A Really Good Saturday

Saturdays when John is not working usually begin in a similar way. First, pancakes for breakfast, then we all go into town to visit the library and shops, sometimes stopping for coffee and cake too. We always call in at Waitrose for bits and bobs for the weekend, once we've decided what we want to cook and eat on Saturday and Sunday. We plan the weeknight meals and do the big weekly shop elsewhere, but we usually think about the weekend food differently. It might be a takeaway or something that involves lots of planning and preparation, depending on the kind of week we've had, what the weather is like. Then, unless we have somewhere particular to be, the afternoons are usually quiet and involve pottering around the house. 

Today was like that but ten times better, mainly due to the sunshine and totally gorgeous weather. We went into town but drank our coffee sitting outside the cafe, under the shade of a huge maple tree. It was just lovely. We did our shopping, went to the library (lots of crochet magazines!), bought a paper and nice things to eat, came home. There was one alarming moment when Angus left Barry the Badger behind in the children's section in the library and we didn't notice until we were half way round Waitrose. Luckily he was just where Angus had left him and badger and boy were reunited, but that was close. I don't know who would be more upset if we lost Barry, Angus or me.

Because it was so hot - and, being British, we get a bit excited when the weather in summer is summery and get confused and think we're on holiday - we opened beers and put the parasol up and ate lunch in the garden. Then we went to the park where the kids ran around while John and I lay on the blanket, he watching the cricket and me crocheting. It occurred to me that the kids were getting loads of fresh air and exercise while I wasn't having to exert myself in the slightest, and that was very pleasing.

Now, it's cool and cloudy. The kids have been having a water fight which involved flinging around full watering cans and trying to soak each other. I had to strip them off at the kitchen door, they were so wet and dirty. They are now upstairs reading, showered and in their pyjamas. John is preparing spicy pork noodles for our dinner and the kitchen smells of garlic and ginger. There is a key lime pie in the fridge for dessert and I have a glass of white wine next to me. We're deciding what film to watch later. Happy days.

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Photos of me washing up taken by Angus. Keeping it real.

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Thank you SO much for the response to my crafting post. So many good ideas! I need to sit and think and process, and - of course - write a list, and then write a blog post. But thank you. I knew you'd all come to my rescue. 

In need of inspiration

I have two projects on the go currently, one that I'm loving and one that I'm not, and I feel like I need to shake it all up a bit. It's getting boring. 

I am loving every stitch I sew on my sampler, to the point where I need to slow it down so it's not over too quickly. I was supposed to be saving this project for our summer holiday in August, but I already I've completed the N, O, S, T and X motifs. I love making samplers so much  - just the right amount of stitching, each section so pleasingly achievable - but I feel like this will probably be the last one I make for some time. Completed, I like to frame them and then, once framed (which ain't cheap), they need to hang somewhere. And I wonder how many more framed cross stitch samplers I want in our house. So I am conflicted about my love of cross stitch; I want to stitch and stitch, but I don't want my house full of cross stitch, if that makes sense. Yes, I can make gifts, but sometimes you just want to make something for yourself, don't you? I know you fellow crafters understand.  John says: if it makes you happy then sew all the samplers you want, and just have them out on rotation, you don't need to see all the stuff all of the time. Sensible man. But you can see why I don't want this lovely project to end.

My other project is the granny stripe blanket I am working on for Angus. I love the colours but I do not love the pattern at the moment. It's really boring. I know that once it stops looking like a scarf and starts looking like a blanket - which will hopefully coincide with the onset of autumn - I'll be full of love for it, but right now it's a duty WIP. 

I love to sew and crochet so much but i'm really wondering what to make at the moment. I want projects that inspire me, that make me think "I want to make that!" and get all excited about ordering yarn. But I don't want to crochet any more cushions or blankets or scarves. What can I crochet? I'm thinking perhaps a lightweight cotton sweater, or a bag. A bag for my yoga mat perhaps? But it's got to be the right kind of pattern. (No flowers.) And sewing - what can I sew? I could dust off my neglected sewing machine and take a deep breath and try to make some clothes... But it's hand stitching I really love to do, whether it's embroidery or cross stitch. I might do something with my huge stash of fabric and make some hexies. I recently came across this blog and this quilt and it was the first thing I'd seen in a long time which made me feel inspired and excited. English paper piecing appeals as so much of it, from the making of the hexies to the quilting, can be done by hand rather than on a machine. 

Help me, lovely blogging friends. You all know what you are talking about. What can I make? What can you recommend for both quick and long term projects for crochet and embroidery?  I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Summer Colours

Everywhere pink, red and green, those colours making their way from the supermarket and the garden into the house, onto the table. Strawberries in smoothies and on top of pancakes.  Redcurrants and blackcurrants ripening on the bushes outside. I pick a handful every day or two, add them to the bags in the freezer, look into ice cream recipes. I make the simplest salad of tomatoes, mozarella and basil; it tastes like summer, clean and fresh and bright. Supermarket peonies have become a dining table regular and I just love them. Milky white freesias smell sweet up there on the mantel. Outside, pink hollyhocks and geraniums bring a little colour to my pots and borders. And everywhere so very green, after what has been a mild, muggy and very wet few weeks. Sports day was rained off but everything is growing like mad. This time last year we'd just had a brief but wonderful heatwave. I'd quite like another one, if I'm honest. I'd like to spend my days barefoot under cloudless skies and complain about how it's too hot to sleep.

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Thank you for your kind words on my last post. I am feeling quite well, if a little tired and frazzled. Nothing that a rest and some vitamin D won't cure. In the meantime there is wine and crochet.

Around the Campfire

Camp NCT, Derbyshire, 24th - 26th June 2016

Highs: the teacher training day which meant we could get on the road early, good weather (despite the wet forecast), beautiful, craggy scenery, long walks, children running free, bacon sandwiches, toasted marshmallows, wine around the campfire, but most importantly friends - dear, life long friends - (including some who recently moved to Australia but were back visiting), and laughter, chatting, hugs, children and adults all picking up where we left off last year, catching up with each other, talking long into the night. 

Lows: Brexit shock, the journey, feeling cold at night. That's it. The rest was amazing and the feeling of being with my kindred spirits kept me warm all week long when we were back at work and in reality. 

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"Camp NCT" is our name for an annual camping tradition that has grown over the last five years and become an event that keeps a group of us in touch. Previous years are here:

2015 - when we camped for the first time, in the same place near Ashbourne in Derbyshire.
2014 - sleeping in a pod in Pateley Bridge, Yorkshire.
2013 - visiting for the day in Appletreewick, Yorkshire.
2012 - Pateley Bridge again, when the children were really small. 

Coming up for ten years ago, we all met at our local NCT coffee morning in Leeds, hence the name. Our NCT days are long over now and many of us have moved away from Leeds, but the connections remain and there were nine families there that weekend. The friendships we form when our children are young are often enduring. If you have children, are you still in touch with those people you met when your babies were small and new?

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Sorry for the absence. I missed you all, but I needed to take a little blogging break for a while there. I had everything to say, and also nothing at all. Recent political events in the UK left me first shocked, then angry (not with those who voted differently to me, but with the behaviour and actions of our politicians), then just downright depressed. Not depressed in the mental health sense of the word, but just disappointed and weary. Flattened. Also, I am so very tired. I've been on antibiotics for the last two weeks and I don't think they've agreed with me, and work is exceptionally busy at the moment. But, I am coming out of it now; life goes on and there is a summer out there, ready to be enjoyed. 

Make, Bake, Sew, Grow

Thank you for your kind comments on my clutch bag. I am really glad you like it. You find me pretty shaken this morning by the the EU Referendum results here in Britain but as always life goes on. Today felt like a good time for a Make, Bake, Sew, Grow post, my little meander through all the things that are going on in my home and garden at the moment. My comfort blanket.

{ Make }

Two current obsessions: French plaits and peonies.

I have - until recently - never been able to master the French plait/braid.  This annoyed me greatly as I don't like not being able to do things. Many of my colleagues wear their hear in a variety of styles - full French plait, a little side plait going into a bun, a dutch plait/braid - and it always looks so pretty and I just kept thinking, it can't be that flipping hard. If I can crochet and sew, surely I can plait hair?

So, using my nine year old daughter and her waist length hair to practice, I have been working on Operation French Plait this week. These two pictured are a little wonky, but the two plaits she went to school with today (which took twenty five minutes and meant I didn't have time to make the beds or empty the dishwasher) looked pretty good. 

Next objective: learn how to do a Dutch plait and fish tail plait and - even better - do one of these creations in my own hair. If you need me I'll be in holding a hairbrush with aching arms.

Peony season is short and sweet and they must be bought and appreciated. I also like them against the grey wall in the dining room, but I like anything against that colour if I'm honest. 

{ Bake }

From the kitchen, rhubarb shortbread. Thank you for the idea CJ. 

I made a batch on Saturday and it was so good that I made another on Sunday. 

 Fish pie for a meal with my parents on Father's Day. 

I poached cod, salmon and smoked haddock in milk then, when the fish was cooked, strained it and used it in the white sauce. 

I flaked the fish into large chunks and then added some leeks I'd cooked for a while, plus lots of king prawns and sweetcorn. I like sweetcorn in fish pie, it is a good match -  it reminds me of chowder. I also chucked in loads of freshly chopped parsley, then topped it with mashed potato and baked it. I nearly forgot the prawns and had to push them in, one by one, under the mash, then cover it all over again. 

I made a separate one for the kids without the prawns, leeks or parsley and served theirs with just broccoli on the side. They both asked for seconds. Veg on the side of the plate is acceptable to them - even tasty - but veg mixed in with fish in a sauce is still regarded as Highly Suspicious.

It's a bit of a faff, fish pie, the kind of dish that uses four saucepans, but it's so worth it. 

{ Sew }

I made a start on my sampler and now that I've started, it's all I want to sew. Those little motifs are just the right size - small enough to be quickly completed without getting bored, and big enough that you feel satisfied when you complete one. I'm going to enjoy this project.

I continue to crochet the odd row here and there on Angus's blanket. 

It's still at the stage where it looks like a scarf though. I've got a long way to go yet.

{ Grow }

Everything is decidedly very green in the garden at the moment, but a little lacking in colour. The riot of pinks, reds and purples in May has gone over now, and I remember from last year how May was the best month in the garden. I need to figure out this colour-through-the-summer thing. Find plants that flower in June and July. 

We remain on hollyhock watch and they grow taller and taller, well past the top of the six foot fence.

I very much hope these are buds, as they run up the stem in clusters with their odd, slightly geometric shape.

The redcurrants are reddening.

The blackcurrants have a way to go yet.

Funny how I am suddenly very interested in these, since ice cream became a possibility.

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I wish you all a very happy weekend. We are going camping. It's probably going to rain but there will be much laughter and friendship, chatting around a campfire with wine and putting the world to rights - just what I need today.