A Good Walk!

When shut indoors for too long with the much loved offspring after a while it becomes apparent that what they need is a really "Good Walk" in order for sanity to be preserved and harmony to return to our small house ..we love it , it's cosy.... but on a cold dark day the walls press tight and rambunctious girls need exercise and fresh air.
This was the case on Saturday ...so we set off for a good walk to the Municipal Greenhouse based in our nearby park. Not a long walk just over three miles round trip ...but on a cold day on icy paths it was enough to restore sanity!

The Greenhouse is lovely ..it's not huge, is open daily 8am to 3pm. Is free. Has seats, is warm and light, has a fish pool with koi carp and an aviary with Parakeets, fiches and budgies....and I'm informed ladybugs too

 

On the way home we stopped to play at the different parks we passed. Anchorage is a great city for parks!  The Polar bear park is very new and wonderful to look at. Even on a very cold day. 

Then it was home for hot drinks and tea and curling up with good books by the stove ...and everyone was in a much better mood. (Thank Goodness)

A Lazy day

Do you get those days when you don't feel quite well ...OK you feel completely yukky..so what are the choices ...give in and suffer or fight back ..so I went for the anti nausea pills plus cracking painkiller (for the headache) approach just a half pill though...and a very gentle approach to the day.

As the pills kicked in I did the minimum of ordinary chores and started to feel more human, fragile but human and checked mail, facebook and blog posts. The dog played with the hound next door whilst my neigbour and I chatted and finally feeling much more normal I returned home. Popped some spuds in the oven for an easy family tea and later made some muffins to fill the growing girls arrival home hunger pangs.
Just a very basic muffin recipe ...plus Raspberries from the freezer in 1/2 a dozen and grated appple, cinnamon and brown sugar in the other half. Baked for 20 minutes I think they look and smell fine.
Encouraged I made another dozen with grated apple, cinnamon and sugar to freeze.

During the muffin making I listened to two radio programs available on line the first was "In the psychiatrist's chair with Professor Anthony Clare" He was talking to Stephen Fry and it is available here
The second was a Desert Island Discs episode with the Artist and illustrator  Mairi Hedderwick who I had come across a few years ago when reading to my children. I found her books very pleasant reads ..set in the Scottish islands they were entertaining and lovely to look at with some nice humour thrown in. The episode of the programme I listened to can be found here

Well more pills and more tea and mellowness is the order of the day.
I'm reading "The Otterbury incident" by C. Day Lewis to the girls in the evening. I have an old Puffin copy illustrated by Edward Ardizzone and we are all enjoying it. We are listening to a chapter at a time ....but all want to know what happens next! So tonight we'll pile onto the sofa by the fire and see what happens in chapter six!

Well now I'll add some snaps to this post and fight the cats and the dog for a spot on the sofa and drink my tea.  Wishing you a cosy and pleasant evening x

Books read in October

Books read in October

I chanced l upon the Anne Travis series by Lynda La Plante
They Rattle along and are very readable...a bit graphic at times (but less convincingly than Val Mcdermid's books). They read slightly more like scripts than novels and that may just be me..? but they are enjoyable escapes from the everyday and quite unputdownable

1. Above Suspicion
2. The Red Dahlia
4.Deadly Intent
6.Blind Fury
7.Bloodline
8.Backlash

There is something about nights drawing in and the ground freezing that makes curling up by the stove with a good book and a big mug of tea very satisfying.... 

Lest we forget