Blast from the past

Baby quilt no. 2 is now with momma-to-be, who was announced that it was the best thing ever and was going on the crib tonight all ready for the baby. I nearly caused early labour yesterday by accidentally sneaking up on her at work - she didn't realise I was behind her until I spoke, and she jumped about 6 feet in the air. I figured the quilt might make up for it, so I gave it to her early.

I was inspired by some Take 5 quilts that I found on the interwebs, this one in particular. I dispensed with the sashing, though. The colours look a little washed out here, but the red and blue are picked up across all the fabrics. The cream one was part of my goodies from a few weeks ago from Halfpenny Home. I think the red might be a touch overwhelming, but I was trying not to make it too girly, since I don't know what she's having.

We went with the choir peeps last Saturday up to Burghley House and Stamford to have a day out, give a concert, and have a BBQ. Having been to Burghley quite a bit as a kid, I remembered parts of it, but they've added a lot of garden features and visitor facilities. We missed being able to see the formal garden (not open to the public), but thought the house was interesting. Look at all those chimneys!

Out in the sculpture garden (where there were some very cool and some extremely weird sculptures), I found this glorious rose. It smelled good, too.

Our concert went really well - we sang some Tallis and Byrd along with the obligatory Britten. I somehow was the only person who volunteered for a solo in the Britten Te Deum (in C), so there I was, singing my little socks off and channeling my inner English Choirboy. My parents and I thought it was exceedingly odd that my little brother had been an actual English Choirboy singing a similar solo in a very similar church about 15 miles away, 18 years previously. It was all a blast from the past being in Stamford anyway - the school I used to go to was between the church and the hotel where our BBQ was, so we walked past the front doors several times.

How have I only just discovered Jane Austen?

I was nosing through the "books for sale for 50p" section of the library a few weeks ago, and came across Jane Austen's Emma. Somehow I've come this far in life without having read any Jane Austen, so I decided it was time to remedy that.

I really enjoyed it - there were parts that I found so funny I had to read them out to John (who appreciated it, I'm sure), and scenarios that were as cringeworthy as any reality show or sitcom. I really loved the ramblings of Miss Bates, who appears to stop speaking only to breathe, and even then, only when she's in danger of keeling over.

I also loved Mr. Woodhouse, Emma's father, who verbalises the worst possible outcome of every situation. There were two scenes of his that cracked me up. The first is when his elder daughter is bringing her family to visit for two weeks, and he frets endlessly about the fact that two weeks isn't possibly going to be enough time and why would poor Isabella possibly not want to stay with him forever? The second part was when the assembled are discussing their thoughts on a painting that Emma has done, and Mr. Woodhouse says that he quite likes the artistry but could never possibly like the painting because the subject is seated outside, and all sorts of unfortunate things could befall one while outside!!


Too funny.

Speaking of horrible things that can befall one while outside, I was minding my own business putting the compost bin out tonight, and noticed that our gooseberry bush is a shadow of its former self. As in, half the leaves were gone and the branches stripped bare. Um, what? I checked it on Tuesday night and everything was fine. According to the interwebs, it's sawfly - little green caterpillars that nom their way through gooseberry plants. Lovely. As much as I hate spraying chemicals on things, the two suggestions were: pick them all off by hand (um, no) or NUKE the little buggers. One trip to B&Q later, for some food-safe insecticide, and they have been nuked. I felt a little bad, but they were eating MY gooseberries.  Or at least, eating the leaves on my gooseberry plant, preventing me from eating MY gooseberries.

In other news, this foxglove is not infested with anything (yet), and I thought it looked pretty. Agree?

While on my unscheduled trip to B&Q this evening for my bug-killer juice, I tuned into Bob Harris' weekly country music extravaganza on Radio 2. He had Brad Paisley singing songs from his new album, which John and I both really liked (and have now downloaded on iTunes). Between the Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, and Dixie Chicks, I think we now have sufficient country music to keep Stowmarket hoppin' for quite a while.

Quick musical plug: if anyone is anywhere near Stamford, Lincs, this Saturday evening, the Bach Choir is performing at St Martin's Church in Stamford at 6pm. We'll be done by 7, in plenty of time for you to watch the football!

Too cold for anything but quilting

I'd noticed on my Friend Connect widget  (somewhere over thataway ---->) that I was being followed by Halfpenny Home.

"Oooh...someone I don't know!", I thought.

Upon further investigation, they are a crafting/fabric/yarn/notions emporium and craft school tucked away near the station in Needham Market.

The weather on Saturday was horrible - blustery and cold with heavy rain showers. Between the showers (and wearing a fleece - in JUNE!) I headed over to check out the craft & vintage festival that they were running.

I had a funny moment when the owner looked at me and said, "Hey, you're Kate from Stowmarkate!" Um, yes, I am. Not as famous as Delia Smith, but I'll take what I can get.

There were about a zillion things that wanted to come home with me, but I managed to restrain myself to some ribbon, a spool of thread, a really glorious natural cotton, some nice pins, and an embroidery hoop. Oh boy, oh boy! The cotton has already been cut and is playing a supporting (but crucial) role in Baby Quilt No. 2.

Look at that ribbon. Would you have resisted? Thought not.

I dashed out to the back yard between showers yesterday afternoon to nab these pictures of the finished Baby Quilt No. 1. It's my favorite so far. As soon as the baby arrives, it'll be in the mail!

A book and some more quilting

I read the second Magic Thief book, Lost, last week. It's the second in the trilogy (the third has recently been published and is now en route to our house from Amazon), and reminded me quite a bit of the second LOTR, in that the hero goes on a rather epic journey and that it's all middle. Very interesting and entertaining middle, but middle nonetheless. I'm looking forward to the 3rd book, and I have it on good authority (ahem, from the author herself in the comments of one of my previous posts) that there is a knitting pattern in the back. Lucky me!

I've finished a baby quilt for a soon-to-be-born baby in the US - here it is in bits, before quilting:

The various bits were acquired during an extremely entertaining hour at Quilter's Haven in Wickham Market. The finished product is actually waiting for another sunny afternoon and clothesline combination to have its photo taken. As you may have noticed, it's the pattern from the Road To Spring quilt, downsized and reversed. It's a great pattern and really simple.

After my awesome quilting, we went to Lucca in Manningtree for our anniversary dinner. Owned by the same family as the Mistley Kitchen, it was a really nice evening out. John didn't think his pizza was as good as I thought mine was, but I really enjoyed my mushroom, gorgonzola and ham calzone, the service was great, and it was a great evening. We ended up taking the train from Stowmarket to Manningtree (we hopped on the London express and it's only 2 stops and 20 minutes), which was definitely the way to do it! 

And now, half-time is over - back to the World Cup. C'mon ENG-ER-LAND!!

Three things I love

In ascending order.

1. Lingham's chili sauce. Discovered on our south-east asian cooking class (our Christmas present from my parents) at the Mistley Kitchen. It was a great workshop - we had a blast. We bought the sauce as it's featured in a number of the recipes and it now goes on everything. Yum.

2. Our Williams-Sonoma mesh grill pan. BEST. INVENTION. EVER. No more mucking about with skewers or things falling through the grill. Tonight's dinner was steak (in the grill pan) and grilled veggies (again, the grill pan). Mmmmm.

3. My awesome husband. We've been married for 4 years (um, what?) today. Yay us! (Picture stolen from my brother's girlfriend - thanks Jen!)

Steam train in Stowmarket?

John had to pick the sm. boy up from school on Friday afternoon. Since I wasn't quite finished with work, I stayed late and took the train home. When I got to Bury station, there were a lot more people than there usually are on the platforms. "Must be the bank holiday weekend," I thought.

And then I noticed the two old people sitting on lawn chairs on the opposite platform. Um, what?

The train arrived (on time, thank you British Rail), and we left the station. As we came out of Bury, every level crossing, random field, ditch, and footpath was full of people clutching SLRs, fancy video cameras, tripods, and children. Some in lawn chairs, some not. Thurston and Elmswell stations, same thing.

I figured they weren't all there to watch the 6:25 from Cambridge to Ipswich (my train), so as the conductor came by, I asked what they were all waiting for.

"OH!," he said, "Coming along behind us is a brand-new steam engine. With a full load of carriages!"

I texted John, who was walking down the hill to meet me at the station. He'd already left, though, so we ended up without the SLR. So here is the "holy moly it's going fast" picture from my little Casio, which made a valiant effort, I think.

Here she is, in all her 75mph and slightly blurry glory. The Tornado.

While not out trainspotting, I've been trying to decide what to do with this yarn. I Had To Have It in the store but am now not entirely sure what to do with it. I don't really like knitted socks (too itchy) and I don't wear shawls. Maybe a "fake-isle" hat once it starts to get cold again. Or if it doesn't get warm. Today, June 1, we have the heating on and I'm wearing jeans, a hoodie, and slippers. Brrrrr. Granted, John and I both have colds, but still.

I also just finished a few great books: Fire, by Kristin Cashore, which I didn't like quite as much as Graceling but was still fantastic; The Magic Thief, by Sarah Prineas (recommended by Kristin), which was a little Philip Pullman-esque and very good; Innocent Traitor, by Alison Weir, which was riveting and rather heartbreaking, and The Children's Book, by A.S. Byatt. I didn't like The Children's Book as much as the others, but it wasn't bad. Embarrassingly, my book group also read The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society. There were a few tolerable ones, anyway. Mostly, though, it was filled with overly sentimental drivel. At least they were short!

Weekend in Amsterdam

We spent this past weekend in Amsterdam, hanging out with my brother and his girlfriend. We had a blast!

Our favorite things:

Drinking beer from Dutch microbreweries at t'Arendsnest (thank you New York Times article).

Looking at flowers

Going on a Mike's Bike Tour (Countryside edition) with the Wackiest Guide Ever.

Pretending I'm the owner of said Wacky Guide's Awesome Orange (of course) Fiets.

The end of the garbage-men strike (24 hours after we arrived; they had 12 days' worth in the city!)

 ::no pictures - that's a good thing::

Wandering aimlessly through the streets, taking random pictures of wonky houses

Waving at tourists on boats (and getting them to wave back)

Looking at (the wrong kind of) bells

Coveting bicycles (especially Bakfietsen)

Drinking more beer

Eating frites and frikandel, from the frituur recommended by the bartender at t'Arendsnest

Lifting up tiny cars

  Dutch trains, especially the doobledockers (sp?)

 Taking the ferry back and forth (Husband's idea)

Eating a really yummy lunch after finding a gaggle of happy Dutch people sitting outside a cafe, eating food that looked great

There are more pictures on Flickr but they're behind the "friends and family" wall - friend me if you want to see them!

Mysterious blue knitted thing: revealed

I happen to know a very cute 1-year-old. Which is, I think, mutually beneficial. I saw this pattern by Tora Froseth on Ravelry and HAD to make it.

I nearly made it in time for said 1-year-old's birthday, but got distracted by all the ninja-gardening when my mom was here.

The yarn was a Debbie Bliss Rialto fingering-weight that was incredible to knit with - it's really soft and just seemed to flow across the needles.

Combined with some really cute buttons that my mom found (at Wibbling Wools, of course), I think it was a huge success. I'm really glad that I made the 18-month size rather than the 12 month size. She's a tall one!

John & Kate Plus Houseguests, Episode 2

The guest bed had just about cooled down after my mom left, when one of my Colby buddies arrived to hang out with us for a Sunday afternoon. She's "Coburn Freshman Hall Resident Now In A Relationship With A Brit" No.3. They must have been putting something in the water...

Anyway, because of the whims and vagaries of Sunday rail replacement busses, we realised that in order for her to get back to where she was staying before midnight she'd have to leave Stowmarket at 3pm. Having arrived at noon. BUMMER.

I suggested she stay over and take normal trains back on Monday morning. WOOHOO! So we kidnapped her and took her to Kentwell Hall, followed by a sojourn to the now world-famous Radhuni.

Kentwell was a blast - we took the cross-country route.

Kate: "The speed limit on this [single track, winding] road is now 50 miles per hour."
Viv: "Um, what??"

John later commented that Viv and I were both knitting, chatting, looking out the window, and I was also navigating. He said that had he been attempting to do all of those things simultaneously, his brain would have fused.

Here's a sneak-peek at what I was making. It's a birthday present that hasn't been given yet - finished product pictures soon!

While at Kentwell, we took inspiration for what I need to do with hedging in our front garden:

Parts of the house have a higgldy-piggldy feel to them - this lookeed like they just kept adding bits on.

I loved the sign on this ex-greenhouse.

We were bad and got put in the stocks:

And Mr. Peacock decided that Vivienne was the bee's knees and kept showing her his tail feathers. Um, she's taken, Mr. Peacock, but I guess you would still fall into the English Boyfriend category!

Viv also showed me some knitting tips - I've been doing my M1 increases all wrong, leaving a trail of little holes behind me. This is now resolved. I was also weaving in my ends wrong. All future knitting projects (and the previously-pictured blue mystery project) will have awesomely woven-in ends. Phew.

John & Kate Plus Houseguests, Episode 1

My mom came to visit us for a week. Somehow, she managed to land the day before they closed Europe, and then she left on her scheduled flight the day they reopened everything. We'd had a small amount of excitement when they cancelled her flight the day before, but they reinstated it a few hours later and off she went. 

True to form, we did some Ninja Gardening, had lots of yummy pub lunches, hung out with the inlaws and the sm. boy, rang bells (well, I rang, Mom read and "Flip"-ped, went on walks and ate curry. We had one dining fail - we tried a new restaurant in Stowmarket that produced what is definitely in the top 5 worst meals I've ever eaten. Maybe they'll get better, so I'm not going to leave a trail of hate on the interwebs. If you're testing out a new restaurant in Stow, though, email me. And WATCH OUT.

Much better were these flowers (thank you SLR).

 And this hodgepodge street in Norwich:

 And standing outside Orford church:

And the extremely yummy Butley Orford Oysterage. Eat there. Even though it's in the boonies.

While it's tough to live 3,500 miles away from my parents, we Skype all the time and it's really fun to have a week of concentrated MomAndKate time, which I imagine we wouldn't have if we lived around the corner from each other.

Review: The Magician's Elephant

Kristin Cashore recommended The Magician's Elephant, by Kate DeCamillo, on her blog. Yeah, I know. If Cashore tells the interwebs to read a book, I'm going to read it.

In fairness, I didn't LOVE Knowledge of Angels, but I agree with her that it was riveting.

I did, however, love The Magician's Elephant.

It is, unsurprisingly, about a Magician and an Elephant. But it's mostly about a small boy, and the things that happen when he dares to hope. It's relatively short, but every word and every sentence seemed somehow exactly right. In the same way that Mozart sounds right, and vaguely inevitable.

The copy I had from the library was hardbound, and I don't know enough about paper to really weigh in on it, but the paper seemed sort of onion-skin-y, and the shapes of the (gorgeous) font bled through to the following and previous pages.

If you haven't read it, you should. It'll take you an hour or two, at most. But savour it. (Especially you, C.)

And now for something completely different (although still from KC): Sigrid Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter. I'm on volume 1 of 3. It's translated from the Norwegian, the library copy that I have was printed in 1969, it takes place in 14th Century Norway, and it's riveting. Never heard of the book or the author before, but I'm glad I have now!

Where to?

I took this photo a few weeks ago and haven't had a reason to post it. Except that I like it. So now it's posted!

And then we watched some movies

In the last week, I've caught up on all the kids' movies that I'd wanted to see.

We've watched:

How to Train Your Dragon (cute, and fun, but not as amazing as the interwebs would have you believe)

Eragon (not as terrible as the interwebs would have you believe)

Flushed Away (hilarious - how did I miss it?)

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (very cute, with a great Al Roker cameo)

We also watched the new Matt Smith Doctor Who. Great writing and a super-spunky sidekick. And even though he's NOT David Tennant, I think Matt Smith can stay. Which is good, because I'm pretty sure that the BBC have already decided that.

I bought a pillow form last weekend - my plan is to make a quilted pillow for the couch, inspired by this beautiful (and sold out) one made by Manda of TreeFall. There are also some really inspiring ones on flickr, here. Especially this one. 

I think some of these might make an appearance...

Oh, and Moose made me post this one. He likes the quilt. A lot.

The End (of the quilt and of Doctor David Tennant)

Last night we watched the final David Tennant Doctor Who episodes. I'd missed them at Christmas when they originally aired, and the iPlayer download that I had was corrupted. NOOOOOO!

As much as I want D.T. and Catherine Tate to be "The Doctor and Donna" forever, I thought the last episode was really good. A little nostalgia, a lot of running, and some silly jokes. And then a regeneration. 11th Doctor? Not sure how I feel about him yet. The first episode of the newly Tennant-less Doctor Who is tonight...we'll see how it goes.

While we were watching, I finished binding my quilt. I love how it turned out. There are some really gorgeous ones in the Flickr pool - go check them out!

I love how bright it is - and since I finished it midway through the tv-watching last night, I can also vouch for the fact that it's soft and reasonably warm.

We're having a mad weather-day today - it's either pouring or bright sunshine and nothing in between. I don't think I'm brave enough to hang the washing out on the line but I may break out the e-cloth and wash some windows. Spring!!

Herdy!

We went to Bury yesterday afternoon and John bought me a copy of the April Martha Stewart Living. I'm not sure how it got into WHSmith in Bury - it was by itself, with no other MSL mags around it, and no other American mags to be found. One of life's great mysteries, I guess.

It turns out to be a special "best of" issue, with lots of fun springy Martha-esque ideas in it AND recipes for "the best" brownies, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate cake. Extensive testing will be necessary.

I'm now on the binding phase of the quilt - I've finished all of the quilting. The binding is taking forever, though - it's machine-sewn onto the front of the quilt and then hand-sewn on the back. Maybe the stitches I'm doing are too close together? I can't really tell. And I can't seem to tuck them under the seams, either - they're out there for the whole world to see. My binding fabric is the creamy floral in the middle of the picture below - if I had it to do again I'd probably bind with one of the blues or the orange.
It still looks pretty awesome, though.

When we were in Clare last weekend, I spotted this shop window display. OMG SHEEP! AND LAMBS! I didn't catch the name of the store. It was filled with great stuff, but it was closed (Sunday afternoon). Probably a good thing, in terms of my wallet. The company that makes all the sheep stuff is called The Herdy Company, although I couldn't find the mugs from the display on their website. Sigh. They DO have some really gorgeous wool blankets and throws, made from Herdwick wool. I think the blue and grey throw wants to come and live with us. I can hear it calling my name.

And this sundial was on the wall of the church, above the entrance. I love the message, "Go about your Business." As in, stop standing here and gawping at the sundial, you lazy bum. Heh. Off you go, then!

Boy, reflected

A self-portrait, by James:

And a gloriously old post box, in Clare. It predates Queenie so has to be from at least the 1950s.

Bach Choir: St John Passion - THIS WEEKEND!

In case any of you are wondering what I'm up to this weekend (you were waiting to plan your lives around mine, obv.), look no further.

Bach Choir. Bach. Jesus. Philip Salmon. What more do you need?

Saturday 27^th March 2010 at 7.30pm (ends approx. 9.45pm)

St Mary's Church, Bury St Edmunds

Stephen Varcoe - Christus
Philip Salmon - Evangelist
Nicki Kennedy - soprano
James Bowman - counter-tenor
Richard Edgar-Wilson - tenor
Gavin Carr - bass

Bury Bach Choir

Suffolk Baroque Players

Philip Reed - conductor

This performance of Bach’s St John Passion comes at the start of Holy Week, the week before Easter.

It tells the story of this extraordinary week – the Last Supper, Jesus’ trial before Pilate, and finally his crucifixion.  Six vocal soloists, together with the choir and orchestra, dramatize these world-changing events with sensitivity, integrity and often, raw emotion.  As the drama unfolds, prepare for rapid contrasts, for a verbal, spiritual, musical and indeed psychological roller coaster as we are dragged step by step towards the ultimate conclusion.

The soloists tonight are second to none, the orchestra pure baroque, and the choir will be at their best.  This will be a performance to remember.  Don’t miss it!