AWOL

Well I disappeared for a while there. I got swept up in the frantic rush of late November and December, a busy time of year at work as well as at home. I did keep thinking of my little blog but somehow couldn't get it together enough to write anything.

But it's a new year and a fresh start, so, keeping in the spirit of January, I'm going to do one quick, whizzy rundown of what I've been up to for the last few weeks and then move on with 2012.
There was a shopping and sightseeing trip to beautiful New York City. A treat for me from City Boy after struggling through a rubbish year health-wise.

There was lots of knitting and making ahead of the 25th of course, much of which was wrapped up and handed over in far too much of a rush to photograph. One such present comes immediately to mind - a reverse appliqué quilted table runner for my mum. I'd spent hours on it, and was finally sewing on the binding on Christmas Eve when I noticed a few red marks on it. On further inspection there were red smears all over it. Panicking now, and fearing the worst, I was trying to work out when it would have come into contact with red ink when I noticed that one of my fingers was also covered in red ink. Of course, I'd stabbed myself with a pin, which I'd not really registered in the frantic rush to get it finished and bled profusely all over natural linen. An unscheduled wash was required, and it was only just dry in time to wrap on Christmas morning.

There were a host of knitted gifts as well, including this lovely little cowl made out of some DK silk and merino, sent off to warm the neck of one of my grandmothers. This was actually for a birthday, of which we had two to celebrate in December. Really, it's quite inconvenient of people to be having birthdays when I'm trying to prepare for Christmas!

 

There were many, many shopping trips, often on two wheels with a laden basket, wobbling through the park.

There was decorating and a trip to three different places to hunt down that elusive perfect tree.

I didn't get many decorations made this year despite my intentions and the beginning of a Christmas quilt. I had imagined a quilt that could be brought out for snuggling in front of the fire in Decembers to come, but it currently consists of two star blocks.

Lots of baking (and eating), including a wonderfully sticky, spicy gingerbread loaf that I made (and ate) over and over again.

And there were lots and lots of lovely presents - I was thoroughly spoilt this year, including a present that I'd been dropping lots of hints for...

Except for leaving the house for a New Year's Eve party, in the period between Christmas and New Year we could, furry housemates included, normally be found on the sofa in front of a film with the fire on, all wrapped up and keeping warm.

Visitors and Intruders

I may have given up on the sun but I'm still clinging to the summer in terms of the food we've been eating. We're picking tomatoes from the garden every day, and have a bounty of sweetcorn, salads and broadbeans from the farmer's market for this week.

This weeknd was all about the soft fruit. This pile of plums disappeared in two days.





I came across this recipe for Vanilla Honey Peach Butter and couldn't resist giving it a try.

It's pretty good, and 4 punnets of peaches gave me 7 medium sized jars so I've been sending every visitor, of which we've had a few this weekend, home with a jar.

We ate it on freshly baked blueberry and lemon scones with thick cream when my parents came to visit. This type of thing may have something to do with why I'm struggling to fit into last summer's dresses.



My parents were visiting so that my dad could help us solve a little problem we've been having recently. A big black cat has been coming in the cat flap to have a munch at the buffet laid out for our two. He's quite bold - last time I found him in the kitchen he took a long look at me, ate a few more mouthfuls of biscuits and sauntered out. You'd think that my two would be able to deal with the situation, seeing as it's two against one and everything, but apparently not. Mia Cat hides under the bed and stripey cat wanders the house dramtatically yowling for an hour after the intruder leaves.

Fortunately we're not the first cat owners to have unwanted visitors and a solution exists. This cat flap scans the microchip and only lets those cats that are programmed in through the flap. It has all sorts of other fancy functions that I don't know how to work, like locking everyone in after it gets dark.

To eliminate the possibilty that authorised cats will be followed through the cat flap by an unauthorised cat, it only unlocks for a specified period of time after scanning the cat, after which it locks again. Fine in theory, except my two appear to require longer than the maximum time period allowed to determine that the new door, which beeps and has flashing lights, is safe to go through.








Consequently much of my weekend has been spent going back and forth to the back door to let cats in. They're on their own today, so they have to either speed up their decision making process or spend the day in the rain. And according to stripey cat, getting wet is even worse than big scary intruders.

Location:London,United Kingdom

A birthday at the Littlest House

Disclaimer: This post is unashamedly and entirely about my cat. If you’re not interested in cats then you’ll probably want to go and read something else. Google ‘mother-in-law email’ if you haven’t already read it – it’s hilarious.

Our little Mia Cat turned one on the 21^st June – I’d marked it on the calendar. I didn’t think she’d insist on celebrating, but City Boy, without any prompting by me, bought a fish cake* for her on his way back from work. What a big softy – I have no hope of having unspoiled children with this man.

*A cake made of fish that is, not a cake that looks like a fish. It even had parsley sauce, but she didn’t seem overly concerned by the green bits.

She’s kept us amused this last year, this funny, naughty little goblin cat who loves to play under dripping water, who occasionally and arbitrarily refuses to eat unless she’s hand fed the food from her bowl and who demonstrates her love for us by leaving earthworms on our pillow.

She chirps when she jumps like a squeaky toy and she sings to the pigeons. She purrs ecstatically when she’s allowed her to tangle her face and paws in my hair and growls when strangers knock on the door.

She steals toys from children and would watch videos of birds on youtube all day if permitted.

She’s never once bitten or scratched a person, even in play, and is so gentle and kind that even the vet has remarked on her sweet disposition. Yet, upon spying any strange cat she turns into a spitting, hissing devil-cat and has chased tom cats twice her size out of the garden.

Happy belated birthday little Mia Cat. I’m pretty sure that your one birthday wish would be to get rid of the annoying stripy cat who persists in hanging around, and I’m sorry we couldn’t do anything about that for you. You’re pretty much stuck with him I’m afraid.

At least I have hot water

I’m not supposed to be writing this. I’m supposed to be knee deep in mud in Somerset, pint of cider in hand with unwashed hair. Instead I’m lying on my back contemplating a weekend by myself.

I was all set to go to Glastonbury festival, but it was decided that it perhaps wouldn’t best for the recovery of my back injury to spend four days wading through mud and sleeping in a tent, so I sent City Boy off with his friends and a selection of baked goods on Wednesday night.

I’m feeling a little sorry for myself and – I’m not going to pretend I’m at all gracious – I hope it rains all weekend and their tents get flooded.

I’m also feeling a little tired. City Boy thought 3.30am this morning was an ideal opportunity to fill me in on the day’s events, and the kittens thought that me swearing at the phone meant it was morning, and I should get up to feed them. In fairness to them, I do use my phone as an alarm clock, so normally when I curse at it it’s because I have to get out of bed.

They alternated sitting on my head with leaping on my toes for an hour, after which they obviously passed out from hunger, having gone four hours without being fed. Two hours later, at 6.30am, an odd noise woke me...

...thud...

...thud...  

The little bugger had climbed up onto the dresser and was pushing coins off one at a time onto the wooden floor. There was no hope for any more sleep so today I’m surviving on coffee and the promise of a lie in tomorrow.

I’ve finished the horrible work related thing that I’ve been avoiding the last few weeks, so I’m hoping to get some time to finish up a lot of the fun projects that are in various stages of completion.  Having said that, there are changes afoot and I even had an interview at another company on Wednesday. I cannot put down in words how much I loathe interviews. It’s been four years since I last had to do one, so I’m treating Wednesday’s as a practice and vowing to answer their stupid questions with a straight face next time.

“Can you describe, without moving any part of your body, a particular swimming stroke so that we can tell which you’re describing?”  

Identity Crisis

He growls when he plays and he fetches sticks for me. The other cat gives him a wide berth and a slightly concerned look.