Thursday 29th October - the ice age recedes

 I think we're beginning to come out of our mini ice age here. As the plaster dries, and the extension is less damp, it's feeling a little warmer. 

The painter came this afternoon to scope out the job... we all  - me, BB and the painter - are dubious that it will be dry enough tomorrow, but he's coming round first thing in the morning to have a look. He says he can swap a couple of jobs round and come in next week so we're not worried. We've chosen a very pale sandy creamy colour. 

We took a trip to a nearby store called The Range... we were enveloped in Christmasalia from the moment we walked in the door.

I was rather taken by a lampstand like this

Except the one in The Range had THREE lanterns, each with a different scene. I didn't look at the price... but what fun! The 'snow' is blown through a hole in the top of the tree, or Santa's hat, or the cottage  in each scene. chimney. If I had unlimited space, and unlimited storage,  and unlimited money, I might have succumbed.

Jean asked me where Ang and I find the patterns for our knitted squares collaboration. We're using this book;

'200 knitting blocks' by Jan Eaton, although there are actually about 150 blocks as some are in different colourways. I don't feel cheated as I'm unlikely to want to knit 200 squares. Ang and I are using double knitting yarn and 4mm needles, and the blocks are a pretty consistent 6 inches square. (That's a fine mix of old and new measurements!)

I suppose if you use thicker yarn and larger needles it would probably still work... and make larger squares.

Tuesday 27th October

Oh, the cosiness of a lap blanket! I knitted this one years ago to use up some dk remnants... I could do with some of these colours now...

The colours of my leftover dk yarn are not inspiring me at the moment and I'm having to work to resist buying any! That would rather defeat the purpose of the current collaboration challenge.

I cooked the little squash/pumpkin, cutting it in half, scooping out the seeds, and seasoning with olive oil, salt and pepper, for half an hour at 180C in the air fryer. 

It came out pretty well, I'll do it again. LyndaG pointed out that there was a label saying 'eat my insides'. Which, of course, I missed. The skin was paper thin and dry, like onion skin. I'll definitely peel it next time.

The plasterer finished in the extension today:

He's done a lovely job. I had no idea plastering was such a very skilled and intense activity. One of the builders, you can see him in the foreground, came to remove the boards which were blocking the original patio doors and back door. I was overjoyed to be able to see into the back garden again,  and spent quite a while just looking at the trees. I've missed them!

But... once it grew dark, the temperature in the main house dropped until the hairs on my head were all standing on end... so, so cold. Hence the lap blanket. Why hadn't the heating come on?

Ah. The oxygen concentrator, which pumps out a good deal of heat, is exactly below where the thermostat was mounted, about fifteen years ago. Luckily it's the type of thermostat that can be unclipped from the wall and put somewhere else. We've moved it away from the concentrator and the radiator has heated up nicely. I'm much more comfortable now my hair has lain back down on my head!

This is today's piece in the book 'A Year of Wonder'. Not your usual Paganini fireworks, something gentler.

Paganini 'Cantabile in D major 

Monday 26th October - super caffeinated

 The only clock I can see from where I sit eating my breakfast and catching up on the news, thinking through the day ahead, etc, hadn't been changed yet - it's the one high up on a shelf.

So when I saw it said 10 am I decided it was time for the second coffee of the morning. BB raised an eyebrow and commented it was a bit early, but I pointed out it was already 10, so he obliged. Of course, it was only 9 am. That clock has now been altered!

 (I wish I could raise just one eyebrow.)

 So I have paid a humungous invoice for the no-longer-leaking roof, drawn and written the 20-minute journal above, read through blogs, skimmed the news, assisted in the eviction of a monstrous spider from the kitchen sink, made the plasterer a cup of tea, and quite soon I will be in need of a little lie down in a darkened room...

.....

Flash mob in a school cafeteria - how I wish something like this had happened when I was at University, but I don't think flash mobs were even thought of then.

  

Violin soloist having an E string crisis at the Royal Albert Hall (I think you'd need to be super-caffeinated to attempt this concerto) 

Sunday 25th October - clock changing

 Just one clock (that I know of) left to change... it's on a high shelf so I'll get BB to reach it down.

I woke up at 5am according to the clock by my bed which had altered itself already. Of course that was 6am if the clocks hadn't changed, so not that unreasonable really. I managed to roll over and go back to sleep for a couple of hours.

When I woke again, it was bright and sunny, clear blue skies. Such a contrast to the last couple of mornings. It's funny how the old hymns from childhood church going and old-fashioned school assemblies stick; this is what came into my mind;

We never sang songs like 'When a knight won his spurs' or 'Kum by ah' or 'One more step along the road I go' or 'He's got the whole world in his hands'. Nope. We stuck to The English Hymnal or Hymns Ancient and Modern.

Anyway, while I standing looking out of the bedroom window. humming the tune and trying to remember the words, a blue tit came tapping at the corner of the windowsill, presumably hunting for spiders and insects.

What a great start to the day. I hope your days all go well this week. 

Saturday 24th October - culinary adventures

 Now, how should I cook this? I ordered an autumn squash on my last grocery delivery and this is what I got.

What kind of squash is it? Does one eat the rind?

What kind of squash is it? Does one eat the rind? It's quite small; I've put it on a saucer to give an idea of size.

I took a couple of little pots of apple sauce out of the freezer for my next couple of breakfasts, but on closer inspection they were labelled 'dahl'... not something I wanted to eat for breakfast. Although I'm thinking of ringing the changes by trying 'breakfasts of the world'; I know that in other countries people have soups and rice and noodles and cheese and cold meat....

But not today.

So supper was going to be dahl made into soup. soup. The original recipe for dahl incorporated squash, but I'm holding back on that little orange squash for now. Instead I sauted a little chopped onion, and some celeriac and carrot cut into little cubes before adding the dahl and some water.

Then I discovered we had run out of bread for toast! But there was a solitary cold sausage and two sad falafels... quite soon I appeared to have concocted a fairly substantial bowl of sort of stew. 

....

I suddenly remembered my 'Year of Wonder' book, by Clemency Burton-Hill. She chooses a piece of music for every day of the year, some well known, others not.

Today's choice is a song, composed by Maria Malibran (1808 - 1836), 'one of the most celebrated divas of her day'. She was very talented, not only as a singer but as a composer and wrote around 40 songs before she died in a horseriding accident at the age of 28.

'Rataplan' (drumming sound), sung by Cecelia Bertoli.

Friday 23rd October - all's well with the extension

 It rained lasted night, all night, judging by the water along the sides of the road. It might have been windy too, but we both slept through until  about 6.30, our usual waking-up time, when something toppled outside. It was probably a wheelie bin - they get put out on Thursday night as the lorry comes round early on Fridays. 

As soon as it was light, we went out to inspect the extension; the builder and plasterer also came round. The extension was completely dry - hooray!

They both disappeared for the morning,  but the plasrerer came back after lunch and worked non-stop all afternoon. I suppose he'll be back on Monday  - we seem to be back on track.

I think storm Austen wasn't too bad round here... I hope they restore power quickly in the West Country, and that ElizabethD (Small Moments) is all right in Cornwall.