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.

Between flights, train trips, afternoons by the pool, and the plague that I seem to have picked up on the way home, I've been doing lots of reading.

I'd been recommended Eragon, and it was perfectly absorbing airplane reading. A little Harry Potter, a little LoTR, and some dragons. Surprisingly well-written, especially since the author was in high school at the time. I have it on good authority that the movie is terrible - don't bother with it.

For my book group, I read Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. It took me a little while to get into it, but I loved it. It cracked me up - it's full of really dry and British humor, and the ending was really clever.

I also read the second Matthew Shardlake novel, by C.J. Sansom. Dark Fire takes place in Tudor London and is a somewhat forgettable but entertaining whodunnit.

I'm about half way through Stephene Meyer's The Host. Yes, she's the one who wrote Twilight. I reserved it at the library back when I finished Breaking Dawn, and it finally came in last weekend. So far, so good (but no sparkly vampires...)

Back from NY

Holy moly - it's been a month since I posted. I was in NY for two weeks of it, which is my excuse. Sort of.

I finally managed to connect with the bell ringers at Trinity Church on Wall St in NYC. This picture is of the never-before-seen-by-Kate combination of a bell tower with working bells and an American flag. The bells were amazing, the people were SUPER nice and great ringers, and if/when we move back to the US, I will be putting in more appearances at their tower. Awesome.

I basically spent the two weeks going from meal to meal, and person to person. I missed a few (you know who you are and I apologize), but in the end I ran out of time. I also fit a few days up in RI with my parents, which was really nice. Dels and fried clams and the bike path and the Bristol 4th of July parade. Here I am with my Dad (the fried clams are just off camera).

The award for "most distance travelled," which usually belongs to me, was awarded to my college roommate, Liz. She flew in (not just to see me) from New Zealand. We spent a very fun New York City day together, waving at tourists on open-top buses and pretending to be models in Soho. Wait, normal people don't do that?

And we were both Pinkberry virgins. Not anymore!

Below, the TRUE reason for the trip (yes, Mom and Dad, I love you a lot, but she wins on cuteness): my (other) friend Liz's new baby girl. Her name is Gabi and she's awesome. It was all I could do not to baby-nap her and take her home with me. Liz would have noticed, I think. Isn't the cuteness just overwhelming? Liz took this picture on my last day in the US - I got to feed, burp, stroll(er?), cuddle, and generally hang out with Gabi. And Liz, of course. Well, not the feeding or burping.

I come by it honestly!

Our Evil Fridge of Doom is on the fritz again. We're starting the formal complaints process with the manufacturer. 4 callout-requiring faults in 2 years is too many, we think.

We're also anticipating needing to defrost it (again) some time in the next few weeks. Which means that the culinary delights that are currently in there are being eaten up.

We had some people over for a BBQ last weekend, and had a last minute cancellation which left us with a bit more food than we needed. Mostly peppers (we were going to roast them on the grill). I don't particularly like peppers, unless they're in something. However, on Sunday night, they really did need eating. I found a recipe on the web for stuffed peppers, which basically used rice, a meat of some sort, stock, and some herbs and spices, all together in the oven for 45 minutes. As part of the freezer raid, I found some turkey pieces and some stock (which we think was turkey stock). Followed the instructions, mixed it all together, cooked and ate it.  Reasonably yummy (remember, I don't like peppers to begin with).

Then, John said, "When was this turkey from, by the way?"

"Hmm," I mused, "We last had turkey...um...oh. I think it might be from...er...Thanksgiving."

Oops.

When I mentioned it to my parents, though, my mom reassured me that I do, in fact, come by it honestly. My maternal grandmother was a really good cook but as a child of the depression had a reputation for keeping "vintage" meatloaf  (meatloaves?) in her freezer. And the scary part was that she would eventually eat it...

I also have started using Evernote, which I think is going to be a good way to keep track of what's in the freezer. A sort of anti-shopping-list.

An Indigo Girls review, 2 months late

The latest Indigo Girls album, Poseidon and the Bitter Bug, came out at the end of March. However, that was the US release date, and since my iTunes is configured for the UK (so I can use my iPhone), I had to wait. And wait. And wait some more. And then I got distracted.

I finally downloaded the album this weekend, and listened to it all the way through at work today (hooray for having my own office). Amy, Emily and I go WAAY back - my dad first heard them on NPR back in the early 90s, then I spent lots of time sitting around campfires in Vermont singing Closer To Fine, then listened to them all through high school, went to a few concerts (and wrote a few musicology papers) in college, and then have seen them perform in New York (lots of times) and Cambridge (just once). I'm predisposed to enjoy me some Indigos.

I'm still on the fence about this album, though, which I think is partly a result of the way it's presented. I bought the 'deluxe edition' on iTunes, and it features every song in both a "studio" and "acoustic" version. Why? Give me the same number of tracks, once, and YOU as the artist decide if it sounds better as the studio version or the acoustic version. Please? Even I, the hardcore IG fan who can listen to hours and hours of Amy 'n Emily, have trouble listening to the same album twice in a row. And what will become of me if I put the album on "shuffle"? I may suffer the indignity of hearing the same song twice in a row. On MORE than one song!

Taking the album as ONE set of songs, though, the songs are classic Indigo. There were two where I found the music particularly interesting:

First, "Love Of Our Lives" opens with Amy and Emily singing in unison, followed by a section with them singing in octaves - I can't think of any other songs of theirs where they sing together without harmonising for more than a note or two.

Second (although it's earlier on the album), "Sugar Tongue" has Amy singing a very "Emily" song, in a much higher register than she usually sings. It makes her sound completely different - it's almost like a falsetto.

Musicologists, start your engines!

Old Married Couple

John and I had our 3-year anniversary yesterday. I still have moments of "we've been married for HOW long?"

Burt Reynolds in Suffolk (well, almost)

We rented A Bunch Of Amateurs this weekend. The general premise is that Burt Reynolds plays a washed-up Hollywood actor who ends up coming to "Stratford" in England to perform King Lear. He thinks he's going to Stratford-upon-Avon to perform with the RSC, when in fact he's in the (fictional) village of Stratford St John, performing with the amateur drama society. And where have they put this village supposedly at the end of the earth? Suffolk, baby! They didn't actually FILM it in Suffolk (which is silly, since the style of house-building here is completely different from the houses in the film).

John and I both thought it was pretty funny - Imelda Staunton was really good, and Burt Reynolds was well-cast as the no-longer-leading-man. They were both entirely overshadowed by a supporting role from the Suffolk Mobile Libraries van. Too funny.


I can FINALLY blog about this, since the gift has been given: I made a baby quilt for my friend Liz's new baby, Gabi. Both of Gabi's parents went to the University of Wisconsin, so my initial thought was to knit a red baby sweater with a big W in it.

I think everyone is glad that I abandoned that idea once I found some Wisconsin Badgers fabric on the web. I ordered it, had it shipped to England, matched it up with some polka dots, and started in. I intended to make a small-ish crib quilt for her, and then went a little overboard when I was cutting my squares. Pattern? Me? Naw! It ended up about the size of a twin bed, FAR too big for a newborn (even if she IS tall like her dad). I had some leftover fabric, so I made a stroller blanket as well.

Here she is, modeling it.

There are a few more scraps left (a yard of Wisconsin fabric goes a very long way), so there will be a few more UW items delivered when I'm in NY next month.

My little (BIG) brother

My brother came to visit last week. He has now decided that Suffolk is NOT entirely composed of fields full of sheep. There are some fields with pigs in them.

Here we are with the Bury St Edmunds Cathedral tower:

Me (note: fully airborne) in front of the Norman Tower (12 bells, baby!):

Future beer...mmm. We took the tour at Greene King (yes, beer purists, it's not the best beer, but it's pretty tasty). There were four rules, according to our tour guide: stay with the tour (it's a working factory), don't step in puddles, turn off your phones, and don't touch anything.

We'd all been up to the roof (great view) and back down again, and were standing near the mash tuns when one of the women on the tour (who had been an insufferable know-it-all) started turning a valve on one of the huge pots. Edward and I yelped and ran to the other side of the room, and our tour guide caught her before she caused the whole thing to explode. EEK!

Here's Ed, with some actual beer, at lunch (note, beer AND cider):

We also stopped in at Ickworth, where Ed was treated to the full experience. We arrived at 4:30, knowing that the house was already closed. We were told that the gardens were still open, so paid our £4 each to go see them. When we got to the gardens, there was a sign on the gate saying that last admission had been at 4:30, with the gardens closing at 5. We tried to find a staff member to get our money back, but there were none. Finally, we found someone, who let us out into the garden, where we were then yelled at by the gardener who told us we shouldn't have been there. It was truly mind-boggling. I'm toying with the idea of issuing a proper complaint to the National Trust, but I don't think I have the energy.

We did a running tour of the garden, then walked down to the falling-down church. Don't worry, we didn't go in...

In stark contrast, we went to Framlingham Castle on our way back from Aldeburgh the next day. Competent staff, clear signs, and a very English "if you fall off the 50-foot wall it's your own damn fault" set of fences. We gave it a shot to reenact all of the various potential amusements, listed below:

We had a blast (and I got to visit a whole bunch of things that I only really think to do when I'm playing "tour guide")!

Non-horizontal horizons

We've been letting James take pictures with our SLR. He has his own camera (my trusty Canon Elph), but he doesn't always have it with him.

He has a really good eye for composition, and he's always coming up with really unlikely angles to shoot from, but we've found that about 80% of his pictures list ever so slightly to the right. As if the pressure of pushing down the shutter button tilts the camera. Teehee.

Here are two. I'm an evil stepmother and have left them "au naturel" (i.e. a little slonchwise):

These were both taken at Snape Maltings, after we fled Aldeburgh on Monday. (Aldeburgh? On the May Bank Holiday Monday? With scattered showers? WHAT WERE WE THINKING??)

My garden has been coming along (to the detriment of the blog, I think). Here are some seedlings (some that I started myself and some that have been adopted - thanks, Janet!). The ones in the foreground are sunflowers, and the first one has just popped above the soil this morning.

I'm completely obsessed with Gardener's World on the BBC. Who else but the Beeb would film and air a gardening program for n00bs like me, detailing exactly what to do, when. It was their idea to plant the sunflower seeds in POTS - apparently slugs (::seething hatred::) love to munch on freshly-planted sunflower seeds. Can't get 'em up here, bitches!

Oh, and this was a "plant in a basket" that Michelle gave us back in January. It was supposed to last two weeks. Ahem. It's happy as a clam on the windowsill...

After all my evangelising about how awesome the library is, John has discovered that they have a fairly extensive art movie collection. £2 for a week, per movie. Can't beat it!

We watched The Science of Sleep (another movie featuring a naked Gael Garcia Bernal - does the boy not like to wear clothes?), which was suitably surreal but quite enjoyable.

Pasta a la John

John made dinner tonight. What a guy. And it was such a tasty recipe that I have to post it here.

Pasta a la John (a riff on Pasta Carbonara)


olive oil
butter (this is not a low-fat recipe)
bacon (we used smoked English bacon)
small tomatoes
mushrooms, sliced
garlic, sliced
creme fraiche
mild chili powder
black pepper

Put the pasta water on to boil. Chop the bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, and garlic.

Once the water is boiling, start the pasta. At this point, add the olive oil and butter to the pan, with some chili powder and ground black pepper. Once you can smell the chili powder, add the bacon. Stir it around for a minute or two, then add the garlic. Once the garlic starts to soften, add the mushrooms and tomatoes, and a little of the pasta water. Simmer gently.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it. Add a spoonful of creme fraiche to the simmering sauce, stir, and simmer briefly. Stir the pasta in and enjoy!

It was REALLY good - he can make it again whenever he wants!

Evil Stepmother Of Doom

We took James to the Abbey Gardens yesterday afternoon, and he had a blast with the SLR. This was far and away the best picture.

We've...um...also turned into Boy Racers. All of us. Our v. nice Citroen C5 was coming up for its 90,000 mile service and some extremely expensive repairs, so we sent it to the great big racetrack in the sky (well, we traded it in), and bought a Mazda3. Sport edition. HOT. We didn't MEAN to get the Sport version, but they had pre-registered it and it had 68 miles on the clock and was waaay cheaper than it should have been and they're releasing a new design in May and wanted to get it off the lot and we drank the Mazda Kool-Aid and it zooms. And has tinted windows in the back and a bling-y stereo. It will also eventually get about 45 mpg, which is a fair improvement over La Voiture Francaise.

John and Travis stripped and re-varnished our front door this weekend, which meant that we were sort of tied to the house (we had to leave the door open until the varnish dried). Obviously, the only sensible thing to do was to hand-wash and wax the car, and vacuum it. Because there were at least three specs of dust on the carpets and two dead bugs on the front (they're gone now).

After we finished all the varnishing, lawn mowing, and car-washing, John made a movie.

Leftover chicken a la Stowmarkate

We had the in-laws over for Easter and roasted a chicken, which was extremely tasty. I then made stock from the bones and veg, but had a fair amount of chicken left. We also had a few cherry tomatoes and some creme fraiche from an attempt at Scrambled Eggs A La Gordon Ramsay (which was very tasty).

Leftover Chicken A La Stowmarkate

Ingredients:
Leftover chicken (duh)
Creme fraiche (or sour cream)
Tomatoes (or peas or whatever veg you have)
Some just-cooked pasta (with a little of the pasta water)
Dried tarragon

Mix all the ingredients together in an oven-proof dish, then heat under the broiler on medium for about 5 minutes.

Nom nom nom.

And, patience has been rewarded. Here's one of the videos the boys made last week - the rest link from this one!

[UPDATE: The subtitles on this one came out sort of small - if you make it full-screen you should be able to read them].

Nene Valley

We used John's birthday present from my parents (a two-year, family membership to the Nene Valley Railway) and went up to ride the trains today.

John and James have spent all week making movies (some of which will hopefully be posted on YouTube), and we had some fun shooting scenes from our version of The Great Escape today. Here's one of my all-time favorite pictures of the sm. boy:

We had a really good time taking pics and videos and running around the station, although John's having trouble editing it all into a coherent story line. Oh well, it was fun anyway!

Here's James, on the train, thoroughly enjoying his book (a Darren Shan). What is it with us and vampires?

And this one's for my dad:

As the daughter of a train geek (and ex-LIRR signalman) who married a train geek, I think this should be my new motto:

 

Here's a gratuitous railway shot, for all the fanboys (Dad, mostly):

 

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!

Bellringing (tower-spotting?)

I really do mean for this to be more than a once-a-week blog. Work has been insanely busy lately, but in a good way. It's meant that I've been sleeping insane amounts - all I want to do when I get home is eat dinner and crawl into bed!

I had an uber-productive day yesterday - we rode our bikes to the farm shop for some groceries, did 3 loads of laundry (2 of which were dried on the washing line), and then spent the afternoon on a bell outing, "tower-grabbing".

Here's a screenshot of the word document that we got. The open day started at 9am, but it was mostly local towers that I'd already rung in (or will probably ring in soon). The left two columns are the opening times, the number in the 4th column is how many bells there are, the fifth column has the map reference, and the all-important 6th column is T for Toilet. Not all churches have toilets, I have discovered.

It was my first tower-grabbing day (which is quite like trainspotting: you drive somewhere, check off the sighting/activity, and then rush off to the next place), and it was a little bit manic. People truly rush from one tower to the next, ring whatever the least-experienced band member can ring, and then leap back into the car. Madness.

Offton:

Bramford:

 

Sproughton:

Kersey (we skipped Elmsett):

 

Monks Eleigh:

 

Bildeston:

 

And, on the way home, Buxhall. I ring at Buxhall every other Tuesday, so it was nice to finish off the day at one of my home towers. Even though I had to pay £1 to ring called changes.

More blisters

On a recommendation from a friend, I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. It is written entirely in letters and notes from the various characters to each other, which worried me a little at the beginning. I really enjoyed it, though. It reminded me a little bit of the McCall Smith set at the same time period (La's Orchestra Saves The World), and was an engrossing and reasonably quick read.

I spent all day yesterday on an outing to Norfolk with the Ladies' Guild of Change Ringers (Eastern District). I'm now officially a member (and have ordered my LG rugby shirt to prove it). It was a really fun day out: we rang at 3 towers, had a pub lunch, and even the meeting that I attended wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

This is a picture of Brooke church - it had a somewhat exciting circular tower with not a lot of room for people to stand. The tenor rope seemed to be suspended over the stairwell when we first arrived, and then I realised that there was a platform that folded down over the stairs for the tenor ringer to stand on. I rang the tenor for some Stedman doubles, and standing on the little platform, seemingly suspended in midair, gave me seriously wobbly knees. I was only about 4 feet off the ground (and only in one direction - I was level with the floor on 3 sides), but it was enough for me. The ringers said they've never had anyone fall off, which I guess is good!

We left before the 4th tower to come back to Suffolk to ring a quarter peal in Woolpit. It went really well until about 35 minutes in, when my blister decided it had had enough. It's nowhere near as bad as the last one I had, though, and we made it all the way through. I can't imagine how I'm ever going to get through a full peal (3+ hours, nonstop) if I keep getting blisters ringing quarters.

Here's another picture from Dad's scanning project - I think that's the same concentration face I make when I'm ringing bells!

Do I get to be a vampire now? How 'bout now?

I started Breaking Dawn on Wednesday morning, and finished it on Friday evening. AND I was out on Wedensday evening and didn't get any reading time. It's my favorite of the series - Bella really grows into herself and I loved the Jacob-Edward dynamic.

I found all four books to be quite cinematic - reading them was not so much "sitting on the couch/at my desk/on the bed reading" as "this is all just sort of happening in my head." It was kind of a bizarre sensation, and led to some abrupt transitions back to reality when I picked my head up from the book. "Wait, where'd the vampires go?" I think the last book that I really wanted to be IN was The Penderwicks, and before that, Harry Potter. Hmm...I'm trying to think of any grown-up books that I've wanted to be in. Possibly one of Alexander McCall Smith's Edinburgh books, but not to the same extent.

We did some weeding and general garden tidying yesterday, and I decided that the daffodils were being TOO SLOW in the front yard and we needed some color. I think these do the job! I've also put down some Blue Slug Poison Pellets of Death.

The little eco-warrior in me is v. sad about doing it, but the gardener and person who wants to actually EAT the fruits of the plants that I grow has won. The slugs were entirely evil last year, and grew to somewhat epic proportions. So, Blue Death it is...

My dad has been scanning old slides and photographs, and this is one of my favorites from the recent batch. Judging by our sizes, this picture is from the summer of 1987, taken at the Garden City pool (where my mom used to be a lifeguard).

I don't know what little Edward is plotting, but it's not good. I don't think I was plotting anything - I just look cold. And I remember that bathing suit - it went from being too big to all stretched out and droopy. It clearly traumatised 6-year-old me.

The Garden City pool was awesome - it used to have a bunch of diving boards at the deep end of the HUGE main pool, which of course have now been removed and replaced with 'safe' slides. Bah. What's fun about summer if you can't fling yourself off the 5 meter platform and be scared out of your mind (and get water up your nose)?

[Edit: I don't know what's the matter with the line spacing in these posts, but pictures seem to mess it up and I can't seem to fix it. Suggestions gladly taken.]

First flower and a little light crafting

Here is the first outdoor flower of the year (in our garden, anyway). Pardon the focus issues - I took the picture with my iPhone.

It's a dwarf daffodil, although it looks more like a yellow snowdrop in this picture. The regular daffs are very nearly open and the tulips have started popping up through the dirt. WOOT!

I have some crafting to report. I bought a very cute, cream cable-knit turtleneck sweater from J.Crew, about 5 years ago. And had washed it in woolite a few times. Not a problem.

For some reason, I decided a few weeks ago to wash it in woolite using the cold, delicates cycle in the washing machine. BAD idea. The sweater didn't shrink as much as if I'd put it in the dryer, but it was definitely too small. And it was a little short to begin with. Result: unwearable.

It doesn't look so bad in this picture, but the pillow form is pretty small. And my torso is kind of long. And my muffin-top does NOT benefit from short sweaters.

So, before:

And, after!

The button is wooden, which I really like, and since my sewing machine (kick-ass antique Singer Featherweight) doesn't do zig-zag, there's no buttonhole. It's all just sewn together. I can clip the threads and re-sew the button if I need to (hand) wash the sweater-pillow.

It's getting lighter...

For the last few days I've really felt like spring is coming. When I woke up this morning at 6:30 there was light. In the sky. And then today, when we were driving home from work at 5:30, there it was again. Light...in the sky.

Exhibit B: the daffodils in the front yard that James and I planted last fall are coming up. No flowers yet, but plenty of leggy looking stems and general excitement.

I even rang St. Simon's "inside" last night at bells, not that it has anything to do with spring. I managed the bobs with a little help from a copilot (who was also ringing so wasn't copiloting all that much). And when I made the mistakes I knew that I'd made them, which is definitely an improvement to stumbling along blindly. Apparently my next task is to "think one pull ahead." Yeah, right.

Coveting: Bike Hod

This was my breakfast last weekend: a bacon and egg sandwich, grapefruit juice, and Eclipse. Heaven. We don't usually have bacon at breakfast, but there was some left over from a Valentine's Edition of Leek and Potato Pie the night before.

We had a v. chill V. Day - I rang bells for two weddings (and earned £30), and then had dinner in. I came across the world's most unfortunate bridesmaid's dress at one of the weddings - it was a strapless number worn by a 4ft x 4ft bridesmaid and there was some overspill at the back. And not just a little. MY EYES! A perfect place to use the only Dutch phrase that our family retained from my Mom's "Learn Dutch On Tape" course in the '90s: "het is geen mooi zicht." (For the non-Dutch speakers in the room: "It is not a pretty sight.)

James and I went to see Bolt today - it was really cute and had some laugh-out-loud moments. Very Pixar, and very well put-together. We inadvertently went to the 3-D version, which was very clever and zoom-y (not a word, but you get the idea). However, both of us were ready for it NOT to be 3-D about 2/3 of the way through - the glasses were a little uncomfortable. Here they are in all their Disnificated glory.

We stopped at Waitrose to pick up some groceries on the way home. This bike was parked in the entrance. It turns out that they're launching a new scheme where you can sign up to borrow one of these to do your shopping. COOL. I'm not 100% clear on how long you can keep it (i.e. do you have to run your shopping home and then bring it right back or are you the temporary owner or what? The press release is here and doesn't really explain. A little googling has found the supplier company: they are called Bike-Hod. WANT. ONE. OF. THOSE. But £275 is steep!

I should start a BikeHod fund and put spare change in it. In the spring/summer/fall we like to do most of our shopping at the farm shop, about 4 miles away, and we've found that we usually have a bit more in the way of groceries than we can sensibly carry on the bikes. This would totally solve the problem.

Popcorn + stove = love

I was craving popcorn the other day - we'd bought some kernels but I hadn't really gotten around to making any. I looked on the web for microwave instructions, which all required a paper bag (didn't have one). So I grumbled briefly and found some instructions for popcorn on the stove.

Um, why did people stop doing it this way? And why did I eat microwave popcorn all through high school? (College, I understand - we didn't have a stove in our dorm room). And why did I eat microwave popcorn in my apartment in NY? And why have I not made it at home before now?

It was SO easy - it took me longer to eat the popcorn than it did to make it and do the washing up. I used our smallest pan, covered the bottom with olive oil, dumped a v. small handful (maybe about 30 kernels) into the pan, and turned the flame up to high. ::pop:: ::pop::  ...  ...  ::pop pop pop pop pop pop::  ...  ::pop::

All done! I shook the pan, dumped the contents into a bowl, put salt on it, and my craving was completely satisfied.

The advantages that I could see:
1. No greasy, gross "I made microwave popcorn" smell
2. No evil chemicals
3. It was FASTER than in the microwave
4. I only made as much as I wanted
5. I didn't feel ill after eating an entire bag of microwave popcorn by myself. Never done that. Nope, not me. Ever. Well, maybe, once or twice...

Anybody want to come over and watch a movie? I'll make the popcorn!

I also 'sperimented with a new recipe - Spiced Vegetable Couscous. I didn't have (and couldn't find) ras-el-hanout, so I used harissa instead. It was super-tasty, and we all felt very virtuous afterwards. If you make it, use the yoghurt - John didn't have any on his and he said that it needed a little zip. I'd never had harissa before - it's really tasty. I have quite a bit of it left, too, so I think some Prawn & Harissa Stew with Couscous might be in our future.

While not messing about with the stove, I've been reading New Moon and Eclipse, the two sequels to Twilight. I had intended to space them out a little bit, and even went as far as starting another (non-vampire) book, but I couldn't fight it. I caved and read them both. I can't figure out what it is that's so compelling - the writing is not particularly stellar; the story is girl loves vampire, vampire loves girl, girl and vampire struggle with teenage angst and impending doom. So why is it so addictive? I have no idea, and I'm not going to worry about it too much. But I AM going to go to a book store at the next opportunity and buy Breaking Dawn. And try not to read it in one sitting. Ahem.

Whatever bug I had back in January doesn't seem to have fully gone away. Either that, or the antibiotics they used caused a related and equally fun set of symptoms. Lovely. I've seen another doctor and we added a few more things to the long list of diseases/conditions/ailments that I don't have. They've sent off for some labwork to be done, and I'm the proud owner of a bottle of probiotic pills. Yummy. I don't particularly want to be told I have some evil (or even non-evil) disease, but I'm tired of my Mystery Ailment. When I first arrived in the UK, I broke out in a rash that the doctors were baffled by - we referred to it as Stowmarket-itis. I think this might be a variant...possibly Stowmarket-algia.

Between Vampire Books...

We went to Ipswich to buy James the next "39 Clues" book. He LOVED the first one and has finished The Graveyard Book (and declared it his favourite). While we were there, I...erm...took advantage of the 3 for 2 offer to buy Twilight and Eclipse (John got a book, too). My friend M. has lent me New Moon, which is sitting at the post office, waiting for me to pick it up (tomorrow morning). Before I can start it, though, I'm in the middle of another Elizabeth Goudge, The White Witch. It's the first of her books that I've seen from the library in an edition printed since 1985. And it's my least favourite so far. It's all English Civil War-y and there's too much HAPPENING for it to be proper Goudge.

In any event, I feel like I need to finish it before I can start on New Moon, and then I have a Diana Gabaldon from the library that's already been reserved by someone else and can't be renewed. It's a hefty tome - I might not have time to finish it by the deadline in any event. I guess I can always return it and re-reserve it if I like the beginning.

While driving the other day, I saw a poster for The Secret of Moonacre, which is an adaptation of The Little White Horse. Supposedly one of J.K. Rowling's favourite books, it's the first Goudge I read, and one of the best. I'm not sure the movie's going to be able to do the book justice - I have to decide if I want to see it or not.

I rang a quarter peal with most of the usual suspects on Saturday morning, and there was something about the tail-end of my bell's rope that gave me an unbelievable blister. It formed during the first 10 minutes of the QP, and then lasted for another 5 or so before things got a little messy. To the next person to ring the treble at Finborough: I'm sorry. And yes, that is blood.

But we got through it. I've been using bandaids like they're going out of style. And thankfully I'm not ringing tomorrow night, so I have until Saturday for it to heal. Folk remedies gladly accepted.

LOLRufus

My dad took a great picture of Rrufus, playing in the snow. So I made it into a LOL Dog. The pic links to the LOLDOGS site. Teehee.


moar funny pictures

Builder's Breakfast

It's winter. Which means that it feels like the only things I ever do (and then consequently blog about) are read, watch movies, cook and ring bells. I have been doing some crafting as well, but the end product is a new-baby gift for a friend who reads the blog so I can't post about it until I've given it to her. Which looks like it will be some time in June when I'm in NY (as it's not something I want to trust to the postal system).

 

I did some secondary crafting as well - I made this hat a few years ago without checking my gauge. Which was dumb. It was HUGE. I then made a second one (on smaller needles with fewer stitches) that fit perfectly. One of the ringers complemented me on it, and said that she had a huge head that never fit hats. I told her that the hat I was wearing had a big brother that she was welcome to. It was too big for her, but she decided to felt it. It's now the perfect size, super warm, and v. cute. Why didn't I think of that?

 

We've had quite a bit of snow this week, which of course has paralysed the British transportation infrastructure. The newspapers were all shrieking midweek that the Highway Agency was in danger of running out of road salt. Cue the hand-wringing!

Last thing: I snapped this picture at work - Walkers are running a promo to find a new flavo(u)r, and this is one of them. What will they think of next? Strangely enough, some of the flavors in the promo (Onion Bhaji, Hoisin Duck) don't seem all that off-the-wall compared to the other odd-flavored potato chips that Brits eat. Cajun Squirrel takes the cake (but we didn't have a box in the canteen so you'll have to make do with Builder's Breakfast.

OMG I'm a teenager again! LOL.

There's no hope for me now. I finally managed to get to the front of the library queue for Twilight and my copy came in last weekend. I was a little apprehensive - I'd heard some mixed reviews and I was definitely NOT into Buffy in high school.

I shouldn't have worried - within about 20 pages I was completely hooked. It was the most absorbing book I've read in quite some time - I found that vast chunks of time would just slide right by as I was reading. I think the "date in the forest" scene has become my favorite book-date scene - I can't think of any that I like better.

I (along with the rest of the female population of Earth) now have a book-crush on Edward. I think the last literary character that made me want to jump into the book was Lupin (Tonks has the right idea), and before that, Logan from the Babysitters Club. The whole thing made me feel 16 again. I was a huge dork in high school - I knew all the 'cool' kids but never really got to hang out with them. Maybe I should have moved to Forks.

To continue the madness, we saw the movie at the Stowmarket cinema on Saturday night. I don't remember Robert Pattinson being particularly compelling in the Harry Potter movies, but he was completely captivating (and indecently attractive) in Twilight. Granted, Cedric Diggory is one of J.K. Rowling's flatter characters, so he didn't have much to work with in HP. His American accent in Twilight was AWFUL, though - I'm not sure why they didn't just leave him with his normal Brit voice. There were very few replacements of scenes from the books with unrelated 'movie' scenes, which I appreciated. (Do you hear me, directors of His Dark Materials and Harry Potter?).

I also need everyone to acknowledge how hip (and ahead of their time) my parents were: my brother's name is Edward and my middle name is Isabel. After 25 (and 27) years, our names are now cool.

I've joined the seemingly interminable queue for New Moon at the library, although I may just cave and buy the whole series. I think I feel a re-read coming on.