Late August Bank Holiday Weekend

Funny English people. Americans have Memorial Day and Labor Day. The English: June Bank Holiday and Late August Bank Holiday. Descriptive, I guess.

In the true tradition of the August Bank Holiday, it was chilly and breezy, with intermittent showers. John caught me splashing in a puddle. Some things never change!

He also caught some rather intrepid sailors, outside of Levington. Brrr.

 I caught a few silhouetted masts.

And a big, blowsy dahlia. I love the colours. Pink and yellow? Why, yes, I think I will!

I really like this one, too. Especially the little purple & yellow flower photobombing at the bottom left.

I think I'm on a Big Book kick - I went from The Magician's Apprentice (700+pp) to Gone With The Wind (clocks in at 1000-ish). Zoinks. So far, I like GWTW. Scarlett has just met Rhett for the first time (I don't think that's a spoiler, do you?) and I'm interested to see where the next 850 pages go.

Look what I found

I was in London for work this week, meeting up with some suppliers over from New York. I ended up on the 8pm train back out to the sticks, but before I got on the train, I stopped in WHSmith for some reading material. (I'd finished The Magician's Apprentice, by Trudi Canavan, on the way down, definitely recommend it.)

And what did I find? A copy of this month's Real Simple. WOOT! And not just a randomly lurking copy, either. Do you see that? Down at the bottom left?

Here, let me show you. It has a £ price printed on it. None of this silly overstickered price business. I couldn't find a subscription card in it, though, which was a little sad. Glad to know that I'm no longer beholden to random transatlantic visitors importing single copies for me!

I went horse riding

This is Chloe. She lives near Durham (and is my sister-in-law's). She was nice enough to let me ride her last weekend. Very sweet, although became slightly devious when she clocked that I am Not A Confident Horsewoman. I did manage not to fall off, and we even cantered (at the same time)! WOOT!

Summer cooking

It's Travis' birthday this week. No choice but to make a chocolate cake, then. James helped a lot, which was good. The ganache split a little bit, but not spectacularly badly. Cake tasted awesome, though.

After letting it gather rather more dust than is probably healthy, John and James discovered how fabulous the George Foreman Grill is at making panini. English supermarkets have relatively recently started selling "panini bread," which are basically little flat-ish rectangular loaves that fit nicely in the grill. The current favorite combo (which I highly recommend) is ham, cheddar, and jalapenos. Here's mine from yesterday. YUM.

I'm also the proud owner of a very awesome new mug. The only improvement would be if the spanners were knitting needles.

Blue & green baby quilt

I read Roger Deakin's Waterlog last week - it finally came in at the library. I thought it was a little slow getting started, but I really loved it. I really miss swimming outside (Lake Fairlee, do you hear me?), especially in non-chlorinated places. And cold ones, like the Messalonskee Lake in June - brrrr! We managed to catch the Alice Roberts BBC4 programme on Wild Swimming, which was inspired by Deakin's book. Where's my BBC film crew to follow me around, huh? StowmarKate, the TV series. Anyone? Harumph.

I've finally had a chance to take a picture of the finished baby quilt that's about to wing its way to New York. It's Halfpenny Home natural cotton with stacked charms from my Moda Verna jelly roll. I used up most of the greens and blues (and all of the browns for the binding). I love it - I hope it likes its new home!

I joined the zillions of people reading The Help, and loved it. I've even reserved Gone With the Wind (which, somehow, I've never read) from the library. It had the potential to veer into melodrama at a few points, but managed to stay on the right side of the line as far as I was concerned.

Possessed?

I checked the Booker prize-winning Possession out of the library - I'd enjoyed The Children's Book, but this had been billed as AS Byatt's best. I found it pretty heavy going, and after reading a few reviews on Amazon, decided to give up around the 100 page mark. People seemed to either love it or hate it, and as I was well along the "hate it" route, it's gone back to the library. No hard feelings. Both the lovers and the haters singled out as impressive the fact that Byatt has managed the spectacular feat of inventing 2 complete bodies of work for 2 fictional poets. Well, that's lovely, and very clever and whiz-bang, but for Pete's sake, give me a good story while you're showing me how spectacularly brilliant you are. Harumph.

Before I started my long, hard slog through the first hundred pages of Possession, I read the final Magic Thief book: Found. It was a good ending to the trilogy, and I'd definitely recommend it to the What Do I Read After Harry Potter set.

Bell-ringing news has been rather thin on the ground around here. I've been marching along through the methods, and we rang a Quarter Peal of Plain Bob Minor last weekend. I'd been having trouble remembering the work at a "single," and when I looked back at my Method Ringer's Companion, I found a tip from Steve Coleman that not only made me remember it, but made me giggle a little each time. He said to think of the single as a "thrilling handbrake turn," which cracked me up when I read it. And then, of course, the composition that Lesley called had me making said handbrake turn every time it was called. John thinks I've lost my marbles. Thrilling!

The quilt picture? It's a sneak-peek. It's been washed and is now drying but it's rainy and miserable outside, so no pictures today!

New books!

I'm now the proud new owner of the stack of books below. Unbridled luxury, methinks. And no, we're not suddenly going vegan, but it had great reviews and I'm always on the lookout for meat- and dairy-light recipes.

That's enough blogging - I'm off to do some reading!

Review: The Lacuna

It was my turn to pick the book for our latest book group selection, and I'd been looking forward to the latest Barbara Kingsolver novel for quite a while. I hadn't gotten around to reading it on my own, so I suggested it to the group. I felt pretty nifty because the day after we reserved our 5 copies of The Lacuna at the library, the book won this year's Orange Prize for Fiction. ::Pats self on back::

In any event, we managed to get three copies before the hordes descended, which we're sharing. I finished the book last night, and was strongly reminded of why I like Kingsolver's writing so much. She's not page-turningly cinematic like Steig Larsson or Stephenie Meyer, but she weaves a well constructed, engaging story. She's also very good at switching narrators, which she also used successfully in The Poisonwood Bible.

The story is set in the US and Mexico from about the 1900s up to the 1950s. Her descriptions are extremely vivid, the characters are endearing (and flawed). It's historical fiction, where the protagonist is dropped into a setting with historical figures. There were a few surprises along the way, which I won't spoil by elaborating further. The first half did, however, expand my repertoire of Spanish swear words quite significantly.

Review: Up In The Air, SuperSize Me, Star Trek

We've watched several movies lately. John and I took advantage of the £1 for 1 week awesomeness on the DVDs at the Stowmarket Library to watch Star Trek again. We both loved it as much as we had in the theatre. Plenty of action interspersed with some Actual Dialogue and a little bit of kissing. Really, what more could you want? I've seen maybe one Next Generation episode, and John has an alarmingly complete knowledge of the original series. It didn't matter - we both thought it was great (although I'm sure I missed all kinds of inside jokes). Leonard Nimoy stole the show, and had some great one-liners.

Despite the fact that they've cut down the hours at the Stowmarket Blockbuster, we managed to grab a copy of Up In The Air. I can't say that I think it was as amazing as everyone seems to think it is - John barely got through it and I thought George Clooney was playing the same aloof character that I seem to always catch him in. Oh well. Not funny at all, either, despite having "comedy" emblazoned on the front. Maybe we just didn't get it?

Then we watched Super Size Me (which I'd never seen) with James. The box said it was a "12", which should have been fine. There was no nudity but there were a few descriptions of what happens to Morgan Spurlock's love life as a result of all the fat/salt/sugar that he's eating, which were a little graphic for our semi-resident 12-year-old. And his dad and stepmom. Ahem.

In any case, he's announced that McD's is now "horrible", which I imagine will pass. However, I can't see him ever being tempted to over-indulge. Yummy. I'll happily admit that I do not feel guilty about my once-a-year McD's egg mcmuffin at JFK airport. When Edward and I were in high school (and I was playing on the tennis team and he was on the rugby team), we had McDonalds probably more than we should have - maybe once a week for a while. It doesn't seem to have done us any harm, although we WERE both running several miles a day.

As it's now definitely summer (and we're having an unseasonably English but very much appreciated warm summery stretch of weather), I'm on to iced coffee on weekend mornings. I know I'm supposed to make the coffee stronger before I ice it, but John doesn't like iced coffee, so I just use the regular stuff out of the pot. Mmmm....coffee....

I've started in on yet another baby quilt. This one uses most of the blues and greens from my Moda Verna jelly roll, and was inspired by this stacked coins quilt and this one. I've also used more of the off-white linen-y material from Halfpenny Home that I used in this quilt. Pictures soon!

Afternoon in Bury

We had an extremely successful afternoon in Bury yesterday. The original plan had been to go to Cambridge for the afternoon, but the thought of sitting in a hot train (or driving) for an hour each way was too much for me.

I tried on one dress in Debenhams on a whim - I have a wedding to go to in October in Maine (could be 65 and sunny, could be snowing!), and I needed a dress. Somehow, the last one on the rack was not only 50% off, but my size, exactly what I was looking for, and fit like it was made for me. SWEET! It's strapless, hazy-gray with silvery embroidery on it. It's a little below knee-length in the front with a mini-train in the back. I've scoured the Debenhams website and there's nothing. Oh well. Hopefully the weather won't be such that I have to accessorise with snow boots and mittens.

I bought some bobbins at the "open on Sunday because I had to come in and do paperwork and figured I may as well sell a few things while I'm here" sewing shop, along with a zipper. I also picked up the June issue of British Patchwork and Quilting and was spectacularly disappointed. Maybe I'm a flickr snob (I know I'm a grammar snob), but the pictures were dark and grainy, the writing was typo-riddled, and the featured projects were...um...interesting. It did make me want to visit the Seattle Quilt Company the next time I'm in Aberdeen. No, the Seattle Quilt Company is not in Seattle, it's in Scotland. Ahem. In any event, lesson learned.

After we got home, we walked down to Blockbuster to rent a movie - we ended up with Up In The Air. John thought it was cringe-worthy, predictable, and depressing. I enjoyed it but agree with him about the depressing part. It was definitely entertaining, though, although we both thought the "comedy" pitch on the box was rather misleading. Anyway, not a bad movie.

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.