Thanksgiving Astra's way :)

I've never celebrated Thanksgiving before, well, once when I was 14 in Bermuda on a working trip... Anyway it's not something that I was brought up with or ever taught about. As an adult I have developed quite a respect for this american tradition, I love the idea of taking a few days to celebrate with the people you love, everything you have to be thankful for.

Al and I have decided that we are going to start celebrating Thanksgiving! Next year we'll host our first party/dinner/evening of festivities! Im excited, I hope it looks something like this, but inside since we're Irish :)

For this year my Thanksgiving will take the form of a little note -

I'm thankful for my place in the world, I love who I am and where I am in my life.
I'm thankful that our cat Cara is getting better :)
I'm thankful that Al and I both have secure jobs that enable us to save for our dream.
I'm thankful we have no debt.
I'm thankful for our lovely home thats easy to keep cosy and warm.
I'm thankful for my good health, after being ill for a few days, I'm so thankful it rarely happens.
I'm especially thankful for my husband, our brilliant marriage and every single kiss, 'i love you', laugh and shared smile.

I could go on for hours but I'll leave it there lol, did you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, in any way?

Surprise veg!

In April this year we had to move house quite suddenly, it was a real shame because we had done a lot of gardening and all round preparation for the season ahead at our old place. The thing I was sad about leaving the most was a large square raised bed I'd made by hand from scrap wood, it had taken me about a week, I loved it and was so proud of how well it turned out. I had layered compost, sand, dead leaves etc to make a rich soil base for the mixture of onions and carrots I planted, they were looking so promising when we left but all too small to pick.

We've been back a couple of times and seen it totally overgrown, I figured there mustn't be much under the weeds. How wrong I was!! We are cat sitting for the owners (Al's parents) this week and thought we'd have a dig around, after 7 months of total neglect this is what nature (and my loving preparation and planting) provided...

I'd say about 2kg carrots and 1kg onions!

Aren't they perfect, with all their imperfections :)

So tonight we feast on 40p lamb, free carrots, cabbage (reduced down to 10p) and gravy that's home made - with flour the old fashioned way! I'm so happy!

This is saving for our dream in style and appreciating the small things - just what we're about!

Hope you all are enjoying your weekends :)

P.S are you noticing a pattern with my saturdays? Not that I'm complaining!