Lens Of The Day!

On Boxing Day, 26 December 2011, my lens Enjoy the Boxing Day Holiday was made Lens Of The Day!
My first ever LOTD- Boxing Day, on Boxing Day. What a great Boxing Day that was!

Thanks to all who visited , left messages, left blessings, and "liked" the lens.
Brilliant!

Here's the music that I was listening to all Boxing Day this year

Now we are six again, from Steeleye Span. One of my all time favourite folk bands, back in great form.

Sherry trifle hits the roof!

Now my Sherry Trifle Recipe has reached 373 in lensrank I'm feeling pretty excited! Nearly 3,000 visits this week!
I've still only sold one pack of custard from it, ever, but at least I know lots of people are reading it.
I've got all the ingredients for mine, which I'll make on Friday to serve on Boxing Day.

My Chocolate truffle recipe is also going well. Lots of cooks out there!

Hope you all enjoy the recipes.

Time to start making those homemade goodies

If you're thinking of giving home made sweets or homemade candies for Christmas, you can make my delicious
homemade chocolate truffles now, and freeze them .
If you take a look at my guide on How to make home made chocolate truffles you'll see lots of variations on the basic recipe, so that you can personalise your homemade Christmas gift. For example, if you're making chocolate truffles for a man who loves brandy, use some brandy in the recipe- simple!
If  you're making my homemade chocolate truffles for someone who loves nuts, rolls the truffles in crushed pistachios.There are lots more ideas suggested.

I've also suggested ways of packaging your truffles to make the gift look really professional. Good presentation is important.

Now that clocks have gone back, and the days are shorter, spending time messing around in the kitchen is a pleasant way to pass a few house. Just make sure you don't eat all the truffles yourself right now! Obviously you'll need to try a few, to "test" them , but try to save some to freeze for Christmas gifts.

Starting a new line of lenses- The Dukan Diet

I've looked around at the Dukan Diet lenses on Squidoo, and frankly m'dear, I didn't find them very interesting.
I've put myself on the Dukan Diet, and am just a wee bit obsessed with it right now, so I thought, let's make a lens about Starting the Dukan Diet - so I have!

I hope it will be useful to anyone thinking about starting the Dukan Diet. I'll be writing more in the next few weeks, and they will be the first new lenses I've made in ages. The spirit moves me!

My best Rocketmoms lens

I've found that many of my best earning lenses were actually made for Rocketmoms. Bonnie knows what works!
My top performing Rocketmoms lens is Blackberry and apple crumble with a hint of ginger., which is in the Rocketmoms top 100 list.I don't think I've ever sold anything from this lens, but it earns reasonable tier payments.
one of my highest earning lenses is Swings ans swing sets which was another Rocketmoms challenge.
Monday sees me starting back with the fall session of Rocketmoms, which will give me the push to get going again I hope.

Looking forward to new Rocketmoms session

I've come to a halt recently with making Squidoo lenses. In fact , I seem to have lost my mojo altogether, so I'm joining the new Rocketmoms session starting Monday 26 September.

If you are curious, read all about Rocketmoms, what it did for me in Why Join Rocketmoms?- my personal journey.

Is it too early to think about Christmas?

Probably! But still, I'm working on my Christmas lenses right now.
Gifts for herb lovers is looking good!

Kate takes a dive, as trifle rises to the top.

Whilst my Kate Middleton's Style lens is still doing well, it's the good old Sherry Trifle Recipe that is heading the list once again.
Lots of people read it- no one buys anything from it though. I need to work on this!

Wimbledon starts today- who will win? Anyone like David Nalbandian?

I'm pretty sure that one of the top 4 players will win. Have you voted for your favourite on my latest lens?
The top men's tennis players up close and personal is the place to go.

I've got a really good photo of David Nalbandian I'm going to add.See it below!
 I took it from my seat perched at the edge of centre court overlooking number 2 court at Queen's club 10 days ago. Nalbandian has had a lot of injuries, but he still looks pretty fit.

David Nalbandian at Queen's Club

Two weeks of great tennis to look forward to. Excellent!
Get the bandana for the porfessional look- a cheap way to look cool on the court.

Top men's tennis players up close and personal.

Just in time for Wimbledon, here's my choice of  Top Men's tennis players. This lens comes with my very own photos of the top tennis pros taken at Queen's Club London in June 2011 and June 2010.

I'm very lucky that I get to get to this tournament every year. It's an initimate venue, and you get to see the top players up close and personal..

I hope you like the photos. They're all taken with my fantastic Canon compact digital camera. The zoom feature works well, and I'm pretty happy with my shots of these great men's tennis players.

My photo of #1 tennis pro Rafael Nadal taken at Queen's Club London 2010

Why not visit and vote for your favourite tennis player?

Lovage and sorrel - 2 usual herbs

I grow lovage and sorrel, and use these herbs most days, yet lots of people have never heard of lovage and sorrel.
Read all about lovage- how to grow and use lovage,. Lovage tastes a little like celery. It's easy to grow and is just a bit unusual- one up for you in your recipes!

The same with sorrel. Read all about sorrel here. Recipes, herbal remedies ,lovely pictures....

I don't know why these herbs are so overlooked. You can rarely buy them in stores, but if you grow them at home you'll get lots of pleasure for very little pain.

Looking at outdoor toys ready for summer.

I've just picked out some great Outdoor Water Toys ready for children to enjoy this summer.
There's a water table for toddlers, and a great sprinkler for older children.
If you add to these  water and sand toys, the extra fun of a swing or swing set then your children will be ready for hours of healthy outdoor fun this summer.

Outdoor water toys

I've just made a new lens Outdoor water toys for kids.
It should work well alongside my Swings and swing sets lens.

I'll be coming back to add to this ready for the summer.

Herbs are my obsession just now.

I've spent ages trying to rescue the bay tree that had severe frost damage over the winter. I'll have to make a lens about it- meanwhile, you can read more on my Notes from a Lake District Garden blog.

Right now the Lovage and sorell are growing really well in the garden, and the lenses I wrote about both of these are also up in the 3,000 in lensrank. The problem is thought, that sales from these lenses of a pack of seeds or a few herbs, is never going to make me a fortune! Ah well!

If you love herbs as much as me, you'll love Jekka's herb books- I've picked on out here.

The Royal Family are top of the pops

Since the Royal Wedding my lenses about Kate's Style,  Kate's wedding dress, and my brand new lens The Duchess of Cambridge have gone down a storm.
I think the imminent visit of the Royal Couple to Canada and the USA will keep them in the spotlight too.
Here's hoping for a couple of high ranking lenses for a while!

What's whitemoss doing on Squidoo?

The answer is- sprucing up her old lenses for the spring and summer.
My Easter biscuits and Easter cookies has been up in tier 1, but might not make it for the month as a whole. I need to work on this next year.
I've not had time to make any new lenses, but I'm going round making the topical lenses such as my herb garden lenses, more up to date and generally freshen things up. It's time to think about the garden now.
Also, with tourists flocking into my home area, I'm revisiting my lenses about Wordsworth's Lake District.
Hopefully I'll be back to make new lenses soon when things ease up in other directions.

Easter Recipes

I've added more links for top Easter recipes to my Easter cookies and Easter Biscuits recipe page.
Hope you enjoy them!

I'm working on updating my lenses.

I'm a little short on time right now, and new lenses will have to wait. However, I'm working hard on freshening up all of the leneses that are becoming topical.
These include my Herb Garden lenses, my Royal Wedding lenses and my Easter lenses.

My Easter Cookies and Easter biscuits recipe lens is climbing. Take a look if you'd like to try and easy traditional recipe that also makes a great gift.

This herb garden book is one of my favourites.You can buy it in the UK too.

Regional Food- my Squid Angel Neighborhood.

I've been asked to look after Regional Foods for Squidoo, as a neighborhood angel.
I've just set out on this task, and here is the link to my Squid Angel lens on The Best of Regional Foods.
It's going to be growing daily. Please bookmark and leave messages!

This Jamie Oliver book about Italy is my #1 favourite Regional Foods book.

My Insiders Guide to the Lake District

This is a lensography of all my Lake District webpages.

Visitors to White Moss House and  Brockstone self catering cottage will find lots of helpful information here.

This Insiders Guide to the Lake District will also inerest anyone visiting the Grasmere and Rydal area, indeed the whole Lake District, as it's full of tips about Lake District activities.
Take a look. Leave me a message. Thanks!

Kindle Books for Travel Guides

I've just started the first of what I hope will be a series of Kindle Books for Travelers

My first one is a Kindle Books Guide to London.
Instead of carrying loads of paperbacks, the best London Guide books are available on Kindle- in the U S A there's already a great choice, and more coming soon to the UK.
Here's my top Kindle Book for London travellers/travelers ( this English English American English thing is so confusing!)

Another purple star- my 5th!

I'm thrilled that one of my favourite lenses, What the heck can I do with celeriac? has got it's very own Purple Star . Celeriac is known as the ugly one, but it is a great vegetable that , although not pretty, has lots of uses.
Use raw and grated in salads, as in celery remoulade- the French know a good thing- or in soups and stews.

Top chefs love celeriac and I've got recipes from Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver and lots for for you to enjoy.

New Year, New Lens- the Dyson DC 25 vacuum cleaner

Here's my latest lens A review of the Dyson DC 25 Vacuum cleaner.
If you have the money, this is a great choice I think it's worth paying the extra for.