Wednesday 3rd December - Vive la difference

 Here are the cardigan sleeves. I am risking sanity by knitting both  at the same time;

as you can see, the colour matching only lasts as long as a few rows into the cuffs. After that they carry on in their own way. The idea of creating matching fronts and sleeves from this wild and crazy patterned yarn was never to be thought of, so I didn't. Think of it, I mean.

I have been browsing on the woolwarehouse site and managed to exercise some self-control over buying the extra ball of wool. I do like to make the order up to get the free postage if I can! So there's another ball of wool, and some buttons for the cardigan and a few other bits and pieces to come.... 

I taught a fairly mad piano lesson today. It's pretty tough teaching over a whatsapp telephone call where neither of us can see each other. We both have to try and work out which bit of music the other is talking about. On the whole we make it work, just about, until the lady I am teaching begins to tire and get flustered. 

This time it was compounded by my oxygen cylinder reaching zero... low oxygen makes me get confused too.... chaos. I had another cylinder right by me, as I had thought I might need it, so normal levels of madness were restored pretty quickly. For some reason we can't persuade her ipad to work with zoom properly; I know nothing about ipads and I'm not sure she does either, so we use whatsapp instead. It's worked for a year. now...  

 You might be wondering why we don't use video in our call... I tried it once with her, but again she's not that confident with the tech. The more we go over to needing IT in some form or another for admin; tax, booking doctors, paying invoices, etc etc etc, the harder it gets for people without confidence, knowledge, understanding and the gadgetry to manage. I'm lucky - we've got equipment that works, and my husband has always worked in IT, and stays on top of updates and virus hunting and so on.

One-pan-macaroni-cheese - a recipe from Taming Twins

I've never had a fail from this site, and the recipes are all simple, easy-peasy. I guess the title of the website explains why!

Ingredients 

To cook the pasta:

• ▢500 g (1.1 lb) Dry macaroni
• ▢1 litre (4.25 cups) Water
• ▢400 ml (1.75 cups) Milk
• ▢2 tsp Onion granules
• ▢1 tsp Mustard
• ▢Salt and pepper

• To finish:

  • ▢200 g (7 oz) Gruyere, Grated
  • ▢250 g (9 oz) Mature cheddar, Grated
  • ▢150 ml (0.75 cups) Single cream

  Instructions 

  • Put the first ingredients in a pan together, put the lid on and cook on medium-low for about 10-13 minutes stirring often until pasta is just cooked. (If your water/milk is absorbed already and pasta not cooked, add a splash more).
  • When it's cooked, turn heat to low, stir in the rest of the ingredients in and mix everything together until the cheese is melted and gooey.
  • Serve immediately (I like to garnish with chopped chives or crispy pieces of bacon).

I have just lifted this from the website - see link above - and it will make four portions. Look! No white sauce! No flour!

I did complicated stuff with a calculator, because I wanted to use 175g pasta which is a nice quantity for the two of us. 35% of the above measurements, it turns out. If I had looked properly, do you see that box with

1X 2X 3X

just across from the heading INGREDIENTS? It is a cunning little widgetty thing that lets you automatically increase or decrease the quantities! Now we all know.

As usual I varied it a bit - half a finely diced onion instead of onion granules, no gruyere so I used all strong cheddar, and no single cream so I added a good dollop of Philadelphia cream cheese instead. I microwaved some broccoli separately and stirred it all in.

Oh yes, that worked - not as a luxury macaroni cheese maybe, but a pretty good everyday one. 

No picture - after all, we all now what macaroni cheese looks like, don't we?

I seriously recommend you explore the site for more ideas. Here's the Christmas Recipes page.

Poem

It came upon the midnight clear,
that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth
to touch their harps of gold:
"Peace on the earth, good will to men,
from heaven's all-gracious King."
The world in solemn stillness lay,
to hear the angels sing.                    

by Edmund Sears

This is one of my favourite carols. When I was a church organist (hands only, couldn't reach the pedals properly and couldn't persuade my feet to operate independently of my hands) I would choose this for Advent and in January and also at other random times of year to the bemusement of the congregation.

I thought of this carol the other night... tootling along to the loo in the wee small hours I noticed, through the patterned glass in the bathroom window, little sparkly bits. Stars or reflections? Going through to the spare room I looked into the darkness - stars! We have so much light pollution outside our house - streetlights and the busy dual carriageway and glow from nearby cities that it is only in the hours after midnight that we can really see the stars. 

Tuesday 2nd December - why is 'u'

 the merriest letter of the alphabet?

(Monday's post)

Because,  as jabblog correctly answered, it is in the middle of 'fun'.

Ba boom tish!

Tuesday 2nd December - with a fair wind...

 I really thought I might finish what I think of as my 'crayola' colours cardigan

by Christmas. Or maybe New Year or Epiphany. Certainly by Valentine's day, surely? 

I've done the back and both fronts, and it was looking good

But that's the cropped version. Here's a more honest photograph;

I don't know how I managed to achieve this; there is a difference or around 16 cm. Far to much to fudge the side seams! 

It's probably due to getting massively confused by trying to alter the original pattern, which has the back longer than the front for some trendy look that I'm not keen on. 

I think the best plan will be to 

firstly measure how much length I need to allow for the 6 rows of shoulder shaping,

secondly measure and write down how much I need to knit

 thirdly rip out the back to below the shaping for the shoulder 

fourthly knit up the missing length, do the shoulder shaping and eat chocolates in celebration.

 It could be a lot, lot worse.

Meanwhile this has answered the question 'do I need to buy another ball to be sure of finishing the sleeves?' with a resounding YES!

I have consoled myself with a chocolate from my calendar. You would have to peer closely at the picture to spot the little window which was today's addition to the tree house.

Today's poem in my Advent book, 'Haphazard by Starlight' is  November Sonnet by Elizabeth Jennings. It's quite difficult to find a link, so I looked in the Winter section of 'The Country Commonplace Book, by Miranda Hill and found this cheerful poem;

I've copied this from yourdailypoem

It reminds me of listening to the dawn chorus at breakfast time!

Monday 1st December - take that, Blogger! You won't win so easily...

 Here we are, at the beginning of a year - heading towards the Winter Solstice. There are hidden advantages to these cold mornings... I realised today that getting up before dawn (currently at about 7:45) means that I can listen to the dawn chorus without having to get up at silly-o'clock. 

I was in the bathroom which is at the back of the house, where the little window is always a little open, and it is away from the oxygen concentrator chugging away in the bedroom, and stood in amazement listening to the birds - not many, robin and blackbird were all I recognised but that will do me nicely.

Now, at 5pm, with sunset having been about an hour ago, the curtains are already closed and it feels warm and cosy. 

I'm looking at the three wise men that I was given last month. They have already started on their journey round the living room, keeping their spirits up with a little sing-song session, accompanied by a miscellaneous choir of felt animals. Here they are...

Oh piffle. Everyone has been posting that they cannot get their photos to load in blogger anymore, and neither can I. I wonder if it's because I'm using my laptop instead of the tablet? I shall type up my typingness and then open up the post on my tablet and see if I can insert the photos. Just hang on a mo....

Yup, that worked! I got the photos in, and I'm back on the laptop. But honestly. Updates. I blame updates.

We haven't touched the chocolate Advent calendars yet, however I've started on the Roger de Borde tree house. The tree and the house could have been assembled in advance, I now discover. Today's real addition is the Christmas Tree.

While looking through my selection of carol books, mine, my mother's and my grandmother's, I found this;

There is a faint date stamp on the cover; 22 JAN 1950. I don't think the children of today would be too impressed. Although, they might enjoy a waltz or a polka, thanks to 'strictly'.

I leave you with the first conundrum from the booklet ... 'why is U the merriest letter in the alphabet?' Answer (if I remember) tomorrow.

The poem in 'Haphazard by Starlight' for today is called Advent Calendar by Rowan Williams (previously Archbishop of Canterbury).

You'll find it if you google; I'm reluctant to post someone else's Advent book online in its entirety (but I do recommend the book!). It is a magnificent poem.

However, on youtube I have found a setting of it - with the words... now I'm feeling rather conflicted... Here's the song...

 Words Rowan Williams, setting David Ogden, sung by the Exultate Singers.

I'll work out what to do for other days!

Sunday 30th November - circle

 I saved this scavenger hunt word until last on purpose. The church year has come full circle; it begins in the first day of Advent which is today, unlike a calendar year which runs January to December.

This is my end-of-November tree picture. One more to go.

Back to Advent; each Sunday has its own theme. Our church is following the themes of Hope, Peace, Joy and Love... I'm not sure if I've got Peace and Love the right way round; all will become clear next Sunday. But Hope is definitely the one for today. The reading in church was that bit from the book of Isaiah, chapter 2;

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

    to the temple of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways,

    so that we may walk in his paths.”

The law will go out from Zion,

    the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

4 He will judge between the nations

    and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares

    and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,

    nor will they train for war anymore.

5 Come, descendants of Jacob,

    let us walk in the light of the Lord.

That's certainly something to hope for...

If you are Church of England (as I am) and your church follows the pattern in the service book (as my zoom church mostly does) you will have heard the collect - a type of prayer - for the first Sunday in Advent. The originals came from 'The Book Of Common Prayer', written hundreds of years ago, worth considering as much for the beautiful language as for the content. 

(I'm putting the reading and collect here as much for my benefit as anyone else's; if it's not relevant to your spiritual beliefs please just skip over it.)

We hold on to the tradition of marking the days until Christmas; the wreath, put together just in time this afternoon, and the first candle switched on (I always had real candles but...)

And our chocolate Advent calendars ready and waiting;

I haven't lost sight of my circle...

I've been reading a few paragraphs at a time from Ronald Blythe's book 'In the Artist's Garden'. His mind flits from topic to topic like a butterfly. Here is part of the last page for the chaper on November 

He was a lay reader, I believe,  and led services in the scattered village churches near his home to help the hard-pressed Vicar. Hence the comment about remembering to read the collect.

It was the last couple of sentences that really caught my eye, about scything the withered grass, and at the same time sowing next year's seeds. 'Next summer's flowers are counting the days until it's time to grow', just I am counting the days until Christmas. 

Sorry,  I've blethered on a bit... time for a lie down in a darkened room!

Saturday 29th November - scavenger hunt 29; bark

I did briefly think about writing something about the lady who goes past out house every morning with two small dogs in harnesses that pull and stop and go and yip yip yip noisily and hysterically at every dog, cat, bird, man, woman, child they meet along the way... 'No need for that,' says neighbour across the road and four houses along. 'I've told her that as well.' I guess someone was going to say something at some time... He's got a heart of gold, though, and a real concern for everyone he meets, knows everyone's name... an uncharitable person might think he's nosey but they would be wrong. He is genuinely interested in everyone, asks after them and their family, looks out for the older people...

I haven't seen her recently, perhaps she goes the other way now, or maybe doesn't go out so much in winter. I hope she and her annoying little dogs are alright. Perhaps I'll ask that neighbour. He'll know.

Oh, I have written about 'bark' after all. Once I sit down at a laptop (so much easier than tapping at a tablet or phone) my fingers run away and it all just happens.

I posted off my 2By2 stitching yesterday, or rather my husband did, bless him. So I spent this morning resetting my sewing 'wip' basket;

Which had various perle threads, a horrid tangle of embroidery cotton ends left over from the autumn leaves of last month, a biscuit stamp waiting for me to have another go at speculaas (Nigella's recipe gets a 'yes' from me) a felted brooch from Ang, some skeins of floss in Autumn colours, the coloured pegs I use all the time, a tape measure, a card drum of stitch markers for knitting (why?). Stacked behind the felt sewing case are card templates for 2By2, a potential flat gift (hidden out of sight), a tape measure (again why?) and the needle case that should be in the sewing case. 

In other words, a muddle.

Then I turned my attention to the settee where I sit and my the newish table. No pictures; too shameful, and the disturbance to the air as I aimed my phone in the general direction of the tottering piles and heaps of books, printed recipes, letters, pamphlets, and catalogues would have been enough to cause a devastating bookslide.   

Ah. I feel I can sit down safely again.

But oh! the dining room table... 

Here we go again...

I sit and do my stuff on the left, my husband sits on the right. The tidy side.

Poem

A pretty fair summary for quite a lot of November, I thought. But the sun has been out today, off and on... the leaves on the oak at the bottom of the garden suddenly turned to gold...

I've been going back through photographs, deleting duplicated and so on. This was obviously captured from twitter (back in the days before X - that's when I left)

There are times when we need to rediscover words like this.

Chopin (1810 - 1848); Preludes Op 28 no 3 in G, one of the happiest.

Andras Schiff playing on an 1890s Pleyel piano

  

Murray Perhaia on a modern concert grand (probably a Steinway!)