Two more days to our holiday

And so far I have ignored all the washing that needs to be done, all the things that need to be found and I have created a pile of books that will hopefully sustain, educate and amuse me whilst I am in Normandy for two weeks.

The former political studies student in me has been meaning to read Andrew Rawnsley's books on New Labour for ages so that got them onto the pile. The woman who struggles with weight in me was recommended "Fat Around the Middle", all I have to say is hmmm. Then I decided that some light relief was needed, so thank crunchie for Marian Keyes. And finally a little bit of murder courtesy of Nicola Upson.

Here's hoping I get beyond more than page 10 of any of them!

When all else fails, quilt

We bought a ooh la la fancy new iMac the other day. I love it. Although Toby is a tad miffed that it has to live on his desk, in his study. A bit rich, I mean I let him into my kitchen! Any how, everything was working fine until himself came home from work, got out his work laptop and, bear in mind I wasn't there so I cannot be completely sure, whilst he connected to the wifi "lots of things appeared on the Mac screen Kate". Suffice to say I now cannot get the flipping thing to connect to the wifi, I just get a greyed out AirPort symbol with an exclamation mark over the top. Praise be then for the 90 day tech support that comes with new macs, only I need to remember to phone them when I get back from doing some reverse shopping this morning.

Whilst struggling against these vague technical problems I have managed to make a fine quilt for baby Meaker.

I love it. And I particularly like this one square.....

It's the cheeky little yellow ducky, he just does it for me. There is a blue duck amongst some lime green ducks lower down the quilt but he's not quite as special as this little fella. Fingers crossed it is a hit with the Family Meaker.

Just too cute

These are my lovely dogs, Rufus and Rex.

After Toby, they are the biggest distractions in my life. Thought it was time that I shared them with you.

Not a completer finisher?

I started this blanket/throw for our bed over two years ago. Last night I finally finished it off, it was the pesky edging that seemed to take forever.


But I have to say that it was very pleasing last night to be snuggled up underneath it even if it has been one of those things that I have picked up, made a square, put it down for a while. But then for me that it is the total joy of crochet more than any of the other things that pretend to be good at. It doesn't matter if you start something with great gusto only to twig that it is going to take you a lot longer than you initially thought. All the time there is space in this cottage there will be piles of unfinished crochet.

Calorie Free

I needed to take a break from the picot squares today. It feels as though I have only managed to make two all week which, if true, is completely dismal. So I decided that a little break was needed and I sat myself down at the kitchen table with Curls of Sunshine crocheted cupcakes recipe, the opening World Cup match on the TV and one match later my first crochet cupcake was made.

I have long lusted over some knitted or crocheted cakes to sit on my cake stands when there is no real cake for them and I have also wanted to master the art of amigurumi. So this seemed like the perfect project for this afternoon. It was undeniably satisfying to have something made so quickly, I think that I might have to make another during this evening's World Cup match - red wine dependent that is.

Family Fantastic

I often contemplate that fact that I never chose my family and, as far as I know, Toby certainly didn't chose his either, so it is always so great when you really enjoy time with your family.

Tomorrow is the 40th birthday of one of my brother in laws, so we offered to take him to The Fat Duck as his present. A precedent was set early this year by my mother in law that may be we would like experiences rather than presents, the theory being that as we get older we have all the material things that we need but what we are lacking in is experiences, be they new and exciting or tried and tested. So my 'I wish she was my' sister in law had a financial contribution towards inversion therapy (I have no idea but she said it was great), we took the mum/mother in law to a restaurant that she had not been to since before dad/father in law had died, and yesterday we took Jont to The Fat Duck. Although I have to admit I still like presents and am not about to ask for an experience. When my birthday rocks round I would still like to have pretty parcels to unwrap!

But I had thought about us taking the brother/brother in law to The Fat Duck about a year ago. I remembered seeing one of Heston Blumenthal's cookery books on his Christmakkah wish list and I thought 'now there's an idea for his 40th'. It's not the kind of place that you would rock up to on your own and it is such a special place that it really is befitting of a very special treat. It was so smashing to witness his excitement and enthusiasm, from the night before "I am excited" text message to his beaming face at each and every sensational course that I think it really was a quintessential birthday experience. And it was fun to share that with him.

Then today one of my Aunts and Uncles came to visit. I always joke that Uncle Reggie is 'my favourite Uncle', but I think that he could well be. He is different to my Dad and his other two brothers. My Mum often says that he is more like my Dad's mum, Nanny, who died far too long ago and far too soon. But I think that there is something a little softer about him, I used to think that he cared more but is doing a disservice to the other siblings. I think that he just is a little more emotionally honest if that makes sense. Anyway, they both are keen photographers and Aunty Penny took the photos at both of our weddings, so tomorrow they are spending the day photographing water voles in West Malling, well why not I guess. I haven't seen them for literally years and it was great to spend all day chatting, catching up and remembering why families are one of the most special things that we have.

It is so easy to be dismissive and distant with relatives, but the last two days have really made me happy and proud of the family that I was both born into and then chose to marry into.

Lost for words

Fear not, nothing major.

Sometimes I find it really hard to think of titles for posts, it's a bit like the subject line of an email to a friend. You want it to mean something, yet at the same time not be too over the top. And that lack of inspiration could almost put a girl off posting.

Today I am making my first loaf of bread in the Aga. It has already been a bit of a morning of firsts as I have made my first ever cookies! They are called 'amdolo cookies' and I found the recipe in Lucy Young's "Secrets of Aga Cakes". I think that I might need to cook them for a little less time when I next make them, but then the beastly Aga wasn't quite up to full steam this morning, it's just too pigging hot to have it cranked right up (and the plan to to turn it off all together but the gas hob on the module bit doesn't currently work, yet another chapter in my very own 'Aga saga') so I think I did quite well to cook them at all.

Currently my dough is in it's first phase of resting. I am being very anal and timing each rest period perfectly. This is not pleasing the dawgs as my leaping up periodically to full the instructions is seriously affecting their afternoon nap in front of the Aga. Oh well.

p.s. loaf snap to follow......

Everythings coming up roses

What a difference a bit of sunshine makes. Everything in the jardin looks so healthy and the roses are starting to appear, a clear sign that it's all getting a bit better. I have a rose dilemma though. Do I leave them on the bush, so that their wonderful fragrance fills my nose whenever I walk by, or do I cut them and have them inside the cottage? We have had to massively prune seven of our bushes this year as they needed moving to another part of the garden to make way for Toby's "Operation Lawn", so there is not much chance that they will bloom at all this summer, meaning those that were spared the haircut will have to work harder. So this makes me think that I should leave them in the garden, at least for now.

The sun also made me decamp to the garden, put my feet up and dig out something from the HUGE pile of unfinished business. These picot squares (I think that is the technical term for them) are going to be a table runner. I started them the month that Shula and Dan returned from travelling round the world. I know this because I took the blue yarn to London on the train the evening we went to their welcome back drinks. I also remember trying to convince a friend that they were really easy to stitch. I think that they are, she thinks that they are the most complicated thing that she has ever seen.

I am really good at believing that I cannot do anything well, hence badly made with love, but what I am slowly starting to realise is that we all have talent, talent for different things. As much as I like to pretend I don't, I know that really I do have a talent for a bit of cooking (made a bloody amazing quiche today, the pastry is spot on) and I can crochet quite well. Thing is I cannot knit, I am not a great sewer and I cannot paint. I wish that I could knit, sew and paint. But because I cannot do those three things I think that I am no good at the things that I can do. Why do I do that?

Springtime inspiration

I meant to post this months ago, although I have been meaning to post many many times and I have had lots of ridiculous reasons for why I have not. I told myself that Toby's camera wasn't user friendly enough for me to upload my snaps from, stupid, stupid reason. Anyway, I treated myself to a new snapper (a lovely little Panasonic Lumix jobbie) and I have found more reasons to snap and it is easier to upload. Here's hoping that it leads to a resurgence in my blogging - my friend, Anna, was very vocal about my lack of posts over the weekend.

Anyway, we used to have this funny little tree in the garden. It blossomed every year since we moved in but never seemed to do anything else. The bloom would fade away leaving a nondescript green lanky sort of tree. But when the blossom was out it was really rather pretty and it always would make me want to find some yarn or fabric that would do it justice if I was to make something, so far no luck and now the tree is gone, victim to some tree eating nasty.

Right, time to write this fortnight's pub quiz for the lovely people at The Greyhound. I need six rounds and so far I can only think of a Eurovision round (incidentally, what a dull show it was this year. Clearly it is the year of the ballad in Eurovision land), a cup of tea might provide some inspiration.....I hope