snowdrift

Recent projects

snowcat — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 19:20:26 +0000

There is always a big list in my head of things I want to make. I’m doing quite well at the moment and have been able to produce quite a few things of late, mostly sewing projects that I really should get round to taking some pictures of;

mats for our bedside table made from offcuts from the lovely Sanderson fabric that made our bedroom curtains
trousers and shorts for the boys made out of t-shirts from charity shops
birthday bunting

Micro Herbs

snowcat — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:11:53 +0000

This is a new one on me, but Raymond Blanc has just been cooking with micro herbs. They are basically just sprouted herbs (but grown vertically), so shouldn’t be too hard to grow at home. According to M Blanc the flavour is much stronger, and they happen to look quite sweet too.

How a 3 year old has educated me about F1

snowcat — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 19:53:46 +0000

Formula 1 is the one sport I have never liked, understood or endured watching. I’ve always thought that to label it as a sport is debatable. It is an obscene waste of money, it is an appalling waste of petrol and other resources, dominated by brash advertising and it is noisy. So I’d always turned it off whenever cropped up on the telly.

About a year ago Ifor spotted some F1 on the TV and became instantly hooked. It isn’t hard to see why a little boy would be fascinated by racing cars, but in letting him watch occasional bits of Grand Prix, usually just the highlights, I’ve actually started to understand a bit of what is going on myself. Ifor doesn’t quite get who he is watching as the cars whizz round but he does listen to the commentary and will ask what’s going on, so I have to take note to give a half decent answer. The result of all this is that this weekend I found myself yelling at the TV in the final moments of the Shanghai Grand Prix as Mark Webber overtook Jenson Button.

And back again…

snowcat — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 22:25:00 +0000

Not that I have had a particularly productive year off on the blog front, there or here. G on the other hand has really taken to blogging over the past year and has been doing a good job keeping jonesnow.org going over the past year.

On hiatus

snowcat — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:32:22 +0000

We’ve changed our home site and photos and now have a blog there too. So from now on I’ll be posting at jonesnow.org and snowdrift will be on hiatus.

Frugal week

snowcat — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:57:46 +0000

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.

Big project

snowcat — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:14:42 +0000

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.

Easter on Dartmoor

snowcat — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 11:19:45 +0000

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.

Wildlife update

snowcat — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:07:30 +0000

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.

Needle felting

snowcat — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 10:42:06 +0000

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.