Friday 28th April - strange dreams

I found I was dreaming cross stitches last night, rather in the way I used to dream minesweeper and tetris grids in years gone by. Disconcerting,  and not restful.  After yesterday's lack of cross progress I set to big time today, so I suspect I'll be dreaming of stitches again tonight. But, I am within shouting distance of completing it and posting it tomorrow or Sunday. The bank holiday means that it's going to take an extra day to reach Ang. She's already posted hers to me!

When I can't sleep and my thoughts keep going round on a loop I distract myself with selected audiobooks. They have to be just interesting enough to distract me, but not too exciting or terrifying!

I'm currently most of the way through the second of the Green Knowe children's books by Lucy M Boston. It is nearly too interesting, almost too exciting to be properly sleep-inducing. I set the timer for 30mins, after which the voice fades away, but last night I gave myself an extra 30mins as the story had come to an exciting bit.

We've sent off for a light-weight compact folding rollator, not for me, I hasten to add, but because my father’s super deluxe rollator is an absolute nightmare to fit in the rather small boot of our car. We have to put half the back seat down, empty the boot and and wrangle with the folded rollator while trying not to injure ourselves.

Now that he's accepting lifts from us instead of driving, we need to solve the rollator issue as he prefers it to his walking pole. He's due a visit from an occupational therapist who will hopefully find a better walking stich than this pole he's been using for a couple of years. 

And I've made spring rolls in the air fryer! I made up a mixture of  cooked chicken, spring onion, sriracha sauce, a couple of pieces of jalapeño pepper from a jar, red peppers, fresh coriander and lime juice all chopped small and stirred together. Because I was using cooked chicken I could taste it as I went along.

Then I took two sheets of filo pastry, cut each in half, and made 4 spring rolls. I sprayed them with oil and cooked them for 8 minutes at 190°C, turning and spraying the other side half way through.  For a first attempt I was very pleased; we had them for supper with a little soy sauce for dipping them. It sounds a huge amount of effort, but was actually not that bad. I'll make them again to use up the rest of the filo pastry.

Monday 16th January - January Book Challenge - update

 Well, I finished 'Nightingale Wood' by Stella Gibbons, which I think definitely counts in the category 'books to make you feel good' in the challenge from our local library.

I've at last managed to get into 'The Twyford Code'. It looks like this may be the first Book Club choice I finish for several months. It's an odd construction, consisting of transcripts of conversations. Some of the interest (and difficulty!) comes from working out the real meaning of the transcription. I don't think I am giving anything away by saying 'missiles' means 'Miss Isles', and 'young guns' means 'younguns'. Some are harder to work out. I wonder if this would work in an audiobook format? Somebody reading out loud the written transcriptions of verbal recordings? I'm 36% of the way through and am still pretty baffled as to where it is all going.

So, what next for an 'easy' read'. I think it is time I had a look at the various books I downloaded when they were on offer for 99p.  

Wednesday November 23rd - audiobooks I am listening to

I've loved audiobooks for years...

I'm listening to three books on audible at the moment.

Every morning, nearly every morning, I listen to the day's allocation from 'The Bible in One Year' read by David Suchet. Sometimes I'm less attentive; Psalm 119, for example, and currently we're nearing the end of Ezekiel. I suddenly paid attention at the 'dry bones' bit, but then zoned out again. 

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery is the book club choice. I listen to 10 or 15 minutes before going to sleep. I use the sleep timer, as I am finding it quite soporific. There are two narrators (so far); the concierge, a widow, and a young girl who lives in one of the apartments. Their stories don't seem to have connected yet...

Finally I always have a third audiobook on the go. I choose this one to turn to when I  can't sleep in the middle of the night. Currently 'Summer in Fairacre', by Miss Read is working beautifully (although I'm surprised to find I'm not liking Prunella Scales' narration. I normally love whatever she does).  I have 'cosy' headphones which are like a headband, and also keep my ears nice and warm.  

Tuesday 8th March - The Bulls of Bashan

 Today's Noah's Ark picture was rather alarming - more cattle;

It looks more like a man with a costume head; and Psalm 22 verse 12-13 explains what it is about;

"Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. "

Bashan, the richest pasture around Palestine, produces the largest and strongest animals (Ezekiel 39:18). Hence "the kine of Bashan" became an expression for powerful oppressors (Amos 4:1)

Rather topical, thinking about Ukraine, and the potential disasters that could ensue from this reckless invasion.

It seems selfish to switch off, turn over, avoid the news; so I watch just a little at a time. There's not a lot I can do from here - donate, pray, make sure that I am speaking the truth...

So, in order to avoid plunging into a personal Slough of Despond, I take delight in what there is around me; birds on the bird feeder, the cat asleep in the sun, a small and delicious hot chocolate drink, finishing the tea cosy - yes indeedy! The top marker shows where I started from today.

  I decided to do the decreases on every row to make the top flatter. It is now waiting to be felted.

Also, I was most surprised to find that a number of the broad beans has popped through the earth overnight. One pea shoot has also appeared.

I have just finished listening to 'The Long Winter' by Laura Ingalls Wilder - her 'Little House' series has been a firm favourite ever since I first encountered them when I was about nine years old. It is interesting re-reading them as an adult - of course they were only stories when I first read them, but now I am far more aware of the way the roles and position of women, and Native Americans, and non-white people in the society of the time.

Also, having grown up in the South of England, I've always pronounced 'slough' as - well, Slough. To rhythm with cow. The reader of the book pronounced it 'sloo', which is common in the States. And of course there is always the pronunciation that rhythms with 'sluff' and refers to a snake shedding it's skin. 

Tuesday 1st March - Looking forward to Lent

I really am looking forward to Lent. Seriously. 

I have bought myself a 'Lent Calendar', like an Advent Calendar, but of course no chocolates, and I will get to open the first window tomorrow;

The booklet to the side has the Bible reading for the day. I think it will have to do with the animal revealed behind each window.

The lack of chocolates won't be a problem; no way am I giving up chocolate for Lent! In fact I have recently stocked up the 'chocolate stash box' with mini Fair Trade chocolate eggs from Divine. No more than one egg per day, though, to make them last.

I shall be following the course that the Rev Andrew Dotchin creates every year. This year the title is 'With a song in my heart', and you will be able to follow it here. It started today and promises to be as excellent a read as ever.

 So am I giving up anything for Lent? Yes, I am not going to buy or download any books. I must admit I hastily ordered my book club choice yesterday, as it would have been very difficult to join in the next meeting if I hadn't. It is 'The Valley at the Centre of the World' by Malachy Tallack. I have also chosen it for my Audible purchase as I had a credit, for hearing the regional accents and language.

 Our previous choice was 'The Mayor of Casterbridge', by Thomas Hardy. I haven't ready any of his books before, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. If you have an Audible subscription you can listen to Tony Britton reading it, very well indeed, as one of the free books.  

I'm not going to go short of reading matter... there must be hundreds of books in the house, plus ones that are waiting for me to read or finish on my kindle.

And I am going to give up wasting far too much time playing the various solitaire games on the computer. That will be very hard, much harder than giving up chocolate. 

What am I taking on for Lent? Letter writing; I will be printing off and sending copies of the Lent course to two friends who don't use computers at all. I reckon that's a reasonable commitment. I'm also aiming to try and do some form of exercise every day to improve my fitness levels. I do them while I am listening to the songs in the Lent course.

Let's see how long this lasts... 

Saturday 8th January - One week into the year

 Good morning everyone.

So, what have we accomplished this week?

I finished a mitten, and then ripped it out - it was the size of an oven glove, and the texture was far too open. Every little breeze would have gone through the fabric with barely a check. So I am nearly two inches along the ribbing of mitten number 1. By hook or by crook, I will finish a pair of mittens this month whether I want them or no.

I haven't taken a picture - two inches of ribbing on 4mm needles looks much the same as 2 inches of ribbing on 5mm needles after all.

One thing the last year has taught me, is that it is the process of  knitting that I enjoy, almost more than the product. Rather like growing vegetables.

I get all excited at the sight of little shoots appearing through the earth, but I am a good deal more 'take it or leave it' about actually eating the produce. I have ordered my broad bean seeds, and also a packet of spaghetti squash seeds - just 8 in that packet, but then, how many spaghetti squashes can one eat. They are very exciting - forget all that spiralizing stuff - these are 'ready-spiralized'.

 I can't remember which brand of seeds I ordered, so I am not endorsing Mr Fothergill's seeds.. But the picture shows you the general idea - when you open up the squash, you find delicious spaghetti-like strands inside. Yum yum. I am excited about these.

I've also ordered half a dozen seed potatoes for 'chitting', various other seeds, and also several little pots of tete-a-tete daffodils to brighten things up.

Our Polish neighbours who moved in last year are very enthusiastic gardeners, but have a different view of vegetable gardening; his parents, back in Poland, grow masses of vegetables as a matter of course. When I said I grew just a few large pots of this and that 'for fun' he paused, looking at me carefully, obviously revising his thoughts about vegetable gardening. I had meant to grow potatoes last year, but left it late.

'Potatoes are such hard work', he said.

'Not if you grow them in potato bags or large pots.' I explained about how you just cover the growing shoots with more earth until the pot is full and then tip them all when they are ready to be harvested.

'How many potatoes do you get?'

'Enough for a couple of meals'.

I think his idea of  a reasonable amount of potatoes is a cellar-full.

I'm planning to be guided by Huw Richards this year, 

   recommended by Ang in her blog 'Tracing Rainbows'. I don't have a 4 foot wide, 10 foot long raised bed, just an arrangement of 10 very large patio pots, each about 1 cubic foot in size, arranged on a moderately sunny patch of concrete where a shed once stood. I reckon I can adapt his plans

I bought the book too late last year; his detailed month-by-month instructions for December, January and February mostly consist of telling you what to harvest when - but I have nothing to harvest. I did just manage to plan garlic cloves in one tub within the deadline.

Meanwhile, I read the book, and other books (currently 'Miss Bunting' by Angela Thirkell, and listening to 'Over Sea. Under Stone' by Susan Cooper on audible), knit, and mooch about watching the rain.

The current bookclub 'read' is a podcast series on BBC sounds called 'Things Fall Apart' - all about how various movements suddenly sweep across social media - how, and why they started. Fascinating, and rather disturbing.  

Saturday 16th February - Knitting and Reading

Yesterday was a gloriously sunny day, which we spent waiting in for a delivery ('all-day' delivery slot turned out to mean around 3pm).

Today has been grey, dank, miserable sort of weather. Best get used to it, as that is the forecast for the rest of the week.

I had another morning-in-bed, surrounded by cat, cups of coffee, mobile phone, Kindle, diary, suduko. Excellent. I would have got up if the weather had made it worthwhile. Still,, in spite of spending half a day lolling about, I have cleared a reasonable amount of admin

• send in pay claim for music lessons
• send in completed registers for music lessons
• email parents about forthcoming music exam dates
• email round everyone on the Women's World Day of Prayer committee to remind them to gather numbers for the coffee morning next Saturday, and persuade some of them to bake Slovenian Apple Cakes 
• email to say I would Much Rather Not play for a memorial service on Friday as I will be baking Slovenian Apple Cakes
• email to give transport dates for fetching an elderly parishioner to church -  I try and share the duty with a friend - she does the taxi bit, which I dislike, and I do the 'looking after her in church' bit, which she dislikes.

And so on and so on. Stuff. Paperwork. Things to lose and find and put somewhere sensible and lose and find again.

I've also been reading a lot recently; currently I have got these books on the go;



Persuasion - Jane Austen
Letters to Alice: On First Reading Jane Austen - Fay Weldon   
Holding - Graham Norton (book club on Monday. I did read this last year, so am sort of skimming through)

and I'm about to re-read 'Arthur and the Seeing Stone', or maybe one of the others in the trilogy,



just to revisit the way the books have been written, like a series of little word-pictures.


I am determined to finish the red and yellow jumper that I finished knitting ages and ages ago - all it needs is to be sewn together, but I haven't dared tackle this until the right moment - that is when the ingredients of time, mental acuity and good lighting all coincide. I'm hoping that this conjunction of the stars and fates will happen sometime this week...

 

This picture dates back to 31st May 2018!

My current 'mindless knitting' scarf is going well; I started it at the end of January and it now looks like this;

It is meant to be an odd shape; all the increases are along the curved edge and the effect is a sort of crescent shape. I have had to switch from the circular needle I started with as some of the alloy near the point flaked off (never had that happen before). I would have swapped needles in any case - the metal tips are hard on your fingers compared to these nice bamboo needles, but I'm going to run into trouble soon as I will have too many stitches. You can see how the knitting is all bunched up at the top.

The knitting is progressing well - not least because I have discovered audiobooks on YouTube!

I'm halfway through listening to a dramatisation of 'Tiger in the Smoke' by Margery Allingham, originally a radio production. So far the Bad Man has murdered four people in one night, and Albert Campion's wife has survived a near miss. Thrilling!

Himself sitting back in his chair with a glass of wine and little olive palmieres - and apperitif before supper. He brought me mine earlier;

I've been making my way through them while I've been blogging. Ah well. Nothing lasts for ever.

He's taking a break from cooking, sitting and reading and consuming his own little dishlet of palmieres and glass of wine while the kitchen timer ticks away like an unexploded bomb beside him.