Not completely gone

What do you write when you've been away from your blog this long? There's all sorts of posts that rattle around in my head, But I start to feel like I need a big introductory essay to set me off again, so it's not some blank page where the latest post is a year old.

There's so much to show in the house renovations now that I don't know where to start with that either; but I don't want to give up this space that I've made so many friends from, so I've got to start somewhere.

So while I think about that, here's my first mark on the page, to say I'm back, or at least, not completely gone.

my reading corner.

One of my favourite spots in the house so far is one that happened quite accidentally - the best bits often do don't they - and that's my reading pile. The book pile started forming after a particularly good Christmas, and then the lamp just appeared on top of it. Eventually I have plans for a different reading corner, in a different bit of the house, so all this will change but hopefully there'll still be a pile of books waiting to be read.

This is one of the things I want to work through this year, I'm awful for buying books, or asking for books as presents, and they seem to be coming in at such a volume that I don't get through them, especially now I'm in Blook club too. Its not a big challenge, but one that will give me satisfaction to be able to tick of my mental list.

A lot of the books in the pile are reference - gardening, sewing, cooking - but I don't want to put them on the shelves without at least learning whats in them should I need to find the information on how best to prune a raspberry/cook shin of beef/sew a zip. so although I love this corner, I'm hoping that by the end of the year some different books might be in this pile! (yes, there is a book on composting in there, I'm not the proud owner of a compost heap - James found me that book for christmas - who says romance is dead?)

Eat: tasty weekend lunch

Aka 'what to give your parents when you're just back from holiday and have nothing in the house and have ten minutes to pick up supplies in a corner shop in Edinburgh'.
Any of these recipes are great on their own, I make the brownies regularly and I've yet to find a recipe to beat them, but the bread does go really nicely with the soup.

Spicy sweet potato and butternut soup
- from the new Covent garden soup co book 'soup and beyond'
serves 4 - I tend to work off the weight of the butternut I've bought, and multiply everything accordingly as it freezes well.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion - finely chopped
2 garlic cloves - crushed
1 tsp each of cumin and coriander - roasted lightly and ground
2 tbsp sesame seeds - roasted lightly
1cm fresh root ginger - peeled and finely grated
1 green chilli - seeded and finely chopped
zest and juice of 1 lime
1 tsp runny honey
340g sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2.5cm dice
340g butternut squash - peeled and cut into 2.5 dice
1.2 litres vegetable stock
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
salt and freshly-ground black pepper
handful of fresh coriander leaves to garnish

Heat the oil and cook the onion and garlic for 10 minutes without letting them colour.       
Stir in spices, sesame seeds, ginger, chilli, lime zest and honey and stir for 30 seconds.
Add the sweet potato, butternut, juice of half the lime and the stock. Cover and boil for about 10 minutes or until veg is almost tender.           
Add the drained chickpeas and taste for seasoning. Simmer for another 10 minutes, then add the rest of lime juice to taste.
Cool a little then liquidise. Reheat gently, sprinkle with coriander, and serve.

Feta Bread
from Delia Smiths 'how to cook book one'
Since Delia has such a comprehensive website, I'm just going to link to the recipe here. Ive never tried it with the goats cheese, but I'm sure its just as nice if fetas not your thing. the sharpness of the feta just really works with the sweet soup above. this bread is equally nice on its own, warm from the oven spread with butter - my mum has often made it for a lunch. Its very easy, and needs no proving. because of the potato in it it is meant to be moist, and won't increase in size in the oven.

Rich Chocolate Brownies
If you have any room left after, I made hummingbirds brownies. I've put blueberries in these before now and it was lovely, any berries would work. they last well in a tin too.

33 x 23 x 5-cm baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper (I find the greaseproof doesnt come off the cake well, and I spend ages peeling it off the bottom - I've had more success in a silicone tray without lining it.
200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
175g unsalted butter
325g caster sugar
130g plain flour
3 eggs
icing sugar, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3.
Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let the base of the bowl touch the water). Leave until melted and smooth.
Remove from the heat. Add the sugar and stir until well incorporated. Add the flour and stir until well incorporated. Finally, stir in the eggs and mix until thick and smooth.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until flaky on the top but still soft in the centre. Be careful not to overcook otherwise the edges will become hard and crunchy. Leave to cool completely before dusting with icing sugar, to decorate.

Aaaaaaaaannndd eat.

Garden: clearing part 1

We have a front and back garden, for this year I'm going to concentrate on the front garden as it's got less to do to it and is easier done. Firstly it need some severe pruning to get things under control, and we're taking a few of the trees down to let more light in.
In all that lovely weather we had I went out with loppers and started taking things down/out in one corner, there were a couple of shrubs in one corner growing through an orange blossom tree, and strangling it, not to mention cutting out the light to the garden.

Before:

(see? There's a tree and 2 shrubs there!)

After:

Excuse the big pile of crap on the ground, that be the shrubs! Why is it when you garden the amount of rubbish looks 4 times bigger than it did as a plant?! I know it doesnt look much different, but I'm rubbish at taking photos.

As always happens when I start something like thise, the same evening I got out all my gardening books and started planning. Lists have been written, and a VERY rudimentary plan made. We have a pond in the middle of the garden which cant really move so I'm working around that mainly, and the idea of trying to get plants into the garden that really wont work up here in the wet. Oh well, a girl can dream...of plants...

It's only a small area of the garden done but it feels really good to have done something positive, at the moment on the house it's pretty much all up to James, as it's plumbing and heating before anything else, so I'm feeling a bit useless.

Bookcase: Paul torday

I'm just going to say to go read anything by this man. You'll probably know him best because he's the author of 'Salmon fishing in the Yemen'. That book is soon to come out as a film - something I'm excited and worried about in equal measure, since they seem to be billing it at as a romantic comedy, which I don't remember being the central theme of the book.

(image)

Anyway. Back to the books. I read 'Salmon Fishing...' a couple of years ago, it's one that I picked up from a charity shop on the basis of the name and cover (do you do that too?) and loved it. I need to reread it soon so I'm not going to refer to it too much as its hazy in my head now but I was left with an almost spiritual, uplifting feeling from the book, while it still had a healthy dose of dry humour.

Recently I noticed in my local waterstones that he had a new book out, so just after Christmas I treated myself to two more - 'the girl on the landing' and 'more than you can say'. The latter I think I read in 24 hours - these aren't complex taxing reads but they are very enjoyable and interesting.

(image)

I took two more on holiday with me, one a short story which is the only one I wouldn't search out to read again, but was interesting nonetheless, and 'The hopeless life of Charlie summers'.

One of the points I love most about these books is that the characters are often in some small way linked, yet you aren't reading a series. Someone who may be a small incidental character only appearing in one chapter of one book may be the main character in a later book. I've only just realised - from watching press clips about the 'salmon fishing...' film - that one of the characters from that reappears in a later book too. Yet unlike a series like 'the no1 ladies detective agency' (purely as an example-I have nothing in particular against that series) you aren't reading about the same characters in different situations over and over again. And each book covers different topics, for example gambling or mental illness, but at their heart, for me anyway, they are studies of the foibles, faults and traits of the human character. most of all they are fun, and very enjoyable to read. Im just waiting now for his newest to come out in paperback, as the cover designs seem to be following a theme which the hardback one isnt following!

A break in France

For the last 9 days we've been here again, in our friends house in France.


A thoroughly relaxing break of sleeping, scrabble, coffee, patisserie and sunshine.


And lizard watching (yes, in march! It was freakishly warm). And napping, and more scrabble.



Now we're back, it's back to work, and the house, and to blogging hopefully! I have loads of posts in my head, it's just getting them published.
(while I was away Imagine it published a blog post that I had managed to write for them-they blog about moments, big or small, and I wrote about the first time working back on my loom. It's here, if you want to see)

(apologies for the quality of pictures, all on my phone)

Eat: salmon and cucumber dill salad/goats cheese & onion bruschetta

I've done quite a bit of cooking trying out recipes I've saved over the last few weeks. I go through phases of being stuck in a rut where all I can think of is pasta, to being really adventurous and trying out tons of new recipes. A few weeks ago I had a week like that, and since most of them were good, I thought I'd share them. we did eat them all before i'd taken photos, so its a pictureless post.
I found this salmon recipe on pinterest, it's so easy! It's not really so much a recipe for salmon as a dressing you could put with any fish, possibly even meats. It's very summery, it wasn't really the right time of year for it but i know if I don't try things out straight away I'll forget about them.
We roasted some new potatoes in olive oil and rosemary to go with this, our only complaint was that the dressing was possibly slightly runny, but that could be easily amended by adjusting the quantities of the wet ingredients. I'm a bit slapdash with quantities unless it's baking, so it's probably my fault! I also couldn't find fresh dill when I was shopping, so used chives instead. It would be a lovely side dressing for a BBQ, or as it is here for a summer meal.
While I was shopping for the ingredients for the dressing above, I saw goats cheese, and wanted it. So I decided to make bruschettas with goats cheese and caramelised onions for a starter (I really went all out that night!). I don't know about any of you, but I've never been able to make really nice caramelised onions, just sort of burger onions. So I googled it and found this I really only used this recipe for the onions part, I just toasted some French stick under the grill, smooshed the goats cheese (minus rind) on the top, and then put the caramelised onions over. They were scrummy.
That may have been completely unnecessary, I may be the only numpty in the world who doesn't know how to make good caramelised onions, but hey. You live and learn! More recipes coming soon.

Indecisive

lobster and swan

I'm intrigued. What do you do with your magazines when you've read them? I read mainly interiors ones, and textile/craft ones too, but I am a hoarder. I can't bear to throw them out. Or even rip the occasional page. I feel like one day I will need a library of inspiration, and that will come from these magazines.

Since I came to college I have had subscriptions to/bought religiously: crafts/vogue/Elle decoration/selvedge/country living/Mollie makes (the last 3 I still get) and I occasionally buy homes and gardens or another interiors magazine that takes my eye.

lobster and swan

But I can't bear to throw them away, so they all still sit on shelves around the house, taking up irritating amounts of room.
I've been debating the idea of scrapbooks? Normally I'm precious about cutting them up too, but im starting to think that keeping the pictures and articles which I find inspiring in one place might be better than a stack of old magazines, in which I have no hope of finding that amazing picture I know one contains.

lobster and swan

I kept a scrapbook when we were planning this house, to save samples and swatches, and pictures I loved, but I was a bit precious about how the pages look. I sectioned it off by room, so I could show James my ideas. But I think I need to try very pointedly do the opposite now, not consciously choose images to sit together, but see what combinations come up from sticking images in as I find them.

Any ideas? What do you do, do your magazines go in recycling when you're finished, or do you have a library of past editions hidden away somewhere?!


All images from lobster and swan - links under images - who is excellent at scrapbooking. she also has cute cats.

Bookcase: We need to talk about Kevin

image from amazon

I'm well aware I'm behind the times by talking about this now, even though the films just out the book is a good few years old, and could be described as a modern classic already, but I've only just read it and it's SO.DAMN.GOOD.

I found the first half hard to get into, I'd read a sentence or paragraph and have to go back over it because it was just so wordy, I hadn't taken anything in. But then as Kevin starts to come into himself as a character I was more and more gripped. I found the language became simpler too. It's not easy to read by any stretch of the imagination, the subject is obviously awful, but it was so cleverly written I found myself crowbarring time into my day to read it.

You know what the main crime in the book is from the beginning, so you are constantly leading towards 'Thursday' and yet there are still surprises in it. There were several incidents (maybe I'm just dense-it's eminently possible) that I just wasn't expecting, and floored me when I was reading it. And her ability by the end of the book to make you feel sympathy for Kevin is very clever. Just consider not reading it if you are that time in life where you're thinking about having children!

(Im never sure whether I should carry on writing these bookcase posts - I shied away from writing one from the blook club meeting I went to, since some ladies there were much more eloquent than me, but I like reading, and want to share what I like so I hope you dont mind if I carry on!)

Have any of you seen the film? what did you think? it never came to our cinema, so Im going to invest at the end of the month when the DVD is released!

Pinspiration: christmas decoration storage

image from re-nest via pinterest

(I re-pinned it but the link wasnt direct to the blogpost - apologies)

I saw this ages ago, but had to wait to do it until now.

Its worked quite well, it would work better if you don't, like me, collect random odd shaped christmas decorations, but have perfectly matching baubles instead. hence my pictures make it look like a junk shop stored on an apple crate, but I've still kept them like that. I've then stored them in a box to keep them safe.we get our eggs delivered on a large sheet once a month, so I've been saving those rather than boxes, and I got some more, and the larger apple sheets from our market, who would normally just recycle them at the end of the day.

the eagle eyed amongst you might have noticed some glass cat heads in the photos above, heres a closer one with two of them in - a set of 6 of these were my secret santa present from Lisa-Marie, along with some christmassy truffles! Thank you very much Lisa, and sorry it took so long to write about them!

(apologies for the appalling quality of photos, it was night, on an iphone.)

if you'd like to see what else I'm pinning, you can find me here

Imagine it.

Remember my friend? (how could you not, the post is only about 4 back, such is my blogging prowess these days)

She got married. It was beautiful.

Herself and her husband run a group providing a fresh perspective on life, positive help for anyone who wants it, and embracing and experiencing everything that comes in their path. If you want to be a part of it, you can go to their facebook page, their website, and sometimes through Vikis blog. (they even do wristbands, if you need a positive thinking stocking filler!

Tonight, all their friends and family are having a push to get their ethos out there to build support for the community they are creating, which is why I'm bombarding you with links. Tomorrow, those of you who read wedding blogs, may notice her face pop up again. I know I've asked it before, but shes worth repeating myself for. If you can, If you want to, go, visit, talk, support. anything you feel like doing.

Thank you.

Bookcase: the River Cottage handbook series

Personally, I could write a post on every one of these books, I own 6 of the 8 or 9 there are in the series so far. I love them. They are informative, modern, interesting and well written. The veg book is the only gardening book (other than the fruit one, which I think I took in a bath with me to read!) which I have devoured from cover to cover without skipping bits.

Each book is written, not by Hugh F-W, but by someone knowledgable on the subject, who you'll probably have seen if you watch any of his programmes. So the hedgerow book is written by John, hughs foraging friend. The bread book is written by dan, his baker. The veg and fruit books are written by Mark, the head gardener at river cottage. You get the idea. Don't even get me started on 'pam the jam', I think you can guess that she wrote the preserves book!

Each book is divided into roughly the same sections, an introduction, telling you why you really should bake your own bread/grow your own veg/bottle the veg you grew/foraged, and what you'll need to do it. The majority of the book is taken up with alphabetised sections of recipes/plants and explains about each one really rather well, without losing you in a mire of technical words. Then, in the case of some books (hedgerow/fruit/veg) Hugh has written some recipes to use the ingredients you've grown, and in the veg/fruit books again, there are really helpful chapters on how to set up a good veg plot.

If all that's not enough, they are cloth covered, and the photography is gorgeous.

all images from amazon

Pinspiration: sewing case

Pinspiration, see what I did there? I know. Im a comedy genius.

Anywaaaaaay. I thought I should start using some of the images I spend my life pinning, rather than just.... Pinning them. And as is the way, I then have to show off my projects.

So heres the pinspiration for this one:

left, from tasha horsley right, from natty michelle both via pinterest

and heres mine:

We found the suitcase in a junk market in france, I think I spent about 3 euros on it. Its battered, and was lined with a paisley patterned paper. I relined it (badly) with a striped ticking sort of fabric which I found in a charity shop and fabric glue (which I know you can see, dont tell me).

It was reminding me by this point of my mums school case that I still have, so I went with the school vibe and made the needle book to look like an exercise book...

and the pincushion a rather crude apple...



It now lives in the living room next to my seat, and houses a mini sewing kit, and whatever project I'm currently working on - the embroidery of the world was my present to James for our anniversary. It has since also housed pom poms and another embroidery piece which became a wedding present.

One year on

One year ago right now, I married my best friend.

Happy birthday grandpa, you would be 90 today. We'll celebrate your birthday too.

And happy first anniversary Ray, my anniversary buddy! Hope you both have a wonderful day.

Poppies

(Viki and I on the ullswater steamer this spring. )

I've had this post in draft for a week now, trying to work out how to introduce a friend of 20 years without sounding trite or sappy. But really, it doesn't matter what I say, just that I say it. So go read vikis blog, she's just started. And it's well worth reading.

DIY:jersey shift dress

Yesterday evening I made this dress! I've not yet learnt how to follow a pattern, (my mum is meant to be going to show me) but I found this fabric pretty cheaply in the Market, and thought f@&k it, let's try it out. Normally I buy fabric for two main reasons, either I have a plan for it (so it goes on my fabric pile of doom at home) or I like it (so it goes on my fabric pile of doom at home) so I didn't want this to go the same way.
I'd never sewn with jersey before, and the only other piece of clothing I've made was a smocked maxi dress which was nice, but someone in the pub asked me when I was due. So I haven't worn it again.
Anyway, this only took about 2 hours, I was pretty pleased! It's fairly plain, and obviously I have a tshirt on underneath, buti think with a belt and some jewellery it could be nice. It's also very comfy.

Growth: wisteria

One of the first times I managed to get out into the garden properly after we moved wasn't until about February (what?! It's cold and wet up here!). My parents came across to help for the day, with a large amount of pruning and thinning. To the left of the porch in that photo was a large pile of grasses, which we cleared out, and there were 6ft conifers somehow still growing in chimney pots either side of the porch which we took out completely.

 There is a wisteria which had been left to climb the front of the house, but had gone a bit mad and was going through the guttering! We decided that the best way to tackle it was to cut it right back to about 4 foot, and pray.

(you can just see the stump here, that standing twig to the left of the porch)

It eventually started to shoot, just as we were starting to think the worst, and once it had a leaf it was away. Dad came and put wires in for us, they have to be a certain distance apart to allow the flower heads room to hang, apparently.

We put the next two wires up at the weekend, as it was starting to grip onto telephone cables, and here it is now:

(most photos taken on my phone, excuse the quality!)

Our House

So here it is.

Our House, in the middle of our street.

 

I'm not mad keen on either photo, but the front garden isn't very big, so I don't have much space, and the trees, oh the trees! there are so many.  you can see what a difference a few months and some leaves on the trees make. But thats another story for another time.

DIY: pom pom garland

The hardcore, long term readers out there may vaguely be able to dredge up from the recesses of your mind that I spent a long time making pompoms a year or so back, in the hope of one day making them into a garland for christmas time. Today was that day. Never say I dont finish a project...

Bookcase: A spot of bother

(image from amazon)

I've got the reading bug badly at the moment. I was holding off reading this one until I had read his first offering (finally) on holiday. I liked this one even more than A Curious Incident... both are excellent but this one is properly laugh out loud funny, while also being very dark.
Each chapter is written from the point of view of one of 4 members of a family, parents, daughter and son, in the run up to the daughters second wedding. each of them concerned with their own problems, they dont notice each others - the fathers impending nervous breakdown, the sons relationship failing while the mother continues an affair. Its all very everyday, mundane, but very very funny.
I ploughed through half of this on a train journey, and the other half one night when James went out - as the chapters are short - some of them only a page - its very easy to keep reading!