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Much of a muchness
Things that make you go 'hmm'…
Old things, new things – snow joke, you know…
Posted by on January 8, 2010
I had a quiet intro to the New Year which was nice as the week between Christmas and New Year was quite hectic. Since then, I have been busy doing things I don’t normally do. First I baked a cake for a friend’s birthday. It was his 60th so we decided to have a 60s themed dinner – prawn cocktails to start, coq au vin and then I volunteered to make a black forest gateau for dessert. I haven’t done any baking for YEARS but I was actually quite proud of the finished cake.
I have also been rather obsessed with another hobby I haven’t done for an even longer time – knitting. When I was first married and lived in Cardiff (around 1978), my best friend, Jo, and I became passionate about knitting and after we had knitted ourselves waistcoats and sweaters, we then began knitting our (then) husbands, cardigans and sweaters too. Even more astonishingly though, THEY WORE THEM! And on a trip to Paris! It must have been love. We have all been digging out old photographs from those days recently and we found some pictures of the hideous creations we had knitted, thinking we all looked so cool and trendy. Bless. Anyway, I wanted some wrist warmers, and decided to have a go at knitting my own. I found this wool (Sirdar Crofter) which is patterned so that when you knit it up, it makes a sort of Fair Isle pattern which looks great.I finished the wrist warmers and decided to have a go at some socks and then some fingerless gloves. Here they are…
You may be wondering why the fixation with warm hands and feet? Well, you have read about or are experiencing the arctic conditions here in the UK. It is freezing cold. Most of the country is covered in a deep blanket of snow and has been for weeks. Here in Bridport, we have had the freezing temperatures (-9℃) but NO SNOW! We were forecast to have a huge dump of snow a couple of nights ago. I woke up looked out the window and it was green as usual. There was a flurry of snow for about an hour later that morning but it was like teflon – it didn’t stick and within a short space of time, it had mostly disappeared. I know snow causes massive disruption and bother for a lot of people but it does look so magical and is such fun (for about an hour until the cold sets in) but we seem to be having all the nasty bits – the extreme cold and icy roads and none of the pretty fun bits. Here is a photo NASA took of the UK recently – strangely, you can’t see my green oasis.
A slightly ironic result of all this is that I decided I needed some new boots to wear in the snow (!) I ordered them online but they have not arrived as the shipment has been delayed by…you’ve guessed it, the snow.
I did venture out to see ‘Avatar -3D’ the other night. It was quite astonishing and I absolutely loved it. It’s a visual treat and the world of Pandora as imagined by the CGI artists is extraordinarily beautiful in every tiny detail. The 3D effects are really good and actually seem to be coming out of the screen at times. Go and see it on the biggest screen you can – and make sure you see the 3D version and not the 2D one! Here’s the trailer (which does not do it justice).
I’ll spare you the photo of me doing my best Elvis Costelloe impersonation in my 3D specs….
Much of a muchness 
That cake looks fabby …… please send to me, you may keep a slice …….. oh, I suppose it’s all been gobbled up by now hasn’t it? OK, bake another one, just to make sure your skills are well honed, and send to me in it’s entirety ………. thanks.
OK, I’ll post it today…oh, the post is held up because of the snow? Better just eat it myself then – sorry.
PS It’s very rich, all that whipped cream, chocolate, cherries, kirsch – you wouldn’t have liked it, honest.
I am prepared to suffer ………..
I loved AVATAR too. Extraordinary. And your cake! Sorry about the cold there.
It was an amazing experience for sure.
Cake was yummy – even if I do say so myself.
Do not wish to know how hot it is in LA – too much to bear – it is SO cold here, I took Milo for a walk and I thought my face was about to fall off with cold.
The cake looks awesome!
And the knitting? Very cool. Is there nothing you can’t do? Are you a etsy superhero or something?
Paul
Thank you! I’m really into the knitting at the moment. Only trouble is I need two (or more) pairs of hands to do all the things I want to do. Need to finish a website, get back to making albums….so much to do, so little time :-)
Fingerless gloves, so cute! :)
…and really warm!
The cake – ohh Diane – my mouth is watering!
Yea, I know about warm hands and I will add, your neck. In Oslo, Norway tonight we have -20C so we need it when out for a walk. That’s also what I mean about my saying; There is no such as bad weather, only bad clothes you know :-)
Btw: Don’t worry about the temp at the Oslo Blog Gathering in August – It’ll more likely be +20C or more :-)
Happy Weekend!
It was yummy cake, Renny!
Very true – I have a passion for collecting (well, buying) scarves and pashminas. Thought I might try to knit a hat next :-)
Roll on August, I say :-)
OMG, that’s the Black Forest Gateau you told me about? It is STUNNING!!! And I’ll bet it tastes like heaven. Wow!
I’m a huge fan of self-striping yarn. Your socks and fingerless gloves turned out great! I’m knitting socks right now too. Haven’t attempted gloves yet.
I’m loving knitting – it’s so relaxing – and you can do it sitting down :-)
I’ve only attempted fingerless gloves, ones with fingers just look far too tricky – not sure I would have the patience!
A menu after my own heart … scrummy looking cake there .. well done Diane.
People seems to be taking knitting all over the place … even my Teen is at it .. I so knew it would catch on again.. I have some vintage 50s/60s/70s patterns if anyone is interested..:-)
Waiting to go and see Avatar .. just need to find a slot in the work/home diary thing .. it has had some great reviews .. plus to look like Elvis Costello for a few hours must be a bonus hee hee
Thanks! Several friend’s daughters are having babies soon, so I thought I might have a go at some baby clothes next, they are SO cute!
Saw Sherlock Holmes too recently – both films are great, I really enjoyed them. Looking around the audience at the Avatar screening and seeing all those people all wearing heavy black rimmed glasses is hilarious!
I didn’t mention before but I have been given a mountain of wool .. (at the end of a relationship some split the CDs in my brothers case she left her wool collection) so have oodles of baby wool
Sherlock Holmes was awesome loved every minute .. :-)
Lucky you! Just need the babies now :-)
I’m trying to keep my knitting under control! I have a couple of websites to work on and need to be getting stuck into those so I am trying to restrict my knitting to evenings when I am watching TV :-)
Sherlock Holmes stunk….It was to far out there.
It wasn’t that bad! I suppose if you are a die hard Conan Doyle fan you might not like it but Guy Richie reckons it was true to the spirit of the books (even down to the martial arts) and I thought it did a good job of making the brand more accessible and modern. Each to his own I guess :-)
hello again,
that cake looks lovely, bet it tasted nice. Down here in the heart of Kent we had several dumpings of snow for about 4 days running in early jan, it wasn’t fun I assure u. Did you get any snow in the end?
Still it’s all gone now till February /March or next year! YAY! lol