Sunday 3rd April - To err is human...

The full quotation is 

'to err is human, to forgive is divine' - Alexander Pope

but it's the making of mistakes that I'm writing about. I was half, nay, three-quarters thinking of renaming this blog as 'A-couple-of-typos-from-home' as they are such a frequent characteristic of these posts. When the mistakes are underlined in red, then there's a chance of catching them. 

I was given a box of these brilliant pencils,, made by a company called Milan, although other brands exists,by my husband lat year or the year before;

red at one end, and blue at the other. Apparently they are quite a thing on the continent for marking up text, adding emphasis to notes. I hadn't realised, until I went hunting to see if I could buy a double-ended yellow-green pencil, because then I could colour in anything with just two pencils. No such luck; the other type of double-ended pencil is neon yellow and ordinary graphite - for writing and highlighting. I might get one anyway, sometime... I could do with red-pencilling a lot of what I write before releasing it into the world.

I have heard from several sources that quiltmakers in the Amish community incorporate a deliberate error in their famous hand-made quilts, because true perfection can only be attained by God. I agree with them in that true perfection can only be achieved by God, but I personally have no to add mistakes to my work just to ensure it was not perfect. 

I don't think I have made a perfect thing in my life, not sewing, knitting, crochet, nor playing, singing, teaching, cooking - nope, not a thing.

Here's my 'second sock' of the new pair. The pale stripe is where I shall add a heel later on, and the little yellow bulb-shaped safety pin is where I spotted ANOTHER dropped stitch, which I do something or other with needle and yarn later, to stop it running any further. (Top tip - whatever you are knitting, keep a crotchet hook, a size or so smaller than the needles, close at hand for hooking up dropped stitches). I have included a shot of the bendy double-pointed needles I am using; it means my stitches are across two needles instead of the more usual three or four, so I knit 30 stitches (I should count to see if I still have 30 stitches on each needle) before changing to the next spare needle to complete the round.   

The point of the picture being he dropped stitch; the other sock also has a strategic pin hanging onto a stitch that needs attention.

Of course, nearly everyone agrees that we have erred mightily as a nation, as a world, in a whole raft of major, serious issues. One of which is waste and climate and resources.

In a tiny effort to reduce paper towel usage in this household, I am using dish-cloth cotton squares to mop microwave spills, wipe worktops and so forth. These cotton squares were originally meant for a patchwork blanket, but I am NEVER going to finish it. 

Even after having taken a number for my own use, I will still have about three dozen left over. They are made from recycled cotton, and are around six inches square, and all probably have at least one mistake in them. They are perfectly hygienic to use as long as they don't hang around too long. (remember the stinky floor cloths from the broom cupboard at school? Ugh) I chuck them in the laundry at the end of the day, or sooner if that seems a good idea. Just beware - they are NOT perfect!

So, if YOU would like some - 3? or 5? maybe - comment with your address (I won't publish your address) and I will keeping sending them out until they are gone.   

Monday 15th February - Nearly Lent

 Tomorrow I shall make pancakes, or rather drop scones, also known as Scotch pancakes, which I much prefer to the Crepe style ones. We shall consume a quantity of real maple syrup from the carefully hoarded supplies brought over from Canada several years ago.

Most of the recipes I see use eggs (I don't) and skip the butter (I don't).

I usually use the standard scone recipe - 2 oz butter rubbed into half a pound of SR flour along with a tablespoon of sugar, and enough milk to make the right consistency - about half a pint, but don't put it all in at once in case you wish you had used less. (Scones only need a quarter of a pint of milk). Hey, ounces, pounds, and pints! I've had this recipe a long time, so it's a good job my electronic scales are bilingual.

I'm wondering whether to try the American 2-ingredient biscuit recipe (1 pot yogurt, 1 pot SR flour) and just add enough milk to turn it into a drop scone consistency. Or the 3-ingredient scone recipe (1 pot fizzy lemonade, 1 pot cream, 3 pots SR flour). But I don't think we have any cream, so standard scone or 2-ingredient biscuit it will be. Experimentation might be the order of the day.

.........

I've been working on a sort of year-book - what else could one call it? I enjoy reading books that go through the year, so that one reads a chapter every month, taking one's time. I am currently reading 'One Woman's Year' by Stella Martin Currey (Persephone Books) which I like better than the '2020 Almanac; 'A Seasonal Guide to 2020' by Lia Leendertz which I read last year. I started  'The Cloister Walk' by Kathleen Norris in September 2019, which is more of a journal of Christian spirituality through a year. And then there is Miss Read's 'Village Diary' which is a novel telling the events in a small village back in the 1950s from the point of view of the Village School Teacher. 

It was 'The Cloister Walk' which alerted me to the pleasures of following a year through a book; the writing was 'as full of meat as a pudding' and I didn't want to read it too quickly. I found the Almanac to full of information that didn't interest me; tide tables and sunrise and set tables and nature notes of the hedgerows, and only a few of the recipes leapt off the page and say 'cook me, cook me'.

'One Woman's Year', published in 1953, is nearly perfect; six topics a month consisting of a diary-style essay, a recipe (excuse me if I agree so entirely with her description of the 'Pancake Pagoda Recipe' as a 'recipe of despair' that I have decided to read it as a work of fiction and not attempt!), a description of an excursion, the most loved, and most hated jobs for the month, and a very short anthology. And woodcuts. I love woodcut and lino print pictures.

                                            

I have refrained from reading ahead, and instead am putting together my own Year-Book-Companion. Following the example above, at the moment I plan to include any, or some, or all, of 

1. a diary entry, 
2. a poem,
3. a recipe, 
4. a cake, 
5. something to make, 
6. an excursion (not that I am going anywhere at the moment), 
7. something about nature/flowers/trees/gardening (of which I am mostly ignorant but since when has ignorance ever stopped anyone?) 
8. a Task for The Month, 
9. things taken from my commonplace notebooks,
10. A non-fiction item,
11. an evening prayer.   

I had hoped to make the list up to 12 items - then there would be a gross (that's 144 in old money), as my only disappointment so far with 'One Woman's year is that I would like there to be more in each chapter. And possibly the Pagoda Pancake recipe.

However my progress through January's chapter has slowed because I discovered this morning that I appear not to have saved yesterday's work. They say that re-writing is a major part of writing, so that's what I did.

 .........

A 'nature' comment for this month could be my pleasure at discovering that the clematis is not just a tangle of dead brown vines, but has green shoots. 

The layer of soil that James-the-garden-expert put on the flowerbeds seems to have encouraged the two clematis plants. One of my specifications for the garden when James sorted it out was that I wanted to have something new to discover every month; if nothing else happens in the garden in February the clematis shoots will have been enough.

  

Sunday 29th September - News, Views, Whatevs

What's to say?

I'd have to look in my journal to try and remember this week.

Monday - the usual teaching
Tuesday - the usual teaching, round to friends in the evening.

I started and finished a couple of summer sketches; a trip to London

and this one - which I did a slight 'tinker' to just now; spot the difference?

Wednesday - the usual teaching

Thursday -  it was going to be a day of waiting in for deliveries, but they came early, and as a school had cancelled I had an unexpected free afternoon. So we all went off to the pub, me and Himself and the Grand Old Man. They had steaks, I had 'a lady's meal' (I am not quoting Himself) of hake and chips and mushy peas. Lady's meal or not, it came on a smaller plate!

Friday - another waiting for deliveries day. I stayed in bed for ages and ages, reading, dozing, reading, dozing until even the cat was bored.

Then I finally got dressed and came down, and did a diary page picture

and wrote some more novel, and went off to drumming.

Saturday - oh my word, Saturday, weary Saturday... I went off for the normal morning teaching. They have a problem with damp in the practice rooms where I work, so they leave the electric heaters on, turning the room into something like the Palm House at Kew, but with an all pervasive smell of rot and mould. It's not good. I would open a window if there was one, so have to be content with switching off the heater and leaving the door open while I'm in there.

I taught my eight pupils, escaping into the corridor at every opportunity to breath the fresh air through the open windows, and then it was the drive to visit my godmother (50+ difficult miles each way). It is always worth visiting her; she works hard at staying cheerful and coping with the difficulties strewing her. 

But still I was glad when we arrived safely back home. It is not a drive I could safely undertake after teaching all morning; the traffic is hurried and harsh and aggressive and unforgiving.

Sunday! We've arrived! We went shopping in the afternoon, collecting this and that for my godmother for next time we visit. I'm not sure how her oesophageal stent will cope with the pickled herrings that she is desperate for, but perhaps she'll manage if we cut them up small enough. 

While he was doing the hard work of shopping, I sat in the cafe (which was unfortunately unable to serve tea or coffee! due to a machine breakdown) and wrote some more of The Book in a notebook I happened to have in my bag. I've stuck the pages in, and that brings me up to the target of 1000 words per week for several  weeks in a row. Happy Happy.

,

The garden is still looking wonderful - so worthwhile all the angst and drama of getting it done. The whole process started this time last year, and was delayed every month and beset by obstacles. At one point I was ready to throw in the towel and live with the weeds. But look at it now!

Salvia 'Armistead' and 'Hotlips', Rudebeckia, and a Holly

The white passion flower is still producing lots of flowers

This fuschia is a potted up cutting, given by a friend

That last photograph is the corner of the raised bed where I have even managed to plant a some bulbs - no idea if they are daffodil or crocus or narcissus, I'll find out in the Spring. It will be a surprise. The plastic grid is to foil any attempts by the cats to appropriate the soil for their own purposes.

I've made a rice pudding in the microwave, and Himself is providing the first course of roast chicken, which will be ready very soon now.

Just three work-related emails left to send (I've done the other dozen already) and Saturday's lessons to write up and I'm free!!!!!! More happy happy!!!!!

    

Sunday 22nd September - That was the week that was.

This morning (Sunday) I discovered that my glasses Really don't work for playing the church organ. I had to lean back to bring those pesky little dots and dashes into focus, which had implications for reaching the keyboard... On the plus side, that sticking note that blurts out unexpectedly in the middle of the quiet bits was on holiday today.

Yesterday (Saturday) I accomplished a mere 1250 steps, mostly walking from various destinations to the car and back. Today is not looking much better; 1388 steps so far (5.45 pm). I tried to help increase the count by taking shorter steps. Seems to have worked to some extent.

Friday was - hooray - flu-jab-day - which probably explains why I am feeling the way I do today. And every time He puts an arm around me to console me I let out a yelp and am not consoled at all.

However I did write another episode of The Novel. And I've thought through another episode which I haven't written down yet as I am procrastinating by blogging instead. Plus I want to paint this door into my diary for this week. It was at the cafe/farm shop where He and I and Daughter met up with Son for lunch today, transferred Daughter to Son's car so that they could go back towards their homes, and we could return to ours.

I have a feeling it might become a Portal in another book-in-progress that has got stuck. Maybe this door will open a way back in.

Thursday was so long ago I can't remember what happened. Teaching, I expect. Yes. Oh, and I have a memory of trying to carry my djembe along the road to the 'pick-up point' where my lovely and loving roadie was waiting to drive me home. I keep meaning to weigh it on the scales. It will be a substantial number of pounds, I bet you.

Oho, look at this... from googling 'how much does a djembe weigh?'

My ever-loving man has gone to weigh my medium-sized djembe - 16 pounds in its case. That explains rather a lot.

Right. Time to write.

Sunday 15th September - A Day of Rest (What's one of those?)

We have had a day off today.

I mean, there has been work 'for work' - I've run a vacuum cleaner around the floors downstairs, written a letter, emailed an invoice, finished cutting out Autumn Leaves.

I'll write up a couple of lessons from yesterday, and have a think through the lessons I will be teaching tomorrow.

And there has been work for my own pleasure - I've filled the blank page for this week in my diary;

started to sort out what my book might be about and written ideas into my lovely new notebook (oh, the satisfying feel of fountain pen gliding across smooth paper)

copied an episode from a different notebook (with much rougher and therefore unsatisfying paper) into this, one, and completed another episode

 
re-potted a fuschia cutting given to me by a friend, and paused to admire the sweet tiny cyclamens which are forming a small family gathering under the smoke bush.

Who knows, but I might even put in some ivy plants and bulbs ready for next Spring before suppertime?

All these 'worky' things haven't stopped it from feeling like a really, really restful day to carry me forward into next week.

It has felt like a blissful day of peace and quiet and sunshine and sitting in the garden to eat lunch or drink coffee (or wine in his case).

I hope you have a good week..
.

14th October - Here goes another week

I've been rattling away on this keyboard all afternoon, apart from the occasional pause for a cup of tea - and I think it's time for one now. We've had to be a little careful with water all morning as somehow an 18" water main (imperial measurements?) burst over towards the next village, and the water pressure slowed to a trickle. It is back now.

I got up just in time - another half hour and I might not have been able to move. As it was, I felt definitely creaky until I made it into the kitchen.

What was I doing all afternoon?

I'm a bit behind on my on-line creative writing course, so had to catch up with a couple of writing exercises. We are supposed to be setting ourselves up to write a short story in week 8 (this is week 6) of 750 to 1000 words. After five and a half weeks of how to create characters, we are now ready to plan The Story.

I'm keeping track of the various characters I've created so far on a new blog;

www.writeanotherstory.blogspot.com

so if you are curious, now's your chance. I set it up because a friend who is a wonderful sounding board for all these ramblings said I should combine all the snippets into a magazine style format. Done.

What did I do yesterday?

Went with Daddy to a Masterclass on The Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss, given by Dame Felicity Lott at Champs Hill. It was most impressive. I'm not a Strauss/Wagner heavy on the Grand Emotion music lover, as a general idea, but as a friend who was also there said, it makes a difference 'when you get your ear in', as it were. It was definitely a handkerchief moment for the very final phrase;

Wie sind wir wandermüde--            How weary we are of wandering--
Ist dies etwa der Tod?                     Is this perhaps death?


Perhaps not so surprising, when I had been to a funeral the day before. Although the funeral was for someone I didn't feel any close connection to; more a case of supporting the family.

Much of the time this afternoon has been spent trawling through photographs to illustrate the various characters. I needed a scruffy dog, and had a couple of goes at drawing one.

I rejected

plenty scruffy enough, but too gormless, in favour of this one.

  
And I have been salvaging cuttings from a couple of flowering succulent house plants which are in their death throes from lack of water. I've no idea what colour flowers these will have when they grow up. They are from the plant in the back bedroom;

So far they seem to be doing all right. There are two more little vases on the bathroom windowsill of cuttings growing their roots. Guess what everyone will be getting for Christmas?

Friday September 21st - Making a Wreath

Hi there! Christmas is a-coming!

I had a happy hour or so at our local fabric shop with a good friend, learning how to make a scandi-wreath.

Wossat?

It's one of these;

A load of strips of material tied along a string - well, three pieces of string knotted together. The main skill seemed to be in choose where to put the bells... 

Friend and I spent the rest of the morning looking in various shops for ideas on where to source the fabric strips to make more of them, but without buying quantities of pristine fabric and snipping it into bits. I was thinking that, with the addition of some tinsel or fairy lights, it would look nice and festive.

I've been neglecting this blog for a couple of weeks. There have been circumstances. Nothing bad, just all-consuming events.

Such as the start of term - hours of admin, chasing paperwork, being pursued for paperwork, being told Not to do this, or to hurry up and Get On with that. Two weeks of term have passed, and my timetable is more settled.

Apart from 'can I change my day to Friday?' 'No, I'm not teaching anyone on Fridays.' 'How about Monday then?' It will take about three phone calls to see if can be arranged.

And 'I need you to add in an extra pupil on Saturday.' (Note the different tone of voice - that's The Office, not one of my home students. Hopefully They will make all the phone calls. So long as I have ten minutes to nip to the Ladies or drink my coffee. Choices, choices.

Did I mention a Great Family Get-together all of last weekend? We only rolled up for Saturday afternoon and evening, and Sunday. The Mega-Family-Get-Togetherers started on the Thursday, staying in a scattering of hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, and then joined the second part being a coach trip to The Family Seat (now an expensive hotel-spa) for a couple more nights, though probably not paying £200 per night at the hotel-spa! It was good to meet first and second cousins and their various removes. Not to mention Uncles and Aunts and more distant relatives. 

I've also now just finished week 3 of an on-line course with futurelearn on writing fiction, which, as you can imagine, is fairly time-consuming.

The final straw may be putting myself down on the practise challenge chart at the school; I haven't been doing proper piano practice for some months now, and the shame of not earning a sticker each week is certainly a potent incentive. I have promised myself that I won't cheat. Better get back to that Chopin; there's a young lad tomorrow who want to know if I've reached bar 9 yet.