Saturday 17 March 2018

Food God

As Winter makes yet another bid to return from it's temporal exile, the day saw blue skies interspersed with brass coloured clouds and hefty flurries of the white stuff which refused to settle; this was accompanied by freezing temperatures and Baltic winds just this side of gale strength. Brrr.
 
Jean-Luc decided this was perfect weather for staying inside and cooking - hooray!
And so we now have about 11 or 12 meals lodging in the fridge and freezer; including, shepherds pie, chicken, mushroom and leek pie, a quiche, fiery Goan curry, John Torrodes turkey meatballs with a lime pickle sauce (honestly it's delicious served with papardelle or tagliatelle), Bolognese sauce, Thai green curry and a Kerala coconut curry.
 
 
It's meal planning without having to be tied to a particular dish on a particular day and gives us loads of flexibility if plans change.
 
Convenience food at its best - homemade with fresh ingredients just waiting for us to eat it.
 
Delicious!
 


Friday 16 March 2018

The Garden

I long to write a post on the garden, about my endeavours out there and the joy it brings; alas the weather has been truly bloody awful for much of the winter and the only time the garden is remotely dry enough to work in is when it's frozen solid.
 
The lawn is so wet we have a transitory pond and I believe crocodiles once again inhabit the bamboo - makes a change from the cat ambushing me from it.
 
I have done some weeding, pruning of the fruit bed and tidied the greenhouse but none of these make pretty pictures; in fact the only pictures would be of empty pots on shelves and sad looking plants sticking up out of mud.
 
This year we will be mostly addressing the drainage issue or by all the small gods I will dig a pond in the middle of the lawn!
 
Until summer arrives I will leave you with  pictures of past glories we can only now dream about.
 



 
Look colour!
 



Thursday 15 March 2018

Domestic Goddess

It's cold and wet (again) outside so I have channelled my own and Nigella's domestic goddesshood and ta da!
 
 
 Stilton cheese scones...
 
..... Limoncello
 
Both homemade and both delicious.
 
Sadly exhausted by all this smiling domestic loveliness, my goddess ness has baulked at the idea of scrubbing out the shower and I am taking my coffee to curl up with the cat and do some quilting.
Well the doctors do say too much of a good thing is bad for us.....


Friday 9 March 2018

Obsession

When does a hobby become an obsession?
 
 
Possibly when you start to take your secret crochet project down the pub but still refuse to tell people what you're making......
 
 
...or when you are inspired to have a clothes clear out so you can start making t-shirt yarn.....
 
...or when you look back over the last month and realise just how many days you decided 'oh it's much too miserable to go out/ garden/ do housework; I'll just stoke the fire up and do some crochet/ quilting'.


Thursday 1 March 2018

Spring Cleaning

Taking advantage of the cold weather, Jean-Luc and I have been spring-cleaning.
This has involved many trips up and down the stairs as I ferry things up to the attic for storage or the craft room to Put Things Away.  In truth these are both the same room but we designate the dark, crouchy, can't stand up in it storage area as 'the Attic' and the oh look I can stand up, what lovely light main part of the room as 'the craft room'. 
All this activity has meant one rather scary thing - UFO's!
 
I now have a list of UFO's and Things That Need To Be Made.
  • The Pastel Quilt needs to be finished.
  • The Japanese influenced Blue & White Quilt needs to be backed and quilted.
  • An Autumn quilt for a friend needs to be backed and quilted.
  • I need to finally  bite the bullet and decide on a pattern for Jean-Luc's quilt and make it.
  •  I need to decide on a pattern for my Attic 24 Autumn Woodland blanket (with extra colours) and crochet it.
  • Ditto for the Attic 24 Cosy Summer blanket - which I rediscovered on a shelf - whoops!
  • The Chinese Whispers picture quilt from my quilting group.
  • A Japanese Lantern quilt for my quilting group show.
  • A banner for my knit and natter yarnbombing group for a village parade this summer.
  • Granny squares for a yarnbombing project this summer.
  • 101 other quilts I have ideas for!
 
Well at least I won't be bored!