Days of our lives...

As I said last week it is autumn in the south.

Today you'd be forgiven for thinking that winter had arrived.

The temps have dropped and the wind and rain have been howling through.

As usual for Tuesday I went to little mother's group 

and then took her out to do her weekly shopping.

I thought she might decide to stay home by her fire, but no, out we trotted.

Being so cold and miserable when I got home I decided it was time to get out

 one of the jigsaws I kept at home and started doing that.

It's only 500 piece so shouldn't take too long - I hope.

Buuut there's a lot of water all looking much the same, oh well.

When it's finished I'll put it in the library at church with the others.

Of course it was Mother's Day at the weekend 

and my girls and some of their kids arrived out for a visit.

I was given lots of sweet stuff, yum, 

and some smelly candles, yum again.

And my son skyped from Japan just before they arrived 

so everyone had a good catch-up.

I had taken my little mother to church in the morning 

and she had already gone home, so she missed them all. 

She always likes to go home early on Mother's Day 

to be there in time for my brother and his partner arriving.

Our middle grand daughter is turning 18 this week

so we are going out with her next weekend for an evening meal.

We gave her an early birthday present.

You may think this is a funny gift to give an 18 year old 

but she was really thrilled as she is going away this week for the course

 she is doing and was hoping to borrow some of our luggage.

And when she graduates she hopes to be travelling some more.

So what else would we give her? And blue is her favourite colour.

What else have I been doing? 

Well I was given these...

...quinces, apples and pears fresh off the trees.

So I have been peeling, stewing and freezing a lot of it.

Some of the apples and pears I kept to eat, lovely and sweet 

even if they had to be washed or peeled to get the bird poop off. 

I have to admit that I gave most of the quinces away, not all of them though.

Because they are such an old fashioned fruit 

and not seen much I think they are probably an acquired taste,

 especially for younger people.

I gave them to some older ladies I know 

who were really quite thrilled as they hadn't had them for years.

One was going to make jelly and the other was going to stew them whole.

Everyone has different ideas about what to do with them and how long to cook them.

I just stewed the ones I kept and froze them with the other fruit.

My little mother gave me a teaset a week or two ago. 

She had already given me one she knew I liked, or what was left of it...

she used to have tea parties with some of her great grandchildren 

and I rather think they were broken then. 

So I am on the lookout for replacement pieces for it.

Anyway  here is the newest one. A Yamato fine china.

It's black, white and silver and I think it is rather elegant and unusual.

 

Unfortunately I'm not too good at taking photo's at night

(something I'll have to try and remedy) 

and the trim looks gold here rather than silver.

Oh, an update on Mack, eldest grand daughters wee dog.

He is standing on all fours again to everyone's relief

 but still has to be confined to his cage for a few weeks yet.

So no drastic decisions have to be made :)

joining with:

roses of inspiration

Martha's favorites

 Well I think that's it for tonight,

 so until next week I will say goodnight.

Diana