New Year, New ......

We have a new dog! He is a rescue terrier cross called Finnegan but as that name is such a mouthful he will be known as Finn. I'm so delighted - he's fitted in well apart from raiding the biscuit tin, trying to jump the garden fence and retrieving a quality street from under the sofa and stuffing it down. I managed to get most of it away from him as dogs and chocolate do not mix. 

It all happened rather quickly - we had seen several terriers online at Battersea and Dog's Trust that we liked but each time they were reserved before we even had a chance to visit, so we decided to wait until after Christmas before looking again. My sister saw Finn on the Allsorts Dog Rescue site and we applied. They responded - saying he was already reserved but then on Tuesday of last week they contacted us again as the man had changed his mind. We had a home check on Wednesday and went to see him on Thursday, loved him and brought him back there and then.

He's gorgeous but quite naughty, completely the opposite in character to Bill although he looks similar. I think he will provide us with a lot of fun and love and many stories for this blog!

YES

This painting has been underway for a year but yesterday he finally finished it - YES!

Sunday morning

We had a family get together on Sunday, which was good fun but quite a bit of preparation was needed in the morning.

Play

I think he loves his epiphone guitar more than me! For August Break - Day 11 - Play.

Red

These always make me smile when I see them and remind me of wonderful family holidays in Portugal.

Update

I've been very absent from here recently, helping my lovely mum celebrate her 80th birthday! As you can see from the recent pic in the middle she doesn't look anything like 80 years old - she is amazing. 
I won't say any more or she'll kill me. I made the cake - which was fun but I'm not a good cake maker and it was very dry! There were a series of parties because 2 of my friends had 'significant' birthdays that week too (frankly I'm exhausted). 

So I spent this weekend relaxing. I hadn't been to the Bishops Palace Gardens for ages so it was lovely to wander round, also did some early morning walks to see the English countryside at it's best.

It's a dog's life!

Last year Alfie spent Christmas in a dog's home, this year was a bit different . . .
He was really up for having a good time, unfortunately his friends had other ideas.

Alfie

We have a new member of the family this week! My mum and dad have just got Alfie, a rescue dog found as a stray. Not sure what breeds are in him but mostly terrier! He is the sweetest natured dog and already will not leave my mum's side - he knows he's found a good home. My Jack Russell is not impressed but he will get used to him after a while!
Welcome Alfie.

Charity Shop Challenge

I know it's late to talk about Christmas in mid January but I'm behind with my posts and hadn't mentioned this years Charity Shop Challenge. Again it went well and you can see the presents I received and some great finds I kept for myself.
However the earrings, bottom right, were a wonderful surprise from Gra who designed them and had them made. I think it was a traumatic time for him wondering if I'd like them - luckily I LOVE them. I wore them on Boxing Day to visit friends and promptly lost one. After spending a sleepless night imagining it gone forever, it was found the next morning in My Jack Russell's toy basket. A mystery!

Old-fashioned

This vase - inherited from my Mother-in-law, is one of my favourite possessions - it looks so old-fashioned. Is it the colour, pattern or shape that makes it seem from another era?
© nicky linzey 2010 for illustration friday

Diary

A week ago today on July 8th my Mum and Dad's dog Ellie had to be put to sleep. She was the sweetest dog and My Jack Russell's best friend.

Ellie was found by a lorry driver, wandering on a motorway in Liverpool, never claimed, she was eventually shipped down to Brighton RSPCA where they thought she would stand more chance of getting a home.

We went there looking for a dog and she chose my Mum as her new owner. It took her a long time to settle in, she didn't bark for over a year - in fact we thought she couldn't. (She made up for this later in life though!) She sat on her bed in the kitchen huddled in the corner, scared of her own shadow, eventually realising what a lovely, safe, new home she had - filled with love and she responded accordingly. She was nearly 14 when she died and we all miss her so much.
© 2010 nicky linzey for Illustration Friday

Celebrations

It was my Mum's birthday at the weekend and as a family we always make a big deal of these days. After all, they are kind of special. It was the first truly hot day of the year and so we were able to be outside for the evening - a real treat.
My sister made her 'speciality pudding/cake' which is simple and delicious - I am going to have to share it here:
She buys a ready-made large sponge flan base which she cuts into 3 - horizontally - you are left with 3 thin layers. Don't worry if you muck this up - it is very hard to do - you can easily patch it up later! 
If it is an adult dinner, douse the sponge with peach liquer (Archers). If not just layer it with sliced strawberries and softly whipped double cream. When the final top of sponge goes on, cover with more cream and decorate with strawberries. Leave for a while before serving to go all gooey.
As you can see - 3 of us contributed to this and we had drunk too many glasses of the pink liquid on the left! Plus my nieces were throwing strawberries at it from all angles. Rather artistic I think, and my Mum loved it!

Bad hair day

My Dad sent me some old family photos the other day.
I laughed when I saw this - me a few months old!
I still have trouble with my hair sometimes.

Clumsy

I'm not a particularly clumsy person unless I've got a glass of red wine in my hand. I've been known to throw an entire glass all over myself by catching my sleeve on something as I went to drink it, knocked a full one over on our brand new carpet and am often seen missing my mouth entirely and pouring it down my chin. Not a pretty sight! Some may say I've inherited this trait from my mum but as she reads this blog I'm keeping quiet.
© nicky linzey for Illustration Friday

Charity Shop Challenge

Happy New Year to everyone, hope you all had great holidays. I'm pleased to report that the Charity Shop Challenge was a great success. Even my brother who was very cynical about the whole thing enjoyed himself. It was great fun seeing what everyone had unearthed and we all ended up with some lovely presents, although one was broken by an over enthusiastic Jack Russell helping to unwrap - sorry - I can't even offer to replace it! Here is a selection above, and below are things I found but selfishly kept.

Must have been good - we've all agreed to do it again next year.

Hectic

What a hectic and varied week this has been: camping, birthday celebrations, festival going, golden wedding celebrations, family get togethers, walks, shopping - apart from the usual working, cooking, cleaning, washing, gardening . . . I've been asked to choose the weekword, which is CAMPING. If you would like to participate in this, let me know, and on Friday post your drawings, photos, stories, poems, paintings or whatever you choose, to your blog and I will do a link to it. Can't wait to see the results.

Craving

I don't have a particularly sweet tooth but occasionally I find myself craving a piece of my Grandmother's Lardy Cake. Luckily I have her original recipe and as Gra is such a good baker he now makes it for me. It's very unhealthy but delicious and anyway who cares!
Recipe below if you want to try it.

© 2009 nicky linzey for Illustration Friday

Ingredients

450g white unbleached bread flour

1 tsp salt

100g vegetable lard

7g sachet of dried yeast

300mls/half pint warm milk

2 tsp clear honey

150g currants (soak in warm water & drain)

100g sultanas (soak in warm water & drain)

50g soft brown sugar

1 tsp mixed spice

Method

Into the bowl sift the flour, add the salt and rub in 25g of lard. Cream the honey, milk and yeast and mix vigorously with the flour to make a smooth dough (adding more milk if necessary). Shape into ball, cover the bowl with film and leave to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes. Drain off water from the currants and sultanas, mix together and knead into dough until the fruit is evenly distributed and leave to rest for 10 minutes.On a floured top roll out into a rectangle about 150mm (6 inches) wide by 300mm (12 inches) long. Soften the lard and spread over the bottom two thirds. Mix the soft brown sugar and mixed spice and sprinkle on the larded area. Fold the top unlarded third down and the bottom third up to make 3 layers. Roll out to the original size rectangle again, roll up from the bottom like a Swiss roll. Cut in half to make 2 thinner rolls. Place each roll cut side up onto a greased baking tray and leave to rise in a warm place covered with clean tea towel for about 1 hour. Before baking, lard the ends to stop the rolls from coming apart then bake in a pre-heated oven 200°C / Gas 6. When cool, glaze.

Glaze

To make the glaze topping place 3 tablespoons of golden caster sugar in 200ml water. Boil to dissolve and thicken - when you have the consistency of a heavy syrup take off heat and drizzle over the top of each cake.

Life

How lucky am I to have a family that pulls out all the stops in a crisis? Love to you all x

Secret spies

Had a lot of fun with keri smith's seasonal secret spy disguise over Christmas and then Gray and I decorated them for new year!

My mum & my sister on Christmas Day

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2009 to everyone, especially Gray and my family who give me loads of support and encouragement in everything I do.

© 2008 nicky linzey