Shadow Catching

Around the flat on a lovely sunny, but chilly, day.

Merry Christmas

The roast potatoes are taking forever…Merry Christmas x

Glow

I finished wrapping the last few presents this morning, and the last parcels are on their way. I’ve been busy tidying up, and getting things ready for Christmas. I just have this urge that everything must be in its own place, and stay there! We have very little storage, and honestly, sometimes I just seem to move piles of things around and never actually sort them out.

We’ve got a stockpile of tealights for evening cosiness, and plenty of tea and hot chocolate on hand! No tree this year (for various reasons), but it still feels festive. I’m so looking forward to spending Christmas with James…just the two of us. And only the second time since we’ve been together.

James gave my The Complete Brambly Hedge for my birthday (26. Booooooooo.), and it is every bit as spell-binding as I remembered! Oh to be a mouse living in Brambly Hedge…

Ahem. Sorry. I am shockingly nostalgic at the moment.

Hope you are cosy, and snuggled down in thick blankets! Candles lit, and the kettle on.

A Long Time Ago

Ok, so it wasn’t that long ago! The two middle weeks in October involved James and I struggling to pack our things into a reasonable amount of bags, and then catching the train for almost 9 1/2 hours (with delays) of travelling…

Where were we going?

CORNWALL!

Lovely misty Falmouth, to be exact!

Saying we had a fantastic time would be a massive understatement. It was only the second time this year that I’ve been able to see my sister, Ruth, and I was so excited.

It wasn’t actually misty for the duration of our stay, but misty photos are more atmospheric than sunny ones! We actually enjoyed wonderful weather, and I think it only rained once, which is possibly a record for a Cornish holiday. I wore my sunglasses more than my specs, and only broke out a winter skirt in the second week of our stay.

We went on lots of walks – some rather adventurous. One afternoon after crab sandwiches at the pier café we caught the ferry to Flushing, and then walked home from there. Through fields, past electric fences, through woodland, along a stretch of slippery beach…you get the idea. Refreshment was procured from the Lidl at Penryn, and then we finally made it back to the house!

Then another day we found secret beaches on the way to Pendennis Point…

And admired the beautiful coastline all around us.

The pasty tally at the end of the holiday was 2 for me, and 3 for James.

2 cream teas (one of which made by my sister, which was tastier than the nice hotel we had the other one in!).

2 crab sandwiches.

2 fish and chips, maybe 3. My memory fails me, la la la *whistles*.

1 fantastic plate of homemade sushi…

And lots of new recipes tried out for dinner at home.

…I’ll stop myself there before I get too hungry!

My Sister lives just off the High Street, and it was lovely to pop out of the door and go down the lane straight to the bustle of the town. No busy roads to navigate before getting to town, and no extremely windy buildings to go past (shakes fist at Bridgewater Place in Leeds). I had a horrible cold and cough for the whole holiday, and generally felt pretty rough, but it didn’t stop us from going out every day.

James and I loved having Ruth to ourselves when we kidnapped her to the pub, which happened on a few evenings! I don’t know how she manages to do it all – she is such a busy mum! Superwoman, really. And spending time with Sir Stropalot was fun too, minus the tantrums! Lots of reading, and cuddles, playing, and listening out for airplanes (‘air-pains’ in toddler speak) .

And I couldn’t write about our holiday without showing you a photo of this little guy. Most adorable nephew ever, and that’s my completely unbiased opinion. Honest! He turned two a few weeks after we got home. Two! I can’t believe it. I don’t think any of us can believe it really. He wears red cords better than anyone else, I think you’ll agree.

It was wonderful. I’m so glad James and I were able to go away, and it’s still a novelty to go on holiday together. I hope that never changes.

Roll on holiday 2012!

Bits and Pieces part I

• Currently on day 9 without a working washing machine. Washing clothes by hand in the bath is a serious workout, and I am hoping for arms and shoulders of steel after all this (I’m weighing up in my head whether that is a fair price to pay for aggravating my eczema)! The letting agents don’t seem very concerned about replacing it, and we won’t have one until sometime next week. So frustrating!
• I cannot stop eating Wotsits. I have no idea why they are suddenly irresistible to me. I blame James – he bought them.
• We still love the dishwasher.
• I really need to polish my shoes. And put my sandals away again after the heat wave.
• Is it wrong to want this as badly as I do? The Complete Brambly Hedge.
• Right, off to have a cup of tea and a party ring biscuit (they are also irresistable to me at the moment).

Balcony Garden

Since the end of April, James and I have enjoyed our first real ‘garden’ together. We had a few plants in the yard when we lived in Bristol, but nothing really thrived there. This year? We decided to have a go at growing some veg! Courgettes (Gold Rush F1), Cucumbers (marketmore 76), and Chilli Peppers (‘hot’ patio sizzle). This year’s planting obviously brought to you by the letter ‘C’…

The cucumbers were the most successful, and we have enjoyed quite a few of them over the late summer. They tasted nothing like the cucumbers you buy from the supermarket – the skins were thick (we peeled them before eating), and they tasted so sweet and juicy!

All summer long, we had issues with pollinating the courgettes. I resorted to pollinating by hand, but that was hit and miss. I absolutely adore courgettes, they are my most favourite vegetable (along with peas!); and although we didn’t get as many as we thought we would (and the plants grew to enormous size), we still thoroughly enjoyed our modest crop. I wish yellow courgettes were available in supermarkets – they scream ‘Summer’ to me, and really liven up those cloudy summer days.

Gorgeous!

Unfortunately, we have yet to see a chilli pepper…and don’t think we will this year. They have been blighted by aphids, and to be honest, I’ve reached the end of my tether removing the horrible things! I sure we will try again next year (James loves them), but next time we’ll keep them inside for longer. Since we put the seedlings outside, they have been in the window box, and I think they were rather exposed on the top of the balcony.

It has been such fun to watch the seedlings appear, and then see them take over the balcony. Seriously, I had to carefully push leaves aside just so I could stand out there to water them! We had 4 pots of cucumbers, 3 huge pots for the courgettes, and 4 small pots for the chilli peppers.

James and I are already enjoying talking about what we’ll grow next year – maybe some herbs, and we’d love to try to grow some garlic. More variety next time, and definitely a cucumber plant or two! And we’ll plant the seeds much earlier next year, as this year we were at the end of the indoor sowing season for all three.

Now we just have to work out where we are going to store the empty pots over the winter…

This Week…

…there has been lots of peering out of the window at the rain and, listening to the wind.

And at the beginning of the week, there was lots of waiting around for the plummer to arrive (on consecutive days) to repair the kitchen tap. The handle totally broke off in my hand! We’re now the proud users of a Franken-Tap, and what a beaut’ it is.

And Repeat

Several weeks ago I spent some time turning fat quarters into napkins. And I love them!

I have a serious addiction to paper napkins – I love the inexpensive bright splash of colour they add to the flat, placed in the napkin holder on the dining table. It’s such a little thing, but for some reason they make me happy. I realise that they are not really very eco-friendly though…so that’s where the fabric napkins come in!

(Should be four here, but you get the idea.)

Before I started I knew that I wanted to try sewn mitered corners – not just folded – for durability, and an excuse to practice sewing lots of corners. There are so many tutorials around, and this one from KateWares was particularly helpful. I came up with a measurement of my own to make the perfect-to-me corners, and although the first napkin I finished is rather sloppy, the rest are wonderful. I thought it was best to sacrifice one for the good of the others, so no close-ups of that one!

Is it wrong to oooh and ahhh over your own sewing?

I really enjoyed the repetitive nature of making each one, and after deciding that the hem was too big, I added a second row of stitches just to add a bit of interest (and stability).

I know that to many, making napkins is not a very complicated project; but I am so pleased with the finished result. Other than mending clothes I haven’t really used  my sewing machine for months and months, so I spent some time cleaning it before use and getting reacquainted, and those steps made it easier to approach sewing again.

They have already been washed a million times, but ironed just the once. I hope I’m not the only one who doesn’t iron napkins… it’s a bit like whether you iron your bed linen on not – in this home just the pillowcases get a once over with the iron (there are more than enough shirts and dresses to keep me busy, thank you very much!).

Many people are saying the same thing, but I really can’t believe it is September already! We haven’t really had much of a summer in Leeds. For someone who much prefers any season other than summer, I’m quite happy with that, but it does feel a little like I’ve missed something.

I feel I must mention that James and I have finally started to use the dishwasher in our flat! For over a year  it has been used for kitchen storage, but we suddenly got the urge to give it a go over the bank holiday weekend. Everything that was stored in it is now in a bag waiting for a new spot, but I have no idea where any of it will go. We have a minuscule kitchen. It drives us mad sometimes, especially as we like to stock up on groceries when they are on offer. At least we have deep countertops, I suppose!

We’re in the honeymoon period with it at the moment, and honestly can’t believe how much more relaxed our evenings are now that we can just clean up after dinner, pop everything in the dishwasher, and let it work its magic. You can probably tell that we’ve never had one at home before!

All Better

I am a tad grumpy today – nothing is going right. I have had some lovely post recently, though!  I am the proud owner of a gorgeous Buttercup Flower Brooch made by the amazing Beth at The Linen Cat.

The attention to detail is stunning, and I am so in awe of the work that went in to making it. Thank you, Beth! If I could manage to take a half-decent photo of the back, I would. Alas, the quality of photos I have taken recently is patchy at best, so you’ll just have to pop over to The Linen Cat website and take a look at the photos there!

The packaging…everything is just pitch-perfect.

James is in Manchester this evening. I am planning to pick a film to watch, eat ice lollies, drink ice tea, and enjoy the cool breeze. I really loathe hot weather, but am much happier when it’s hot and windy…except when my skirt blows up. We popped in to town around lunch time earlier today, and I was soon melting. So humid. Yuck.

A Strong Cup

This rather blurry photo of a sunset is my attempt to pretty-up an otherwise sad post…

I had a haircut this morning, and as I was walking home past the car park next to our building (isn’t Leeds glam?!), I spotted a dead puppy on the side of the pavement.  It had been covered up with a bin bag, but the wind blew the bag off its face just as I was walking past.  It gave me a fright, as you can imagine. It must have been 4-5 months old, so not a tiny puppy, but not a big dog either.

I told the concierge team in reception (that makes our apartment building sound fancier than it is), and they were so nice and helpful.  One of them came outside with me, and they covered it up a bit more until someone comes out to dispose of it.  The concierge who rang was mistakenly put through to the RSPCA shop in town…I bet they get all kinds of calls that should go to the help line instead!  Blimey!  After being put through to the RSPCA shop in town, then trying to ring the RSPCA help line, the non-emergency police number, and finally getting through to Leeds City Council; it turned out that it had already been reported at 11am today…3 hours later, and the poor thing was still there.

How sad and awful.  Makes you wonder about people who would just dump an animal like that.

I need a strong cup of tea and some chocolate (works in Harry Potter!).

update: it took the intervention of some traffic wardens to finally get the dog collected…that was on Tuesday. Shameful behaviour from the council, and I am so upset about it. Leaving it for 5 days is appalling.