Basil Brush!

I walked into the kitchen yesterday afternoon and noticed at the end of the garden in a patch of sun, was a fox. he stayed for quite some time, looking for food i think has he tried to eat a few things. I ran upstairs and got my camera and took a bunch of pics thru the window of the back door as he would have gone if i actually opened the door.....which i did after the photo session, to throw out some bread. the fox legged it when the door opened, but when i checked back later most of the bread was gone - to the birds or the fox, i dont know!. you can see how cold our temperatures have been, this snow was from last weekend, and despite sunny days, it hasnt melted yet!. anyway, heres Basil enjoying some warmth from the sun!.

something nice for the kitchen!

there is a shop in London that i love....it has quirky different things, because, as i've mentioned before i really dont like the sameness that seems to prevail here in the UK. this shop is called Oliver Bonas, and they have opened a branch near my office......oh danagerous, very dangerous. they have been carrying the Pip Studio china which i cant decide if i want or not, so on monday while changing buses i decided to pop into the shop and lust after the Pip Studio and try and make a decision. well, my local branch isnt carrying it, so i had a look at the other things on the shelf and i saw these......oh my....me likely!. you can find them here

you're about 6wks to late!!

last night it snowed!. for the first time this winter we got a good dump of white stuff on the ground, and it sure does look pretty. would have been nicer to have had it for Xmas tho!. its going to make for a fun time getting to work tomorrow on the bus!. anyway, in response to a request for piccies to show my niece in Queensland Australia, what snow looks like, here are some piccies. the first 2 are taken 12hrs apart out my bedroom window, looking in one direction up my street.

this is looking in the other direction.

a snow wave!.

hopefully in this picture, you can see where the foxes have been running around the back garden like silly buggers!. noone else has been out the back til i took the pics, so all that churned up snow is from the foxes!.

a pic to show how much fell overnight...i reckon a good 10cm!.

finally, my allotment on the patio....there are leeks under that snow somewhere!!

Homemade Cookbooks

For as long as i can remember i have been making my own cookbooks with pages from magazines that inspire me. I think it stems from my mother telling me i cant keep all those magazines i had piled up in my room!. so i started to rip them up!. and i created scrapbooks, long before i even knew what scrapbooking was. I had one for decorating and one for recipes and bits and bobs. over the years i have kept this up and i love to go back and look at the earlier ones, see how my tastes have changed. i dont have any of those early ones here in the UK, but in the almost 10yrs i've been here this time i have been ripping and sticking to my hearts content. sometimes i am good at keeping up with it and other times, i let the magazines pile up and then have a marathon session!. i need to have that marathon session again, so in preparation, i sorted out and stuck in the pages that had been piling up since the last stucking session!. i usually decorate the covers but havent done for the newer 2!. i love these pukka project books, cos the come already sectioned and the dividing section has a pocket for those articles that cant be stuck down!. these books are mainly recipes although one has a decorating section. i divide the sections into mains, baking, desserts and other things!, and have magazine pages, my hand written things and even mums hand written things. i love to flick and see that to try, and i do try things!. some good, some not so good!. anyone else make their own cookbooks?!.

good things and sad things.....

i have made a couple more squares for my blanket and am really loving the plain colours at the moment. I plan to a few in the non white colours, as i think theres enough white in each of the squares. so this is the progress as of today, both laid out and piled up!!. thats the good thing!.

the sad thing......dear wee lily....the cat in my header, has disappeared from home while my parents were away in australia over xmas. the general consensus is she has taken herself off to die somewhere as she was frail, and acting strange in the hours leading up to her disappearance. she was being looked after by a family friend. so my family have lost both their cats within a 3wks period and everyone is feeling a little sad about that.

I've fallen in love......

......with a house!. Once in a while i look at the Christchurch property listings....just in case that euro millions lottery ticket pays out more the £6.70!. while looking today i found this......swoon!. click on 'this' to see the whole listing, but i have used a couple of photos here... its a spit level home that hasnt been renovated for donkeys!. so much potential!.

i love the size of the rooms, and here in the living room....i'm thinking bookcases along that large wall!.

this shows the split level....up to the kitchen, dining and living rooms, bedrooms on the entry level...the level this pic was taken, and garage and a 4th room on the lower level.

and finally, a good old kiwi kitchen!. so much could be done here!!

it goes to auction on the 2nd feb....if i win the euro between now and then, i'm sending my dad off to buy this!!. admittedly, it lacks curb appeal at the moment, but i love that its different....different from the usual homes in its layout. the split level is a common one in NZ, but i've not see one laid out like this, which is why i love it!. i'm all for having something different!. i dont do sameness....something that happens alot here in the UK!.

Doing things!.

Well, in an effort to being positive and shift this bad funk, i have done nice things today!. I baked a batch of sultana cookies to go into my lunch box this week.....back to work tomorrow!. I also crocheted another square for my blanket....this one a solid colour to break up the blanket at bit. the light was ok in my bedroom so i have photographed progress so far. This is by no means the finished ordered....just how i laid them out to photograph!. i think i need to look into blocking the squares and then joining some up now!.

I also think i need to do some more squares that dont feature white as the white seems very dominant in these pictures. Still, its exciting to see it all laid out like that. the square today took me an hour to do, because i havent really crocheted for over a month. when i was doing the squares before the mad 6wks at work, i was down to about 3/4hr with all the colour changes!.