In the lotus position

The weekend saw me attempting to make a stamp from the weird and ever-so-slightly-creepy lotus root. I ended up with my fingers covered in paint and feeling very much as though I had returned to kindergarten, but I did make some prints which I quite like and might incorporate into a card or two and it was kinda fun!

Also, some yummy buns, which sort of morphed into giant cookies (too much dough per blob!) From one of my grandmother's cookbooks, I bring you Feronia's 2009 version of the 1936 Commonsense Cookery Book bun:

1/2 lb flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 ozs butter
2 ozs sugar
1 egg
3/4 gill milk
Pinch of salt

Combine flour, baking powder and butter. Add sugar. Beat eggs and milk together then add. Add salt. Mix into light dough. Divide up on baking tray. Bake at 200 degrees celsius for about 20 minutes. But check them regularly - they can burn quickly once they get going!

I also added nutmeg and sultanas just prior to adding the egg and the milk. For '3/4 gill milk' I added enough to mix it all into a light dough. Yes, that's right, I guessed :) I also dotted a couple of them in the middle with jam before putting them in the oven.

Almost Spring...

Scenes from my (almost) springtime garden, beginning with the magnolia tree which my grandmother planted in the 1950s and which is truly the pride of the front yard, through to my newly installed herb pots at the front door.

Have a happy and peaceful weekend!

The more it blows, tiddley-pom

Here, the wind still blows, tiddley-pom. We have (so far) managed to avoid power blackouts but the gusts seem to be picking up again outside. The gum tree branch above was in motion when this photo was taken (I promise), though I am not sure I've quite captured that. At least the otherwise bleak sky shows signs of promise...

But, time to retreat with a book, perhaps? - check out my book review at Lesen Lesen -http://lesenlesen.blogspot.com/

"My name is Feronia and I've been taken back to 1981..."

Wild, wild weather here at the moment. In other parts of the country, it's unseasonably warm but here, unseasonably cold and windy. Power blackouts are predicted for later today and tomorrow so don't be surprised if the Wood falls a little silent for awhile! As an antidote to the bleak weather and as an extension of my current enjoyment of Ashes to Ashes, here's a little bit of the Nolan Sisters on Japanese tv in 1980. I loved the Nolans, especially this song! Does anyone else remember them? And so early 80s...the haircuts, the jumpsuits, the slightly-lame-but-still-catchy tune! I can just imagine Gene Hunt (Ashes to Ashes) having a secret groove to this! And You Tube - what a font of the long-forgotten! I've also been tuning in there for Bucks Fizz and Adam and the Ants while watching the trees blow...

Every Day a New Beginning

Back on deck and feeling a lot better, thanks in large part to a course of antibiotics. Thank you for your kind wishes! While taking some enforced time out, I have been dipping in and out of a lovely little book by Stephanie Dowrick called Every Day a New Beginning. A lot of what she says seems simple and yet is difficult to take on board. For example:

It is not a failure of self-encouragement to feel sad. Sadness is appropriate in many situations. Sadness can also be a useful invitation to look into a complex situation more deeply.

In this sweet-and-sour year I've been having, I've found this to be very true. As trite as it may sound, in sadness, one can also realise how much there is to be happy about. I think that sometimes we need that jolt, that plunge into the depths, to realise what is really around us. Have a Happy Monday :)

Archie hearts Veronica

Who knew? Archie Andrews is to marry Veronica Lodge. I had no idea that things had got to this serious stage. In today's newspaper, it's reported that in the long-running Archie comicstrip, Archie has finally made his choice between Veronica and Betty Cooper (she's the blond one on the right). I was a huge fan of the Archie comics when I was a kid, but I haven't really kept up with them since. Obviously. Last time I looked, he was deciding who to take to the sock hop.

Creative even in illness...!

I seem to have been attacked by a cold/sinusitis/tummy-bug combo. Yay me! But, you will be relieved to learn, my creativity has not been felled by this conspiracy of germs. Quite the opposite. Had a fiddle around last night and came up with two cards which I am quite pleased with - especially the blue one with the very cute stamp (see it in close-up) and, since teaching myself to cast on on the weekend, I have also been knitting madly, and in my favourite colour - is it chartreuse?

And, by the way, for those of you who are craft and especially cardmaking minded, check out the blog candy giveaway at Claire's lovely website: http://clairebsd.blogspot.com/