Getting colder and colder

Goodafternoon everybody!

Yes, it definately is getting colder here. Today temperature isn;t much more as around 6-7C, and later this week it will drop even more to just 4C and and at night here and there there already is some frost at the ground. Brrrrr, I don'tlike it, the more because we have an Eastern wind blowing, which makes it feel even colder. To have a positive note on this weather report, we still have some sunshine, so it looks somewhat friendly. But...... we may have some snowfall around the middle of the week. Perhaps it will be only wet snow, but still..... the white stuff is trying to make some kind of invasion LOL!

Yesterday a lot of children were all excited because Sinterklaas was coming to the Netherlands on his boat from Spain, with a lot of presents for all the good children!

It is tradition that during his stay here the children are allowed to put their shoe in front of the chimney( or near a door, because not many people have a real fire place anymore, and normally the Black Peters came through the chimney) and the next morning they might find some sweets in it.
I remember it well from my childhood and it is a wonderful time.
A bit the same as Santa Claus in a lot of countries.

In our life it is rather quiet at the moment. We do our daily things, it fills the time always more than you think.
I wrapped up the Christmas presents I need to send away in a box, and I am proud of myself, hahaha. The box is standing near to me and I will bring it to the post this week. I know, it is rather early, but I really want it to arrive on time, last year it took such a long time, it only arrived after Christmas! Now that isn;t what we want, is it?
And you will see, that it will arrive within may be two weeks, so much too early, but better this than the alternative!

Today I already prepared our meal for this evening, well, I did cut up all the things needed for it. I will make a stew with onion and carrot. I don;t know if you have ever eaten it or even heard of it. It is a very known winter meal here in Holland, and best is it with a piece of smoked sausace(it is a raw one that you have to warm up(not boil) in hot water for around 20-30 minutes.

I have the recipe for you(one of the many variations LOL), if you might want to try it . It is for 4 persons, so easy to make more or less.
Ingredients
1 kg of winter carrots
1 kg of potatoes
500 grams of onions
1 block of beef broth
Smoked sausage(but you also can have a meat ball, or beef stew with it, or whatever is to your liking)
pepper
salt

 Preparation

     Cook the potatoes for 15 - 20 minutes, cut the onions into pieces and the winter carrots into strips.
     Boil the carrots and onions together with the block of beef broth for about 20 minutes.
     Drain the potatoes and vegetables together in a pan and coarsely mash. Then make the smoked sausage warm.
     Then season the stew with salt and pepper. The smoked sausage can be served separately or in small pieces through the mash.
Also very nice with it are small smoked bacon strips(we can buy them raw here and then we fry them ourselves in a frying pan for some minutes). Then you have to be careful with the salt, because the bacon already is really salty!
Have a bit of nice thick gravy with it and ..... enjoy your meal.

That was it for this week.  I think I will sit down on the couch and watch a bit of sport. May be I will be brave enough this week to start on a Christmas kit. I should start early on it, because I am rather slow in designing at the moment.For today I have a fresh finished kit(just finished and uploaded it yesterday!), named Just Imagine that.......


Wishing you a lovely week, stay safe and healthy!

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Hopefully one day the world will learn!

Goodafternoon everybody!

Not much happened here. Weather is okay, with mostly temperatures around 12-14C, one day a bit more filled with sunshine than another, but still not bad for the time of year.

Today in many countries there was 100th anniversary of the ending of World War I.! I watched some bits of it on tv, and it was very impressive.
This was a terrible war, with so many people killed, as well soldiers as civilians, and then you will have to count all the wounded, of which some survived, and many died after a short time.

World War One was one of the deadliest conflicts in the history of the human race, in which over 16 million people died. The total number of both civilian and military casualties is estimated at around 37 million people. The war killed almost 7 million civilians and 10 million military personnel.
 Many people died, not from combat, but from diseases caused by the war, a figure estimated at around 2 million deaths. 6 million people went missing during the war and were presumed dead. Two out of three soldiers died in battle, the rest died due to infections or disease.

When you take time for a minute just to think about it, it is shocking.
And it is true that we never should forget.
It is also necessary to understand a little bit about WW1, to understand why there was so soon the WW2!. But we never should forget and we also must tell about it to our children.

After such hard times, you might expect that finally people would have learned from it, but no, there still if war going on on our planet, and you wonder why it is so hard to live next to eachother in peace.
Leave everyone in his or her dignity, respect eachother, 
accept that every person can have a different opinion, but that this should not be a hindrance to simply interact and live together!

Gosh, this is quite a "heavy"start of my blogpost. But we have to continue to spread this peaceful message, otherwise mankind will be lost totally.

On a lighter note though, I received an email of my niece in France. All is going well there, and she will be moving from the north of France to the south(lucky girl!). We don't have much contact, but every now and then we send eachother a little email, and that is a nice thing.
She is about the only family that I have(well, there are some distant nieces and nephews and so on somewhere on this world,) but she is about the closest.

I received some papers this week from my pension fund, I have to fill in a few forms, nothing much, so they can start paying my pension(it's the one I build up during the time I had a job) and that will be around the middle of next year. That done, another step is done towards the life of a pensionado LOL.

Oh, I also made a step towards Christmas package sending. I did wrap already a lot of presents, still have to look for one or two more and then I will have to find the right box.The one i have now I think will be just a little bit too large. I will find a right one, I am sure. Not far from our house there is a toy shop, and towards our Sinterklaas and also Christmas, they often put a lot of boxes in a small container. That all are boxes that came in filled with all kind of toys and they normally fold them flat, but during this time of year they are so kind to put out a lot of boxes of all formats outside the shop. So soon I will be able to search for the "right"box LOL.

Good, this is all there is to tell, I have for you a set of clusters from Arlene, made with the "In the Library "kit. hopefully next weekend I will have a new kit for you.
I wish you a wonderful day and week.

Download    HERE

Oh luxury! I can tap water again!

Goodafternoon everybody!

Today is my friend Edna is having her birthday, so from here I wish you a Happy Birthday and that you will have an awesome day!

The weather here is quiet, not bad at all, last few days we had temperature around 10C, it might creep up this week a bit to 13-14C.
We have sunshine with some clouds, not much wind, so I am not disappointed about this weather.

You know i had trouble with the tap at the sink in the kitchen.
Well, Monday morning I called my plumber and he was so nice to come that very same day. He fixed the tap(he put in a new one), without having to remove the sink, he could reach the tap with some gymnastic movements LOL.
At the same time he cleaned the central heating kettle, so all was done on the same day and for a very nice price. It was a lot cheaper as I thought it would be.
I am sooo happy with the new tap, with this one it is als easier to put a bucket under it than with the old one.
I believe that also Jan was happy with the fact, that our plumber did the job, bought the new tap etc.

The rest of the week was quiet, filled with all kind of little jobs done in the house, nothing really exciting, but I had enough excitement with the tap not working last week and all the commotion, so for me it was more than okay.

I didn;t do much work at the computer, I hope  will have more inspiration this week to finish a kit and then slowly to start with some Christmas themed ones. I should make at least 2. I must say I am a bit lazy this year with designing, perhaps it has somewhat to do withthe trouble we had end of last year and also start of this one, I don;t really know.
Also it might have to do with the fact that my laptop is so very slow, I hope it will hold on for about another 6 months or so, by then we will be in a slightly better financial position (having state pension and a small supplementary pension, no more social security stuff, that will be giving a lot of peace of mind, I hope) and I could buy me a new one, or good second hand one. But.... we must wait for that still about 6 months, because at the moment state pension isn't anymore at 65 years but in our case 66 + 4 months. (We sould have been born one or two years earlier, then we still would have had the old regulation of 65 years. Yes, the government in all its wisdon(hahaha) decided some years ago that start of year of pension should be at a higher age. we are still kind of lucky, because it is now at 67 years. 

This week i think I should make some time for wrapping up Christmas presents, that I have to send away in a package. I want to send it early, because last year it took an terrible long time to arrive at destination, so I want to bring it to the post office around perhaps the 3rd week of November. Better it arrives may be one or two weeks before Christmas than too late again.

Must take a look in the kitchen, because I have a stew on the stove bubbling. Just a minute.......................okay, that is ready. Easy cooking that is, now I only have to boil a couple of potatoes to go with that and done. When i finished this post I want to make a small pan with stew pears, it is the season again for them and I love to have them as dessert.

Today I have for you some fantastic clusters made by Arlene, made with the Halloween kit of last week. 
Have a wonderful day and week, take care of yourselves!
 

Download    HERE
 
 

Oh boy, some bad luck today.

Goodafternoon everybody.

Well, not such a good afternoon for me though. Just a few minutes ago Jan came to me telling that probably the tap in the kitchen(at the sink) died.
That is bad news. I need at times water, of course, for cooking, for washing up dishes etc. and all kind of things.
I already thought that lately things were going too smoothly and see, there is trouble again.
Jan said he porbably could place another tap himself, but I have no big confidence in it. perhaps not good of me, but if you never did any serious plumbing, perhaps it is better to stay away of it nad call for a plumber. You cannot just change the tap, you cannot come by it, because you first will have to remove the inbuild sink. And I rather have somebody work on it who knows about it. Is it mean? Perhaps it takes more money, yes, but somehow we will manage that.
First I will call the plumber tomorrow morning and hope that he can come really soon. Then he can take a look and give me his opinion and price indication and fix it quickly. t is very annoying not to be able to use that tap!.
Now Jan is cross with me, I think because I show no confidence in him, but am I so wrong in wanting to have the job done good and by someone who knows about it?
I definately am not having a good day today!

Apart from this event, last week went quite well. Jan had an ultrasound research of his belly(we call it here an "echo"or "echoscopie")and already had a quick talk with that doctor and he was satisfied. Jan's spleen becamse a bit smaller again(good sign for him) and there was no or practically no fluid in his belly. so far, so good.
Now he has to wait till almost end November to have his appointment at the hospital with his doctor to hear more.

I had also  a phonecall with Heidi, and for noow one of the operations will not have to be done, seems the infusion line that distributes her medicin is holding on quite okay. well, better only one operation then two almost at the same time.

The weather is getting drastically colder here, today I think we only have around 8C, and that is not much at all. Only good thing is that we have some sunshine, and that is already something. even when it is cold, when the sun is shining it doesn;t seem so bad.
We will have that colder weather for two more days, may be 3, then it seems we will have again around 14C. That sounds much better!
(and at the moment the temperature inside is as bad as outside LOL).

Oh, the day started however well. We had a good night sleep, and when we had our coffe around 11.00 in the morning we watched an epsiode of Strictly come Dancing I registered from the BBC. This time the theme was Halloween. I didn't see it yet all, but oh my, it was beautiful and funny. I did say it already before, but I really love this show/competition. One act already got 39 points, which is very high, while the highest score for a couple is 40 points.
I'll see when the temperature will be right again to see the rest, hahaha!

This week I managed to make a small kit with Halloween theme, I named it Don;t be too Scared. Hope you wll like it.
have a lovely day and week and awesome Halloween if you celebrate it.
I must be on the look out for some withes flying over our house on Halloween night!
And croos your fingers with me for an easy and not to costly repair of
the kitchen tap!!

Download   HERE

It is getting frisk now,

Goodafternoon everybody!

yeah, the weather definately is changing slowly. We still have a rather nice day today, about 17C, with here and there a bit of sunshine in the morning but getting cloudier during the day.
And later this week we will not reach a higher temperature of 12-14C.
It is a big change to the weather we had till now.

Oh boy, Jan did a big job this week, he painted all the wooden posts of the windows and door of the extension outside. Well, some parts really needed a new coat of paint, and now the wood is well protected again.
It took a lot of his energy, so he has to take it easy for a couple of days.
At the moment he is going to plant a few bulbs in the garden, some tulips and some daffodils. He already has planted some small tulips in a planter, they should flower in march/April.
Something like on this photo I borrowed from the web

They are called Mix of dwarf tulips Praesens.

We had a quiet week, I managed to ge some stuff done (cleaning some more, very boaring but when it is done, you feel kind of satisfied with yourself, hahaha).
Also we tried to enjoy the last good days with rather high temperatures and lots of sunshine. With a thicker sweater or so, and in the sunshine it was nice walking. I didn;t take on really long walks but I went into town city once(where I found some last Christmaspresents, I soon will have to wrap them and I want to send a bix of very early, because last year it took a real long time before arriving at destination!), I also went to the market, bought some veggies, cheese and apples.
We can do with that for a whole week or may be even a bit longer with the veggies. I love to make my own apple compote, it tastes aLOT better than the ones you can buy in a pot in the supermarket.
And I need some apples for out parakeets. Yes, they have returned, i told you that last week but this morning I counted about 7 of them on our rosebow(where I hang the little nets with appleparts and sometimes some peanuts too).
I am really happy I see and hear them again.

I have today a new kit for you, named In the Library.
May be I will have something for Halloween next week, but I am not promising anything.  Perhaps I find time(and mostly inspiration and energy) to make a mini kit, I just don;t know yet.
For now I wish you a lovely Sunday and week ahead.
Thanks for visiting and please, stay safe everybody!

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Last breaths of life of Summer??

Goodmorning everybody!

Just for ten minutes more it is morning LOL!
Oh, the last few days we had fantastic weather. yesterday temperatures were , I think, around 25/26C here, gorgeous!
Today we have still another day with lovely temperatures of may be 24, and for a few more days we still will be able to enjoy real pleasant weather. But.....(as there is always a but..)from midweek all will come to temperatures that will be normal for the time of year.
So no more than 16-17C(which is not really bad), but something different from today's weather.
Oh well, let's enjoy the (perhaps or probably)last warm breath of Summer.

Jan went to the doctor last Monday, to have his ear fixed and it did work.
So he says he cann hear in stereo again now, hahaha.
He also finished the front windows, they are looking good, but there only was a slight little problem there. We have a little window in the large one, that at times we open for a bit of fresh air. Only after the paint job, it didn;t open again. Oops, he forgot to open it while he was painting it. Never mind, he managed to remove the bit off paint that got it stuck, with not a lot of trouble, and we can open and close it again.
There are always little things that give you some extra work.
Like this week when I did a laundry and had a duvet I washed and wanted to dry outside(yes, this duvet I can wash in the machine, it's not a "real"duvet with feather in it). I flopped it over the line, only when I used a bit of force to hand it right the line snapped. Bummers, now I had to put another line. Looked around in the house, I thought I still had a bit of line, but no, couldn't find it. Problem.
I found the solution. I had a lot of thick binding wire for plants, real soft and strong, so I made a drying line out of that. Pfffff, finally I could hand my duvet.
You see, not a big problem, but there often happens a little thing makes a job you want to do takes more time.

It was such nice weather yesterday that I walked to the market. We needed a bit of fresh veggie and some cheese and so I bought that.
I passed the gardening stand(very dangerous) and yes, I bought us some spring bulbs. I bought some mini tulips great for in a big pot, some a bit larger tulips and some daffodils. Over the years all my daffodils disappeared and I love to see them in early spring, they are so bright and bring a bit of happy feelings in still rather gloomy days.
Now it is up to Jan to plant them(of course I could do it, but it gives him something to do, hahaha).

Oh, this week Jan and I went into city town, to buy him a pair of new shoes. I was urging him already for a long time to buy some new ones and then a pair that would give him could support. With his not too good back, he needs that. So finally we went and hoorray, he found a pair. They look kind of sporty, but not too much, and he said they walked very well when he tried them on a walk. Good, something I don't have to think about anymore for some time.

This week I have the clusters from Arlene, made with the Peacock's Sanctuary kit. They are so lovely.  I am always amazed about her work, how she can come up every time with such lovely clusters and great quick-pages.

About time now to finish this post and watch an episode of Gardener's World I registered from Friday evening. I love that program and they always have some good tips.
Take care of yourselves, have a wonderful week!

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My husband still can amaze me, LOL!

Goodafternoon everybody!

It is just after 12.00 so I am not really late. But first I had a long sleep today, I woke up around 8.30 then had a cup of tea, and my still weren´t awake, so I decided to take an extra nap on the couch, and oh boy, it did me good!!
The weather is still rather good, yeah. during this week temps did creep up again to around 20-21C, now today we have a temperature dipp again, it will not be more than 15C, but the sun is shining.
Then it will be better and better during coming week, if all will come true we will have up to 22-23C from Wednesday, wow!

This week I survived an attack of cleaning rage, LOL! No, serious, beginning this week I was busy in the kitchen, adn noticed that the drainer for the dishes and such could do with a thourough cleaning, and one thing lead to another, so a part of the kitchen had a good cleaning, plus the toilet, and did a laundry and some other things.
Pffff, I got tired of myself that day, hahaha.(but also was satisfied at the same time, I finally dug up some extra energy)
Wednesday Jan and I took our flu shot. and then  saw Jan talking with the secreatary about an appointment with the doctor!!!
Amazing. I tried to persuad him for two or three weeks to make an appointment(for his coughing and also to ask about his nails, he has very bad looking nails at the moment, they are very brisk and aweful looking) and now finally he made one.
So he had that on Friday, got a tablet for his cough, and he probably has a kind of virus or bacterie in his nails, it just has to grow out, doctor said. Well, hopefully after a few weeks that will be done with.
I do hope the tablet will help for his cough, because for him it is annoying.
The doctor really had to search for a medication, that Jan could have, because of his other medicins(specially his liver).
He has another appointment tomorrow, Monday, that is to clean one ear. He complained that he could hear much less with his right ear, doctor looked, seems he has some "dirt'there, that is the cause.
So tomorrow the doctor will spray the ear clean.

Oh, there is some good news. It seems, that slowly some parakeets are coming back. Last week we saw at least two, sometimes early morning and sometimes towards the evening. Yesterday we even had 4 again! They only stay for a short visit, but still, they found their way to us again. Silly, may be, but  am kind of relieved I saw them again.

Because of the mild weather, several things in the garden are still blooming, ,like a bush rose that has it's second flowering, wow.
Then we still have some dahlia's even fuchsia's that are still in bloom.
With this kind of weather it is hard to imagine that in about 2½ months
we already have Christmas. It soon will be time for me to think about one or two or may be more Christmaskits.
At the moment I am busy with a kit, so may be after I finished that one, I could already start on a Christmaskit, and work on that together with working on a general one.

Not this Saturday, but the Saturday before, we had a delicious easy dinner. I found a recipe for braised beef, then we ate the meat pulled on a sandwich(a bun), and it was sooo good.
It is meat you will have to take time for, but the good thing about it is also that you can prepare it one or two days in advance. It just takes 4 or 5 hours on the stove.
This is the recipee I used:
It is made with ca. 500 grams of braised beef, which could be good for 4 persons.

2 tablespoons of sunflower oil
2 shredded onions
2 cloves of garlic pressed
tablespoon grated fresh ginger (or use dried powder)
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1 or 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce (careful with the amount, preferably less than too much)
1 tablespoon of sambal (that is a hot pepper sauce from Indonesia, if you don;t have that in stock, use chili powder or flakes, or another strong pepper in sauce or even a chopped fresh one, and be careful with the quantity too, it depends on how much you like strong spicy food, if not so much, use less, obviously)
2 teaspoons of cinnamon


Heat the oil in a thick-bottomed frying pan, and fry the onions for about 3 minutes. Add the meat and fry until golden brown. Then add all other ingredients, add water until the meat is just below. Leave to simmer for approx. 4 hours (or until the meat is super soft) Add extra water if the meat is boiling dry.
Then simmer the meat for about 1 hour without a lid on the pan.
Pull the meat apart and put on the buns.
Nice to put some lettuce on the sandwiches, possibly some fresh cucumber slices,or whatever is at hand or to your liking, and some coriander.

Your bun could look like this.

Note for the ingredients, specially the spices. I often use spices as I have in stock, improvise a bit, and often the result is even better!
And also about the quantaties given in recipes, often you just have to use them exactly, (I think about baking), but in stews like this, or oven recipes, you often can improvise a bit(like i often do.)
Well, may be  have given you an idea for a meal in a weekend. Hope the recipe is clear enough.
it is worth a try, I found it very yummie, and I will certainly will make it again.

Good I think  have written a long anough post for today
Now it is time for you second part of the Peacock's Sanctuary kit.
Have a wonderful week, stay safe and healthy, please!

Download part 2 HERE

Oh boy, I just noticed now that on the preview I didn;t put the name of the kit! I am getting sloppy. Sorry for that.