A beautiful morning for a walk in the countryside

Who can resist a walk in the countryside on a bright sunny November morning?  I certainly couldn't.


Our walking activity has slowed down just lately for various reasons so it was so good to get out in the fresh air and sunshine.


We chose one of our favourite locations and set off with camera in hand. One thing we noticed was how many holly berries there are this year - is this the sign of a hard winter to come?


I will let the photos do the talking and hope you enjoy them.

Thank you for visiting if you have made it this far. Have a great weekend and I will be back with another blog post soon.

Five On Friday

It is time to join Amy at Love Made My Home for another Five On Friday post. I know I say this every week but I just don't know where the days are going to at the moment, it is frightening that Friday comes around so quickly and I haven't achieved as much as I had planned to do in the week. I don't seem to have much time to blog at the moment or visit other blogs but I am determined if nothing else I will do a weekly round-up for Five On Friday. Please forgive me if I haven't replied to some of your blog posts, I will endeavour to try harder in future!


Well, what have I been up to this week - really it boils down to the same as most weeks - work, walking, crochet with a couple of other bits and pieces thrown in.


1.  On Saturday we ventured to Salisbury to see Flying Scotsman, arguably the most famous steam train in the world. As my regular readers will know my DH and DS1 are big steam fanatics and this day had been eagerly awaited when this locomotive made a return trip to this part of the country. I decided to accompany them, mainly I have to say, because it was a miserable day but I still wanted to get some steps in. My goodness, did we get some steps - rather than motor to Salisbury we decided to go by train and it is a fair distance from home to the station, plus walking around Salisbury and then the return walk home (in torrential rain) all added up to well exceeding my target. Salisbury was absolutely packed with lots of mad steam lovers as was every bridge and vantage point on route. I would love to travel on one of these excursions and have a meal in the Pullman carriages but at £200+ I don't think that is ever going to happen!

2. I didn't have to work on Monday so we took advantage of a beautiful afternoon to walk the Forton Loop in Longparish. This walk is interesting as it takes you through varying landscape (from village street, meadow land, common land, agricultural land to woodland). It seems to be an excellent year for wildflowers which are growing in profusion at the moment.

3. Tuesday and Wednesday are working days for me but I did manage to do some crochet - progress was made on my interlocking ripple blanket and a couple of this week's pattern release squares have been completed on the Last Dance On The Beach CAL which you can see displayed on my blocking board.

4.  I am enjoying my garden but am waging a war against slugs and snails attacking my lovely Marguerite plant. As soon as the flowers appear they are being eaten. Just before taking this photo I have had to cut off several flowers that have been damaged beyond repair. They have also taken to nibbling at my Ice plant leaves as well but seem to leave everything else alone. Any advice as to how to deal with this pests will be welcome! 

5. I work on a Thursday every other week but this week was a 2 day week for me so another walk beckoned. This time we started off in the village of St. Mary Bourne, I have shown you many photos from here in the past but this time we covered new territory for us (although I walked these paths many years ago with my Dad). The walk took us from the village up to Cold Harbour Farm and then on through the fields eventually arriving at the tiny hamlet of Wadwick before heading back to SMB. We are so enjoying our walks in our glorious countryside and spotting the changes as the weeks go by - long may we continue to be able to do this.

Well that is it for this week. I hope you all have a lovely long Bank Holiday weekend (UK) and that the weather stays kind. See you next week for another Five!

Greatest Loser!

As my regular readers will know I have been on a weight loss journey with Slimming World for almost a year now. It was time for the 'Greatest Loser' award last week (although my Slimming World consultant said it should be renamed 'Greatest Achiever' and I tend to agree with her)! I was lucky enough to win this award having the greatest weight loss of my group over the last year (4 st 6 lbs to date).

My Consultant then asked me to provide a before and after photo. Oh my goodness, I was shocked when I saw the difference. The left hand photo was taken just after my 60th birthday in October 2014 and even I didn't realise until I saw that photo just how much weight I have managed to lose.

However this last half stone has taken me forever and has been a struggle, I reached 4 stone just before Christmas and I still have 1 lb to go to get my next award. Winning the 'greatest loser' award has really spurred me on and I am very determined that I will meet this next target of 4.5 stone this week. To that end and with the aid of my trusty Fitbit I have been working hard to achieve 10,000+ steps a day since last Thursday as I know increasing my walking has really helped in the past. I also know that I haven't been walking as much during the Winter season so it is time to put my best foot forward and get those steps! 

I know that I won't be able to achieve 10,000 steps tomorrow as I am at work all day and my job is fairly sedentary so I am trying to do a bit extra today to make up for it - 14,705 and still counting. Wish me luck on Wednesday evening, I really hope I am going to achieve this next target. I still have a long way to go on my journey but winning the 'greatest loser' has really spurred me on again.


I will leave you with a four photo collages I have made from my walks over the past few days.

St. Mary Bourne 11.3.16

Hannington 12.3.16

Andover 13.3.16 - I didn't get a chance to go anywhere more interesting on Sunday so a walk round my home town had to suffice but although the walk is fairly boring you can still see things that delight the eye.

Longparish 14.3.16 - The Riverdance Walk

I will let you know next time if the increased walking activity has done the trick and helped me gain that longed for 4.5 stone award! Keep your fingers crossed for me.

A Mixed Bag

I seem to have so much to show you today of events over the last few days. Sorry I know this post is going to be picture heavy but hope you will stay with me. We have had a few glorious days with bright sunshine and frosty mornings where you just want to get out and walk in the countryside.


The first such day was last Thursday so we set off to St. Mary Bourne, I am sure regular readers will recognise some of these views but the great delight this time was the River Bourne. It has been a dry river bed since the end of May last year but the water is now flowing again, a welcome sight.

Two weeks before when the river bed was still dry

 

What a difference two weeks make!

Now for a change of activity - over the weekend I completed the second of my charity blankets, this is another Sunshine International Blanket of Love which will be donated to a local residential care home.

You might remember me showing you these squares on my blocking board ready to be joined. I have tried a new way (to me) of joining this blanket using the continuous flat braid join which I have to say I really like and now I have got the hang of it I will definitely be using it again. It is great to be able to join the whole blanket plus crochet the edging without having to break the yarn and sew in those dratted ends!


Blanket number 3 is in process but I will keep photos of that back to show you next time.


Yesterday dawned another cold and sunny day so we set off for Hedge End where there is a big retail complex. Because of my weight loss I needed some smaller size clothes (how great is that) so we spent the morning shopping and spending far too much money before stopping off at one of our favourite eating places, the Brigadier Gerard at Horton Heath for a delicious lunch.

Having eaten far too much what better way to walk it off than go for a walk in Stoke Park Woods on our way home.

And finally (you might be relieved to hear) we get to this morning where we enjoyed a walk around our local patch.


I love the sunlit tangled branches on the tree below and the crocuses and snowdrops in the park were beautifully displayed in all their glory with the sun shining on them.

I hope I haven't bored you completely so if you are still here many thanks for reading and viewing my blog. Until the next time .....