The family who sails together...

...drys their sailing gloves together. Also, check out that BLUE SKY! And it was WARM today! SUMMER!

We "pushed the boat out" yesterday with EAST for the RYA's Sail For Gold day, and sailed with the EAST fleet all the way (almost) to the Orwell Bridge. Apart from the wind dying in the middle of the day for about 45 minutes, it was an excellent sail.

Then, today, we raced Kanga with the EAST-ies on the (very busy) Orwell. It was our first time sailing her with 3, and James' first time afloat on Kanga. She behaved very well, and only resisted a little bit when it came to bringing her back to the dock. We need to work on that part. Wet sailing gloves all round.

We took a short walk to Stowmarket, and I brought my camera (much to the teenager's embarrassment) and proceded to take golden-hour pictures of weeds. SO embarrassing (but worth it for the light flare).

Recipe for happiness

Combine:
6 days
1 round-trip flight from JFK to LHR
1 rental car
1 Bach Choir Concert
1 quarter peal (Bob Doubles, inside!)
2 visits to Narey's
1 forsythia bush
2 rosebushes
1 dwarf red maple
1 roast chicken
2 curries
1 Pizza Express
1 windswept and interesting visit to Sutton Hoo (with a tour)
2 pub lunches
6 back issues of Country Living
1 Bill Bryson book
1 hour of Flip video
1 husband
2 in-laws
1 StowmarKate's Dad (via Skype)

with
1 StowmarKate's Mom
1 StowmarKate

Mix well.

Unbelievably, I didn't take any pictures. We have some Flip videos, but that's it!

Happy New Year

James gave me the most adorable wallet for Christmas - apparently he thought that I kept losing things in my other one. This one has really cute blue lining and lots of pockets (so I won't lose anything).

I love the dog on the front, too. I think, in honor of Rrufus, I will name him Blue-fus. [John says, "Oh, kill me now.]

A closeup of the lining (and the pockets):

John has been baking: some pizzas but mostly cinnamon-raisin bread. We're on our second loaf of the year already. YUM. It makes the house smell SO good.

On New Year's Day, we decided to go for a walk. We went east, to Brandeston, and did a circular walk from Cretingham to Brandeston and back. Just as we were arriving in Cretingham, the New Year's Day Hunt was starting out. There were tons of people on horses and an apropriately barking pack of hounds. It looked like a LOT of fun. If we ever win the lottery, John and I have decided that we'll buy a big (but warm) country house where he can have a sprawling live-steam garden railway and I can have a stable with some horses (and someone to muck out the horses).

We came across this sign on our walk, at the entrance of a field that we'd been instructed to cross. We crossed at quite a clip, but didn't see the bull (thankfully). There had definitely been one recently, though - the water trough had an appropriate amount of mud around it and there was an empty food bucket nearby.

I think I'm going to call this picture "de-fence". It was definitely part of a gate at some point, but I think that may have been a while ago.

We then came home and watched the entire 4th season of Lost over the course of 3 nights. 7 episodes on New Year's Eve, 5 on New Year's Day, and 2 last night. All done! The upside is that the back section of my sweater is now almost finished. It's surpising how much knitting you can get done while watching TV for 10 hours. It had lots of backstory and some new characters, although neither John nor I are fans of the flash-forwards. I knew it had to happen at some point - one of the first things they teach you in the Improv class at Colby is "don't put yourself anywhere where your story is constricted by your location, like on a desert island. you'll run out of room."

I also finished reading Sepulchre, which was recommended by a friend with the caveat that "she spends the whole book trying to prove to you how smart she is". That part didn't bother me as much as the complete lack of editing - she gave descriptions of the most bizarre things (like what color 'scrunchy' the main character was wearing, and the fact that she was wearing some variation on jeans, sweater and sneakers in every scene). Why, Kate Mosse? It did nothing for the story. It was a forgettable book. If you have a long plane ride and need something to read and the person next to you offers to loan it to you, go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother.

As there was some kind of blockage in the library book queue system, I'd run out of other books to read. So I started in on Brideshead Revisited. And I'm sorry to all the people who love it, but the movie was drivel. And the book was worse drivel. I stopped half-way through - even reading it on the couch under a blanket with a nice cup of tea couldn't redeem it. I made the mistake of buying it (on a recommendation), so if anyone wants it, tell me and I'll mail it to you. Otherwise, it's going to be left as a Book Crossing.

Thankfully, the library un-blocked itself on New Year's Eve and I picked up a Maeve Binchy (shh, don't tell the intellectuals) and the newish Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book). The others in my queue are coming...supposedly.

And finally, I was tipped off by some bell ringers that Lidl had great graph paper notebooks. 3 (of varying sizes) for 99p. WOOT! This one is perfect for writing out bell methods, and I've got one of the others on the go for making knitting patterns. The paper is surprisingly solid-feeling, and it's nice to write on with both pencils and pens.

We ran out of candy

Last year, we had about 20 trick-or-treaters and lots of leftover candy. This year, we had lots of trick-or-treaters and NO leftover candy. I felt like an evil witch - we ran out at around 6:30. John had bought 2 bags of 25 bars, and we had so many kids that they just wired through it.

Next year, we will be prepared for the onslaught.

[Oh, and HI! to all of the visitors from Ruby!] Regulars, check out York Daily Photo.

This was the first year that we let James carve his own pumpkin. He was VERY closely supervised - he's much cuter with all of his fingers attached. He opted not to go with teeth or anything too fancy. Wise decision, my boy. He was scheduled to go trick-or-treating with a friend in Ipswich, dressed in "all black clothes, ripped if mummy will let me". Remember being 11?

I was feeling supremely girly when I carved my pumpkin. I think it was the result of spending the weekend with the BOYS. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but James' pumpkin was quite large and mine was really tiny. I made him carry his all the way to the car. ::muahaha::

We rode on the highway (with no cars)

We took James on a bike ride yesterday - we went out of Stowmarket to the southwest (on the world-famous Cycle Route 51), all the way through Onehouse and into Harleston. We went down the hill towards Haughley, and under the new A14. And then found ourselves on the OLD A14 (with no cars). Rumor has it that they're going to turn it into a cycle path - I'll believe it when I see it!

Here are the boys, on the eastbound carriageway.

And here's the view from the top of the hill, again looking west:

 

After all that riding, we were hungry. John made a very tasty paella. Yum!

Summer, tentatively

We've been so busy - I was out Tuesday (ringing at Great Finborough - another tower!) and Wednesday (dinner with a friend), and then on Thursday John and I finally managed to get to Salentina, the new Italian restaurant in Stowmarket. They've been open for about a month, I think, and they seem to have a loyal following already.

I was a little worried when we got there, since it was 7pm on a gloriously sunny Thursday night and it was completely empty. By the time we'd ordered, though, 2 more groups had arrived, and when we left it was nearly full. John started off with the best calamari I've had in ages - it was really sweet and just crispy enough. My antipasto was tasty, if uninspired. We both had pizza (in their brick oven). Mine was a little dry, and the anchovies were SUPER salty, and John's calzone was not quite what he'd hoped it would be.

Looking around at the other tables, though, the pizzas were not the way to go. The smells of the pasta dishes appearing on the other tables were fantastic, and everyone seemed to really be enjoying themselves. Overall, the food was good, although it was relatively expensive and there were definitely still some kinks (no credit card machine yet, general disorganization). However, it's SO nice to have somewhere to be able to walk to for dinner (other than our beloved Radhuni).

On our way back from dinner, we stopped at the video store to pick up a movie. However, they had Lost - Season 3. So we got it. And then realized that it's the complete season 3. The previous DVDs we'd rented were only half-seasons. We're now 8 episodes in (out of 24), after 3 nights. A little behind schedule. And we both have to be at work tomorrow and can NOT stay here all day and have a Lost marathon.

Glorious weather today - the boys and I played croquet in the back yard. My parents gave James the set for his birthday last September and it's been the first real nice day (!) where we've been able to set it up in the back yard.

I've never actually played croquet on a flat lawn, so our hilly yard was no problem. The grass is nice and long, so it stopped the balls from rolling down the hill too fast.

Murder most foul

We have a huge quantity of slugs in our garden. Apparently, the UK is the 'slug capitol of the world,' since the mild climate and high rainfall are great for them. Fabulous.

Last year, they ate about 2/3 of my tomatoes - I had to go out every night to harvest the few tomatoes that they hadn't eaten. This year, I got started early and have used some slug repellent powders that sit on top of the soil. They don't seem to be particularly effective - I found two slugs this morning sitting in the powder, happily munching on my zucchini plant. The little buggers have completely obliterated the eggplant plant - the poor thing looks more like a doily on a stem. This picture was taken yesterday. The eggplant (far left) was worse today. Sad. The rings around the plants are the (entirely useless) slug powder.


We are now in take-no-prisoners mode: J & I had a slug-murdering fest after dinner, and we've just ordered some 'Nemaslug.' It's apparently some kind of small wormy thing that kills the slugs and is completely non-toxic to humans/pets/birds/etc. I just hope we can stave them off until it arrives. I normally feel horrible killing 'critters,' but they are horrible nasty slimy things that can eat twice their body weight in one day. And that's my dinner they're eating. In case they do eat it all, here's what it looks like now:


I had my first lesson in raising the bell at practice on Friday night - it had been in the works for a while. I don't know if it's that I'm further along or what, but it seems like it's easier than lowering the bell - there's less rope flapping about everywhere if you don't do it exactly right. I'm getting better at lowering, too - the rope-flapping is being kept to a dull roar.

Then, yesterday, I spent the morning in Bury. I got there pretty early, so I stopped at Starbucks and got an iced coffee. I took it down to the Abbey Gardens to walk around and read my book, and stopped at the aviary to watch all the birds. Because it was still only about 8:30 (on a Saturday morning!), it was pretty much just me and the gardeners, but the birds had been up for hours and were v. busy. There were lots of nests with teeny beaks peeking over the top, and there was much chirping.

After the gardens, I went to Marks & Spencers and Next and bought some new trousers, a skirt, and some tops. All in neutral colors and all things that I think I'm going to get a lot of wear out of. I was surprised - the other times I've gone to both stores I haven't found anything but I was fairly laden down yesterday. I had intended to get some clothes from Boden (with my 20% off coupon), but not only were most of the things I wanted sold out, my total for 2 pairs of pants, a skirt, and a shirt (with the 20% off) was £178. WAY too much.

After all my hard work relaxing and shopping (and because it was a warm afternoon and we needed to return a movie), we stopped at the Stowmarket wine shop on the way back from walking into town and had a glass of wine.

Very civilized. And while we were there, we picked up a flyer for Stowmarket's newest restaurant, an Italian/pizza restaurant tucked down by the river. We're going to try it out this week and I'll post a full review. We're psyched - except for Radhuni, there isn't really much to eat in Stowmarket that's not pub food or lunch/cafe/takeout places. Corrections to the previous statement gladly accepted in the comments!

Yup, it's for us.

I called our friendly neighborhood Blockbuster (the selection is mediocre and the fact that the employees are awesome is the only reason we're not on a Netflixy thing) to find out if they had Tales From Earthsea, the latest film from Hayao Miyazaki's son. They'd recommended it and it was out when James and I went in last Saturday, but they had it when we called tonight.

When we arrived in the store, I went to the spot on the shelf and it wasn't there. The Blockbuster Guy was standing by the counter holding the DVD, and said, "I thought it was for you guys!" He'd taken it off the shelf and was holding it for us. Literally - in his hand - holding it. He also looked up the first season of Lost (out) and The Dresden Files (out). See...not much selection. But v. friendly. We got some other movie - The Walker - we'll watch it tomorrow night and see how it goes. I just read the reviews for Earthsea and they haven't been great...but if James likes Miyazaki I'm not going to stand in his way!

Ring-y ding-y!

I've been meaning to go learn how to ring the church bells in Stowmarket for about a year, and finally made it down to a rehearsal on Thursday night. However, they'd canceled rehearsal at the last minute so nobody was there. Boo. I'd called someone a few months ago and never gotten a response, so I was feeling a little frustrated. I left a message on the answering machine of one of the ringers, explaining that I'd love to come ring but that I didn't seem to be able to get in touch with anyone. We were at work pretty late last night, and didn't get home until about 6:45. I checked our messages, and Jo (the ringer) had called back. I called her, and she said that they were going to be having a quick practice tonight and did I want to come down? John said he didn't mind, so we bolted some dinner and I drove down to the church.

They were the most welcoming group of people - the ringing captain who's been ringing since about 1850, a married couple who have been ringing for a year, a very enthusiastic 9-year-old boy who's been ringing for 2 weeks, and Jo. I had a lesson on the '4' bell, which is an 8 cwt bell that was cast in 1450. Eek! It was the most incredible experience: relaxing and challenging and a little bit scary. And I'm completely hooked.

There's an entire Bell subculture that I never knew existed - there's lots of jargon and a crazy camaraderie and all kinds of networks of bells and ringers. Check out the Suffolk Bells website. There's also lots of info on Wikipedia about change ringing. I'm not up to the changes or exciting stuff - I'm still trying to get to the point where I can ring the bell without breaking anything or hanging myself. We were up in the church tower (click the picture to go to the church website):



My dad has sent another batch of photos - I thought these were good Jr. Foodie pictures. Mmmmm.

Post/Pre Thanksgiving

On American Thanksgiving (Thursday), I called the family and they played pass-the-phone with me. It was good to talk to everyone, if only for 3 minutes each.

Then John and I had veggie chili leftovers and walked to the Stowmarket Regal cinema. It's a 1930s-ish art deco cinema that has just been restored - we love it! We saw Stardust (based on the Neil Gaiman book that I loved) and it was fantastic. The perfect blend of LoTR adventure and Princess Bride camp. I've seen reviews that said that the pacing was bad and Clare Danes was annoying - and I completely disagree. The movie romped along at a v. satisfying clip and Clare was perfectly acceptible. A.O. Scott suggested that it would have been much better with the original choice - Gwyneth Paltrow. Meh...not so much.

Tomorrow is Stowmarket Thanksgiving - here's some of the prep that went on tonight. I had a minor meltdown when I couldn't find my mom's NYT stuffing recipe - I have NO idea where it is and the interweb wasn't yielding anything. I've ended up with this recipe - it sounds similar but I think Mom's might have carrots in it. Not sure. It should be yummy, though.



Oh, and our monster fridge that we thought we'd never fill? FULL.

The Mac is Back

My mac came back today - they mailed it to me in a HUGE box with lots of padding (yay!) After much gnashing of teeth (by John), it is now connected to the internet, although it doesn't THINK that it's connected. Despite the fact that I'm merrily tippy-tapping away on Blogger. Hmmmm.

The BBC concert went pretty well on Saturday night - there were a few rocky patches but otherwise it was pretty good. This particular choir is much better at loud, exciting stuff than they are with the more subtle stuff.

Oh, and we were in town on Saturday morning, getting haircuts, and we stopped in to the flooring place to say hi to the owner and rave about our carpets. Teehee. Somehow we started talking about things going on in the town, and apparently the evil part of the bike ride in to town is soon to be no more- they're building a new bridge over the railway tracks. There's a random road to nowhere in our development (right near where we almost bought a different house, but not too close to where we are now, and it's apparently the first part of the bridge. And the plans have FINALLY all gone through so they're starting on it soon! Not that it's going to open any time soon, but it's coming!

"It looks just like the picture!"

John and I had a particularly decadent food day today. I called my friend Elia this week and invited her and her husband (she's American, he's a Brit) over for lunch today. They called to confirm this morning and I suggested that they come over around 12:30 or 1. John asked what we were having for lunch, and I panicked. Elia was really funny when I talked to her in the morning - she basically said that "canned soup warmed up would be fine for them." I don't really like canned soup (too salty), so I attacked this month's Good Food for suggestions.

And found this:

We went to our favourite butcher in Needham Market this morning and got lamb steaks, which I broiled under the grill with some herbes de Provence and olive oil. Then I put it with the smushed tomatoes and zucchini that I'd sauteed in garlic. It was GLORIOUS. And Elia announced that it looked "just like the picture!" Success!

Then, for dinner, John and I wanted something light - I'd gotten some smoked trout and champagne as splurges at the grocery store yesterday - we had some vouchers and wanted to spend them on things other than juice and veggies. So we had the trout on the caraway and poppy bread that John made last weekend - it was amazingly good.






And we're having another beautiful evening - it's been raining on and off all day (and POURED during the hour that we decided to walk in to town...) I think I'm going to make this in to my new banner.

I'm obsessed with food...

John went out for a curry with the guys last night, so I went to Waitrose and bought a v. glorious steak for dinner. (J doesn't eat red meat). I had a long phone chat with mom and then read for a while and went to bed early. It was very battery-recharging.

This morning I went in to Bury to meet John, and we went out for breakfast. We both had coffee- my latte was SO pretty that we had to take a picture of it. It was with John's cameraphone so the resolution isn't fabulous but I think it gets the point across. I had eggs benedict with a fantastically lemony hollandaise and John had the full english. YUM.



Then we went to the fabric store - we had our first walkthrough of the new house yesterday (it's AWESOME!) and I wanted to check out some curtains. Instead, I got completely distracted by the corduroy that was on sale. I'd mentioned ages ago that I was making a knitted and corduroy blanket like the one that Emily has, but I hadn't found any cord that I liked. This stuff is a really nice chocolate color AND was on sale because it was a remnant. Perfect. Oh, and while we were in there, we saw a sewing machine that costs £4,000. Yup...$7,000. Apparently it will embroider ANYTHING that you tell it to. When we win the lottery...


Speaking of chocolate, I bought some strawberries at Waitrose the other day (I know, I know, it's January...) and they're glorious. So I decided to dip some of them in chocolate. They turned out ok...the chocolate has hardened with a somewhat unappetizing texture, but other than that they're glorious. Sorry the pic's kinda blurry - it's the best I could get.


One more thing- we went in to Stowmarket to do some errands and went to the new wine shop at the station - we were the only ones in there and the assistant was thrilled to have someone to talk to. We 'tasted' the better part of half a bottle (and then bought a few with a promise to return). Good stuff!