News & Updates from Christine Dixon · Page 9

Aren't kids just amazing? We've just spent the weekend away with our two daughters, their partners and Rose, our granddaughter, 18 months old.

On Saturday we spent the day out and about, mainly at Leeds castle, where there was always activity to engage Rose - riding the train, feeding the ducks, searching for pumpkins, stroking a barn owl, running around the maze, playing on the swings, etc. etc.

On a trek like this, I use walking poles to help me combat my MS unsteadiness. This was the first time I had been out and about with Rose and my poles. The next day, she spotted the poles in the corner of our cottage kitchen and picked them up.

We adjusted them for her diddy height and she duly showed us how they are used. I was so amazed that she had observed and absorbed this knowledge with everything else going on around her the day before.

Here's a couple of funny cards which will make the recipient smile!

This is Hettie. We've just rescued her. She's not an ex-bat (from a battery farm) but she was living a solitary existence after a fox killed her mates.

Hens are flock animals and left alone they tend to slowly decline and fade away.

We are told she's between two and three years old so she still has at least half of her life ahead of her.

Her beak is a little twisted. She been moulting, so she's not laying and hasn't got a proper tail at the moment. Integrating her with my current group of five is proving to be a bit of a challenge.

Left to her own devices, she just hides away in a corner of the chicken run. I have to gently keep trying to get her to wander in the garden and mingle. Not sure how long this will take but I'm sure she will eventually take her place in the family and then start laying again.

Here's two of my latest xmas designs; one soft and vintage, the other bright and funny.

I found this beautiful peacock butterfly in my garden and wondered what it was doing around so late in the year.

Admittedly the weather here in east Anglia is currently extremely mild (18C today) and the butterfly wasn't looking very active.

I think it was trying to warm itself in the mild sun on these garden stones. What a welcome site for October. Here are my two latest card designs.

I'm thrilled to have become a Platinum designer this week, so I made a courgette cake to thank everyone who has bought one of my designs.

Shame I'll have to eat it, but I'll think of you with every bite - LOL!

I'm no great baker but this is a failsafe recipe. I tend to serve it up like a victoria sponge with my home made jam in the middle and icing sugar on top, but sometimes I add raisins and sometimes I coat the top with melted chocolate and sometimes I make chocolate courgette cake.

This one is made with a yellow courgette which avoids the green fleck effect you get when using the more usual green courgettes, but both are equally yummy and you'd never know it was courgette anyway.

Again, a HUGE thank you to all of my customers. Time to put the kettle on ... Staying with the cake theme, here are two of my top selling cake card designs.

Nature never fails to amaze me, especially when I do nothing to give it a helping hand. I love my pampas grass at this time of year. As we fade into autumn and the flowers disappear from ny garden, this magnificent specimen has a beautiful way of catching the light.

Whether the sun shines or not, and in the fading sunset hour, it shimmers with an ethereal glow. Just enchanting! Here are two of my latest designs which I hope you will finding equally enchanting, suitable for all kinds of occasions, just add your own sentiment.