Today my massage client brought me 2 lovely gifts .

Home made Damson gin and a home made lavender bag using lavender from her garden.

Last week my massage client brought me shallots to pickle and freshly dug potatoes perfect for baking.

The shallots are now in my shed drying out ready for when I return from china .

I am lucky to have such lovely massage clients 🙂

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While out walking with T today we saw lots of sunflowers.

But they all looked ssoo sad 🙁

Usually Bank holidays are just another day for us , we never bother to do anything special as everyone else does !

This Bank holiday though , as Geoff had all his family with him, and that’s a rare occurrence, we decided we should all do something.

So much to my delight it was suggested that we went Punting on the River Cam.

We had to have one of the large punts because 6 adults and 2 children would just not fit into a normal size punt .

It was so lovely to go along the Backs as its called and see all 7 of the colleges from the river.

I especially liked all the bridges 🙂

A great way to spend a few lovely hours, such a shame that my boys were not with us too as they would have loved it but there is always next year 🙂

That’s how many days it is till I fly out to Beijing with Geoff.

I will be staying for 4 whole weeks, Geoff will be doing Nepal, Tibet and India before returning home on 17th December.

Busy making lists at the moment of all the things we would like to do and see.

Xian is on the list to see the Terracotta Warriors and Mt Huashan looks interesting 🙂

Guilin looks another interesting place with the Li River to trek along.

First though we shall be walking with the Beijing Hikers a walking Group I stumbled on while perusing the Internet.

They do an organized walk every Saturday Sunday and Wednesday so we have booked ourselves on this walk for 18th September

Of course we also plan to walk some of the Great Wall too along with trips to a Pearl factory and Silk factory.

Its going to be an amazing 4 weeks 🙂

Geoff has been desperate to get his hands on my kitchen wall for quite some time now.

About 3 years ago he told me that my house would be transformed if I let him knock the wall down that divided the kitchen and dinning room.

At the time I thought I would never get permission from my housing association so did nothing about it.

Periodically Geoff bought the subject up, still I did nothing BUT then a few months ago for some reason right out the blue I asked permission.

To my amazement they said YES 🙂

So on and off during the past week Geoff has been busy , with a little help from me,transforming my kitchen.

I thought it would be a huge job but Geoff made it all look so easy and the end results are magnificent.

Never ever did I expect to have such a lovely kitchen/dinning room 🙂

Just hope he knows how much its appreciated , that’s another million Massages I owe him 🙂

Finally after 5 years we have accepted that this is home and we wont be moving house.

This is not where we wanted to live but when your in the position I was in you have no choice in these matters.

Ideally I would still love to live in Downham Market but for the boys this would be a disaster.

Most of the time I feel happy when I am at home even when home alone, finally I can relax and read a book or do my knitting.

I persuaded my housing association to do a few small jobs in my house which make a huge difference.

I also managed to get permission to knock down a non supporting wall that divides my kitchen/dinning room.

Of course I realize that getting to spend my weekends in Cambridge helps me like my own home more  🙂

Andrew being able to drive now, also makes life easier for the boys too 🙂

What happens when we can no longer afford petrol I do not know BUT we shall cross that bridge when the day arrives !

French knitting dolls

and I have been playing

I can remember the one I had as a little girl , it was much prettier than the ones you buy today.

I also remember making them with cotton reels and nails.

Anyway this one is for Geoff’s granddaughter and I am hoping I will be able to teach her how to use it 🙂

On the way to yoga I saw this for sale out side someones house

It was there just to tempt me and of course with my love of jam making I could not resist

So more Rhubarb and Ginger jam shall be made this week 🙂

I only have one jar of marmalade left now 🙁

As Geoff goes through a jar a week he has requested that I make 52 jars of marmalade next time.