Pudding, Cake, Surprise, Cake, Pudding.

It's going to be a busy day for photos today.

First up, pudding. What to make when you have loads of plums in the garden and a scrap of puff pastry left in the fridge? My version of Tarte Tatin. OK, so it's not made with apples and the purists will be aghast, but it tasted pretty damn fine to me!


Next, cake. What to make when you still have loads of plums? Nigel Slater's (if you don't own a copy of this book, I suggest you get one now!) Really Moist Fresh Plum Cake. This is a doddle to make and was delicious - the photo just does not do it justice. More please!


Ah, now onto the Surprise. This is exciting, really exciting. David (aka Mr Stressy) entered a competition with New Zealand Wines before we went on holiday. On our return, he had a letter saying Congratulations, you've won! We ignored it, passing it off as one of those Reader's Digest type circulars (which is what it looked like). But we checked it out, and indeed it was genuine!

The prize? Sadly not a return flight for 2 to New Zealand (or better still a single flight for 1 Mr Stressy!) But 36 bottles of wine!!!! And not just that, a fridge freezer to put them all in too (priced at £937!!). The wine has arrived, no fridge yet, but never mind, Mr Stressy has turned into Mr Sozzled-and-doesn't-give-a-hoot. It's hard work but we're trying to get through this lot... party round here anyone!


More cake now. Golden Wedding cake.


And last but by no means least, Saturday Pudding. Nigel Slater's trifle - made with blackcurrants, mascarpone, cream, cake and all things delicious. I can hardly wait to get my teeth into this one! (We're off to mum and dad's tomorrow so it's actually going there - Sunday pudding instead.)


Back to blanket news tomorrow - it's not too late to join in the fun!

Holiday Knitting

I said I'd let you see the knitting I did on holiday, so here it is. The theme this year was socks!


This pair were started ages ago - Lise from Montreal sent the yarn as a present. It's Handmaiden (I think) Somoko and is wonderful yarn to knit with. It seems really strong so should be hard wearing for socks - very thick too, so these will be my football pair, anticipating the many hours spent at the sides of football pitches in the cold! I'll have enough yarn left over to make a rib at the top, stop them rolling down and making them a bit longer too!


Here's the first Diamond Patch Sock. And I LOVE IT!!!!! When I get round to making the other one, they are going to be mum's Christmas present. It will be a wrench giving them away I can tell you. Posh Yarn Sophia is so beautiful - this yarn was left over from Tipsy. How can you have so much 'left over' Sophia? I must have been very greedy!

And that marks the end of my holiday knitting (apart from the blanket). Didn't get as much done as I'd hoped - why do my family always need feeding? - but at least there was some progress.

As to the blanket (details here and here), it has started on its country-wide visit. Do you want to know when it's coming to you or just leave it as a surprise? I have 7 people on my list and could do with a few more - anyone else willing to join in?

Knitting For St Dunstan's

And we've started!


Many thanks to everyone who has volunteered to knit a bit of the blanket or knit me a square or 2. I have great hopes for these blankets - hoping in particular that there will be 2 of them! I have started on the stripey blanket and this will now be winging its way to the first person on the list.

There are just a few points to note:-

1. Please use double knitting weight and machine washable yarn (I used one 50g ball superwash merino)
   
2. I've got 180 stitches on and am using 3.75mm needles (these will stay with the knitting)
   
3. Once the blanket has arrived at your house, please try and send it to the next person within 2 weeks
   
4. Use any stitch or style of knitting - garter stitch to fair isle and anything inbetween
5. If knitting squares, use sock weight or double knitting, make them 4" square and e-mail me for my address so you know where to send them.
6. Anyone knitting for this will get a ticket for a raffle prize - unknown at present. Maybe something from The stashbasket or the kitchen or Ally Pally
   

If you have volunteered for the stripey blanket, please let me have your address so I know where to send it to -Marie-France and Sue - where are you?!

Once it is a reasonable knee-blanket size, I will put an edging on it. Good luck and get the needles clicking!

Pictures

Just before we went away, this incredible picture arrived for me. The truly splendiferous WMK sent it for me (she's nice like that!). You can't see the detail so well on the photo, nor the subtlety of the colours, but just believe me, it's quite beautiful. She had it painted for me and has included lots of little things to do with me (spot the chocolate cake, yarn, chef's hat and knitting needles to name a few). There are words on there that WMK associates with me - but I'm far too modest to tell you those! It is quite the most lovely thing ever and I just adore it.

Thank-you so much WMK. You made me smile for a very long time!

xx

Upstairs along what we loosely call a 'landing' (actually long corridor!) I have a Rogue's Gallery. This is made up of lots of group pictures - David's Squadron from Army Days, my junior school class, my grandparent's wedding, the boy's class photos etc etc. Anyway, mum found this photo and thought it should be in our gallery - my Dad's in there (tall one, smiling, back row) during his National Service days. It's not a big photo, less than 6" x 11", so I took it into the framer's today to get a quote.



I nearly collapsed on the spot. £58.75!!!!!!! I asked how the man could justify that expense - his hourly rate must be about £50. He explained there was a lot of work involved (really? doing what?)

Very politely I told him to get stuffed, phoned up another framer, had a quote for £17 and have sent it away.

So the one from WMK will be following soon when I can bear to drag myself away from the glorious colours.

Holidays and Precipitation

The first few days of our holiday were spent in North Wales. It rained a bit, but then it always does, so we had gone prepared to enjoy a chilly day out on Barmouth Beach. It wasn't that bad though really, my mother-in-law being brave enough to go barefoot!

It had rained a lot before we went though, which gave the advantage of all the streams and rivers being very full. I have never seen this particular stream so full at this time of year. I sat in the sunshine and did a spot of knitting here. Perfect, just perfect (the children had gone fishing with David, so it was very peaceful and tranquil).


After a few days in Wales, we moved to North Yorkshire. This is another place renowned for its damp weather conditions. We did not, however, realise just how damp!

Day 1 was raining so we went to the Sealife Centre at Scarborough. Paid £3 for the pay-and-display car park then later got stung with a parking ticket for not having displayed it correctly! Drove wrong way down a one way street too, so currently awaiting another traffic violation ticket in the post. The sun made a brief appearance. This memorable photo shows a shadow. Not seen again all holiday.

Day 2 was raining so we went to York. Great place. Great shops (yes Warren, I went to Sheepish but didn't buy any yarn!!!!) What lovely people run that shop. I want to work there.

Day 3 was raining so we went for a drive to see the countryside. Do not be fooled by the fluffy white clouds on the right, the ones on the left were very dark and gloomy and soon deposited their contents on us.

Day 4 was raining so we went into the nearest town, found a toy shop, bought Monopoly and a pack of cards. Played Monopoly and cards all day.

Day 5 was cloudy but not raining, so we headed off to the beach (this is Whitby) (I think, forgive me, my brain has turned to mush). Managed half an hour on the beach before a truly wonderful thunderstorm arrived. Might as well have just gone swimming in all my clothes.

Day 6 was supposed to be reasonable weather all day, so we set off for a nice bracing walk round The Hole of Horcum. We guessed it was about a 6 -7 mile round trip, heading deep into this valley, along the bottom and up the sides to stroll along the moors amongst the heather. We had been informed it would take about 3 hours and was beautiful. So off we set. Youngest son slipped in the mud and fell over half way round. Very muddy. Husband swore and cursed. I laughed. Then I fell over and laughed even louder. More mud on arse than I thought humanly possible! (Soaked through trousers and pants!)

Beautiful scenery. Whilst admiring scenery, happened to look at sky. Bugger. Black. It rained like it had not rained all week. Torrential. Hail stones. Thunder, luckily no lightning (no trees to attract stray bolts of lightning, just 4 idiots walking on the moors). Returned to the car after 4 hours - obviously slow walkers - very wet and cold.

Day 7 was our day to leave. The sun was shining. It was warm. The few clouds in the sky were pretty and white and fluffy. Bloody typical.

Knitting and blanket news tomorrow, when my temper has improved and my clothes have dried out! (Oh, and am I the only one obsessed by this song? Bonkers, and I love it!)

Holidays and an idea...

Tomorrow we're going off on our holidays - yippee!!! Yesterday we went to London - another yippee! I love London! Took the boys to HMS Belfast - which if you've never been is the most fantastic place to take difficult-to-please children. 9 decks to explore of this wonderful battleship. Not everyone's cup of tea I realise, but perfect for 8 and 13 year old boys. This is just a brief paragraph because I need to get onto my idea.

Remember ages ago I suggested the Rugz 4 Kidz project that I'd read about? A blanket is knitted by loads of people using one ball of yarn each, the blanket is then given to needy children. Well I liked the idea of giving it to an older person who feels the winter cold so much more than our wee tiddlies. I have e-mailed so many places and have heard nothing from most people, several 'thanks but no thanks' and only one 'ooh yes please'. I was getting a little despondent but when I heard the yes, I was very excited, as it came from one of my favourite charities - one which is not very well known.

Saint Dunstan's is a charity which helps blind ex-service men and women. A very good friend and former work-colleague of ours has been helped so much by them. Can you imagine life without sight? It is a prospect which would fill me with horror.

It would be great to do some sort of fund-raising for them, but for now I'm quite happy to initiate this blanket. So how about it? Would you like to join in? I will start knitting, post it off to someone else who will knit a bit more, they then post it on to the next person and so on. I will just keep this to the UK due to postage and customs (they wouldn't be too happy at knitting needles sent in the post perhaps?). However, if you are abroad and wish to join in, how about knitting me some 4" squares like we did last last year for Oliver? More patchwork blankets?

Anyway, if you would like to join in with either project, please leave your details in the comment section. I will be away from the computer for 2 weeks now and it would be great to come home and find lots of people willing to help out. I will post more details on my return, but if you could possibly coerce someone else to join in then please send links out to the blogging universe.

Anyone willing to knit a couple of inches will be put into a raffle of some sort, likewise any knitted squares....

Please, please, please?

Added later - if you wanted to start making some 4" squares anyone, please do - use either sock weight or double knitting. I shall start the blanket while I'm away (it will be double knitting). I'm off to pack now - see you when I get back!