
• The smell of sun cream
• Feeling the warm sun on my skin
• Being able to hang washing out and it drying!

What are your favourite things about summer?

PS The blackberry crumble was a success but I forgot to take a photo!

All the fun of the fair!

Yesterday, at about 4.30pm, we went up to the fair on the local common. Masons Funfair has come here every September for about the last five years, it's only a small fair and is never really busy. The children went on about five rides and they loved it! I took my niece on the Ferris Wheel and she said to me "We're going to the top, don't get frightened!" Here is the view from the top.

It started to feel really cold by about 5pm, Autumn is definitely setting in now. When we had finished at the fair we picked some more blackberries as there are lots all around the common. We picked loads, more than enough for a crumble which I'll make tomorrow afternoon.

I bought a new printer yesterday, a wireless one so I can print from the iPad as well as the the laptop. My nan wants some photos printed so I have been looking for photo paper but I can't find it very cheap!

Strictly Come Dancing started last night with the première show, the series starts in three weeks and I'm really looking forward to it! I didn't enjoy it so much last year so hopefully I will get into it this year.

You may have noticed I have added an "About me" page on here, I haven't written anything on it yet but I'm working on it! I have also started doing the 365 Project and hope to add a page for it but more about that in the near future.

I haven't really done any crocheting for a while so I need to get back into it and post some photos for you to see.

Here's hoping you all have a lovely week!

Blackberry picking

I took my niece and nephew blackberry picking on Monday. We went over the road to the little wooded area opposite my mum's, there weren't many blackberries ready to pick but there were lots of green and pink ones.

We saw quite a few ladybirds too but the photos aren't great.

And this massive spiders web!

In total they found four blackberries each, not enough for a crumble so they ate them when we got back!

I hope you've enjoyed this little walk and are having a good week.

Hello September

It's hard to believe that we are in September already and I have been unemployed for a year, it's a long time but it doesn't feel like that long. I don't seem to have had that much time to look for work, with helping people out and caring for my nan. I will have to focus more on job hunting in the next few months, although, it has been quite nice having time to myself, especially not having to work over Christmas!

Again, I haven't been out and about much this week. I did take this picture of the clouds on Friday, I like to see the shapes they make.

I'm looking forward to Autumn TV in the coming few months. I think I watch too much TV, but why not while I can! These are the programmes I'm most looking forward to:

I hope you all have a lovely week and all goes well if you have children going back to/starting school! My niece starts school on Thursday.