Jackie Morris and Advent Day 14

Hello friends!

I'm typing this in the early morning wrapped up warmly in my pink oversized hoodie trying to keep warm while the heating tries to warm up the cottage from the balmy 14.2C it is this morning. That is inside not outside, by the way.  I've already had my bowl of porridge and I'm sipping on hot coffee.

Behind today's door we have a butterfly. I should know what this song is called but it eludes me it's too early in the morning and I think it's too cold for my brain cells to be moving around enough for the recall button to work! I've also zoomed out a little to include the sweet little hedgehog and dear little Robin because I know you all of those two creatures so much.

 

For today's illustrator and book I have chosen to share with you one of my selections for my Christmas Day reading. It is called “East of the Sun and West of the Moon”, and is illustrated by the amazingly {in my opinion} talented artist and illustrator Jackie Morris. I am lucky to have received a signed copy!

 

 

I am very lucky that I have seen several of her exhibitions in person.  I cannot begin to tell you how amazing her work is!

Until next time

Stay well, stay safe, stay warm

Debbie xo

Edith Holden and Advent Day 13

hello friends!

First I have to apologise to many of you as you have been in touch both here in the comments and privately saying that the link I  provided yesterday did not work. I don't know what the problem is and I can't do anything about it it's one of those little foibles of Blogger. Some of you have said the links are leading you on to other blogs, some of you have said they just don't work, and in my case when I click on them they're taking me back to draughts of other blogs that I haven't published yet. All I can reiterate is that it's not my fault it's obviously something with Blogger so consequently I won't be sharing anymore links.

Here are the pictures from today's Advent calendar.

and here is a picture that I have taken after scouring the image for any clues as to the purpose of the key we found the other day. And here it is, a key very well hidden in the foliage and branches of the image. It's got to be for something hasn't it? Curiouser are and curiouser.

I think most of not all of you will be familiar with the work of Edith Holden, the famous illustrator of several books, most notably the  Edwardian Lady Country Diary books published in the 1980s which propelled her to new found fame. She met a tragic end at the age of 49 in 1920, when she fell into the River Thames at Kew while gathering buds from chestnut trees. Her name lives on in her lovely magical gentle works that record nature, both flora and fauna.

I recently came across this little children’s book called The Hedgehog Feast which is illustrated by her, And written by Rowena Stott. I hope you enjoy the couple of images I have selected from it.

Until next time

Stay well, stay safe, stay warm

Debbie xo

Hot Tea, Maths {oh! no!}, Yuletide Lads, and Advent Day 12

Hello friends!

I think you've heard me mention the money saving expert Martin Lewis before. Well he has a useful calculation for working out how much an appliance uses and costs to run. I'm not mathematically inclined, and to be perfectly honest the way our bills are presented to us in the United Kingdom you need an “ology” to understand them.  However, his calculation is simple and straight forward and even I can manage it! So here it is, and I hope it helps you calculate the costs of some of your appliances as you run them. Of course if you've moved into the 21st century and have a smart meter you won't really need this information but I know there's a lot of us out there who still don't have them.

1,000 watts = 1 kw   and  a Kilowatt hour is what the companies use to charge you.  You will need to check this on your bill, but for sake of argument let's say the average cost is 35 pence per kWh.

say your appliance is using 200 watts an hour.  This means if you run it for one hour you are using 1/5 of a kWh. of energy per hour.  Or, You are using 1/5 of 35 pence. Which is 7 pence per hour. 

I am not mathematically inclined. It took me a while to work this out in my head to where I could understand it, so I hope I've put it down so you can understand it too. And I hope it helps you work out your usage, even if it's only an approximation.

I am drinking gallons of hot tea throughout the day. Ginger tea, or ordinary black tea without milk and a slice of ginger or even chilli in it helps warm you up from the inside. 

Today sees the arrival in Iceland of the Icelandic Yuletide Lads. Those of you who follow my blog regularly will be familiar with them, so I won't go on about them again, but for those who are interested in reading about this tradition I have written about it daily starting here.  I shall let you read the back blogs on the Yuletide lads instead of sharing a Christmas or seasonal book today.

Well my friends, the mystery of the key deepens as today we're back to a dear little British Robin hiding in the bare winter branches of the tree.  What is that key hiding? What secret will it unlock? We must all wait and see now!

Until next time,

stay safe, stay well, stay warm

Debbie xo

Old Bear and Friends, Layering Up, and Advent Day 11

Hello friends!

I have to confess I am really struggling in this cold snap. Not because of the heating {yes, naturally I am very worried about the escalating costs of fuel and heating my home and keeping myself warm enough to keep well} but because of my inability now to get out and about in this crisp dry cold weather which I love so much. Before I developed this disease, I thrived in this kind of weather. Living in Iceland for four years taught me how to layer up for warmth, and if I were well enough I would be wrapped up warmly and traipsing out along the highways and byways near my home looking for those cold weather photographs.  These days it is so cold even inside that I am layered up well enough to walk outside. I'm wearing fingerless gloves, hat, and scarf indoors. I know I'm not the only one doing this.

I know I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but keeping your head, feet, and hands warm is one of the most important things you can do during this cold time of year. I don't always wear a hat but I do now wear one of those knitted headbands almost all day at home.  I've invested in a pair of new slippers that are booty style so come up over my ankles.  The colder it gets the thicker the socks I wear, and cuff them around my ankles.  If it gets very cold I layer up with leg warmers too. It's paid to hang on to those reminders from the aerobic classes of the 1980s!!! I also wear elbow length fingerless mittens, or fingerless gloves. If it's not convenient to wear those then I do switch to wristwarmers. Stuffing those gaps around your wrists and your ankles stops cold air traversing your arms and legs thereby helping to keep you warm without adding too much bulk.  Think of it like stuffing paper in gaps in the woodwork!

Well, I could not be more surprised with today's Advent calendar reveal.  What say you? Suddenly, I wonder where this is leading?

Today I'm going to share one of my favourite children's illustrators with whom I know many of you are already familiar, and that is Jane Hissey and her very famous and utterly adorable Old Bear and Friends.  The quality of how she captures and illustrates the fur and fabrics holds me in awe.

Here is the story brought to life Old Bear.

and here you can read about the day Treasure Bear got his very own copy!

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well, stay warm

Debbie xo

Ooops! Another Tip and Advent Day 10

 

hello friends!

Temperatures continue to plunge us into the blue on the weather map and we continue to shiver while trying to save money. One way I have used to economise for a long time is pre soaking my pasta. the only thing you have to make sure you do is to plan in advance. So if you're having pasta for tea at night then you start this off in the morning. It's simple all you need to do is measure out the amount of pasta you're going to need put it into a saucepan and cover it with cold water put a lid on it and leave it until you're ready to cook  The longer you leave it the less time it needs to cook, so that's a minimum of 6 to 8 hours. You have to do a bit of trial and error depending on the brand and type of pasta you are using but all you have to do next when you're ready to cook your pasta dish is put the saucepan on the heat, bring to the boil and simply cook until the pasta is done to your liking. Alternatively, depending on how well soaked your pasta is, if you're doing a pasta bake in the oven you can simply drain it off Add all your ingredients and put it into the oven to finish off without cooking the pasta on stove top any further. It's not going to save you enough for your next holiday abroad, but when we're all looking to pinch the pennies as they say in one major supermarket every little helps.

Today's Advent calendar door ticks all the boxes for me. I hope it does the same for you it's my favourite one so far.  I love the mushrooms on the door, I do have a thing about mushroom illustrations. But then when I opened it, there was a sharp intake of breath! Let me know what you think.

Now for the oops! Yesterday I said we'd finished with the Mary Engelbreit books, however I found one more while I was looking at my bookcases. I think you will like it, possibly a lot. it is called “ Words for Gardeners to Live By” And it is an utter delight! Truth be told, it was a struggle to select the images!

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well, stay warm

Debbie xo

Winter, Frost, Tips, and Advent Day 9

 

Hello friends!

I have woken up this morning to frost all over my garden which means it is jolly cold in my area for my garden is quite sheltered so for me to have frost is an indication of how cold it is.

We have a rather brilliant money saving experts in the UK called Martin Lewis. He is well known on television and through his podcasts for his very sound and thoroughly researched advice on all matters money. I have been listening regularly to him and he confirmed in one of his more recent podcasts that I've done the right thing by installing thermal curtain liners, which I actually did in the summer to help reduce the heat in the living room, as an additional barrier. The other day I mentioned that there was a distinct difference in the temperature on the window side of the curtains to the room side of the curtains. as he pointed out one thing you can do is open the curtains when the sun is shining through the window because that will help each your room for free but make sure you close them as soon as it gets dark because that's when the coldest day is coming around the window. You don't have to have badly sealed or leaky windows for this to be a problem. I have got brand new double glazed units and it's still noticeable, although not as noticeable as with my old units that have been replaced. I have invented my own terminology for this a while back, I call it curtain chasing!

 I'm rounding up the Mary Engelbreit books with her winter book  It's only a small book and doesn't solely cover Christmas but the entire winter season. There are four books in this series the other three obviously being spring summer and autumn so I will be looking at those in future blogs.

Today's calendar picture is hidden behind some leaves just above the dear little Robin so I thought I'd include that in today's photo.  Upon opening the door we find a sweet little

Wren, one of our smallest and most endearing garden birds.

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well, and stay warm

Debbie xo

Mary's Crafts and Advent Day 8

Hello Friends!

Before I forget, I must apologise that I am not replying to many of the comments at the moment. An increase in my tremors means that I am struggling to type and so am putting all my energy into the blog. I hope you will forgive me, but I will try and answer some of the comments from time to time. I do truly appreciate each and every comment that is given.

Speaking of appreciation, I will be hosting a little giveaway in the new year. I am going to pick one of the Advent blog entries at random and whoever has left a comment on that particular blog will have their name entered into a draw for a little gift from me. Open to international as well as domestic as long as you follow {let me know how you follow} Twenty four days, up to twenty four chances!

Today’s door, camouflaged behind bare winter branches reveals to us an image of the moon and stars in the night sky.

You too can have a house like Mary’s.  Today's photos come from her book Crafts to Celebrate the Seasons.  It's not just Christmas craft but crafts for all the year, so later on I'll probably share some pages from Valentine's Day, Easter, and so on. Meanwhile here is some of her Christmas crafts and I have to say I do really love the skates.

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well, and stay warm

Debbie xo

Books and Advent Day 7

hello friends!
 
Well it's getting really chilly now for at 8:00 o'clock this morning my living room was barely 15C, and although we're all fearful of how high our heating bills are going to be I have had to turn my heating up because I suffer with asthma and I cannot allow myself to get too cold. so I am scouring the Internet for other ways to conserve heat and energy to reduce my bills.
 
One thing I did this morning is as many curtains as possible are remaining closed across the windows.  there is a discernible rise in the cold air the minute they are opened so by keeping them closed hopefully it's keeping the cold on the window side not the room side! Of course this has to be offset by keeping the light levels safe as well. It's going to be a long winter I think for all of us, juggling things to maximise our heat and stay as warm as we can without running our bills of beyond all sense.
 
today is the 7th day of December, so that's one week of the last month of 2022 gone. The winter solstice is in a fortnight and Christmas not long behind that. I am nowhere ready and have already decided that I will be making a donation to charity in lieu of sending Christmas cards. I have not bought them yet and as they just changed the posting dates to accommodate these industrial action days that we have coming between now and Christmas I think it would be wiser to donate to my local food bank.
 
Today's picture is hidden behind an Ivy covered tree trunk, which reveals a beautiful owl sitting in the branches. I will say one of my favourite birds.  I am still in awe at how well everything matches up!

The Mary Engelbreit book I have chosen to share with you today From her home companion series, The Mary Engelbreit Look and How to Get It.  While I might not be able to afford to go all out in decorating with this style it's certainly a book you can pick and choose elements to introduce to your own decoration scheme should you so wish.

if you are enjoying seeing the books I am sharing you might want to pop over to another blog where you can find some other illustrators work being shared by my friend on her blog, Berries and More
 
until next time
Stay safe, stay well, stay warm
Debbie xo

Mary, Mary, a Top Tip, and Advent Day 6.

Hello friends!

It's the 6th of December today which means it is also the feast day of Saint Nicholas, and if you would like to discover more you can click on this link I am struggling to type today, so you can read all the information should you so wish.

St Nicholas Day

Today's door was a little tricky to photograph as it's in the very bottom corner and it's quite a long door, which when opened reveals a frog very much ready to eat all those lovely blackberries it is surrounded by. It looks very like the frogs I get in my garden, and just about ready to jump off the page.

The Mary Engelbreit book I have chosen to share today is The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. even the endpapers and the back cover have such attention to detail don't they?

 Another top tip I've got to share with you for keeping food and drinks hot is this. You can warm your bowls and cups before plating up your food by filling them with any surplus boiled, hot water that is sitting in your kettle. It takes the chill off the bowl or the cup so that when you pour your hot soup or drink into your bowl or cup the warmth from your food doesn't transmitter's quickly into the crockery thereby keeping it warmer for longer. Of course, you must always tip the water out before you tip your food in!

Until next time
Stay safe, stay well, stay warm
Debbie xo