Attic24

Happy Little Things

♥ Leafy clementines are back in the supermarkets, yay for fruity seasonal rituals!

♥ I know they are more leaf than fruit, but oh, they are so sweet and juicy I can't resist them.

♥ A fresh bunch of baby chrysanths on my table this week.

♥ The colour was hard to capture on my camera, it's a delicious burnt orange in real life and the perfect shade for November.

♥ My new wellies arrived in the post and they are so beautifully pristine I don't want to get them muddy. This could be a problem.

♥ The kitty trying desperately to ignore me, just look how superior she looks!! She was sulking because I'd turfed her off my lap when she was all nicely settled. What a horrid, mean Human I am.

♥ Flapjacks baked for the Little People with some giant chocolate buttons for extra good luck. They approved of the chocolate addition.

♥ The three o'clock departure for the school run and I know I shall miss it when it's no longer a part of my day. By my reckoning, I've got around one hundred and forty three days left.

♥ I always take the time to pause and appreciate the view of my hill as I race off to school. Yes, I'm claiming that hill as mine.

♥ It's been a good week for clouds, and I've really enjoyed sky gazing. On days when it's been still there has been the added magic of viewing the clouds on the surface of the canal, which is just the most beautiful thing in my opinion.

♥ I've walked every day in the woods this week in a whole variety of weather conditions and have loved every minute of it.

♥ A ribbon rainbow caught my eye amongst the trees and made me smile.

♥ Not a lot of sun this week, but believe me when I tell you I was fully appreciative of it when it showed up. 

♥ Dancing sunshine reflected onto the underside of the bridge is always a good thing.

♥ I love seeing the swans living out their birdy lives on the canal. It's an everyday sight for us living here, but I do still appreciate it.

♥ Leafs...lots and lots of leafs!! Little B used to say "leafs" when he was a Littln' and so we adopted the word. Its' funny how some things just stick over the years?

♥ More leafy gorgeousness. I have spent a lot of time either gazing at the sky or looking down at the ground this week and there has been a lot of natural beauty to inspire me.

♥ A rainy walk to school this morning, but nevertheless I enjoyed watching the raindrops bounce into the water. Watching rain fall is such an overlooked pleasure.

♥ New baubles arrived! I ordered these on an absolute whim as an add-on when doing some online Christmas present shopping but I don't regret it for one second. The colours...oh, they are giving me ALL the heart eyes!! 😍 And furthermore they are made from recycled plastic. Winner.

♥ daily hyacinth appreciation. Observing the rapid growth and appearance of buds is just a thrill I never get tired of.

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Before I go, I'd like to express my gratitude for all your positive comments on my last post, thank you so much. It was an unexpectedly hard post to write, it can feel quite vulnerable to talk about health related struggles but I'm happy to put my ramblings out there in the hope that it might encourage or inspire, or just give you a little nudge if you were needing one. Prioritising self care and wellness is always a good thing, but sometimes we need a gentle reminder, don't we?

I hope you've all had a good week, and that your weekend will be full of relaxation and cosy vibes. Be sure to fill your days with as many happy little pleasures as you can xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

Blogtober 2020 :: Day 29

Today has been a thoroughly wet affair from start to finish. It was raining when I got up, and as far as I know it's still raining now, although of course it's dark out there beyond the cosiness of home so I don't know for certain. I'm currently sat on the floor in front of the fire with my laptop on the coffee table and my legs stretched out underneath. It's warm and very snug in here as I lit the fire about six hours ago - it really is so lovely having an open fire, I know I keep saying it but it's absolutely one of the highlights of the season for me. J has just made me a cup of tea so I'm all settled in for a chat, although I do need to warn you that I feel pretty tired so I apologise in advance if I begin to drift or ramble.

We went for a jaunt around Bolton Abbey this morning and yes, it was a very drippy wet walk. We started out in a light drizzle and ended up in full on wet rain, but it didn't take away from the pleasure of it. The river was rushing by at a super fast speed, the trees looked amazingly beautiful and despite the crowds we still managed to find a sense of tranquillity in the woodland. Little B was in good spirits and very chatty - I had the pleasure of his company for much of the walk which is a rarity these days. You will be shocked to hear that we didn't stop for coffee (I know!!), we were just too sodden to think about sitting in a café and decided instead to come straight home to change into dry clothes and light the fire.

I spent the early afternoon snuggled under a blanket in the Big Chair with Tilly for company, drinking coffee and catching up with my October issue magazines. I'd only managed a quick browse through before today, but I do like to take the time to read through all the articles and examine the inspirational images in great detail. There was a "seasonal makes and bakes" feature in Country Living which obviously influenced me massively because I began to really crave ginger biscuits. So much so, I could not stop thinking about it so I did the only thing possible in the circumstances and went into the kitchen to bring some gingery goodness into my life. Unfortunately I very quickly discovered we had no ground ginger, so ginger biscuits were a no go. Waaaaahhh!!! I was so disappointed! But I was on a biscuit mission by then so I made an instant decision and knocked up some lemon shortbread biscuits instead. I had fun using some little leaf cutters for seasonal appropriateness, and the biscuits tasted wonderful - buttery and zesty and the perfect afternoon munchy material.

I haven't felt like stitching or hooking today so poor Granny Josephine is still in a state. I shall pick her up tomorrow and forge on with her recovery journey I promise.

Right my lovelies, I really do need to go now as I can feel my brain beginning to perform a bit of a spontaneous shutdown. I hope you've had a great day whatever you've been up to and I shall see you all tomorrow....

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Blogtober 2020 :: Day 19

I have felt a bit out of of sorts today, nothing drastic, just a low grade weariness of body and mind that I don't often experience on a Monday. I felt a weensy bit irritable to be honest, and that's not like me at all. Maybe it's the hidden pressures of the weekend catching up with me, or maybe it's just the damn hormones, who knows?

After we dropped Little B at school we took a slow walk to the bakers for a loaf of bread, walking along the narrow pathway that runs between the canal and the beck. This is the same pathway (and beck) that eventually winds it's way up into the woodland. The building on the right in the above photo is a row of very old terraced cottages, they are extremely cute with windows that look out directly over the water. Some are permanent homes and a few of them are holiday lets - I actually booked one of them for my Dad and Lady B to come and stay in the Spring but of course it had to be cancelled when Covid arrived. Next year I hope.

Coming home from the shops I felt like I couldn't decide what to do with myself. I didn't particularly want to be indoors but J said he didn't want to go for a walk and fancied a quiet, slow day at home. I didn't have enough concentration or patience to get to work on my Granny Josephine crochet bag, so instead I decided to bake.

I don't bake nearly as much as I used to but every so often I will turn to an old recipe that I know by heart and produce something sweetly edible. It was flapjack today with dried apricots.

This is my recipe from my blog archives of 2008 ::

Fruity flapjacks

Into a heatproof bowl, put the following ::

80g soft brown sugar
100g butter/margarine
60ml Golden syrup

Into the microwave for a minute or two until the butter and sugar are melty. Stir well.

Add 200g porridge oats and 80g dried fruit (snipped apricots, sultanas or cranberries are my usual choices)

Press into a lined tin (make the flapjack around 2cm deep) and bake for 20mins at 180C.

Press down the mixture to firm and cut into flapjacky size squares.

Leave to cool in the tin before hoiking them out. Consume with a steaming hot brew/glass of milk, depending on age. Indoors or outdoors, preferably not in rain. 

On the spur of the moment we did venture out in the early afternoon, driving a few miles out of town for a short amble across the moor tops. This is one of J's favourite places, it's quite a bleak place in many ways but there is such a peaceful atmosphere up here and it's remarkably good at "blowing the cobwebs away".

We heard the unmistakable sounds of red grouse doing their thing as we walked along the track. They're such comical birds to listen to and I found a short clip ((HERE)) if you wish to familiarise yourself with grouse language.

You can see one in the photo above as it ran across the track in front of us.

We didn't have enough time to do a full circular route so we simply walked and talked and admired the view until we'd had enough fresh air and scenic therapy, then turned to walk back again. 

I felt a smidge better when we got back to the car, but the feeling of mental fatigue is still with me. Hoping very much that I'll feel more like my normal self tomorrow.

I guess that if I wasn't committed to Blogtober, then today would be a definite no-show for me in Blogland as I find it very hard to write when my energies are low. But I do think it's good to be honest and let you know that I don't feel full of beans all the time, I have my off days, of course I do. My instincts are usually to retreat until I feel more like myself again, but as it's Blogtober (which I am really, really enjoying by the way) I am here in the Attic giving you the slightly washed out version of myself today.

Keepin' it real, my friends! ;)

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Home Safe :: Weeks Seven and Eight

Hello my friends, I hope you are all well and doing ok out there, finding your way gently through these strange, strange days. Finally I feel I have just about the right kind of head space to be here opening up my Attic window for a chat, after what has felt like a very flat, deflated week or two. I have felt ok really, just a bit drained and lacking in any kind of motivation to get things done.

The days flutter past and I allow myself to drift rather listlessly through the hours, keeping a hold (just about) of the small, mundane routines that I've managed to form for myself during these stay-home days. I honour my natural body clock which always sees my eyes opening just after 6 am and wanting to close just after 10 pm. I make time for a morning workout, prepare and eat healthy food, drink more water and less coffee. Enjoy my daily walk around and about the neighbourhood. 

And yet I seem to spend lots of time in the day feeling like I am simply trying to fill the hours until the next meal time or snack time or bed time. I can't seem to settle on anything much and find myself doing the most random things at random times, as and when the mood suddenly strikes. Getting down on my knees and scrubbing those awkward tiles right behind the toilet. Defrosting the iceberg out of the freezer. Potting up some baby petunias that a friend gave me last week. Some stop-start crochet here and there, a flick through a few magazine pages.

It all feels quite disjointed as if I've somehow slipped out of the groove I'm supposed to be on and don't quite know how to get myself back into it. I guess it's just a symptom of these strange times and actually I haven't been too worried about my lethargy. It seems to be a natural result of spending so much extended time in the house, and I am quite sure I'll find my way back into a more productive state of mind soon enough.

It's funny because at the start of Lockdown (a whole eight weeks ago now) I felt convinced that I would be blogging way more than usual, using my days to write, to connect, to chat, to share, to remember. There would be loooooads of time to catch up with blog posts that I've fallen behind with (hello Dahlia Ta-dah post, I'm looking at you, half written in draft and waiting oh so patiently for me to return). But it hasn't been like that at all, has it?! Hahaha! I will try to be here more from now on as I really want to start feeling more productive and balanced again, and to ease myself away from this permanent sluggish weekend-vibe. Have to admit that I am deep down AdOrInG the perpetual weekend vibe mind you, but maybe after eight weeks it's time to make my days count for something more.

As you can see from these photos, I continue to find a huge amount of pleasure in the season we're in and my daily walks make me soooo happy even though they are extremely repetitive. The shadow above shows me and Little Lady, taking our walk one evening and loving the light and warmth that was still so glorious at 8pm.

The woodland is utterly captivating in May, and I absolutely love being out amongst it all. 

The wild garlic began to flower profusely during week 7.....

.....and the sight and scent of it all was almost overwhelming. So much natural beauty right there, and I'm extremely grateful that walking through the woods has become a part of our daily lives. It never fails to lift my spirits even on particularly flat days.

I'm still on with the Aria blanket, although it spent almost a week in the naughty corner. Poor thing, it wasn't at all the fault of the blanket. I started work on the border but didn't pay enough attention to what I was doing and managed to miss out a few colours which meant pulling out two big huge rounds to put it right. It took me almost a week to work myself up to the business of yanking out all those neat stitches, but once I got over myself and stopped sulking it was all OK again and I fell straight back in love.

As you can see, the Aria blanket is already being used around here, and truly the Little People seem to really love it especially as they've been quite involved in watching me making it during the past month. I am so close to finishing it - I'm currently poised ready to tackle the edge of The Edge, all very exciting. 

The kitty is her usual aloof crazy self, seeming to love having us all around but managing to look utterly bored by us all at the same time. I snapped the above photo of her early one morning when the Little People had yet to surface and all was still quiet and peaceful downstairs. She definitely finds Little B a challenge, he makes her ears constantly twitch as he is sooooooo  noisy and boisterous all the time. I do feel for her, my own ears are pretty twitchy these days as it's very, very hard to find any quiet space in this house.

Another week and another tray of lockdown flapjack, dried apricot this time. I don't get bored of making it (recipe HERE if you are interested in how easy it is) and the Little Peeps certainly don't seem to be bored of eating it.

I spent some time jaunting in Magazine Wonderland in week 7, allowing myself to finally open and devour the May issue magazines which arrived at the end of March. My, my, such beauty in those pages, even if the dreamy aspirational quality of the photos makes them ever so slightly deflating at times. I look at the huuuuuuuuuuuuuge grassy gardens and wish for some green space of my own.

I gaze at the huuuuuuuuuuuuuge roomy rooms and sigh with longing.

And then I remind myself to continue appreciating my modest house and tiny back yard as I always have done and not get swept up in a tide of envy as no good can come of it.  But isn't the above kitchen just so dreamy? I would really dearly love that kind of space.

Another weekend arrives and so we take our longer walk (around 6 miles), leaving the woods behind and striding out over open fields instead.

Cows have suddenly arrived in the fields to join the sheep and they are always curious about us humans as we pass by their open air homes.

We walk past a farm right next to the canal and have been watching these goslings grow over the past few weeks. Sometimes they are wandering about in the field and sometimes they come down to the water, they really are so fluffy and beautiful. I can't resist stopping to chat to them, even if  J and the Little People roll their eyes and look at me like I'm crazy.

It's extremely relaxing walking along this stretch of the canal as it's a few miles out of town and very quiet. Usually in May it's busy on the waterways with boats sailing back and forth, but of course there are no boats moving about on the water at the moment and that definitely adds to the tranquillity.

I love that lonesome blue boat, moored up quietly right on the bend there. I have no idea whether it's someones permanent home or a holiday boat but every time I walk past it I find myself wondering what it would be like to call a boat home?

The cow parsley is just starting to burst into flower in hedgerows and along footpaths and it is so beautiful. It's treated as a bit of a weed I suppose (it is very prolific and grows everywhere) but I absolutely love it, those delicate little froths of flowers are enchanting.

Another weed growing absolutely everywhere is the dandelion, and due to this long spell of dry warm weather they are already in seed. I don't love them quite as much as cow parsley, but those seed heads do hold a lot of childhood nostalgia. Even as we walked past this clump, Little Lady (age 16) plucked up a stem and blew away the seeds "to see what time it is". I wonder, is this a worldwide thing? Do dandelions grow everywhere on this planet, and do all children use them as clocks? 

Sometimes towards the end of a long day I'll find myself in desperate need of some alone time. I make myself a drink (often a peppermint or fruity tea infusion which I've recently rediscovered after not having them for ages) then head upstairs and gently close the door to my bedroom. I pull on some woolly knitted socks for comfort and settle on my bed to sip my drink and just relax my mind a little. I don't do anything specific, sometimes just sitting and allowing my mind to wander and ponder is enough, and sometimes I pull out my tablet and browse through favourite blogs, Pinterest, or YouTube.

I'm pretty new to YouTube as generally I much prefer digesting photos and written words rather than videos and audio. I don't really have much idea of what to look for on YouTube yet, or what sort of content might inspire me, but I'm quite enjoying discovering a new-to-me medium. I've been enjoying some food channels mixed with photogenic slow living, lifestyle/interiors and a little bit of motivational stuff thrown in. Pick Up Limes is a current fave and although I'm not contemplating going vegan, I have always been very inspired by wholesome, healthy cooking and eating. Also, I really love the passionate and beautiful way in which Sadia prepares, presents and adores her food, it's just so beautiful! If you have any recommendations for YouTube I would dearly love to hear them.

Another thing I do when I retreat to my bedroom in the evenings is light this jar candle beside my bed. It's an old one from last summer and I adore the clean, soft scent of it. It's these little rituals and pleasures which are really keeping me grounded at the moment, I'm holding onto the little things that bring quiet pleasure to my days.

Well another day has passed and this blog post is coming together veeeeery slowly in stops and starts, I'm so sorry if it all seems a bit disjointed here in the Attic. As you know I don't tend to edit my writing (other than a basic check through for typos) so I've no idea if my words are even making sense to be honest, but I hope that even if I'm writing absolute tripe you can still enjoy the pictures :)

Week 8 has very little to show for it as I didn't seemingly feel very inspired to point my camera at anything much. 

There is wild garlic of course, as I can't seem to stop myself trying to capture this season that I love so very much.

Almost every single day we walk this same route into the woods to feast on the green and white display.....

....it's just so abundant and fresh, both the visuals and the scent, and I wish I was better able to describe it to you.

Beautiful, intoxicating, uplifting, every single little bit of it.

We've only seen a smattering of bluebells this year as they are scarce in our local woodland (the garlic more than makes up for it mind you), and I think they are almost over now for another year. 

The lambs in the big field are growing large now, and they aren't at all bothered by us humans. We always linger a little at the top of the hill, partly to recover from the long climb up, and partly to take in the sweep of the view which has our home nestled into it. Sometimes on quiet, still afternoons when I'm sat in my little back yard, I can hear the lambs and sheep baaaaaaing from their hilltop field and it's such a comforting sound somehow. I do really love where I live.

Last week was quite a cold one, and woolly jumpers and socks were most definitely needed even inside the house. My hands don't do so well when I'm cold so I do my best to keep warm especially when I plan to crochet. Little B took the above photo of me warming up my fingers before getting on with the Aria border - this was after I had finished sulking and pulled out the Wrong Rows and I was happily enjoying this blanket all over again. 

The kitty doesn't take more than 2.5 seconds to jump in and claim my space if I happen to get up and leave the Big Chair for any reason. Mind you, I can't blame her as this over sized old chair is such a cosy spot and one of my favourite places to sit during the day. She really does seem to appreciate my crochet (especially after it has been warmed up by my backside first). 

I'll be working on the pattern and tutorial for the Aria blanket this week - it's a lot of work but I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into it. I'm sorry I don't have a release date for this yarn kit and pattern just yet but as soon as I know when it's possible for my friends at Wool Warehouse to make it happen, I'll be sure to let you know. 

Well I think that's about all for now, thank you as always for taking the time to digest my witterings and keep me company with your lovely, lovely comments, I appreciate them so much. I hope you are all keeping cheery, and that your spirits are positively inflated and not deflated. I am sending you all the brightest, cosiest happy stay-home vibes.

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Ginger Spiced Leaf Biscuits

We did some baking yesterday, Little B and I. I found myself (not for the first time) completely inspired by a little square photo I recently came across on Instagram. I'm kicking myself now as I didn't make a note of who the photo belonged to, and it was one of those beautifully styled, magazine-worthy photos that I am a sucker for. However, the lovely lady who took the beautiful photo did happen to mention where she found the recipe, and lo and behold it was an issue of Country Living UK magazine from two years ago. Ah-ha, I thought, I have a pile of magazines that is surely more than two years old, so off I went to dig it out. It was from November 2015 if you have a similar two-year old pile of magazines, an Autumn classic.

The recipe was simple (sugar, butter, golden syrup, flour, bicarb and ginger), so I pootled into the interweb to search for some suitable leaf shaped cutters. Plenty to be found on Amazon, so I went for a full set of 7 shapes as I have a feeling that leaf biscuits will definitely be a Favourite Thing in our household. One thing to mention about the general purchasing of biscuit cutters is to check the dimensions carefully. The cutters in the tin I bought were smaller than I anticipated, and although I was initially a bit disappointed when they arrived, they actually made the cutest little perfectly sized biscuits. 

Baking with children is loads of fun and really adds a certain element of glee to the whole proceedings. Little B is a full-force child and goes at everything with enthusiasm and energy, so it was easy to get caught up with his genuine delight in weighing out ingredients and mixing them all together. 

The mixture starts out quite dry and crumbly (there is a LOT of flour, great clouds of it in fact), and for a while it feels like it isn't going to work out.

We found it best to roll up sleeves (or in Little B's case, to remove clothes altogether) and get stuck in with your hands. You need to persuade the crumbs to turn into a workable cookie dough, and the warmth from hands does this brilliantly. 

The quantity of ingredients (which I'll give you at the end of this post) makes a lot of dough. We ended up halving it and shaping into two balls before putting it into the fridge to chill. Yes, you do need to allow time for the dough to go cold before you can get going with the rolling pin, so if you are baking with Little People you may want to prepare them in advance for the  pause in activity. 

We made the dough in the late morning, and made the biscuits in the mid afternoon. We took everything out of the kitchen and onto the dining table so that we had plenty of room to work, spreading out a length of greaseproof paper so that we could easily roll out the dough. 

Using cookie cutters is such fun! So pleasing to create those little shapes, then adding the details with a metal skewer. Little B absolutely loved doing it and I had to resist the urge to fight him off and do it all myself. 

We used half of the dough and made around 36 leaves in total which spread across two baking trays. The other half of the dough is still in the fridge and I think we shall make gingerbread men with it today.

I couldn't wait to see how the leaves would turn out, and luckily the baking time is very short. The recipe suggested 8-10 minutes, and I settled on 8.5 minutes with my hot oven. The secret is to take them out when they have just turned a very light golden colour (they will be darker on the underside) and still quite soft as they harden when they cool. I much prefer soft, slightly chewy gingerbread as opposed to the rock hard, brittle version. 

I was so delighted that the markings we made looked even better once the biscuits were baked - oh, so very leafy and pleasing to look at! Now I did ponder on trying to style my photo in the manner of the swoony images we see all the time on Instagram. I would need a co-ordinating cloth (made of linen probably), some real autumn leaves and maybe a little jar of autumn foliage and berries. Possibly an earthenware mug of tea. Maybe a candle. 

In the end, I found I just could. Not. Be. Bothered. I desperately wanted to eat the biscuits and I had eager children to ward off too. So I'm afraid the above photo is the best I could do. Incidentally, isn't the original magazine page photo rather lovely?

So I can tell you that these biscuits are visually very, very pleasing to look at. They are seasonal and cute and photogenic.

Taste wise??? Well, the Little People think they are amaaaaaaaaaazing. They seriously went mad for these little treats and I had to step in and limit their scoffing. My verdict - lovely gingeryness without being too overpowering, nice soft texture but possibly a teensy bit on the dry side. However............

.........when dunked into a fresh mug of hot milky coffee, oh-my-goodness, these little leafy morsels are transformed. Coffee-soaked ginger biscuits are absolutely the bees knees. 

I allowed Little Lady to give it a try (she likes the taste of coffee) and she agreed with me that the coffee soaking really turned these biscuits into a very, very yummy treat.

If you fancy giving these biscuits a go, you can click on the above photo and it should pop up in a new window so that you can read it a little better. If I was making the biscuits again, I would simply halve the quantities.

Country Living Magazine remains one of my all time favourites, and I so look forward to it's seasonal inspiration every month. It's a real delight, and a treat that I've been enjoying for almost twenty years now. Delicious. 

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Summer Moments {three}

☀ The upside to the rainy downside is that  sometimes we get to see the most beautiful colours arcing across a stormy grey sky. 

☀ A bunch of sunflowers gifted to me by my lovely friend and neighbour as a thank you for popping in and feeding her goldfish for ten days. The fish amazed me by acting like they were on the brink of starvation every single day, and the flowers amazed me because they just look so impossibly unreal. 

☀ A hand written note passed to me whilst the Little People were engaged in some sort of a who-can-go-the-longest-without-speaking challenge. This was Little B, sweetly (and silently) asking for a hot chocolate. How could I refuse?

☀ Still loving my weekly get togethers with friends and visitors at the cafe on Friday mornings. It feels like a blissful full stop after a rather long and rambling week-long sentence, a time to sit still, breathe out and just take time for myself. I look forward to these precious few hours soooo much.

☀ A lovely walk at Bolton Abbey a few weekends ago, it was a rare morning where we woke up to blue skies and no rain. It was a great walk, the Little People were in good spirits and we enjoyed our coffee/cake/ice cream at the cafe afterwards.

☀ Stopping to appreciate the way the sunshine was lighting up these leaves and making them look like they were glowing. Loving that Little Lady also stopped with me and instantly "got it" when I told her what I was looking at. It delights me that we seem to look at the world in a very similar way.

☀ Ahhhhh, that very first mug of coffee each morning, how I love it and look forward to it! Such pleasure in the gentle ritual of making the coffee whilst inhaling the aroma, then sitting quietly, sipping, thinking and savouring the start of a new day. 

☀ Sofa snuggling - me at one end of the sofa and Little Lady at the other in the early morning before the day properly gets underway. There is something so precious about these quiet, ordinary little moments of calm.

☀ Baking with Little B, partly to keep him occupied on a rainy afternoon, and partly giving in to my craving for a cookie with an afternoon cup of tea. These Oaty Cookies are so quick and easy to make (perfect for baking with children), the recipe is on my blog {here}. 

☀ The kitty loves sleeping in this chair, but especially when the sun streams in through the large bay window and creates a very cosy, warm spot for her to snuggle in. 

☀ I brought my yarn pegs home from the studio so I could work on a new colour palette idea that I've had in my mind for quite some time. As ever, I am hugely excited by the thought of a new blanket in it's early stages of design and planning, I just love the start of a new blanket journey so so so much. This will be my Autumn/Winter CAL blanket which I'll be able to tell you about in November.

☀ We were away last week down in Dorset, and my holiday photos tell a tale of many lovely Summer Moments spent pottering over hilltops, through gardens around harbours and along beaches. I'll share some Dorset Tales with you in a day or two, it'll be lovely, as always, to have your company. See you then!

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Summer Moments {one}

☀ A Sunday morning walk along the damp river Wharfe at Bolton Abbey, dodging the rain showers. 

☀ Loving the abundance of wild flowers along the riverside at this time of year...I have just managed to look this one up and discovered it's called "Great Burnet" or Sanguisorba officinalis. Trying hard to commit that to memory! 

☀ I know this one is Knapweed... 

☀ ...and this one is the Common Spotted Orchid - go me! I remember looking up the names of these flowers last year,  and am thrilled that my crazy-bad memory has retained the words. 

☀ I didn't have much success photographing the beautiful grasses, but I loved observing them all the same. 

☀ We pottered around a little on the pebbly river beach... 

☀ ...finding a few more feathers for my collection (much to Tilly's delight - she has already had at them). Please also note the freshly painted nails of my resident Nail Guru - she isn't allowed to wear polish to school so it's something she really looks forward to at the start of the holidays. 

☀ I love eating fresh fruit all year round, but in the Summer I feel like my fresh-fruit cup runneth over - so many to choose from, and all so sweet and juicy. The nectarines are especially good right now - this was the plate I had for my lunch today. 

☀ Enjoying some quiet afternoon hooky, with Tilly keeping me company. She does seem to really love this blanket.

☀ A little bit of impromptu baking this afternoon, when I was hit by an almighty craving for shortbread right after my plate of summer fruit. I used a fab recipe that was shared a while back by Julia, oh this is just soooooo good!  The little cookie cutter is from Amazon {here}.

☀ Mmmmmmmm......I just love homemade shortbread, so light and melt in the mouth and buttery and zesty, you really must give it a go. 

☀ I've almost finished joining the squares on my Summer Harmony blanket this weekend, 91 done, and only 9 more to go. I'll show you how it's looking once all the joining is done, while I contemplate the business of creating a lovely wide border. 

☀ Burning this gorgeous scented candle today, as it rains steadily outside and doesn't feel very summery. The rosy smell is filling the room and making me happy.

☀ I've been resting on the sofa a little this evening, listening to the rain gently pattering against the window and the goings on of the Little People drifting down from upstairs. It shouldn't really be blanket weather in July, and yet it felt really rather good to be snuggled underneath my colourful stripes.

I hope you're having a lovely weekend, and whatever the weather I hope it feels good where you are. 

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ps  This is the first post of my "Summer Moments" - I'm going to try and capture as many little snippets of our summer holiday as I can to share here on my blog. The Little Things really are the Big Things x

 

 

Comfort Seeking

My days are long and slow right now in the midst of this cold, grey winter and I've been on a major comfort seeking mission. I keep catching sight of my squidgy overhanging body bits and thinking idly that eating danish pastries is not the answer, but oh they are so so so very good. They are my weakness, and right now in these tricky months I am giving myself permission to indulge.

I've been knitting again in recent weeks too, with another pair of stripy socks growing slowly on my needles. Knitting still doesn't bring me nearly as much calm, comfort and feelgood as crochet does, but wearing hand knitted socks inside my boots every day is just flippin' brilliant so I keep going with it. The problem is that I'm not a relaxed knitter. I tend to find my shoulders rise up around my ears when I knit and the whole experience is just a smidge on the tense side, but I do really love the satisfaction of sock production.

I've got a jug of bright yellow daffs on my table, and I love that they are so easy to come by at this time of year. The supermarkets have huge boxes full of them, bunches of tightly closed buds secured with an elastic band for £1, so it's possible to have a continuous parade of them in the house. The kitty has been eating them of course, and in times when she really, really wants to get my attention she will set about pulling each and every stem out of the jug so that they lay strewn across the table. It drives me bonkers, but in the big scheme of things it's not such a big deal. I love her crazy kitty ways and her big demanding diva personality. And I love having flowers in the house way too much for her to put me off.

On Wednesday the twenty fifth of January, there were blue skies and sunshine, which made it a day to remember in my book. We've had so much grey of late, so little sunlight shining down on us, that I almost began to completely forget what sunshine actually looked and felt like. It was wonderful. I try hard not to wish these winter days away (I really do, honest), and yet I am longing for seasonal change. Winters here in Yorkshire are long and I know from experience that Spring doesn't happen until late April so I do need to find some patience from somewhere.  

Any talk of comfort seeking and you will most likely find me heading to the kitchen and putting my apron on. I am a comfort baker without a doubt. Little Person running a temperature? Bake buns of course! Weather being all mean and grey and nasty? Well there just has to be a lemon drizzle cake in the oven! Really, there is no hope for my squidgy, overhanging body bits until at least April.

Another tried and trusted comfort provider is the business of sticking sticky things. I have absolutely no idea why this is so, but over the years I've learnt not to question it too much, just to go with the feel-good and stick, stick, stick. Currently I am really enjoying my pretty washi tapes (mostly purchased from the lovely Dominika AKA CwlCrafts on Etsy), adding stripes of colour and pattern to all of my planner pages. It's just a small thing, sticking a length of tape to a piece of paper, but it does make me literally sigh with pleasure.

I've had a lot of quiet stay-home days of late, hibernating in the Attic and spending many hours conversing with the cat, knitting, crocheting, baking, planning and just idling about. It's been self indulgent and not especially healthy I guess, although at the time I'm carrying out the indulging and idling, it feels rather marvelous. But I carry a snippet of guilt on my shoulders, guilt because of the way I am allowing the days to slip slide away in a blur of under achievement and laziness. My to-do lists are teetering, the house is a shambles, and my overhanging bits are growing - I sincerely hope this is something of a short lived phase and that energy levels and motivation will return at some point sooner rather than later.

I have been out walking on occasion though, and there is comfort in that fact, yes indeedy. The hubby and I have taken opportunity to stride out into the wintry Yorkshire Dales, ignoring the mud and the wind and the grey and getting right out there. Pumping blood, stretching muscles, climbing hills and the such like. It's been wonderful actually. We walked six miles on Monday, and the sun shone through for possibly 12 minutes or so (as seen in the above photo). We sat beside the river and ate pie, and all was good in my world.

And I've been hooking too, in between all the other comforting guff. Oh my, this blanket, I love it so very, very much. The more it grows, the more I swoon. I'll be sharing Part 5 of the Moorland Blanket journey here tomorrow and I absolutely cannot WAIT to show you how the blue sky creeps in..........oh..............you're gonna love it.

I hope that wherever in the world you are, whether you are shivering and hiding from the early signs of Storm Doris, or trying to stay cool in the heat of your scorching summertime, that you find some comfort in your days.

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EDIT TO ADD :: thanks for the advice re kitties and daffodils - she has only eaten small bits of petal so far and has been fine, but I'm moving them out of her way just to be safe. Thank you xx

 

...more little snippets from the Attic...

Here and There

Notes from the Studio

A Colourful Competition

Happy Things

♥ A bowl of hot porridge for breakfast  ♥

Mmmmmmmmm!! I have the same breakfast every morning at this time of year, porridge made with milk, a tablespoon of sultanas, half a chopped banana and a swirl of golden syrup. It really does hit the spot and fuels my busy mornings.

♥ Tilly the kitty ♥

Awww, this kitty! She is so playful and fiesty and demanding and loving and exasperating and amazing - all the kitty things! She has a very strong personality, at times a right little b*gger to be honest, but she is a delight and I love having her around the house.

♥ Baking with Little Lady ♥

A rare occurrence with my 12 year old these days, but we made this together yesterday and it was sooo good (the experience and the end result). She had made this recipe {Finnish Fruit Plait} at school last week in her Food Tech class and we all loved it very much. So I asked her if we could try it again at home - it's very easy to make and comes out like a dense and well flavoured fruit bread which toasts beautifully.

♥ Autumn Leaves ♥

The colours of these leaves make my heart flutter! They are from the cherry tree in my neighbour's front garden a few doors up the street. I love the way these leaves just lay around on the pavement looking all casually gorgeous and just begging to be picked up and admired. I've pressed them inside a heavy book - must remember I've done that.

♥ Sitting by the fire ♥

After our cold, wet woodland walk on Saturday we lit the fire  almost as soon as we came home. The warmth and comfort our fire brings to our home is huge, gosh I love having an open fire place so so much. I light up most evenings now, it's getting dark here around 4.30pm and especially on days like today when we have Storm Angus raging outside, the extra home comforts are very welcome.

♥ Finnish Fruit Plait ♥

The aforementioned baking efforts fresh from the oven - superb when sliced and toasted, slathered with butter and washed down with a hot cuppa.

♥ An afternoon/evening on the sofa ♥

I managed to fall over on Saturday, a rather undignified flying slip-up on a neighbours pathway leaving me with a scraped knee and some pulled muscles in my leg. This was not a Happy Thing I might add. But I decided it would be best for all concerned if I totally milked my injuries and spent many hours sprawled out on the sofa yesterday, covered in blankets with a hot water bottle on my leg to ease the muscle ache. In the above photo that's me with the red and white stripy socks, Little Lady is underneath the cosy stripe blanket with Tilly on her lap, and believe it or not, Little B is underneath the Cupcake Stripe blanket AKA The Boy Den. It was very cosy indeed, we watched films and I took myself off into Festive Magazine Wonderland.....

♥ Festive Magazine Wonderland ♥

I have to be in the right frame of mind to soak up any sort of Christmas imagery and suggestion - I'm not normally with it until the start of December. But something about being cosied up with the family yesterday, wrapped in blankets with the warmth of the fire put me right in the mood to sink into a bit of a Christmas day dream. It was delightful, until I got to thinking hmmmmm - christmas tree + kitty cat = possible disaster!!!!! haha!!

♥ Surprise Flowers ♥

A surprise flower delivery is a Happy Thing Indeed, my heart was full to bursting when I opened up the humongous box and was greeted by all this amazing floral colour. A very thoughtful and generous gift from a friend, it was truly appreciated.

♥ Hyacinth bulbs ♥

Oh Happy Day, the cheap pots of hyacinth bulbs are back in the supermarket!! I love this about mid November, it really cheers me up no end when there are hyacinth bulbs in the house. I keep an old Cornishware bowl especially for hyacinths so that I can do away with the plastic pot and have blue and white china stripes instead. I've gone for white flowers, and I am already massively looking forward to them.... although now I'm thinking hmmmmm  - hyacinths + kitty cat = possible disaster!!!!!

♥ Yarn Stripes ♥

Yarny stripes never fail to make me ridiculously happy and I'm loving this little project I've got on the go at the moment. I've gathered together some oddments of Stylecraft yarn from my rather mahoosive stash of leftovers and am making a cushion cover. It gives me a chance to practice the Neat Wave pattern and have a bit of an indulgent colour play at the same time. I'll show you more of these stripes towards the end of the week - I'm planning a CAL blanket Q&A post for Friday.

♥ A really rather exciting delivery all the way from the USA ♥  

A very, very happy day today when my brand new 2017 Life Planner was delivered, yippeeeeeee!!!! I was so excited/nervous it took me a while to actually get past the blue tissue paper, but oh! Ooooohhhhh!!!!! It is a thing of beauty, and I am so very pleased with it! I can't wait to show you more, it needs it's very own post me thinks.......more soon.......

Here's hoping you're finding oodles of Happy Things in your days xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

These Summer Days

Here we are at the end of week four of our summer holiday, and I am loving these long, slow Summer days. They are so beautiful and kind of full and precious I think. We haven't been up to much here to be honest, the days are sort of bumbling and rambling into each other in a deliciously relaxed sort of a blur. I wake up early every morning not knowing (or caring) what day of the week it is and don't even think to question it as the hours roll by. It's a luxury to have this kind of freedom and I appreciate it more than I am able to put into words.

Our Monday to Friday's have been a whole lot of nothing-much but we have made effort at the weekends to get out and about with the Little People. We've been walking in shady green woodland, picnicking and rambling about the countryside with visiting friends and family. A barbecue lunch by the riverside, a lazy pub beer garden in the warm afternoon sunshine. It's been gentle and enjoyable.

At home I have been day dreaming about so many beautiful projects and exciting new yarny possibilities, feeling buzzy and inspired and more than a little frustrated at the lack of actual available time to sit and crochet right now. It's just typical for me at this time of year when I am flat out with so many time-sensitive projects that I immediately want to kick the deadlines to the curb and dive into something new and pleasurable. Ah well, all in good time I guess.

Days here during the holidays are a constant juggling act, as I'm sure it is for most parents of school age children. I'm attempting to parent the kidletts whilst also working from home against some tight time deadlines and it's not always easy - the guilt sits constantly on my shoulder and whispers naughty things in my ear if I let it. I am doing my best to balance it all out, and so far so good. I tend to adopt the rather lazy approach to holiday parenting and allow the days to meander naturally. We don't plan, we just kind of free flow and hope for the best. The Little People are pretty good at amusing themselves for the most part, although Little B still needs Mummy imput of course, being that he is still only six. We've been baking together quite a bit, Little B and I - we took some over ripe bananas.....

.....and made some delicious banana bread (recipe here, with added sultanas). Warm from the oven and slathered in butter, it was oh-so-good.

Little B loves to sit and do a spot of colouring too, he can be close by me as I sit and work and I can secretly watch him out of the corner of my eye (he gets very self conscious if he knows I am staring). I love to watch his face move as he works with his pens, he truly delights me with his intensity for this simple activity.

We've stayed close to home for the most part during the past few weeks, but there have been quite a few outings to the local shops to buy food or some such thing that we've run out of and desperately need. It feels odd to walk along the canal with the Little Peeps and not be doing the school run, it's a strange sensation of being out of kilter  somehow. We noticed this week how the leaves are already beginning to change on some of the trees, my heart sinks ever so slightly at the realisation that Summer is on the wane already. Not yet, it can't possibly be yet. September is Still Summer!!

We've had many afternoons at the park this past week as it's been warm and humid and perfect for being idle and horizontal on a blanket with a green view.

I've settled us at the very top of the slope in the dappled shade of the trees and encouraged Little B to run-run-run his little legs off as much as possible. We've had balls and a frisbee to encourage the activity levels, but really that kiddlet just loves to run for the joy of it. He would think nothing of running all the way down to the play park there in the distance, throwing himself down the slide a few times, then running all the way back up the hill again, panting and collapsing in a heap on the blanket. It's marvellous actually, all part of my Lazy Parenting technique as I am required to do absolutely nothing physical, just using my eyes to watch. The occasional wave and swell of the heart, and that's the extent of it for me.

The reward for all that activity has been in the form of a daily ice cream treat, which I think is only fair. There is an ice cream van which parks just outside the park entrance, and we've made good use of it this week. Happy Little Peeps, happy Me.

It's not all been horizontal idling mind you, I have actually been doing some crazy stuff at the park myself whilst the Little Peeps loll about eating ice cream. I took a whole bag of woolly sheep with me and spent a happy time arranging them on the grassy slope for a little photo shoot - don't they look adorable? Yes, I did get some rather odd looks, not that I mind too much of course. What amazes me is how OK the Little People are with me doing these things, they pitch in and help and never question the wierdness that is my life.

I have to say I'm so thrilled by this creative project and love love love the way the flock is growing, thank you so much to everyone who has contributed so far. Each and every sheep is a delight, they all have such unique and beautiful little characters! There is still time to make and send a little sheep if you fancy joining in. Details here.

The past few weeks I've been working with my friend Lovely C to create the 2017 Yarndale* calendar. It's been a fun thing to do - we've combined some studio images with some amateur on-location images which has required us to dance about arranging stuff, snapping photos and pretending we are fancy pants stylists hahaha! The above image was a joint project, the flower post was crocheted by C using a rustic carpet yarn, and I made the flowers and leaves using Drops Karisma wool DK.

This is one of our styling type images, arranged in Lovely C's garden one overcast day in early August. We wanted to create a picture which felt Autumnal and cosy, and honestly we got such a kick setting this up and getting it just so perfectly Novemberish. The funny thing is that I realised after a few hours that I happen to hold my breath when I am taking photographs, so the whole day left me hyperventilating and gasping with exhaustion, but ridiculously happy at the same time. I took over 200 photos in the end (to arrive at a select 12) and am really looking forward to sharing them with you soon. The calendars will go on sale at Yarndale* in September, then will be available to buy online after that. I'll keep you posted.

I've been out and about in the evenings a bit this past week and have been struck by just how beautiful this time of year is. I feel so blessed to live in this place where I can walk to meet friends, strolling along the canal side on my way home at 7pm and just loving the warmth and light.

Summer is my very best favourite time of year, these light-filled days make me so happy.

I'm hoping that whatever your days are filled with, that you are enjoying the magic and finding joy in the Little Things. Life is good!

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*in the interest of honesty and clarity and disclosure and all that stuff, I need to just mention that *yarndale is a for-profit organisation and I am one of the five organisers. Details can be found here.

 ps we're off to the seaside now for a week of coastal pootling - see you when I get back xx

 

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