Domesticlou

The Cookery Year

I LOVE this book.  It is the Golden Hands of the cooking world.  My Mum has a copy - and has had it for as long as I can remember.  I have most definitely inherited a love of reading cookery books off my Mum and I have many memories of her using this one.  I remember being fascinated as a child by the front cover.  Anyhoo, a very lovely friend bought be my copy for my birthday and I've had much mileage out of it.

I love this page, oh how times have changed

Yes my friends, there was a time when peppers and courgettes were considered unusual.  Mind you, the latter IS unusual at Rotten Towers, horrible things.

The whole point of this book, the clue being in the name, is that the recipes are based on the seasons.  Quite right too.

So this is where the Golden Hands bit comes in.  Oh my word do they love a garnish

oh yes indeedy, that is potato croquettes, garnished with orange, cherry AND a frilly paper thingy.

And yet, when a really naff looking dish could really have done with a little something (preferably having not been made in the first place), oh no, lets not bother.

Stuck for ideas re ones crown of lamb?  Be stuck no longer.  The answer <nods> yes the answer is of course....pickled onions

And what is roast duck without crisps and feathers?  Nothing I tell you, nothing.

Joking aside, this book is ace.  There's nothing it doesn't cover and is full of useful info.  Have I mentioned I love it?

So, in other Rotten Towers news.  As always, have been out and about with the hound.  What a difference a week makes in natureland

I love blossom (I love a lot of things!) and this hedge is just FULL of it.  So much it looks like snow

We've had some amazing weather in the last month - hot enough that LG took up her summer spot on top of the shed.

And nice enough that there are lovely little flowers all over the place, the bluebells are on their way too.

And nice enough that the cows are back out in the field, cows are brilliant.  Fact.

So, makelets what I have made.  Just little bits and bobs really.  I quite like this, mainly because of the adorable little button.  I'm not sure how clear it is BUT IT'S SPOTTY!  Just a tiny bit of a rip off as it cost £1 but I love it nonetheless.

And I apologise in advance for this pic.  I do my level best to avoid including pic of me but I clearly got a bit carried away with myself.  It's a bit rubbish really but it's cheerful ergo I love it.

HA HA HA I'd forgotten this! Bloke was tasked by his mother to repair a much-loved ceramic horse.  It has had some previous traumas and all four legs have nasty gluey (oh dear, they make glue out of horses don't they?!) repairs. I happened to have a set of dpns in my hand and so......

By the way, the dpns?  I put them away safely this time.... Where not to keep knitting needles

I'm not sure what to do with this yet.  I love the colours but fear I may be going down the same route with hair clips as I have done with button rings. 

So, food.  Every pesky blimmin time I write this I mean to have taken more pics.  Last night was a butternut squash thing

5 of your 5 a day you say?  Uh huh, well it was HORRIBLE.

So today I've made soup

And tonight I'm trying to recreate something I had at the Slug & Lettuce.  Called a Tostadas, they say this:

Tostadas A cross between a warm toasted tortilla and a thin-crust pizza: a kind of delicious plate-sized open sandwich, served with great toppings and dressed mixed leaves, glazed with balsamic oil dressing.

I have high hopes......

Aww one more thing.  I bought this just because of it being more cute than a cute thing?

That's all!  Tatty bye

:-)

BOING!

Ahh what lovely times have been had at Rotten Towers, spring is boinging about all over the place.  First off was the Unravel, umm, show?  Event?  Dunno what you call it really but essentially it's loads of amazing yarn people all stuffed into a really cozy venue.  It was SOOOO busy though so lots of shuffling about and avoiding of 'Mrs Elbows' who seemed to get everywhere in a very annoying and pointy kind of a way.  So it'd have been rude not to buy anything right?

OMNOMNOM it's all squishy and squidgy.  OOOOH I had forgotten the Debbie Bliss Pure Silk (pink skein farthest on the left) where on earth have I put that then?  

Aww check out all the little buttons - I had a real battle with Mrs Elbows to get to them but they were well worth it

Also sneaking into the pic is my new book, purchased in order to make this: Attic 24 Japanese Flower Scarf and is AMAZING.  I proper love it.  Inevitably I have been all of a flurry making various versions of the aforementioned flower in a no. of guises.  Brooches:

And a hair clip :-D

I think that's all for makey stuff.  I've done quite a few hexipuffs and some granny squares but will probably save those for next time as I'm not totally sure what to do with the granny squares yet.

In other out and aboutness, me and the Mumsicle went to the Stitch and Craft show in London.  Oh what japes :-D  the show itself was a teeny bit naff, but we more than made up for it in comedy moments, not least when I decided to find our way back to the bus stop by using (a previously tried and tested method) of 'following someone who looks like they know where they are going'.  It's not as much of a long-shot as it sounds, given that most of the show attendees were silver haired ladies of a certain age, I really thought these two were a safe bet, turns out they were just going to a restaurant so we followed them there and then had to linger outside looking like we knew what we were doing :-D

As for being Out and About at Rotten Towers, the weather has been STONKING.  It's making all the outsideness all growy and happy

And we might have snuck into the Magic Woods for a little run around

Cripes it was hot though

And it's all still a bit chaotic at Rotten Towers, the plasterers have been but now the roofers have arrived.  Not the best way to be woken up in the morning but will be good to have it fixed.  Once the inside was done I had a mini celebration by buying a new lanterny thingy, pretty innit?

So, last but not least.  Food.  Well, it's been a bit of a food fest for the last few days so I feel I have to mention the amazing Kobe Burger from Foresters probably the tastiest burger in the world, and my most amazing b'day cake made for me by Mumsicle.  We've eaten too much of it to make a photo worthwhile but you'll have to take my word for how good it was :-D

Tatty bye, off to run off the cake.

 

Golden Hands

Oh good lord it's chaos at Rotten Towers.  The damp man (I mean he's here to damp-proof a wall, not some incontinent friend) has been here all day crashing and bashing about

Then the electrician turned up, it was all go I tell you.  Poor Doog is now sparko having been guarding me from unknown men all day.

Anyhoo, Golden Hands <grins> not as dodgy as it sounds, well, perhaps it is.  This is a publication that was one of those 'free binder with part one' do dahs from back in the day.  I remember my Mum having it but sadly she never kept it and when I came to wanting a copy for myself I had to resort to ebay. So, there's six volumes in all and I've been having a flick through them today.  All the instructions etc are still totally valid - I've taught myself tatting and various other things from these great tomes.  But the pictures.  Oh dear lord the pictures.  First off, one is instructed to rope in some very jolly looking chap to give one a good old measure...

I LOVE how he looks as though he just found her to be a cup size less than he had been thinking of, and that she looks like she's going to slap him

Then we come to some utterly bizarre poses

Hello?  What's that you say?  There's a crazy stalker lady behind me?

Oi shut it donkeychops or I'll set the spooky armchair kid on you

Which brings me to the children in this publication.  Truly they are REALLY odd looking.  I can't quite bring myself to say ugly as a) I'm no oil painting and as a child would have easily given this lot a run for their money b) their mothers love them c) they probably all grew up to be stunning and lovely people and d) it's not really cricket to say children are ugly.......I haven't included the pic of the girl with ezcema and smooshed banana on her face...

Then follows the 'forgot to put the trousers/skirt on' category.  Seriously, how can it be cold enough for a hat, but no bottoms?

Now we have the 'ones that look like they need a slap' (not that I condone slapping children of course) category

The plain cruel

The 'face says it all category'

MUM! HELP! I CAN'T FIND MY ARMS

And this?  I've no idea.  I don't know whether she looks startled, or whether that's the face of 'get this ridiculous jumper off me NOW'.  And why does the Police dude have a huge nose and a ginger beard?  And who has police knitted into their jumpers anyway?  Seriously....

Moving now onto the 'craft your way to a hasty divorce' category

Crochet (for the whole family) in colours to match your dog....

But it's not all bad.  With modern yarns and colours, some of this stuff is still stonking - well I think so anyway..

Again, not necessarily used in this way, but I love these

And this I've seen made up, not as big but not far off.  It's really beautiful.

And a little closey uppy

This is a wedding coat thingy.  I think it's stunning - if you are a size 8 bride of course but anyhoo, SO much work..

So, I said about tatting before.  It's difficult to describe what it is really, well, it's lots of knots and a little shuttle thingy.  This is the GH pattern

And my version

And last but by no means least, the most random item ever.  A pyjama case (a pointless item anyway, PJ's are for wearing ALL the time) in the shape of a giant headed soldier.  Of course.

And so to food.  Chicken in diet coke tonight.  Not entirely sure how that's going to work out, but it wants to work, I'm blimmin starving :-D

Tatty bye!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

That was me doing a ski.  As you can probably tell, am back from my holidays.  And very lovely it was too.  

That my friends, is a piste with nobody on it but us.  Seriously, we pretty much had this side of the resort to ourselves.  Amazing.  Peskily cold though (I mean I know one should expect that with snow but really, it was brrrrrrrr)

This was my first pint of trump juice of the week - Weizbeer in fact

Went down a blimmin treat.  This was in a bar called Cipo's, AND THEY HAD A DOOG!

Oooh he had a good woof on him.  V.v.lovely chap.

So what other holiday news?  Ummmm, well, there was a cow in ski boots

And have I mentioned that there was NO-ONE else around?

<sigh>

Truly an ace time was had by all.  No mishaps this year, other than drinking the local shop dry of scotch.  Gave this a miss though

But was VERY tempted by these

And still, no blimmin people

Well that's a lie, I think there might be two in that pic, but even so.

What there was however, was a little group of Apes that lived outside our hotel.  Now Bloke does love an Ape.  Apparently, Ape is Italian for bee like Vespa is Italian for wasp.  Or summat, might be the other way round.  Anyhoo, he was WELL pleased with this

And that was that re the hols, had a terrible journey home but hey ho, at least we didn't miss any skiing time.

Strangely, -26 in the resort didn't feel too bad, but -3 at home........brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Poor Doog skidded about on that for a while, a bit like a cartoon dog when they run on the spot :-D

Is still lovely outdoors, the snowdrops are just going over so I had to save some

Ooh and looky here, a cheeky little makelet

This used to be a pot of some kind of pudding from the M&S dine in for a tenner thingy.  Inspired by Attic24 covering up rubbish Attic24 tuna tin cover I decided to do the same.  And now it's home to my stock of lip salve.  Love it!

And then it was back to work.  I knew it was going to be a bad day, I got into the car (job car, not mine) and......

And I think that's about it for now.  I'm still working on my garden twine thingy.  I'll hopefully have done it for next time.

OH SILLY ME I FORGOT FOOD!  Well tonight is squash, feta & spinach filo pie with spring greens.  Lunch was, ummm, what was lunch?  Can't remember.  Must have had some though, I never forget a meal ;-)

Nighty night

More making, less planning

Blimes I can't believe it's the end of January.  And this week has been more about the making and less about the planning, and I've left the house, not forever I might add, I've just been a wandering with the Doog.  Little Miss Snowdrop has arrived at Rotten Towers, they are so adorable

It was such a lovely day, proper blue skies and everything

Even the poor empty trees look nice in the sun

And lookie, it's an iddy biddy little crocus, awwwww, bless it

I say crocus, I assume that it what it is, Dadsy will know, I shall ask him :-D

Then on the way back I found this little chap.  Now this might look like a bit of old lichen but I'm thinking of a lacy crochet shawl type thing.  I mean out of yarn I hasten to add, not actual lichen! I took this pic so I could refer back to it for the colour....

So, makey makey makey.  Finally I've finished my star/ball garland thingy.  This is the Attic24 Star and, well, balls.  There are loads of patterns for balls (ooh er) online but in the end I made up my own.  So, here it is:

I have to say I'm rather pleased with it :-D  I will probably secure the stars to the string a bit better so that they hang straight, but I had to hang it up first as I was a teeny bit excited.  I've also relocated the hanging birdies and I think they are happier in their new home

And I couldn't resist making some more blimmin button rings.  I don't know what it is that's so addictive about them but I really can't seem to stop!

Can just see in the background my lovely new stitch markers

Are they not just adorable?  

In other news, whilst looking for a bag that I think I've actually given to charity, I happened upon this

Aww bless it.  My first knitted project of adulthood.  The EFFORT I put into it I can't tell you, pity it doesn't show!  The beads I painted with nail polish as I couldn't find ones the right size and colour, took for-blimmin-ever.  I must look out that pattern as I'd forgotten how much I liked it.

So, last bits of makey news.  The button wall hanging do dah stalled a bit so I could finish the garland.  And I make have accidentally started on something else.  Crochet with garden twine no less.  Cripes it's tough on the hands.  It's going to be a bag if I can suffer the making process.  If that's the case I'll upload a pic next time.

Finally, food.  I made a pork and chickpea curry (page 90 of the Feb Good Food mag I think) and it was STONKINGLY good.  I did mean to take a pic.....but ated it all UP.  And the rest is in the freezer already.  Tonight is sausages, bought from the farmers market.  Mystery flavour as they've not defrosted yet & I can't read the label :-D

That's it for now.  Happy days

Less making, more planning

Just a very quick visit today so I can keep up with my makings.  I think I've had a change of mind re the buttony wall hanging idea of last time.  I've drawn a little picture

I was pretty much decided on grey as a base colour, definitely not black but now I'm not sure again and think maybe just the colours on their own.  Buttons however will be going in the corners of the blocks rather than in the middle of each one, if that makes sense.  I'll try and make a teeny sample tomorrow so I can see what I mean.  Ignore the bit in the middle, that's an idea very much in it's infancy!  I do have a much more in focus pic than this but I like the way the blurryness makes the colours smoosh together.

One would think, that me being home all week with just Mr Throat Infection for company, that I would have been a veritable making machine.  But no, I have filed and planned instead.  I even sorted out some of my buttons

The pot on the left is what is going to be button rings - as an aside, is the bunny pic not totally adorable?

Anyhoo, button rings, now I have made some more of these

I need to start giving them away I think, there are only so many I can wear!

So, like I say, not much going on, I just wanted to get down on 'virtual' paper some of my works in progress.  I probably need to park some of them and crack on with others.  

No wanderings this time but I did find this pic on my phone that reminded me just how peskily good the magic woods are (although not whilst stuck in quicksand but that's a whole different story)

And finally, I'm sure HHH won't mind me sharing the news on her new arrival.  This pic was sent to me along with the words 'all by myself, don't wanna be....all by myyyseellllffff'  <sigh>

What is not to love?  

Tatty bye :-)

Memories, wanderings and makings

Blimes, January already.  I have to say the move into the new year was less than festive as I was working but hey ho, here I am now.

So, first off, wanderings.  These are wanderings that probably went on in December (given that I've wandered nowhere so far this month!) the fields do look bleak at this time of year, but Mr Sun did try to poke his head out

Not that the Doog is in the slightest bit concerned

But check out the difference a month makes for Mr Fave Oak Tree, November:

And December, brrrrr

Anyhoo, onto a little trip down memory lane, for me at least.  This little trip started with this:

I have oodles of happy childhood memories, I don't generally dwell on them particularly but it's always a happy event when one just plops into my head.  When I was small (hard to believe there was such a time but there you go), Sunday's were spent visiting my granny.  This would involve a massive roast dinner, proper fruit pie complete with a china blackbird and a jug of whipped cream and then a walk with Dad.  I wonder whether I could find my way on that route now, I don't know, but anyway.  We used to stop in a clearing, I can't recall whether there was some kind of pond there or not but we definitely used to stop in the same place.  I would pick a tree just like the one above, and in the little gaps between the roots I would pretend there were fairy houses and would spend what felt like hours, lining them with bits of moss whilst Dad very patiently watched!  Ahhhh simple pleasures, it all came rushing back to me when I saw this tree.  Happy days.  

Righty ho, makings, my fave bit.  Today it's mainly about stuff wot has been made for me.  I had some lovely Christmas prezzies and not least of all these.  First off, a little jingle bell ring 

Awww, innit cute?!  Next up my lovely spotty stripey rainbowey tealight holder

Thankyou HHH! Actually, whilst we are in the pink room I might as well show you it's latest addition, I think I might have finished fettling the room now ;-)

Anyway, back to the makings.  Last but most deffo not least <insert drumroll>

Isn't he just amazing?  Painted by a very talented and lovely friend.  I have to admit a little tear popped out when I unwrapped it on Christmas Day.  I love him.

Sooooooooo, onto my own makings.  Although to be fair they are very much just works in progress.  Now, I have something of a surfeit of buttons:

In fact that's probably only half of them.  Lots of them I inherited from my Granny (she of fruit pie with china blackbird fame) so I feel obliged to do something with them - hence the knitted rings idea but that would be a LOT of knitted rings.  So I'm thinking some kind of wall hanging.  It's very much in the experimental stage:

The squares are only 4x4cm so I'll need a lot of them, and I'm not sure about having buttons on all the squares, whether to have all squares in different colours or whether to use a base colour and alternate with the button squares.  I should probably sketch it out really, rather than blindly carrying on with it :-)

And this is going to be a sort of starry/bally string to hang over the mantelpiece:

As you can see, neither the stars nor the balls are finished off, but you get the gist.  The star pattern I think I mentioned last time, anyhoo, if not, here it is Attic24 Star I've not decided how I'm going to join them all together yet but I'm working on it!

I think that's it for makey stuff for now.  So what other news?  Nowt much, poor old Snarfo had to spend 24 hours at the vets this week after injuring one of his three remaining legs.  Poor chap, he doesn't have limbs to spare so they had to make sure he was going to be ok.  He's home now, all fixed and fluffy again.

So all that remains is to talk about food.  YAYY!  Lunch was a slightly random boiled egg and pitta bread (don't ask) but dinner is this yummy stir fry dins not that I've eaten it yet so I may have spoken too soon re the yummy aspect although I have every faith in BBC Good Food

Nighty night.

 

I MADE STUFF and CHRISTMAS!

Gosh that was a long break.  I honestly don't know where the time goes.  But here I sit with a throat infection so what better a time to have a little bloggette.

Well I guess I should start with the stuff wot I've made.  These little chaps never made it as a gift, right now they are hanging in the living room.  The pattern for them Attic24 Birdie Pattern is what led me to discover Attic24, I just added three together mobile stylee:

So then I got a bit carried away and made tiny weeny ones by just making the circles smaller.  I used sari yarn, awful to work with but lovely colours.  Anyway, these are photo holders, I also made Attic24 Teeny Tiny Hearts to go in-between as too many birdies would have made it too heavy.  I should really take a pic of them hanging up, perhaps next time:

I've also just come across a pic of something I made ages ago, the pattern I think was from a magazine although it had those nasty plastic handles so I adapted it to be a clutch bag by working the opening bits into tubes and inserting some doweling into them.  The red bits were tatted and the pattern for that came out of Golden Hands (sounds dodgy but for anyone under the age of...ooh, probably 40, it was one of those 'free binder with part one' thingies from back in the day)

Blimes I knew there would be a lot of makey stuff in this post, I might add that I don't expect anyone to be reading, I just wanted to have a record of it all in one place :-)  So, next I decided that I had been a hexipuff virgin for too long.  I mean what is not to love about this Beekeepers Quilt and, as it goes, they are dead easy and quick.  This was my first effort, I've made loads since but no point in posting pics of all of them until they are made up

And following a rather inspirational conversation with HHH, we hit upon the iCord rings idea.  Well, HHH wanted to make knitted rings, I suggested an iCord and then the idea took hold and I couldn't stop myself from joining in.  It did at least mean I had a use for my snowflakes as my original idea for them wasn't really going to work:

 Two things to say, firstly, that's not grub under my fingernails on the first pic!  And secondly, the snowflake ring wasn't quite finished, hence the poor quality pic and ends yet to be darned in :-)

Phew, nearly at the end of the makey stuff (for now anyway), just two more.  This is a scarfy hatty set I made for a very lovely friend.  The scarf pattern was from Ravelry although I can no longer find it.  That said, it didn't include the daisies, I made those on a flower loom do dah because I thought it needed something else.  The hat pattern was a freebie from a magazine, I've made another that I adapted to have ear-flaps and ties up - mainly to keep the huge bobble secured onto my stupid pin head....I digress:

And last of all, Cedric the owl.  Pattern from Christmas Crafting in no time - a book that has so much in it I want to make that I should probably retire now.  Anyhoo, that brings me nicely on to Christmas.  

Following another inspirational conversation with HHH, she quite rightly pointed out that one of the best (if not the best) bits of Christmas is The Build Up.  In previous years I've put the decs up the weekend before, and had them down again the day after Boxing Day.  However armed with my new-found knowledge re Enjoying The Build Up, I had them up by the end of the first week of December

As you can gather I could go on and on.  My excitement was helped along during work hours by my Torch In The Shape Of Father Christmas.  Bloke bought it for me some time at the beginning of December and it is truly brilliant.  And Christmas Day/Boxing Day themselves were stonking.  New Years Eve I was working, a lot.  And was feeling rough as bottom holes by then so truly glad to get home.

I'll keep pics of winter wanderings out and about with The Doog till next time - I've just sent Bloke out to get a pic of Mr Fave Oak Tree now he's lost all his leaves.

Which only leaves me to talk about food.  Ho hum, haven't really felt like eating for days now so tonight will be soup again I suspect.  But I really should force myself up to turn the pork shoulder that's in the fridge into a slow cooked curry thingy.  I'll dig the recipe out and post it next time.

Toodle pip as Mumsicle would say :-D

Calling Agent Picolax

I was reminded of good ole Agent Picolax by a dear friend last week, following my knitting needle incident.  The original was posted on a blog about off-road biking, or something like that, but it's been reproduced here Blutone vs Agent Picolax.  This version has all the comments added by other readers removed which I think makes it easier, but versions as it appeared originally do exist.   I urge you to read it and persevere, at least until the bit where he gets into the lift.  WARNING it is NOT for the faint hearted nor easily offended, Picolax being the name of an industrial strength, hospital prescribed, laxative.  My own meeting with Agent Picolax prior to surgery a no. of years ago, was nowhere near as funny (although somewhat shocking unless you like a self inflicted colonic irrigation) but that's possibly because I had read the instructions :-)

Anyways, back to life at Rotten Towers.  I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear that all is now nearly back to normal following 'needlegate' and all offensive weapons have been safely stored away.

As usual, I don't really have any news to report, I'm a bit worried by how quickly time is whizzing by although as always I'm VERY excited about Christmas.  Oooh festive festive festive.

So, 'Stuff Wot I've Made'.  Well:

These are my little snowflakes, the pattern and blocking advice are courtesy of the amazingly talented Attic24 direct link to the pattern is here Snowflake

I have festive related plans for those, I shall elaborate nearer the time (it's really not that exciting!)

Then came my cooking fest, I think I said last time that I was defrosting a mystery meal, it turned out to be chicken pie innards so well happy with that.  Anyhoo, I decided Enough was Enough re The Freezer, so, I defrosted all things mysterious, and turned them all into home-made ready meals:

HA HA HA check out my Doog mug!  Brilliant!  Well it is in my world anyway ;-)

And there's more....

This is another phone pic so the light is a bit funny, still, you get the idea.  It's a quilt type thingy.  My first attempt at patchwork and me being less about the maths and more about the colour, it's a bit squiffy in places, but I love the colours and I'm dead pleased with it.  I've no idea where to put it, we only have one bed and much as I love Snarfo, he's not getting his muddy feet and slug friends on this.   And check out this face, I couldn't kick him off the bed :-D

That's it on the shareable Stuff Wot I've Made front, the rest is festiveness.

In other news, Mr Sun popped out today, me and Doog were out and about

Couldn't decide which way to go

So tootled off to see Mr Favourite Oak Tree (pesky Doog, sneaks in all the pics when I'm not looking)

Then on to The River and to my second fave tree, Mr Weeping Willow and his friend whose name I don't know, but he's lovely :-D

And a bit closer to see the pretty leafiness

 

Then in the last week, loads of holly has started doing it's thing

Aww and here he is, Mr Willow Tree

What's not to love?  And on the way home, more holly, I'm really hoping for epic snow again this year as this little gate with it's holly looks fab in the winter

So, all that remains is to let you know what I'm having for dinner ;-)  Shepherds pie with roast carrots.  One of my recently frozen ready meals.  Seriously, my freezer is a Work of Art at the mo.

Tatty bye, need to be up at rubbish o'clock in the morning <waves>

Tidying is dangerous. Fact.

First off, the fireworks.  They were A-MA-ZING.  And I know these photos are rubbish, but I only had my phone with me and anyway, looking at them again makes me remember all over again how good it was

I also found that my enjoyment was multiplied tenfold by Bloke purchasing me a HUGE balloon that was IN THE SHAPE OF A DOOG!  Awww, twas ace.  He (Doogballoon) is still bobbing around the spare room now.  And from the fireworks to dinner where I ate my own weight in sausages. 

So, back to the point.  Literally, of why, Tidying is Dangerous.  Fuelled by a most uncharacteristic desire to Tidy Up I was making the most of this phenomena by sorting through my wool stash.  I found a pair of socks in progress and put them to one side planning on working on them a bit later.  Innocently I carried on Sorting.  Now, I have a gammy ankle, I can't kneel on it for long so realising I had to move I tried to get up.  I failed.  Oh gosh did I fail.  I fell backwards, yes you can see where this is going, straight onto the aforementioned socks in progress.  Or, more specifically, on to a 5mm, 8" steel DPN (that's a double pointed knitting needle for those who don't know).  Of course I didn't realise exactly what I'd done, I thought perhaps I'd just sat on a bodkin, but I did conclude quite quickly that I should try and grab hold of the end of whatever it was.  I could only just grab the tip of it, oh yes my friends, the rest of the 8" was inside my left bum cheek.  Still not realising what I had done, I got up, and then on trying to get downstairs, the seriousness of my predicament became apparent.  Anyway, to cut a long story short, Bloke was thankfully at home and removed the culprit with the aid of his trusty Swiss Army knife.  It has to be said the Dr was impressed and so are Doog and The Fluffs as I've been instructed to not do too much for a few days.  Oh what an effort that will be :-D.  I'm not sure I'll be able to bring myself to use the needle again, here's the culprit:

In other news, the weather has been really uppy downy, mild one minute, cold the next, windy, wet, dry and sunny.  We had a few moments of sun this afternoon so me and Doog went for a wander round the garden

So pretty

I always wonder about the people inside aeroplanes when I see them going over, where are they going?  Are they going to somewhere nice or back home again?

Happy little olive tree.

As for Stuff Wot I've made, some I can share.  This just had to be done for the new pink room:

And the three heffalarps, I'm not sure I can bring myself to split them up.  Well, two will be going to the same home at least.  And the purple one I may change the eyes, the buttons are perhaps a bit stare-y?

Anyhoo, I need to end on a food related topic.  I've just emptied the freezer with a view to turning the contents into meals of some kind.  I'm currently defrosting a mystery package in the hope that it'll be something suitable for dinner.  I don't have high hopes, the last time I relied on nothing but the freezer for sustenance we ended up having a fish finger stir fry......