StowmarKate

Reader, I finished Jane Eyre

2012-01-29T10:54:00.002Z

I'm industriously working my way through the classics on my Kindle. I've read Sherlock Holmes, Northanger Abbey, Tess of the D'Urbervilles (mostly, I gave up 3/4 of the way through because I HATED it) and I've just finished Jane Eyre.

I saw a play based on Jane Eyre when I was about 9 - all I remembered from it was that it was really scary and that there were waif-like orphans all over the place. So I was a little bit surprised when the book left the orphans after a few chapters, and that it was decidedly un-scary.

I liked it much more than Wuthering Heights - I thought Jane was surprisingly spunky and independent.

I'm definitely going to watch the 2011 adaptation - I had been waiting to finish the book before watching the movie.

Any other classics that I might have missed?

I have two quilts to bind, so what am I up to? Starting a new knitting pattern, obviously!

Adventure in London

2012-01-26T21:38:00.000Z

Evan, a friend from New Ro, was in town for work last weekend. He stayed an extra day in London after his meetings finished, and we had Grand Adventures in town.

Here he is, reading the paper (with a croissant and a cuppa). How very European!

We went an a walking tour, the Notting Hill walk, and it was excellent. We saw the remnants of the Potteries, and then Robbie Williams' house:

And we saw super-suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst's house:

This was our tour guide. He was funny, witty, full of good stories, and generally excellent.

And then, because we were on the Notting Hill tour, we saw Richard Curtis and his wife! We actually encountered his wife first - our tour guide had said "Now, Richard Curtis does still live in Notting Hill, quite near here, actually."

Then, our enormous tour (30-odd people) were crossing a quiet street while a woman in a car made a u-turn. She got somewhat stuck behind us all. So she rolled down the window, pointed to her house, and asked the guide, "Are you talking about our house?"

"No," replied our guide, "I didn't think you'd want me to!"

"Oh, no, it's fine - we figured you would. Carry on!"

And drove off.

Our guide turned to the assembled and said, "Well, that's Richard Curtis' wife (and son). And that is his house (gesturing across the road)." At which point, Richard Curtis opened his front door, looked at us, and closed it again. "And that was Richard Curtis!"

Srsly. Can't make this stuff up.

So we then went to the Famous Notting Hill Bookshop (which has since gone out of business, because all the tourists took pictures of the bookshop but nobody ever bought anything).

And then we had a lovely lunch (panini!)

And then, we got ourselves some BORIS BIKES! Love. We picked them up in Notting Hill, wove our way across to Hyde Park, then rode down through the parks to Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square, where we dropped the bikes and went in search of a pub. I, naturally, steered us rather close to Liberty where we then had to make a quick visit. Who, me? Naw!

And took this picture while we were both riding. Yes, I am that clever. And no, we didn't fall off. There were a few shouts of "Evan! Keep LEFT!" Otherwise, uneventful. The whole "grab a bike when you need it, then give it back later" is an excellent idea.

HRH was not in residence but we said "hi" anyway.

Then we picked up another set of bikes and rode them across town from Bloomsbury to Paddington, where I picked up my bags, and then we walked to dinner and the tube and then home to Suffolk (or New York).

At dinner (Wagamama, of course!) we both kind of sat there, contemplating our warm bowls of noodles and our aching feet. I had been instructed to provide a fun London day out - I think I succeeded!

I'm not alone in my crafting failures

2012-01-22T20:18:00.004Z

As far as I am concerned, Kate Davies (of Needled fame) is a knitting goddess. Her designs are interesting, challenging, well-constructed, and aesthetically pleasing. I have made 3 of her patterns (Owls, Owlet, and Mini-Manu), and look forward to making more. She's a super-fast knitter, is excellent at colourwork, and has an amazing eye for detail.

Pardon me. I could seriously gush for days.

Anyhow, she recently posted that she BOTCHED something. Erm, yes, it happens to all of us. Granted, it was sewing rather than knitting, so it doesn't really count.

In the spirit of confessions, here goes.

I was really embarrassed about the final pictures of my Bardot Sweater - it's more noticeable in this picture than in real life, but one sleeve is substantially longer than the other. Or one is shorter. In any event, they're not the same. Oops. It's warm, though, and I like it, even though it definitely adds 10lbs!

But if Kate Davies can have a crafting fail, so can I. So there you go.

Reviews: two excellent books

2012-01-19T21:18:00.001Z

The last two books I've read have both been excellent. I almost wish I had spread them out a little bit with some mediocre books in between, so I could have appreciated them even more.

This week, I finished The Magician's Assistant, by Ann Patchett. Like Her Fearful Symmetry, a main character dies in the first sentence. By page 2, I missed him. I found the book to be captivating, well-written, and entertaining. There were vivid descriptions, so much so that I had the odd moment where I looked up from the book and was startled to find myself in my bedroom or at my desk at work, rather than in a farmhouse in Nebraska. My only complaint is that the cover image of the edition I had from the library (not the one on Patchett's site) had a very misleading farmhouse picture. Oh, well.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot, has had a huge amount of press over the last year or so. Justifiably. It's the best non-fiction book I've read in a long time. I started it while standing at the leisure center, waiting for James to finish a climbing-wall morning, and was completely captivated. I ended up going to sit in the car so I could have quiet while I was reading.

Skloot tells a very-well researched tale of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cancerous cervical cells have made huge leaps in scientific research possible. Skloot also sheds light on the story of the rest of Henrietta's family and the effect the cells have had on them. I was astounded by some of the writing from various poor Southern adults, which is reproduced verbatim in the book. Whatever America's doing to educate poor people in the South, it's not working.

I'd recommend them both, enthusiastically!

(Random picture of flowers follows)

Review: Leslie Sansone DVDs

2012-01-16T20:35:00.000Z

I used to live in New York. You probably know that already.

I didn't have a whole lot of money, so I ate as frugally as I could despite not really having a kitchen (I had a hot plate, a microwave, and a George Foreman grill). Mostly veggies and ethnic food. So I didn't eat a whole lot, but I definitely didn't go hungry. I also couldn't afford to take cabs very much, so I mostly walked and took the bus and the subway. I walked half a mile to the subway (3 long blocks) every time I wanted to go anywhere), and frequently walked home from work (1.6 miles, according to google maps).

After I moved to England, 6 years ago, I became...er...slightly more sedentary. I took the car to and from work, went for the occasional weekend walk, but otherwise sat. And sat. And sat some more.

I gained about 15lbs - not a huge amount, but really noticeable, at least to me (and my wallet).

Then, I signed up for the Global Corporate Challenge through work, in the summer of 2010. And walked. And walked some more. And kept walking. And lost most of the 15lbs. (Go me!)

Then the challenge ended. I started taking the train to and from work a few days a week, with a 1.3 mile walk to and from the station at the other end. When I was home, I noticed that my mom looked GREAT.

She said, "Oh, it's Leslie!"

"Who?"

"Leslie! One of my friends looked amazing so I asked her what she was doing and she said. 'LESLIE!'"

It turns out that the famous Leslie Sansone has a seemingly endless catalogue of DVDs, all of which let you walk and hop around at home in your pjs (or your fancy exercise gear) and stay in shape. I can't say that I ever would have picked one up on my own, but I love the two DVDs that I have. They're especially good for the Cold Dark English Winter, when the winter blues remedy of exercise can be slightly hard to come by in dark, snowless Suffolk.

My goal for the rest of the winter is to get up to the full 45 minutes (I normally do 15 to 20 before collapsing in a puddle). We'll see.

And after the Leslie, I can go back to the baking and the reading. (A semi-fail of coconut-raspberry tray-bake - the tray was too deep and not wide enough so the middle was a mush...sigh).

Things I made recently

2012-01-15T17:44:00.001Z

When we were in Holland, I picked up the parts for a camera necklace (arranged neatly, below). Green leather cord (it's more of a forest green in real life), and a little camera charm. LOVE.

This fabric had been sitting in my "make it already!" pile since I bought it back in September in Rhode Island (at Joann's, of all places). They were destined to be napkins. So now there are 6. And they're cute. They may need a little ironing.

And then I went a little nuts with the Muckle Mitts Ravelry pattern and customised it. I like it better than the "real" pattern. The only irritating thing has been unwinding through the rest of the Mochi ball to find where the purple starts again so the mittens "match." Because I'm way too OCD to have unmatched mittens.

Ravelled, here.

He comes by it honestly

2012-01-09T19:38:00.002Z

We have been on the receiving end of some excellent stepson-generated baked goods.

He took an apple/raspberry crumble back to his other house on New Year's Eve (special request):

And our Christmas gift was a big box of homemade cookies. Mmmmm. Clever teenager.

Holland: part 2 (long overdue)

2012-01-07T21:25:00.001Z

We took the Herreshoff and Tiger to the train museum (Het Spoorwegmuseum) in Utrecht. They wanted to go. Who were we to refuse?

They enjoyed the journey to Utrecht from Amsterdam (we rode on the top level of a double-decker train).

I got to pretend that I was a conductor!

Then we went through the "Train Worlds" - World 1 was in a mock-up of an English coal-mining village (with Do Not Enter signs in Dutch, obviously).

The rest of the museum was excellent. It was well-organised, well-maintained (of course), entertaining, and informative.

We walked back from the museum to the train station, accidentally detouring through the old center of Utrecht. I had no idea the city was so beautiful - I'd only really ever seen the inside of the enormous train station.

The obligatory train-arriving shot, for my Dad.

And a marching brass band of Zwarte Pieten (Sinterklaas' assistant) on the Damrak:

And an extremely happy few hours spent building and tinkering and experimenting and playing at the NEMO science museum.

My efforts on the binary word-maker:

After all of our playing (and a LONG troop across Amsterdam, including the FOAM photography museum [crap] and the Rijksmuseum [abbreviated, under renovation]), we had some jenever. YUM.

And then the next day, we feasted on carbs. Pancakes and the BEST apple cake ever.

Yup, that up there was AMAZING. It's at a tiny little hole in the wall called Winkel. We were directed there by our b&b host (we had a super time at Maes B&B) after asking for a good place to go for apple cake. He didn't miss a beat. After watching a steady stream of apple cake portions leave the kitchen, I asked our waitress how many cakes they got through in a day. On a quiet day, apparently, only 60. On a busy day, though, up to 150 cakes. One hundred and fifty apple cakes in ONE day. And it was not a big restaurant.

One last opportunity for frites, frikandel and fritessaus (oh, dear God, I just found a recipe online). This blogger writes about it best, I think. Nectar of the Gods. I could eat it with a spoon. I purposely did NOT buy some to take home. That would mean I'd have to give up on real clothes and just wear a muumuu all day. I didn't get a picture of the actual f/f/f - they were consumed too quickly. Mmmm.

I love Etsy

2012-01-06T20:20:00.001Z

I bought this nautical coordinates necklace from Etsy for my friend for her birthday. She's a sailor, so I asked for the coordinates to point to her home marina (she moves around a lot). She LOVED it.

Source: etsy.com via Kate on Pinterest

And then, there's this Skinny Laminx pillow. I haven't bought it, yet.

Source: etsy.com via Kate on Pinterest

It's only a matter of time, I think.

Miscellaneous media

2012-01-05T20:45:00.000Z

I did something evil to my back the day before new year's eve (which has now been fixed with a refresh of the Alexander Technique), and consequently spent the entire long weekend reading, sleeping, watching Downton Abbey, and generally being taken care of by the Husband.

Husband had already bought Downton (season 2) on DVD, since we're hopeless at watching tv when The Television tells us to.

I'd heard it was depressing, and was fretting slightly.

Yes, it takes place during World War I, and the following flu epidemic. But no, I didn't find it depressing. And it's easy to find things depressing during January in England. We have yet to watch the Christmas special, so no spoilers please!

If anyone (local) would like to borrow Downton, just email me.

I also now have a rather dog-eared copy of Inheritance. I loved the other three - I think this was my least favorite, but I still enjoyed it. DRAGONS! It was epic, though. One of those books that you can't actually hold up while you're reading - it has to rest on your legs or the bed. Should have Kindled it. The New York Times did a feature on his "Dragon Lair" aka bedroom in last week's magazine - I thought it was really funny.

Look what I made, 2011 edition

2011-12-31T12:48:00.001Z

Various crafty peeps have been adding "what I made" roundups to their blogs.

[Jumps onto bandwagon]

Ta da! Look what I made in 2011! In retrospect, Gabi was the recipient of the majority of my crafty efforts. Two and a half dresses, two sweaters, and a tote bag. I guess everyone needs a toddler to make things for! The only crafted items still in our house are the two cowls (a third, same as the one in the 2nd row on the right) has been gifted to a choir friend whose daughter has appropriated it as a baby-sling just like mommy's for her doll. Might give her the other one, two, so mommy can actually wear it as a cowl!

Any suggestions for a mosaic-creator would be appreciated - this was bodged into Pages, then exported as pdf, then screen-shot so I could upload the jpg to blogger. Workaround, much? Or, HEY blogger! Can we please upload pdfs to our blogs? Thanks!

Under the influence of Julia

2011-12-29T20:05:00.000Z

Ahem. Pardon the epic rant in the last post. I was, apparently, feeling more homesick than I thought. And it came out as anger towards People Who Mean Well And Are Trying To Be Nice. Sorry, People.

"You are SO not under the influence of Julia right now." - Julie & Julia

I've made no secret. I LOVE that movie. And then Vivren made the famous Boeuf Bourguignon, and blogged about it. Which made me hungry.

I decided after reading Viv's post that I had to make my own B.B. And after her warning that it takes forever (and is better the next day), I straw-polled the fam and got approval to cook it for Christmas lunch.

As you can see, Christmas Eve was spent, chopping, browning, sauteeing, simmering, and otherwise cooking. The house (and the beef) smelled amazing.

Mmm...bacon. And, in a circular "I'm in the movie" moment, I had Julia's recipe printed out and held up by the wedding gift given to us by the actress who played Julia's idol in the movie.

[Space-time continuum collapses.]

Oh, you're all still there? Well, that's good. Since we have BACON!

And browned beef-y goodness!

And onions and carrots ("Oh, hi, Le Creuset from the John Lewis vouchers! Yes, we love you, too.")

And all mixed together, ready for the oven:

Julia's non-crowded butter-doused Mushrooms. These aren't mushrooms, they're MUSHROOMS. If you make nothing else from this page (but you should make the boeuf bourguignon), make these.

Seriously. Can you resist? And yes, they tasted as good as they looked

Now the onions:

And all mixed together after three hours in the oven.

A few things.

1. This was not as ~~intimidating~~ hard as I thought it would be. (It's still intimidating.)
2. I've had this before - my grandma used to make it. I remembered as soon as I smelled it.
3. The "serves 6" actually gave us 4 servings on Christmas day, 3 supper leftovers on Boxing Day, and 3 lunches the following day (with pasta). The beef dried out slightly over the 4 days but the flavours just got better.
4. My excellent husband suggested that we watch Julie & Julia a few days before I made this. I was rockin' the J & J mojo when I made this (and had mini J & J sitting on my shoulders, yelling "Dry the beef!" "Don't crowd the mushrooms!").

LOVE. Go make it.

Christmas Latkes

2011-12-27T20:43:00.000Z

I was feeling a bit homesick last week.

We interrupt this blog post for a Public Service Announcement.

If you know an expat and it's a big holiday that is traditionally associated with family or their home nation, don't ask them if they miss it. They miss it. And you asking them is not helpful. Yes, they left. Yes, they left on purpose. But no, they did not completely finish their life wherever they were before, and yes, they miss it.

Thank you. This post will now resume.

Right. So, homesick. And it was not-quite-Christmas. But Hannukah had started, as had the Facebook posts from my Jewish friends. And I really wanted some latkes.

There was a recipe posted last week in the New York Times for Apple-Potato Latkes, which we followed. I didn't bother with the cinnamon sour-cream - we ate them with creme fraiche and homemade applesauce (also known as 3 peeled apples, cooked while the latkes were being assembled).

John was an expert potato-, onion- and apple-grater.

Applesauce-in-progress:

The complete mixture, ready for frying:

WOOHOO! They look like latkes!

They were delicious - crispy, moist, slightly appley, and tasting resoundingly of New Yawk. Thanks, NYTimes!

Peace on the earth

2011-12-24T21:08:00.001Z

I had never really listened to the words of "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" until our carol concert last weekend, when for some reason they really resounded.

It came upon a midnight clear,

That glorious song of old,

From angels bending near the earth,

To touch their harps of gold:

"Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,

From heaven's all-gracious King."

The world in solemn stillness lay,

To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,

With peaceful wings unfurled,

And still their heavenly music floats

O'er all the weary world;

Above its sad and lowly plains,

They bend on hovering wing,

And ever o'er its Babel sounds

The blessèd angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world has suffered long;

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not

The love-song which they bring;

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing.

And ye, beneath life's crushing load,

Whose forms are bending low,

Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps and slow,

Look now! for glad and golden hours

come swiftly on the wing.

O rest beside the weary road,

And hear the angels sing!

For lo!, the days are hastening on,

By prophet bards foretold,

When with the ever-circling years

Comes round the age of gold

When peace shall over all the earth

Its ancient splendours fling,

And the whole world give back the song

Which now the angels sing.

-Edmund Sears

Long Melford church, December 2011

Rangers Heritage Jersey Quilt: Finished!

2011-12-23T20:45:00.002Z

You may remember that my brother asked for a quilt, several months ago. He asked for one inspired by the New York Rangers Heritage Jersey, so with some help from Google Image Search and my Leuchtturm dots notebook (thanks, Liz!) I created the design.

The red fabric is from Spoonflower, the rest are Etsuko Furuya Echino and Kokka prints that I bought at the Purl Bee in an epic crafty afternoon back in September. It's a good thing that I don't live on the same continent as that store...I wouldn't have any money left to eat or pay the mortgage.

You had a quick update when I was working on the applique (which I really enjoyed, by the way), following the letter applique tutorials on Oh, Fransson! and using a New York Rangers font that I downloaded and printed out.

Here it is, before quilting and binding, with the picture of the inspiration on my iPad in the middle:

Yes, the selvedge is showing. I wanted to make it as wide as possible, but I also didn't want to lose any length. There were NO scraps left!

I quilted it with my usual meandering quilting, in dark blue on the blue stripes and in cream on the white and red stripes. The binding is a red polka dot. The bottom right hand corner has our initials embroidered, along with the year.

The back has more cars fabric, along with the meandering bicycles that I bought in Cambridge last winter.

I'd classify the size as a twin extra-extra-extra-long. But then again, the recipient is 6'4" and I want him to be able to curl up under it and take a nap (or watch the Rangers WIN) and not have his feet get cold.

I love you, Little Brother. Enjoy the quilt!

Holland: Part 1

2011-12-19T20:32:00.001Z

We certainly ate well in Holland. Our B&B and nearly all of our meals were guided either by the New York Times or by TripAdvisor, and it was definitely a success.

For our first lunch (after a somewhat choppy but otherwise uneventful Stena Line crossing - thank you, Tesco Clubcard vouchers!) we went back to the Blauwe Pan, where John had a Dutch stew (vast quantities of meat and sausages, on top of a carrot and spud mash), and I had a brie, walnut and honey sandwich. Not a combo I'd ever tried before but it definitely worked.

We explored the Jordaan for a while, and I loved this vintage shopping list. A wall-mounted shopping list (in Dutch) doesn't really fit with my schedule, unfortunately. Cute, though!

And then, beer. Lots of delicious Dutch beer.

Bach Choir Christmas!

2011-12-11T18:03:00.001Z

[shameless plug for what will be an excellent concert]

This Saturday (17th December) at 4:30pm, the Bury Bach Choir will be performing our Christmas concert in Long Melford.

Included will be Britten's Ceremony of Carols (imho, the coolest Christmas piece ever), assorted Rutter-arranged carols, and a world premiere of a very excellent setting of the Coventry Carol.

AND your ticket includes a free mince pie and a glass of mulled wine.

[/shameless plug for what will be an excellent concert]

Pardon the radio silence

2011-12-08T20:18:00.001Z

We went on an adventure to Holland (mostly Amsterdam and Utrecht).

More pictures (and customary roundup) to follow.

But first: THIS IS THE BEST BIKE EVER. I think I might need to Dutch-ify my bike. Or at least put flowers on the handlebars.

Wintry Cowl, finished.

2011-11-27T15:32:00.001Z

All finished! I was cheeky and tried to squeeze just one more round in, and ended up having to finish casting off with a little bit of stashed grey yarn (not quite the same colour or gauge, but not terribly noticeable). Must not be greedy.

I think I might wear it tomorrow to work.

Ravelled, here.

Kate Davies of Needled has mentioned in her latest blog post that she's working on a design with lots of sheep on it, similar to those in her Sheep Heid hat (which is amazing, btw). I'm really really hoping that it's going to be the love child of the Owls sweater and the Sheep Heid hat. If it's not, I may just have to mash-up the patterns and do it myself.

Thankfulness

2011-11-24T19:56:00.001Z

Today is officially the Saddest Day To Be An Expat. Fellow Americans are having an epic four-day weekend, feasting on turkey, and generally making merry. We expats, though, are working (as celebration of the survival of the rebels is frowned upon), having a normal dinner (since making a complete turkey dinner takes ALL day), and generally feeling slightly homesick.

We are, however, having a mini-Thanksgiving (with roast chicken, since I forgot to pre-order my turkey this year) on Saturday.

Regardless of country and turkey-consuming status, I'm still very thankful.

For my family, and friends, on both sides of the Atlantic.
For the fact that my to-read, to-quilt, and to-knit lists are always full.
For the fact that it's now officially After Thanksgiving so I can start in on the Christmas music.

(The W from the Rangers quilt, mid-applique.)

Happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating!

Review: Breaking Dawn, Part 1

2011-11-20T20:00:00.001Z

We went on an adventure to Cambridge today. We rode the park and ride bus in to town, and sat downstairs because the bus was crowded. I think we were ahead of schedule, because when we got to the first stop (in record time), the driver pulled out a paperback and started reading (the bus was parked). Teehee! A fellow "I have 30 seconds spare so I may as well read a page or two" reader.

We window-shopped for a while, and then met up with my previously-of-Buxhall bell buddy Alison, who I hadn't seen in ages. We went to Jinling Noodle Bar again (with a backup plan in case they were "full" again), and had three bowls (one each, obv) of brisket udon. YUMSTERS.

Then we went and watched the Best Sparkly Vampire Movie So Far.

A few things.

1. To the Guardian: please do not send a grumpy-ass middle-aged man who does not like the books to review a teenybopper sparkly vampire movie. He will not enjoy it, and we will not enjoy his review. Thank you.

2. To the parents in the theatre who brought two 9-year-old girls to the 12-A movie: there is blood, sex, nudity (sort of), and lots more blood. It's a movie about vampires, for pete's sake. Please leave the kidlings at home. (We actually commented that we enjoyed it less because we were worrying about the long-term emotional impact on aforementioned 9-year-olds.)

3. To my husband: you rock. Thanks for coming on a girly day out and letting me knit while you drove all the way to Cambridge, took us out to lunch, and then sat through a 2-hour teenybopper sparkly vampire movie.

4. To those of you who enjoyed the first three movies and the books: GO SEE IT. Fun sparkly vampires gazing soulfully at each other and running through the woods and jumping around in their underwear. AND they make fun of the fact that Renesmee is the most redonculous name ever.

ROAR!

Works in progress

2011-11-19T10:16:00.001Z

I'm midway through two projects. First is my new grey cowl, ravelled here. The pattern is quite straightforward and good for watching tv, except for when said tv gets suspenseful and you accidentally purl two in a row instead of purl - slip - purl and then you have to unpick two rows. Ahem.

I still love my interchangeable knit-pro needles, so if you're on the fence about buying a set (and are in danger of accumulating too many odd-sized circular needles, go for it.

I have also finished the front and back of Ed's Rangers quilt. I've fused the letters on, and just need to zig-zag around them, then sandwich, quilt and bind. I think I'm going to free-motion around the front but avoid the letters. I even found, downloaded, printed out, and traced a New York Rangers font.

*We interrupt this blog for a public service announcement*

When you are making interfacing templates to cut out letters to iron them onto the front of a quilt, you must reverse the letters. Especially the N. No amount of flipping or turning will help. You're welcome.

*Normal service resumes.*

So, yeah, it's going to be snazzy. It's extra-long twin sized, since my brother is extra-tall and I want to make sure that he can stretch out under it while watching the Rangers games.

More Rusby!

2011-11-14T21:02:00.001Z

Kate Rusby's new Christmas album is out today. I was going to resist the Christmas creep, but who am I kidding? It's excellent. Tomorrow might be a Rusby day on the iPod. With a little Tori mixed in for good measure. It sure is dark enough outside at 3:45, anyway. Small sadness: her closest tour venues to us are Nottingham (sold out) and London (on a night we can't do). Oh well, we had a good run with Ipswich, Norwich, Peterborough, and Bury St Edmunds. Hmm...I might have a Rusby addiction.

I stumbled across this post from a transatlantic blogger, In the Left Lane, and laughed out loud.

My only amendments would be to change the first dates to 2006 and to add a few.

UK 2006: Why are all these cars so teeny tiny?
US 2011: How are these cars all so gigantic?! How do you people ever park?

UK 2006: Woah. This gas sure is expensive!
US 2011: HOLY CRAP this petrol is cheap!

John didn't find it as funny as I did...then again it's a fairly narrow subset of humanity who would.

Christmas photo shoot: outtake

2011-11-13T19:45:00.001Z

We were trying to jump. You know, to all be in the air at the same time like floating hipsters.

Except we got this instead. Apparently the little flashy lights on the camera do not make it clear when the picture is actually going to be taken.

Must try harder. (Teenager looks exceptionally embarrassed. Can't think why.)

The Night Circus: A Marvellous Book

2011-11-12T16:39:00.001Z

As Audrey Niffenegger writes on the front cover, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern is marvellous. I picked up a signed copy (missed the author by 2 days, thank you for not providing an author-tour rss feed, Waterstones) when we were in Norwich a few weeks ago. The chap at the checkout was really enthusiastic about it, and there were recommendations by Neil Gaiman & Audrey Niffenegger on the promo posters. Well. That meant I had to buy it.

I was initially irritated by the fact that the edges of the pages are printed in black, but it turned out to add to the atmosphere, especially on the few occasions that I let the integrated red ribbon bookmark trail across the page.

It's set in the 1890s, around a world-travelling circus with real magic. I found it really atmospheric and entertaining, with likeable characters and very well-drawn scenes. The reviewer in the Guardian mentioned that she could smell the circus at certain points, and I agree with her. It was dark without being gloomy, and magical without farce. Highly recommend. [C, I think you might be annoyed by it, but try it anyway!]

I've also started on my brother's Rangers quilt...here goes!

Mini-manu for Gabi

2011-11-07T20:49:00.000Z

Oh my. I first added this project to my Ravelry in October 2010. And then I cast it on in July. The actual knitting went pretty fast (and I loved the pleats at the top and the icord edging). I'm notorious for finishing a project to 95% and then not weaving in the ends. Evil Rowan sweater, I'm looking at you.

Since I bought the yarn about a year ago, I was aiming for the 2 1/2 year old size. Since, you know, Gabi was 18 months old at the time. Yeah. So by the time I actually got around to knitting, I decided to go with the 4 year old size. For which I had very nearly enough yarn but not quite enough to do the pockets. This is a girl who has stuff to carry, mostly acorns, leaves, and other assorted treasures. Pockets, then. In grey. I also edged the sleeves in the same grey so it would look a little bit more I did it on purpose. I actually quite like the way it turned out.

Ok, full disclosure. The sweater wasn't quite finished in this picture - the second pocket wasn't sewn on, I had a few assorted ends to weave in, and the buttons hadn't been added. Also, I'm not sure what I did differently on the left and the right pocket (I followed the pattern both times, or so I thought), but one is an "innie" right at the bottom where it joins the edging and one is an "outie." Who knows. Something tells me it won't be noticed as the wearer is running around in it.

It's all done now, though, and will be in the mail as soon as I remember to bring it to the post office!

Thanks again to the ever-amazing Kate Davies of needled. Another excellent pattern!

Ravelled, here.

Recipe: Apple & Raspberry Crumble

2011-11-06T20:52:00.000Z

We went over to the in-laws for lunch today, and I brought dessert. I modified a few recipes and came up with a winner!

Unfortunately, we were in a bit of a rush getting out of the house with the VERY hot crumble (all wrapped up in tea towels) and then there...er...wasn't any left after we finished dessert. This picture from two weeks ago will have to do!

With thanks to Mark Bittman, for his inspirational Rhubarb Crisp recipe in the New York Times.

[edited - we tried this again using this recipe and it made a very cookie-like topping. Watch out if you're making it by weight!]

Apple & Raspberry Crumble

Raspberries (enough to cover the bottom of the pan - mine were frozen from the summer)
2 cooking apples (I used bramleys)
3/4 cup (150g) Demerara sugar
1/2 cup (60g) plain flour
1/2 cup (45g) rolled oats
8 tbs (125g) butter, diced

Preheat the oven to 190C (375F).
Put a single layer of raspberries in the bottom of your crumble dish (I used a medium-sized Le Creuset dish)
Peel, core and slice the apples, and layer them on top of the raspberries.
Mix the sugar, flour, oats and butter together (I used my fingers because I'm too lazy to wash the food processor). Sprinkle the crumble mixture onto the apples, and smush down with a fork.
Bake for 45 minutes, until the filling is bubbling.

We served it with cream because we're bad. It was far and away the best crumble I've ever had. The filling was REALLY zingy and the topping was crunchy and sweet from the oats and the sugar.

It served four of us but we all had seconds. Hey, it's fruit!

Things I rather like

2011-11-05T19:14:00.000Z

I have a few things that are not particularly exciting, but that I love. First, I had a really hard time getting my previous-favorite Vincent Longo liptint out here in the sticks. I found Benetint, by Benefit, and it works just as well. The only drawback is that the pot is quite a bit bigger than the other one, so it's not really viable for carrying around in my bag. It lasts most of the day, so it's not a huge issue.

John and I are both allergic to "normal" deodorants. Itchy and horrible. And my mom worries about aluminium. I found Salt Of The Earth crystal deodorant at Holland and Barrett. We are now neither smelly nor itchy, which is excellent. And it lasts FOREVER. We've been on the same stick for nearly a year, and there's plenty left.

I don't like tights. They roll at my waist and make me want to run away. These, though, don't seem to roll, and they're soft. They come in all sorts of different colours (on the John Lewis website), and hold the lumpies at bay without too much pinching. I also really like their 100% cotton tights, which I wear under a long skirt with boots in the winter and am snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug.

So there we go. Random miscellany. You're welcome.

Autumn (and a review)

2011-11-04T20:45:00.000Z

It has felt really autumnal this week - the clocks went back on Saturday so it is now Properly Dark when I leave work. It has been windy and rainy but not super cold (yet), which is nice.

John has been making hot chocolate - lactofree milk, cocoa powder, and a little bit of brown sugar. James wanted whipped cream last weekend, so we bought a spray can (hadn't bought one in years and years!). Mmmm. There was plenty left, even after the boy put a giggle-worthy amount of cream onto his hot chocolate. Then John went all artistic with the cocoa powder. I feel like it's not a particularly unhealthy drink - a small amount of sugar (no more than you'd put in a cup of tea), a glass of milk, and some cocoa. Ok, well, until you add the whipped cream, anyway. That's only for special treats, I promise!

I finished Jodi Picoult's newest book, Sing You Home, last night. I read it in 2 days (how does she write books that just fly by?). I really enjoyed it, even if parts of it made me gnash my teeth in frustration at the characters. I tried listening to the music that was specially composed by a friend of hers for the "soundtrack" (the protagonist is a music therapist and singer-songwriter). Just, no. Oh, well. It's pretty hard to live up to the fictional amazing songs of a fictional character where every reader superimposes their own ideas of an amazing song onto the music.

Reviews: Swallows & Amazons, Dark Is Rising

2011-11-03T21:09:00.000Z

I read two "children are having dangerous adventures without adult supervision" books in quick succession. Inadvertently.

I'd been meaning to read Swallows & Amazons for years. I had no particular idea what it was about, only that it was on that nebulous list of "things I should read one day." Well, for the three remaining people on the planet who haven't read it, it's all about children in the Lake District, between the wars, who go on an adventure with their sailboat to an island in the middle of a lake.

I got the feeling that I'd have enjoyed it a little bit more had I been able to turn off my Camp Counselor instincts.

The kids went sailing. In the dark. With no lights. More than once. And one of them can't swim. Oh, and they shot arrows at each other.

As a kid, this would have been deliciously scary and exciting.

As a 30-year-old ex-camp-counselor, it was extremely alarming. Oh, well.

I did, however, love it in spite of the "OH MY GOD THEY'RE DOING WHAT?!?" moments.

On Liz's recommendation, I read the first book from the Dark Is Rising series, again with the unsupervised children having adventures that are really rather dangerous. I liked all of the Arthurian references, and the book felt completely timeless.

Luckily, both books are the start of fairly long series, which is good to know.

On to the next ones!

Autumn afternoon in Woodbridge

2011-10-31T20:35:00.000Z

We kidnapped the inlaws and took them Out on an Adventure (to Woodbridge) last weekend. I took pictures. That's all.

Bury Bach Choir: Haydn & Mozart

2011-10-28T20:37:00.000+01:00

We're singing in the St. Edmundsbury Cathedral on 19th November - it's going to be an excellent concert (as ever)!

Details below. See you there!

Mozart Motets and Haydn Nelson Mass

Mozart: Adagio & Fugue in C minor
Misericordias Domini
Ave verum corpus
Exsultate Jubilate
Haydn: Nelson Mass

Tickets £23, £16, £14 (reserved), £10 (unreserved), are available from the Theatre
Royal box office on 01284 769505 or via www.burybachchoir.co.uk (major credit cards
accepted).
Half-price concessions for under-25s booking by
telephone, at the box office or on the door, subject to availability.

Oliver & S: Jump Rope Dress

2011-10-23T17:39:00.000+01:00

When I was in New York, Gabi's mom mentioned that Gabi was going to be Annie for Halloween. You know, red curls and all.

So I volunteered to make her dress. And then at a number of points thought I had bitten off more than I could chew.

I went to Purl Soho. I could have spent days there. Easily. So much color, so many beautiful fabrics. And I didn't even buy any yarn!

Gorgeous.

Anyway, I managed to find the now-discontinued Oliver & S Jump Rope Dress pattern. SO cute.

I'm not an experienced seamstress. This dress involved my first collar, my first sleeves, my first placket, my first buttonholes, and my first pockets. Um, this could have gone REALLY badly.

Thank you, Oliver & S, for writing a completely idiot-proof pattern. I loved making it, and it only took me a weekend plus a little bit.

Please pardon the picture - I finished it on a Tuesday night and wanted to get it in the mail so didn't wait for a weekend to take a picture in "real" light. I can't wait to see (pictures of) Gabi-Annie all dressed up!

Pasta for Christy

2011-10-21T20:11:00.000+01:00

I wasn't sure if I should write about this on the blog or not; it's not really my story. I decided to, because it's something that so many people have gone through, and also because I just really need to write it out.

My friend's mom lost a long and extremely spirited battle with brain cancer on Tuesday. She was given 3 months to live, shortly before this picture was taken, when we were in New York, nearly four years ago.

My friend and I met on the first day of high school - we had both competed in the same regatta during the summer and she was wearing the regatta t-shirt (which I had begged to wear to school that day; my mom had set a "no shirts with writing on them for the first day of school" rule). We started talking ("Hey, where'd you get that shirt?!") and that was that. We were friends all through high school, taking part in musicals (she with the lead, me in the pit orchestra), then kept in touch through college, and then moved to New York City around the same time after college. She was living on the Upper East Side when I was living in Tudor City, and we'd randomly meet up for lunch or brunch or drinks (fabulous 20-somethings that we were).

[As a side note, our dads worked together for nearly a year before realising that we were such good friends. "Oh, you live in New Rochelle, too?" "Yep, I do. My daughter is a sophomore at NRHS." "Really? Mine too!" Then, later, to me, "Do you know a girl called Liz? Her dad and I work together!" "Dad, that's Lizzie. She was here for supper yesterday." (I have since been told a similar conversation happened at their house.)]

My parents were living in Florida when we were both in college, and Lizzie's parents decided that I really shouldn't be left to fend for myself in the Big Wide World on Sunday nights. So we'd take Metro North out together for pasta dinner at her parents' house. I don't really remember specific evenings - they all blended together into one long comforting pasta session with parents who weren't exactly mine but were just as loving and caring.

When I was home last month, we knew that the end wasn't far off, so we spent as much time as possible with them. Mostly brief visits, since we didn't want to wear Christy out, but the day before I flew back to the UK, we spent the whole afternoon together. It was heartbreaking, to see her in such bad shape, but also restoring to see the love surrounding her - whenever we were there, there were family and friends either just leaving or about to arrive.

After she passed away this week, I had an overwhelming urge to go and make pasta. With meatballs. For Christy. Because of all the times that she fed and nourished and loved me, the least I could do from the wrong side of the Atlantic was try and feed and nourish and love my family just a little bit extra. So here they are.

Christy, thank you for everything. For being a wonderful mom, a wonderful not-mom-but-helping-out, a fighter against the horribleness that is brain cancer, and an inspiration to us all. We're going to miss you.

Autumn Weekend

2011-10-16T20:36:00.000+01:00

We went to Norwich on Saturday, so James could have a long-anticipated burger at Captain America's. I'd give it a 7 out of 10. The burger was reasonable, the American cheese was excellent, and our fries had mega potential but were slightly under-cooked. 10 out of 10 for the sign out front, though!

We went sailing this morning at Levington with EAST - we were supposed to be racing but the light wind died completely right as we left the harbour. It picked up when we got back into the harbour (after much paddling), and so we went back out for another half hour's sailing. While we were drifting about, I decided I was hot, so I took off my shoes and socks and rolled up my jeans and stuck my feet in the water. My goodness, is the North Sea cold in October!

Before we went out, I took some pics (we had to drop James off at his school's rugby festival at 8:30 so we were rather early to Levington...)

I can't decide which of these two I like better. Votes?

James gave me The Primrose Bakery Book for my birthday (John was miffed - he had bought me a copy and put it away as a Christmas present!), so after poring over it, we decided to make Lemon Meringue Cupcakes.

Amazing. Best cupcakes I've ever tasted. And yes, they have meringue hats instead of normal icing (there's also a hidden blob of lemon curd in the middle).

Here's one of the James' Nazgul, diving in for a cupcake...

I had never made meringues before, but we blobbed the leftovers onto my silicone baking mat thingy and put them in the oven for an hour. Excellent. Only problem...what does one do with 5 egg yolks?

All the way from New Zealand!

2011-10-15T20:28:00.000+01:00

One of my college roomies lives in New Zealand (the other two from our senior-year Mod Quad live in Connecticut and Alaska). I last saw NZ roomie when we were both in New York, back in 2009.

She was in England for a wedding (her boyfriend was the best man), and came and visited us in Suffolk for two days. WOOT!

I took a day and a half off from work - I picked her up at the Bury station, we St Edmunds-ed ourselves, then we went to Ickworth and romped through the gardens and parkland, and then came home and made veggie shepherd's pie. Yum!

The following day, which was the first properly cold and autumnal day we've had, we adventured coast-ward.

We visited Framlingham castle (as windy as I've ever been there - it was tempting to cling to the railings!), and then revived ourselves with tea in Framlingham. A cream tea, even. See? It was excellent.

We then went to the seaside, Mr. Todd, down by the sea! Liz may or may not have serenaded the seagulls and me with this.

We took lots of pictures, including this one, of four seagulls pointing into the wind:

And this rock, which I liked. These were all taken with my new S95, by the way. Look at that blurry background!

And then we met John in Ipswich and went out for a curry at Indian Palace in Ipswich, after a recommendation from our veg box guy. Excellent.

Too bad she lives so far away - we had a blast!

New York, vol. 4: Rhode Island!

2011-10-09T10:25:00.000+01:00

As a small break from New York (and to go on lots of bike rides and swims and eat fried clams and lobster), we went up to Rhode Island. We saw this little guy, guarding a "stay hydrated" honesty box along the bike path. Cute!

Here's my dad at work, protecting the citizens of Barrington! This is the smaller of the two boats that the Harbor Patrol use, but it still has flashing lights and a siren, and is very snazzy.

I couldn't go to RI without stopping for some Del's. At least I got a "mini." It was pretty tiny but still had the requisite lemony goodness. We were trying to get as many Del's logos into this picture as possible. If we had zoomed out a little, there were two Del's trucks parked behind me on the right, but then we would have lost the tiny logo on the cup!

My mom is building a portfolio of watercolour pet portraits for her art business (website to go live as soon as I conquer Wordpress), and she had been trying to get a good shot of her friend's boxer, LuluBelle, for a while. I think this is it! She's such a sweet dog. She was a rescue so is a little bit skittish and was not sure how she felt about the shutter noise on the camera. This was taken after I had been taking pictures for about 20 minutes - she had relaxed quite considerably.

Wait, 30?

2011-10-02T20:44:00.001+01:00

30.

Yup, 30.

It was always my "Oh, well, I don't have to do that now, I can do it when I'm old...like 30" age.

And now, I'm old, like 30. Except not.

Things I'm grateful for, at 30:

I am married to an extremely super Husband.

We have a (small) boat, a house, and a zoomy car.

My parents are far away physically, but only as far away as the nearest computer (thank you, Skype).

My job is 100% better than it was a year ago, and I have a really excellent team and 2 great bosses.

I weigh less than I did when I was 25 (and am in better shape).

Now to finish baking cakes for the peeps at work (bizarre English tradition: you bring cakes in for everyone ELSE on your birthday)!

Oh, look, there's a PRINCESS on my blog!

2011-10-01T21:22:00.000+01:00

I was asked to be the official photographer at the East Anglian Sailing Trust's visit from Princess Anne, the Princess Royal.

So here is a picture of the two of us. If you zoom WAY in on her sunglasses, you can see me taking the picture (blue shirt, grey trousers). WOOT!!

New York Vol. 3: open-mouthed

2011-09-26T20:09:00.000+01:00

Ok, these people look normal. That's Lizzie, my high school buddy, with my nephew, John. He's now standing and crawling and singing (with help from Grandpa) and is exceedingly cute. This was his quilt, in case you're keeping track.

I'm not sure what he and my mom are doing in this picture, but it's the same thing Snoopy's doing in the next one...and Meade is doing in the following one. Hmm. Sorry, guys, couldn't resist!

New York Vol. 2 (aka I Ate New York)

2011-09-24T20:23:00.000+01:00

Like Rrufus before him, Snoopy enjoys his morning walk with my dad to pick up breakfast from the Starlite Diner. I went with them a few of the days I was home (not every day...although it was tempting!)

Oooh...the anticipation!

Sigh. In order to replicate this in the UK, I need: streaky bacon, American cheese, and a soft kaiser roll. Not going to happen. Definitely worth the trip, though!

This was the inaugural self-portrait on my new S95 (thank you David Pogue...seriously, he wrote a love letter on his blog). I need to sort out the winking feature (so cool!) and this one would have been improved by a fill-in flash. Oh well. Emily and I look fab anyway. In case you can't see, her dress is a vintage-bicycle print (white on navy). I *nearly* stole it from her. I only restrained myself because she would have had a hard time finishing out the work day in only her underwear. Apparently it's Anthropologie from last year and cannot be purchased anymore for love nor money.

She works close to to the Time Warner Center, so we went up to Landmarc for lunch. At her suggestion I had the nicoise salad. HOLY MOLY it was awesome.

After lunch, I strolled across town to meet up with The International Book Group That Doesn't Read. I can't believe we've been not-reading together for almost 10 years. WHAT?! (Another self-portrait, hence the slightly-off-center poses.)

The day after, I had a meeting on Long Island for work, so we made plans to meet up with my mom's high school friend and her husband for lunch. (Bonus: she's Gnomemade's mom and the recipient of this amazing quilt, which I can attest is even more amazing in person.)

Yes, that's another self-portrait, but we all needed to be in the picture!

Jane made the most fab lunch - I think the best way to describe it was Emphatically American. The pasta salad was, I think, an amalgamation of a back-of-the-pasta-box recipe with some other additions. It was delish: chicken, broccoli, oranges (!?), flaked almonds, bowtie pasta, and honey mustard dressing. Honestly, not a combination I would have ever thought of, but we'll definitely be making it. Future visitors, be warned.

She also made devilled eggs, which I hadn't had in years. My grandma used to make them all the time and I should make them more - they're one of my favorite foods. My grandma always used dry mustard powder, but Jane used grainy mustard, and it really gave them a good zing. These where the only two left. Ahem. Not that I ate 4 (or 5) or anything. Nope. Nothing like that.

See? I really did eat New York (and it was delicious).

New York Vol. 1

2011-09-20T21:54:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the blogging break - I went to New York! For Two Whole Weeks. It was really great - now that I have an amazing team working for me at the office, it meant that I could really relax while on vacation and not completely dread coming back to a mountain of unanswered emails. Hooray!

My brother's birthday was 3 days before I arrived. So, I brought him this London Underground cycling jersey. He LOVED it. It'll be handy, you know, for him to be able to find the nearest Tube station while he's riding his bike in New York. Oh, wait, never mind. Anyway, it's still cool.

My parents gave me an early birthday present. SO shiny. And immediately appropriated by the assembled Toys as their iPad. Hmm.

The morning after we arrived, I had arranged a trip down to Trinity Wall Street to ring the bells with them. We had an obligatory photo-op in Grand Central.

And then on to the ringing. The upshot: I need to work harder at my striking! I rang plain hunt on 9 with their band and their striking was flawless. Mine? Lumpy bumpy oops crash. Hmmm. Must try harder. A great tip from one of the band was to stand behind someone and pretend to strike their bell, listen to where they pull it, and compare that sound to where I would have pulled it. Definitely going to work on that.

After the epic bell-ringing session, we went to Chinatown. The place we'd aimed for was closed, so we went around the corner to my brother's favorite place, Nice Green Bo Restaurant. Instead of ordering main courses, since we were planning for dim sum, we ordered a selection of noodles and dumplings from their appetisers. The soup dumplings were amazing (as usual), and the rest of the dumplings were all super-delish, too. My great-aunt Ruthie (below) was slightly mystified by the whole thing, but we all chalked it up to an Excellent New York Experience.

Here we are, after lunch. Yes, that bag is full of leftover dumplings. And yes, they were just as good the following day.

And then, because my mom is now an Angry Birds uber-fan, we had to take this picture. Teehee!

Wet Bank Holiday Weekend

2011-09-01T20:04:00.000+01:00

Well, it's England. In August. And we just had the August Bank Holiday weekend. Therefore, it rained. Between the showers, we visited Melford Hall (and met the original Jemima Puddleduck). Gorgeous countryside, but we still like Kentwell better.

I also went to Walsham le Willows' annual open gardens day. Again, with the rain. Between the showers, I got some great pictures.

And when it wasn't raining, I was snacking. Lunch: leftover spinach, sauteed, with melted blue cheese on a panini. YUM.

Chocolate cake

2011-08-24T21:17:00.003+01:00

We made chocolate cake for John's dad's birthday. It was all gone the next day. That's it, really.

Went to London; rode BorisBikes; met a witch

2011-08-22T20:36:00.001+01:00

Husband spent all weekend sailing (with EAST), so I betook myself to London on the train for a Grand Day Out. I booked my ticked last Wednesday, so it turned out that the cheapest advance single to go in was actually first class (first was £22, standard was £24). First class was great - so quiet and chill, with HUGE seats. Definitely worth the advance commitment.

When I got to London, I had intended to take the Circle Line around to Embankment for my London Walk. However, TFL had other plans. Circle Line, closed all day. Lovely. So I set off to find a Boris Bike station, you know, just to check things out.

For the grand price of £1 for the day's access and £1 every time I went over 30 mins on one particular bike (I think I spent a total of £2), it was excellent. Bike lanes everywhere, lots of cyclists, very courteous cars (it was a Saturday), and the wind in my hair. WHEEE! This was my lovely little bike, right after I parked her at Embankment station. Thanks, Boris!

Because of all my exercising, I was thirsty when I got to Embankment. So I went into Starbucks and ordered an iced passion tea. Apparently this is now an off-menu item - they use the passion tea blend for making mango-passion smoothies but aren't really supposed to feed it to the punters. Nevermind...it was delicious.

And I drank it, sitting in the park on these chairs, arranged neatly.

And then I met a real live witch (I met a few at Colby, so it wasn't all that scary), who took us on a walking tour.

Past Cleopatra's Needle. Thank you, British explorers, for bringing all SORTS of random crap back from far corners of the world. I mean, really. A postcard is cool. Maybe a magnet. A 60-foot obelisk kind of takes up a lot of room in your suitcase. But, whatev.

Found a room that if I owned I would probably never leave (top floor, please):

And then had very yummy beef udon at Misato. Not as good as the one I had in Cambridge back in March, but not bad at all. Oh, and when we took James to Cambridge last weekend to introduce him into the cult of the Brisket Udon, they told us that the half-empty restaurant had "no room." SO disappointed, especially since the vegetarian place we went to afterwards was resoundingly and virtuously healthy-tasting (read, not doing THAT again...) and all the more disappointing when contrasted with the imagined Udon.

After my noodles, I braved the rain, went to Liberty (sigh), noodled around Oxford circus, grabbed another Boris Bike, got REALLY lost in Finsbury, found my way again (thank you helpful cyclists in London taking pity on what they thought was a very lost American tourist), dropped off my Boris Bike, bought some very excellent VivoBarefoot shoes (on sale for £28!), and subsided onto my (pre-booked) train home.

Things I learned:
-once you leave the protection of a witch, it's going to start raining
-if you leave your brolly at home, it will rain in London. <-I should really know this by now
-taking a Boris Bike around the roundabout at Trafalgar Square is probably not a good idea
-the Boris Bikes need a real HEAVE to get them out of their docks
-booking National Express train tickets in advance is much cheaper than getting them on the day
-biking is very good exercise
-getting lost makes you bike further, which is also good exercise

And there you have it.

Things I Love Thursday!

2011-08-18T20:24:00.002+01:00

If you've ever been to summer camp, check out these bracelet tutorials on the Purl Bee. Hello, 1996! I made these but never seemed to be able to figure out the "diamond" pattern - I may have to make another one, you know, just in case.

I also love (except I'm still breaking them in cause I have freaky feet) my new Clarks.

Homemade pizza (with spinach, sundried tomatoes, from-scratch tomato sauce, and feta). Best Husband Ever.

Selvedge magazine:

And Uniball Eye Micro pens. Just inky enough with not too blobby of a line.

I am Ingrid (well, not really)

2011-08-15T20:15:00.000+01:00

It was time for some new glasses. Because, well, it was.

I had been admiring Joanna Goddard's glasses, as pictured here, and Ingrid Michaelson's glasses, here.

So I went to Specsavers (I know!) and got these. LOVE them. Also, feeling very pleased with myself because they were the cheapest pair in the store. £25 frames, £40 for the lenses. I think that might be my karma from the 2-pairs-ago expensive disaster coming back around.

Speaking of Ms. Ingrid, I can also play The Chain on my new guitar (no, it's not a hard song, and no, I'm not a good guitarist) while singing along. Oh clever me.

Other favorite thing of the moment: nectarines, halved, with a little bit of butter and a sprinkling of sugar, under the broiler for 5 minutes, with ice cream. Do we maybe think this is why my skinny pants didn't fit this morning? Umm...

Walmart and me

2011-08-09T21:36:00.000+01:00

After chatting to my brother about fabric for his New York Rangers quilt, I decided to google to see if there are any other quilters out there with design ideas.

At which point, I saw this:

See? There's Walmart, then there's me, then there's Amazon. Wait, what? I'm above Amazon in search results? I think that means I need to get quilting.

England is not an island

2011-08-08T20:19:00.003+01:00

Betsy Transatlantically had this very entertaining (and informative!) video on her blog today. Yay for expats.

Review: Tangled (and a new camera bag)

2011-08-07T22:12:00.000+01:00

Now that James is older, he no longer demands to see The Latest Disney Movie as soon as it comes out. Especially if it centers on a princess. So it's not terribly surprising that we missed Tangled in the theatres.

I rented it last night, on Sam's recommendation (I had been going for a silly romantic comedy or something), and we both loved it. Good two-level comedy, great Disney songs (with melodies that reminded me a little bit of Les Mis, for some reason), fab animal sidekicks, properly bad baddies, and a very useful frying pan.

If, like me, you live under a rock and haven't seen it yet, go for it!

I'm going to be in NY next month, and want to bring the SLR with me. I've been looking for a camera bag for a while, with several criteria:

1. Does not scream I AM CARRYING AN EXPENSIVE CAMERA!

2. Is not fugly.

3. Does not cost $300. (I've seen some excellent bags on pinterest but they are way out of my budget.)

4. Is not heavy.

5. Can also fit my wallet, phone, keys, kindle/book, and Burt's Bees.

Ta da! I've found it! The Lowepro Exchange messenger bag. It fits all the criteria above, was only £20 on Amazon, AND it fits my knitting as well as everything else. Some of the reviewers were worried about the lack of padding - it's not SUPER-thick padding, but then again I'm going to try to avoid dropping it from a height. It also doesn't have a zip (only buckles) for the main compartment, so I might not want to take it with me to a pickpocket hot-spot. I thought it might be too boxy, from the video on the Lowepro website, but it's fairly skinny considering the size of camera inside. I even managed to tuck it (including camera) into my bike panniers for a ride to Needham Market.

Hooray!

Mini-Manu, started

2011-08-06T10:00:00.002+01:00

I've started in on Gabi's Mini Manu (design by Kate Davies) a few weeks ago. I LOVE the color of the yarn (the blue is a provisional cast-on but I thought it looked really cute with the green. More updates soon. The general goal is to finish it in time to take it with me to NY next month. Hmm. More knitting, less blogging? Or maybe work will hire me a minion to do my work for me while I knit all day?

Ravelled, here.

Oh, and have you guys heard about Lotta Jansdotter's new fabric line? SO excellent. Must de-stash and make some quilts so that there's plenty of room for this when it comes out!

Cheesecake

2011-07-31T09:39:00.000+01:00

Last week, I had a hankering for cheesecake. John didn't eat cheesecake for years (mostly because of the whole lactose-intolerant thing), but since we found Lactofree cream cheese, there's nothing between us and amazing cheesecake.

I saw the recipe for Berry Shortbread Cheesecake in the August Good Food, and had to make it. My only quibble is that they made it in a loaf tin, rather than in a loose-bottomed pie pan. I have NO idea how they got it out of the loaf tin looking like it does on the website. Mine came out, er, in a blob. Looks lovely with raspberries on the top and tasted delicious, but a 0/10 for presentation. Did I miss something? I lined the tin with parchment paper and everything...

The fruit at the supermarket (and from our back yard, thank you, raspberries) has been delicious. I love the "ripen at home" peaches and nectarines. YUM. With blueberries. And icing sugar. Because John accidentally topped up the sugar bowl with icing sugar, so now it's a silly half-and-half mix that we need to use up before we can start over. Poor me.

Coming down with something?

2011-07-28T20:39:00.004+01:00

Achy, tired, and generally blah.

Remedy: husband cooked dinner, poured me some ginger ale, and tucked me in with the quilt, my bears, and my laptop. Oh, and the latest LLBean and Boden catalogues, this month's BBC Good Food, and my library books. Could be worse.

And because I can't post without a picture, here's some gooseberry crumble, from last week. YUM.

Initial design: NY Rangers Heritage Jersey quilt

2011-07-24T11:29:00.002+01:00

My brother doesn't really like stuff - he is a fan of fairly spartan living. After he saw pictures of the Tufted Tweets quilt, he asked if I would make him a quilt. Wait, you want a quilt? Like pieces of fabric sewn together that will sit on your couch? You're sure? Ok, then.

I asked if he had any particular designs in mind, and he said that he'd like a NY Rangers quilt. Specifically, one inspired by their new Heritage Jersey. Thank you, google image search. I looked around online and unlike the NBA, MLB, and NCAA, the NHL do NOT license fabric. Ok, fine. I also checked Flickr and the interwebs in general and there don't seem to be many (any?) Rangers quilts out there.

This is the design I've come up with:

My brother is a huge bike geek, so when I found this fabric on Spoonflower, I was pretty excited. I'm going to use it for the red stripe at the bottom, and possibly some of the applique. I'm definitely going to use it on the back, as well.

The plan is to find a few different blues (possibly in a super-fun adventure to Purl Soho when I'm in NYC in September), and then applique the NEW YORK onto the quilt. I hope he likes it. I haven't decided what to use for the binding yet - white (will it get too dirty?), more red, a blue and red stripe, or some other colour entirely.

Oh, and John has been making cinnamon raisin bread. Yummy.

Review: Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

2011-07-21T20:23:00.000+01:00

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, by Helen Simonson, had been on my to-read list for a while. And no, it has nothing to do with Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day.

I should have taken the hint from Alexander McCall Smith's blurb on the front, "A beautiful little love story."

As AMcS says, it's a love story, set in a village in Sussex, typically English (including the underlying currents of xenophobia and a healthy dose of NIMBY).

Major Pettigrew reminds me a little bit of my mom's cousin, Charles - extremely well-mannered, chivalrous to a fault, and very distinguished. I loved the character, and found his hapless son deliciously bad.

My only complaint about the book was the continuous rant against Red Brick Housing Estates Built On Former Fields. Well, I'm sorry, English Countryside peeps, but not all of us can afford to live in country houses.

Harumph.

My mother-in-law makes the Best Pies Ever - I helped with this one (I made the decoration) last weekend at a big family supper that we had. YUM.

On my Kindle, I've been plodding through Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I quite liked the first half, but have now given up. Hardy just put one block after another in front of poor old Tess - I got tired of it. I was bad and gave up and read the Wikipedia entry about the plot and will now be moving on to the next book. Sorry, Tess.

Gooseberries for me!

2011-07-20T21:09:00.001+01:00

Last year, sawfly ate my gooseberries. This year, I am eating my gooseberries. With help from John and my work buddies, that is. I used BBC Good Food's recipe for gooseberry & almond streusel squares, and substituted some of the flour with a handful of oatmeal. It made it a little closer to crumble, although I think next time I'd use a little more liquid in the mixture because it didn't hold in bars at all. It was exceedingly tasty, though.

The dry ingredients, all ready to be mixed:

The crumble mixture and the gooseberries:

Layers 1 & 2:

Look at those gooseberries!

Why I live in Suffolk

2011-07-18T19:48:00.001+01:00

These golden-hour pictures from the church tower (the ringing chamber, really), in Preston St Mary, Suffolk.

Sorry, NYC...Suffolk wins on this one.

(NOT) Sweet Peas

2011-07-17T20:26:00.002+01:00

How is it that Spotify has been available in the UK for, um, years, but that it has taken my American peeps to be super-excited about it (thanks, Em) for me to actually download it? I realised that I even had a login - I put my email address in and it welcomed me back. Oops?

Taylor Swift, embarrassingly, you rock my world. Sorry, cool police. Google+ is also creeping in to my life - if you're on, shout!

And here comes a public service announcement: did you know that the peas on sweet pea plants (pictured above) are toxic? Um, I didn't. A bell-ringing friend gave us some sweet pea seedlings back in the spring, which I planted outside the kitchen door. They started to make peapods, so I announced that I would put them in some dinner…maybe a curry. The Husband's reaction? "NOOO! They're poisonous!" Oh, really? (Checks internet…) "Why yes, they are." Then why the heck would they name them something like sweet peas? C'mon guys, give me a fighting chance. I hereby suggest a new name: "Very Pretty But For Pete's Sake Don't Eat The Peas!" Thoughts?

Here's my attempt at bokeh, through the plant on the windowsill. I have some work to do, I think.

This is what our table on the back porch looks like. Yes, I know we need the rain. But does it have to rain every day, for hours? And can it be a little warmer than 15C? I don't really want to wear trousers and slippers and a hoodie IN JULY. Thanks.

Review: Wolf Brother

2011-07-16T16:00:00.017+01:00

Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother caught my eye ages and ages ago (years, I think), but I never managed to add it to my library queue or pick it up at the bookstore - there were always books ahead of it.

It arrived for me at the library last week, and I blasted through it. Granted, it's a children's book (I'd say 8 and up), and the print was a bit big, but it was totally immersive. I found the chapters distractingly short, but it made it really easy to "just finish the chapter." I know I'm into a book when I'm reading at lunch and one of my team comes into my office, calls my name, and I either don't hear them at all or am so startled by the presence of another human that I jump.

Set in prehistoric times, Wolf Brother is the story of a boy and a wolf cub, both left alone to fend for themselves. Together, they thrive.

Review: Leuchtturm1917 notebook

2011-07-15T22:02:00.000+01:00

I was sent a Leuchtturm1917 notebook to try, a few months ago. I've tested it extensively (as in, I carry it around the office like Linus and his blanket, and write work-notes in it fairly constantly).

Apparently, it's gaining traction as a Moleskine-Killer, and I can see why. They are expensive notebooks, but they are very well made and they have some really interesting details.

My favourite parts:

-the pen loop (sold separately). Just right for my Uniball Micro (fine) pen, which bleeds through a tiny bit but not enough to notice. I don't keep the pen in there when I'm at my desk, but if I'm moving around, it comes with me.
-the hard back. I can write anywhere.
-the binding. It lies flat and doesn't turn the pages by itself.
-the feel of the paper - it's really smooth.
-the size. It's the "Master Slim," which is pitched as A4+, so that you can put sheets of A4 inside without them getting crumpled at the corners.

-the dots. I'm not sure if you can see them in this picture, but rather than a line or a grid, there are dots that I can use to make diagrams, draw charts, use as lines to keep my writing straight, or doodle on. The paper reads as "plain" but I end up with nice neat lines of writing.

Sigh. Love.

My only complaint so far is that I've noticed a tiny tear in the (faux-leather) cover, just on the spine. Maybe some superglue is in order...I don't really want the tear to get bigger and I have quite a few pages left.

Review: Trudi Canavan miscellany

2011-07-09T21:50:00.000+01:00

I arrived rather late to Trudi Canavan - John read most of the books when they were first released, but they weren't really on my radar. I finished reading the Black Magician Trilogy a few weeks ago, and bought these right after TC visited Bury St Edmunds for a book signing (damn you, Waterstones, for not telling me about it until afterwards). At least I have the signed copies.

I finished The Ambassador's Mission last night - I didn't like it as much as The High Lord (my favorite), but it scooted along very nicely. I think I wish it were more about the main character's parents, but I think he's going to feature rather heavily in the next few so I'd better get used to it!

Look - all signed!

I've also picked up the last (NOOOOO!) Eva Ibbotson, One Dog and His Boy. I think I'm going to have to save it, as it was published posthumously and there definitely won't be any more. Must not panic.

One more thing: welcome, new arrivals from ModernDayQuilts. Thanks for coming to visit! It'll be a miscellany of books, quilts, cooking, expat living, and general musings, if you'd like to stick around.

Flickr link: Texters, by Joe Holmes

2011-07-06T20:59:00.000+01:00

These pictures of New Yorkers texting are amazing. (via the NYT bits blog)

Mission: Coatstand. Accomplished.

2011-07-06T20:39:00.000+01:00

I've been looking for a coatstand for months. MONTHS. Too expensive, too ugly, too office-y, just plain wrong... you get the idea.

I had Pinterest-ed this Muji coatstand a few months ago, here on Pinterest, but I didn't feel like paying the shipping charges and was kind of secretly hoping that the really amazing 1930s one from Elemental would have a twin appear in their store.

And then, I got tired of the coats on the chair. And so this arrived today.

And has now been put to good use.

So there we go.

Gabi's popover dress, or Measure Twice, Cut Once

2011-07-03T19:50:00.000+01:00

When I received an email from Quilter's Haven to say that they had new fabric in that was based on artwork from Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I knew I had to go and get some for my favorite toddler.

I hunted around the internets and found this free download for the "popover" dress from Oliver + S, which I thought was really cute.

I printed it out, pasted the pieces together, cut my fabric, sewed up the dress, and went, "Huh. That's REALLY little." I got out the ruler and the size 4 length was supposed to be 20 inches. Mine was 14. Um, that's not going to fit.

Turns out my printer and Preview were trying to be helpful and resize the patterns to print vertically. Thanks, technology! That would be the tiny pattern on the left, and the real one on the right. FAIL.

Fortunately, I'd seen this blog post about cutting the pieces from HALF of the folded fabric, which meant that I had enough left over to make the second dress once I had downloaded Adobe Reader, wrestled with my printer, and printed out the Right Darned Size.

The good things:
- The dress came out much better the second time (sizing aside): my seams were neater, I avoided any pinning pitfalls, and the curves are better.

The bad things:
- I have two dresses. Well, I guess that's not really bad, as I'm sure Miss Gabi will find a doll or teddy or unsuspecting cohort to put the smaller dress on. I rather overzealously made the size 4 size, for a 4-year-old (she's 2 1/2), but she's tall. It can be a floor-length gown this year, just right next year, and a squeeze when she's 4. Or something.

It's going in the mail tomorrow (and I had a blast wrapping it)! There's a fair amount of fabric (in funny scrappy shapes, obviously), but I'm sure I'll come across a fun project. The original plan was a matching bag and/or hat, but since it took me the extra 3 weeks to sort out the pattern size, I want to get it to her so she can wear it a few times before summer's over!

New quilt: Tufted Tweets minimalist

2011-06-30T21:00:00.000+01:00

Pav & Mr. Pav got married in November. As soon as they announced their wedding (via the most amazing hand-embroidered save-the-date that I have ever seen), I knew I would be making them a quilt.

I originally saw Tufted Tweets out there in blogland back at the end of last summer. The now-defunct birthday club at work gave me the (gently suggested and much ooh-ed and ahh-ed over) fat quarter set from Seamstar. Um, yes, I'll take one of everything, please.

I was really inspired by the colors in Tufted Tweets (especially while snacking on peanut m&ms, obviously), and after consultations with Pav decided on a really minimalist quilt. I picked up 2m of white fabric and 2m of grey (a darker grey than I had in mind, but it was all they had). All nicely laid out.

I planned it out on paper and got sewing. And then, at the end of January, after Pav & Mr. Pav had been to visit, I had this. Please pardon the picture. But, UGH. I was so disappointed that my Excellent Quilt Idea had become a horrible grey prison-bars looking thing. Into the WIP pile you go, sad quilt.

Flash forward to a very sunny day (in March, by the look of the garden), when I said to myself, "Self, your lovely newlywed friends are not going to be newlyweds much longer. FINISH the quilt. Also, they live in Australia where it is very sunny and bright all the time, not in dark, Januaryish England." Right, then.

A little sun on the quilt did it (and me) good, I think. I "demoted" Evil Grey side (which I now love, of course) to the back, and attempted to brighten things up a bit with a new front. Below, in the sandwich stage.

Then, we added a the famous orange binding, which was sped along very nicely by watching Season 6 of Lost (FINALLY, and yes, we liked it).

And here it is, the finished "front," although it's truly reversible - the only front/back differentiation came when I had to decide which side to machine-stich the binding to, and which side to hand-sew.

Thanks to the Husband for the (matching) Quilt Feet.

Use it in good health, Pavs!

I had to riff on the hand-embroidered invitation with a little embroidery shoutout of my own. Obviously.

Recipe: Raspberry Oat Traybake

2011-06-27T22:00:00.000+01:00

Again, with the baking. Since on the hottest day of the year so far what I really needed to do was turn on the oven. Oh, well...at least it was only for 10 minutes. And the results were definitely worth it.

Butter and honey, melting.

Raspberries, pre-squashing.

Post-squashing

Cooling.

It was delicious - the almond flavour really came through and the raspberries were really zingy. Might add some lemon juice next time, or possibly some vanilla with the almond extract.

Recipe: Raspberry Oat Traybake, from BBC Good Food

Go make it!

Review: The Sweetness At The Bottom of The Pie

2011-06-26T21:04:00.000+01:00

Walked the Race for Life today (you can still donate, in the sidebar!), and we even ran the last 300m. It was a really great day - quite a bit of emotion with people's signs, lots of money raised, and zillions of pink garments.

The brownie below was good, but it's not why I've posted a picture of it. I think the color combo (blue, white, cream, and brown) is one of my all-time favorites. Looking around the living room, the color scheme is echoed in here, although another blue accent or two wouldn't go amiss.

These came home with me, as expected. Unfortunately, I then acquired two very super-duper blisters (which I will spare you the photo of). Going to have to do some breaking-in, methinks.

We made fajitas for supper tonight - I think that the fresh coriander (along with homemade guac) is the key.

I finished The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie, by Alan Bradley, on Friday evening. It was recommended to me by a few people within the space of a week, and we decided to read it for book group. I thought the mystery was good, the plot zipped right along, the chemistry-interludes were endearing, and the protagonist (an 11-year-old, pigtailed detective) was adorable. My only problem was that I had trouble not setting the novel in my brain's stock-stately-pile, currently home to several Persephone books, a few Kate Morton books, and a few other interludes. I think I need to allocate a new house in my brain for stately homes, since it's getting rather full in there!

Race for Life

2011-06-24T21:15:00.000+01:00

I'm joining the Race for Life with some work colleagues this Sunday. The original plan was to run it, but life (and the fact that I just really hate running) got in the way. So I will be walking, briskly. I feel like running is something that I should love, but I really don't.

You can click on the Sponsor Me button over on the right, or you can visit this page: http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/kateherd

Thank you - every pound (or dollar) makes a difference!

First raspberries

2011-06-15T21:18:00.000+01:00

I finished The Postmistress today - I liked the writing and found the descriptions very vivid, especially London during the Blitz. The storyline was a little predictable, though. I think the atmosphere of the book will stay with me for a while, while the characters and plot fade.

I tried to start W.G. Sebald's The Rings Of Saturn after reading about it in the New York Times (it's "set" in Suffolk), but I read the first chapter and completely lost interest. I have been known to ramble randomly, but I didn't put it in a book. NEXT!

Raspberries, below, from the garden. Yum. Oh, and I have managed to find an Ingrid Michaelson album that I like - I have downloaded Everybody and it is on semi-repeat. She's like Kate Rusby in that her voice falls in a similar range to mine and her songs are quite melodic, so she is very lovely to sing along to.

It must be summer

2011-06-12T12:28:00.000+01:00

The only reason these green Birkenstocks didn't come home with me then and there is because the shop was closed. I may not be able to resist if they're open.

This morning's breakfast (along with blueberry pancakes and little sausages):

It's cloudy, cool, and might rain later. Must be (English) summer!

Review: What The Dog Saw

2011-06-10T21:51:00.000+01:00

Through some miracle of synchronicity, my mom and I both read Malcolm Gladwell's What The Dog Saw at the same time. And both said to each other, "Hey, I'm reading a great book - you should read it!"

Malcolm Gladwell is a columnist for The New Yorker, which I've always found too highbrow for me. I guess I like my magazine reading pretty light - Wired articles are about as long-form as I get. The book is a collection of essays, all previously published in TNY, none of which I had ever read. They are all quite thought-provoking, mostly challenging standard reactions and conventional wisdom.

I don't normally read a non-fiction (and I rarely read essay compilations) but What The Dog Saw is thought provoking, well-written, and entertaining!

And look what they had, in packs of 6, on special at Waitrose. My Favorite Soda EVER. That doesn't really seem like soda because it's just fizzy water with lemons. Right? Ok, and some sugar and other stuff. Mmmm. I might have bought a second six-pack because the first one is all gone.

More sewing (and future sewing)

2011-06-06T21:21:00.000+01:00

My favorite 2-year-old LOVES Eric Carle books. So when I saw this fabric at Quilter's Haven, it had to come home with me. It will meet the popover sundress from Oliver + S and all will be right with the world. I haven't started yet because I ran out of white thread when I was quilting The Now Un-Stalled Wedding Quilt (yay for quilting! boo for running out of thread!). Of course I ran out at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, making it entirely impossible to get more thread on Sunday without driving all the way to Norwich. Oh well.

We were invited to a garden lunch on Sunday, so I used some of the seed-head print fabric from the now web-only Karlsson Design and made a teatowel to bring as a little hostess present along with our bottle of wine. Swedish linen fabric, cotton thread and LOTS of ironing and pinning resulted in a teatowel that I would have happily paid £20 for in a department store. [Pats self on back.] I'm definitely going to have to make some napkins and more teatowels, as originally planned.

The quilt is coming along - I've put the binding on most of it, and have about 3 more minutes' worth of free-motion quilting once I get more thread. Then I just have to stitch the binding to the back and into the post! The recipient is taking a blog-break so I could probably post pictures in relative safety, but it won't be long until it's all ready to go.

One note about the ads on the sidebar. Yes, I sold your eyeballs. No, it wasn't to The Man. I think I've made $0.04 so far since I added them. It's mostly so I can be part of the excellent BlogHer community and reviewing program. Woot!

Cooking in Provence (or Rhode Island)

2011-06-04T20:50:00.000+01:00

I've been meaning to post this picture for ages. When we met Delia, the entire morning was spent learning to cook with Alex Mackay. His recipes are excellent - we make his version of piri-piri sauce all the time now, and my mom was so inspired that she bought his new cookbook, Cooking In Provence. He signed it for her, of course, and she took it home to Rhode Island to splatter it with olive oil and tomatoes (and cook from it).

She and my dad made one of the recipes from the demo-day - a really fresh-tasting seafood stew. They used local clams from RI and pronounced it excellent.

Fabric update

2011-06-02T21:36:00.000+01:00

Thank you, internets. It seems that admitting to the world (and Gnomemade - thanks, K!) that I needed to work on the quilt has done the trick. I've now finished the back (which I LOVE and I think might be promoted to "front"). I just need to email my choir buddy the dimensions (she owns Quilting Solutions and has lots of great wadding/batting) to get some warm & white batting, since a Flickr search for "natural batting + white quilt" led to a whole big pile of "DON'T DO IT!"

And then on with the quilting and the (orange - squeee!) binding and into the post.

For your crafty pleasure, here is some (unrelated) V&A Liberty fabric that I picked up last time I was in town. The V&A? And Liberty? Together? With fabric? Oh, my.

Concert on 11th June: Purcell's King Arthur

2011-05-30T09:46:00.000+01:00

HEY EVERYBODY! We're singing Purcell's King Arthur (as far as I can tell, exactly what Monty Python would have been had it been written in the 17th century). We're not doing the whole opera, just the singing parts. It'll be a really enjoyable summer evening concert (it'll still be light out when we finish). You could even visit Mr. Peacock at Kentwell Hall or wander around Melford Hall in the afternoon, and then picnic on the village green before the concert...

Saturday 11 June 2011 at 7.30 pm

Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford

Henry Purcell

King Arthur

Sena Larard soprano
Karina Lucas mezzo-soprano
David Sheppard countertenor
Patrick Mundy tenor
James Gower bass

Bury Bach Choir

Suffolk Baroque Players

Philip Reed conductor

Enter the world of King Arthur in this exuberant portrayal of events long ago. Purcell’s
dramatic opera, with libretto by John Dryden, contains some of the composer’s most lyrical
and evocative music, including the famous Frost Chorus and the patriotic song Fairest Isle.

The action is pure adventure. It revolves around Arthur’s endeavours to recover his fiancée,
the blind Cornish princess Emmeline, who has been abducted by his arch-enemy the Saxon
King Oswald of Kent. Does he succeed in rescuing her? Come and enjoy this spine
tingling performance… and discover the answer.

There will be one interval, without refreshments – performance ends 9.20pm

Tickets £16 from Theatre Royal Box Office 01284 769505 or the Theatre Royal website.

Review: A Discovery Of Witches

2011-05-29T21:38:00.000+01:00

Alice (La Bibliofille) is a fount of good books. (For those of you who think I come up with my own ideas, think again - it's all Alice!)

She recommended, quite recently, A Discovery Of Witches. After reading her review, I was pretty sure I would like it. I reserved it at the Stowmarket library (new book with not too much buzz = short list!), and carried on reading my other book. Then I got impatient and downloaded a sample chapter on my Kindle, just to see if it was worth lugging the 500+ page tome up the hill from the library. Oh my, was it worth it.

I blasted through the sample chapters, and thankfully the book came in at the library. I, um, kind of abandoned everything. I went to work (but read in my lunchbreak AND at teabreak), read over breakfast, over dinner, on the train home, before dinner, after dinner, when I should have been varnishing, while waiting for other bellringers to show up in the churchyard, when I should have been doing laundry, and a few other non-normal reading times.

The good news (for the rest of the world): I finished this morning (over breakfast, of course).

The bad news: I finished the book this morning. NOOOO!!

The good news: It's the first in a trilogy and the next one's coming out next year. Write faster, Deborah Harkness, please!

So you will have read Alice's review. Go on, the link is up there.

My review-in-a-nutshell: Intellectual Twilight for Grownups. With Witches. And a fabulously haunted house. LOVED. IT.

Sigh.

Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

2011-05-29T21:37:00.000+01:00

We rented The Sorcerer's Apprentice the other night. I'd read not-great reviews about it, but Sam at the Stowmarket Blockbuster (who is generally very good with movie recommendations) said that he really liked it.

I find Nicholas Cage to be relatively emotionless - he seems to have a constant expression and I thought it was a bit hard to believe that he was madly in love with a sorceress who'd been trapped in a Russian doll for 1,000 years. Jay Baruchel's voice (he also voices Hiccup in How To Train Your Dragon) sets my teeth on edge. Oh, and Teresa Palmer is Australian, which is why I found her New York accent totally unconvincing.

Other than that, thought, we did actually enjoy the movie. There was a very clever nod (well, direct repeat) of Mickey Mouse's mad-cleanup scene in the animated Sorcerer's Apprentice. I found myself thinking "how on earth did they get the rights to do this?!?....oh, wait...it's a Disney movie...never mind..."

Fun teenager- and parent-friendly movie with a happily romping plot and Alfred Molina as The Bad Guy. Standard issue.

One more thing. I hereby declare to the world that I will stop being such a dork and FINISH THIS QUILT. It's a present so I can't show you the whole top. Actually, it's a wedding present and we're in danger of hitting their first anniversary before I send it to them. It's going to rock when it's done...~~I'm just stuck~~. I now declare myself un-stuck. There. That's better.

Evil Mac Malware

2011-05-28T10:34:00.001+01:00

Was merrily reading Teh Interwebs, when the image below popped up. The only way out of it was to force-quit Chrome - I'd read about it in the NYT and knew not to click on it. I wouldn't have gone as far as to install any software, or give them my credit card number, but the website looked alarmingly authentic.

Consider yourselves warned (NYT article below). MAC DEFENDER IS NOT YOUR FRIEND.

TECHNOLOGY
Bits: Apple Operating System Affected by Malware
By By NICK BILTON
Published: May 25, 2011
Apple computer users were targeted by fake antivirus software that hopes to gain access to users' credit cards. Apple said Wednesday that it plans to issue a software update to remove the malware.

If you want a guide to antivirus programs for the mac, Lifehacker has a good one.

Update: John has found this article on Apple.com about how to remove Mac Defender if you did end up installing it.

Review: The Importance Of Being Seven

2011-05-26T21:37:00.000+01:00

I finished the latest instalment of Alexander McCall Smith's The Importance of Being Seven earlier this evening (I was 3 pages from the end after breakfast).

McCall Smith's preface was one of the best I've ever read. He describes how in book signings all over the world, his readers' favourite character from the books is the ever-tormented Bertie Pollock. Bertie is 6, and has an exceedingly overbearing mother. He is fabulously endearing as a character, and is definitely the most compelling character in TIoBS.

Bertie, you will, one day, attain the miracle that is Seven. Until then (and probably afterwards), we will all thoroughly enjoy reading about your (mis)adventures.

(Photo taken in Felixstowe, by me.)

Boris Bikes

2011-05-23T21:06:00.000+01:00

Check out the Boris Bikes. I submitted it to Things Organized Neatly but they haven't published it yet. It would have been better if I'd had the big camera, but I didn't feel like schlepping it all over London.

And now, to read about The Importance Of Being Seven, under the quilt on the bed. Could be worse.

2011-05-22T16:33:00.000+01:00

We helped out at the Blind National Sailing Championships yesterday at EAST. They had fabulous weather, great wind, and happy volunteers (and extremely happy sailors).

Since Ms. Kanga still has many weeks of work before she goes in the water (mostly reattaching the assorted fittings that we took off to redo the deck), we thought we'd go down to EAST and at least help out. I ended up taking hundreds of pictures of the sailing (and the volunteers), which we'll bring over on a DVD shortly.

I've been a serial book-abandoner since I finished A Discovery Of Witches - I gave up on Alone In Berlin (too grim), One Day (characters were driving me crazy), The Tiger's Wife (generally meh), and Embers (I couldn't decide where the book was going so I gave up).

Oh dear. I have the newest 44 Scotland Street novel from Alexander McCall Smith, The Importance of Being Seven, which I know I'll love. I also have the third of the Black Magician trilogy, by Trudi Canavan, so I'll be fine. Canavan was at the Bury St Edmunds branch of Waterstones last week and I didn't find out about it until after the fact. FML. I've tried to get on a list for events in local bookshops and there isn't one. I forget to check their website and then miss awesome things like Authors I Love Who Live In Australia And Hardly Ever Go On Book Tours. Bah.

2011-05-19T21:29:00.000+01:00

Roomie C sent me this video on Facebook. Not afraid to admit that it made me cry. In a good way through. I've gone on to iTunes to see which album I should buy and I can't seem to find an album's worth of songs that I love. Just this one, for the mo.

Had a funny moment at work today - I went into the canteen to make my coffee with my "chemistry set" (aka Aeropress) and our dinner-lady said, "Oh good, you're here. I have bananas for you."

"Um, what bananas?"

"Oh, I've been trying to give them away to other people all morning and they all said that I should give them to you. Something about banana bread?"

Oh, right. Banana bread. I'll get right on that.

I want to work at Liberty

2011-05-16T19:44:00.000+01:00

Ok, have you guys seen these scarf-tying tutorials from Liberty of London? Where have they BEEN all my life?

I went looking for the new Mollie Makes and couldn't find it, even though it's supposed to be available from WH Smith and Sainsbury's and I tried both. Bah...Ipswich.

I did come across issue 1 of Handmade Living, which I liked - it wasn't the Best Magazine Ever but I'd probably buy it again.

I made rhubarb crumble again, with the Rhubarb Pear Crumble recipe from BBC good food (their website is having a grumpy), without the pears this time. We ate it, hot from the oven, with toffee crunch ice cream. BLISS.

And to answer JaneRowena's sneeterdoodle from the Paula Deen Banana Bread post, I kinda just eyeballed the cup of butter. My mom used to smoosh butter into a cup-measure, and then wrestle it out again. Weighing is much better. If I weren't so lazy, I would have converted for y'all.

Organised

2011-05-15T19:18:00.000+01:00

My fabric stash was getting a little bit out of control. Embarrassing pictures, below:

Shudder. I couldn't find anything, and any time I wanted to pull fabric out for a project, it made a mess of the rest of the pile.

I asked Pinterest what to do, and found this tutorial from Smashed Peas and Carrots. Having a 13-year-old stepson who loves going to the comic book store has its advantages, apparently!

The newly organised stash includes a green seed-head printed linen from Karlsson Designs that's destined to be napkins and some teatowels, and a long-lost Japanese bicycle print that I'd forgotten I owned. It was still all folded up in the Purl Soho (where I haven't been in at LEAST 2 years) bag. Oops.

C'mon - don't you love that little red bicycle? With those clouds? Sigh. Thanks, Pinterest!

I've started reading Sherlock Holmes on my Kindle - I've found that I can only really read it in short bursts, as the stories seem to be a little repetitive and Sir A.C. Doyle is NOT giving his readers all of the information to solve the puzzle before Sherlock does. Bah. I think it may also be a case of Post-Discovery-Of-Witches trauma. It's tough to follow a star...

Use more butter, y'all!

2011-05-08T11:36:00.000+01:00

There was a surplus of bananas at work (they feed us lunch, including a piece of fruit), so I took some home with the promise to make banana bread.

Boy, did I make banana bread!

I rifled through my recipe books, and decided that the Paula Deen "put some more butter in it, y'all" treatment would be appropriate.

It was definitely the best banana bread I've ever had (and I have the emails from my colleagues to prove it - they devoured it and asked for more)! The crust was a little bit chewy and vaguely caramelised, and the inside was moist and crumbly and very banana-y.

Recipe: Banana Bread (from Paula Deen's Kitchen Classics)

1/2 c butter (at room temp; or wrestle with cold butter like I did)
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 c plain flour
1 tsp baking soda (I used bicarb)
1 tsp baking powder
3 ripe bananas, mashed (I doubled the recipe and used 7 bananas [and 2 loaf tins], but they were small ones)

Grease a loaf tin. Combine butter and sugar. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well (it'll look dry before you put the bananas in). Bake in the loaf tin for 50 mins at 375F, until a skewer comes out clean and your house smells amazing.

Cookies & Scones

2011-05-02T14:22:00.000+01:00

We couldn't watch Friday's wedding without some Real English Food. So I made Delia's scones (from my new book, naturally). The recipe I used doesn't seem to be on her website.

Also, it was supposed to make rather more scones than it made. Never mind, they were delicious. We inhaled them as soon as they came out of the oven, so there's no "after" picture! The mat they're on was a present from my mom (thanks, Mom!) - it's one of those non-stick silicone jobbies. Nice.

Who's that, taking a picture of the tv (and assorted clutter around the tv)? Not me! Ok, maybe I did. But it's SO CUTE. That's our Easter tree on the right.

I felt a pressing need to make cookies on Saturday evening, so I grabbed my Paula Deen cookbook. Again with the recipe not on the internet...bah. James announced that oatmeal raisin cookies were YUCKY, so we added some dark chocolate chunks. He made a batch to take home with him and then forgot to bring them when he left. Too bad - more for me! Sorry for not posting the recipe - I'm upstairs and it's downstairs and I'm lazy. So there.

Review: A Fine Balance

2011-05-01T20:38:00.000+01:00

One of my book group buddies registered for Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance for World Book Night this year.

It was quite long, but definitely had an immersive feel to it - I found myself surprised when I picked my head up that I wasn't in a slum in India. The interactions between the characters were very well drawn, and I found myself coming back to it to find out what would happen next. There were a few scenes that I wished I hadn't been eating breakfast while reading, so be warned. I'd recommend it, though - I read it nearly 2 months ago and the characters have stayed with me.

When we haven't been reading, we've been sanding and painting and varnishing. Kanga seems to be loving the attention (although she keeps calling attention to bits that need mending...)

We had some bourbon in the house, so I looked on the interwebs and found a recipe where you mix bourbon with ginger ale. John picked up some Fever Tree ginger ale (which I like to drink when I'm under the weather). YUM!

Gabi's birthday bag

2011-04-25T19:39:00.000+01:00

This is a birthday present, but the recipient doesn't read the blog (yet - she's only 2) so I think I'm safe. Her mom & grandma both read the blog (hi E. and A!), but I think they'll keep a secret until Sunday.

I used the tutorial for Molly's Little Purses from the Purl Bee, with some modifications at the end from the Twenty Minute Tote.

Basically, I didn't have the super-cool handles from the MLP, and my liner fabric is directional so I didn't want to have upside-down bits of it on the outside.

Both prints are from Ikea, and the handles are red binding material that I had from some unknown previous project. I sewed them into the linings - I pinned them upside-down in between the lining and outer fabrics before I sewed them together. LOVE the pocket.

I really love the whole project, actually - I kept running in to the other room to show John. "Have you seen THIS part? How CUTE?!!" Teehee. I'm hoping she uses it to carry her books to and from the library, or to carry around those IMPORTANT things that you need to keep with you when you're two. You know the stuff...random bits of string, assorted teddy bears, the odd pinecone or acorn...

Grey, green & orange.

2011-04-18T20:31:00.000+01:00

My Kindle case arrived. Charcoal grey wool with a green ultra-suede tab. I felt a little guilty ordering it, since I probably could have made myself one, but Husband pointed out that I'm supporting an Etsy-er and probably wouldn't have gotten around to making it. It's not reinforced or anything, so I need to not sit on it, but I really wasn't interested in one of the enormo-Kindle-shells, since the whole mission was to make my reading material smaller.

Still going through Mom-withdrawal, I thought this picture was really funny. Pretty much what each of us saw all week! And yes, that's an ill-fated Flip. If you were thinking about it (or thinking about any video camera, really, or have kids, or a dog, or anyone you want to video, BUY ONE NOW). They're super-easy to use, take great videos, and are otherwise awesome. Cisco, please resuscitate the Flip, or at least release the patents onto the open market so someone else can make them.

And in a quick tribute to Jane Brocket, whose tulips are amazing. These were pretty rockin' though. (Spotted at Osterley Park on Saturday.)

We Did A Delia

2011-04-17T20:19:00.003+01:00

Well. My mom came for her annual Week In Suffolk. We had our usual fabulous time (of course)!

My mom's 'cousin' came up to visit from Bristol, and came to the Bach Choir's performance of Dream of Gerontius. It went exceptionally well (and has been stuck in my head ALL week). We had a picnic in the Abbey Gardens between the rehearsal and the concert, which the boys thoroughly enjoyed. I mean, c'mon, what's not to love!?

We spent Sunday at Ickworth House, since I have now recovered from my employee-induced snit with the National Trust and have (gasp) joined for a year. I think we made a good dent in the membership: two entrances to Ickworth, one to Anglesey Abbey (um, the guy was a SERIOUS magpie!), and two to Osterley Park (reason no.1 for visiting: 5 mins from Heathrow).

We also did our usual amount of gardening (welcome, new plants!), and general eating. But the highlight of the week was the cooking class that we went to in Norwich, at Delia's Canary Catering. We spent the morning watching Alex Mackay give a great cooking demo, had a very tasty lunch, and then WE MET DELIA!

(Americans, Delia Smith is the English Martha Stewart. Except just for cooking - not so much on the interior decorating front.)

My mom is now back on the other side of the Atlantic, which is rather sad. We did, however, have a super week, and we've left a trail of recipes / plants / books / pictures and Flip videos behind us!

Kate & Mom Week 2011

2011-04-11T08:30:00.000+01:00

A small preview. We went to Ickworth yesterday. Fun!

This weekend: Bach Choir sings Elgar

2011-04-07T22:17:00.001+01:00

Ok, English people. We are singing the very English (and very awesome) Dream of Gerontius, by the very English (and very awesome) Edward Elgar this weekend at the Bury St Edmunds cathedral. And my Mom is coming all the way from New York to see us. So you should come, too.

Details at the Bach Choir website. Short version: Saturday 9th April, 7:30pm, St Edmundsbury Cathedral. £23 / £18 / £12. BE THERE!

Look what I can do when I turn my camera to manual mode! ::Happy dance::

Pretty Things

2011-04-03T19:46:00.000+01:00

Ribbons and a fat quarter.

Fuzzy.

The Downton Abbey box set for the M-i-L for Mothering Sunday,

all wrapped up in ribbon and brown paper.

Rambles

2011-04-02T21:50:00.001+01:00

Well. Spring has rather suddenly sprung - it was 20 degrees and sunny today. Glorious.

This is...ahem...my second Aeropress. The first one lives at work. And then our John Lewis coffee machine (with the nice insulated pot) decided that it was Finished. On strike. Not making coffee. Well. We can't have that.

If you really like coffee (and don't mind not being able to top your cup up with "a little hot" as my mom always calls it), go get one.

OK, I have a confession to make. I've gone over to the Dark Side. See? It's right there, in the picture. No, not the Aeropress one.

Fine, you win. I will shout it from the rooftops.

I HAVE A KINDLE! And I love it. It hasn't been properly Kindle-y and left the house yet, mostly because the super-snazzy wool felt case that I ordered on Etsy hasn't come yet. Don't worry, I'll blog about it when it arrives.

I've decided that I will continue to be a mega-customer of the Stowmarket Library (at least until the Tories kill it), and the Kindle will be used for (1) books in the public domain and (2) books that I Have To Read Now And The List At The Library Is So Long That I Would Have Bought The Book Anyway. For the moment, that means I'm reading Pride And Prejudice.

One more thing to show you - remember when Viv came to stay? I know, it was a blast. Anyway, when she was here, I admired her snazzy knitting bag. And so she made me one. And sent it to me last week. And I LOVE it! Little mini pencil-case sized bag for scissors and those funny little poky things to twist the needles and stoppers on and off, and a big bag for the actual knitting. You can't see from this picture, but it has a really bright blue lining that looks fab against the linen and the red zipper. Also, Little Red Riding hood is accompanied by some very entertaining critters.

Small Cambridge Adventure

2011-03-27T11:58:00.000+01:00

We went on An Adventure to Cambridge yesterday, and stumbled upon a really delicious lunch, at Jinling Noodle Bar. We were walking past, on our way to Wagamama for lunch, when we noticed it. We peeked through the windows and saw lots of happy customers slurping on noodles. Wagamama would wait. This looked better.

I asked the waitress what she recommended, and she said the brisket noodle bowl. Somewhat unlikely, but there you go. It was delicious - the noodles were tasty and just the right consistency, the cabbage was crispy, the brisket was meltingly tender, and the broth was really savoury and not too salty.

Here's the before:

And the after. Yes, I ate ALL of it.

We were also in John Lewis, where I thought this display of plates was really funny. I've been told by the Husband that we are NOT buying any commemorative Royal Wedding stuff (not even a teatowel!) but the It Should Have Been Me plate cracked me up. As did the Kate's Wedding List plate. She wants a toaster, a dinner set, throw pillows, a new tiara, and Oxfordshire, apparently. Tee hee!

Camera Tips

2011-03-25T21:19:00.000Z

Ok, I read this. And then read it again. And then linked to it for y'all.

I think I'll read it again tomorrow.

Apertures & Shutter Speeds via NotMartha. If you have a camera, go read it. Promise.

This was a non-slr photo taken in completely automatic mode (and tinkered with in iPhoto).

Review: Downton Abbey

2011-03-21T21:07:00.000Z

Well. We loved Downton Abbey. And may even have to brave the commercials on ITV to watch the second season when it comes out, rather than waiting for the DVD. People who live in Suffolk: they have the DVD at the library - it's £2 for a week and you can reserve it online. What are you waiting for!? Americans, it was on PBS. Watch it. Great cast, Dame Maggie Smith is AMAZING and steals every scene she comes within 30 feet of, and the "bad guys" are deliciously bad.

And a little baking yummyness: lemon & blueberry cake (minus blueberries) + raspberries + portrait lens = awesome.

Needs work

2011-03-19T12:04:00.000Z

Saw this in Woodbridge last week. Teehee.

Nautical day (not on the water yet)

2011-03-13T19:29:00.000Z

In a fit of excitement at NOT wanting to spend the whole day asleep under the duvet with a box of tissues and a cup of tea, we went bought bottom paint for Kanga (the boat). Ok, the two aren't really related, but I thought it sounded good. We're now ready for some Warm, Spring Days, please, so we can apply said paint to said bottom.

I am very glad we do not have to paint THIS boat's bottom. That's a lot of paint.

We headed over to Woodbridge after the boatyard, to grab some lunch and go for a walk. We wandered through town and up to the market square, where we found The Galley. The mezze on the menu looked interesting, so we went in.

The food was delicious, and really colorful. Yes, it really was THAT pink (turkish yogurt with garlic & beetroot). We split the mezze starter between us as lunch, and it was just right. Some of our fellow diners were eating full three-course meals, but I think we'd have to fast for 48 hours before taking that on. We'll definitely stop in to the Ipswich branch (owned by the same chef) next time we're at IFT.

We then had the best creme brulee I've ever had (and the second best John's ever had, after the now-closed Bertorelli's in London). It was perfect.

We chatted with the chef/patron about it, and apparently it takes 5 days to make. And minutes to devour.

I'm feeling a little conflicted about blogging with so much death and destruction around the world, but I think I'm going to go with Shutter Sisters' message today: show signs of hope.

This was my week

2011-03-12T11:42:00.000Z

I caught the mega-cold (worst one I've had in a while) that has been going around work. And missed the entire week. As one of my colleagues said, I "slept for England." And read Jilly Cooper's Jump for book group. Verdict? Meh. It should have been half the size. Half the number of characters, half the number of pages, and half the story arcs. At least it entertained me for several days on-bed. Even her author's acknowledgements at the end were 9 pages long. 9 PAGES! Someone, somewhere, please edit Jilly Cooper down to a manageable length, at which point I might consider reading another one.

Haven't actually started Downton Abbey yet - I'm looking forward to it.

Recipe: Non-Yucky Lemsip (because the medicated stuff is NASTY)

1 green-tea teabag

1/2 lemon

1 tbs honey

boiling water

-and-

1 paracetemol (taken separately)

Stir the lemon and honey around in the tea, then take the lemon out and squeeze as much juice and fruit as you can into the mug (it'll be easier after a minute in the boiling water). Works better than the medicated stuff, I think, to make you feel better and clear things up, at least temporarily. I wonder if I could fill an insulated camelbak with it and just take it around with me!

Other saviour of the week: Angry Birds. LOVE it. Even if playing for 2 hours drains my iPhone (3) battery from full to empty. Not that I've done that, in my pjs, while sipping Non-Yucky Lemsip, or anything. Nope.