Saturday this and that . . .

 

 Things have turned decidely autumnal here over the last week or so. I've been getting up in the dark most days and going to bed in the dark most days, and I can see signs of change all around me. It seems like our Summer no sooner got started than it is finishing.  It seems to have passed by rather quickly this year.  Does anyone else feel the same?  It has just whizzed by.  

 

Todd has spent the last week or so getting things done in the garden, readying it for the rainy onslaught of Winter.  Of course we had our three fruit trees taken down.  We were both a bit sad about that, but they were not healthy and it was for the best. Our minstering brothers came with chain saws to do the dirty deed.  They are a father and son and we gave them the bulk of the wood to use as they have a fireplace, we have all the branches, etc. and they are drying in the firepit.  Hopefully we will be able to do a bonfire come Bonfire Night in November. We will see what happens. 

He took down the bean trellis as well, and cleared away the leaves.  They were a bit of a bust this year actually. We got nothing from the Bush Beans at all and I had planted two kinds. We also got very little from the runner beans, except a lot of flowers. I think we got about 4 meals from them, but that's all. It was just too wet of a summer I guess, but the slugs had a feast. Nothing we did seemed to keep them at bay.  Some years are just like that!  

  

Hurricane Dorian is expected to hit Nova Scotia by this afternoon.  Back home they are battening down the hatches. I don't thin they will get much more than rain and wind where most of my children live according to this map, but my youngest daughter may get a bit more than the others because of where she lives which is jus about in the red zone. The others are all in the green zone. My father is in the green zone also.  We spoke on the phone yesterday and he was a bit worried about losing his power.  I really hope that they don't. My oldest daughter has already told me she probably won't be online to talk today because of the storm.  That's okay. I just want them to all be safe and warm and dry.  

I feel so sorry for the people of the Bahamas which was decimated by the storm and from the last that I read there were still huge power outtages in the Carolinas.  It will still be considered to be a Post-Tropical Cyclone when it hits Nova Scotia later today with very strong winds. 

Thankfully here where we live we don't get much in the way of extremes when it comes to weather. We are pretty protected here in the North West part of England.  We have the Welsh Hills to the West of us and they kind of shoulder most of the burden weather-wise. 

 

Interestingly enough I noticed earlier this week that my cookbook is being offered in paperback now, with hard-back copies being unavailable.  Its also doubled in price.  I doubt many will be sold at that cost.  I did e-mail my editor when I noticed this asking how things were going, ever hopeful that the second book would be published, but I can't think somehow now that it is ever going to be so I will have to look at the option of self-publishing i guess.  I need to look into how that would work.   Its a shame to have a book all written and edited and then just sitting there.  It was written as a journal with 12 months of the year chapters, each month ending with a craft.  One of the crafts was a jam jar sewing kit. 

 

I had a lot of fun putting it together.  It has a cherry pincushion on the top . . . all of the crafts were simple and quick/easy to do . . .  

I had incorporated some of my seasonal writings into it as well  . . .  we'll see what happens.  

  

It's Todd's 81st Birthday today.  I have always told him that I was the best Birthday Present he ever received and most of the time he agrees!  We met in person for the first time on his birthday 19 years ago now!  All day yesterday I kept asking him  . . .  do you know what I was doing 19 years ago now?  And then I'd tell him  . . .  packing  . . .  driving to my dad's (my dad took care of my car and drove me to the airport)  . . . waiting for the plane . . .  halfway across the Atlantic, etc.  When he gets up later I can say . . .  "Hooray I've landed and a very Happy Birthday!"   

I got him an Amazon Fire Tablet for his birthday. His iPad gave up the ghost a month or so ago, and the Fire Tablet was somwhat affordable.  He's actually had it for a couple of weeks now and he likes it. He's not a game player or anything.  He mostly wanted it for his Gospel Library and facebook.  He was quite disappointed when his iPad died.  He had written his life story onto it and its gone now. He thinks it is in the cloud somewhere but without a working iPad he can't access it. 

One of the drawbacks of modern technology I guess!  

 

When I moved over here to the UK, initially . . . I was only going to be over here for two years, just until Todd got his old age pension. He was just turning 63 at the time.  I visited on the 7th September and then moved here permanently on the 31st October.  Two years seemed quite doable, and it seemed like a bit of an adventure.  Life has a funny way of surprising you however and turning out the complete opposite to what you have planned and here I am still, 19 years later.   I could dwell on the negative of it all, but instead I try to think about the positive aspects of it.  

For instance had I never moved over here I would probably never have gone to Chef's School and become a Chef. I would still be working at Tim Horton's probably, and hating every minute of it.  I would never have had the chance to work on a Manor Estate and live in a Tudor cottage, and stretch my culinary talents in such a way as I have. I would never have started my Oak Cottage Blog, which morphed into this. I would never have written my cookery book, or been published in the different publictions I have graced the pages of. 

 

This would never have happened.  YOU would never have happened  . . .  but most importantly of all, I would never have had the time I have had with my Todd, nor have had Mitzie, the two most wonderful joy-giving parts of my life.  

So whilst life might surprise you from time to time and turn out completely different than you anticipated from the start, it is still a beautiful gift and filled with lovely things. Its all in how you choose to look at it. 

 

My lesson is all prepped and ready to go for Relief Society tomorrow.  I will go over it again today just to make sure I got it all down pat and then carefully put it back into my bag. I don't ever want to end up at church again sans lesson.  That was the most awful feeling, despite it turning out alright in the end and being the best lesson I ever taught. (Talk about teaching by the spirit!)  I am very much a dot your "i", cross your "t" type of person and not having my prepped lesson with me really took me out of my comfort zone, far too far out of my comfort zone to be honest!  My lesson this week is based on a talk by Sister Sharon Eubanks  entitled, Christ, The Light that Shines in Darkness.  It was a great talk and I hope my lesson will be well received.  I know I have enjoyed preparing it.  That was one of my favourite talks from the last conference.   

In a few short weeks we will be having our October General Church Conference.  Back in the day that involved getting all dressed up and traveling to the chapel and sitting in an uncomfortable chair for hours while kids and teens made so much noise and distraction that you missed half of it anyways  I am so grateful now for the opportunity we have of being able to watch it in our own homes in our comfy chairs. I get so much more out of it because I can hear and see it all.  Nobody with big hair is blocking my vision, and I can absorb it all fully.   There will be an additional Women's Session as well, devoted entirely to the female side of the church so I am looking forward to that!  

 

So not sure what I am making Todd for his Tea today.  We are having Tina and Tony over on Wednesday next for a Roast Dinner, which Todd will enjoy of course, but I do want to make him something tasty for today. He loves stews and such so I might make him a pot of stew or something of that genre, which will please him to no end.  Especially if I serve mash along with it.   He is a real meat and potatoes kind of a guy, and with that I will bid you adieu for today! 

A thought to carry with you   . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *Success is liking yourself,

liking what you do,

and liking how you do it.

~Maya Angelou •。★★ 。* 。 

 

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Raspberry Jam Tart Birthday Cake.  (Yes he did have a piece of it yesterday, and he gave it two thumbs up!) 

Have a wonderful Saturday. If you are in the path of Dorian, stay safe and warm and dry!  Don't forget! 

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And I do too!