Why I live in Suffolk

These golden-hour pictures from the church tower (the ringing chamber, really), in Preston St Mary, Suffolk.

Sorry, NYC...Suffolk wins on this one.

(NOT) Sweet Peas

How is it that Spotify has been available in the UK for, um, years, but that it has taken my American peeps to be super-excited about it (thanks, Em) for me to actually download it? I realised that I even had a login - I put my email address in and it welcomed me back. Oops?


Taylor Swift, embarrassingly, you rock my world. Sorry, cool police. Google+ is also creeping in to my life - if you're on, shout!

And here comes a public service announcement: did you know that the peas on sweet pea plants (pictured above) are toxic? Um, I didn't. A bell-ringing friend gave us some sweet pea seedlings back in the spring, which I planted outside the kitchen door. They started to make peapods, so I announced that I would put them in some dinner…maybe a curry. The Husband's reaction? "NOOO! They're poisonous!" Oh, really? (Checks internet…) "Why yes, they are." Then why the heck would they name them something like sweet peas? C'mon guys, give me a fighting chance. I hereby suggest a new name: "Very Pretty But For Pete's Sake Don't Eat The Peas!" Thoughts?


Here's my attempt at bokeh, through the plant on the windowsill. I have some work to do, I think.

This is what our table on the back porch looks like. Yes, I know we need the rain. But does it have to rain every day, for hours? And can it be a little warmer than 15C? I don't really want to wear trousers and slippers and a hoodie IN JULY. Thanks.

Review: Wolf Brother

Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother caught my eye ages and ages ago (years, I think), but I never managed to add it to my library queue or pick it up at the bookstore - there were always books ahead of it.

It arrived for me at the library last week, and I blasted through it. Granted, it's a children's book (I'd say 8 and up), and the print was a bit big, but it was totally immersive. I found the chapters distractingly short, but it made it really easy to "just finish the chapter." I know I'm into a book when I'm reading at lunch and one of my team comes into my office, calls my name, and I either don't hear them at all or am so startled by the presence of another human that I jump.

Set in prehistoric times, Wolf Brother is the story of a boy and a wolf cub, both left alone to fend for themselves. Together, they thrive.

Review: Leuchtturm1917 notebook

I was sent a Leuchtturm1917 notebook to try, a few months ago. I've tested it extensively (as in, I carry it around the office like Linus and his blanket, and write work-notes in it fairly constantly).

Apparently, it's gaining traction as a Moleskine-Killer, and I can see why. They are expensive notebooks, but they are very well made and they have some really interesting details.

My favourite parts:

-the pen loop (sold separately). Just right for my Uniball Micro (fine) pen, which bleeds through a tiny bit but not enough to notice. I don't keep the pen in there when I'm at my desk, but if I'm moving around, it comes with me.
-the hard back. I can write anywhere.
-the binding. It lies flat and doesn't turn the pages by itself.
-the feel of the paper - it's really smooth.
-the size. It's the "Master Slim," which is pitched as A4+, so that you can put sheets of A4 inside without them getting crumpled at the corners.

-the dots. I'm not sure if you can see them in this picture, but rather than a line or a grid, there are dots that I can use to make diagrams, draw charts, use as lines to keep my writing straight, or doodle on. The paper reads as "plain" but I end up with nice neat lines of writing.

Sigh. Love.

My only complaint so far is that I've noticed a tiny tear in the (faux-leather) cover, just on the spine. Maybe some superglue is in order...I don't really want the tear to get bigger and I have quite a few pages left.

Review: Trudi Canavan miscellany

I arrived rather late to Trudi Canavan - John read most of the books when they were first released, but they weren't really on my radar. I finished reading the Black Magician Trilogy a few weeks ago, and bought these right after TC visited Bury St Edmunds for a book signing (damn you, Waterstones, for not telling me about it until afterwards). At least I have the signed copies.

I finished The Ambassador's Mission last night - I didn't like it as much as The High Lord (my favorite), but it scooted along very nicely. I think I wish it were more about the main character's parents, but I think he's going to feature rather heavily in the next few so I'd better get used to it!

Look - all signed!

I've also picked up the last (NOOOOO!) Eva Ibbotson, One Dog and His Boy. I think I'm going to have to save it, as it was published posthumously and there definitely won't be any more. Must not panic.

One more thing: welcome, new arrivals from ModernDayQuilts. Thanks for coming to visit! It'll be a miscellany of books, quilts, cooking, expat living, and general musings, if you'd like to stick around.

Flickr link: Texters, by Joe Holmes

These pictures of New Yorkers texting are amazing. (via the NYT bits blog)

Mission: Coatstand. Accomplished.

I've been looking for a coatstand for months. MONTHS. Too expensive, too ugly, too office-y, just plain wrong... you get the idea.

I had Pinterest-ed this Muji coatstand a few months ago, here on Pinterest, but I didn't feel like paying the shipping charges and was kind of secretly hoping that the really amazing 1930s one from Elemental would have a twin appear in their store.

And then, I got tired of the coats on the chair. And so this arrived today.

And has now been put to good use.

So there we go.

Gabi's popover dress, or Measure Twice, Cut Once

When I received an email from Quilter's Haven to say that they had new fabric in that was based on artwork from Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar, I knew I had to go and get some for my favorite toddler.

I hunted around the internets and found this free download for the "popover" dress from Oliver + S, which I thought was really cute.

I printed it out, pasted the pieces together, cut my fabric, sewed up the dress, and went, "Huh. That's REALLY little." I got out the ruler and the size 4 length was supposed to be 20 inches. Mine was 14. Um, that's not going to fit.

Turns out my printer and Preview were trying to be helpful and resize the patterns to print vertically. Thanks, technology! That would be the tiny pattern on the left, and the real one on the right. FAIL.

Fortunately, I'd seen this blog post about cutting the pieces from HALF of the folded fabric, which meant that I had enough left over to make the second dress once I had downloaded Adobe Reader, wrestled with my printer, and printed out the Right Darned Size.

The good things:
 - The dress came out much better the second time (sizing aside): my seams were neater, I avoided any pinning pitfalls, and the curves are better.

The bad things:
 - I have two dresses. Well, I guess that's not really bad, as I'm sure Miss Gabi will find a doll or teddy or unsuspecting cohort to put the smaller dress on. I rather overzealously made the size 4 size, for a 4-year-old (she's 2 1/2), but she's tall. It can be a floor-length gown this year, just right next year, and a squeeze when she's 4. Or something.

It's going in the mail tomorrow (and I had a blast wrapping it)! There's a fair amount of fabric (in funny scrappy shapes, obviously), but I'm sure I'll come across a fun project. The original plan was a matching bag and/or hat, but since it took me the extra 3 weeks to sort out the pattern size, I want to get it to her so she can wear it a few times before summer's over!

New quilt: Tufted Tweets minimalist

Pav & Mr. Pav got married in November. As soon as they announced their wedding (via the most amazing hand-embroidered save-the-date that I have ever seen), I knew I would be making them a quilt.

I originally saw Tufted Tweets out there in blogland back at the end of last summer. The now-defunct birthday club at work gave me the (gently suggested and much ooh-ed and ahh-ed over) fat quarter set from Seamstar. Um, yes, I'll take one of everything, please.

I was really inspired by the colors in Tufted Tweets (especially while snacking on peanut m&ms, obviously), and after consultations with Pav decided on a really minimalist quilt. I picked up 2m of white fabric and 2m of grey (a darker grey than I had in mind, but it was all they had). All nicely laid out.

I planned it out on paper and got sewing. And then, at the end of January, after Pav & Mr. Pav had been to visit, I had this. Please pardon the picture. But, UGH. I was so disappointed that my Excellent Quilt Idea had become a horrible grey prison-bars looking thing. Into the WIP pile you go, sad quilt.

Flash forward to a very sunny day (in March, by the look of the garden), when I said to myself, "Self, your lovely newlywed friends are not going to be newlyweds much longer. FINISH the quilt. Also, they live in Australia where it is very sunny and bright all the time, not in dark, Januaryish England." Right, then.

A little sun on the quilt did it (and me) good, I think. I "demoted" Evil Grey side (which I now love, of course) to the back, and attempted to brighten things up a bit with a new front. Below, in the sandwich stage.

Then, we added a the famous orange binding, which was sped along very nicely by watching Season 6 of Lost (FINALLY, and yes, we liked it).

And here it is, the finished "front," although it's truly reversible - the only front/back differentiation came when I had to decide which side to machine-stich the binding to, and which side to hand-sew.

Thanks to the Husband for the (matching) Quilt Feet.

Use it in good health, Pavs!

I had to riff on the hand-embroidered invitation with a little embroidery shoutout of my own. Obviously.

Recipe: Raspberry Oat Traybake

Again, with the baking. Since on the hottest day of the year so far what I really needed to do was turn on the oven. Oh, well...at least it was only for 10 minutes. And the results were definitely worth it.

Butter and honey, melting.

Raspberries, pre-squashing.

Post-squashing

Cooling.

It was delicious - the almond flavour really came through and the raspberries were really zingy. Might add some lemon juice next time, or possibly some vanilla with the almond extract.

Recipe: Raspberry Oat Traybake, from BBC Good Food

Go make it!

Review: The Sweetness At The Bottom of The Pie

Walked the Race for Life today (you can still donate, in the sidebar!), and we even ran the last 300m. It was a really great day - quite a bit of emotion with people's signs, lots of money raised, and zillions of pink garments.

The brownie below was good, but it's not why I've posted a picture of it. I think the color combo (blue, white, cream, and brown) is one of my all-time favorites. Looking around the living room, the color scheme is echoed in here, although another blue accent or two wouldn't go amiss.

These came home with me, as expected. Unfortunately, I then acquired two very super-duper blisters (which I will spare you the photo of). Going to have to do some breaking-in, methinks.

We made fajitas for supper tonight - I think that the fresh coriander (along with homemade guac) is the key.

I finished The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie, by Alan Bradley, on Friday evening. It was recommended to me by a few people within the space of a week, and we decided to read it for book group. I thought the mystery was good, the plot zipped right along, the chemistry-interludes were endearing, and the protagonist (an 11-year-old, pigtailed detective) was adorable. My only problem was that I had trouble not setting the novel in my brain's stock-stately-pile, currently home to several Persephone books, a few Kate Morton books, and a few other interludes. I think I need to allocate a new house in my brain for stately homes, since it's getting rather full in there!

Race for Life

I'm joining the Race for Life with some work colleagues this Sunday. The original plan was to run it, but life (and the fact that I just really hate running) got in the way. So I will be walking, briskly. I feel like running is something that I should love, but I really don't.

You can click on the Sponsor Me button over on the right, or you can visit this page: http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/kateherd

Thank you - every pound (or dollar) makes a difference!

First raspberries

I finished The Postmistress today - I liked the writing and found the descriptions very vivid, especially London during the Blitz. The storyline was a little predictable, though. I think the atmosphere of the book will stay with me for a while, while the characters and plot fade.

I tried to start W.G. Sebald's The Rings Of Saturn after reading about it in the New York Times (it's "set" in Suffolk), but I read the first chapter and completely lost interest. I have been known to ramble randomly, but I didn't put it in a book. NEXT!

Raspberries, below, from the garden. Yum. Oh, and I have managed to find an Ingrid Michaelson album that I like - I have downloaded Everybody and it is on semi-repeat. She's like Kate Rusby in that her voice falls in a similar range to mine and her songs are quite melodic, so she is very lovely to sing along to.

It must be summer

The only reason these green Birkenstocks didn't come home with me then and there is because the shop was closed. I may not be able to resist if they're open.

This morning's breakfast (along with blueberry pancakes and little sausages):

It's cloudy, cool, and might rain later. Must be (English) summer!

Review: What The Dog Saw

Through some miracle of synchronicity, my mom and I both read Malcolm Gladwell's What The Dog Saw at the same time. And both said to each other, "Hey, I'm reading a great book - you should read it!"

Malcolm Gladwell is a columnist for The New Yorker, which I've always found too highbrow for me. I guess I like my magazine reading pretty light - Wired articles are about as long-form as I get. The book is a collection of essays, all previously published in TNY, none of which I had ever read.  They are all quite thought-provoking, mostly challenging standard reactions and conventional wisdom.

I don't normally read a non-fiction (and I rarely read essay compilations) but What The Dog Saw is thought provoking, well-written, and entertaining!

And look what they had, in packs of 6, on special at Waitrose. My Favorite Soda EVER. That doesn't really seem like soda because it's just fizzy water with lemons. Right? Ok, and some sugar and other stuff. Mmmm. I might have bought a second six-pack because the first one is all gone.

More sewing (and future sewing)

My favorite 2-year-old LOVES Eric Carle books. So when I saw this fabric at Quilter's Haven, it had to come home with me. It will meet the popover sundress from Oliver + S and all will be right with the world. I haven't started yet because I ran out of white thread when I was quilting The Now Un-Stalled Wedding Quilt (yay for quilting! boo for running out of thread!). Of course I ran out at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, making it entirely impossible to get more thread on Sunday without driving all the way to Norwich. Oh well.

We were invited to a garden lunch on Sunday, so I used some of the seed-head print fabric from the now web-only Karlsson Design and made a teatowel to bring as a little hostess present along with our bottle of wine. Swedish linen fabric, cotton thread and LOTS of ironing and pinning resulted in a teatowel that I would have happily paid £20 for in a department store. [Pats self on back.] I'm definitely going to have to make some napkins and more teatowels, as originally planned.

The quilt is coming along - I've put the binding on most of it, and have about 3 more minutes' worth of free-motion quilting once I get more thread. Then I just have to stitch the binding to the back and into the post! The recipient is taking a blog-break so I could probably post pictures in relative safety, but it won't be long until it's all ready to go.

One note about the ads on the sidebar. Yes, I sold your eyeballs. No, it wasn't to The Man. I think I've made $0.04 so far since I added them. It's mostly so I can be part of the excellent BlogHer community and reviewing program. Woot!

Cooking in Provence (or Rhode Island)

I've been meaning to post this picture for ages. When we met Delia, the entire morning was spent learning to cook with Alex Mackay. His recipes are excellent - we make his version of piri-piri sauce all the time now, and my mom was so inspired that she bought his new cookbook, Cooking In Provence. He signed it for her, of course, and she took it home to Rhode Island to splatter it with olive oil and tomatoes (and cook from it).

She and my dad made one of the recipes from the demo-day - a really fresh-tasting seafood stew. They used local clams from RI and pronounced it excellent.

Fabric update

Thank you, internets. It seems that admitting to the world (and Gnomemade - thanks, K!) that I needed to work on the quilt has done the trick. I've now finished the back (which I LOVE and I think might be promoted to "front"). I just need to email my choir buddy the dimensions (she owns Quilting Solutions and has lots of great wadding/batting) to get some warm & white batting, since a Flickr search for "natural batting + white quilt" led to a whole big pile of "DON'T DO IT!"

And then on with the quilting and the (orange - squeee!) binding and into the post.

For your crafty pleasure, here is some (unrelated) V&A Liberty fabric that I picked up last time I was in town. The V&A? And Liberty? Together? With fabric? Oh, my.

Concert on 11th June: Purcell's King Arthur

HEY EVERYBODY! We're singing Purcell's King Arthur (as far as I can tell, exactly what Monty Python would have been had it been written in the 17th century). We're not doing the whole opera, just the singing parts. It'll be a really enjoyable summer evening concert (it'll still be light out when we finish). You could even visit Mr. Peacock at Kentwell Hall or wander around Melford Hall in the afternoon, and then picnic on the village green before the concert...

Saturday 11 June 2011 at 7.30 pm

Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford

Henry Purcell

King Arthur

Sena Larard soprano
Karina Lucas mezzo-soprano
David Sheppard countertenor
Patrick Mundy tenor
James Gower bass

Bury Bach Choir

Suffolk Baroque Players

Philip Reed conductor

Enter the world of King Arthur in this exuberant portrayal of events long ago. Purcell’s
dramatic opera, with libretto by John Dryden, contains some of the composer’s most lyrical
and evocative music, including the famous Frost Chorus and the patriotic song Fairest Isle. 

The action is pure adventure. It revolves around Arthur’s endeavours to recover his fiancée,
the blind Cornish princess Emmeline, who has been abducted by his arch-enemy the Saxon
King Oswald of Kent. Does he succeed in rescuing her? Come and enjoy this spine
tingling performance… and discover the answer.

There will be one interval, without refreshments – performance ends 9.20pm

Tickets £16 from Theatre Royal Box Office 01284 769505 or the Theatre Royal website.

Review: A Discovery Of Witches

Alice (La Bibliofille) is a fount of good books. (For those of you who think I come up with my own ideas, think again - it's all Alice!)

She recommended, quite recently, A Discovery Of Witches. After reading her review, I was pretty sure I would like it. I reserved it at the Stowmarket library (new book with not too much buzz = short list!), and carried on reading my other book. Then I got impatient and downloaded a sample chapter on my Kindle, just to see if it was worth lugging the 500+ page tome up the hill from the library. Oh my, was it worth it.

I blasted through the sample chapters, and thankfully the book came in at the library. I, um, kind of abandoned everything. I went to work (but read in my lunchbreak AND at teabreak), read over breakfast, over dinner, on the train home, before dinner, after dinner, when I should have been varnishing, while waiting for other bellringers to show up in the churchyard, when I should have been doing laundry, and a few other non-normal reading times. 

The good news (for the rest of the world): I finished this morning (over breakfast, of course).

The bad news: I finished the book this morning. NOOOO!!

The good news: It's the first in a trilogy and the next one's coming out next year. Write faster, Deborah Harkness, please!

So you will have read Alice's review. Go on, the link is up there.

My review-in-a-nutshell: Intellectual Twilight for Grownups. With Witches. And a fabulously haunted house. LOVED. IT.

Sigh.

Review: The Sorcerer's Apprentice

We rented The Sorcerer's Apprentice the other night. I'd read not-great reviews about it, but Sam at the Stowmarket Blockbuster (who is generally very good with movie recommendations) said that he really liked it.

I find Nicholas Cage to be relatively emotionless - he seems to have a constant expression and I thought it was a bit hard to believe that he was madly in love with a sorceress who'd been trapped in a Russian doll for 1,000 years.  Jay Baruchel's voice (he also voices Hiccup in How To Train Your Dragon) sets my teeth on edge. Oh, and Teresa Palmer is Australian, which is why I found her New York accent totally unconvincing.

Other than that, thought, we did actually enjoy the movie. There was a very clever nod (well, direct repeat) of Mickey Mouse's mad-cleanup scene in the animated Sorcerer's Apprentice. I found myself thinking "how on earth did they get the rights to do this?!?....oh, wait...it's a Disney movie...never mind..."

Fun teenager- and parent-friendly movie with a happily romping plot and Alfred Molina as The Bad Guy. Standard issue.

One more thing. I hereby declare to the world that I will stop being such a dork and FINISH THIS QUILT. It's a present so I can't show you the whole top. Actually, it's a wedding present and we're in danger of hitting their first anniversary before I send it to them. It's going to rock when it's done...I'm just stuck. I now declare myself un-stuck. There. That's better.

Evil Mac Malware

Was merrily reading Teh Interwebs, when the image below popped up. The only way out of it was to force-quit Chrome - I'd read about it in the NYT and knew not to click on it. I wouldn't have gone as far as to install any software, or give them my credit card number, but the website looked alarmingly authentic.

Consider yourselves warned (NYT article below). MAC DEFENDER IS NOT YOUR FRIEND.

TECHNOLOGY

Bits: Apple Operating System Affected by Malware

By By NICK BILTON

Published: May 25, 2011

Apple computer users were targeted by fake antivirus software that hopes to gain access to users' credit cards. Apple said Wednesday that it plans to issue a software update to remove the malware.

If you want a guide to antivirus programs for the mac, Lifehacker has a good one.

Update: John has found this article on Apple.com about how to remove Mac Defender if you did end up installing it.

Review: The Importance Of Being Seven

I finished the latest instalment of Alexander McCall Smith's The Importance of Being Seven earlier this evening (I was 3 pages from the end after breakfast).

McCall Smith's preface was one of the best I've ever read. He describes how in book signings all over the world, his readers' favourite character from the books is the ever-tormented Bertie Pollock. Bertie is 6, and has an exceedingly overbearing mother. He is fabulously endearing as a character, and is definitely the most compelling character in TIoBS.

Bertie, you will, one day, attain the miracle that is Seven. Until then (and probably afterwards), we will all thoroughly enjoy reading about your (mis)adventures.

(Photo taken in Felixstowe, by me.)

Boris Bikes

Check out the Boris Bikes. I submitted it to Things Organized Neatly but they haven't published it yet. It would have been better if I'd had the big camera, but I didn't feel like schlepping it all over London.

And now, to read about The Importance Of Being Seven, under the quilt on the bed. Could be worse.