Monday 9th February - asking your opinion...

 We're in the process of doing a comprehensive cooking area (excuse me for not using the k*t*h*n word as I do not want an inundation of advertising comments from b*ts!). The current arrangement dates back to about 40 years ago and at long last we have the chance for a big rethink.

I'd like to swap out our freestanding induction hob cooker for a separate hob and oven, and I'm wondering if anyone has experience of using a counter-top oven, as opposed to a built in one? It just struck me that this might be a cheaper, and in many ways better option to putting in a built-in oven.

I've been observing how we cook. I reckon I only regularly use two of the hobs, plus the main oven, and the air fryer and microwave. Oh, and the kettle and coffee machine and toaster, of course. We also use crock pot and bread maker a couple of times a week.

What appliances do you like using for cooking?  Which never see the light of day? 

I'm planning to have a shallow pantry cupboard somewhere so that I don't have to delve into the dark recesses to see what tins and packets are lurking at the back, and a carousel for the corner, and drawers  for pans instead cupboards. Any other suggestions? 

Here's the 'March Past of the Kitchen Utensils' by Vaughan Williams.

When I was teaching class music primary schools the children used to love listening to this - it's a great exercise in keeping up with counting the beats, because the sudden loud chords follow a regular pattern of 8s and 7s. (I've forgotten the pattern but it's easy enough to work it out). Once they'd got the hang of it I could dish out drums and cymbals etc and we could all play along, trying to add our own crashes at the right moment! 

 

Sunday 8th February - this multicoloured life

Cilla Black singing  'I can sing a rainbow ' (if you are one of the people who dislike this song because it isn't a proper rainbow, please just, skip past! I happen to like it, and anyway those colours have all appeared in my knitting!)

Every page in my diary this month has complaints about grey, damp, dreary, wet, dreich weather. However if I look back over this week, it has been full of bright rainbow colours.

The slippers I made.

The 2By2 patch Ang did;

This one's Ang's, she sent me a  Ark, which might be more appropriate considering the amount of rain we've had so far this year. We drove over to Midhurst for tea with 'the children' (what do you call them when they are fully adults?) and the River Arun had filled the fields on both sides.

I've persuaded myself to start sewing up my rainbow cardigan. Remember this?

(My original plan was to finish it in time for Christmas...)

I shared this prayer with Ang because I thought it fitted in with our collaborations so well;

O living God, draw all the fragments of my life into the bright mosaic of your love;

weave all the tangled threads of my desires into the tapestry you are spreading, like a rainbow, on the loom of the world;

and help me celebrate the many facets and the dazzling colours of your peace.

 It's written by Julie M. Hulme, no 72 in '1000 prayers' collected by Angela Ashwin.

Ang has posted a truly beautiful version on her blog! I'm very tempted to print it out to keep a copy.

What really caught my attention was the final phrase - 'the dazzling colours of your peace'. Now that is something new to think about; I've always used soft, gentle, pastel colours in my mind when considering the idea of 'peace'.

I'm taking a day or so to think through and consider each line in turn.

Saturday 7th February - cooking and footwear

 I've been winter batch cooking. The freezer is full to bursting but it's all that needs cooking, are there have been so many days recently when summoning up the energy to create a meal from scratch has seemed like too much.

The local corner shop has a COOK freezer selling delicious ready-meals - a terrible temptation! But we can't keep succumbing to it's siren call.

Now I have a winter beef casserole to add to a bacon and pepper pasta sauce and I'm feeling a little bit virtuous. I've also made several portions of winter veg and lentil soup for evening meals. Now I'm feeling even more virtuous! The bonus is that all the chopping up of carrots and celery and onion somehow adds to my step count... what a win!

.....

Here are the finished slipper socks. But not on my feet... the yarn was thicker than the one I used before and they are just a bit too big. I gave them to a friend and she says they are a good fit. She sent me this picture, and said I could share it... they are certainly bright. Much easier to find than my old drab ones.

Did anyone, does*** anyone follow the FlyLady? She was/is a cleaning supremo. When I followed her, many years ago, it seemed her mission was to inspire people who were despairing of every getting on top of cleaning and tidying and clearing up their houses. I couldn't keep up and abandoned her checklists and methods. But I do remember her insistence on putting on proper lace up shoes when you get up.

 *** see Ang's comment below, I'm clearly quite behind the times regarding Flylady.  

If you flop around barefoot or in socks or slippers all day, she said, it's harder to motivate yourself to put out the rubbish, or do any outdoor jobs. 

Well, these past few days I've been wearing slippers with proper rubber soles, and yes, it's so much easier to get past the door step and into the garden, even if it's just a yard or two. Maybe I'll hold off getting started on a new pair of slipper socks for now.

Friday 6th February - Rainbows!

 There was one, honest, for about 5 minutes in a short break in the otherwise endless rain today. What a gift.

I can post my final 2By2 stitch now, since I know Ang received it yesterday.

I've sent Ang the right hand one, obviously! I was so excited when I had the idea of doing a nine-patch quilt that I got going straight away. I've recently read 'The House of Silence' by Linda Gillard, and quilts are a feature of the story. One of the unmarried sisters living at a vast, decaying mansion on the bleak East Anglian fens makes endless quilts, including a postage stamp quilt, double bed sized. Imagine it... each patch is the size of an old-fashioned postage stamp.

The advantage is that you only need very small scraps of fabrics, and squares are so much easier to paper piece than hexagons.

I've ysed all the fabrics in previous collaborations except for the 'joy' patch. 

Reading left to right, starting at the top;

A recent Christmas choice, a postage stamp print to represent trips to the post box, some Japanese style flowers, 

Another Japanese flower, 'joy' from a Christmas print, which is what these collaborations mean to mem and a batik print from the last collaboration 

Time spent on the collaborations (a print sent to me by Ang), a Christmas print which I used as the basis for 'Spring' last time, and a print with writing to represent our correspondence. 

I pieced the first patch over felt squares which I've left in. It came out rather wonky! The second one is done the traditional way, except I've used thin card instead of paper. 

Ang and I have started arranging and stitching them. This is where I've got to;

I'm ending with another rainbow, from Ang's 'Noah's Ark piece;

Wednesday 4th February - Sunshine!

 Sunshine in my heart... the postman has been delivering wonderful things yesterday and today.

A postcard of a favourite NT garden came yesterday; a sunny scene on a rainy day... thank you! 

And today a notebook swap from a friend - must post mine to her tomorrow, and a box of delight from Ang; this is her 2by2 stitching in her own words;

I'm in awe of the blacksmith, and also of Ang's piece. Isn't is beautiful 😍 

I'll post mine tomorrow when I'm sure Ang has received it.

Today we were blessed with a sunny day, the last until bext week if the weather forecast is to ge believed. I stood on the door step and gazed at the blue sky, noticing the leaves of the bulbs appearing, a few crocuses and the last of our snowdrops. Next-door's daphne wax wafting a lovely fragrance over the fence.

This recording of Dinu Lipatti's last recital at the Besançon Festival is so well known to ne. My mother played it all the time when I was little, and later when she was in hospital she just played it through her headphones on repeat. Schubert's Gflat major impromptu,  preceded by sone 'preluding'

Tuesday 3rd February - beauty and books

 Frittering away a bit of time on YouTube I came across this

'O salutaris hostia' by Latvian composer Ēriks Ešenvalds, sung by Voces8. 

TEXT

O salutaris hostia,

Quæ cæli pandis ostium:

Bella premunt hostilia,

Da robur, fer auxilium.

Uni trinoque Domino,

Sit sempiterna gloria,

Qui vitam sine termino,

Nobis donet in patria.

Amen.

TRANSLATION

O saving victim,

Who opens the gate of heaven:

Hostile wars press upon us,

Give strength, bring aid.

To the one and triune Lord,

May there be eternal glory,

Who gives us life without end,

In our heavenly homeland.

Amen.

Just, just glorious. Even without the video you can hear the joy in the sound.

I've finished reading 'The Egg and I" by Betty MacDonald. I got it because of a mention in Jane Brocket's newsletter (you can follow her on substack') two Sundays ago. It's an account of the first years of her marriage to a marine who decided to be a chicken farmer, and bought an old farm up in the mountains in the Puget Sound area. It's back in what must be the 1930s, there's no running water or electricity. Be warned though, she has a shocking opinion of the native Americans living nearby. I hope things gave changed since then... it's a very backwards, backwoods community. Some of her stories are hair-raising, others plain hilarious. 

I'm now about to start Brian Bilston's "Diary of a Nobody", and I've also been dipping in and out of "My Family and other Animals" by Gerald Durrell for a bit of sunshine, for there sure ain't any change in the weather round hereabouts!