New year coming up

September always feels like the start of a new year - too much time spent inside the education system - so I'm still in planning mode even though I am now back in Leeds.
And more so because I have finished Diz's door hanging! - the pictures are on the quilting page. 
As I've done nothing but sew all week to yesterday lunchtime, that's it for this week. (Had lunch outdoors on Ilkley Moor, and no hat on, in the rain today - it was delicious and not at all waterlogged.)

Writing from Reading

Today is quintessential summer.  Too hot, Susan pottering around the garden, flip, flop,flip, splash, weedkilling with salt, boiling water and disapproval, Pete fixing something with bleach and a hammer while I sit in the shade with a long drink and a pot of olives, planning what I will do when I'm at home and so in a position to fail to do it.
Angel has half decided she likes it here:

We saw a deer here the day before when I didn't have a camera

 There is nothing like a paddle on a hot day.

The playground is always worth a visit

I know we haven't been this way before but keep up and I'll look after you

Big bird far away.

Post card from Boggle Hole

Lovely weather.  Good food. Glad to be here.

Old skills come in handy and a confession

• Washing a hair brush
• Rolling a cigarette
• Yoga breath

I was taught how to wash a hairbrush and comb in Domestic Science. It came back to me today when I was washing the Roomba's brush - beat the surface of the water with the brush and it fetches the stuff out of the base of the bristles.  Does anybody do Domestic Science anymore and are they taught how to make tea and toast and to iron a shirt?

Cig rolling was learnt at my Dad's knee.  Years of watching him have paid off though I still can't roll with the gummy edge facing me or garden with the cig stuck to my bottom lip.

And the yoga breath was recalled by Diz when I restarted going to yoga.  She still uses it to screw  the tops off new jars.(As do I - it's obvious when you think about it but we never did until Fleck told us!)

And now for something completely different:



Don't they look smug.  There are more on Biblioddysey

My favourite cookbook is a Good Housekeeping from the fifties.  I got the jam recipe from there - it is certainly from a different time, it talks of not having enough sugar.

As for the confession - I'm a self publisher.  No, not a self publicist, though I may be that too. I've been putting my poems onto Kindle for three months now.  There's stuff I've not thrown away since the 70s and I'm not claiming it's good.  That's why the writer is Jane Newall, my Dad's grandma who he could not stand.  There's 3 booklets so far and about 3 more to go. 



They say getting it off your chest is good for your stomache.  Now I'm going for breakfast.





Spurn Point Artist In Residence 2012: residency number two

Spurn Point Artist In Residence 2012: residency number two: I got this site from the Fat Quarter and chose this one as a lead in to the blog because it shows how she works.

More pictures than words

I'm bored with thinking about food now but this is what I ate:

 And I played with Paint.NET

And watched the pigeons:

 And waited for the no. 1 to make up it's time:

 And saw a peacock:

and sewed, but I can't show that because it's a surprise for Diz.

Unfinished post

Today I am better organised.  Honest!
The Sicilian cooking went OK. The pork and pasta was disappointing - maybe cos I had no penne so I used the bows.  It was tasty enough the first day but the mint flavour didn't last and I was fed up of it by Friday.  It isn't the most attractive dish ever, either:

The aubergine capanata I'd had before.  It was why I wanted to try Sicilain - it was as good as expected and the taste lasted well too.  This version had pear and sugar in - the pear was a good addition but I don't think I'll put sugar in next time:

This week is Japanese:

Chicken and egg rice bowl and peas with ginger was today's and it was tasty:

I'm going to do smaller portions this week, cos fresh cooked is tastier, even if it is more faff.  So to come is

• Okinawan slow cooked pork , beans with sesame dressing and miso ramen
• crab, cucumber and wakame salad and carrots cooked in dashi
• simmered chicken meatballs and wakatake
• miso soup with carrots and mushroom and cucumber and shitake salad

It was my first trip back to Beeston in Bloom on Saturday.  There weren't many there but it was very pleasant company

and me.

We got the long borders tidied up:

 And the other thing I wanted to say more about was the sewing. 



The book I got the tambour idea from is:
The cover is gorgeous and is done in chain which is where the tambour hook comes in.