Sunrise at the station

Not so good: I frequently take the 7:09am train. ::yawn::

Good: this morning, the sunrise was absolutely stunning.

Light and dark

When my mom was here for a visit, we had dinner in Ipswich one evening and then went for a walk along the docks just before sunset. 

We also brought the camera along on a very sunny (but cool) afternoon at Helmingham Hall.

Buttercream and Bunting

My mom arrived for her annual English Week on her birthday. So, while she was napping after her red-eye flight, I made some cupcakes with her favourite (buttercream!) frosting.

I used this chocolate fudge cupcake recipe (and overfilled the cakes slightly), and this buttercream recipe (with vanilla added).

The cupcakes were super-chocolatey and not too sweet.

And the buttercream was delicious (vanilla, sugar and butter...what's not to like!?)

Our random entertaining activity this time (in the past, we've Delia'd and screenprinted fabric) was making Bunting at Halfpenny Home in Needham Market. Nicola and I have been twitter-buddies for a while, and I randomly pop in when I need buttons/fabric/etc. Side note: hers was the angora yarn that was beautifully soft but that filled the airplane with fluff when I went to NY in February.

My mom was initially skeptical. They don't really DO bunting in New York. I pointed out that she could make some in colours to match their boat, and she perked up. I gave Nicola a general idea of what we might be using in terms of colour schemes, and she managed to scrounge up a surprising amount of orange fabric!

We ended up doing the workshop with Nic and her mum, who was making (gorgeous) bunting for a summerhouse.

Here's some free-motion embroidery practice:

Here's my pile of fabrics:

Nic made a pear and ginger cake and some lemon tarts. YUMSTERS.

We spent the whole day either sewing and concentrating or laughing. This one was both!

More concentration:

The combination of top-stitching the red polkadot fabric and union flag bunting was making me somewhat dizzy.

Finished!

All three of us with our creations - they came out SO well and we had a blast. There are still workshops to come on the schedule - I'd highly recommend booking one!

New iPhone day!

I got an iPhone 3 for my birthday in 2008 (and blogged about it, obviously). It has been exceedingly useful over the last 4 (!) years, but has gradually slowed down and become rather grumpy. Oh, no, you didn't really want to look something up on a map or listen to that podcast, silly! It's much better to just look out the window. Ahem.

So, with the release of the newest Jobsian Fondle Slab (mini), also known as the iPhone 5, I betook myself (and the Husband) to Norwich to wait in the Shortest. AppleStore. Line. Ever. Seriously, I was second in line. And the person ahead of me disappeared into the store after 25 seconds. I waited about 10 minutes, total. And, of course, was handed a bottle of water, lest I die of dehydration. Sometimes, it's good to live in the boonies.

Here's my reservation card, in front of the store:

The happy Apple employees got me all set up and running (surprisingly painless, thank you), and half an hour later, we were ready to go!

We tried to go to Frank's Bar for lunch, but they were running their v. limited Sunday brunch menu (and were quite crowded) so we decamped to Wagamama. Mmmm...Wagamama. I had a spicy coconut soup with noodles and chicken - it was really good. John had my usual: chili chicken udon, and it blew his socks off. Spicy!!

And then, to celebrate, I took a picture on Instagram of my train arriving out of the mist this morning at Stowmarket.

The iPhone 5 verdict so far, coming from a girl with a 4-year-old iPhone 3:

- OMG it's SO fast. Like, it has loaded whatever app before I've even realised I wanted it. Zoom! (This is WiFi we're talking about. Internet speeds in rural Suffolk are...erm...rural.)
- SHINY.
- Thin! And light! And all squared off at the corners!
- The headphones are really good, and the integrated microphone works really well. I walked along talking to the Husband all the way to the station from work, and despite the road noise we could hear each other perfectly well.
- I'm not bothered about the new connector - I have no plug-in-dock thingies (except for the speaker for my extremely ancient iPod that lives at work), and the iPad and the Stepson's iPod both use the standard charger. No drama.

David Pogue says it best, really. If you have an iPhone 4, meh. If you're like me with a geriatric iPhone, you'll love it!

Kanga took us to sea

John has wanted to go to sea since we bought Kanga. I've been...er...slightly more reluctant.

The North Sea. Big, bad, scary, and to be ventured to in a ferry, as far as I was concerned.

Well. We planned and plotted, and picked our day. Reasonable breezes, good tides, and no weather to speak of.

Here we are, going past Felixstowe port - you can see the sea out ahead of us.

We managed to get all the way out of the mouth of the river, and were looking back at Felixstowe. It was odd to be on the other side of it!

Our expert helmsman (with lens flare):

It was startling how all you can see is horizon. I thought the container ships made me feel small...this was MUCH more impressive.

And a shot up at the sail, in the clear blue skies. Was this summer? Is it late? Will there be more next weekend?

Special thanks to Husband (who instigated the trip) and Father-In-Law, who said we should be back by 5 (the winds have REALLY picked up).

And the sun came out

After days and days and days of rain, the sun came out yesterday evening. After supper, we walked over to the Stowupland allotments, mostly to take a picture of a quilt. We did end up with some good quilt pics (to be blogged shortly), but were distracted by the incredible vegetables.

Those two courgettes were each about a foot long and about as thick as my arm. Zoinks. 

And these? We were shown around one of the allotments by a very proud long-time allotmenter. We were admiring his red onions. "Oh, no," he corrected. "Those are shallots!" HOLY MOLY. They were huge. Apparently he feeds himself and his wife, along with his two children and their families almost exclusively on vegetables grown himself. My own-grown food so far this year totals several handfuls of rosemary, a reasonable amount of mint (idiot-proof), and 12 raspberries.

Despite not enjoying runner beans as a food, they sure are pretty when they're growing.

Chickens and ducks

We thought Kanga might be chicken. All this reluctance to sail. And messing up the weather (sorry, England...it's our boat's fault).

And then, today, she took to it like a duck to water. Even in the rain.

Floating Kanga

After 18 months, enormous quantities of sweat equity, quite a few tears, more money than I care to think about, several months in a barn, a new trailer, a failed (leaking!) launch, and 3 trips across the Orwell bridge, Kanga is officially in the water! She's tucked in at the end of a long line of other Squibs, feeling very pleased with her looks-like-new deck (thank you, father-in-law and husband). Remember when we met her, back in 2010?

We are waiting on two small boat-bits, both on order and due in this week, and then...weather permitting (hah)...we can SAIL!

Applications for crew gladly taken.

And this is her view, of an evening. Not bad, really.

Sun and Rain

We're still having the wettest "drought" ever. Sigh.

At least we had a pretty sunset the other night.

Here and there

Here: I rode my bike to Needham Market (and then when it got very windy on the way home, wished I hadn't). I stopped at Halfpenny Home for some buttons, felt, and fabric, and tea with Nicola, of course, which was lovely, and then stopped at the farm shop. I cannot resist rhubarb, even though it didn't fit in my panniers and so rode along poking out at a jaunty angle. Teehee.

And there: I was really wishing for a teleport machine when my mom told me that she was going to the Rhode Island Wool and Fiber Festival at Coggeshall Farm today. She sent me a bunch of pictures from her phone, and was going to bring home any wool that she thought I wouldn't be able to live without. Since, obviously, a girl can't have too much wool.

Inspiration

We went back to The British Larder last weekend, and I loved the colour palette of this fireplace against the blue walls with the dark trim. Not that we have any exposed brick in our house (or a fireplace, for that matter).

I also spotted this fabric hanging in an interior decorator's in Woodbridge - LOVE the designs. They helpfully included the designers: St Jude's Fabrics

Making, to follow

I found this fabric at CallyCo in Cambridge when we were there a few weeks ago. I'm not sure what it's going to be, yet. It's quite large-scale - the seaside tents are about 4 inches tall.

In some unrelated sewing, my mom brought the Lisette Diplomat pattern that I had ordered. I'm going to start with some plain green cotton that I've had in my stash for years, and then see how the fit works before I cut into the bicycles. There was also some very cute navy polka dot cotton at Halfpenny Home a few weeks ago - I need to go back and get it!

And in the tradition of my mom filling her suitcase with Real Simple, here they are. Two issues, along with a Food Network magazine and a Real Simple recipe book. Thanks, MOM!

British Larder and Aldeburgh

After reading that Cambridge blogger Lazy Giraffe drives an hour and a half all the way to Woodbridge from Cambridge to eat at The British Larder, it was added to my must-try list.

When my Mom (whose birthday is today - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!) suggested a trip to the coast, I suggested this as an optimal lunch spot on the way. I was a little worried that it would be super-crowded on a Saturday lunchtime, but it was merely reasonably busy.

I ordered the pork tasting platter, below. Pork terrine, a pork & pickle salad thingy (in the little pot), homemade coleslaw, homemade piccalilli, the Best Scotch Egg Ever, a sausage roll, a mini-meatloaf, some exceedingly delicious bread, and a spring-greens salad. The scotch egg and the butter both had cracked pepper and just the right amount of sea salt on them. The whole thing was rather unbelievably delicious. I washed it down with some Broadside, obviously.

My mom had the ploughmans' lunch, which had cheese twists, homemade pickle, a boiled egg, really excellent ham, and a wedge of cheese, along with a sausage roll, bread, piccalilli, and salad like mine.

We really enjoyed ourselves and will be going back. If you're in the neighborhood (or even if you're not), I highly recommend it.

On our way to Aldeburgh, we stopped at Snape Maltings. The sky was rather dramatic (it had stopped raining, briefly)

We found out later that John had been sailing in the mega-rainstorm in this picture. Boy, was he wet:

A yellow tractor on Aldeburgh beach:

And a good rock.

Conversation before reaching this particular rock, as follows.

Kate (walking on Aldeburgh beach, home to about 100 zillion rocks) : Mom, keep your eye out and let me know if you find a good rock.

Mom: Um, what?!

Five minutes later

Kate: Aha! This is a great rock! (Crouches down to photograph above rock)

Mom: (Shakes head)

C'mon, you can't say that isn't a great rock!