Saturday 31 October 2009

Samhain / Halloween Greetings

Samhain / Halloween Greetings and Blessings to all .
As usual my hearth is decked out to represent the season , hope you like it . As you can see Papa Bear has installed a door for the Faeries to come and go as they please now, it saves leaving the bathroom window open for them :0) If you want to read more about them visit his Blog .
I've been to busy to blog this week as we have had visitors from the South eldest DS and Co and to put it mildly I'm shattered and was glad to see their train pulling out of the station on Thursday night .
I am going to have a relaxing weekend spinning and trying to wind down so I'll catch up with you all on Monday .

Sunday 25 October 2009

Sunday Afternoon


I had an hour in the kitchen this afternoon.
I took some dark brown sugar and best butter
and a whole lot of mixed fruit .

Plain flour , ground almonds , spices and fresh eggs .
Can you guess what it is yet ? :0)
Mixed it all together.
Put it in a cake tin ( well it's not tin actually it's like rubber , very modern )
And baked for three hours on regulo 2 .
It will now go into the cupboard wrapped in foil and be taken out every week till Christmas and "fed "with copious ammounts of alcohol and then it will be decorated with marzipan , nuts and glace fruits just like the pic above of last years cake .
It was the first time I'd decorated my Christmas Cake that way and it went down a treat , so I thought I'd do it again:0)
The house smells lovely .

Tuesday 20 October 2009

The Moon and I .

Medium Advent Calander
£15-00 plus £2-00 postage
5 in stock
Large Advent Calendar £18-00 plus £2-00 postage
9 in Stock

**********
For some time now I've thought that my energies were ruled by the Moon's phases . I am now convinced that I am. The first two weeks of the September Moon , as She was waxing I was full of energy . As you saw on the blog I was knitting ,spinning , making jams and pickles . But once the Moon started to wane my energy levels plummeted .
Sunday saw the the beginning of the New Moon and guess what :0) my energies have returned .
I've been up in my workroom all day making these delightful Advent Calendars .
They are for sale and should you like to purchase one you can email me at
info(at)laalbear(dot)co(dot)uk { Replacing the words with symbols } I take cheques or Paypal .They are made from 100% pure cotton and can be used again and again .You can fill the pockets with sweets or small toys for your little ones ( or even big ones ) .

I am going to make use of this return of my energy and get on with my sewing projects .

Sunday 18 October 2009

Away Day


Yesterday I had an Awayday. It's the first i've had for a few years.
Let me explain. Some of you readers know my DH suffers from Epilepsy and a few years ago it wasn't as well controlled as it is now. When I wanted a day to myself , as you do , I used to take him to his Mum's then take off some where for the day . At the time British Rail were advertising special day tickets for trips out called Awaydays so that's where i got the name from. Anyway she died and I had no one else to leave him with . My children don't live close and all work . I've had a couple of hours away to go to town but the chance came for me to have a whole day away and I grabbed it with both hands . When your with somebody 24 / 7 it can get very tedious so i was eager to go . This is where i went . To the Eden Valley Spinners Dyers and Weavers Guild . I had a lovely day with like minded people . I also had a nice surprise , the lady who taught me to spin , Therese , was there as well . She was very pleased to see me and I her. I showed her my latest spinning and she was very pleased and showed it off to some of the newbie spinners and told them how proud she was of me . I was very touched as in all my life no one has ever uttered the words " I'm proud of you " to me .Suffice to say thet after such a great day I have joined the Guild . It's a bit of a treck to get there , an hour and a half , but it worth it .


On the way home I had intened to visit Ernest and Ruth at Askew Rigg farm , where we stay in Cumbria but Sod's Law they'd gone away that morning.
As I wasn't in any rush to get home I decided to drive home through the Lakes instead of the motorway . Some thing I hadn't done in ages . It was a joy driving on my own the Sun was shining and the landscape was dressed in it's Autumn colours . I couldn't take any pics of Thirlmere as there is nowhere to park but I did manage to get a few on my way down .


This is Dunmail Raise but if you look at the top the rock formation looks like a man playing an organ . But .......
when you get round the other side it looks like a lion laying down with a lamb .
Mother Nature has been busy with her paint box on these trees .
Grasmere village is in the distance . I managed to take these pics in betwen cars passing :0)

I wanted to take some pics of Grasmere and was chunnering to myself that yet again there was nowhere to park when as I got round a corner the traffic was stopped at some traffic lights for roadworks so i quickly wound the window down and took this

before the traffic started to move again . What a stroke of luck .


A similar thing happened in Ambleside and I was able to snap The Bridge House as I was passing

I carried on down to Windermere where I called in at Lakeland Ltd . When I was trying to get out through the traffic I had a very strange occurance . I was nudging my way into the line of cars and a mini bus when out of the corner of my eye I saw a women frantically waving to me from the bus . When I looked closer I saw that it was my sister , how strange was that . But it gets better she had bumped into our other brother in Grasmere that morning . So we were all up in the Lake District at the same time and didn't know .
All in all it was a brilliant day and well worth waiting for :0)

Wednesday 7 October 2009

More Good News and loads of pics :0)

I think this picture speaks volumes .This is what all your positive thoughts , good Karma and prayers have achieved . Bobby is out of bed for the first time and in a chair . He has managed to have a drink of water and has eaten a yogurt . All massive milestones on his way to recovery . I am absolutely over the moon . Seven weeks ago I thought i was going to lose the brother I'd idolised all my life but now he's making the long , slow journey back .
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers cos as you can see it's working:0)

Now back to the more mundane .
These next pics are of the full Moon last weekend . Wasn't She bright .
Hiding behind a cloud . It was such a clear night for taking pics .
Last Sunday as Papa Bear and I were on our way across the field with Meg we past a house hwere a lady was giving her lavander bush a haircut . The smell was overpowering and I asked her if she was going to dry it . She replied that it was going in the compost bin. I was horrified what a waste . So I quickly " rescued " the lot . As you can see there was ' a lot ' .
It's now tied into bunches and drying on my rack . Lavender bags I think .



The next pics are of our Autumnal walk this morning.
There was a distinct chill in the air . I think this was the chilliest morning we've had up to now .
A spider's handy work . There were loads of webs but this was the best.
I love this walk in Autumn . The colours are fantastic .
This tree always facinates me . There must be thousands of shoots comong up from the bottom of the trunk .
As usual Meg enjoyed running up and down in the leaves .
These mushrooms were huge . About six inches tall . Haven't discovered what they are yet . Any ideas ??
This is what's left of an astrological candle I have had burning for Bobby . I didn't put it in a holder , i just let it burn and melt down onto the base of my hearth . The cones have stuck to it as well . Isn't it fascinating . I can see a Green Man in there .

Sunday 4 October 2009

Autumn Chill.

There's definately a chill in air, that's why I've started to knit this lovely warm jumper for going walking in . I'm reducing the Jet Mountain again :0) . It's so warm and perfect for this project.
There's quite a few pattern changes so I don't get bored.
I've also treated myself to a nice new Winter dressing gown and just like Christopher Robin's it's got a hood . Tried it out last night after my bath and it's Perrfick :0)
The heating has gone on for the first time as well , so Autumn has arrived .
I've been very busy today taking pics and updating the Shop . Why not stroll over and take a look here. There's lots of new fibre and sock yarn . I've rejigged it so that you can click on the sidebar links and go straight to the section you want . Happy Browsing . I'm off to do a bit of spinning to chill out after the trauma of spending most of the day on the ' puter.