film photos.

Since my mother made the move to digital her old film camera has lain rather neglected.. I stuck some film in it last summer to attempt to learn how to take a decent analogue picture & last week I got my very first roll developed!

I still have quite a way to go (only 18 of the 24 came out! & a fair proportion of those were hopelessly blurry..) But here are a few from that roll:

.. This was a very unexpected photo of our old cat (co-incidentally also called Charlie!) who was sadly run over last July.

& this one I just like, despite the blur & smudging.

.. & now I am 4 photos into my second roll!

moonwalking.

So, there’s officially 15 weeks left before the Moonwalk & I’m beginning to think about training.. There’s a guidebook for it coming with the welcome pack but I am far too impatient to wait! Now all the snow & ice has cleared up I’m itching to get out & start walking.

Also we’ve begun work on the vegetable garden! The tree that was in the way has been felled & the wooden boards are ready to be nailed together. I’ve also planted a few seeds to make my own little herb garden & these are all happy sprouting on my windowsill. At least they are when the cat isn’t sleeping on them..

& finally I’m starting to think more seriously about starting up my etsy.. (It’s only taken me 8 months!) .. So it’s all busy busy.

sewing & snow.

Snow! I think this has been the longest I’ve seen snow on the ground for in my life.. It’s very pretty but I am getting immense cabin fever as the roads are too icy to go out safely.

Lots of time indoors has meant that I no longer have an excuse for not doing all the things I’ve been intending to do for a while. The sewing machine is out & the dust has been removed! I made an old t-shirt into a skirt:

& tomorrow’s project is to make a cover for the sewing machine itself. I am pretty much OK at sewing straight lines, but anything beyond that becomes complicated.. I need the practice.

Knitting wise, I’ve just cast on a cardigan.. The first large thing I’ve done for myself! I have far too much wool rolling about & need to start making it into useful things!

The Playtex Moonwalk 2010.

I got this through the post just before Christmas.
The Moonwalk is a 26.2 mile power walk through London leaving at midnight in aid of Breast Cancer Care.
I’ve done it once before in 2006 & am doing it for the second time this year: 15th May 2010.
More information at Walk The Walk.

It’s quite a challenge, but I’m looking forwards to the training.. I shall keep you all updated!

yummy new year!

This evening I stayed in & cooked for my parents.

Digging around in the tub for the very last few parsnips I found these two:

How cool! They have been spared from my roasting tin!

I made beef with stilton sauce, roast parsnips & potatoes & carrots. I’ve never made stilton sauce before, but I used this recipe & it turned out divine.. I am definitely going to make this again!

Stilton & Port Sauce

Ingredients:

25g butter
25g flour
75g crumbled stilton
200ml milk
50ml port

i. Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour & stir to form a paste.
ii. Add the milk & whisk well.
iii. Drop the crumbled stilton & port into the mixture & keep whisking until it has all melted & the mixture is smooth. Pour over the beef & enjoy!

I also made a white chocolate & berry pudding.. The recipe is over here on the BBC Good Food – I am too lazy to type it all out right now.. But it was yummy!

Have a beautiful 2010, all of you. x

christmas baking – florentines.

This year I decided it would be easy to do a lot of baking for people, forgetting that I’d have to leave this until the last possible minute to keep it as fresh as possible. But after a few late nights & a lot of dried fruit it all seemed to work out OK. I made an awful lot of Florentines, which seemed to go down very well..

Unfortunately I only have the one photo of them, which doesn’t really do them justice, but they were given away/scarfed before I could take better ones!

Florentines (With Grand Marnier)

50g light brown sugar
1 tbsp clear honey.
1 tbsp Grand Marnier (optional)
50g butter
40g plain flour
25g hazelnuts (chopped or whole)
50g flaked almonds
50g glace cherries
115g dark chocolate

Method:

i. Melt the sugar, honey, butter & Grand Marnier in a pan.

ii. Remove from heat & mix in flour, hazelnuts, almonds & cherries.

iii. Spoon small heaps onto a baking tray & bake at 180c for 10 minutes.

iv. Remove from oven & leave to cool, spread the melted chocolate over the base of the Florentine & once dry drizzle some over the top.

These keep for a good few days (but don’t last that long!)

christmas parsnips & tulips.

I now have a new layout! The banner is hopefully going to change as soon as I get 5 minutes to sort it out..

My tulips are beginning to sprout & it is nearly 2010! I love this gap just before the new year, you can do things you wouldn’t usually & not feel guilty.. For example: yesterday I ate a small chocolate penguin for supper.

I hope you have all had a lovely one.

Only a short update tonight.. My parsnips grew perfectly! I went out on Christmas morning with a fork & dug them all up. & here they are:

Oil, paprika & a bit of maple syrup. Yum!

Also, the spam-comment thing on this seems to be swallowing some genuine comments too.. I am trying to fix this but I’m still getting to grips with wordpress (After 7 months, I know, I know!) so I’m very sorry if anyone’s left me something that has ended up in a great void.. It wasn’t intentional!

castle.

It is December. Rainy & cold. So I did what any other self respecting girl would do & made myself a little fabric fort. Tonight includes knitting, pear cider & Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban on audio book. Blissful.