Rambling...

I love to be outside, as regular readers here will know it is an integral part of out week, at least one if not two days outside all year round.  I am lucky to live in a country which has an abundance of public footpaths which make wandering and exploring, easy and accessible.  I often find myself on a path that has clearly been in use for a long, long time.  The track itself maybe a good few feet lower than the land either side, worn down by footfall and weather most probably.  The history in those paths is likely to be long and fascinating, who would have walked there, where were they going, why did the path take thought that it does?  I was hoping for some answers in a book I read this month but it didn't fit the bill.

I have been wanting to read The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane for a while now, it has been recommended to me by many bloggers.  I was given a copy for Christmas and was really looking forward to reading it.   It really disappointed me.  The cover of the book describes it as a journey on foot yet 60 pages are given over to sea journeys.  The journeys that were on foot were largely made on well known old routes that much is written about already, the few that were new to me were interesting but made up such a small part of the book that they were rather lost.  It is a beautifully written book and had I wanted to read a poetic, travel book about walking this would have been perfect but I expected something else from the words on the back........

I have read on blogs about people getting out of the reading habit and not being able to find a book to read.  After reading The Old Ways this happened to me.  I am sure it was because I was disappointed in it and didn't want to make another bad choice.  At the beginning of every month I take my children to our local independent bookshop to choose a book.  My eldest chose a wonderful book this month and when he had finished it suggested, with perfect timing, that I read it too.  I had just finished The Old Ways so I thought why not?  The Journey by Kathryn Lasky is a book written for children about Owls.  The author spent time researching these beautiful birds with a view to writing a non fiction book about them but she couldn't get the pictures she wanted to illustrate the book so she turned to fiction instead.  It is the classic story of good vs evil set in the world of Owls.  The imagery created by the prose is stunning, the description of Owl behaviour, I would hope, given the research of the author to be be correct is a good way to learn about Owls.  It is the first book of a series which seems to contain many books.  This book provided the basis of the film Legend of the Guardians which was released a few years ago.  Sadly for us this is the only book in the series, in print at the moment so we will have to wait and see if they reprint any of the others, we hope so!

So now I am in a bit of a rut.  I have been halfheartedly reading The Making of the British Landscape by Francis Pryor which is a meaty read.  I feel sure that I should put this down and read it when I am more focused as when I do read it I love it.  I picked up a book in the library this week which I think I will read next, A Handful of Straw by Mary Rensten is the story of the a famous witch trial of Jane Wenham at Hertford in 1712, not that famous as I hadn't heard of it have you?  I grew up in Hertfordshire where this book is set and it is a self published book both of which give it appeal to me, I hope it doesn't disappoint!

If none of these take your fancy then take a look at A Year in Books for some other ideas.....

Mosiac

I set myself the task of finding colour in January.  When you really open your eyes and start looking it is amazing what you find!

Colour everywhere.

So what, I wonder, should be my task for February?  I was thinking perhaps the hints of new life?

Any suggestions?

Moments...

...this week of...

...happiness fun in the snow at Forest School, a day out birdwatching, a weekend with my brother and partner

...sadness at over eating

...creating rows on a shawl, rows on a scarf, bird food

...reading The Making of the British Landscape by Francis Pryor and to the children The Pirates' Treasure by Emily Bearn and the tale of the Sparrow and the Tug of War.

...learning about animal tracks and poo, birds, squirrels, bird food, new songs

...thinking about festivals and traditions for February

...wondering about a friends recent behaviour and whether I should be worried about it or not

...hoping to get everything done this week that I need to before we go away

...enjoying this

...looking forward to visiting a old friend for a few days next weekend

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If you would like to join me you would be most welcome, either using my headings or you own, let me know you have written a post and I will link up to it..........

Reading

I took part in a challenge last year, one that involved reading 300 different picture books in a year.  When I decided to join in I didn't give much thought to whether it fitted in with how we read books, having realised that it didn't really I decided to carry on with it to see, out of interest, how many we would read.  All the books we read were chosen from our shelves or of those of the library by the children themselves.  We didn't quite reach 300 but we got surprisingly close.  What the challenge did show me was how sporadic our reading* has become in a week.  Whilst I would always expect that we would read more in some weeks than others there were many weeks when we read little or nothing despite it being an ordinary week at home.  I am still mulling over how to include it into our rhythm or whether I should just continue to let it happen when my children want it to, this would be on top of the reading that we do at lunchtime our chapter book and stories and poems related to our learning.

My youngest would like to learn to read, she has mentioned it several times over the last few months. My eldest never made such a request he 'taught' himself to read and now spends a large part of his time reading.  My children learn very differently, as I would expect them to, they have very different characters.  I read to my eldest as much as I read to my youngest but he liked talking about the story, the pictures, me pointing to the words as I read them none of which my youngest wants or enjoys.  I know that reading books to children is part of them learning to read but there are other things I can do to enable her learning if she wants me to.

My eldest learnt a lot from a programme, Alphablocks he watched it extensively and exclusively at this age (5.5), my youngest does so occasionally.  I made my eldest a set of road signs which we took out on journeys, they have either one letter or word on, we have looked at these but have yet to take them out in the car.  I also made a set of labels of words of familiar household objects which I have stuck to the object.  She has been very interested by this idea and has been 'reading' these labels on and off over the last few weeks.  She has also been asking about words that she finds all over the place.  When I tell her about a new, to her, letter she will go and find more.  Slowly she is adding to her list of letters she can identify, at her pace.

I have a set of picture cards which along with a board of letters (like a lotto board) we can use for sound development and the lovely game I-spy.  We have magnetic letters on our fridge which my eldest didn't really make use of and my youngest is not that interested in either maybe now I could remove them, they do drive me mad!  I have thought about making cards with each letter on using a tactile material for the letter, has anyone else used these?  I would need to come up with some activities for introducing them, if you have any ideas...............I like the look of this book and this book but have not seen inside them both to know which would be the most suitable, if at all.  This is a journey that I am excited about, I thought it would be a while before she was interested.  It could also be that whilst she aspires to read she is not ready for it yet.  We will see!

I have realised by writing all this down that I did actually 'do' a lot more than I had thought to enable my eldest to learn to read.

* | * | * | * | *

* my eldest can read independently so I am really talking about the reading I do to and with my youngest child who is not reading as yet.

Repurposing

I have an old chest of drawers that used to belong to my granparents, it has deep wide drawers which are hopeless for keeping clothes in.  You always want/need what is at the bottom back corner.  We I use it for storage.  The top drawer is full of first aid supplies, a hangover from my time as an outdoor instructor I never go anywhere without a first aid kit which needs constantly resupplying..................

Of the other two drawers one has yarn it, mostly ends of balls from past projects and a few skeins patiently waiting to be knitted.  The other is full of material, again pieces left from projects, or pieces acquired/given to me that have already been made into something but would be perfect to be made into something else someday.  There is also a small pile of old clothes beyond repair that are, the could be used to make something one day pile.  One piece is a pair of old linen trousers of mine worn for years but now completely worn through on the seat and rather grubby I noticed when I got them out to have a good look at them recently.

I have been wanting to make some mats to put hot drinks on for a while now, we have a few round cork ones that look like a mouse has had a good chew at, they haven't I don't think but I wouldn't put it past those mice that moved in a couple of years ago.  We also have a few old CDs that do a serviceable job but they have a hole in the middle which means that a small part of the surface they are on still gets hot, one of our tables does not like this.  So I had some linen and an idea and this is what I came up with................

I had no template and so kind of guessed based on the one square mat we own.  They have a section of towel in the middle to provide the padding.  The towel is an old stained one that had been relegated to the mopping up messes pile.  As the linen was a pale colour I thought they would look good with an appliquéd shape on them, I went for an apple but you could sew anything you fancy, a circle, a leaf, maybe?  If you don't fancy applique you could just miss that part out and make them from some patterned material.

So I cut two squares, from the linen and one from the towel. The first two I made were 4" squares, the third a 5" square.  I sewed the appliqué shape to one of the linen squares.  Then I placed the linen squares right sides together with the towel square on top, pinned them and sewed around 7/8ths of the edges leaving a 1/8 of a side unsewn.  I turned it the right way out through the hole and hand sewed the edge up.  Voila a mat.  I now have three, in three different sizes it would seem.............

I have cut some squares to make some more they are patiently waiting on a shelf.

Moments...

...this week of...

...happiness a tidy house, watching snow falling, achievements

...sadness my eldest being really unwell, he is never ill and has really struggled with being ill this week

...creating rows on my cardigan, a birthday present for a friend, rows on a sock, snowballs

...reading The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane and The Journey by Kathryn Lasky and to the children The Pirates' Treasure by Emily Bearn

....learning about castles, perspective, marianas trench, plough monday, wassailing, snow, 2 and 3D shapes, volcanoes, evolution, gravity and mammals

...thinking about future projects we can incorporate into our learning

...wondering if we might see friends this week as everything we had planned last week was cancelled!

...hoping my eldest will be well enough to do some of the lovely activities I have planned for this week

...enjoying this

...looking forward to seeing my brother at the weekend

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If you would like to join me you would be most welcome, either using my headings or you own, let me know you have written a post and I will link up to it..........

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One of my lovely moments this week has been to join with Rhonda and her pantry challenge.  I wrote a Do list at the beginning of the year, jobs that I need to do at some point, one of those on the list was to tidy my pantry.  I knew what was in there but not exactly where everything was, it was organised chaos.  So the gauntlet having been thrown I waded in..........

My pantry houses most of the food, we have a few bits and pieces stored in the kitchen, one small cupboard and some wicker drawers for fruit and veg.  It is actually a cupboard under the stairs and was not originally part of the kitchen at all.  When we bought the house the wall between the kitchen and the hall had been taken down, we have extended our kitchen into what was the hall by utilising this cupboard as a pantry.  My kitchen is very small and there is no way I would be able to store what I want to if I didn't have this cupboard.  So without further ado, some before (left) and after (right) pictures.

Most storage is in wicker baskets, the top shelf is a stone slab which keeps food cool for most of the year:

Behind the baskets is where I store food that I buy in bulk:

I decant this into containers stored in the baskets:

On the other side of the pantry is the shelves for my chutneys and jams (homemade of course!) and a herb and spice rack this was all in order already :).

(sorry about the not very good photos, this cupboard is dark unless the light is on and it receives no natural light being in the middle of the house............)

Constancy

The green shoots of snowdrops are tentatively pushing their way above ground.  

The days are gradually getting longer, an imperceptible change as the earth slowly tilts the Northern Hemisphere towards the sun.  

The sun is the golden key to unlock the gates of nature's store of renewed life, to bring spring on its way.

Prompted by writealm

Adapting

One of the first big projects that I knit from myself was one of these.  I was really disappointed that it looked awful on, it was a hard way to find it out but raglan shaping really does not suit me at all.  I was torn over what to do with it, part of me wanted to like it as I have invested so much time on it the other part said give it away.  I am so glad I didn't give it away as eventually I realised that I could undo my knitting and reuse the yarn to make something I would wear.

So nearly a year a go I cast on that yarn to make myself a second shalom.  My original was a good fit but it has no sleeves and the 'button band' does not meet in the middle (it is not designed to!) I wanted  to have both so I had to adapt the pattern.  I know how useful I found other knitters notes on adapting this pattern to include sleeves and more buttonholes, I made extensive use of these notes, so I thought I would add mine into the pot too.

I shortened it a bit last time which was fine as a sleeveless cardigan but I wanted it longer to keep me warm in the winter. I decided that I wanted to knit this shalom as long as the original pattern, so I knitted the same number of rows.  The increases in the yoke were calculated using this useful calculator.  It took two attempts to get this to fit right.  The first time I increased too much (using the increases suggested in the pattern notes link above) and it was far too big. I hadn't measured quite correctly, I thought I needed to knit the same size!  I knit seven rows of twisted rib rather than the nine in the original pattern I wanted the yoke to finish higher up.  I wear a UK Size 10/Small.  So herewith my adaptation:

Body 
CO 67
Follow pattern knitting seven rows of twisted rib and with changes on the following rows:
8 increase evenly across row to 109 sts - see above for a useful calculator
18 increase evenly across row to 151 sts
28 increase evenly across row to 193 sts
37-39 K all stitches
40 - 44 St st
45 Divide for sleeves K30 place next 38 stitches on scrap yarn, K57, place next 38 stitches on scrap yarn K30 (117)
46 K25 P25 CO6 P57 CO6 P25 K5 (139)
47 K33 pm K63 pm K to end
55, *K to 2 sts before marker ssk sm k2tog rep from *, K to end
63 repeat row 55
69 repeat row 55
75 repeat row 55
83 *K to 2 sts before marker kfbl sm kfbl rep frp, *, K to end
91 repeat row 83
99 repeat row 83

Buttonholes were knitted using the instructions as per row 6 in rows:
6, 23, 40, 57, 74, 91, 109

Sleeves
I worked out the length I wanted these to be and used my gauge to work out how many rows I needed.  I measured the width I wanted at the cuff and worked out how many stitches I needed to have.  I knitted 83 rows, starting with 54 stitches and ending up with 24 before knitting a 5 row cuff.  My wrists are 15.5cm/6" and this gives a good fit on me.

With RS facing pick up 16sts, K38 stitches on scrap yarn K8 place marker for begining of round
1. K
2. K1 K2tog K to last 3sts ssk K1
3-6 K
7 repeat row 2
Repeat rows 3-7 until 24sts
84. P
85. K
86. P
87. K
88. P
89. BO all stitches

I had no idea if I would have enough yarn for this project, I could not really compare with the yardage that others had used.  I had a rough idea of how much I used originally, but when I started to knit the sleeves I realised that I was not going to have enough, then I remembered that I had not used all the balls I bought originally and there at the back of my yarn drawer were two more balls!  I had this much left:

This was the first time I have dramatically altered a knitting pattern.  It was most definitely a stop start process, each step needed carefully thinking before starting and I didn't always get it right first time.  I ripped a lot of stitches out but for me that is part of the learning process.  I am so glad I knit this by rewriting the pattern for myself as I have ended up with a cardigan which is a perfect fit.  I have fairly long arms, if you stretch your arms out from the tip to tip of your middle finger is your height.  I have a short body and very long legs so I can either find cardigans that fit in the body which end up sitting quite a long way up my wrists or are long enough in the arms and I could fit a small child in the body with me!

I bought some yarn a while ago which has been sat in my yarn drawer waiting for a project, this is most unusual for me I usually buy yarn for specific projects, it was a bargain and too good to miss!  I found the perfect pattern for it and then realised that it was knit in pieces which are then sewn up, I really don't enjoy that part of knitting.   It is a fairly simple pattern which I thought I could adapt knitting and adapting the shalom has given me the skills to understand a patterns construction.  So I am attempting to knitt all in one.  I have ripped all the stitches out once when I realised that I was knitting on too small a needle size!  I am keeping notes again so will update when I have finished, if I get that far!



Linking with Ginny

Moments...

...this week of...

...happiness a quiet week setting back into our rhythm, reigniting fires and passions, my new diary which keeps all my planning in one place

...sadness at misunderstandings (which thankfully have resolved themselves now)

...creating the beginnings of a felt horse, a coaster and some trousers, rows on a sock, scarf and cardigan, Galette des Rois

...reading The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane and to the children The Great Escape and The Pirates' Treasure by Emily Bearn, The Feast of One Hundred Camels and the Dinner of Smells for Mawlid al Nabi, Story of the Tree and Baboushka for Twelfth Night

...learning about solar and lunar calendars, mawlid al nabi, muslim months, twelfth night, origins of old hedgerows, old lanes and footpaths, wolves, incas, pharaohs and gods, dinosaurs, letters

...thinking about a visit at the end of the month to see an old friend who has recently moved

...wondering if I have already said yes to too much in June

...hoping to make some bird feeders this week

...enjoying this

...looking forward to my first orchestra rehearsal of the term

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If you would like to join me you would be most welcome, either using my headings or you own, let me know you have written a post and I will link up to it..........

Traditions

The last month is a time steeped in traditions some of them very old, my understanding is that you only have to do something twice for it to become a tradition.  The food eaten as part of the celebration varies across the world but it is usually the same food each year.  In the UK a Roast Turkey is the centre piece of a meal on Christmas Day, this was popularised by the Victorians although it was eaten by some for many centuries prior.  The Christmas Pudding most usually served for dessert is thought to date back to medieval times.

As a vegetarian I don't eat turkey and I have to confess that I have never really been a fan of Christmas pudding or cake, minces pies or trifle.  I can well remember spending the period after eating on Christmas day in bed not because I had eaten too much but because the food is so and rich and my digestive system complained.  I have been mulling over thoughts about Christmas food lately. We spend alternate years at home, the other year is spent with parents/grandparents.  When we go away for Christmas we eat the traditional food of the season (not me!) but if we are at home I don't prepare any of them.  My oven is big enough to take a turkey but not much else so I usually cook a ham or chicken.  I have a lot to do when we have Christmas at home so I prefer not to use my time preparing food that I will not eat, as this means I have to make double the amounts so that I have something to eat too.  December can become a month of excess on so many fronts, I always strive to keep things simple so cooking double food quantities does not sit well with me.

I have worried that my particular diet means that my children are missing out on the traditional food of Christmas until I realised that every other year they get offered that food at their grandparents houses.  We can make our own 'traditional' food at home creating new ones of our own and giving the children the best of both worlds which they can choose from in their future.  So I think our new tradition will be a roast dinner based around a ham or possible a chicken with a Spicy Lentil Loaf as a veggie option and an apple pie for pudding. If we are in want or need of cake, then the wonderful rich and light Rosemary Loaf Cake, Nigella Lawson's take on the Madeira cake and Maids of Honour another Nigella recipe in place of the mince pies.

So what is on your menu at Christmas do you have your own traditions or stick to the old ones?

Mosiac

December, the first official month of Winter slides us in gently with its merry cheer, its festivities and its colour.  So whilst you enjoy some cheery festive colour I am off to find some colour for January........

Moments ...

...this week of...

...happiness seeing in the New Year with old friends as we have done so for the last ten years,  cooking and sharing food with friends, a quiet day at home with nothing that I had to do the first day for weeks

...sadness at the lack of respect some parents have of their own children

...creating a few more fabric baskets, a sock, rows on a cardigan, a plan for January, lists of things to make, do and read for the coming months

...reading The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane and to the children The Great Escape by Emily Bearn, and Father Frost a Russian New Year Tale.

...thinking about projects we can do together during the year

...wondering about a request my eldest has made which doesn't sit well with me but is that a reason to say no?

...hoping to find some colour in the grey that is often January

...enjoying this although it was nothing like my memory of the books!

...looking forward to being at home and settling into our rhythm

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I had considered stopping these posts at the end of last year but reading through them to put this post together made me realise how wonderful they are to look back on so I am going to carry them on.  

If you would like to join me you would be most welcome, either using my headings or you own, let me know you have written a post and I will link up to it..........

Slow Living

It is always lovely to look back and reflect on what you have done over the previous weeks or months, taking stock, observing changes and celebrating achievements.  Even better if you can join together and see hat others have been doing too in their part of the world, blogging is a wonderful way of making the world a smaller place.  Christine over a Slow Living Essentials started this wonderful reflection and has now passed the baton onto Linda at Greenhaven for the monthly link up here are mine for December...

...nourish December can be a month of overeating.  When I worked in a supermarket in my late teens and early twenties I was always amazed at the quantity of food people would buy at that time of year. I know that many people do so because they are cooking for many more people than they usually would but I can't help wandering how much more food waste there is at this time of year compared to the other eleven months.  I have tried to keep our diet simple this month as I know that the potential for upset tummies is higher.  I am not, and never have been, a fan of the rich foods such as mince pies, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake that are traditional so I am looking forward to getting that back on track in January.

...prepare it is the season for parties and sharing food with friends.  I have made quite a bit of food that we have added to buffets and Jacobs join meals with friends.  Simple dishes such as dips and vegetable sticks, homemade bread sticks, hummus and falafel are what I tend to make to share.

...reduce December is the time of year when consumption and spending can be excessive.  The scenes we have seen from Black Friday were thoroughly depressing to me.  I had an idea for a present I could make for a few of the children I give presents too and realised that I could make them from bits I had already.  These charming little baskets are a great way to use up small pieces of material, I had to buy a small amount of interfacing (used to stiffen them slightly) but the rest I found in my stash.  My husband also made two presents out of pieces of wood he had in the workshop, a saw horse and a lee board (for use on a canoe when sailing).

...green last month I mentioned my uses of bicarb including as a carpet deodoriser and one commenter asked for the recipe so I thought I would share it here.  I have used this successfully in our bathroom which is not a room I would choose to have a carpet in but we inherited it with the house.  We have yet to refurbish the bathroom, and will definitely be installing a different flooring when we do, small children and carpeted bathrooms do not a good combination make!  Now back to the deodoriser.....here is my recipe I adapted it from one which makes a very large quantity, I did not want/need to make that much:

4 tbs bicarb

1 tsp borax

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground cinamon

You can also add 1 tsp of finely chopped dried mint, rosemary, lavender and thyme I didnt have all of these so I just added rosemary and thyme.

Mix all the ingredients together and sprinkle on the carpet where you need it, leave on the carpet as long as possible and Hoover up.  I do this last thing at night and Hoover up in the morning.

...grow we are in the middle of our coldest weather now, it is too cold for anything edible to grow.  This time of year is all about tidying, weeding and fertilising.  I have managed to get into the garden a few times to deadhead, tidy, and spread our own compost and horse manure that we collect from a neighbours family farm.  It is good to give the soil a rest for a bit making it ready for the growing months.

...create I try to make as many presents as I can as gifts for Christmas and Birthdays.  In years past I have knitted most of these but I was finding it took up about six months of the year which was just too long.  This year I knitted a few and sewed many which actually meant I made many more presents in less time, five people were not given anything handmade at all, they were all given a book instead.  The rest (eighteen) got one sometimes two handmade things and my husband made two presents too, maybe in the not too distant future we can make and give at least one homemade present to each person?

...discover I have been trying to focus more on festivals in the last few months of this year, finding a way to either observe them or to enhance our learning and knowledge about other cultures, religions and countries. As Advent drew nearer I halfheartedly thought about ways we could observe the four weeks leading up to Christmas.  I have read about different ways that people do this and I wanted something simple that would work as a focus for the weeks which we could work into what we do.  I settle on a focus for each week using the four festivals adopted by steiner/waldorf methodsof learning and it worked so well for us that I know we will use this again.  I kept it simple this year but I know that we can use this as the focus of our learning at this time of year for many years to come and am looking forward to planning more activities in the future.

...enhance I had a knock on the door early in the month from our local councillor.  Here in the UK some local services are run at a fairly local level with some money trickling down from central government and some paid locally.  Every four years we get a chance to elect who we would like to represent us on the council to ensure our local taxes are being spent wisely, our local councillor wishes to stand down before the next election and asked me if I would like to stand in his place.  I was rather taken aback, it is not something I had even considered.  I have mulled it over and decided it is not for me but I was very flattered to be asked.

...enjoy this month has to be about celebrating Christmas with family and New Year with friends.  Knowing that this will happen and does so every year is reassuring and comfortable.  It is a very busy, bustley (is that a word?) time of year and it is easy to lose focus which for me is about family and friends.  It should be a time of coming together and enjoying each other's company and that is exactly what we had this year, a perfect end to another good year.