Monday 18 March 2024

And They All Lived Happily Ever After

When we moved to Dorset, Sir Julian Fellowes [creator of Downton Abbey] lived25 miles up the road. And Highclere Castle, location for the filming, was in the opposite direction, in Berkshire. Less than an hour away from Ferndown. I know it isn't in the National Trust, but please can we visit? I said. In 2015.

I met Sir J and his wife in a local Charity shop once [Lady F took the photo on my phone] A jolly nice chap he was too. In the autumn of 2019 I went with a group of 10 friends to see the first Downton film at the cinema in Poole But I still hadn't been to  to Highclere. "We retire in eighteen months" I said - so in 2020 we must go" Bob said that was fine, we would. Nobody went anywhere in 2020 did they?  [except Barnard Castle, or parties in Downing Street]

And we moved to Norfolk [200 miles, nearly 4 hours to Highclere] The sequel film came out in 2022. Bob wasn't interested in going to see it, I couldn't find anyone to go with. 
Then at last, it was released on Netflix on Friday. Saturday Bob was doing woodwork in the workshop - so I settled down with tea and cross stitch and indulged in an afternoon of  sheer escapism.

If you enjoyed the series and the first film , you will enjoy this. If you are not really up on the backstory of DA it may be a little confusing in places.
But I loved it - crazy plot, but somehow it managed to tie up all the ends in tidy little bows. People who should have got together did, difficult people were placated. Some neat little in-jokes - like when the French Milliner mistakes Carson the butler for Lady Bagshaw's husband. [Carson being played by Jim Carter, Lady B plated by his real life wife of 40 years, Imelda Staunton]

It was enormous fun and I shall probably watch it again sometime. *****




Sunday 17 March 2024

Loving And Giving

 Are we really at the 5th Sunday in Lent already? and next week will be Palm Sunday. How the year is flying by. Delia's little book beside my bed continues to give me food for thought. So many of the Lent studies I have worked through in recent years have been very practical - give to a food back, pay-it-forward in a coffee shop, donate coats to charity, help a neighbour...don't give something up, give something away.

All good in their way - but this study, published over 40 years ago [written pre-internet and mobile phones] is much simpler, and concentrates on encouraging the reader to use Lent as a time to first deepen their relationship with God and then listen and see where He leads.
I have very much appreciated Delia's writings - they are simple, and not preachy. She doesn't write as a theologian, but as a fellow believer - honest and humble about her own struggles in faith, and positive about the way God has led her and blessed her. Looking back over the last few weeks, I can see how there have been moments when, having reflected on the passage in the book, I have found myself better prepared for the situations I have faced as I go about my day.
I am still working on the 'giving away' though. Yesterday morning we popped over to the chapel to donate two sewing machines. a computer, and a few other bits. Tony was amassing a collection for Tools With A Mission. TWAM was launched 40 years ago by members of the Baptist Men's Movement. It has grown and grown. 
Do check out their website and see the amazing work they are doing - giving new life to old tools, and providing life-transforming opportunities for people in poverty across the world.
I watched my friends carrying rakes and spades and other things into the chapel, and thought how wonderful it was that these old, unused items can be redeemed and refurbished and repurposed TWAM grew out of a small group of men praying together about how to use what they no longer needed in order to benefit other people - and now it is a large, efficient charity.
Delia's reflection yesterday, about the connection between praying and loving ended with these words "God's power will give us the capacity to do more than we ever imagined, and the fruits of prayer will flow out to bless others"

Saturday 16 March 2024

Stepping Out

The Start Rite company of Norwich claims to be the oldest shoemakers' company in Britain - founded in 1792. In 1955, they received the Queen's Royal Warrant, having supplied shoes for Prince Charles and Princess Ann. A second Royal Warrant came in 1989 from Prince Charles - Princes William and Harry had StartRite footwear too. Altho the warrants were withdrawn in 2003 when production moved overseas - although Prince George was wearing SR shoes in the official photograph for Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday.
As a child I remember the distinctive advertisements showing two children walking hand in hand. I always wanted a pair of my own [too expensive, my Mum said!] But I thought of the ad again this week, when Steph sent me a lovely picture of the boys walking into nursery together

Update: I sent this to StartRite Customer Services and had a lovely, prompt email in reply saying they rarely got such nice messages, and it was much appreciated 

Friday 15 March 2024

Once Upon A Time...

... there were three bears. They were made from shirts patterned in red, white and blue
 They had little green backpacks

And on the sole of the right foot, each one had the logo of JD Home&Garden Services.
These fabrics all came from shirts belonging to our dear friend Jason who died in December. His daughters particularly wanted the logo from his green workshirts incorporated somehow, and this worked well. 
I used the green shirts to make the backpacks [the fabric was too stretchy to use for the bodies of the bears. Each backpack has a personalised label inside the flap. Special gifts for three friends - in memory of a wonderful man. 



Thursday 14 March 2024

I Don't Believe It!

We watched the Marlow Murder Club. I was so looking forward to this. I knew it came under the 'cosy crime' category - like Midsomer, and Death in Paradise, Rosemary and Thyme et al, and the author, Robert Thorogood, wrote some episodes of D in P. Cosy crime is people getting bumped off, but always with a bizarre underlying thread of humour involved.  I was expecting all that.
But honestly, I found it really disappointing. Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the phrase suspension of disbelief  meaning our willingness to believe the unbelievable for the sake of enjoyment. 
Too many things in this programme were just utterly unbelievable. 
These comments are not plot spoilers
I may not be an Anglican but there are a few things I know - one is that bishops are not expected to wear their mitres outside of liturgical situations. Squashed in between two women in the front seat of a van is definitely not a liturgical situation.
Also, no clergy spouse that I know off would be able to rootle about in a drawer at church and succeed in finding a knife sharp enough to saw through a bell rope. Bell ropes are 2" thick and very strong. Most accessible knives in the church kitchen are unlikely to cut much more than butter. [If there are truly sharp ones, the catering team keeps them under lock and key]
But the worst bit of the whole thing, for us both, was ignoring the laws of physics. If your car is parked next to a street sign like this


then its reflection in your windscreen will be like this below [not as shown above]


I know this is incredibly pedantic, but Bob and I found it really jarring watching the driver of the car talking on her phone with the erroneous non-reflection onscreen in front of her. It was really just careless editing on somebody's part. 
I have not read the book, but a few reviewers have said the book is much better, because the TV adaptation introduced some really clunky dialogue, and that the book would have suited a slower four-part adaptation better. Author Robert Thorogood has written two more books in the series, so I shall try and read them before Samantha Bond and her pals come back to our screens. 
I know lots of friends really enjoyed this whodunit - please don't be put off by my review! 
At least Death in Paradise is still there, and the spinoff [Beyond Paradise] from Cornwall is coming back soon...

Wednesday 13 March 2024

Sew Far, Sew Good


I have been very slow at posting about our latest collaborative stitching. We have both been busy with other projects. But here are our Jan-Feb pieces
I love snowdrops and this is a beautiful piece of stitching, my photo does not do it justice
My piece was our names done in hieroglyphics in a sort of Egyptian cartouche. I only discovered afterwards that the horizontal line at the bottom and the crossed lines indicate that this means a Royal Personage!

I have yet to work out what my final section will be. I had a really good idea in the middle of the night on Saturday, but I have been struggling to remember what it was since I woke up on Sunday morning. Hopefully it will come back to me soon.
I have been working really hard on three memory bears. They do look sad and floppy when they are half-stuffed!






 





Tuesday 12 March 2024

Kitchen Sink Dramas

A few random thoughts from the kitchen. Not particularly dramatic, but products I have started using recently and I think are worth mentioning.  I do not want to 'monetise' my blog, and get paid for advertising - but if I find something I think worth sharing, I like to review it here. Starting at the sink
Here in East Anglia, we have a dialect word for cloths/rags used for
cleaning around the home -
dwile [believed to come from the Dutch word dwell meaning mop] There's even an old pub game dwile flonking, where you flonk [or fling] your wet rag from the end of a stick. 
I have been concerned about the plastic particles in microfibre cloths and was looking for a greener alternative. And I chanced upon the Swedish Dishcloth, the ultimate ecofriendly dwile! These were invented by an engineer, Carl Lundquist in 1949. They are made of cellulose - wood pulp - they are highly absorbent, easy to keep hygienically clean, and when you have finished with them they can go in the compost bin. They do not smell bad like some dishcloths do, and they rinse easily.
I had read some reviews  and decided to buy a pack for myself at Christmas. I bought a pack of Wettex [the original Lundquist brand] and started using my pink cloth on Jan 1st. On Feb 1st I got out the green cloth too. It's useful to have two 'on the go'
  • they are incredibly absorbent [tested with ¼cup water, they had a 98.3% absorbency rate]
  • when wrung out thoroughly, they dry surprisingly quickly
  • they are easy to sanitise [run through washing machine, or lay on top rack of dishwasher, or rinse thoroughly in hot water and blast for 30 secs in microwave]
  • they are good for use when washing up, wiping counter tops, cleaning the hob, washing windows...
I hang mine over the tap at night, and in the morning they are dry and fresh for use again. I am definitely sticking with these


Second thing is food related- specifically cheese alternatives. I have never really eaten cheese, it upsets my stomach, although as I have got older, I have discovered I can manage soft 'farmhouse' cheese [cottage, ricotta, philly etc] 
But sometimes I have wanted to umami taste, and  saltiness of parmesan sprinkled on a finished dish. "Nutritional Yeast Flakes" aka nooch have proved a good alternative. You don't need much to make a difference.
Even tastier is "Vegan P" produced by The Pasta Factory, in Manchester [a restaurant and deli] It is a mix of chopped almonds, walnuts, cashews, pine nuts and sunflower seeds, with added nooch, nutmeg and salt. The downside of this is that I can only get it from the wholefoods supermarket at the end of Steph's road! The company don't sell it mail order. [Bob gets his parmesan in a wedge from Lidl. It keeps for ages in the fridge]
Finally - yorkshire puddings. I am aware that this is a very divisive issue. But I like a few small puffy puds with my roast lunch [does not have to be beef - I like them with chicken, pork etc]
I'm not very good at making from scratch [unlike Liz who makes wonderful yorkies] and although the precooked frozen ones are brilliant, they do take up a lot of freezer space [esp when you consider they are mostly air]
I am completely hooked on Aunt Bessie's bake-at-home Yorkshires. I served these at Christmas and they worked perfectly. Each comes in its own little recyclable foil dish and they puff up splendidly alongside the potatoes and parsnips. Our last-minute-lunch-guest on Sunday was impressed. 
If you are an air-fryer-user then they cook well there too.] 
furthermore they are vegetarian, and minimally processed.
Have you found any good kitchen related items recently?