Delicious things

Over Christmas, I started making panettone in the bread machine, using this recipe. It is fantastic. While you do need to leave a good 4.5 hours or so from starting to eating, it is very minimally demanding during this time and makes your house smell gorgeous. It is now part of our regular 'cake' schedule, and is particularly good for when you really have eaten too many cakes and need something a little lighter, or that lasts a few more days, or for breakfast. It also makes wicked bread and butter pudding. The picture is a bit sad, but I never seem to remember to take photos whilst it is still around - somehow I get distracted by the eating :)

Rainy days

More than one rainy day requires a little thought and excitement. Turns out making playdough is a mornings worth of fun: cooking, playing then washing up. Most excellent.

Moving on (3)

And the snowdrops:

Moving on (2)

Flowers in the garden too.

Moving in to a new house has the added delight of discovering a new garden. In older UK houses this often means discovering just how many bulbs are in the garden. Luckily, this house is no exception - in addition to very old, established (and long-neglected) rose beds and a stonking rhubarb patch, there are huge swathes of bulbs now popping up. The garden is currently bisected with a great patch of crocuses and snowdrops under the central apple tree. Its hard to get a good shot of the thing in its entireity (maybe if the sun comes out this week), but here are some close-ups. Today, the crocuses.

Moving on (1)

Signs that we are steadily moving on through winter towards the glory of an English spring...I have been looking at these for a week, gradually changing from red buds to golden tipped goblets. I love their wayward leaves too. A beautiful surprise present - thanks S!

Joint efforts

So while my mum was here, we decided to knit B a new jumper, as he was rapidly growing out of his other handknits and it was freezing! I chose the Master Charles jumper (rav link), in most excellent red Rowan Pure Wool Aran.

We knit size two, with slightly longer sleeves, and it fits just fine. It looks 'very smart' (in B's words) and was a quick knit thanks to aran weight yarn (and two knitters!). And I love that front cable panel.