Mustard, I’m looking at you

Posted on March 13, 2024 by The Little Room of Rachell

I’ve been crocheting granny circles again. Mid-morning Saturday, Spotify Radar playlist on the speaker, new music to play and colourful yarn to crochet, while Someone read his book. I really love the mustard yellow one. It draws my eye again and again.

It was time again for my friend Lucy and I to pick our next recipe book of the month. Here’s why it started last month. This time I found myself messaging her to say: ‘The recipe book of the month thing – I found myself really hoping you’d say no 5 because I’d wanted it to be At my Table by Nigella, so yesterday I decided that’s my recipe book of the month. Watched 1st ep last night as all on iplayer.’

I’ve chosen a few things to make already. It won’t be hard at all. I really like Nigella. I made her Stem ginger, walnut & carrot cake on Sunday. It’s so good that I’m ditching one of my other recipes.

I chose number 47 for Lucy, sticking to my resolution to give her a harder number to count in return for hers last month, not that I’m petty, ha! And got a ‘Whoop whoop!’ Number 47 brought her counting along the bookshelf to Fresh India by Meera Sodha. I’m pleased too, because I bought the ebook when it was a 99p KDD and so will follow what she makes with interest.

Later another message: ‘I had shedloads of pages marked in this one, just went into the living room and Theo has taken them all out.’

I laughed.

And then: ‘And I had to say thanks because he was really proud he’d been so helpful.’

Theo (of the Patchwork blanket) is coming up for 3 years now. A cheeky little tinker.

Today I met up with my absolutely lovely cousin, I mean I’ve got lots of cousins and they’re mostly all absolutely lovely (!) but she is one of my top favourites. Her brother says we’re more like sisters than cousins, which makes me feel very warm and fuzzy. We’re both lovers of wandering around charity shops, this time she donated and I bought. She gave some jigsaw puzzles, including one I bought from another charity shop when we were slowly coming out of the lockdown restrictions. There were still plenty of hours to fill when social spaces and such were still not fully open, and groups weren’t meeting. I completed the outside and then lost interest. 1000 pieces might have been 500 (700?) too many when it had been decades since I’d done a jigsaw. At last I admitted defeat, and wanted to claim back the end of the dining room table, so passed it on.

During our wander I found this beautiful looking book. When I read Nina Stibbe’s Went to London, took the dog she mentioned the author Cathy Rentzenbrink lots because they’re good friends. It also grabbed me because of the recommendation on the front: ‘I loved this book… I’m so desperate for you all to share in its wonder, Elizabeth Day.’ It made me smile because at the moment I’m addicted to Elizabeth’s audiobook Friendaholic. I’m probably one of the very few people who have never listened to Elizabeth’s hugely successful How to Fail podcast. I recently heard her for the first time on the bonus episode of the Ghost Story podcast and her articulacy, intelligence and my sense of her general likableness made an impression. Friendaholic is astonishingly honest and open. She makes me laugh out loud, but then I find myself welling up. I love her narration too. If you like a very proper English accent (I’m looking at you America) then you will love her voice. I’m going to look for some of her fiction as well.

Dear Reader cost me the non princely sum of £1! I’ll let you know my thoughts later on.

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What are you making and reading this week? Have you also seen someone you love to spend time with lately?

Linking with Kat and the gang again for Unravelled Wednesday.

Autumn begins

Posted on September 1, 2023 by The Little Room of Rachell

It’s technically the first day of autumn in metrological terms (which I think is really all about neatness of calendar dates and forecasting the seasons.) Autumn in England lasts for September, October and November, then deep in the winter on the 21st of December we are suddenly at the shortest day of the year with fewer hours daylight but the days then start to lengthen again by two minutes per day. We all start looking forward to spring. I’m not wishing my life away, but it is nice to think about spring and which seeds to buy. The garden centre already has a full array of spring bulbs on display which you’re meant to plant any time from August onwards, for flowering in April or May. I’ve just come across this autumn list from our Met Office. I was surprised by number eight.

Did get some blackberries! But not enough for BB gin jam making, they’re now frozen waiting to be paired with bramley apples.

For Christmas last year I was given a box of 50 Tea pigs Darjeeling Earl Grey teabags. They got somehow pushed to the back of the top shelf of the cupboard, which I can’t reach and can’t see into. Recently re-discovered, I’m drinking a cup now, only my second. I can’t recommend them enough! The smell alone is enough…

White sourdough and cheddar & sun dried tomato. The cheesy one was buttered and eaten in the garden with my cousin in exchange for a favour on bank holiday Monday.

I think this weekend is due to be sunny and warm again. Hurray! There’s a chilli festival tomorrow and a family bbq on Sunday, wearing sandals again will be perfect. Yesterday I met a friend for tea and cake and a wander. I discovered all sorts that he’d gleaned from a recent local tour, but it was in misty rain and we both got quite wet. I saw a woman wearing tights and boots, there were lots of umbrellas up and an array of raincoats. I’m NOT READY! We’ve had such a patchy summer. I’m hoping that once the schools go back the sun will start shining, it often does that. (Mainly to torment the poor staff.)

Tonight’s dinner will be a sedate meal of salmon, spicy bean salad and homegrown pea shoots. We mutually agreed first thing this morning that tonight needed to be Thursdayish as we’d already had Friday, with new to us gin (Whitley Neill Distillers Cut Dry, good with a squeeze of fresh lime juice and wedges with plenty of ice) then Rioja with a curry. It was a combination of tiredness from a late late night before and the rainy weather. As usual the other portion of aubergine curry, with leftover pieces of chicken from a dansak has made a fabulous cold brunch.

The gin was only £5; as a thank you my mother in law bought me a scratchcard and also one for herself. Neither of us have a clue about them and the rules seemed really complicated. It wasn’t until I checked out a YouTuber, who basically just scratches off the silver on £20 worth of cards and calls it entertainment (!), that we checked hers again properly and found that she’d won two lines of £5. She shared half with me so: £5 scratch-card winnings, £5 of Nectar points and it was on special offer for £15 for Nectar card holders! Good timing, as there was NO GIN in the house. Not even a miniature. This is an unusual state of affairs.

No crochet has happened yet, my hands are too sore still, but I’ve got some good books. I’ve just been approved for the advanced copy of Nina Stibbe’s new book, so what I was reading has been abandoned. I’m not meant to talk much about it yet, but it’s her diary and is putting me off doing other things. I always have this issue with entertaining diaries, because you can’t do the “when I reach the end of the chapter I will get up / head out / do my physio exercises / wash the dog / pick the beans etc because there aren’t any breaks. I keep on reading and reading. Before I know it May has turned into June, and then I realise I’m totally engrossed in August.

Harvest time

Apart from pea shoots I’ve also been trying sprouting seeds in some purpose made jars I was given. They have blackout covers, but this was the last day when I wanted them to green up a little. The seeds are from a mixed selection of varieties from Verdant Republic. They were tasty eaten with a salad and are apparently full of really healthy micronutrients.

This week a long-term blog reader told me that my blog posts are long. Too long. I feel it’s all a matter of personal preference. Too long? Read in a few goes, or not at all. I’ve been catching up with some of my favourites and realise they’re partly my favourites because I do gravitate to long meaty blog posts, with lots of photos, that I can linger over and enjoy. (Lately: Ginny’s Small Things, Alicia’s Posy and Lucy’s Attic 24.) A mere paragraph or two can be frustrating and if it’s interesting, I find I want more. If someone habitually writes short posts I will save them up and read half a dozen at a time in a batch. Like a diary. Far more satisfying.

Kate of Fox’s Lane blog has just published a brand new longish post, after a hiatus. As usual her photos are sublime and capture some of her life on a smallholding in Victoria, (the link keeps disappearing, I’ve added it at least a dozen times.) I now really want to try heating water for tea in a pretty kettle on the log burner this winter. Her post inspired me and is why I found myself launching straight into writing about it being our first day of autumn. She’s so right – I too don’t want to be ‘told’. I just want to read about ordinary things. What someone’s making, cooking, watching, or reading, how the garden is looking or where they visited at the weekend. I used to love the Nothing is Ordinary hashtag in the early days of Instagram. Blogging for me is reading about the small things, but that’s what life is about, isn’t it?

How are things with you?

Books I’ve enjoyed 001

Posted on April 29, 2022 by The Little Room of Rachell

The Aerialists by Katie Munnik is a fictionalised account of a true event which happened in Cardiff at the Fine Art, Industrial and Maritime exhibition in 1896. I was unaware of this exhibition despite it being on a scale to rival England’s 1851 Great Exhibition, held at Crystal Palace. It’s such an interesting story, but I do not want to give any spoilers. At it’s heart this is a story about Laura, we find out about the journey that brought her to the streets of Paris and her life with the Gauldrons. Her story, as you’ve probably guessed, involves flying!

I have to be honest and say that I felt there were some weaknesses in the writing and depiction of the behaviours and dialogue of the characters, particularly as it is set during Victorian times, but overall the story is a good one.

When you’ve read it look up the BBC article published on 24/07/21, 125 years after the festival. (Not before, because it will ruin the book for you.)

French Braid by Anne Tyler follows one family from the 1950s up to the pandemic present day.

The Garrett family take their first and last family holiday in the summer of 1959. They hardly leave their home city Baltimore, but despite this are not a close family.

I love Mercy, the mother of the family. She is definitely a free spirit!

As an Anne Tyler fan I read everything that she publishes, this was definitely a five star read, one of my favourites, alongside Breathing Lessons.

The Language of Food by Annabel Abbs is the fictionalised account of the real life and work of Eliza Acton, while she wrote her famous cookery book in England in 1837. The story also focuses upon Ann Kirby although no facts about her are known, beyond that she worked for Eliza and her mother. But her story helps to round out the book and is a good device to compare and contrast the differing lives and opportunities of the two women.

The Language of Food explores women’s freedoms (or lack of) and limited opportunities to work creatively under their own name. I felt the author successfully conveys the frustration and difficulties which must have been felt by so many.

And finally of course; the food! Luscious descriptions and well written passages illuminate Eliza’s process of developing and testing recipes. (Perhaps luscious is the wrong word for the recipe for brawn featured at the end?!)

Other People Manage by Ellen Hawley is written by a new-to-me author, but I will certainly look out for more of her books.

Set in Minneapolis in the 1970s, it tells the story of two women who meet in a cafe. Marge is a bus driver and Peg is training to be a psychotherapist. You find out about their relationship, the challenges and surprises they face over the next twenty years. Then one day things drastically change. It’s a story about family, love and loss.

I really enjoyed it; the style of writing and low-key tone reminded me of an Anne Tyler novel.

If you read this and don’t fancy making meatloaf (veggies excepted) by the end I’ll be really surprised!

One Day I Shall Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe. Have you read any of Nina’s books? If not, then do! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read Love Nina. And seen the TV adaptation. That’s one of my comfort reads / watches.

I also really liked Paradise Lodge, that’s great fun, with laugh out loud moments. I recommend the Audible version with Helen Baxendale narrating. She really cracked the Leicestershire accent, that isn’t easy.

Anyway, back to One Day I Shall Astonish the World; it focuses on the friendship between Susan and Norma. They are thrown together in a haberdashery shop in Leicestershire in the 1990s. Thirty years later Susan begins to wonder about the choices she has made in her life.

I’m sure all of us can agree that female friendships are weird, brilliant and challenging, when they’re good they can be one of the best things, but strange and stressful when they go awry. I think Nina Stibbe has captured this complex mix extremely well.

A Song for the Dark Times by Ian Rankin. I have a confession to make; this was my first book by Rankin, although I’ve heard him interviewed about every new John Rebus crime novel for years.

It was a bit mad to start with this one, because it is his latest. Number 23 in the series! I haven’t stayed up reading and chanting ‘just one more chapter’ for a long time, but found myself still reading this at 1 AM a few weeks ago. I just couldn’t put it down. I will look out for others in the series now.

Rebus is now retired, but definitely not planning on avoiding looking into other people’s secrets and crimes, he has kept hold of a large pile of folders of unsolved cases…

Before he evens finishes unpacking from downsizing his home, his daughter calls to say that her husband has been missing for two days. Rebus fears the worst and knows that his daughter will be prime suspect. He has to decide if he’s going to go to her as a father, or a detective.

The Keeper of Stories by Sally Page I read last week. It’s such a goody! I felt a little bereft at the end.

Janice is a cleaner and notices people always tell her their stories. (I’ve always experienced that too, so I was drawn to Janice.) Her rule is that she can save one story from each person, but she is very clear: she is the Keeper of Stories and doesn’t have a story to tell about herself. But when she meets Mrs B (who is no fool) things begin to change. Set in Cambridge this is a really lovely story about supporting other people, while finding yourself and realising what you do and do not want. There’s much empathy and masses of everything practical, including DIY. If Janice’s skills don’t leave you feeling a tad inadequate, then I’ll be surprised. There is lots of humour, I laughed out loud often. Look out for the dog. (Warning for the faint-hearted…he swears. A lot.)

Let me know if you decide to read any of the books I’ve recommended. Or maybe you’ve already read some of them? I’d love to know your take.

Time to make a G&T (it’s not Dry Lent anymore woohoo!) and quickly sort out what I want to watch. Someone is fishing with a friend this evening, so I shall make the most of the P&Q. New Grace & Frankie eps are now on Neflix, or do I rewatch The Split’s third series and cry all over again? Or…?

The grey curse

Posted on May 3, 2017 by The Little Room of Rachell

There’s not been much crochet since Sunday since I, for some bizarre reason, only bought one ball of the main colour! So I can’t crochet any more of my beanie. Unbelievably I also ran out of grey when adding more to my Star Ripple on Monday! The curse of grey yarn… I know it’s not much of a Yarning Along post, but it’s entirely truthful.

The good news is that I’m near a yarn shop tomorrow. But I was very keen to do some crochet over the bank holiday weekend, feeling a little under par and needing distraction from the marathon snooker coverage on TV (anyone else suffer experience a lot of this too?!) but couldn’t do anything about it at all due to my local yarn shops being closed on Sundays and for the holiday. I’m better if I only have two things on the go at a time, so resisted the urge to start some knitting.

I enjoyed Love Nina, by Nina Stibbe so much that I’m now listening to Paradise Lodge, which is a semi-autobiographical account. I’ve found a good Guardian review if you fancy reading a bit more about her books. Do you remember the awful stereotypical character Emily, in Friends, played by Helen Baxendale? She’s narrating this book really well. Apparently a Leicestershire accent is hard to do but she’s doing a good job.

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I’m always making something and I never go a day without reading. I’m really missing Ginny’s Yarn Along as I always enjoyed seeing everyone’s posts, so I’ve decided to host my own version.

Come and share what you’re making and reading every Wednesday. Get inspired by others and motivated to finish your makes. You might even pick up some good book recommendations. Leave a current link here by clicking on the blue box below, and following the instructions. Don’t forget to include a link back to this post on your blog etc, so others can find us! Tell your followers about Yarning Along on your blog, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc using #yarningalong.

I was hoping your image thumbnails would magically appear here, rather than on an external page (I’ve paid for a subscription.) The issue seems to be with WordPress blogs, but one click on the blue box will take you to view them. If you’ve hosted a link up with a link-up provider, which does work well with WordPress, let me know!

Favourite things

Posted on February 22, 2017 by The Little Room of Rachell

Knitting and reading – a few of my favourite things. I can’t think of anything to say today, which long-term readers will admit is a first. But a sentence is often good enough for Ginny’s Yarn Along posts, so today it’s good enough for me as well.