Visit to Teignmouth

Today we went with some friends for a day out in Teignmouth. My hubby and I have been before on more than one occasion, and have just walked along the sea front, which is lovely, but today we explored some of the little town itself, which was a delight.

There is are some lovely buildings in the town. I love seaside architecture – it’s so light-hearted and fun, and immediately makes one think of holidays.

We sat under the flags to have some mid-morning refreshment.

Looking back along the sea front at the different styles of houses.

The railway runs along beside the sea.

The church is most unusual, and looks as if it’s made of gingerbread! Note the rope-like arch in the apex of the roof. It makes me think it might have been built as a fishermen’s chapel.

We had a delicious lunch in an Italian restaurant, and then set forth to explore the town.

Narrow winding streets full of fascinating little shops.

I loved this covered veranda running the full length of this little terrace of cottages.

Along the street was a house where they’d blocked off one of the windows with board a few inches behind the glass, and made this beautiful 3-D seascape complete with shimmering fish and real shells. I wish the photo did it justice.

Beautiful balconies throughout the town.

We came across this cake shop with the most brilliant display of unusual cakes!

Here are some detail shots of my favourite ones. Incredibly realistic!

Barbecue cake.

Baked potato cake.

Burger and chips cake.

Finally, one especially for Zsuzsa: Oreo cake!

A shop full of lovely little seaside ornaments – I love this stuff.

A mosaic outside a community shop.

In a shop full of wooden things, I particularly liked this little tree. This could be made with card, cut on the cutting machine. It’s a simple cross cut assembly made of only 2 pieces slotted together.

A baby seagull, piping plaintively for his mum! He looked so cute, tail-less, with such big feet. Pity they grow up to become such a menace.

We loved all the tiles on this house. No doubt as to what number house it is in the street!

A place to chill out, on the boat slipway looking across to the bridge that goes over to Shaldon.

Finally, the two necklaces I bought in a shop that was selling tons of fabulous necklaces at half the marked price. They were so cheap I just couldn’t resist. My hubby says he’ll take me back before the end of the week when the sale ends – too good to miss! We were a bit short of time because of having to rescue the car, which was a bit frustrating. There were so many quirky and unusual shops and I can’t wait to go back and have a good wander around.

It was a simply marvellous day out. I think I could happily live in Teignmouth!

Various Updates

I missed this week’s WOYWW unfortunately, and I’d have posted this if I’d managed to join in. I had a very busy day on Wednesday with a lunch out with friends, and after that, all I felt up to was editing a backlog of kitten videos. Yesterday I felt wiped out again and brainfogged. It’s a bit demoralising at the moment – I’m really busy on certain days, and then when I get a few days free to do the things I want to do (like art), I’m feeling too exhausted to do them and all I can do is rest. You’d think after nearly 11 years of ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) that I’d be used to this but there are times when it’s deeply frustrating…

First, our lunch out. Here’s a photo of my dessert!

It was called “Chocolate Trio” and consisted of a chocolate brownie, white chocolate mousse and Bailey’s crème brulee. I love how they’ve decorated the plate with swirls of melted chocolate and fresh raspberries. I started with whitebait and for the main, I had their lamb and mint pie – the whole meal was absolutely delicious. We had a great time together – we are the Allerton Three – the three friends who met in hospital (Allerton Ward) back in March 2013 when we were all in for our cancer operations. We’ve remained firm friends ever since, and try to meet up regularly, although it doesn’t always happen because we are all so busy!

I haven’t taken many photos or videos of the kittens lately – also due to busy-ness and fatigue. They are now 18 weeks old and are getting so big! Lily is still larger than Ruby, and over the last week I’ve noticed a change in her – she is growing the most fantastically soft coat! Her fur is fluffier than Ruby’s and feels like silk chiffon – very fine and just fabulous. It’s probably developing as she starts to grow her first winter coat.

Lily is also proving to be more intelligent than Ruby. She is doing really well with her clicker training, but Ruby tends to get confused, and do things I’m not actually telling her to do at that moment! They both vary as far as their attention span is concerned – if there’s anything else going on (like a fly in the room, or if they are too wild, or too sleepy) they get very easily distracted and wander off! Also, they are pretty good during training sessions, but during the rest of the day they are hopeless and seem to forget everything they’ve learnt!! Never mind, I shall keep persevering, because I know from what loads of people online are saying, this really does work, and a bit of hard work reaps great rewards. They will improve as they get older, I think, when they are less babyish and easily distracted by things to play with!

My hubby says Ruby is a happy little kitty who says “Hello sky, hello clouds…” and is very loving and affectionate. Lily is more independent but she enjoys a cuddle too.

The latest photos.

Lily in the hammock, aged 15 weeks.

Lily relaxing on the cat tree at 16 weeks. With her arms hanging down like that, she reminds me of Chloe, who was Phoebe’s sister – she always used to lie like this!

Here’s Chloe doing it.

Also at 16 weeks, here is Ruby sitting on the cat tree. Queen of the Castle.

This is what happens when I try to work on my laptop. They both want to come up for a cuddle and there isn’t a lot of room – I have to push the computer away a bit. They are 17 weeks old here.

Here they are together on the cat tree. Ruby on top, Lily below.

The final two were taken on Wednesday. Here is Lily with her head stuck in my shoe! They say cats have a much more sensitive sense of smell than we do. If I needed it, here’s the proof that I haven’t got smelly feet!

Not sure what she thought was so interesting in there!

Unfortunately, the kittens have now discovered loo paper…

Not sure who was guilty of this little feat, but we discovered it when I got home from my lunch out on Wednesday. I had put a new roll up in the morning. I have now wound it all back on! We are now making sure that there is no “tail” hanging down from the roll to tempt them. Anything that dangles is fair game, it seems.

They can now get up on the kitchen worktops so nothing’s safe up there any longer either!

This morning a friend from our monthly cancer Cakeathon meetings held one of the national coffee mornings in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, and several of us from the group went along. I wish I’d taken a photo of her table, groaning under the weight of so much CAKE!!! I’m afraid I made a right pig of myself – cake is so irresistible! I justified it by reminding myself that it was all in a good cause! I took along a lemon drizzle cake. Her house was full of her lovely friends and we all had such a great time. She was thrilled that we’d turned up to support her. When we arrived, she’d strung bunting outside her house – supplied in the pack that she got when she signed up to host a coffee morning, and there was more bunting inside, and balloons.

As usual, no time or energy for art, but I did manage to put a few stitches in my embroidery. Here’s the latest piece I’m working on. The French knots around the design are worked in gold – unfortunately this doesn’t show up as shiny on the photo as it is in real life.

I’ve still got quite a lot of these little pieces to do before I can assemble them into the bed drapes I’m making.

I’ve also been very busy preparing sessions for my Bible study group which resumed meeting formally again this month. It takes much longer to prepare each session than it does to teach it!!

Last Sunday we were invited back to our old church to share in their harvest celebrations. I’ve done a separate post about that. It’s such a lovely little church and special because Dad’s funeral was held there.

We are going to the harvest at our new church this coming Sunday.

My poor studio has reverted to a dumping ground and is gathering dust. I really hope I can get back in there during the coming week – this is getting ridiculous!

WOYWW 408

My desk on Tuesday night.

I have been continuing to work on my Infusions samples and the desk shows the end of the evening’s session. You can see the blank sheets on top of the toilet paper roll on the left, my bubble wrap stamp under the tape rack, and then two piles of completed samples. My Versamark pad and a piece of Cut-n-Dry foam, a failed sample, and at the front, a sample created by stamping with Versamark and then applying Infusions which are then lightly spritzed with water. There’s a small sheet of notes of ideas to try, and the usual detritus of a busy desk!

Here are the latest samples I’ve completed.

Ones of particular interest are the stamped ones at the front, for example:

and the ones using texture – firstly, textured gesso:

and then textured gel mediums, for instance glass bead gel medium.

I also tried the woodgrain technique, painting on the Infusions that have first been mixed with a little water.

This was quite an interesting one as it incorporates some Golden crackle paste which I had fun experimenting with.

I also created some interesting textures by pressing into Polyfilla and applying other materials:

You can read about all these by scrolling back through previous posts.

Dry Rot in the Kitchen

Last Thursday the damp expert came round (I mean, the expert in damp – he didn’t arrive in a rainstorm!) and had a look at our problem in the kitchen cupboard. He confirmed at first glance that we have dry rot. He explained what will need to be done, but cannot tell us the extent until he takes the floor up in the corner of the kitchen. Best case scenario is that it is confined to that corner only, but he will have to cut back the timbers well into the healthy part to make sure it won’t spread again, but it means the fitted double oven has got to be moved. Worst case scenario is that it has spread under the sitting room. I am not allowing myself to worry too much till we know what we are dealing with. He sent us his estimate which was more or less what he told us verbally, and today he rang to say he hopes to start the work a week on Thursday (6th April).

We are fortunate in that we have Mum’s kitchen to decamp into while this is going on, and her sitting room if he has to work in ours. Over the past few days I’ve gradually been clearing the old cupboard in the kitchen and moving stuff into Mum’s kitchen, so I won’t have to do it all at once and in a rush.

I’ve been doing some research into walk-in pantries and am quite excited now about what we might end up with! Hopefully the kitchen fitter will be able to start work as soon as the damp expert has finished.

Health Update

On Monday, Kermit, my stoma, celebrated his second birthday! I cannot believe that it is two whole years since I went into hospital for my bowel cancer surgery which left me minus my entire colon and with a permanent ileostomy. Unfortunately, having been so poorly recently and in hospital, I’ve had a lot of catching up to do since I’ve turned the corner with my recovery, and haven’t had time to do any baking, so this year he didn’t have a birthday cake or a party – last year the Allerton Three got together and pigged out on cake – we all met on Allerton Ward having our bowel cancer surgeries and have remained firm friends ever since.

Apart from the usual problems in the early days, and recent problems caused by the hernia (recently repaired, and requiring further surgery), I have had no problems with Kermit and am very happy to have him. Life is much better with an ileostomy than with miserable ulcerative colitis, I can tell you, and having him has saved my life into the bargain!

Phoebe

Last week I reported that the vet had said she thought Phoebe had bowel cancer. Over the following days she picked up and started eating again, and has seemed quite well again, so after the weekend my hubby took her back to the vet to see if she’d been wrong and it was a blockage that had got shifted by all the palpations she did, but she confirmed that there is still a mass there. She said that as long as she seems well and is managing to eat, we don’t need to worry, but obviously we are to keep an eye on her. If she doesn’t eat for a day or two, she does tend to lose weight rapidly. The vet weighed her again and she had regained some weight which is good news.

Beatrice is getting quite wobbly on her legs (at 16 1/2) and so we’ve put a stool under her radiator hammock to give her a bit of a leg-up! Her balance isn’t as good as it was and she’s got a lot less spring in her legs. I think she needs a granny frame. The trouble is she thinks she can still do all the things she did when she was young! Just like humans do…

Two sunbathing kitties.

Phoebe at the front, Beatrice at the back. They love the flat sitting room that gets all the sun.

Finally – we were in a rush to get to church on Sunday and when we arrived we could hear them singing, so we crept in, only to find they were singing the final hymn! Yes, you’ve guessed it… we BOTH completely forgot to change the clocks!! Duh. We arrived just in time for coffee!

Allerton Three Tea Party and New Chandeliers

Warning – Long post, picture-rich.

On Friday we had our Allerton Three Anniversary Tea Party. The Allerton Three is the group of us girls who met up on Allerton Ward last year, all having our bowel cancer operations. (It sounds like a criminal gang. I am convinced they discharged us for bad behaviour.) We became firm friends and have kept up, meeting when we can, and are in regular email contact. We all attend the monthly relaxation sessions put on by the Lodge, the cancer support centre at the hospital, which is a good regular contact time, and we’ve had lunch out together, and last week one of them had several paintings in her art group’s exhibition so we went over for that, on a day that she was stewarding, so we could see her.

We decided to celebrate the first anniversary of our friendship by having this tea party. Unfortunately we couldn’t do it exactly a year on from our meeting because the other two were away, and Friday was the first day when we were all free. It also coincided with a Lodge day so we met there and all came back here together afterwards – first we chilled out, then we pigged out lol!

It was lovely showing them where we live, and both of them enjoyed seeing my studio and some of the work I have done, and the artist denied being green with envy!!

I had laid up the table in Mum’s room with my best embroidered cloth, and it was groaning with plates of all my baking! Unfortunately, in all the excitement, I completely forgot to photograph it so I will have to leave that to your imagination, but it did look lovely. Afternoon tea is a great favourite with us all, and we agreed, happily, that this seems to be an institution that is at last coming back into fashion. I got my pretty cake plates out (I wish I still had Mum’s old wooden 3-tier cake stand!) and my Denby pottery tea set – this is rather thick and heavy, unfortunately, but the beautiful bone china one that was my grandmother’s all got broken over the years and is no more. I put out my little tea knives, though, and the silver jam spoons for the cream tea, and the matching table napkins that go with the cloth, and it all looked very pretty. I’m so fed up with myself for forgetting to photograph it!

This afternoon I decided to plate up the leftovers and photograph them so you could at least see a bit how things looked.

Chocolate chip cookies. They are flavoured with vanilla. One of my friends said that instead of vanilla, you can add orange zest and/or essence and get a real Terry’s Chocolate Orange (“not for sharing” lol! – remember those adverts?) flavour. I must try this.

Cinnamon biscuits.

Shortbread.

Remember the little cakes I made with the sticky icing (featured in my previous blog post)? Well, that icing failed to set, so on Thursday I scraped it all off and chucked it out. I made some more, this time butter cream, which worked much better, and coloured it pink, and spread it on the cakes, and then coloured the remainder a nice rich dark red and piped the little stomas on top!

Here’s a detail. You can see that for added realism (!) I have added a chocolate chip in the centre!

One of my friends asked me, “What’s that little brown thing in the centre?” I said, “Well, it’s poo, isn’t it!!” We all fell about laughing at the stomas and she said, “Yes, but what is it really?” so I told her it was a chocolate chip! Then she helped herself to one of the chocolate energy bites and said, “These look just like poo, too!” More laughter!

I am convinced that our time together on Allerton Ward turned us into three giggling poo-obsessed schoolgirls! It’s all the fault of the nurses. They never talked about anything else – but then you can’t blame them – it was the gut ward after all! It was there that we learnt all about the Bristol Stool Chart – I couldn’t believe that someone had actually poked around in people’s poo and graded it, and was convinced that the nurses were pulling our legs, but no, it’s genuine!

What a lovely topic of conversation over our tea party.

A friend on the stoma forum I’m on came up with the Bristol Ileostomy Output Chart (being different from poo, we felt that we needed our own chart – I printed this out and took it in to the stoma nurses!)

It’s a good thing that for those of us fortunate enough never to have grown up, poo remains a subject of giggle-generating infantile humour. I’m sure it’s one of the things that got us through last year’s ordeal!! Guffaw guffaw!

Here’s a mixed platter of goodies.

You can see that there are some buttered Scots pancakes (drop scones) and a couple of plain scones spread with strawberry jam and clotted cream – a traditional Devon cream tea!

I also took some photos of my beautiful embroidered table cloth which we used for the tea party. This belonged to my grandmother and I think it may have been one of the pieces she brought back from the Canary Islands where she often used to spend the winter. It is a beautiful natural-coloured linen with slightly darker embroidery, with satin stitch and drawn thread work.

Last week everything went brilliantly, timing-wise (apart from the first attempt at icing the stoma cakes) and the two chandeliers I’d ordered both arrived. On Wednesday, when our sitting room one came, I phoned the electrician straight away, and he said he could come the following day to fit it, which was great – it’s now installed and looking so pretty! The light in the room is a huge improvement on the single bulb under a shade that did little to improve the dimness of the room – it has five arms, each with a nice bright LED candle bulb.

What pretty patterns it makes on the ceiling when it’s lit. Also, I love how I can see it reflected in the mirror from where I sit on the recliner.

The other chandelier didn’t require the electrician to fit it, as it is just a fancy sort of lampshade, but he did install a longer flex for it. When Mum was in her flat, she complained it wasn’t bright enough and got my hubby to take the shade off her ceiling light, and it was so grim with just a bare bulb. Having a pretty chandelier answers the problem, and I chose a particularly pretty one on Ebay, in the “cascade” style.

In preparation for our tea party, I also added a few things to the room to make it more homely. Mum had brought very little with her from her old house and the room was stark and unwelcoming and unattractive. Unfortunately she has no sense of style and if something was of no practical use she wasn’t interested. My hubby brought the rug down from the loft, and the red armchair and the Indian table had already gone through when Gary was decorating our sitting room. I finally got around to unpacking one of the remaining boxes from the house move and put out the sitting room ornaments that there hadn’t been room for in our other room. I rummaged in my studio to find my huge Chinese fan that I bought years ago and which had never been displayed. I also put up some other pictures in place of the horrible ones that had been there before! Now that the big bookcase has gone, the room is looking a lot more attractive, homely and welcoming. I brought the large silk ficus plant in from our entrance lobby (where everybody just walked past it anyway without noticing it) and that’s softened things a bit, too.

The standard lamp that we bought for her has a pink shade which doesn’t co-ordinate with the room but I am planning to replace this.

A view of the garden through the open door.

It was great that both chandeliers arrived in time to be installed before our tea party, so that both rooms were complete. Also, on Friday morning, again just in time, my hubby went over to the furniture restorer who has mended the broken section of my magnificent Burmese screen, and for the first time since we moved, it is now displayed in all its glory.

All three panels of this screen are as intricately carved front and back, so it can be displayed anywhere in a room so that all sides are visible. I’ve never had a large enough room to be able to use it as a room divider, which is what would be ideal. I inherited this screen from my grandfather and it has accompanied me throughout my adult life. It is made from solid Burma teak and weighs an absolute ton! Over the years various bits on the tops got broken and the restorer has re-attached the bits that I still had. When I disassembled it to move here, one of the top pieces fell into two halves and I could see that this had happened before, and that my grandfather had mended it, but the glue had dried out. These two pieces have now been stuck back together. This is one of my great treasures!

Our sitting room looks so beautiful now it’s all complete at last, and everything is integrated an appears “meant to be” rather than the overcrowded clutter of before, and with Mum’s room being so much nicer too, we are taking advantage of it and sitting in there sometimes, getting the afternoon and evening sun, and having a nice view over the garden, with direct access to the little patio with the pots of flowers.

I shall be taking some more garden photos soon, and possibly doing a video tour of the garden as things start to grow and mature. My hubby has worked so hard out there and it’s all looking lovely.

One final bit of news – I sang in church for the first time today! I was thrilled to do it and it went very well, and I got some lovely feedback, which was very encouraging. I am booked to sing again on 12th June. It is a number of years since I have done this. I have such a sense of many doors beginning to open for me now that last year is behind me, and it’s an exciting and positive time, with lots to look forward to now that I feel I’ve been given my life back and I am looking upon things in a new light, as if everything is all fresh and clean and new.

I just feel incredibly blessed.