Reflecting on my week #68

Brrrr. I’ve pretty much hibernated this weekend just gone and it’s been lovely, work has been pretty full on again and it was nice to just potter about for a bit on Saturday. MOH's work is also full on and he was back at work on Saturday, which is never good, but that said it meant my pottering was pretty much uninterrupted.

By the time he arrived home I was already preparing dinner, a slow cooked lamb shank with cannellini beans. It’s funny how things turn out, all week I’d been saying I’d a few tins of cannellini beans and what could we have. Then I spied lamb shanks in the butchers, after popping in for a haggis for Friday evening, and so one of our favourite dinners was on the menu. I planned to put them in the freezer, but, those cannellini beans were nagging at me…

For a change MOH wasn’t out on his bike Sunday, although there was some time spent cleaning it, so just as it sleeted here we set out to the farmers market in Blackheath village. Our aim was to leave with cakes and it was mission well accomplished with a giant size millionaire shortbread and equally large bakewell slice. In the shock of it all, there were no photos, but they were both very nice.

While there some goats cheese, sourdough, squash and apples also made their way into our shopping bag, and as I’m sure Nigel Slater would agree, they had the making of some very nice meals. In fact the goats cheese and sourdough provided an impromptu lunch, and the squash went very well with a butter bean curry. Although I’ll apologise to anyone who knows MOH in real life, as not only has there been two lots of beans, there’s been hummus and grains in the past week for lunches. I think our fibre consumption must be way above the average, but of course I’m way too lazy to work it out for real.

In other news I’m on the seventh packet (of twelve) of that vitamin D boost, so I’m definitely on the home straight. Do I have more energy? I guess so, I’m definitely less exhausted, although as you’ll know I do like to pack it all in. My hips are generally aching less, so that’s good too, so I’m hopefully that by the time my next blood test comes around my body will have remembered how to hang onto its vitamin D. I’ve also made some diet changes in the past few weeks, not just the pulses, there’s been more nuts (to eat, although I’ve encountered a fair few too) and the kefir yogurt, which I actually quite like, and will keep on with.

Having finally completed my tax return - yay! - my other task for the weekend was to complete one of the three photo books I’d promised myself I would, to bring my year books up to date. That was organised me, but organised me failed to realise that I still have unedited photos from 2016, 2017 and 2018 - oops.

I had fewest photos to edit from 2017, or so I thought - I discovered a batch of unedited photos outside of iPhoto, which I’d clearly moved out at one point to free up space on my hard drive (please tell me it’s not just me that is constantly striving to find space on my laptop).

I’d also forgotten that 2017 was quite a big year for us, and that meant many more photos than usual. As well as our big birthdays and getting our garden ready for our big party, there was also a week in Dorset with MOH’s family, a week in Suffolk and a trip to Porto and the Douro Valley and much more besides. I almost made the deadline for completing my creation, but I realised that as I was halfway through the year with less than ten pages left, it was either going to need many more pages or some refinement. Actually I think the answer is a bit of both - it was a big year after all - and so I accepted defeat and bought an extension to my credit, and so my quest - and the race against the new deadline - to capture our 2017 in our year book continues.

But along the way I’ve rediscovered some great pictures, and some memories too. Unusually this has been a photo-free post up until now, but as I’ve been reliving 2017, here’s some of the photos I’ve uncovered this weekend, which may or may not have appeared on the blog before:

PORT IN THE DOURO VALLEY

SUN AND A VIEW

A SQUASH THAT DOESN’T LOOK AS IF IT DESERVES TO BE THIS BIG

THERE HAD TO BE SOME TILES, WHICH ARE EVERYWHERE

LOOK OUT FOR THESE IN A FUTURE LOO SERIES

…AND A GLASS OF PORT TOO

A REMINDER OF OUR GABION BASKETS?

AND FINALLY DECREPIT, BEAUTIFUL AND FULL OF CHARACTER!

That last caption is quite apt and made me smile when I realised its significance. It feels a bit like me at the moment, somewhere along the way of not doing anything very active at all I’ve tweaked my lower back. Having remembered it’s entirely possible to get a massage in Greenwich in my lunch hour, guess what I’m up to tomorrow?!

Bright Designs at the Lavatory Project

Today I’m sharing the second of my The Loo Series meets the Lavatory Project at Grand Designs Live, and you’ll not be surprised to learn this one that is full of colour is one of my favourites. Is it something I’d have in my own house, well sadly that’s a moot point as we don’t have a downstairs loo, I know (we don’t have an en-suite either, sorry perhaps I should have warned you about both of those revelations). A downstairs loo is definitely on our wish list for a future house, but again that’s a moot point right now.

But if I did, then yes, I think I would. I’d definitely go for a full on pattern in a small room, even the smallest room, as despite what you’d expect to think, it really does work.

This room set has relatively few accessories, but what’s there works hard. The floor, with its central pattern defines the area and its larger pattern offsets the repetitive smaller pattern on the wallpaper, which has one of those patterns that draws your eyes along, looking for the pattern and imagining patterns and shapes that probably aren’t even there.

Not many of us would have put yellow touches - the skirting, the splashback and the towel, with a reddy-orange wallpaper and petrol blue and white floor, but again why not? Seeing it together shows it works. We know it’s often the small touches that make rooms work, and for me that’s true here.

The mirrors at differing heights appeal too, and not only because I’m just five foot and a bit, but also because of the visual interest it brings to the space.

And finally, artwork on a patterned wall? It’s magic when it works, like it does here - sorry I couldn’t resist, but I’m sure you know what I mean.

What do you think, is this a style that you’d have in your home?

Reflecting on my week #67

I hardly dare mention the B word here, but it’s been hard to ignore this past week. Whatever your political views, Brexit is as I’ve said at work this week the thing that will keep on giving. I’m sure we’re not through the dramatics and/or histrionics, depending on our viewpoint, yet, but it really isn’t good, for any of us. I’m not going to pass comment about what it should or shouldn’t be, or any of the options, but really, how did we get here - and more importantly how do we make sense of it all. I’m sure there must be an answer, but I’m also sure it won’t be pretty.

To combat the madness of the week, which has also had implications for my day job, I retreated to the study-cum-craft room. I really should have been doing my tax return but, with procrastination at its best I finally got around to tackling a project that’s been on my to do list for a while now. I’ve been collecting old t-shirts for a while now to use, and after some quick research set about creating my own t-shirt yarn.

Creating the “yarn” was far easier than I thought it would be, but the t-shirts didn’t go as far as I thought they might. For the base I used two vest tops of mine (the navy and navy and white striped in these pictures) and a stone t-shirt of MOH’s. They all worked out really well, but especially MOH’s t-shirt as it was one I never really liked, but one that works well here.

I decided that I’d start big, as that would most likely be easiest and more forgiving. Once I’ve mastered big I might try something more refined - we’ll see. It’s harder on my thumbs than I thought it would be, but now I’ve worked out how to go up the sides it’s got a lot easier. I’m sure the novelty of creating the yarn and then crocheting it onto my basket creation will wear off but at the moment I’m taking this approach as creating the yarn balls in one go, seems very dull.

I’ve a way to go yet but I’ve finished the base, and have added a block of navy (one long sleeved top and a t-shirt) at the base of the sides before branching out into a strip of green (another long sleeved top). Next up is another stripey variety and I’ve some more white, and lime green t-shirts lined up. I’m not sure how many I’ll use, and I’ve already plans for a couple of red and pink versions.

And the reason for starting now, well it wasn’t entirely Brexit. I hit on the idea that I can use them effectively for storage in the spare bedroom wardrobe and with some more of that clearing out, I could free up a shelf for some more of my craft supplies. incentive, if ever I saw it, but it’s amazing what a little sprinkle of that can do.

This weekend also saw me catch up on all sort of post and parcels. All needed to be collected, some from the Post Office, some from my neighbour, who does a fantastic job of taking in parcels, some of which I’m not sure are even coming. Last week I said I hoped to get to the swimming pool at some point this month, and one of those parcels removed another of my excuses, and that’s subjecting my dyed hair to chlorine.

Hmmn. So now I have a new swimming costume, goggles and a swimming cap, the only thing that’s a barrier is working out the fees on the council’s website. Actually I think it’ll be simpler to go along and find out in person, so that could be happening soon. I think I’ll drag MOH along, though, just to be sure. And for the record, I’m not a swimmer, but I’m also not a runner and of the two the former appeals slightly more.

There was some blog post too, and I’m looking forward to trying out this new-approach cool bag. This is the lunch bag version and you freeze the whole bag overnight. It seems such a sensible idea, especially when it packs down small, that it takes up the space that the cool blocks would usually use. I’d like to test this out on a balmy summer’s day, but in the absence of those right now I’ll be giving this a go soon.

The other items in my blog parcel was these plastic-free reusable storage bag by Stasher. AS you can see they packaging says they can be reused thousands of times and are a bag you can cook in - think sous vide - as well as store food in. They look intriguing and I’m looking forward to finding out more and putting these to the test too.

On Friday evening I popped over to Canary Wharf and met up with MOH for dinner and a look at this year’s Winter Lights. There were some old favourites like the angel wings below, although there were a lot more of them than I remember from before, but that’s no bad thing as they were still a popular place to pose for photos.

In Jubilee park these fluorescent recycled bottles were happily bobbing away on the water feature, looking very effective and while not completely natural, full of nature.  How vibrant are the colours?!  Further along we resisted the urge to have a bit of a hopscotch, quite different to the chalked versions I remembered…

One of the more immersive pieces of art was this piece called Submergence in Montgomery Square. We arrived just as one cycle was finishing and waited, enjoying the anticipation for it to climax again. For straight rows of lights, it was pretty special - that isn’t meant to sound dismissive, it pulsed in time with the music, changing colour with the skyscraper office blocks in the background. However knowing what was coming, I was keen to see and experience that again, especially with the plummeting temperatures. But it’s definitely worth seeing, and if you experience only one, then make it this one.

I’m finally getting my bearings in Canary Wharf - I know, but up until now I’ve found it a maze and confusing - but even so we finished our walking tour of the Winter Lights earlier than we thought. This year we’d planned ahead and booked somewhere for dinner (Chai Ki - and yes the loos were Loo Series-able) but had some time to kill. Hanging around outside wasn’t our preferred approach but the bars close by were busy. Then MOH had a brain wave and we clocked up a first, a glass of wine in the wine bar at Waitrose. Yeap, that’s right, a wine bar in the supermarket. It wasn’t empty but it wasn’t so busy that we couldn’t get served, or a seat either.

Who knew. Certainly not me, but I’m glad MOH did. With knowledge like this, he really is a keeper…