April Fool's Day..

It was my birthday last Tuesday. April Fool's Day. I've always felt this is pretty appropriate as one way or another I tend to feel foolish most of the time.. As the years go by, birthdays don't seem to take on the same significance as they did when we are children and you tend to want to forget that you are a year older! ...now that's something you didn't regret when you were a kid!!

But birthdays are always a reminder that I have some good friends out there, even if they are across the country or the other side of the world and this I appreciate very much. Thankyou, obrigada, arigato to those above and to others whose photos I don't have readily to post.

cupcakes and sweet things...

Hey there folks! It's been a while....I've been spurred on to write by the news that my friends Ikue and Nei have had a little baby boy called Kaito on March 28th. She sent me some photos yesterday and he is truly a beautiful little boy, you just know that he's going to make them both so happy...so congratulations to you both..Just one more reason to start saving again for a Japanese visit!

The weathers been lovely the last week and I've been forced to make a detour on the usual morning walks with Nas due to the farmer ploughing his fields. This is probably a good thing as it's meant we've seen a different route and daft as it sounds I'm often wondering if Nas is 'bovvered or bored' by the same old walk every day..I'd like to venture further afield on the routes that Dad uses, he seems to know all the public footpaths round here, but when I'm on my own I guess I'm more cautious..

These tulips were my donation to Mother's day although that seems a long time ago now, but they looked bright and cheerful for a while. Tulips may well be my favourite flower.

Since last posting, I've made a few batches of cupcakes from Nigella's recipe. They seem to have turned out quite well and taste quite light. For Easter I'd made some pretty rich chocolate butter cream and put mini eggs on...yum! Yesterday, there was a lime that needed using so the juice of this and some poppyseeds went into the mixture and then royal icing on top, after photographing these I couldn't resist one!

It's been an odd few weeks, lots of things seemed to have happened or not happened. I've still not been able to start the job due to a reference not being received yet...but have been in Oxfam twice a week and enjoying that...mum came down with a nasty D & V bug which laid her up in bed for a while...Dad's been aching all over the place and sold his beloved AJS motorbike as he doesn't have the strength to kick start it anymore. My sister Jo came down for a couple of days last week, and a lovely cardy for my birthday, and I met up with Liv after a long while and we saw a film and caught up with life, the universe, and everything... She's about 6 months pregnant now and finding it tiring to walk , bless her.

On my birthday we saw the film 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' adapted from the book dictated through blinking after the author had a massive stroke and lived with 'locked-in syndrome'. Set in a rehab hospital on the coast of Calais, it really showed his perspective and the frustrations he felt, and the extraordinary task he took on of writing the book through his only form of communication, blinking with one eye. After a while he found some kind of consolation within him that he could now do anything with his imagination and could live through this if not through his body. It was a really inventive and beautifully shot film, and nearly had me on the verge several times. Sadly, the author died several days after the book was published. I'm just reading it now and is very readable.

Saturday at Shipp's..

Keep meaning to post these photos from Shipp's Tea room on the edge of Borough Market, where we met for a pre-mother's day get-together. Above are sister Jo and partner Stu enjoying some tea, think we'd consumed the sarnies, scones and cakes by this time!

I'd read about the shop on another blog and mum thought it sounded like a place we MUST check out! We probably reached it by the most convoluted route and not expecting it to be practically in the market, luckily, Jo and Stu had already found a table and we were able to park ourselves just before it started to get really busy. There was a cosy ambience, lots of vintage teacups hanging from the ceiling, chanderliers, big mirrors, embroidered tablecloths and old teapots and the cakes, scones, sarnies and tea were all very tasty. I tried the green jasmine tea (always partial to a bit of Jasmine) and a vanilla cupcake.

We then had a wander through Portobello Market and through to the Regent's canal starting off near the Trellick Tower. Stu had picked a walk for us from a London walks book and the plan was to walk to Primrose Hill via the canal, unfortunately, we left it a bit too late in the day and made it as far as St Johns Wood all a tad tired, but it was a nice walk and we saw some London we hadn't seen before.

Started volunteering at our local Oxfam shop yesterday which was really enjoyable. Despite the pretty horrendous weather a few customers ventured in, more than I'd expected. It was a high to start the week and have rapidly hit a low...

Luckily have a new project on the go, or several. Started a dusky pink beret from the Sarah Dallas book. This just uses one ball of Rowan 4-ply soft, a 100% merino wool. It's really nice to use and although I'm not much of a one for hats, believing I look like a fool in any hat atire, I'm secretly hoping that this might look half decent! If not, it'll be another present.

My other project is the wall hanging with pockets for Liv, to go in Myles' bedroom. Last week, I started the embroidering of the days of the week on each pocket..and have been putting off the more difficult prospect of sewing or felting animals on, can't quite work out the best way to do this. Mum seemed to like the needle wrap, I'm pleased to have managed something mediumish on the sewing machine..it's been a personal challenge fulfilled..

made some scones this morning...the weather keeps changing, but at least the wind has died down.. take care ...

What's new pussycats?

Hello again, it's been a while...I keep meaning to take photos of finished projects (Parisienne shawl..yes,finally finished!) and the tulips for Mother's Day but in the words of Austin Power's, have lost my 'mojo' somewhere! Anyway, this may be a somewhat rambling, disjointed post.

Don't you love this guy's pink hair? It reminds me of one of my favourite books 'Fruits', a book of photos taken in the Harajuku area of Tokyo, where young people break out of the conservatism of Japan and go totally creative and crazy with fashion and individuality. Ironically, Britain is far more conservative in the way we dress and conduct ourselves. There is something truly refreshing about the individual way people dress over there..and I often miss the sense of freedom I felt to be myself and not constrained by what is and isn't appropriate to wear etc in England , solely due, I guess to the limitations I give myself and which society does also. I guess I'm just not that brave...

Speaking of Japan, Monty Don was there for his last programme in his '80 great gardens of the world' series. We have been glued to this, not only for the beautiful and innovative gardens and use of space but for Monty himself, who appears really enthusiastic, visiting countries for the first time. Saw the book of the series this morning and it's gorgeous..something to go on my eternal wishlist for a while!

We took part in filling a few shoeboxes for a Romanian charity 'Link Romania' based in Worthing, this Christmas, a friend who lives nearby organises the distribution of leaflets and is our drop off point for boxes. These are then sent to the depot in Sussex and a trip was made to distribute them in December. Some photos of the trip have just reached us via our friend and were extremely sobering stuff to say the least. The main area they concentrate on is a place called Iasi. There is a large shanty town there with a majority of Roma residents and the living conditions for these people are truly terrible..but somehow they get on with their lives and try to make the best of it as they can. There was also photos of the local soup kitchen where children have two sittings followed by adults. Another showed the homeless young men who live under the broken pavements in the city, but on a brighter note also at the farm which the charity has helped to fund where young adults learn farming skills in a supportive and caring environment. You can really appreciate the significance for them to receive these boxes from England. These were 3 purses I made for the boxes..maybe they helped a tiny bit to brighten up someone's day. It's a great charity.

Meet my lovely, crazy friend...

Ikue! and the first person to leave a comment on the blog, so those gloves will be on the way to Japan very soon! I hope she'll forgive me posting these pictures! Shirlei (her mother in law) was very concerned that Ikue should have some colour on her lips before we left for the city!

Ikue is pregnant at the moment and is expecting Boo's arrival towards the end of March..very exciting! I'm pretty glad that she will have had Boo before the weather turns really hot over there. I received a lovely email from her today with lots of news and it made me feel very close to her, she always has wise advice to give. Thankyou Iku...

Mum is on a 'knitting bags' workshop today at Purl & Co in town, I'll look forward to seeing her efforts later. It's been a fairly domestic morning for me, making poppyseed bread and leek and potato soup...and trying to stop myself from nibbling on the carrot cake made the other day from the Rose bakery book 'Breakfast, Lunch, Tea'. This book comes much recommended, not only for the fantastic photography which makes you want to nip over to Paris straight away but also for the pretty simple and straightforward recipes. We've had some success so far with date scones, shortbread biscuits, orange and choc ricotta tart and now the carrot cake. It is really moist and the icing not too sweet..yum.

A special day with friends..

Hello again..it's lovely and bright outside although pretty nippy when the hound and myself took our daily constitutional! I was taking more notice of Nas and his sniffing habits this morning due to being in the middle of reading Paul Auster's Timbuktu. The story concerns a dog, Mr Bones and his owner Willy G. Christmas who is preparing for his death and trying to find an old friend to leave Mr Bones with. Mum bought the book primarily because the dog on the cover is the spit of Nas, but it's also turned out to be a really good read. The section I'm reading right now is about Willy being fascinated by the dog's sense of smell and how important it is to a dog. Nas is a great sniffer too....

Well, the shawl was finally finished last night...phew. I'll post a picture soon. Currently knitting more mittens again with Louisa Harding's Kimono Angora in a mixture of pinks, purples and grey, very nice.. Also attempting to make a long, fabric wall hanging with pockets..a commission from Liv! She had seen it in a catalogue and wondered if I could do something similar. The next task is to find some coloured calico type fabric for the pockets..definately not a chore in my book!

These pictures are from a day in the summer of 2006 in Fukuoka city in Japan. It was an incredibly hot day..after a while in Japan, you tend to get used slightly to the humidity, but you never get over feeling like a drowned sweaty rat amongst lightly perspiring Japanese people! I have learnt the hard way that the only thing to wear is cotton shirts, even t shirts are too heat inducing!

My company on this day were Marli and Shirlei from Porto Alegre in Brazil. We were all in Japan to attend the wedding of my good friend Ikue and her fiancee Nei, who's mum is Shirlei. Marli is Shirlei's good friend. For nearly 2 weeks we lived together in the apartment that Nei and Ikue would live in after their marriage, while they stayed with her family. This was a fantastic time, these two ladies were so friendly and loving and we quickly became friends and helped each other to get by. For them, the country was quite a culture shock and I loved seeing Japan again through fresh eyes. I also found that my grasp of the language improved greatly through attempting to ask things for them. So today, I just want to say hello to those two special ladies and let them know that I miss them and am remembering them...

Glove giveaway!

I'd like to give these gloves away to the first person who leaves a comment on the blog. They are made from Rowan Kidsilk Aura (Mohair and silk) and feel really soft! The pattern is the old faithful Louisa Harding's gardening mitts.

So please feel free to write anything and I'll pop these in the post to you.

Nearly finished the Parisienne shawl! Quite exciting, just have one more round to go and then the edging. Have borrowed 2 Debbie Bliss books from the library, 'Home' has the 'jellybean' cushions pattern beloved by Jane Brocket of the Yarnstorm blog and the other has some baby and tiddler knits. This book has taken on much more significance since I had some fantastic news sprung on me the other night!

Liv casually passed me a picture when I was visiting on Tuesday, 'Here, have a look at this'. It looked suspiciously like a scan picture from the picture of the stork on the front! and yes, she's 4 months pregnant and actually has quite a bump although I hadn't noticed..doh! I'm so happy for her and Trev as they have been trying for a while. She said it's been so difficult keeping it a secret, especially at Christmas when she was feeling very sick. So, a July baby, plenty of time for knitting something then!