Reasons to be cheerful 2

1. Turning over a new leaf, and really turning it over.
2. Realising just a little bit more of what it's really all about. I think.
3. Making scones but getting some really tasty biscuits instead.

Reasons to be cheerful 1:

A beautiful day. Not hot but warm, warming the bed which sits underneath the window.
A light breeze on the face.
Good milk chocolate.
Peanut butter on hot toast.
Just a little glimpse of promise, despite everything.

From Russia with love and a lot of mayonnaise

On Saturday, my fellow traveller in the Yellow Wood and I had a Russian themed dinner for just us two. Although the fotos I took of it made it look quite disturbingly disgusting (hence the lack of them above!), it was in fact quite excellent. We had Beef Stroganoff (prepared by my delightful and culinary husband), potato salad and egg with caviar (both prepared by me). The caviar came from Sweden so it left rather a dire ecological footprint, I fear, but we had to have some genuine Europeaness to such a Eurocentric meal! I love all things Russian (well, almost all. Perhaps leave out Stalin and the Gulags); I collect Babushka dolls and would love to learn the language but I stuggle enough learning German which at least uses the Roman alphabet. Cyrillic and I therefore seem unlikely to meld successfully.

Lost is the word

Did anyone (other than me) watch Lost in Austen last night? Lost was indeed the word. It lost its way and it lost me. The premise behind it is terrific - I am always one for time travel/escapism type stories - but with its crass and unengaging lead character it became more like a period drama crossed with Big Brother. And then, of course, it dragged out the classic chesnut: weren't people in the 'olden days' stupid, repressed and unenlightened; aren't we wonderful now in this emancipated age etc., etc. Certainly some valuable points were made, such as how our 'heroine' reacts to Jane Bennett essentially being offered up to the vile Mr Collins for the good of the family, but on the whole I was left with the sentiment of 'Well, if this is modern womanhood...'

The Quilt

I have been bitten by the quilting bug. Having been an avid reader of a number of lovely crafting blogs for the last couple of years, I have been aware of the deliciousness of quilts for some time. I have bought books on quilting. I even bought a sewing machine with a view to making my own quilts. And this was quite a step for someone with a long-standing fear of sewing, following sewing classes at school led by a teacher who tore in half ill-stitched garments. But nothing happened. Sure, quilts were lovely but I was struggling to get my sewing machine to work and my old fears returned – I couldn’t sew! And I certainly couldn’t sew to the beautiful, beautiful standards of the lovely Jane at Yarnstorm http://yarnstorm.blogs.com/jane_brocket/

But then, yesterday, I found a second hand quilt at an opportunity shop (charity shop, thrift store). Intact, clean and so pretty. I held it up to inspect it. Someone made this. Pieced together all of the asian fan shapes which made up the design. Made something soft, comforting and instantly welcoming with their own hands. I was hooked. The photo I took of it (and which I cannot currently upload for some reason) doesn’t do it justice. It was taken with my mobile phone because my digital camera is dead but it captures perhaps just a little of its charm, which is perhaps also just as much as I have of it right now too. I have much to learn, but at last I feel truly ready to give quilting a try. And so now, the sew-o-phobe begins her mission…

1985 called and they want their cardigan back

In one of my rare acknowledgements of current fashions, I thought, while strolling through a local shopping centre last weekend, that I might buy one of the new "boyfriend cardigans" for myself. They're a good length, look comfortable but are still reasonably "with it" (I have potentially betrayed the punchline of this blog with the use of that very middle-aged phrase). Upon closer inspection, I realised I already had a very similar garment lurking in my wardrobe at home. It had been there for some time in fact. Since 1985 to be precise, when they were first in fashion.

Away and here

I cannot tell you how much I enjoy being on holiday. I love it. In fact, I can honestly say, that I have never been anywhere that I didn't love. Some places, of course, I have loved more than others but there has never been anywhere that I have haboured an on-going dislike of. Even if that conclusion needs to be reached through rose-coloured glasses some years hence. I am always trepidatious about leaving behind the trappings and comforts of home before I go, but once I am there (wherever there may be) I am in my element. I love the very 'awayness' of being away. New things, things I have never seen before (and may well never see again), things which draw me out of myself and away from any problems which I have left behind and which may be waiting for me on my return. Strangely enough though, I always manage a disaster (thankfully minor so far) while I am away. There is a photograph of me amongst the April chill of Hay-on-Wye in Wales, an unbecoming woollen hat rammed onto my sinus-swollen head, my eyes puffy. I staggered around Japan with swollen ankles. There's evidence of this too - digitally captured I stand amongst the ordered and beautiful splendour of one of Kyoto's many temple gardens, one ungainly, elephantine foot swathed in bandage. In Germany, I thought it would be hot, so I took skirts and cheesecloth tops. It was so brisk that I had to buy jeans and a jumper at our first stop in Cologne. In Japan, I thought it would be cold, so I took my thickest jumpers, scarves and woollen hats. It was 28 degrees celsius most days and so I spent a considerable chunk of time hunting amongst the Japanese clothing shops for anything cooler which would fit my decidely non-Japanese frame. The more I think I am prepared, the more I try to cover every eventuality, the less prepared I seem to be. This is just one life-lesson which I have taken from traveling (if not quite thoroughly absorbed into my everyday life just yet) and it alone gives me all the more reason to love traveling so.