A Cold Coming We Had Of It

We live in a typical Glasgow tenement building (red sandstone; built prior to 1919; quite similar to this photo). Most of the time I love living here: the buildings are delightfully late Victorian, we have a bay window which lets in an enormous amount of light, the rooms are huge, the fireplaces are Art Deco (and sadly defunct), the tiles lining the staircase are gorgeous Arts & Crafts tiles (much in the vein of these), and our neighbours are mostly charming and friendly people. It is a pity that we do not have double glazing, though, for I have ended up with yet another bout of stuffed nose/sore throat and spend most evenings wrapped in a blanket/sleeping bag. In fact, I have read two Georgette Heyer novels in the last twenty-four hours which should speak volumes about just how miserable and cold I'm feeling. Tania of Cherry Makes is a good craft friend of mine. We have never met, of course, but that has never stopped me from forming friendships. Recently Tania came up with the intriguing idea of Ten for '10: "Simply choose ten things that you think will expand your skill set, and resolve to make something that tries your new skills out".

I want to participate in Ten for '10, but have been thinking hard about what I want to achieve craft-wise next year. Without going into too many details, my life might just undergo a few changes in the next few months and I find it difficult to think beyond the next few weeks. So I am expanding Tania's idea to go beyond craft and include other things too. It is not a New Year's Resolution wrought early, in case you are wondering, but more like things I feel I may have neglected lately.

1. I want to read more than I have in 2009. Or, rather, I want to read better quality than I have in 2009. I find it easy to curl up with frivolous little books, whenever I'm feeling sorry for myself, but I should also curl up with books that make me think (because I love books that make me think and sometimes I forget this).
2. I should watch more films. We went to the cinema once in 2009 which is plainly ridiculous. We watched a few on DVD, but there is definitely room for improvement.
3. I want to feel comfortable baking with dried yeast. I grew up using fresh yeast for bread-making and since moving to the UK I have been reluctant to scale this molehill called "dry yeast". Enough.
4. I should really get around to knitting a pair of socks. It is not that I cannot wrap my head around sock-knitting, it is more that I'm not entirely convinced I will enjoy the process.
5. Make Flyte, the jumper of my dreams. I have the yarn and I have the pattern. I even have a tweed skirt that'll look extremely fetching together with the jumper. Enough dithering.

Five more aspirations tomorrow.

Finally, are you following the Drops Christmas Calendar? Each day leading up to Christmas, they'll unveil a new pattern. Hey, I'm Scandinavian. We love doing things like this (stayed tuned for tomorrow for a bit more on Scandinavian holiday madness).

And the Boys From the NYPD Choir Were Singing

My all-time favourite Christmas song. Yes, December madness has officially begun.

But let's not forget that December 1st is also World AIDS Day. Stay safe and play safe, my friends.

Best Item Description Ever

I was looking for some gift ideas when I found the Adopt A Polar Bear Gift Pack:

The Adopt A Polar Bear is the perfect gift for those who have always wanted a pet polar bear, but are scared of getting mauled to death

(..)

What a fantastic feeling to know that you have done a little bit toward making our world a better place and making sure the Polar Bears get there cappucino and Jaffa Cake rations (or whatever it is they spend the money on).

Monday Mood

We have a pile of wrapped presents in our living room. David is celebrating his birthday this week and I finished wrapping his presents yesterday whilst he was out looking at naked ladies at his art class. I also made a head start on wrapping the Christmas presents. Now I'm all antsy because we have a pile of wrapped presents in our living room and I really want to open them all. I have never been the most patient person in the world. David's birthday means that I will not be able to go to Gourock on Saturday. Scotland's newest yarn shop, Once A Sheep, is hosting an Ysolda Teague event and I would actually like to meet some of the Edinburgh knitters I only know online. I'm also one of the few knitters who do not own a copy of Ysolda's new book and the event at Once A Sheep would have been a perfect time to buy it. Oh well. Maybe I should just go to Edinburgh soon?

(Speaking of crafty things .. if you fancy some Malabrigo, Madelinetosh or some luscious Debbie Bliss Tweed, head over to Make Do & Mend. Mooncalf is doing a blog giveaway. She is a lovely woman.)

Finally, I have begun yet another lace project. I'm convinced it is because I'm stuck doing the sleeves for David's sweater. I really should focus on the sweater, shouldn't I? After all, it is the boy's birthday later this week..

A Strong Brown God (And Soup)

I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river Is a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable, Patient to some degree, at first recognised as a frontier; Useful, untrustworthy, as a conveyor of commerce; Then only a problem confronting the builder of bridges. The problem once solved, the brown god is almost forgotten By the dwellers in cities—ever, however, implacable. Keeping his seasons and rages, destroyer, reminder Of what men choose to forget. Unhonoured, unpropitiated By worshippers of the machine, but waiting, watching and waiting.

- TS Eliot; from "Dry Salvages"; Four Quartets.*

The flood season has begun, in other words. Just south of the Scottish border, a policeman is currently missing as a bridge collapses in the floods. Early this morning I went for a walk along our nearby river, The Kelvin. I have never never seen it this high, although I know one of its bridges was swept away in a flood years back.

On the second photo you can see a bench where I sometimes sit knitting on sunny weekend afternoons. Not much chance of that happening right now! If we get any more rain, I think the pathways around the Kelvin are likely to be closed off. Luckily the river runs in a gorge, so there are no immediate threats to buildings in this area.

As you can imagine it has really been dreich lately so last night I made a warm, delicious soup:

Sweet Potato & Chilli Soup (serves an army of six)

1 red onion, roughly chopped 1 red chilli, de-seeded and roughly chopped 2 large carrots, diced 3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped 2 big sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into walnut-sized chunks 2 cups of veg stock (or more, see instructions) ½ tin of coconut milk ½ tsp of cayenne pepper 1 tsp of ground cumin salt to taste (amount really depends upon the type of stock you use) 1 tbsp of olive oil optional extras: handful of shredded cheese and dash of paprika

1. Heat the oil and add onion, garlic, chilli, cayenne pepper and cumin. Cook for about 5 min. at medium heat. Add carrots and cook until onion softened. Add sweet potato chunks. Add as much stock as will cover the veg. Put lid and cook until all veg have softened. This will take about 25-30 minutes.

2. Blend the soup - try to aim for a consistency between super-smooth and chunky. Take care you do not splash any of the hot soup on yourself (she says looking at her left hand). Add coconut milk and stir until well-mixed. Serve in bowls with some good rustic bread on the side. I put some shredded (lacto-free) cheese on top and dressed it with a dash of paprika, but I can be a bit poncy at times.

Substitutions etc: I used coconut milk because I'm lactose intolerant. You could easily use double cream, natural yoghurt or regular milk instead. If using milk/cream, you could also add a tin of chopped tomatoes and use basil and marjoram instead for a slightly more Mediterranean taste. Instead of sweet potato you could use butternut squash or even pumpkin. The sky's the limit.

(*Or, as someone said earlier this week: "water is patient".)

Recovery

Today marked the first day that I've been outside in about ten days. The weather was lovely: crisp and on the cusp of winter. I walked through the arboretum down to the newly opened Waitrose where I hoped to find fresh baker's yeast and buttermilk .. and maybe even a loaf of rye bread. I had to queue to get to the milk section(!) and, nope, no buttermilk and no fresh baker's yeast and no loaves of rye bread. The quest continues - although technically I am intolerant to buttermilk and technically I can buy buttermilk at an organic green grocer's a brisk thirty minute walk away from where I live. But: bah! Knitting-wise I have conquered the dreaded Chart B on my orange shawl and in my utter joy to get to the relatively easy Chart C, my brain went out the window. I have now tinkered back seven rows (not easy in splitty 2-ply baby alpaca) and am about to start Chart C again. Hopefully this time I will concentrate and not just go "Ha! Only half the rows are important now. Which row am I on again?"

I don't know how many of you watched (and thus loved) the Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog webcast earlier this year, but those of you who fall prey to anything Joss Whedonesque, you might get a kick out of the prequel, Horrible Turn, which is a fanmade prequel. I have only watched the first episode, but liked what I saw much more than expected.

And now our dreams of travelling on the Orient Express have been crushed, I have been looking into other possibilities. I'm quite taken with the idea of the Transsiberian railway. Instead of spending £3,700 on a 36-hour train trip, we could spend £5,600 on a 26 day long train journey running Moscow - Ekatarina - Irkutsk - Ulaan Bataar - Beijing. I even speak rudimentary Russian (handy and useful!). I have long wanted to visit Russia - so why not go all-out? At the moment it is not feasible for us to do this - money and work reasons - but in my head the Transsiberian sounds like much better than the Orient Express.

Ah.