Starry, Starry Night

Hello. This week I've finally managed to complete the 12 quilt blocks for L's Graduation Quilt. Tuesday found me playing around, arranging them on the bed as I tried to decide on some sort of order. I've since started joining them together with some of the elephant material. 

A couple of the squares have added embroidery:

It shouldn't take too long to finish the top, then I just have to decide whether I want to hand or machine quilt it. Actually, I may go with a combination: hand quilting around the stars and then quilting in the ditch up and down the dividing strips.

There have been a few other happies this week too:

Purple Lurky Soup! Basically, any veg found lurking in the bottom of the fridge that needed using up. In this case, it included a chunk of red cabbage - hence the interesting colour! R wasn't impressed, even though it tasted much better than it looks!

A new piece of artwork in a local shopping centre. Since someone mentioned 'couples padlocks' on bridges (sorry, I can't remember who blogged about them), I've been seeing them everywhere. Our little bridge near the library had a few and then there was this masterpiece:

A quick trip to Oxford to take L a dress which she needed and had forgotten.

 The Radcliffe Camera:

The Bridge of Sighs - named because of its supposed similarity to the famous one in Venice:

Part of Gloucester Green market - I bought a few cheap embroidery threads and L bought a book on Oxford buildings and gardens:

Lunch at our favourite Chang Mai Kitchen - veggie spring rolls:

Thai red curry and green papaya salad:

A walk around the covered market. I adore this cake shop - the decorators sit in the window working and I could watch them for hours:

This one of an old couple was my favourite - I love the blue icing and the ginger cat. Note the socks with sandles!

Another of my favourite stalls - the cheese shop. I'm addicted to their Oxford Blue:

To work off lunch, we climbed Carfax Tower. The view is amazing, although the climb up an open wrought iron spiral staircase had me quaking a bit. I'm not mad about heights - I'm OK, provided I look out and not down, so the staircase where I had to watch where I put my feet was rather a challenge!

Another cute discovery on the way back to the park and ride bus stop. It's tucked away down a little side street and I must have walked by it many times without noticing it:

My spoils of the day - a fat quarter from the cutesy shop, my threads from the market and my cheese and some passion fruit from the covered market. I saw a recipe for lemon and passion fruit pavlova on the Comic Relief Great British Bake Off. I bought some passion fruit on Monday to make it later in the week but E discovered them so, needless to say, I had to buy some more!

That's all for this week. If you fancy having a peek at what's made some other people smile, pop over to Planet Penny and join in the fun.
Toodle Pip for now. x

'The Other Place'

When we moved to our current house 16 years ago, one of the first places we went exploring was Oxford. L was 5 and E just 1 and we went for a day trip to visit the Natural History and Pitt Rivers Museums. To cut a long story short, we fell in love with the place. Just 25 minutes away, we have visited countless times. L is now lucky enough to go to the university and I love nothing better than to nip up there and take her out to lunch; it's such an easy trip and we have been thoroughly spoilt by its proximity. In short, our hearts belong to Oxford and it is Oxford we invariably cheer for in the annual Boat Race (I still maintain that they should have just ploughed into Trenton Oldfield and not been such gentlemen - I'd have been tempted to club him with one of the blades!). 

Last weekend, however, we found ourselves trekking Eastwards to Cambridge. E had a masterclass there and so R and I found ourselves with a happy 5 hours to kill in 'the other place'. We have been here a couple of times previously on mini-breaks but it was nice to return. The weather was kind to us and, despite being a bit too cold for punting (wet sleeves on a cold day are not nice!), we had a lovely time.

Here are a few pictures of our trip:

The famous view of King's:

                            

Not sure what this bridge is called but it's very cute:

There were lots of these:

Stunning architecture:

An amazing veggie cafe where we had lunch - squash and roasted pepper soup (delish!) and a shared slice of carrot cake.

There seemed to be a graduation ceremony taking place:

I think this was Corpus Christi:

Although not as old as Oxford, it is still quite breath-taking and I really enjoyed our wander round. After lunch we visited the Cambridge Book Fair and oohed and aahed over the gorgeous old books. The prices weren't for the faint hearted though. R was tempted by a first edition of 'War of the Worlds'. Unfortunately, we didn't have the £900 on us! There really were some fantastic books and I was amazed that we were just allowed to pick them up. Some were worth thousands and the stall holders seemed to have no qualms about eating their lunch/drinking coffee next to them. I was terrified that they might spill something. I did find a couple of little books to buy - shown here sitting on a fat quarter that I bought at the market as a souvenir of our trip:

Looking at some of the children's books available and the corresponding prices, I'm sure we've got a fortune in the loft!
All in all, a fine time was had by all and I think we may return in the Summer for another short break.

Other happies this week:

My lovely bunch of roses - a present from the neighbours for cat sitting. There was a box of chocolates too but I selflessly donated those to E to 'help' with the revision:

This week's library books. Even though Jerusalem isn't a 'veggie' cookbook, there are some lovely looking recipes in the vegetable section. I love Alexander McCall Smith's Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. All I need to make me happy is one of those and a cup of Red Bush Tea. I'm also enjoying 'The Gentle Art of Domesticity' - it's right up my street with all the baking, knitting and quilts. If you look closely at the photo you can also see my new pin cushion:

Here's 'Pin cushion Piggy' in action whilst I worked on The Graduation Quilt:

One final happy this week - Basil and Olive Focaccia. E and I tried some as an after school snack and it's wonderful. Definitely one of Paul Hollywood's better recipes.

Anyway, that's all for this week's happies. Do pop over to 'Planet Penny' to see what everyone else has been up to this week.
Toodle Pip. x

An Apple a Day

Greetings everyone! Thank you all so much for your kind get well comments last week - I particularly enjoyed Amalia's virtual mug of chamomile tea! I am very happy to report that the lurgy has finally gone on its merry way. Last Friday when I showed you my little stash of fabrics, I said that I had a special project in mind for them. Well, here it is ...........

Ta-Dah!

My 'Apple a Day' mini-quilt. Actually, I'm not really sure whether to call it that or a place mat or mini runner, I just wanted to make one! As I mentioned previously, they're not my usual colours of choice, but I do rather like them. It's just 6 squares joined together with 6 apples appliqued on before quilting and adding the border. The patterns on the apples and leaves were done free hand - you can really tell in some places! I suppose you could draw the design on first for a better finish but I rather like its rough and ready appearance.

I can't decide which is my favourite one.

You can definitely see the wobbly bits on the core:

Now I just have to decide where to keep it. I love it under the vase of flowers on the dining table. The only problem is that I'm a little worried that the weight of the vase will leave an imprint.

Maybe on the chest? We found this in the loft of our old house and it's used to house board games etc. Please ignore the over-stuffed wool basket and teetering pile of magazines! 

Any suggestions as to what I can do with it will be gratefully received - although I suspect R is just aching to tell me!

Every half term, E goes to spend the first weekend with L in Oxford. They are very close and she misses her terribly during term time, so this is her little treat. We dropped her off and then had a little wander around the college gardens. I love this tree - I'm not sure how old it is but it's bent over so far that it has to be supported.

E took some photos of this little, furry chap. He was extremely tame and let her get quite close before bounding away along the wall.

This griffin is used as a sort of good luck charm. Apparently, balancing a coin on him is supposed to bring good luck in your final exams - we told L to slip him a tenner!

L's rooms overlook the gardens, lucky girl.

With her exam looming, E had an extra long piano lesson on Tuesday. I took the opportunity to go for a rather muddy walk around a nearby wood.

I should have taken a photo of my wellies at the end - they weren't nearly this clean!

I loved the colour of the bracken

... and the oak leaves.

There were long shadows:

A lake:

and even a den:

I met a few dog walkers but mostly it was just me and the birdies. Unfortunately, I got horribly lost at one point and ended up having to run back (not easy in wellies!) so as not to be late collecting E. Despite that, it was lovely to get a bit of fresh air and enjoy the sunshine.

One last happy this week - making 'Quick Florentines' from my 'new to me' WI biscuit book. I made them because they contain lots of dates and we still had a box hanging around from Christmas. Despite the Alice in Wonderland type instructions on the lid, people weren't! I used white chocolate instead of milk, just because that's what I had in the baking drawer.They were quite nice but I found them a little sweet; needless to say, E loved them!

Anyway, that's all for this week. I'm just off to Planet Penny to see what everyone else has been up to. Enjoy the rest of half term.
Toodle Pip for now. x