Monday 28th February -Ukraine

 Everyone is posting about Ukraine.

I would post too, if I could find anything to say.

Well, what I can say is this;

I remember, about the time that the Kurds were fleeing from Saddam wossname, listening to interviews with these foreign-looking people, carrying bundles and babies and old people, looking 'not like us', and realising that they were, in fact, 'just like us'; they were doctors, lawyers, teachers, not subsistence farmers or herders living a nomadic life with camels and goats.

This may sound incredibly naive and blinkered of me. But all the refugees in war zones and famines and floods that we had seen on television before this looked so very different in dress, appearance, lifestyle, culture, that I  had found it difficult to connect with them on a simple human level. 

Suddenly, 'they' had become 'us', and for months I had nightmares, planning how I would walk to - where? - with two babies, carrying everything on my back, leaving everything, photographs, the pets, behind.

We are fortunate, in our generation, in our streets and towns, beyond all imagining, and it would be beyond selfish, it would be inhumane, not to share what we have, wherever they come from. 

Monday 28th February - Looking back over February

 Knitting;

The sock is coming along - it stalled out twice; once when I picked it up after having a glass of wine and the subsequent effort of sorting out the consequences took most of the next day, and again when other projects took over. I've nearly finished the hell heel and then it should be plain sailing until I get to the toe. Now I'm hoping to get the other sock completed by the end of March.

I'm also mighty relieved to see that there is a good chance it will fit.

I put off knitting socks for years, until I could be sure that I would be able to persuade myself to knit the second sock. 'Second sock syndrome' is a well known condition in knitting circles.

I've finished the wristlets, commissioned by a friend after she saw mine. why is it, that when one knits for oneself  it all goes reasonably well, but making the slight alterations in order so make it for a friend causes endless complications, dropped stitches and other issues? 

Ah well, I'm at the stage of finishing off the loose ends - literally - and will soon put them in the post.

The greeny-blue jumper has also stalled out, but at least I got the 'hard thinking' part straight in my mind. I'm realising once again that it is probably unrealistic to start a winter jumper in Autumn, and similarly a Summer jumper in Spring. One should really be knitting thick heavy garments all through the long hot days of Summer, to be finished in time for the cold weather. And likewise creating airy-fairy items in linen and cotton all through the snows rains of December. 

As long as I don't get side tracked by the ideas currently filling my head for a wool cosy with felted steeks for my new tea pot..... the previous stump tea pot developed a crack and was leaking tea everywhere. This one is slightly smaller.

Sewing

I have been sewing a lot - another reason for the lack of progress in other areas. I completed the sewing kit, and the daffodil 'freestyle' picture, and I've nearly finished the stitchery swap postcard project I'm doing with Ang over on Tracing Rainbows. No pictures yet - I've got to wait until I'm sure she has had a chance to have a look first!

I think embroidery will be the new skill for 2022. Last year it was touch typing, which has stood me in good stead all year. Mind you, a bit of revision wouldn't come amiss.

Bread

I finished making the giant Hot Cross Bun on Saturday. Here it is about to go into the oven; 

And forty-five minutes later

And discovering we have no container large enough to store it in.

It has come out pretty well - I'm enjoying it - but himself isn't so keen. I shall slice and freeze it so that I can slowly consume it while he indulges in other more calorific treats.

I have cut one of the segments into cubes and toasted them in the air-fryer into little rusk-like bites to make snacklets for morning coffee. 

Well, I guess tomorrow's post will be 'Looking forward into March' - if I get it written -  

.

Friday 25th February - I'm on a roll

 Don't get toooooo used to daily blog posts from me.... 

Today I have made, or rather, started, a hot-cross-bun flavoured no-knead loaf. I have read various posts about taking no-knead-bread and turning it into bread rolls or iced cinnamon buns or whatever, but that's adding complexity to what is supposed to be a simple process.

I have not taken a picture, as at this stage it looks just like the olive bread - a bowl full of unlikely looking bread dough with bits in it. Once you've seen one, surely you've seen plenty? 

It will be more interesting tomorrow, when I have painted the cross on (a sort of slip made of clay flour and water, I believe; briefly got confused with the Pottery Throw Down Programme there) and baked it.

Don't ask for the recipe - it was the same as the olive bread, with salt this time, and 'some' brown sugar and 'some' mixed spice and 'some' mixed raisins - probably around 3/4 pint, on account of I have decided (I know this isn't quite right, but it is easier) that half a pint is roughly a cup.

I measure out the ingredients in a measuring jug - very easy, when butter isn't involved in the measuring.

The daffodil embroidery is finished; once again looking much better in the photograph, probably because the fuzzy focus does such a good job of hiding the irregularities. 

   Maybe I should sew a (protective) covering of fine gauze over all my efforts? To cover up the errors?

It's rather like when I am performing a piano piece, especially Chopin; the direction to vary the speed (rubato) ever so slightly to help make the melody more expressive can be used to delicately slow down on the approach to a tricky bit to make time to get your fingers around it, and then a careful almost imperceptible speeding up again afterwards. Ah, so poetic! Such expression!

A friend who is a gardener has started working in our garden on a regular basis from this morning. Wonderful! In an hour and a half she has given our border the 'spring chop', including the salvia Armistead plants which grew to an astonishing 7 feet tall last year. I have had to admit defeat as regards digging and weeding and all the 'bend-and-stretch' movements that gardening involves. I shall continue with my vegetable 'hobby plot'; because everything is growing in large tubs and I can sit down to work on them, or at least only bend half-way to the ground. 

We are mulling over a small extension at the front of the house to add a downstairs loo; I've had a conversation with a builder a few houses away who it currently engaged on doing just this. Unfortunately, it turns out that he is passionate about never wearing a mask, anywhere, ever; they are just for people who are ridiculously neurotic about germs and such like, and masks are totally unnecessary.

So he won't be getting the job, it we decide to go ahead. I'm still shielding, still taking precautions, still keeping my distance, still clinically vulnerable to any disease that would directly attack my respiratory system. For the past ten years I've known that catching 'flu would be worrying; catching covid would be a whole new level of concern and consequence. 

At the same time, I am glad for people who can feel more relaxed about the covid situation with the vaccinations and better treatments available; unfortunately the threat levels are not yet low enough for people of all ages in my situation - whether it's down to weakened immune systems, auto-immune disease or respiratory diseases.     

Hey ho. Whatever is going on here, it is nothing compared to what other people are enduring all over the world.

Tiny Joy of today; seeing both the the moon and the morning star through my bedroom window when I woke up!

Thursday 24th February - A New Thing Every Day

When the days are grey and cold and rainy and yesterday and today and tomorrow all seem to be the same, it is not a bad idea to try and find, or do, or see, something new every day.

Tiny treats, to make today different to yesterday.

Preferably NOT involving cake, biscuits, ice-cream, on-line shopping, or any other extravagances!

Yesterday a friend dropped round with a surprise;

 so I have spent a happy hour trying not to make too much mess in the dining room, yeah, probably not the most sensible place, I know, turning it from this;

to this

and finally;

 I do realize that there will be no point in looking for any signs of growth tomorrow, but having a peek through the plastic every so often will give me something new to do.

I used a permanent pigment pen to write the name of the herbs on the plastic clothes pegs. The instructions were minimalistic, to say the least, but I thought wrapping the whole tray in a plastic bag might help stop the earth from drying out too quickly. 

  

Wednesday 23rd February - All fool's day is here for the long term

What? But yes, and this is all I have to say about removing all requirements to wear masks, discontinuing free testing for covid, and any other nonsense about 'the pandemic being over'. If you wish to disagree with me, don't. Just don't. Not here, not now - I'm too mithered about everything at the moment.

Moving on to other things....

I made no-knead olive bread the other day - the same recipe and method as before, except I added a load of olives chopped into quarters. About three-quarters of a pint. The recipe is all in American cups, which seemed dreadfully inconvenient, until you google and discover that it is 0.416337 of a pint. So that's easy. Half a pint will do.

I also left out the salt, as the olives were in a mixture of brine and oil, so plenty salty enough even after I drained them.

 I did wonder if the salt would inhibit the rise, but it all seemed fine. We had some with cold meat last night, I have given some away, we will eat some more with soup tonight and the rest tomorrow, or slice and freeze. The next experiment along these lines will be to make a giant hot cross bun. Soon; I'm not waiting for Good Friday.

Other baking news; I have dealt with some out-of-date suet by melting it up with bird seed and mealworms. Yum. Delish. I was pleased that I managed to prise it out of the dish once it had set 

(that was by no means a certainty) and have put it into the bird feeders, wait, did you think WE were going to have it for our lunch? Now I shall have to see if the birds want to have anything to do with it. 

Talking of Lent; I have restocked the chocolate box we were given for Christmas;

yup, mini-eggs and chocolate hearts from Devine, and underneath are various bars of dark chocolate. We are not giving up chocolate for Lent - I never do, because one of the New Year resolutions that I do manage to keep is to eat chocolate several times a week. 

I have calculated that I can also keep my promise to myself to buy no more than one Persephone book per month if I order it at the beginning of March and the end of April, while at the same time giving up buying or downloading any new books over Lent. (I still haven't decided if the Persephone book thing only applies to Lovely New Books, in which case I can look for second-hand books on-line as well. Watch this space.) Just recently I have been binge-reading Rom-Coms by Tricia Astley - recently? This started in the run up to Christmas, and now it is February. 'Download this book for 99p', it says, and so I click. It is still massively cheaper than going out for coffee and a cake a couple of times a week.

I have some activities lined up for the Observing of Lent, but we've still got a week to go. Let's not post everything on one day!

Finally; Ang has already blogged about the stitchery swap project that we have started - as she said, it is slightly scary! Embroidery is a new skill for this year for me. I have been making my eyes water stitching her address; I started with the last word so that by the tie I got to her name I might have improved slightly. At the rate of one word per day, I will have finished tomorrow. 

Oh me oh my, there's more to this backstitch than I ever thought possible! It is a bit of bravery and trust. Although we've been reading each other's blogs for several years, but have never spoken to each other or met up - yet!

As a respite from trying to be super-precise, I am doing an experimental free-hand sample, taking the needle for a walk. I did draw the outline a few times first with my vanishing purple pen, but the purple didn't really show and soon vanished so I just went ahead anyway. It is still a work-in-progress.

I'm feeling a bit chuffed though; it looks so much better in the picture than in real life! I have taken against satin stitch - too much like hard work - in a sort of ragged infilling looks much better. 'Rustic', as a friend said. It is an opportunity to try out things without minding about mistakes. I shall just leave the mistakes there as part of a 'how to (not) do it' reminder.

 

Thursday 17th February - Feel Good in Five - again

 After a week of dull grey days, I find I have become a bit dull and grey myself.

Time to take action!

Sometime in 2020 I got hold of  a book called 'Feel Better in Five' 

in many ways it is hopelessly aspirational; the author is photographed in a lovely garden (his?) doing yoga or cardio exercises, or in a modern, streamlined, clutter-free kitchen (also his?) drinking some healthy freshly-made green smoothie; I'm sure you get the picture. 

But the 'plan' is very sensible - he says (if I remember correctly) that if you choose one each from a selection of activities in the book which address your body, your mind, and your well-being, so that's three activities in total, none of which take much time, and if you do these for five days a week, you should feel better.

So, when I find the grey days piling up, I go on my own version of the plan;

do some not particularly taxing exercises - a bit of stretching, a few knee raises, a little neck mobility (turning my head from side to side)

Take his advice to go out into the garden, or at least stand on the back door step, for five minutes, maybe with a cup of tea or coffee, and just see what there is to be seen,

Do just one small household task - today I cleaned the bathroom basin - every day

This last is my addition; deal with one piece of admin/work/correspondence - every day (writing this blog is a procrastination as I do need to write up and email yesterday's piano lessons).

All very small steps, but they add up to a feeling of accomplishment which jollies me along.

Regarding exercises; I'm finding that a suggestion from somewhere else (where? can't remember) that is you want to build an exercise habit, start small - say 'I'll just do one knee raise and that will be it done' really works for me; having done one, it seems silly not to do a couple more.... and before I know it I am over-achieving before I've even put my shoes and sock on!

The daffodils are in flower! Hooray! I saw them when we went out to 'storm-proof' the garden earlier this morning. These are almost hidden, as the border hasn't had its 'spring chop' yet.  

There are loads all under the back hedge.

The layered up crocus, tulip and daffodil tubs that I planted back in November are looking promising too. I've put the bulbs in several very tall pots so I can gt them out easily and plant something else in the tubs later.

Sunday 13th February - No Knead Bread

I think I have come late to this particular party - this is bread that you make by stirring up flour, yeast, salt water into an unlikely looking mass, abandon it somewhere in the kitchen in that untidy state for six to eight hours, tip it out and persuade it into a reasonable shape;

let it rest from its disturbance, and then bake inside a very large metal casserole, removing the lid at the last moment. The result is a sort of artisan effect loaf, with a moist, chewy texture. At least. that's what I took out of the oven;

 

I didn't think to take a picture of the stirred up dough in the bowl before I put it in the fridge overnight - oh yes, that's where I had to leave mine, as time passed and it was too close to bedtime to do the equivalent of 'second rise and bake' stage. I have done this with conventional bread dough before; on that occasion I was rather alarmed to find that the dough had climbed part way out of the bowl and was making a bid for freedom. This time the dough had risen to the very top of the bowl but no further.

Here is a link to the recipe I followed (more or less).  It's American, so the measures are cups and the oven temperature is degrees F. I cooked it at about 210 C fan oven. An American cup is about 250ml; three cups of flour comes to a little over 400g, the size of an ordinary bread machine loaf..  

Here are some useful pictures from a different site showing what the dough looks like in a slightly different version;

www.jocooks.com

Looking at these pictures, I think I made the dough too wet at stage 2. I'll adjust the amount of water.

Searching onwards, I find that once can make 'no-knead' Hot Cross Buns. Now there's a thought.

I also made a yogurt pot cake the other day, possibly the first home-made cake since Christmas. I decided upon ginger this time, adding several chopped lumps of stem ginger in syrup and a serious shake of ground ginger, and using light brown sugar. The secret of making a cake last, is to cut the slices and bring them through on a plate, AND PUT THE TIN AWAY. Also, if you make your last mouthful or tea-and-cake or coffee-and-cake to be the tea or coffee, there is just the faintest chance that the cake might not be the lingering taste in your mouth.... 

 

Saturday 12th February - Going Postal

Terry Pratchett fans will get the reference, but as I am the only member of my family who hasn't read all the books several times over I have no idea how relevant the title is.

It's the old story of taking letters for a walk.

While is is so cold, I'm not going as far as the post box at the moment. In fact I'm not going out today at all. It is what people call 'window weather' (Thank you, Ang) - it looks lovely out there, bright, crisp and clear, sun and blue sky. But that wind must be coming straight from Siberia. As the old saying goes;

 East West, Staying home inside is best.

There were a couple of postcards and a small parcel to be posted on Wednesday; himself usually drops them in one one of the several post boxes he passes on his daily yomp around the local streets. But alas, he went without them, but very kindly, on his return, went straight out and posted them at the nearest box.

Thank you! I heard that the parcel arrived the next day!

Once again, on Thursday, there were a couple of letters waiting to be posted. Now here's the thing - Himself was so focussed on taking a photograph of a post box 'hat' that I hadn't seen

Knitted by the local WI

that alas, he forgot to take the letters out of his pocket. They weren't as urgent, and have gone this morning. That's how I know that the sunshine is beguiling and deceitful - he came back frozen.

The fattest letter contained a knitted wristlet, for the recipient to try on for size and  and also let me know if she would prefer a thinner wool. You will probably recognise the colours; it is the same as my socks and also the mittens. And also, back in 2019, a shawl which I later ripped out. There's still quite a lot left for the wristlet's partner in due course. If she would prefer something else, I will put the pair into the Christmas Shoebox Appeal.

 

The picture isn't very clear, and I can't take another one now. The four zip-up bags in starry cotton have been under construction for a couple of weeks, and are now doing a fine job of corralling all my double-pointed and circular knitting needles. I spent some time hunting for a set of 3mm needles that I had lost, but last night I remembered where they ere; you can see two of them poking out of some blue-grey knitting half-in, half-out of a blue patterned bag. February's knitting project is a pair of Real Socks, but they will take longer than a month, at the rate of less than an inch per day.

I have fetched out a sewing kit that I abandoned last year, or was it the year before? 

I became disheartened because the circles were so wonky, compared to the picture in the kit. I have decided to embrace the wonkiness, and after a trial bit of stitching (the heart) I set to work and completed the circles. 

Next is some lines of decoration, and then assemble the whole thing into a little sewing pouch. I have ordered a pair of embroidery scissors and a 'vanishing pen', which, with a needle-threader, needle case, and a small ruler, will complete it nicely.

 Yesterday I stood in the garden to do some sewing, in the bright sunshine, where there was almost no wind. I went out briefly this morning (which is why I know it is cold!) and was pleased to see several crocuses coming into flower, and the yellow petals on the miniature daffodils under the bottom hedge just beginning to show.

Friday 11th February - Persephone Books

I suspect Persephone Books has a bit of a cult following. And I am one of their followers. Here's how they describe themselves;

Persephone Books reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction, mostly by women writers and mostly mid-twentieth century. All of our 141 books are intelligent, thought-provoking and beautifully written and are chosen to appeal to busy people wanting titles that are neither too literary nor too commercial.

They used to have a lovely shop in Lambs Conduit Street, Bloomsbury, London, an old-fashioned shop in an old-fashioned street and handy for the Foundlings Museum and cafe nearby. But they have moved to Bath, which is not as convenient for me. Bath has just risen several places higher on my list of places to visit once I am able to go out and about again. (Covid. snarl snarl).

At first sight, the books look very dull in their uniform silver-grey covers. However that means that 'Persephone People' can instantly recognise each other by a single glance at the bookshelf;

https://heavenali.wordpress.com/persephone/

This person has got a very severe case of Persephone addiction! I have about half a dozen, I'm not exactly sure how many, and have decided to allow myself the purchase of one per month, as a minimum, oh, those last three words added themselves to my sentence all by themselves!

Here are my January and February Persephone Books; 'The Country Life Cookery Book' by Ambrose Heath, and 'Greenery Street' by Denis MacNeil. Lying across the top is one of the bookmarks which come with every book; I would have to go a-hunting to find which one this bookmark belong to. 

The secret inside the cover of each book is the vibrant pattern, taken from textiles of the period; the cookery book is all leaves and flowers and birds, with bookmark to match

Greenery Street features furnishing fabric of the kind that 'Felicity' may well have chosen for her new home. Sadly, I don't have the matching bookmark, as I bought this online from a charity supporting the East Anglia Hospices. It is a little bit battered on the spine, but I can live with this in the knowledge that I save £5 on the purchase price and have donated a little bit of money to the hospice. 

 Also, I see that one can buy replacement bookmarks! I shall order some, and at the same time a catalogue. Which unfortunately dispenses with the saving I made from buying a book second hand. No problem, if I buy another second hand book, I will have made up the savings... it's a new economic policy I am adopting.

Wednesday 9th Feb - Ribbons and Skylarks

 On Monday we went for a walk - Out! Away! Open Spaces! Sun!

You wouldn't know it from this photograph, but we went down to the south coast and walked a little way along the seafront at a place called Goring Gap;

It is one of the few places along the coast between Worthing and Brighton and Hove where the fields come sweeping down from the top of the South Downs to the sea.

I suppose the distance wasn't much more than one-and-a-half miles, but by the end of it my legs were as weary as that time we walked from Leeds to the Bingley 5-Rise locks along the Leeds to Liverpool Canal one night. (Why did we do that?)

You may notice that the line marking our path doesn't complete the circle - I came to a stop at this point, and BB had an opportunity to stretch his legs after walking at a snail's pace as he went to fetch the car!

The sea front was bright and cold, with a bracing breeze blowing in our faces, groups of people walking their dogs along beach at the edge of the water. The tide was well out, so there was a steep shingle bank to climb down, or up on the way back, so we stayed mostly on the rough path between the green grass and the pebbles.

The we turned inland, sheltered from the wind by the houses marking the boundary of Ferring, and walked through the fields along the the ditches bordering the fields. There were skylarks singing overhead - reminding me of the times my friend at boarding school used to skive Sunday Church by gong to the top of the downs - still the South Downs but further West - and lie on the warm turf in the sun listening to the larks, keeping an anxious eye out for any teachers, and also making sure we would get back to school in time for lunch.

There was a bare tree, decorated with ribbons halfway through the trees;

one ribbon had 'Happy Birthday' printed along it. Could this be a clue? Another, rather up-market gros-grain ribbon had 'Dior' on it, and must have come from a gift box.  

I have an urge to choose a tree somewhere near us and tie a ribbon to it, and see if more ribbons appear over time...

 

 

Tuesday 1st February - Looking back, looking ahead

 I'm not doing 'New Years Resolutions' this year. I decided to start each month afresh, with a 'wish list' rather than resolutions, and see how I got on.

So, January;

Did I learn the new piano pieces? NO! And I didn't do much practice either. Ah well. I did make a start on the Jacques Ibert 'Little White Donkey', and it wouldn't take much effort to finish it. I think I'll carry that one forward.

However I did finish the mitten (memo to self, next time DO use a smaller needle for the ribbing) and also a pair of socks, my first ever. 

I am amused to see that laying the socks on top of the printer for the photograph has resulting in me awarding myself a star! 

The socks have pointy toes; I did graft the toe end of the RH sock but had the sock in the wrong orientation. Who cares! I am going to use them as bed socks, which is one of the reasons why the legs are so short. The other reason is that I wasn't sure if I would have enough wool.

I did finish the other two projects; a cowl (now chopped up in the compost bin, memo to self; DO NOT knit things like that in pure Shetland wool, far too itchy) and the little white Christmas ornaments, now stuffed with lavender and reposing in my sock drawer.

Walking happened - and I now that I have discovered I can convert 30 mins ballet to approximately half a mile of walking, I shall make faster virtual progress around the Ring of Kerry.

Weight-wise I ended the month a couple of pounds lighter than I started it - in spite of the Christmas Chocolate stash, home-made macaroons and rockish scone-ish cakes, pannetone, and other delights. 

So, looking ahead...

Finish learning the Little White Donkey,

Make another pair of socks in finer wool and try and get the green jumper going again (it's stuck at the moment as I work out what to do next. Following a proper pattern would have made this much easier!)

Do more drawing/panting

Walk more, now that the weather is improving

See if I can end the month a little lighter than when I started it

That's five items on the wish list. Plenty.

The new picture at the top of this blog comes from when we took a short break in Tewkesbury, oh so many years ago now. Maybe it was 2014. I notice the month is April, but it was bitterly cold when we were there, more like February. The dragon lives at the bottom of someone's garden, facing across the water meadows and the River Severn. We spoke to owner; she had commissioned it as a memorial to her husband, who came from Wales. 

Here he is again, for people using their tablets or mobiles to read this post;