Merry Christmas Everyone...

With just a few hours left of Christmas Eve - I thought I would just pop by to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. My Mum and Dad are here from France and I am looking forward to a nice quiet Christmas!

A walk along the seafront anyone?

Penzance Seafront...

Battery Rocks...

Decorating...Landing, Stairs and Our Bedroom

BEFORE: Old Landing

AFTER: New Landing

AFTER: New Stairs

BEFORE: Our Bedroom (Prior to us moving in)

AFTER: Our Bedroom all finished

Lunch on the Rocks and Walking

:: A seal we saw whilst having our lunch on Battery Rocks in town on Friday ::

:: Mr Seal again...only about 10 feet away ::

:: Went for a walk today (Sat) from Lands End to Sennen ::

This is Long Ships Lighthouse

:: Isn't that just the bluest sea?? Gorgeous ::

:: Sennen Cove Village - from the Harbour Wall ::

:: Sennen Beach - cloudless sky and blue sea - perfect ::

Garlic?.........Bread?

Firstly - excuse the blog title... unfortunately whenever I now here the word Garlic I think of Peter Kay and his sketch about Garlic Bread...

Anyway - on to more important things. The lovely Emma is holding a Giveaway on her Bagladee Review site. It is a foody inspired giveaway so of course I just HAVE to enter. Kerrygold are giving away a hamper full of lots of goodies in conjunction with the launch of a new product: Garlic Butter (concept not so new - ready made a real winner). Apparently all I have to do is post a recipe using Garlic Butter - well that isn't difficult...

Homemade Chicken Kiev:

Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts (how ever many you want to feed)

Garlic Butter

A little flour

One Egg

Breadcrumbs

1. With a sharp knife make a slot or pocket in the THICKEST part of the Chicken Breast - try NOT to slide your knife too far in so that is pokes out the other end or you will lose all your lovely garlic butteryness in the cooking process)

2. Using a butter knife or spoon (or better your fingers) cram as much Garlic Butter as you can into the slot or pocket that you have just created

3. Now for the coating: put a little flour, the whisked egg and the breadcrumbs in three separate dishes. Now one after the other, dip and coat each chicken breast into first the FLOUR, then the EGG and then the breadcrumbs. (don't squeeze too hard or the garlic butter may escape!!!)

Cooking:

1. Shallow fry each chicken breast just until golden on each side (not to cook through just to seal)

Then place in the oven (pre heated to about 180c) for about 20 - 25 mins

I like to serve with New Potatoes and green beans. (the buttery juices that have escaped can be poured over the potatoes to serve!!

Enjoy!

TLBG Wednesday

...have I got the day right this time?

So this week we have been asked to blog about "Greener Cleaning". As you may have seen from my first TLBG post, this is something that I have been looking into a little.

I have to admit that I fear this might be my Green nemesis??. Like so many others I am addicted to the smell and feel and general fuzzy feeling many get of "clean" laundry. It is the one thing that people comment on quite regularly about me for some reason?? (should I be worried about this?) However, I am more than aware of being lulled into a false freshness? Just because something doesn't smell strongly of our pre-programmed version of "fresh laundry" doesn't mean it isn't clean right?

I have taken a BABY step (and please don't scream at your computer screens when you hear how very small my step is). I have just switched to Persil Small and Mighty. Now I know this isn't GREEN, but it uses FAR less packaging and enables me to wash pretty much everything on a VERY low cycle. (I told you it was a BABY step). I have tried eCover, but my brain just cannot seem to accept that unless my fresh laundered bed sheets smell a certain way that I am not going to get as good a nights sleep??

As for other area's of the house - I am MORE than happy to go a little further. I use eCover or METHOD cleaning products for a lot of things - Bathroom, Kitchen etc. I have just read about eCloths again (I have read about them before but never made the leap) so I think I might give them a try, as my duster and polish are still hanging around and I am SURE I can get rid of them?

One thing that I haven't managed to get rid of though is BLEACH? I am not the type of person to use this a lot? Rarely in fact - but I do still think it is good for toilets every now and then to bring the bowl up gleaming? Too much information??!

I will leave it there for fear of going on and on and on.... can you tell I have been thinking about this for a while?? I am off to scour the Internet for further uses of White Vinegar and Bicarb or Soda.... tra la la

How lucky are we??

:: 6pm decided to take a walk::

:: a lovely sunny evening - if a little windy ::

:: Climbed all over the rocks ::

:: think these guys has the same idea ::

:: this photo doesn't do it justice ::

as the title says - how lucky are we to live just around the corner from all THIS...sure beats TV

That Little Bit Greener...

I recently joined a group of people over at That Little Bit Greener - a great idea for a blog created by Emma & Rachel.

This space has been setup to share tips and idea's for treading a little lighter on this earth. I have joined in my vein effort to get my butt in gear. They have something called TLBG Wednesday - where members blog about something related to recycling, reusing, reducing etc...you get the idea.

So today is Wednesday and my first official "post" for TLBG - Here goes...

What I do on a regular basis:

• Use re-usable shopping bags
• Recycle as much as I can - paper, plastic, glass, tins etc (more on that in another post)
• Compost most food waste
• Have energy saving light bulbs all over the house

A couple of things that I would like to work on:

• Use more environmentally sound products around our home (paint etc is under investigation)
• Use environmentally sound cleaning products and home remedies

Recent things that might make me "TLBG":

We recently purchased a new house and fulfilled our dream of moving to the seaside. We were lucky enough that it came with a much bigger garden. We are so pleased to have a greenhouse and an existing compost bin - however we needed a larger compost area. So in an effort to be "TLBG" hubby has been busy this week building a larger compost area....

And an added bonus - all the materials used were left behind by the previous house owners in the garage!...REuse too!!

Sore legs...

We have just got back from a VERY long walk...however that carvery at the end of it was delish!

The weather hasn't been too bad here today, in fact any hotter and the walk would have been a bit unbearable! We decided to walk from Penzance to Marizion (took about 1.25 hours) - to The Godolphin Hotel where they serve a Sunday Carvery. It was DELICIOUS.

The walk home was tougher, as legs were beginning to ache by then - but ice creams part way home certainly helped.

Yesterday, we decided to tidy up the side return of the house. This is where Mable will live when she comes to visit - Dad very kindly fixed a gate at the end just for this purpose whilst he was here.

We took out alot of the weeds (there were ALOT) and then Kenny dug it over and I painted the fence. There is something VERY satisfying about painting a fence - such instant gratification.

I am afraid I don't have a before pic - but here is what it looks like now:

This is actually just one end...but I couldn't get it all in!

A day at the beach...

Where shall we go today....?

Well - we do live by the beach - so pack a picnic and off we go..

How about down there?? That looks nice!

Lovely walk down...

Surprisingly quiet for a Saturday - lots of RockPools!

We saw this on the way home...maybe we go down there next time?

All in all - a Lovely day at the beach!

Hello, Goodbye

A few weeks before we moved, Gimli got sick - real sick. She lost a third of her body weight in what seemed like just a few weeks and the diagnosis was not good. Not wanting to put her through the additional stress of moving home (or Bilbo the stress of potentially losing a friend AND being in a new home) we came to the difficult decision to put her to sleep.

We have had 14 lovely years with her, and now she is with her brother Frodo who we sadly lost about 5 years ago.

So...then we moved, and Bilbo is doing really great - but we felt he was a little lonely having been Gimli's companion for the past few years.

Introducing Bella...

:: Playing ::

:: They are getting along ok ::

:: Sleepy Bella ::

:: Hiding ::

:: Goodbye Friend ::

Blog Block...

Is that even a real thing - I just haven't felt like, been inspired to, seen the point in blogging recently. To be honest I don't even know what is changing my mind but here goes....am I really cut out for this?

:: Firstly...how do you like the new look? I decided that I have been away for so long that I should make a real change, and what better theme to have now that I officially live BY THE SEA!!

:: So YEP we moved! A month ago we actually fulfilled a dream of living by the Sea (a lot more on that in the next post)

:: SERIOUS BIT - I do miss being so close to my sister and my friends, and I know they feel it too - but now that we are here I can honestly say I think we have done the right thing, even only after a month! Living here is quite the loveliest thing.

:: We lost a much loved member of our small family - Gimli. She didn't make the move with us as got sick just a few weeks prior to the move. Very sad

:: We gained an ickle cheeky new member to our small family - Bella (more on her in another post)

This past week in short...

Saturday:  Went to a concert in London with hubby and friend (very good)

Sunday:  Drove to Cornwal ready for house hunting

Monday: Went to see FOUR houses.  Really liked ONE.  Put in an offer.  

Monday PM: Offer was declined

Tuesday:  That's that for now - will keep an eye out and go again in a few weeks.  Travel back from Cornwall

Wednesday PM: Hubby predicts we will hear from the agent before Saturday that they will accept our offer.  I find this incredibly hard to believe

Thursday 9am (ish): Agent phoned telling us that our offer was accepted

Thursday 9.15am:  I serioulsy burn the toast that was under the grill when the phone went... I went upstairs to tell hubby in my euphoria?!

Now need a bit more money - so definately need to sell both bikes (motorbikes)

Friday about 4.30:  Place freead for my bike

Friday 5.45: Man calls asking to come see bike, NOW.  Man drives up from Southampton

Friday 7.30:  Bike Sold, deposit paid, pickup arranged for next week!!!

Can you imgine the rollercoaster I have been on this week!.  But we have a HOUSE (provisionally)....

Going going GONE!!

Just a short update tonight 'cos I think I am still in shock!!

Today we ACCEPTED AN OFFER! So OUR house is sold...we just need to find the new one now!

...watch this space

Disappointment...

House Update: The house that we have had our eye on in Cornwall has sadly SOLD STC

......Insert WAILING here.......

I know that anything could happen, and I know it obviously wasn't meant to be, and I know there will be another better house out there for us...but for now, just right now I am so upset.

The upside? Last night was the first night for a few nights that I have woken myself up at about 4.15am only to start thinking about where all our furniture will go...last night I slept soundly.

On this end - we had had two more viewings and have another tomorrow...fingers crossed!? Then will have to start the search again.

A quiet weekend.... ha!

One of the jobs we knew we needed to do was replaster a corner of the bathroom where we had a rather suspicious looking patch of blown plaster... Earlier in the week we had the work done - which then left us with a rather ugly bathroom :(

Our agent called in the week and has arranged another three viewings (the first of which was earlier today), so this kicked me into touch to get the bathroom decorated and looking presentable again.

This is what it looked like before (notice the offending corner above left of Bilbo's tail)Honestly, all that was holding up that corner was the wallpaper and paint...

So, after deciding to go a little more NEUTRAL (how many house selling programs have I watched recently)...here is the result:We matched the paper luckily, but the bright blue took FOUR coats of paint to cover...however it looks presentable now and the wall is no longer bulging!!

So - here is to another week of nail biting. One tomorrow and another on Weds booked in...

Snow Day...

So...they said it would snow last night and I didn't believe them!  You see, we haven't had "proper" snow for about 18 years....so who would believe them?

However - this morning, we awoke to snow...and LOTS of it.

From out our Front Door (I love that there are not yet any footprints)

An icicle...

Outside the back door (Hubby cleared a small path for Bilbo)

My very favourite thing about the snow is the SOUND.  I know this sounds odd, but whenever it snows (a lot) everything is so peaceful (for a while at least).  Cars are rarely seen on the road and it is just so serene.

We have had about 12 inches (a foot) of snow...however there a reports that we could have the same again tomorrow!!!  We shall see what tomorrow brings!

P.S Well done to the Steelers who won a VERY GOOD game last night...just in case you wondered!

Are you ready for some football...

Despite living in the UK and hubby being Scottish - we are both fans of American Football.  Hubby's passion started through the humble Amiga (I think) with a game called Fourth & Inches by Sierra Games.  Little did he know that the team picked then (due to the logo being a rather nice arrowhead) would be the team he still supports each season today.   I know, I know - all you Americans can stop laughing....the Chiefs have not done that well of late, but once you pick a team that's it right?

So tonight we stay up till about 3am (I will try - can't promise anything)...to watch the Pittsburg Steelers play the first time Superbowl visitors the Arizona Cardinals.  Hmmm Go Cards!!  (Gotta route for the underdogs right??)

This weekend has been fun.  Friday afternoon I went to pick up an expectant Nephew to kidnap him for the weekend.  Sis and BiL wanted to paint his room and wanted him out the way for a surprise on Sunday.  We had fun making pancakes for breakfast on Saturday, going to a friends birthday party and generally having fun.  I have not long gotten back from driving him home - where I left a light sprinkling of snow in Kent...soon to be a lot more apparently????  We shall see tomorrow.

House Update: No offers, one possible visit from a builder next week to see if a toilet can be squeezed under the stairs to satisfy one potential buyer.... and on sneaking a peak at the "house I like" in Cornwall - it looks like no offers so far (but I am not keeping my hopes up I promise!??)  

I now confess to having woken up at 4.15am this morning...and proceeding to arrange all our furniture in the "new house" for about an hour or so...dangerous business.

Welcome friends and strangers...

So - this is my new home.  I recently got rid of my first blog as I just felt like I had grown out of it.  I originally started it to work out how to use "blogger" so that I could assist my mum in setting her blog up.  After a while it just wasn't me - felt too much like I was trying to be someone I am not.  So this is my second attempt - I think I will be happier here!

News Update:

We have just put our house on the market - VERY scary time...well from my point of view anyway.  We have had about 4 viewings so far and our first 2nd viewing today...can I squeak here a little??

It is also a big decision as we are following our dream and moving to Cornwall.  With Mum and Dad in France following their own dream, it has prompted some thoughts on our part (ok mainly mine) to decide what we would really like to do....and what we want is to live by the sea! 

Photo taken by hubby on our last visit

So this blog will follow our adventure and aims to keep my family up to speed with the comings and goings... enjoy xx