Away in a manger

 

As we do every year, we visited York Minster. A Minster is basically a Cathedral church with an Anglo Saxon foundation and the name refers to the Churches original monastery status. Well near enough. There are few Minsters in the UK and York is perhaps the best known. We go there to light candles at the children's chapel (one dedicated to St Nicholas!) Right by the Nativity scene, as you can see only the shepherds were there on the day we visited, the wise men are placed in later.

However on close inspection (eagle eyed son to thank for this one) we observe the adoration of the brachiosaur and cow. Joseph, its behind you.

Now a cow deserves to be there right? But a time travelling dino? Really? It made me smile any way.  The bishop has a rare twinkle in his eye and I could believe that he has encouraged some child to put it there and see what happens

I took a few more but their not so hot. This one shows the rose window and the huge advent crown.

This last one is of the first 14 kings of England. I know its an appalling photo but we love to see them and attempt to sing the Horrible Histories song to remember them in order. Yes were  strange family.

Happy New Year to all of you.

( even the anonymous person who left me a long comment detailing how crap my holly pattern was. God bless you dear. )

Slackblogger

Yep that's me. I have not given much thought to the art of blogging recently. I worried that I was getting all samey. Anyhoo I thought I’d drop by and do a catch up.

On the odd fine day we have been out and about. We went to Brimham rocks, just the other side of Harrogate. Have any of you been there? It was busy with all sorts of people we even came across a Goth wedding in the open-air.

It was a fantastic place to take a teen who is now too old for so many activities that he loved. Can’t think why we haven’t been before and will definitely be going back again.

 

On the hooky front I have been in one of my creative black holes. Well until this arrived from the US.

Fantastic or what!!! Well I just had to make something, its so soft and the colours are so yummy.

So, buoyed up by my cabling efforts I had a go at making this.

Big mistake, HUGE!! I got into such a pickle, It was awful. I made so many mistakes and had no idea how to put them right so I frogged the beggar and decided to stick to what I know.

Its a neck warmer. Not too bulky but cosy. I love the pattern, its quite like a knitted cable I think.

If you fancy a crack at it I found it on Ravelry here but I won’t lie to you I found it hard to start with and seriously rewrote the pattern but once I got away with it it flew. I think that they are going to be very on trend this winter.

I am off to relax a bit as its been eventful to say the least and has involved mousetraps and cheese. I am going to an important wedding anniversary party on Sunday with family from all over the place so I need to paint my fingers to match my toes.

Have a lovely weekend dear friends.

Lou

Happy days

First of all thank you all for your lovely comments and interest in my running. I really never thought it would be for me and to be honest I really do appreciate how lucky I am to be my age and still have relatively sound knees for running. I do have issues with one from an injury in 2005 but even that is being improved. I have repeated week 3 (run 90sec walk 90 sec run 3mins walk 3 mins times 2) because I just knew I would not be able to run for 5 mins which week 4 demands. I am also resting a day between runs which is sensible n’est pas?

The summer fair went ok and I sold a few of my wares, we had a natter. I made Alice flowers can you spot them?

 

This week I am mostly staying home while we have renovations to the house. We are spending a fortune on nasty plastic soffits and fascia's. Well I say nasty but it actually looks smart and dead right for the type of house we have. (Not listed or particularly old) So! The rotten and potentially leaking wood is gone and so is the bank account but hey!!

The only problem now is that the windows look tired.

Thanks also for the good words on the knitting. Maria says I am bi- stitchual!! I like that. I got cocky last night and attempted to cable a square that I thought I could send to Sue. Sorry Sue its not happening yet. I am off to you tube to find out where I am going wrong. I think the book I have bought is a bit pants. It couldn’t be me could it?

Been on you tube turns out I was not doing enough rows between cable stitches. Are you laughing at me?

That's how I learn. Do it wrong first then understand why the right way is the right way.

Royal wedding

 

What a great day

We decorated…….

No opportunity was missed for patriotism.

We had a feast and watched on tv.

The things in paper were asparagus frittata cooked in prosciutto ham cases. Mum made them from this recipe in good food magazine. Highly recommended to accompany fizz. We also had coronation chicken in lettuce cups, pork pie, quiche and sausage rolls. I stopped short of sandwiches but we were after traditional British party

Here is the fridge “ before”. Its nothing like that now.

A great family day in which we made memories and celebrated being together and Britishness

Easter

Some family traditions

Some time off to enjoy the sculpture park.

 

Highly recommended by the way. It was all free apart from £4 parking all day. Take a picnic. We were there all  morning and barely scratched the surface.

Tomorrow, how we celebrated the royal wedding.

Rewards for looking up

 

A Red Kite. They are very rare but I see them every day.

 

The rising moon

What you miss when you don’t look up in time. Four deer (2 had gone by then) only 2 visible as specks. They were so close but I panicked plus I was attempting to stop the dog from having Venison for breakfast.

 

Thankyou all for your comments left for Thomas. He really appreciated them and was heard to say “I’m like famous”. I believe this to be possitive teen speak.

 

Also I am so glad to have spread the news about the Sarah London granny appeal. I know that several of you have hooked up a few for down under. This is the beauty of blogging for me. I have found a voice!!!! What's more people listen. Lovely.

Thomas cook

I know he's only 13 but School has recently asked the kids to choose their technology subject for GCSE. Sounds ludicrous but it actually a good idea in that this subject and its 60% coursework will be out of the way before year 11. To that end Thomas has chosen Catering. We won’t know for sure if he's been successful for some time yet. However he is adamant. SO, new rule, Thomas makes Sunday dinner. We will do other things in the hols I’m sure but we started last night with a simple but mega cottage pie.

I have his permission to show and tell, so here he is. My hugely proud Son showing off the fruits of his work.

 

Now considering he was in a mood before we started I think it ended well. Apron helped a little.

The pie was tremendous, it was accompanied by carrot and Swede mash , peas and Yorkshire puddings.

For the love of pie

 

 

For a change from the usual roast Sunday dinner I decided to make pie. Primarily because my meat and tatties son will eat AND enjoy it. But its cheap and delish too. I (of course) learned to make it from my Mum as a child.

Careful caramelisation of the meat is essential for a rich brown colour.

Then onions are browned in the meaty pan.

Naturally I can do nothing kitchenwise without my constant friend. On hand in case anything gets loose.

Old speckled hen ale to scrape up the meaty bottom of the pan. I used half a can and topped up with homemade chicken stock. My husband uses all ale. The meat was dusted in flour before I started which acts as a thickening agent.

At this stage it went into the oven for 3 hours at 130 degrees. After that a shop bought puffed pastry lid went on and It cooked for maybe half an hour. I don’t remember exactly. I egg washed the top for a lovely golden colour. We had this with  Swede and carrot mash, roasty taties and Towering Yorkshire puddings, made by a genuine Yorkshire man. Mmmmm bliss. The Yorkshire man washed up too

Fog

     

Oh how I love it!!!!

From inside looking out it is safe and cosy.

 

I love the way that occasionally the sun starts to break through and that feels so positive, like anything can happen. I love the way that it creeps in, low and thick and spooky. I like to see it sit in the dips and low fields, the sun shining above.

Its a good job I do enjoy fog as we live on the very edge of the vale of York which is low and flat and fog collects there regularly, often not shifting for days. Now THAT feels claustrophobic but its not often. See, I even love that the geography of the area and the Science of fog let me see it often. If we had good thick snow on the ground I would love it even more.

 

I do however feel the need to explain  that my love of fog ends if either I or my loved ones have to drive in it or it is accompanied (as it was this morning) with ice. Which not even my hiking boots could cope with!!

Birthday weekend

Thank you all for the good wishes. I had a lovely time. We went to Whitby in the mist for some beach combing. I cant visit the beach that I don’t come home with pockets full of rocks and sea glass. I’ve been like that since I was a little girl. I used to bring stones for my Grampy to polish in his tumbler.  

It does look grim but we had fish and chips and then came home via a farm shop and afternoon tea. Back to the grindstone now though. Have a good week.

Lou xx

For you Louise

You may remember that some time ago on a trip into York discovered a lady who had the idea to encourage as many people as possible to make scarves to be auctioned off to raise money for breast cancer care. Well my excellent and ultimately talented friend Louise volunteered to have a go with me. I have just returned home from a somewhat manic trip back to York to hand them over. This is their journey.

sorry I cant rotate it!!!!

Arrived Tuesday Lunch time.

Nicely wrapped and a pressie for me!!!

 

Had a little rest

 

Into the car Thursday morning, safety first.

 

This is Monk bar, imagine it years ago with severed heads on pikes. There are many of these around the walls.

  Here are the walls. I am showing you them because the original challenge was to make enough scarves to go around the walls.

I doubt that they would actually lay them out on the walls but I wanted ours to have a photo shoot on them. The photo is pants but I had to do it quick to avoid being seen  and pronounced a nutter!!!

Off into town (nearly there)

   This is a very famous street (not a commentary on my life)

It is said that it is possible to shake hands across the street from the upstairs windows. It is also home of…….

 Ramshambles!!

Here they are !!  Also pants photo but by now I was very aware of  how nerdy I was being. A lady came in and just handed over her scarves without a word. I however insisted in taking photos and generally making a spectacle. Hey who cares!!

 

They said that they have hundreds and here are a few. The shop owner loved them.

I am going to keep in touch with the organiser and see what happens.

 

So, Louise what do you think? Are you pleased? What a lovely challenge  and such fun.  

My lovely neighbour has made me a birthday cake so I am going to have a bit now. Happy Thursday