Giant Couscous

I bought myself some yellow tulips. It was an excellent idea. Don't you agree?

We took the mother-in-law for lunch in Norwich, at Frank's Bar, again. New menu, different but equally amazing food. I had grilled aubergine over giant couscous with roasted-fennel creme fraiche. SO yummy.

I finished reading The Gift, by Alison Croggon, last week. It reminded me a bit of Eragon, but I think I liked it better. I've reserved the next one at the library, which I guess is a good indication!

Grey, green & orange.

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.)

Silver linings

Bad news: our shower has been leaking.

More bad news: we couldn't figure out why.

Good news: we figured out why today!

Bad news: it was because the tiles at the bottom came off in John's hand when he removed the grout. Thanks, Crest Nicholson. Tiles are NOT supposed to be attached with grout and hope. You need something stronger.

Good news: our neighbor the builder is coming to help.

Bad news: today was a cold, rainy, and generally grim winter day.
Good news: these daffodils look so much MORE yellow and springy against the grey background.

The BBC

This week, on the BBC (cue dramatic music): Lambwatch, LIVE! Five, one-hour, (mostly) live programs, direct from a lamb shed in Wales. Honestly. No, really, I'm not kidding.

Where will YOU be at 8pm?

Notes from the garden

I'm not sure what happened with my seeds this year. I meant to plant 2 courgette plants and 2 sunflowers, and somehow ended up with 4 sunflowers and no courgettes. So here is one of the happy sunflowers, living in my vegetable patch. There's a bee on it (we have a very bee-friendly garden), which is good. Not as good as if there were courgettes on it, though.

The rest of the veggies are coming along - we have a ton of tomato plants that are all full of green tomatoes. A little hot weather and they'll be ready. YUM. And yes, those are more sunflowers.

To continue the flower theme, this is my new favorite necklace. I bought it with Andrea at Surya Satya [ed: I got the Yoga words mixed up and the websites look deceptively similar!] down near Christopher Street. It hits at just the right place on my neck and is really pretty.

Chelsworth Open Gardens

Yesterday John and I took his mom to the Chelsworth Open Gardens day, as recommended by Country Living (and found in one of the back issues that I'd given my mom).  While lovely, the gardens were all much-of-a-muchness, and there are only so many hollyhocks and roses that one can admire.

They had fabulous luck with the weather, and we got some good ideas and good pictures!



Here's an artichoke plant.  I think they spread a little too much for our garden, but I'm not afraid to experiment.



All of the gardens had these little signs outside - it was very cute and English country garden-y without being tacky or twee.



This was by far the most impressive garden - the owners had built two brand-new walled gardens (for the microclimate properties) and this greenhouse had some escaping geraniums. This garden also had some, er, tasteful obelisks at one end, framing a landscape view. We were so startled by the obelisks that I forgot to take a picture.

Loooong weekend

We've had a long weekend and it's been super-relaxing. It's been warm and sunny, and we even fired up the grill!

Saturday, we went to Bury in the morning and picked up some foam seat cushion forms for our new garden chairs (thanks Mom & Dad!). The woman at the market stall was funny - she'd obviously seen what she thought was 'my type' before.

"Now, luv, if you run in to any trouble or need any help, just bring the foam and your fabric back next weekend and we'll make up the cushions for you."

Not THIS crafter. I spread out the fabric, used the foam inserts (that had already been cut to size) as my patterns, and off I went. AND I put zippers in. Granted, the zippers aren't going to win any prizes, but I think the cushions look really good. They also make our pre-existing hand-me-down garden chairs look like they're part of the v. posh new set.


Here they are, in action, this afternoon (with the two spare cushions on the table). I'm going to make a tablecloth and some napkins with the rest of the fabric, and perhaps a shirt for John if there's any leftover. :)

Sunday we went to Rougham Airfield for the Large Model Aircraft show. They were incredible - they are remote-control aircraft that seem to be oblivious to the laws of physics.

This wasn't a crash landing - it had skidded to a halt and then just...tipped...over.



We stopped on the way back at a nursery near Thurston, where we bought some plants for our hanging basket. Here they are, in situ.
Today was v.chill - I put together the rest of the paperwork for my next visa application and then sat in the garden and read my book. Civilized.

And one more picture...here's our zucchini, in flower:

Spring

Got in a little over my head on Friday night at bells. After my success at ringing Plain Hunt on 5, I thought I could manage an inside bell for Plain Bob Minimus. I managed it in that I didn't let go of my rope or get TOO tangled up, but I managed to finish each course with my bell upside down. Everyone else was on handstroke as I was merrily tolling away on backstroke. Hmm. I've spent some time with the diagrams from Winston and my Rope Sight Tutor, and we'll try again next week.

We were at F & T's yesterday - we helped Travis prune some trees in the back yard and generally frolicked in the glorious spring weather. We all smelled v. smoky after the bonfire of tree parts but we were happy and tired. We'd brought all the lenses along - here's someone noshing on the fat-ball (with the telephoto lens):

And here are some of Freda's glorious tulips:


James lost another tooth on Friday at school - he brought it home with him and wanted to leave it out for the tooth fairy. Mummy also keeps his teeth (eew) in a little tooth-shaped wooden box, so there was a special request for it to go back to their house. There were some logistical issues with the Stowmarket Tooth Fairy on Friday night, but this morning James found this by his bed:

More Bells

I went to bells last night - I took this picture of the church tower in the dark. It's quite grainy but I thought it was a neat angle.


There were 7 of us there last night: 3 'veteran' ringers, 2 people who have been ringing for about a year, and 2 of us who have just started. I'm really psyched - I can now ring the bell entirely by myself, although I still need someone standing next to me. I panic pretty easily - I need to work on that. It's getting more comfortable, though.

I also had my first try at 'change ringing' last night, where I was ringing half of the bell with one of the more experienced ringers while the two intermediates were learning how to call the changes. It was really neat the way they were teaching us - we were all practicing different things but while ringing together.

I love how mind-emptying it is - I had quite a week at work and there isn't room for thinking about anything other than the bells. It's how I feel yoga should be, except that I can never get my mind to empty during yoga. I need something absorbing to distract me, I guess.

I had an early Physio appointment this morning and it's a gorgeous day - the sun on the church in Woolpit was gorgeous.


Here's the little bit of spring on our kitchen windowsil: some daffs that are nearly done and some hyacinths that are held together with a rubber band because they keep falling over. There are three of them in a tiny pot, and I didn't think to replant them before they flowered. They smell SO good.


And Mom & Dad sent me this fantastic bag from Muji in New York - I love it! It's the perfect size for my wallet and phone and a book. All I ever need, really.

Red, White And Blue ...and Pink!

In honor of the 4th, here's a picture that my dad took:


And when I got home from the (mercifully short) meeting tonight, Mark presented me with some '4th of July flowers'. They're GORGEOUS. The light wasn't ideal but I wanted to post them, so here they are.