This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember. Inspired by SouleMama

Tragic events

Does the fact that yesterday's terrible events in Cumbria took place in such a beautiful, normally peaceful corner of our world make them more tragic? Maybe not- this sort of nightmare is horrendous for any family or community, wherever it takes place, and my thoughts and good wishes are obviously with all those affected. The fact that it did happen in an area loved by so many for its natural splendour just makes it more shocking by contrast somehow. For our family, the fact that it came to its sad conclusion just twenty or so miles up the road for us made it even more chilling. Since moving up here, we have been welcomed by a little town very similar to those affected by the shootings yesterday. We've taken every opportunity we can to enjoy the fells and lakes which yesterday were swarming with unprecedented numbers of police and buzzed by helicopters. As it happens, those little towns along the coast road were on our list of new places to explore this summer. Knowing how many people in this county rely on welcoming visitors for their livelihood, and how much last year's floods have already affected this, I intend for us to keep to this plan. I would urge anyone else who was intending to visit, or even thinking about it, to do the same.

Wish list

In preparation for our impending move, we have adopted a "10% out" policy to try and avoid shifting a lot of stuff we don't need to our new home. The idea is that rather than taking on whole rooms with a vague 'we need to get rid of stuff' idea, we look at categories of stuff, e.g. fiction books, clothes, cooking equipment etc. and try to find 10% of each category that we can sell, give away, donate to charity, recycle or otherwise shed from our lives. It's amazing how easily this can be done once you get going, and often we've found ourselves ditching a lot more than 10%.
Obviously, while we're going through this, the idea isn't really to acquire more stuff, however desirable. That said, just wanted to share a couple of bookshelf treasures I very much covet at the moment.
I love Anna Maria Horner's fabrics, although I've yet to find a project to justify getting some (maybe if baby #2 is a girl?). Her new book Handmade Beginnings looks heavenly though, and could be just the thing to tempt me into more sewing adventures to build on my limited experience. Read a really interesting interview with Anna Maria on the Sew Liberated blog.
I saw the author of The Italian Cookery Course on a TV cooking programme recently and my ears pricked up. It seems that this hefty tome is meant to be a step-by-step guide to authentic Italian cooking. I love Italian food, for its flavours and the way recipes tend to use a relatively small number of high quality ingredients. However, beyond tomato sauce, pizza and pesto I don't really have a repetoire of dishes I can make. I bought book of Italian recipes with vouchers earlier this year, but it was a bit of a let down to be honest. This one looks far more promising, and having recently watched Julie and Julia on DVD I'm rather taken with the idea of working my way through the fundamentals of Italian cuisine. And yes, I know this sounds a bit crazy coming from a very pregnant mother of a toddler, but what could be more authentic than filling my kitchen with the scent of basil, tomatoes, garlic etc. with two bambinos running around my feet?!?

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savour and remember. Inspired by SouleMama

Eating yarn

It has to be said that 3rd trimester fatigue, completing the final essay of a qualification I've been working towards forever it seems, house move preparation and so on and so on, I haven't been doing so much crafting recently. Writing this I realise how much I'm missing it, so maybe I need to get a proper project on the go soon. However, I am creating at the moment, and somewhat against the clock as it's a gift for someone. I made my first 'granny' blanket a few years ago and even though this is my fourth, I'm always amazed all over again at just how much yarn crochet blankets eat! Having exhausted all the suitable colours in my stash, I bought in some King Cole DK, mainly because I liked the colour choice. It's super cheap, especially for pure wool, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the quality and feel of it. I might even try it for one of the cardigans I want to make, as being superwash it would have a fighting chance of surviving my haphazard washing habits, unlike some past projects!

Sunshine

According to the weather forecast, it's not going to last much beyond the weekend, but the last couple of days we've seen, and felt, some proper sunshine. Yesterday we headed down to visit Great-grandparents by the seaside, the long and rather hot car journey giving the boy a chance to develop his own unique brand of summer style.
Today we stayed closer to home, with 'him indoors' chipping away at the heap of packing we need to do over the next few weeks. As the cloudless skies carried on into the afternoon we all decamped to a sun soaked garden and Penelope the chicken got a thorough house clean. Above is the view from my deckchair- yes, the small hillock my hand is resting on is in fact the ever expanding bump, which goes some way to explain why I was in the deckchair doing crochet, instead of helping out!

On our doorstep

Our family has been on quite a long journey this year, both literally and metaphorically. The road has been pretty rocky for one reason or another, and we still have just a few more steps before we feel like we're really settled again. In a lot of ways I'm grateful for the fact that we've just made it through some testing times, and as previous entries will testify, we are now privileged to live within reach of some fantastic places. However, I can't say I'm always very fair to the immediate area around where we live. It is a looooong way from pretty much anywhere, which means its an even longer way from family and friends. It's also somewhat less attractive than the natural splendour of the scenery up the road. But lately I've realised that I'm not really being fair to the place, not giving it a chance to be lovely because I'm too busy thinking of what it isn't. Here's an example- a Sunday afternoon full of sunshine, and with a ten minute car journey we can fill the hour before tea time playing on a huge clean stretch of sand, surrounded by dunes and overlooked by those magnificent hills. Sometimes you just have to appreciate what's right under your nose.