News and a puzzle to me

Christmas preparations in this house don't real commence until after Adam's birthday tomorrow. Though he won't be here, we had a visit from him and his wife at the weekend, nothing much has been done towards Christmas, except the cake is cooking very slowly at Gas mark 1. For a couple of days the fruit has been soaking in the brandy, (Zoe, I didn't check the brandy was okay, as my understanding is that brandy lasts forever), so this afternoon I weighed and measured, mixed and put cake into tin, as usual Ian had wrapped the outside in newspaper, he's a dab hand with the knots.

Here's the adding black treacle stage, after the butter and sugar has been creamed together. The recipe came from my Stork book of Home Cooking, acquired it in the sixth form at school, it has been used for many Christmas cakes and for my wedding cake too. Great source, there is a chart giving quantities for different sizes of tins, plus all the measurements are in imperial.

Ready to go in the oven now, then the best bit, bowl licking, although its not so good nowadays as the plastic scrapers mean the bowl is wiped clean!


Thinking about food, why do all events, meetings, gatherings etc. all assume that all participants need to have food and drink at all times? History Society, tea and coffee served beforehand; Ian had a rehearsal of the U3A choir, with the orchestra, so members were asked to bring cakes etc.; then at the concert, more food and drink. HIs painting group meets for just two hours, it seems much time is spent organising teas and coffees plus the washing up rota and remembering the tea towel along with the paints.  All knitting groups I have attended seem to require refreshments, yes one group meets in a community centre and by buying a coffee one is helping financially, fair enough. At the local archive where I am a volunteer, again one is encouraged to have a tea break, it is not as if we work a  full day, sometimes it is just a couple of hours on a project, in which case I feel obliged to make up the time I spent in the staff room knitting and drinking coffee.

All this shows I'm a three meals a day girl, in fact can smell supper cooking so will end on that note.

Thinking about things

Didn't mean to leave it this long to post some thoughts, but have been out and about doing things, like local studies volunteering, knitting group at local U3A, lunching with friends, including a former housemate visiting from Melbourne, reading group, plus routine domestic chores like climbing Mount Ironmore, a Mummy-and-Martha day in Town.

An overheard conversation in Oxford Street John Lewis on this occasion made us both crack up, we were in the furnishings department, a young guy with wife was heard to say in an exasperated voice "Oh no! Not cushions!" We wonder what cushions had done to him for him to be so against them.

It was on last Monday morning when I was off to Reading Group that problems with big diesel car started. Well, the car wouldn't start, horrible grinding noise. Abandoned big car and went in little petrol car to discuss the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, well we discussed for all of 10 minutes and spent the rest of time catching up on all the news. I suspect most Reading Groups are like this, especially so if they are held in members' homes, I've never been to any other but maybe there is much more analysis of the book in a library setting.

Our good family owned and run local garage collected the car, apparently the problem was the battery, which was replaced, additionally we asked for a service as the car hadn't had one for a while, like 15 months.  That is the conundrum. We don't drive it very far or that often so the battery, which supports all sorts of electronic whizzy gadgets, doesn't have a chance to really charge up, especially as much of our driving is in town traffic jams. We try to be greener, using public transport more, train journeys down to Dorset are less stressful than driving back in the dark and rain, but then not using the car for long journeys means they don't run so well. Nothing like a long steady run to clean the engine and charge the battery, especially so in a diesel car. Neither of our cars are new, little car is a N registration, big car is 04, but both are low mileage so no point in changing them for newer models. Two litre diesel is not a good town car choice, but in a previous life it was Ian's company car.

Other conundrums that could cause me to wonder; why does the road and pavement sweeper come just before the refuse collection so that all the rubbish that inevitably blows from our multitude of boxes is blown around for another week?

On that note, time for bed.

Kneller Girls

Life has been busy, it follows that blogging takes a back seat so a brief account of events last Saturday (2nd November) will serve a record.

Way back in August had a phone call from Hazel, a classmate who now resides in Bondi announcing she was coming to England again so would I arrange a gathering of Kneller Girls on her first Saturday here. It wasn't till I saw announcements of Rugby International dates that I realised that it would not be possible to meet up in the local pub as we did last time so dear Ian suggested we host a gathering here.

It is not the actual holding of an event that is wearisome, it is the correspondence, contacting people beforehand and awaiting responses. It has to be said that emailing has helped, it seems to encourage prompt replies. I have attempted to track down long lost members of our class, each reunion has seen new faces. This resulted in a girl, who whilst she couldn't attend, sent a list of the names of our form when we were equivalent of Year 9, along with photos. 

I'm not putting photos or names here from our gatherings, but we spent time attempting to identify the teachers in this picture, taken about 1960 - 61.

All went well on Saturday, we had plenty of food for I had taken an easy option and asked a local catering firm, Hampton Hampers to provide a buffet lunch. Really pleased I did, took all the worry and stress away for although we do have enough, even china plates, cutlery and napkins were included. 

Photographed before we removed the cling film, have used some of the cheese that wasn't eaten to make a quiche today. I think we may have slightly over ordered but I hope no one left hungry. 

Although I think I enjoyed the day, have said I won't organise again, but will ensure contact details are sent to everyone, certainly I don't want to lose touch, others have said the same. Must get on with updating address list, I am surprised how lacking I am in energy after this. Maybe because we don't entertain it was harder; we are so unused to having people, even family to stay, also I worry that it will be a disaster, or no one will come. Daft I know!

The back garden at Pixie Towers

For some time Ian and I have been pondering about our garden, a tidy up was needed,  rearranging possibly, some fresh thoughts on how it should look. We needed to ensure a little privacy but also ensure that the kitchen received as much light as possible, it's been made the darker by next door's ugly extension.

Looking down the garden, the ground below the non productive apricot tree is always dry however much rain we have for example, these trees block the light to the house.

The end needs a tidy up, to the right there are brambles, this year with few blackberries, in a small garden these beds don't add anything to the beauty.

This poor Fatsia Japonica is suffering from lack of light and space, apart from which we cannot pass it to reach the compost bins, to the right mini jungle comes to mind!

Fortunately for us, friends had recently had their garden redesigned, they were full of praise for Kingston Garden Services who carried out the work so we emailed them. We described our problems, added photographs and the next day had a call to make an appointment to look around. Notes were made on the printed out email, much helpful advice was given.  Once we received the quotation we accepted; yesterday was given as the date for the work. Was not to be, in a phone call on Monday we were asked if the work could be done the next day, Ian agreed so a very efficient team of three worked from 8am to 3pm, taking away three lorry loads of vegetation to be chipped and reused.

Work in progress, initially the guys used our mower, the very young lad had never seen a push along hand mower before although it wasn't quite up to it so their more powerful model was called into action.

 
The clear path now the plant has moved to the far left hand corner, the bare earth on the left is where there were dips in the ground so the grass should grow through, grass seed was added so if the pigeons don't eat it all we should  have a good quality lawn. The tiny birds haven't realised the new location of their feeders, given time they will so we can watch them from the kitchen window.

A view of the right hand side of the garden, there is newly laid turf as well where trees and bushes were moved or removed.

From a slightly different angle, looking a little more washed out here even though these three pictures were taken at the same time of day on Wednesday after the rain.

Finally, a view from first floor window, giving an idea of the end of the garden with the big table and bench on the paving, plus an aerial view of the grass growing through.

We intend to add more colour into the beds, at present the garden is fifty shades of green.

Fun afternoon

Today Ian and I decided we'd been indoors a little too much, it is so easy to stay at home, read, knit (me), study maths or paint (Ian) so we decided to take advantage of the dry afternoon and our Kew membership.

We were in for a treat, so rather than my attempts to describe the pumpkins and squashes and then the tea party by the glass house I will download the photos. to give an idea of the IncrEdibles Festival in these Gardens.

In the Waterlily House,is the Pumpkin Pyramid, four metres high with 75 different types, including one called Munchkin.

We could have purchased squashes or pumpkins, instead we bought eating apples, £1.00 for six, a Norfolk variety, grown in Berkshire and hadn't been sprayed.

Nothing could be removed from the table, all the china had been screwed firmly in place, likewise the chairs were fixed but useable.


After seeing all this we went into the Princess of Wales Conservatory, I took these two pictures of orchids, to commemorate keeping our three alive, I think through neglect and finding the right spot.

I forget that although Princess Diana opened this new conservatory it wasn't named for her but Augusta, Princess of Wales, a grand daughter of  George II.

Overload.

Walked into my sitting room/study/den/studio/bolt hole/spare bedroom after breakfast to find my collection of large format knitting books on the floor along with the Beaver and Tapley shelf. We hadn't heard them fall.

 The picture below shows the damaged wall caused by the fittings and the lower shelf, nothing was broken or damaged - just dusty.

Massive clear up assisted by James our Dyson, we made a joint executive decision that perhaps the books shouldn't return to these shelves so they have been moved  downstairs to the bookshelves in the hall. The photo albums meanwhile came upstairs to Ian's study/spare bedroom etc. as we have had A Clear Out. Just this morning Ian took a pile of books in his ex-company trolley bag to Kingston Oxfam bookshop where they were gift aided. It was fortunate for me there was Instant Expert Knitting by Ros Badger in the shop so he kindly bought it for me. Thank goodness it had a new safe home near the Vogue book.. 

In the afternoon Ian effected repairs, drilled, filled, painted so the two shelves can be filled up with treasures and stationery

The smaller format books remain on an adjoining shelf, below the new look.

For example the Art of Needlecraft by Polkinghorne (red lettering on spine) belonged to my mother, it has some beautiful, and sometimes unintentionally amusing, instructions for all forms of craft. The tea pot I bought for myself in Moscow, when I lived alone it was used, the paper weight with the old style British Airways logo dates from my days of working in BA offices in Victoria.

A lower shelf houses the scanner I bought with John Lewis Vouchers given to me when I left Book Data. The instructions were that I was to buy something for myself, not the family or home. Also I have my own printer a 6 year old lap top on which I'm composing this, Ian uses the all singing all dancing printer we bought when Martha was studying here. Mine is a Kiss model - (Keep it simple stupid!) 

Need to go and knit, have been enthused to keep on with hexipuffs, whilst sewing cardigan together and struggling with the wrap.

 More later .....sometime.

Florence and knitting

Life has been busy chez Pixie Towers so the blog has been neglected so a quick posting rather late as we went to a talk by Stephen Twining about Twinings and their link with Twickenham. I did say I'd continue writing about our Florentine holiday but that time has nearly passed but I will talk about knitting, especially whilst we were there.

My fears about taking my knitting through security checks at Gatwick were completely unfounded, maybe the wooden magic loop needles and the metal crochet hook secreted in a ball of wool didn't show on the x-ray but I was able to knit on the plane both ways. By the time we returned I had made nine hexipuffs, I knitted whilst queuing to go into the Cathedral, whilst having coffees and in other odd moments. One of these opportunities was when Ian climbed Brunelleschi's Dome, (I knew I would never manage over 400 steps, sometimes climbing one floor of a building is enough) so I sat in the courtyard of the ticket office courtyard and worked on a hexipuff. Inevitably I was joined on the bench, a lady spoke to me, she and her husband were from Philadelphia, but she was keen to stress her father was from Florence, they were driving north to visit family whilst in Italy.

Once rested they moved on, I knitted and people watched, a tall  young guy came to sit down, then asked me if that wallet was mine. I hadn't noticed a wallet at the other end of the bench, so I told him it wasn't mine but I knew whose it was. I popped it into my linen knitting bag, went to the ticket desk and asked if they handled lost property, they didn't want to know, I went outside, checked the queues and crowds for the Cathedral and the Baptistry. No sign of the lady in the red top and her husband with the walking stick, also by this time I was concerned Ian would return and panic if I had gone missing from that bench.

He did return shortly, I told him what had happened, we opened the wallet using the bag as cover, there were credit cards, driver's licence giving a Philadelphia address, cash and best of all, a paper holder bearing the name of a hotel. Briefly, Ian and I had another look around for the couple before returning to our hotel so they could locate Hotel Ambassador. Fortunately it was near ours, but the couple, C and J were in a partner hotel also nearer so we walked there. As they hadn't  returned the desk clerk gave us paper and an envelope so we could write a note, identifying myself as the knitting lady, we couched it in terms of I believed I had something they had lost, enclosed my card and the card for our hotel, a map showing its location and left the envelope with reception.

We returned to our hotel, Ian went off to buy ice creams, as he returned the room phone rang, it was C, she was so relieved her husband's wallet had been found. He'd missed it whilst in the Baptistry, they'd returned to their hotel rather slower than us, received my note before they had had a chance to cancel the credit cards. C came to collect the wallet, sat on our comfy sofa, explained J wouldn't carry a man bag as it wasn't done in America for a guy to have a bag, especially one across the body. We tried to explain that it was common practice in Europe. (Subsequently I have noticed the local teenage boys going to school near here seem to do just this) C declared she would be taking care of J's wallet in future!

What have we learnt from this? One, carry the card of the hotel in which you are staying; two, continue the practice I learnt as a commuter, namely look behind you when you leave a train, bus, seat anywhere to check nothing missed; thirdly, be friendly and a bit nosy for if I hadn't asked C and J from where they came I wouldn't have been so sure it was his wallet; fourthly if you are a knitter take it with you and count your stitches one by one (and your blessings). I suppose I should add that good has come from the fact I cannot climb stairs otherwise I wouldn't have been in the right place at the right time and I wouldn't have a new friend on Facebook.

As there are no photos recording this I shall add the first picture of the Rowan wrap I have started, 2 ply wool on 5mm needles so a steep learning curve. Progress will be slow, with a 16 row pattern to follow.