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Photo taken from Andy Scott's Website . As American Thanksgiving day approaches, my thoughts enevitably turn to this piece of public art on the banks of the  river Lagan in Belfast city centre, she is known locally as' Nuala with the Hula' or 'The Doll on the Ball'. Her real name though is 'The Angel of Thanksgiving,' and she is where she is, because of one woman.....my mother.  My lovely Mum, on the day the 'Angel' was erected.(photo taken by my brother Paul) My Mum was a very spiritually minded person. She really believed that if a person, no matter how poor, or ill, or  deprived could give thanks to God for the little good that was in their life, then God could turn their life around. On a visit to America, she visited Thanksgiving Square in Dallas, Texas. It is a building, where people of any denomination can go and pray and give thanks to their own Deity. My Mum was very impressed with this idea, and thought that Belfast was in need of such a p...

 I thought you might like to see some late bloomers from the garden. I rather love little tiny, unpretentious posies scattered around the place. They make you stop and look. I am begging, borrowing and stealing Hydrangea at the moment to dry for Christmas. In Vic Brotherson's wonderful book 'Vintage Flowers' she makes a huge ball out of dried Hydrangea and hangs it from the ceiling, see below..... I plan to do the same. I am having great success at drying some, but not all. The lovely lilac specimen below is from my own garden. I tried by having some stems in a small amount of water but they shrivelled up. I tried hanging them upside down, they did the same. The white ones, also from my garden seem to be drying upside down but I am not sure what colour they will end up. That is the exciting thing about this process, seeing all the incredible variety of shades you can end up with. Gosh wouldn't the world be drab if it was only in black and white? Wishing you all a fun-fi...

Image from Tumblr . Today I just wanted to share some images that for one reason or another really excite, inspire or move me. I hope you like them too? Image from Tumblr. Image from Tumblr. Image  from Pinterest . Image from Pinterest . Image from Pinterest . Image from Tumblr . Image from Tumblr . Image from Tumblr .   Image from Tumblr . Image from Pinterest. Image from Pinterest. Image from Pinterest. Image from Tumblr. Image from Tumblr. Image from Tumblr. Image from Pinterest. Image from Pinterest.  Image from Pinterest.  Image from Tumblr. Image from Tumblr. Image from Pinterest. Image from Pinterest. Image from Tumblr. Image from Tumblr. I could imagine a lovely romantic story could be formulated around these images. And the...there are the ones that make you laugh... Image from Tumblr. Oh yes, and the ones that make you cry.... Image from Pinterest . A warm welcome to my new followers, and a big thankyou to all who are so kind as to comment. To those who just like to...

I made a Halloween wreath for the door using orange roses, chinese lanterns, crabapple, eucalyptus, hydrangea, and even some green tomatoes! The spiky bits around the edge, I don't know what it's called, but if you look up close, they look like little teeny weeny pumpkins. Unfortunately the weather is wet and windy and I thought this may get a little too battered outside, so I decided to use it as a table decoration.  Sadly my husband won't be sharing Halloween with us, as he is taking care of his mum.So I decided that we would have a lovely meal this evening  instead and go mad with the table decorations! I made Rioja-braised lambshanks with garlic and chorizo. Absolutely delicious, but not for the faint-hearted, the sauce contained 250ml. of Balsamic vinegar as well as the red wine. The recipe is by TV chef Lorraine Pascale and if you would like to check it out, here's the  link . We had Poached Pears with Blackberries for dessert, but everyone was too full to eat it!...

This time last year my kitchen was a deep cream colour with some of the cupboards in a dark pink. I loved it, it was warm and cosy. When the Spring came I found it too dark, I wanted light, and so I painted the cupboards white, and the walls an off-white. It was such a contrast, and so bright, i loved it too. However, as the sun goes lower in the sky and the weather has been very wet and windy, I found that I wasn't liking it quite so much, it seemed dull and cold. My daughter and I had been making some papier mache toadstools, and this was my inspiration......of course.....a touch of red was what was needed. Those clever Scandinavians know that, their mostly white interiors do almost always have a little red somewhere, and it really does draw the eye in. So I set to and made a little corner where I could display red things. My daughter is so excited, she thinks Christmas has come early! We have a little 'toadstool' mania in this house at the moment. This rather lovely glas...