Overheard

Before we moved to the countryside we lived in a suburb of a large city. The city centre was just over a mile away, life was busy, noisy and fairly typical, I would think, of city living.

Here there is a different pace of life. No one hurries. There is time for conversation and people actually chat to you in shops, on the street, on the bus.

I have been amused by conversations I simply would never have had nor overheard in the city:

" the wild boar are such a nuisance in the garden"

" I need pellets for my air rifle"

" you need a polytunnel. It is useless trying to grow anything in the garden with the deer"

" there was a snake sunbathing on my patio"

" the price of oil has gone down so much. I wish I could fit more than 500 litres in my tank"

" do you have your candles and paraffin ready for the power cuts"

" you can borrow my chainsaw"

" I'll bring you a bale round"

" do you want to barter"

" it is such a pain, the Forestry Commission closing paths for felling, I have to ride for miles"

I never thought I would:

Wear a high visibility vest to go out at night.

Wear crocs as standard footwear - and wellies.

Live in jeans and fleeces.

Chop wood.

Wonder what kind of livestock to have to add to our hens and ducks.

Bake my own bread out of necessity not choice.

Freeze milk.

Buy a spare freezer for home grown produce.

Join the WI.

I love it here!

The annual courgette glut - and another log cabin

Even though we have moved house, and country, we still have the annual glut of courgettes or zucchini. This year I have attempted some different recipes and strategies to deal with the influx.

As we now are living nearer to our daughters, and their friends, goody bags are being offered at the end of each visit - a few eggs, French beans, a slice of cake, a marrow.....and new recipes are being attempted. My favourite is my deconstructed moussaka. Unlike in the US, as I have been reading about recently in light of the NATO summit due to be held near here from tomorrow, we eat a lot of lamb and particularly Welsh lamb. I like to roast a leg of lamb slowly in the oven, covered in foil and slathered in a mixture of Ras al Hanoot spices, lemon juice and olive oil. This provides a meal of a roast dinner with potatoes and vegetables. The remaining lamb can then be used for a shepherds pie and then for the deconstructed moussaka. I cube the lamb and add to some fried onions and tomato and a little cinnamon. The marrow I then slice into large rounds and remove the central soft area with a pastry cutter. I heat a griddle and lightly oil the marrow slices before griddling them. When they are ready I microwave some left over potato and slice thinly and grate some cheese. The moussaka is the constructed by piling some of the meat mixture in the middle of a bowl, layering slices of the griddled marrow around the edges and the sliced potatoes on the top. The grated cheese is then sprinkled on the top and quickly melts in.

Griddled courgettes have also become a favourite vegetable accompaniment to any meal.

Googled recipes for courgette chutney and particularly marrow chutney - a James Martin recipe, have been very successful, the marrow chutney using some of the windfall apples too.

I am about to try deep fried courgettes and a courgette, tomato and cheese bake discovered in the  weekend newspapers.

And the freezer is so full of ratatouille that I have ordered a new freezer which is due to be delivered this afternoon!!

And in the meantime - a new log cabin:

My knitting addiction

II think I am suffering from a serious case of startitis but, thankfully, I am actually trying to finish what I start. Dawn and Peter got engaged a few weeks ago so a log cabin blanket was in order as an engagement present. Dawn selected some colours and I completed one of the brightest and loveliest log cabins I have made in a while.

Then there is still the baby knitting to do for Tor's baby. We don't know if this will be a boy or girl and, as I have a bit of a stock of girl appropriate cardies, I went for a beautiful, traditional, blue little jacket. It is in 4 ply and soft and silky. I am delighted with the result.

Obviously, having used up some of the stash - well that isn't quite the truth as I bought in the yarn for the log cabin specially to get the colours Dawn wanted, I was tempted by more yarn on my travels and found this lovely chunky in Shaws in Cardiff. Shaws is a traditional Drapers and they have a good selection of cheap wool and some patterns you don't tend to see elsewhere. I bought the yarn with no real,plan but a pretty simple sweater looks great.

A further shopping trip - to buy food, involved a bit of a wander and I came across a wonderfully stocked wool and craft shop in a market complex. I now have some 4 ply bamboo cotton - inspired by the little blue number and some more baby yarn added to the ever growing boxes full of stash - 5 in the bedroom, 2 in the sitting room, one in the music room......I think that I have to stop this buying compulsion.

However, I was tempted to do some organising so now I have this system:

Box one - current log cabin on the go

Box two - new baby yarns - 4 ply patterns

Box three - double knitting stash for log cabins

Box four - odd double knitting for random log cabins

Box six- beautiful wool - bamboo, Noro, alpaca....for special,projects

Box seven - chunky - for various cowichan a

Box eight - speciality yarns for toys, needles, works in progress

Oh - and box nine - I forgot about that one - cottons.

And box 10 - in the guest bedroom - some half finished chickens, but this is a small box. All the others are huge!!

100 years

Harry Stevens - my grandmother's brother. We visited his memorial in Tyne Cot a few years ago. He died on the Somme.

Albert Humphries - my great grandfather's younger brother.

His grave is quite literally in the corner of a foreign field - we visited and drove out of the village, along quiet country roads until suddenly, on the right, amidst fields was this small beautiful graveyard. So different to Tyne Cot but, nonetheless, moving.

Two young men, of the many, remembered.

Log cabins and Red Kites

Some old friends came to visit us in the new house. We had seen them quite recently but they had last visited us "at home" probably some 30 years ago! Consequently they had not seen the log cabin blankets that litter our sitting room and, fortunately, they loved them and, inevitably, requested one to match the new colour scheme of their lounge. I was delighted to oblige as baby knits are now proving a task. The difference is simple - with the log cabins I can just sit and knit. I don't need a pattern, I don't need to think very much. I can guess what 10 ridges look like and it doesn't take too long to count the rows if I have any doubt. With baby knits there is usually a pattern to follow, there are little pieces to sew up, borders to add, buttons to sew on. Little doesn't always mean less trouble.

So it was on to a new log cabin and it was quickly finished. Then a young friend got engaged and has chosen the colours for her log cabin engagement present and the eldest daughter has re decorated and wants a new log cabin in a new colour way and I have donated a log cabin from stock to a Kidney research charity as a raffle prize. Great! Lots of throws to knit, the first delivery of new yarn arrives - of course I had to add to the order of colours requested with just a few extras......

Sitting on the deck starting on the second of these new log cabins - purples and pinks being the dominant colours - I watched a large bird soar over the field. It came to rest in the copse of trees directly opposite and then soared into the air again. A Red Kite. Such birds were extinct in this area but have been seriously encouraged to return in recent years - and with great success - a majestic creature. The Red Kite flew out of sight but the family of three green woodpeckers reappeared together with the swallows ans the multitude of sparrows who live in our eaves. Fourteen little sparrows bickered over the bird bath, flew to and fro across various parts of the garden and came to rest in a row along the electricity cable - a fascinating and fun sight. I opened the door at the rear of the sitting room and a dragonfly flew in. I love my new home.

Then I made a little cowichan:

A rush on baby knits

Everyone seems to be having babies. I am inundated with requests for little items to send off to new parents all over the country. Two friends of my son are expecting babies within a month of each other . One knows that she is having a girl but the other has elected not to find out so I am preparing for each eventuality!

As so often happens with such events, today I learned of the passing of an uncle. At 85 he had reached a good age and outlived my Aunt by many years. When I heard the news, via Facebook as so often seems to be the case nowadays, I went searching for old photographs. In my favourite family album I came across a family shot from the 1970s. Only eight of us now remain, two whole generations almost gone but the few remaining are the characters we have loved for years.

I have one Aunt who is approaching 90 and is suggesting a family cruise to celebrate and I have a Great Aunt of a similar age who seems no different now to how I remember seeing her as a child.

This all prompts me to return to Family History research. An unexpected subscription to a family history site is going to be put to good use but maybe not until the end of the summer. I need something to look forward to when the garden is no longer a welcoming prospect and when the nights are long and dark. For now it will be some knitting of baby clothes in the evenings and days spent outside as much as possible. Memories will still be there when autumn approaches and some more obscure branches of the family tree can be investigated. In the meantime - the latest baby cardigans and that family photo.

More move knits

This baby knitting has been a great interlude and spurred me on to start using up more of the lovely yarn in the stash. I had just started a beautiful green 4 ply cardigan when I popped into a local yarn shop, which happened to be having a sale....so now I have more lovely yarn to knit up as baby items.....and enough to make a few more log cabins!