She creeps quietly back...

... and hopes she's still got a follower or two left. Three and a half months of silence from me; why? I don't know really. I just felt like I had nothing interesting or exciting to blog about to keep anyone interested, so I had a break from blogland for a while. I kept having a look each week at all my fave blogs and even added some new ones to follow. Then after a day of reading others blogs I got the urge to do mine again. So here I am, hoping to get back into blogging and reading your blogs on a regular basis.

What have I been up to in my absence then? Not a lot really. No summer holiday this year which was a bummer as we had nothing to look forward to and it did make the summer drag. Summer! What's that? My veg garden has done terrible this year with the awful summer we have had. The only thing that grew well this year is the runner beans. Lettuces, courgettes, chillies, tomatoes and lots of other stuff were a big let down this year. We'll try again next year.

So now the nights are drawing in and days outside will become  days snuggling in the house and I will need things to do to occupy me. We went to B&Q last weekend to get paint for me to decorate the living room over the autumn and I spotted a fleece blanket for £2.00 and thought it would be perfect to start another Christmas project I blogged about here.

The fleece came in a variety of colours but I chose cream. You can't go wrong with cream when your not sure of someone else's colour preference. So this is my project to keep me busy through the dark autumn nights. Making an embroidered throw for my mother-in-law for Christmas.

Enjoyed making a lovely sponge cake this afternoon. It is a tried and tested recipe we have used for years. The recipe was given to us by my husbands aunt and never fails to rise and is a lovely moist cake.

AUNTIE JOAN'S SPONGE CAKE

8oz butter or margarine
8oz sugar
8oz SR flour
4 eggs

So simple this cake, just put everything into a large mixing bowl then whisk until everything is well mixed. Divide the mixture between two lined cake tins and bake in oven at 160C for about 20-25 mins.

I filled the sponge with homemade 2009 plum jam and sprinkled icing sugar on the top. So yummy.
Time to watch Downton Abbey now, can't wait.