What Katie Did

Happy Christmas

With all three 'children' back home for Chirstmas, I would appear to have fourth call on the computer. The odd free muinutes never co-incide with the energy to write a post, until now!
Christmas day was wonderful here, the weather was frosty and crisply cold.

and a walk in the woods was a delight. Poppy loves the woods, as I have mentioned before. We are lucky to have such a great place so near our home. On Christmas day we 'liberated' the boat from the boat house and had a magical row round the Secret Lake

Poppy couldn't decide whether she wanted to be in the boat or ....

 
......out of the boat. She finally settled for 'out' which made for a less rocky row!
A sneak look at the copies of 'Carp Talk' made this little venture even more memorable.

Also, you are never too old for a swing.

We had the stockings and the presents and the big dinner and they were all lovely, but this walk is the memory I'll keep of Christmas 2006.
Here is the start of another walk.

This is the annual 'Long Walk/Short Walk and Soup' Event. I think this is the fifth year. I make three huge vats of soup and Geoff takes the intrepid for a long walk while the wimps come with me for a potter round the woods. Us short walkers then watch a film in the warm sitting room waiting for the freezing hungry Long Walkers to return for the soup. Last year the chestnut soup won the popularity contest, this year it was the butternut squash and red pepper.  A very good recipe where you roast the  squash and peppers and a whole bulb of garlic  then liquidise the lot with some vegetable stock. Vey nice.

Here is a link to the most amazing bit of Christmas Crafting I have seen in a long while. Stunning eh?

And now it is nearly time to tell the joke you can only tell once a year
'I met a man today with as many noses as there are days in the year!' ... tomorrow.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Birthday Girl

Before Martha came home from University and Helsinki, Geoff was busy in the workshop making her special big birthday present.

and all my knitting efforts were concentrated on finishing her clapotis, seen here in progress at Cafe Nero one Tuesday afternoon.

Here she is modelling both

the different woods are cherry, sycamore, cedar and the middle box is a bit left over from Graham's kitchen - burr oak

Martha isn't minding having a birthday so near Christmas as much as she used to and has especially enjoyed how long this one has gone on for - starting on a bench in Bristol with hot chocolate and carrying on and on until now we are all set to run into Christmas.

BT has finally sorted out our phone and broadband so we are back in business!
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone

A Christmas Make

As if you didn't have enough to do, here is a Christmas Make for you. You need to start it yesterday because you have to wash out a tin, fill it with water and put it in the freezer overnight.

Now draw a simple design on it with a pencil

Next you need a hammer and a nail. Because i am married to a cabinet maker, I have a very posh brass screw, but any old nail works very well.
Hammer it into the tin following your pencil line, which rubs off very annoyingly. This is why your design is simple - you can manage it without a pencil line.
See I am wearing a glove. It's a cold tin full of ice.

resting it on something soft helps stop it rolling around.

This next bit is important....

make two holes near the top opposite one another - this is for the wire to hang it up.

Once you are sure you have all the holes you want you can remove the ice.

and twist some wire into the holes you made for the handle.

This next picture doesn't really show you how pretty your finished lantern will look hanging from a tree in the dark with a night light inside.

And if you are wondering why you need to bother with all that ice nonsense, try making one without!

These are lots of fun to make with kids. Have a few tins ready in the freezer in case you need to do something physical inbetween all the chocolate!

Twenty one years ago

We have had Very Big Winds here and the phone lines are affected. The internet cuts off every few minutes making prolonged use impossible. BT have been informed, but I am not hopeful. Today it is still and calm, so I am going to risk a post.
Today is Martha's Twentyfirst Birthday.
Here she is about 18 months, having a tea party with the cat.

She is celebrating her 21st in Helsinki, but I will be remembering the day as it unfolds and all the landmarks of a labour that ended so beautifully with the birth of my darling girl. (about 5pm GMT if anyone wants to get thoughtful with me). She was an angelic baby. I felt sorry for other mothers - their babies looked like piglets dressed up in baby clothes compared with the exquisite child I had produced.

Anyway - while I have been having connection problems, I have been busy with a felt making day (forgot my camera) the Hexham Christmas Market (forgot it again) two knitting days (we sneaked in a Saturday to catch up on some of this CHRISTMAS KNITTING!)

Oh - and work - lets not forget work!
Last monday I was on the panel of a 'Question and Answer' session for a group of orthodox Jewish women in Gateshead, about 60 of them. That was interesting to say the least!
And The Parent Education Department (me and Catherine)  hosted a Christmas Party. A lot of hard work, but worth it  for the happy people.  I am always amazed by how grateful people can be for a sausage on a stick and a cream bun.

The Christmas production at Owen's school is My Fair Lady. For the last several years we have had someone in the play at the end of term - but now that John has left and no longer entertains us with his theatricals, we go to see Owen who sits on the lighting rigging with a set of headphones on. Last night it was magnificent. I grew up with my Mum and Dad singing those songs - I don't think of Audrey Hepburn singing 'All I want is a room somewhere', but my Mum, who didn't have to manufacture a cockeny accent, she could just dig into her recent past and produce an authentic one. Blooming Loverly.

Christmas preparations are slow. I can't believe how little I have done this year. I am usually in a frenzy of activity about now, with the house all decorated and the presents hidden. This year there is Nothing Going On At All and it feels more like October than the week before Christmas. I did make some sweetie garlands the other day.

But with the last posting day on Tuesday I need to get going if we are to have Christmas in this house!

So what am I doing today? Going to a clothes swap in Alnwick? Very seasonal!

Twenty one years ago at this very moment, I was eating a bit of Weetabix and half a banana to keep my strength up and wondering how much more painful contractions could get....... 'a lot' was the answer to that one.

Happy Saturday bloggers!

Tag from Zoe!!

Zoe has sent me the challenge of answering the following questions - so here goes!!

4 jobs I've had
1. Newcastle's first Full Time Postlady!
2. Social Worker for the elderly
3. Midwife
4. Packing cornflakes at Kellogs as a student - a million years ago. Got very bored putting the free gift into packs one day and started filling the packs with plastic toys and one cornflake - didn't last long at that job.

4 movies I could watch over and over
1. Moulin Rouge - Ewan McGreggor, great singlaong tunes, fabulous visual treat - might have to go and watch it now......
2. Fish Called Wanda - oh - Kevin Klein, slapstick humour, very silly story
3. Return of the Jedi - when Han Solo realises that Princess Leia is Luke's brother
4. Amelie - lovely film, beautiful story, fabulous music.

ahhh - am I only allowed four???

5. Lord of the Rings triolgy - agree with Zoe - good knitting time - and i fast forward the battles

4 places I have lived (apart from where I am now)
1. born in Lancashire - the 'county palatine' my Dad always calls it and that sounds classy does it not?
2. Lived in Newcastle for a while - nice city - not too big, but very windy! still work there.

3. Moved around south Lancashire as a child - Southport, Accrington, Chorley, Preston, Manchester.... is that enough?

4. I live in Northumberland now - England's best kept secret

4 TV shows I love
1. don't watch a lot of telly, but I am hooked on Spooks (completely besotted)
2. erm... cooking shows - just watched Nigella doing Christmas Cooking Porn - she is outrageous
3. I know I shouldn't really like it but Jonathon Ross can be very entertaining - depending who he has on
4. enjoying the new Jennifer Saunders - Jam and Jerusalem - a bizarre caracature of village life - Joanna Lumley's character is wonderful! (didn't realise it was Joanna Lumley until the second show!)

4 places I have been for a vacation
1. Canada when I was 14 was amazing!
2.I was thinking about the canal boat holiday we had a few years ago with great affection earlier today - where Martha got to sleep on the converted table and learned how to operate the lock gates with a great deal of bad humour and Harry Potter kept our spirits up thanks to a mercy call to Unlce Alan for the tapes!
3. Spain with just Geoff a few years ago where we got to behave like adults rather than parents - a real treat!
4.a mad three day trip to New York 2 years ago courtesy of NBC and the Jane Pauley Show (now is that ever a long story!)

4 websites I visit daily
1. mine - how sad am I .... pathetically gratetful for your comments!
2. my sidebar list - perhaps not every day - but often - Whip Up is very good for links to other places
3. check the emails of course
4. again not daily - but a browse through vintage fabrics on ebay is fun

4 favourite foods
1. chocolate - unfortunately - trying to limit myself to very occasional posh chocolate these days as the weight refuses to shift
2. olives mmmmm - any sort with lots of hummus and pitta bread and salad with nice dressing
3. soup - home-made on a winter evening with a cheese scone or bread from the Watermill!
4. my Dad's egg and chips take some beating

4 places I would rather be
1. In my shed - I was on my way there when I checked my email and found the invitation to do this and got excited about this rather than the Christmas Knitting!
2. maybe not right now, but on a late summer evening - the west coast of Scotland with the dog and a long beach walk behind us!
3. by the sea - the Northumberland coast is breathtaking
4. Langley Woods on a tuesday morning with the thought of knitting with my pals later....

Well - I enjoyed that very much - I hope you did too. Now ..... who shall I tag???

Irish craft worker - I've just found her blog and it's lovely!

was just about to tag little cotton rabbits, but someone got there first!

so how about tiny happy?

and il bloggo

as ever though girls - only if you want to and you have time with all this CHRISTMAS KNITTING!

Grey wet day...but is it?

It's been raining and so windy, I nearly gave the Tuesday walk in the woods a miss, but Poppy doesn't mind the weather and in the right clothes, neither do I.

We have a blacksmith in the woods, his name is William and he makes amazing things. I'll gather some more images sometime for you.

And now it's off to knitting.

Here's what the best Mum and Dad in the world look like after 62 years of marriage.

Pretty good eh?

A visit from the fabric fairy

Sally phoned to say that she had been having a sort out and would be dropping some fabric and wool off at the shed for me.
Who wouldn't be excited by that phone call!

Some very lovely bits here and who knows what this one might have inside.......

No time to look now! I am sorting myself out for a trip to my parents to help celebrate 62 years of marriage! Have a think about that! Before that I have a dog to walk (the weather is glorious) a heap of books to sort at Oxfam, hopefully a chicken to cook for John in lieu of a fatted calf.... are you on your way home John? and about six knitting projects to sort out to take to my Mum and Dad's with me in the hopes of getting on with some secret knitting..... shhhh!

Did the Advent Fairy call at your house?????