I normally get a big shop in once a week but on Monday the fridge was still pretty full so I thought I’d leave the big shop as long as I could. After a couple of days it turned into a point of principle to feed us all without going to the shops, I think I’ve been inspired by Economy Gastronomy. Other than buying milk I’ve made it through to Friday and if I do say so myself we’ve not eaten too bad this week – I think my best effort was last night’s Morrocan style veg stew and cous cous, with a few meat balls scraped together and thrown in for the carnivore. It has also been good to have a rummage around in the back of the cupboards and clear a bit of space in there. So now I have a clear conscience about the van load of goodies Waitrose are brining me tomorrow.
One of the wonderful things about the lovely Ravelry (for the are a few) is that you can find amazing patterns that just beg to be knitted. The Horst Schultz African Explorer quilt is one such pattern. Seeing examples of the quilt finished by other people only served to egg me on until I finally decided to give it a go. The fact that it will (or at least should) help clear some of the yarn mountain was an added bonus.
So the quilt is made up of pieces knitted together like patchwork. I’ve completed the first big square, which has nine pieces joined, and am pretty pleased with how its worked out. The instructions become a little vague after a certain point, beyond that it’s a case of keep knitting and hope.
I’ve done a fair bit of walking in various parts of the country but never been to any of the big moors in Devon or Cornwall so suggested we have a little break on Dartmoor over Easter. Dartmoor is my kind of walking, I love wild moorland and craggy rocks, with a few standing stones and a bit of history thrown in for good measure. It is good walking for the little chap too, who must have managed almost a km on his own.
The wildlife has been busy in the garden with the bird feeder being visited by blue tits, great tits, coal tits, long-tailed tits, chaffinches, gold finches, robins, starlings and the lovely woodpecker in this (not very good) photo. We’ve also had yellowhammers and a green woodpecker mooching around the lawn and this morning a kestrel was sitting on the fence post.
Yesterday I went to a needle felting workshop at Tamsyn-G’s and had a fabulously relaxed morning learning a new craft. I’ve felted knitting before but needle felting is quite different and a wonderful way of decorating and drawing with wool. The broch in the picture is my favourite of the three things I made and my head is now overflowing with ideas for new projects.
2009 does sound such a long way away from where I feel in my head, that place where 1994 still feels quite close by and celebrating the millennium was just a few New Year’s ago, but here we are, almost a decade into the new century. I’m quite looking forward to next year though, when we can escape this hinterland of not knowing what to call the year, and therefore opting for the longest possible option, and hopefully return to the old system and call the year twenty ten.
Well, the cooking happened, almost all was eaten (we’re still trudging through the Christmas cake, which is rather nice with vanilla soya ice-cream). Christmas was lovely, and hectic, full of family and food and just a little bit of booze. We’ve had a fabulously cold, frosty snap that made everything quite festive, but those memories are being washed and blown away by the soggy January weather.
I’m now the proud new owner of a rather nifty pair of binoculars. In recent years I’ve tried to make more of an effort to identify birds. It seems so ignorant to see them flying around and just label them all birds. Now we’re in quite a good spot for watching birds the binoculars are really handy. Since we’re been here I’ve seen buzzards, woodpeckers, redwings, thrush, blackbirds, wagtails, damn magpies, a small bird of prey that I’m struggling to identify (it’s never around long enough), the barn owl, robins, wrens and lots more little birds still to be identified.
My knitting projects aren’t progressing too well, apart from some fingerless mittens which are easy to churn out. The grey tank top just doesn’t look right so that will probably be unwound and the tiger tank top isn’t shaping up well and would require more wool to finish (not good when the object of the exercise was to use up wool in my stash) so that will probably be undone too. Darn it.
We have 11 people for Christmas dinner and I’m still trying to get my head around feeding that many people, not only for Christmas dinner, but also another few days of meals too. We’re starting with the big cooking this weekend and I think I’ll feel a bit better when there are a few more things in the freezer. A few things are ready already, like my Christmas cake, which even if I do say so myself, looks fantastic. I’ve been trying to crystallize my own fruit to go on top (both me and G have a violent aversion to marzipan). I’ve had oranges, lemons and apple soaking in sugar syrup for a couple of days and it just needs to drain a bit now. The good thing is people don’t actually have to eat it, it only has to look edible.
I’ve finally managed to do something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, which is to import my old blog into this one. I was having a bit of trouble getting things to work properly but seem to have managed it now. So anything before August 2006 was originally written on Abraxas. I’m a bit surprised to see that this means I’m coming up for 7 years of blogging, crikey, that’s a lot of waffle.
The Barn Owl was back this morning searching for a bit of breakfast. I tried to get a photo but didn’t do too well. Believe it or not this blur is a Barn Owl. If you want to see a good picture of one try these fantastic photos by Nigel Pye on flickr.
I might have better luck getting a snap of the buzzard or one of the garden birds, at least they are around in full daylight which helps.
I think I’ve either got a bad camera or a bad owl.
