Believe me

Knitting! I know, incredible. This is Meret, in Lang SilkDream in charcoal (a gorgeous yarn gifted to me in a swap by the lovely Jinnee, all the way from Switzerland).


And some sewing from a few weeks (months?) ago - a skirt from an old 70's pattern and a top from a new Simplicity pattern, both in Amy Butler fabrics. Although I love the Coriander fabric of the skirt, turns out I don't wear white-based skirts much. Had you asked me this beforehand, I would have agreed, but I just didn't think. Still, it is nice. The top is huge, but I'm growing into it :)

Now I'm off to find out who turned the date stamp on the camera...

Last days of summer

That time of year is here...one of picking, freezing, preserving, arguing about how much fruit is in the freezer as a proportion of overall freezer content, bottling, eating and generally being obsessive about hedgerows and farm shops. Loving it.

The berries were picked last weekend, and turned into blackberry & apple crumble (with our new apples) and blackberry & apple crumble cake (yep, doubling down there, but they were both delicious). The raspberry jam is on my extremely successful and yummy white sourdough, which is my other pride and joy. I have to say that, to my mind, there is little better in this world than fresh homemade bread, good butter and new raspberry jam. Although a little clotted cream could squeeze its way in, I reckon.

Rainy Tuesday delights

So what to do on a rainy Tuesday morning in Oxford? Well, my suggestion would be to pop into town early to nab an easy park, wander through the back lanes and past the colleges to the High St. (make sure to stickybeak in every possible door and window), nip into Northlight to do a little essential shopping*, duck across the road to Toast to buy up on a few maternity-suitable trans-seasonal items*, back over the road to the Vaults for delicious coffee, cake and babycino for the boy (who will behave delightfully and entertain all those in the vicinity), then home to a newly cleaned house before the rain comes down, with a child who goes directly to sleep leaving you to catch up on reading some blogs.

Couldn't have scripted it better. Hope you are having a lovely Tuesday morning too.


*there is nothing essential in Northlight, it is all entirely and deliciously frivolous. How I love design focused shops.
*how I would dearly love to curl up on their big couch and knit and drink coffee and watch people come in and out, but I'm not sure they'd be up for it.

Buckwheat Blinis

S bought some buckwheat flour last time he was at the supermarket. Voila - blinis for breakfast. Yum. Served with vanilla poached peaches.

absence

Sometimes, even when you really want to be in somewhere , its harder to get out than you expect (this apparently includes laundry hampers). We've moved. Today we (finally) handed over the keys to the old house, which means we can stop finding more things to do to make it cleaner/tidier, and start properly unpacking the new house. I love the new house (although its a long way from our friends over the road/next door/round the corner - well, not that long, 6 minutes in the car!), it is light and has a big empty-canvas garden and is quiet. B loves it too - he runs and runs. So as soon as I find the cable to link the camera to the computer, there might be pictures. But to be honest, very little knitting or sewing. Quite a lot of jam though...