Flowers, Crumble, and a Quiet House

I do sometimes feel like I need to pinch myself.  My life here in England is more than I ever could have imagined.  While there is always the dull ache for "home," I have made my home here and I could not want more.  This morning, I kissed the family goodbye so I could indulge in a bit of me time.  After picking up the crafty teacher, Joanne from Not So Granny, we headed off to Cambridge for a class in crochet flowers at The Sheep Shop.  Joanne is a master of all things wooly and the teacher of this particular class.  Along with three others, we gathered around the cozy table in the shop and learned how to make three different types of crochet flowers, one of which Joanne designed herself; The Granny Gertie Flower. The atmosphere in the shop was lovely. I could easily spend a lot of time there. It's a shame, but probably good for my purse that I don't live closer.  Sarah has obviously worked very hard to make such a sweet little shop. Three hours quickly flew by while we crocheted, knattered, drank tea and ate some suprisingly yummy chocolate muffins from Tesco (thank you Sarah).  I really should have taken photos, but I was so engrossed with flower making that the thought never crossed my mind.  Claire, from Claireabellemakes was there too and I think she might have caught the flower-making bug too.

I didn't have quite enough time to finish the big flower in the shop, but don't you know that's exactly what I did when I got home.  One kidlet was asleep for her afternoon nap, the other was snuggled up with a sleep daddy on the sofa, so I had the perfect opportunity to finish it up and even start on some new ones.  My plan is to make some poppies and give them to some family and friends in November.

After the youngest was up from her nap, I finally had to get down to the most important business of the day. Crumble. The darling husband had picked a few of our bramleys the other day, along with some brambles.  I had promised him a crumble with this bounty, of course.  I quickly made a double batch of crumble topping. One half goes in the freezer for another day.  It's the best treat to find a bag of frozen crumble in the freezer when I really can't be arsed to make any. I always thank myself and think of me as very clever when this happens. 

The husband and boy went off to football, the Grandad came and took the little girl to feed the chickens and all was quiet.  So after surprisingly finding myself alone in the house, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  I quickly put the kettle on, scooped up a heaping blob of ice cream (hey, it was the light kind!) and crumble. The house is still quiet while I sit here and I'm watching a beautiful sun set across the field.  I'm not really sure what I've done to deserve this peace, but I will definitely soak every last second of it up.