Will it ever get light?

It's so dark today. It's pouring with rain and from where I sit, I can see the people opposite with the adorable spaniel scurrying around under a big umbrella. Nothing bothers that dog, it is possibly one of the happiest creatures ever. I remember when O.T.L. was that excitable just to be by your side. He stills get excitable but in a more weary 'I'm-feeling-old-now' kind of way.

You'll note I'm back on the coffee. I feel this lethargy is turning round today. I plan to make soup and gourmet macaroni cheese (farmer's market cheese- WIN). I've been lost to blogland and knitting this week. It feels good to be honest. I remembered why I started blogging in the first place. I needed a space to push my creativity. I love photography but sometimes feel lacklustre about what to photograph but reading blogs always gets me thinking again. I love this idea from 'I should be Folding Laundry's' Blog. I might hover around today as Thursday is the I capture challenge day and give it a try. 

I've particularly enjoyed rediscovering old blogs I've not read for age, as well as finding news ones. It struck me that I often feel I have to blog SOMETHING INTERESTING when actually what I love and find most interesting in other people's blogs is the everyday. I love that, it's what inspired me in the first place. Pictures that made me smile. 

In fact I generally realised I don't use my camera enough. I have plans for today ande I'll be sure to be snapping along the way: phone my mum, finally order those dance clothes I've been promising myself, knit some more of the shawl that scares me (the one on the left not the stunning Cedar Leaf on the right in the pics below) and cook soup and Mac. It doesn't sound like much but it's a lot when you've had zero energy. I've not left the house since Monday and it's.......... woah, Thursday. Ok I also need to put welly boots on and leave the house this afternoon. There's some good puddles out there now too.

I've also enjoyed some Britishness. Chemicalika's blog in particular. Her blogs chat about the 3 most talked about subjects for the average Brit girl: the weather, colds and flu and wine (or being drunk). She's witty too but don't indulge her with this 'lace is so fast' thing she states. Really. It's all lies and she's just showing off.  

Here's my day so far:

2 people's breakfast debris- he once gave a monalogue about the frustration that his mother NEVER rinsed her oatmeal pan. I'm looking at the bowl from his Muesli and smirking.

Oh how you haunt me

Unpacked atlast- I missed you!

They're keeping me company today

Discoveries

Hi all

I am sat sleepily sipping tea (I'm too ill for rocket fuel coffee- horrors!) and cruising new blogs. I discovered this lady by shamelessly following a giveaway link. I like her style though, so I'm keeping her for future reference. Can you imagine blogging for a whole year?


And while we're on the subject of blogs I'm enjoying: HELLO!!! Knitted Bliss is always a pleasure to watch for yummy knitted goodies but 7 days of hot chocolate? That's my kinda thinking.


It has got me pondering about giveaways though and eyeballing my stash. I've done such a good job of stashing down lately (I'm fairly sure that's gloating, I'm gloating here right?) that I may have to get brutal or creative with a giveaway.

Yarn is the obvious choice, it's light, covetable and easily shipped. So I will pose a question and if I like some of the answers, I may host something too. Ofcourse I have no idea how many people read this thing so I could be setting myself up for a very lonely afternoon.


What giveaways work best for you? What would you love to receive? (No, I can't stretch to posting out Colin Firth, his wife would be terribly sad)

New Starts

I've been this flurry of knitting. I finished another pair of Toastys and cranked right on to make a matching hat. The pattern is by the lovely Jared Flood who I swear is one of the best pattern writers out there. His style is not too chatty but it's informative and you get what you need in order to best execute the pattern.

Like jogless stripes - Check those bad boys out!

It was so much simpler than any instructions I'd read before. You basically work your new round of colour as normal (catching the old yarn with the working yarn to prevent holes). When you are ready to start the second round you take your right hands needle and lift a loop from the old round and old colour below. You then knit this as if K2tog with what would have been the next stitch. The pattern is Turn a Square and it's so fast and fun. I love these intuitive patterns and once again the Malabrigo was like knitting with buttered kittens. YUM

I did finish something else but again I'm wondering into spoiler territory for friends who read this blog so as soon as they know, you'll know. The general theme has been very unselfish though hasn't it? I mean, 3 FOs and none are for me.See this moutain of new possibilities? Only one is for me: the ongoing Cedar Leaf Shawlette (Alana we love you!). I've got milestone birthdays and pregnancies coming out of my ears! I'm normally more selfish but I've been so grateful to friends and family this last year I feel I just have to give something super special and generous.

The beady eyed amongst you undoubtedly noticed this little bag. Isn't that fabric adorable? It's made by a girl from my knit group from the Lollipop Stop. Go check her out, just save me a robot tote ok? There's always room for more robots....

In celebration of Vegetables

I'm really taking stock these last few days. I've withdrawn into a world of knitting, eating, sleeping and blog reading. After the last few weeks of moving (again) across London and OFSTED I just am left completely drained. In these situations I find the best thing to do it ply oneself with as much fruit and veg as possible and just take stock.


We have a Farmer's Market near here on Sunday so I was finally persuaded to leave the house and break my solitude. On the way, something truly AMAZING happened but I can't blog about it yet because it would involve spoiling a surprise for my BFF. I did feel the usual love of being outside and no longer being contained come flooding back and as we started filling our canvas bags with tons of vegetables and shaking off soil as we packed them away in the kitchen, I remembered why I love farmer's markets so much.

LOOK at the colour of this soup. Go on, look. That's not photoshopped. That's just the joy of good wholesome cooking and a peek at some potentially spring like sunshine on the work surfaces. Here's what I did:

1. Take one large pepper (seriously, it was the size of my face), chop roughly and throw in a pan with whole, but peeled garlic cloves. Add segmented red onions (I used three little ones), drizzle over oil, salt and pepper and roast for about 30-40 mins in the oven.
   
2. Meanwhile chop 1 courgette and 2-3 medium carrots into as small peices as you can be bothered. Drain a tin of beans or pulses unless you have time to cook them up from dried. I chose Chickpeas.
3. Add roasted vegetables to blender along with one tin of plum tomatoes and pulse till fairly smooth.
   
4. Fry off carrot and courgette till tender in a little olive oil before adding the chickpeas and roasted vegetable mix. I usually top up with a little water rinsed round the tomato tin so it's not too thick.
   
5. Add 1/2 tsp dried chills, 1 tsp Worcestershite sauce and season to taste.
   

Devour when it's tender enough for you. This is a good size portion for about 4 people.



What's this? Oh that's the fresh bread I made from mincing up some of the extra roasted garlic and fresh herbs.....

Survival Guide to OFSTED

A picture tells a story. Here is my week's story. These yummy items are all my little joys that helped me recover from the dreaded OFSTED. OFSTED, for those of you who don't know, is the team of inspectors who come and make judgements on the level of teaching that has led to pupil progress in your school. It is the way in which the government can further demoralise underpaid teachers. Constant goal posts and value based judgements where data is God; not the happy smiling faces of children learning to explore life in a creative and safe environment. That would be too subjective. And common sense.

Being inspected is always stressful, especially if you work in a school that for 7 years before you showed up had been failing to make suitable progress. A new team of us have been trying to turn it round, with the threat of an OFSTED inspection ever looming. It's extremely stressful and when the final call came, we knew it was time to find out if we'd done enough. We worked into the wee hours to make sure we had every shred of evidence we could possibly have and performed to our absolute best. The kids were amazing. One of my favourite moments was a suited inspector sat on a mini childsize chair with his clipboard and one of our 6 year olds stomps up and holds his work up to this bemused mans face and waited until he heard 'That's great work!' before he returned to his seat. TWICE.

I am now sick and tired and fretful. The washing machine just beeped from the MOUNTAIN of laundry that I ignored this week. The fridge is scarily bare. We found a mouse in the bath. However I survived and in this week has been the deep joy of a supportive man cub. LOOK at the goodies I got as a 'well done'. Champagne and flowers. The temptation was to crack open the champers immediately but having just taken every cough and cold remedy we had in the house, I thought it prudent to hold off.

I also received 2 new skeins. Yes, I know it's cheating my stash down BUT because I am now in control of yardage in and out of my stash I know these skeins can be welcomed and not do so much damage to my total that I will fall off the wagon.

If I were going to fall off though, could I land in a pile of String Theory please? I am not a pink girl, let's be clear but when the colours are this good, the little punk princess in me just wants to mosh in tribute. All hail punk socks.


Then there was this little skein of wonder. It's Old Maiden Aunt fingering weight in the colourway 'Lon dubh blackbird'. It's a very dark blue that's almost slate and it's a mix of Alpaca, cashmere and silk. Yup. You may drool now and wish you could touch it. I might just glue it to my face.