Weekly Photos - 15th - 21st February 2026

I don't think I actually took a picture last Sunday but this was what I was reading and I'm still reading it!  It's not grabbing me at all.

                                    

Monday Granddaughter Ella was here and we had a fun time playing lots of games and watching The Sound of Music Live.

Tuesday was pancake day - the only evidence of which was this photo:

Wednesday was the day I finished this puzzle only to find it was missing a piece. I was so annoyed as although I bought it from a charity shop it was still sealed.

Despite trying to be organised and ahead of myself with the food I was planning to serve to my friends on Friday, on Thursday I had to make a late night dash to Tesco as I found we had no white wine in the house plus I was also missing sun dried tomato paste.

As you can see Friday's lunch was well received. Everyone was very complimentary about both the main course - which was potato, mushroom and spinach traybake in a yummy cheese sauce, followed by chocolate and raspberry trifle. (And of course there were no before photos!)

And yesterday (Saturday) the only photos I took were of the weekly quiz from Saturday's newspaper which we all the immediate family do. Plus of course the answers.

So far I'm ahead with 11/20 but my son and DIL in Nottingham have yet to respond and they usually do quite well.  Although there's often a lot of debate about their scoring with no half marks allowed lol.

I need to up my game and be more creative with my photos but I have taken some today and I think you'll like them but that's for next week's round up.

Hope you're having a good Sunday.  We had rain (again) this morning but it seems to be clearing up a bit now so maybe I might venture out for a walk.

#SoCS - 21/2/26 - Pre.......

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “starts with ‘pre’.” Find a word that starts with “pre” and use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!

The prompts are supplied each week by Linda who  blogs here.  Pop over to see who else is taking part.

Previously when doing a SoCS post I've often had some thought about it before I've started.  It's hard not to I find when we get the prompt the day preceding the day we're supposed to be posting.

Of course I could do the post on a Friday and schedule it to post on Saturday but I don't usually do that.  To me that would almost feel premature.  So now it's quite late on Saturday evening and I'm definitely winging it by trying to think of as many words starting with pre and fitting them into this post.  The presentation will probably suffer as I've also been watching the Men's Curling final on the TV and although the presenters did a good job, it's hard to stay upbeat when your team was playing well but then in the closing stages the advantage swings to the other team and Team GB ended up with the silver medal again.  It was hard to watch.  But so much of the Winter Olympics is for Team GB - we don't really have the conditions here in the UK and I know that many of the athletes end up training abroad.  Curling is probably one of the few sports that are done here in the UK although predominantly in Scotland.  

And now I'm stuck.  My mind is going blank.  Presumably it's trying to tell me I need some sleep.  I had an early start at the Foodbank this morning - I go to accept deliveries from another church on a Saturday and this morning the drivers bringing the deliveries were really early.  Fortunately I had pre-empted any disaster by being up and ready to go but I only just arrived in time and didn't keep them waiting.

Now it's time for bed.  My predetermined alarm has been reminding me for the previous half an hour that it's time.  The present needs to become the past.  Goodnight!

Friday's Fave Five - 20/2/26

Well it's still Friday - just so time to list the blessings of the week and then link up here.  Thank you to Susanne who reminds us every week to do this and hosts the link up.

It's been a busy week as it's been half-term break here in the UK.

1)  On Monday I had Granddaughter Ella here.  I'm thankful that she's now able to play more structured games and she's also less likely to mix all the playdoh up into a mess of colours.  Although she did make me laugh on Monday as she asked me how to make green.  I explained that you needed blue and yellow so she asked if she could make "just a little bit of green from the blue and yellow playdoh"  How could I refuse?  She actually did take just a tiny piece from each and made a blob of green.

2)  Tuesday it was Grandson Nathan's turn to be here and I'm thankful that we had a dry enough spell for Hubby to play a bit of football with him out in the garden.  He does love to get outside and let off steam sometimes.

3)  I'm grateful for online shopping and supermarkets that stay open late this week.  I'd ordered an online shop with most of the ingredients I needed for a meal I was planning to cook but of course there were things I'd forgotten but I was able to pop down to Tesco late yesterday evening so that I had everything ready for this morning.

4)  Ladies lunch today - with 3 of my former work colleagues.  It was my turn to host.  I had a pack of Chinese style starters - prawn toast, spring rolls etc in the freezer so we had those for starters.  The main course was a potato, spinach and mushroom bake with a lovely cheese sauce which I did with a green salad and fresh bread.  For dessert I'd made a chocolate and raspberry trifle.  Of course I forgot to take pictures at the right time but as you can see the main course went down really well and everyone liked the trifle - which Hubby and I will be eating for days to come - I always make too much food!

5)  I'm thankful that thanks to us both having good pensions I don't need to worry about money and can cook meals like this without having to worry about the costs involved.

Have a good weekend all.

Read then Write - 19/2/26

Well this has not been a good week for reading!

I've started one of the book club reads:

and despite the interesting sounding title it is not grabbing me.

It's set in Thailand and there was indeed a head on the beach.  I'm not quite sure where it's going yet.  I need to persevere.

I've probably spent more time looking at cookery books this week as I'm hosting our "Ladies Lunch" tomorrow.  (With former work colleagues.) I have my dessert already made.  The starter will cook in the air fryer and after a quick trip to Tesco this evening I now have all the ingredients I need for the main course.

I'll try and remember to take photos!