Well the end of the year is almost here and I am giving lots of thought to crafts for next year. As I type I am absolutely itching to stitch but I’m making a throw and I’m determined to finish it. In fairness I should have finished it AGES ago but as per usual it was put down – no that’s a lie – I didn’t put it down I did carry it around with me and did nothing else with it.
So the plan is finish the throw and and then look in to the big bag of patterns/kits I just so happened to buy at the knitting & stitching show in October. I should probably stop putting temptation in my way by looking up patterns on the internet – but they really are soo yummy. I think I will gently ease myself into stitching with a few biscornu – no shush! I’m getting distracted from my remaining 9 snowflakes – sure after that there’s only the background – it will be lovely for Christmas just which one???
My Corner of The Internet
Things To Make Me Smile (and a few things that annoy me)
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Well it seems that I’ve picked the best week to be off. Again the busses are out of action so woohoo when I say no walk home! However even though I haven’t really been out and about I do have some soup on the go – I think it’s a weight watchers recipe but to be honest it is yummy.
Chop and dice a butternut squash, a large potato & a leek.
Chop some garlic and grate some ginger – this bit is mainly down to your own taste.
Heat the veg in a pot and then add 1.5L of veg stock.
Boil and then simmer. Soup is ready when veg is soft.As I said it’s on the cooker as I type and I have to say the smell is absolutely fantastic!
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(I meant to post this this morning but I forgot – oops! )
As I sit here and type I have no real idea of what Advent is. Is that a terrible thing for me to admit? Anyway before I go off and figure out what Advent is let me tell you about my day so far (it’s only 9.40am!) Last night we were torn between watching the X-Factor (distinctly lack luster) and looking out the window waiting for snow. Snow didn’t come so we went to bed but woke at about 3am to see that yes like Father Christmas the snow was waiting for us to go to sleep before it came. I’m really amazed that I managed to go back to sleep as normally I’d be bouncing around like a hyperactive child fully of fizzy drinks – I think the 3am part had a lot to do with it. However joy of joys the snow was still on the ground when I got up and is still there – we don’t have this type of weather – it just doesn’t happen – however this is the earliest snow has fallen is a long time – according to the weather folk in the UK who are getting it much worse than here.Out of our three cats only one of them wanted to go out. I was watching her and she seemed to go into slinking hunting mode immediately – I’m not sure what she could see but I did notice that there was snow falling from the washing line – so I’m guessing bird or possibly neighbouring cat testing the line.
Anyway time to go and figure out about Advent.
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Last night we were settle down after dinner – Country File was over and we were waiting for The X-Factor when the lights flickered. We thought it was a bulb about to go had a quick look around but couldn’t figure which one was it, when everything went dark. Well Grumble!! Luckily it was still a little but bright out but only just – it was 7.15. So a quick run around to find the torch while himself was lighting the candles on the mantle piece.
Once that was done it was a case of so what now? I went outside so I could hear all of the house alarms a bit better and the thing that struck me most was the sound of excited children – we have a lot of young children in our area and this is the first major evening outage we’ve had. Anyway along comes the neighbour from upstairs so he rushes in to check on stuff and we’re chatting to the girlfriend – the big joke is if the electricity doesn’t come back soon we’re going to have to chat and we’ve been putting that off for years!
Back inside I grab my transistor radio – the one I got all those years ago ’cause we were always getting power cuts when I was littler. It was just a pity that there wasn’t anything entertaining on BBC radio 4 – only current events etc. I suppose we could have retuned it but we decided to go for a walk ’cause it was really dark 🙂 It’s amazing how no street lighting changes you whole surroundings – cars with their dims on are still blindingly bright and all of a sudden you notice there are loads of cars! However we were more interested in looking in at peoples candles – it was almost like Christmas looking in at the lights. We didn’t stay out for too long as the little bit of bright that had been outside had vanished.
When we got home it was out with the torches to see where had we put the cooker kettle!! You see we could have coffee ’cause we had the happy combo of gas cooker & cooker top kettle! A few years ago a friend in work said she didn’t have an electric kettle but a cooker kettle and I thought the idea was fascinating so I got one too for events like last night. So coffee is ready what else is there to do? we could watch a DVD ’cause the laptop still had battery power – Internet if only I could find the mobile broadband thingy (which I did this morning) or better yet we could continue watching House! er no on the House suggestion – it is on my hard drive and that needs to be plugged in. It would seem that there is so much you could almost do but this electricity lark always pipped us at the post. In the end we ended up playing board games well the Agatha Christie one ’cause it’s the only one I stand a chance of winning! What a pity neither of us plays cards – maybe it’s something to look into. I almost suggested sleep at one ridiculously early point in time but I knew I’d be wide awake again by 2am so we hit the hay and watched DVDs on the laptop – to be precise we were watching High Life with Alan Cummings, Forbes Mason & Siobhan Redmond – hadn’t seen it in ages so it was very funny. After that I went to sleep – only to have the telly come back on along with a load of lights at 11.45. That sounds like I got up to knock it all off – erm no I rolled over went “oh lights” and promptly fell back to sleep.
So here I am with all of faculties / utilities back and with some quick thinking from somebody else on a forum I’ve put the immersion on ’cause the clock for the heating is out by just over 4 hours and there would have been no hot water! However it should be ready & I can also use my hair drier – very important these days.Just an after thought if this had gone on for a while there is no way to heat the house – this is an estate without chimneys so lighting a fire is out of the question – I think this is something we’re going to have to give serious thought to!
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It’s at this time of the year you really can see the seasons change – for the most part over the year they simply slide into one another but not at the moment – it’s almost like one day you are coming home in broad daylight and the next day the sun is setting – a week later and it’s dark. I have to admit I love it – the lengthening and shortening of the days. I was talking to a friend recently and who is originally from Zimbabwe and she was telling me that when they were being taught in school about the shorter days in winter and longer in summer it meant nothing to them – it made no sense as their days stayed the same more or less all year – it was only when she came here that she realised what the teachers were on about.
This morning I woke up and it was pitch dark – no more morning walks (even though there weren’t too many in the first place – well not this year) – and it was the first morning that I was actually aware of the darkness. As I type the sky is brightening, some of the clouds are pink and there are trails from the planes. Soon this won’t be happening for at least another hour and then winter will have set in – going to and returning from work in darkness.
Speaking of work – must dash! -
My mother used to make the most gorgeous boiled fruit cake but unfortunately returning to work, time constraints and losing the recipe put a stop to that. I remember you would nearly have the mixture eaten from the saucepan even before the flour went in – totally yummy! So can you imagine my joy of joys when I bought a cook book that had a recipe for boiled fruit cake in it – and it looked vaguely familiar! Over the weekend I decided I’d give it a go and boy was it good. I’d have taken photos but I was too busy scoffing the lot – ok maybe not all of the cake but a fair amount of it. I found it crumbled a bit when I cut it but to be honest I’m not overly worried. I brought some in to work and it went down well or at least nobody was out sick 😉 Following hot on the heels of this success I’m eager to try more baking (I tend to go through these phases) so I think I’m going to retire to bed with a mug of hot chocolate and my copy of Cherry Cake & Ginger Beer by Jane Brocket. I have a feeling that my next two baking forays will be more boiled fruit cake and some banana muffins – I saw the recipe in this months Weight Watchers mag and remembered I really liked them.
I have a feeling I’m going to be dreaming of cake – bliss!
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I’m sitting here waiting for the kettle to boil and outside it’s started to rain. I love the sound of rain – pitter patter pitter pitter patter pitter.
Rain at night needs a quiet and dark room – just to sit there and listen – feeling safe.
Rain in the day brings a choice of two things – stay in with a hot cuppa and watch the rain running down the windows looking at the distortions OR put on your coat and wellies and go out in it jump in puddles and just get thoroughly soaked.
Funnily going out in the rain reminds me of V For Vendetta –
God Is In The Rain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9tbvQu6Iq8Time for the quiet dark room 🙂
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For the last few days we’ve been in Paris, France and it has been glorious!
Most of my annual leave for this year has been used for Doctor & Hospital visits so this holiday was very much overdue.
Alas now it is over and I must return to work tomorrow so it’s an early (ish) night with the end of my Ian Rankin book and a mug of hot chocolate – with a dash of cinnamon.Tomorrow I will upload a few of the pictures – but be warned I’m not the greatest of photographers 😉
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I love Time Team but life in the past few years has meant that I haven’t been able to watch it with the fannish devotion of previous years. However I’m watching a very early episode on one of the satellite channels and I looked up the internet to find out how early – and in my pursuit of trivia I found out that Robin Bush died in June. This makes me so sad ’cause I always found his input very interesting and thought it as a great loss to the show when he was no longer part of the team.
I know this is supposed to be a blog of things to make me smile but I had to put it out there 😦
Robin James Edwin Bush (March 12, 1943 – June 22, 2010) Rest In Peace. -
Packing lists are always very handy and always used so why don’t I have a permanent one? I think it’s because I love making lists. It’s the making, the sitting down and deciding that I enjoy – it all adds to the build up of anticipation. Will I bring this? Will I bring that? Do I even need that? I haven’t used this is three months, will I bring it on holidays? Yes there are times, early on in the list making process when I’ve included everything (yes that does mean the kitchen sink – well it deserves a holiday too!)
Yesterday I bought a notebook specifically for making up this years packing list, I’m also going to write up addresses for Post Cards so I’m not ringing home looking for them. I don’t know what it is – I’m completely rubbish at letter writing but send me to a new city and everybody has to get a postcard sent to them. It must be a family thing – my parents send them when they go away and I send them too. I often wonder if it’s something that’s dying out (so to speak) I never hear of colleagues sending postcards either that or they’re just not mental enough to send them into work!!
Ah well – I can’t stay here typing all day I now have to go an decide which bags I’m bringing – ones to be packed and ones for walking around on holidays with – all very important decisions 🙂
