Things I love Thursday

Growing stuff – Things seem to be going quite well on my allotment. I’m doing good on preparing the ground, the spinach and celery survived the winter and I got my first lot of potatoes in the ground last week. Today I bough Raspberry canes from the market. I love raspberries and have been meaning to grow some for years so I was so pleased have purchased these. Also looking forward to laying out my seed packets and sorting out planting plan.

Lamé leggings – I bought a pair of these from American Apparel in December because my Grandma gave me some £ and wanted me to treat myself. I’ve worn them previously in a non-noticeable way as pretty much as replacement tights. Last weekend I wore them with my grey woolly pillow case top and black buckle boots and felt totally rock and roll. I’ve been doing enough exercise to justify showing off my legs after all.

Purple sprouting Broccoli – I’ve had this in my lunch box every day this week and think it is so yummy.

Vegan cheese on crackers spread with vegan mayo – Holland and Barrett had a three for two on vegan cheese which means I’ve been eating loads of this high fat stuff. I’ve been justifying it to myself that I need it to off set the broccoli and moonwalk training! The offer is now over so I might start restraining my urges for this delicious combo.

Honourable mentions: Tapas with friends, packed lunches, reading the original book the film/tv show was based on, keeping a good average time per mile while walking, cooking leftovers, a possible date for the UK Lady bloggers meet up, rearranging furniture.

Right I'm off to read other TILTs across the web

Lunch tote

Isn't this adorable? My folks bought it back from their trip to Colorado for me, along with a stash of other goodies. The bookstore it came from sounds amazing. The store's website looks pretty good too.

I already have a tin popeye lunchbox (resurrected from childhood) and an insulated thing with a couple of compartments and netbags on the side. Some days I don't use a special bag at all if I have several days worth of food to carry (or dishes that seem to have immense volume!).

This one is just right for taking lunch out to the park (weather permitting!) and easily carries the most vital of lunch accessories - a good book.

Oh and I don't think it's easily readable in the photo but the front reads:

Noonday tea is much improved when taken in the quiet companionship of a good book - Archibald Smythe

Do dead people watch you shower?

I must say it's not something that has ever worried me, but it clearly bothers enough people out there (and isn't there quite enough to worry about as it is?) for Harper Collins Australia to publish a book on it. And the author has a myspace page on the subject.

So let's talk about nicer shower related things like the new Lush emotibombs which are essentially bath bombs for the shower. I'm always sad that I can't make use of bath bombs because a) I only have a shower, b) baths are too time consuming, c) the water in a bath is never hot enough and d) baths are not very good for the environment. Hence I imagine that I will be making a trip to Lush this week to examine the goods in person.

Enjoy the sunshine today and remember not to grumble about being too hot!

What is the universe trying to tell me?

I'v got one of those weird things going on.Bascially it's where something that I normally would devote minimal attention to turns up and I keep coming across references to it.

So last year I was reading this frankly bizzare book called Faghag by Robert Rodi. The book goes on about The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Not being familiar with The Fountainhead, I looked it up on wikipedia, thought 'hmm' and moved onto my next read. But then it kept turning up in everything I read. Finally When there was a reference to it in a Meg Cabot novel (one of the Heather Wells series) I gave in and read it. I don't think it was life changing, although it was very interesting and I gave it to a couple of other people to read. I had to read it thought because I kept thinking it might be the universe trying to tell me something!

The other week I picked up Simon Doonan's book Beautiful People from the library shelves pretty much at random. I thought it was very funny indeed. It put me in the mind of Andrew Collins (Where did it all go right? and Heaven knows I'm miserable now, but not his third volume, That's me in the corner). Then I pick up the Sunday Times style magazine whch I read every week and he's got an article in there. And now Gala Darling has picked upon him in Carousel! So what is the universe trying to tell me this time?? Answers please.

Less than fabulous

Today I am feeling somewhat less fabulous than I think I should be. My life is amazing and I should be totally aware of this. Instead I fear that I'm going to have a hissy fit and complain that I feel like I took a wrong turn somewhere and I'm really just ordinary. I'm not sure what has bought on this need for more romance in my life. I think part of the problem with life is that every time you figure out the solution, the question changes (I believe Disraeli said something similar about the Irish question). So I make myself feel uncomfortable by trying to find the right balance of spontaneous and planned. Planning makes me feel powerful, but spontaneous is fun.

I'm going to resurrect a trick I learnt form a book called Family Baggage by Monica McInerney. you write a list (I used to have mine in the back of my notebook) of things you can do. Start simple (peel potatoes, sew a button on, pitch a tent) and add to it everything you think of something. Then at moments of doubt, have a read through and realise how amazing you are and what a wealth of experience and knowledge you represent.

Although I had do a bit of search to remember the title and author of Family Baggage I just discovered that the book I 'm reading at the moment (Those Faraday Girls) is by the same author.

What shape am I then?

I've always found Trinny and Suzannah a bit of an inspiration so I decided it was about time I read their book about body shapes. However, I found it very difficult to decide what shape I was. Then I thought that maybe I had a skewed idea of my assets and faults and that was causing me to fail to fit into any of the ten different body types.

So I asked Dear Heart to have look. He was very good when I was undecided over my face shape. He immediately told me that it was obviously square. So we went through the book and he kept saying 'no' every time I asked if I was this shape or that shape. Eventually we got the end with no decision reached. the best we could come up with was that I was some kind of mix between a skittle and an hourglass.

I am now tying to feel good about having a unique body shape and thinking may be this is why I used to have such problems getting clothes to fit (which was what inspired me to start making my own in the first place).

Rather sad that I'm not actually an hourglass (sounds so glamorous), but I am the same shape as before I read the book so I am still divinely glamorous ( inn my mind anyway).

Talking books

This is one of the posts I began writing after I had a few days at home in January. I don't listen to talking books very often. Although I like the concept of putting them on my ipod, the whole thing of having to put them on my computer and then transfer is not something that I'm likely to do. Not when I could just rip open the covers of the print version and begin devouring the words straight away.

However, occasionally the library has a title that I want to read only in audio format. This has been the case with 2 titles by the wonderful Laurie R. King. In fact, I must say here that if you haven't yet discovered her Mary Russell series stop reading this and log onto the website of your local library instead.

Anyway, I decided that I would enjoy a talking book while I was at home for a few days anyway. I had plans to do house work type stuff so a talking book seemed ideal to make the tasks more interesting.

It actually proved to be more of a challenge than I thought and is clearly a skill I need to develop. First of all I had to remember to actually listen to the story and not just filter it out and think about other stuff. This was particularly difficult when I was doing something like washing up. I began to realise how noisy my home is and how noisy many of the activities I undertake in my home are.

Sometimes I'd run out of tasks but want to get to the end of the disc before moving to another area of the house. No problem, I thought. I'll just sit here at the table and listen to the last few minutes. I then realised that I find it very difficult to do nothing. I picked up magazines and papers to flick through. Examined plants. Picked at my nails.

It took my much longer than usual to get into the story. However, once I was into it I wanted to just carry on listening. As discs had a running time of about 14 hours, there came a point when Dear Heart arrived home that this just wasn't going to be possible.

So all in all, I think I need to practice listening to talking books. I think this will generally will help me to become a better listener. I'll be better at paying attention to everything that is said. I won't be so impatient if the story doesn't come to the point straight away. Maybe I can listen to some of my favourite books in audio and appreciate them even more!

Froth on the Cappuccino

I'm having one of those great weeks where you keep discovering new things. I can't walk around the library without finding armfuls of stuff I want to read. I love discovering new authors. I've also found a load of new blogs that I've added to my bookmarks. It's tricky to know if a blog will be a continuing pleasure. sometimes bloggers cease to blog or they begin to write about topics that you're not very interested in. We'll have to wait and see.

One of the books I picked up to enjoy was Froth on the Cappuccino: how small pleasures can save your life by Maeve Haran. I've read this kind of book before. It's the same kind of thing as Wear More Cashmere: 151 Luxurious Ways to Pamper Your Inner Princess. What marred my enjoyment was the way in places the book seemed to encourage wastefulness (e.g. clutter so that you can declutter and then clutter again). Where green suggestions were made they were often followed by very non-green ideas. For example, a piece on the joys of recycling was followed by one on the joys of takeaway coffee in a styrofoam or cardboard cup with plastic lid. the section on 'buying yourself flowers' did mention fake flowers, but cold have gone further by suggesting that you buy them during the winter when real flowers are imported or grown in hot houses. Just because supermarkets sell cheap flowers doesn't make it right to buy them.

Maybe I'm taking it a little too seriously.

My busy weekend

Dear Heart’s mother and sister were visiting on Friday night. I made my completely fail safe leek and cider casserole. I can’t actually remember where I got this recipe from. I’ve also made a number of alterations to remove the animal products. It always disappears whenever I serve it. Essentially, you chop and fry and onion, stir in a spoonful or so of flour, add most of a can of cider and a cup or two of stock. Let it cook for a few minutes and add some kind of chicken substitute, a peeled chopped apple and a sliced leek. Cook until the leek and apple are tender and serve.

I served it with mashed potato and Really big bread. The bread recipe is astoundingly easy and I suspect I will be making regularly. I got it at the marvellous vegweb.

Saturday was my day to be a rock chick as I had tickets to see Alice Cooper. It was completely amazing. Dear Heart and I had a really great night. It's ages since we've been to see a band and we've decided that we must do it more often.

What a show it was. I've wanted to see Alice Cooper from years but I've never had spare money for tickets during previous tours. It was fun watching the crowd too. It used to be cigarette lighters that appeared in the dark at concerts. Instead one could see the lights of mobile phones appearing among the crowd. They looked like constellations.

I got a t shirt which I intended to cut a v-neck into and make more fitted. However, I was delighted when I tried it on at home to discover that it fits perfectly and doesn't actually need any further alterations. Only snag is finding something suitable rock and roll to wear over the short sleeves during the winter months.

We got home around lunch time on Sunday and chilled out for the rest of the day. I finished reading Set this house in order by Matt Ruff. It's a great novel about Multiple Personality Disorder. I made some Hearty Winter Potato soup for dinner. Then we watched another couple of episodes of Lost. It's probably this combination that bought on such strange dreams.

My Mother’s Wedding Dress

I’ve just finished reading My mother’s Wedding Dress by Justine Picardi. It wasn’t quite what I expected. I’d read a magazine article had written about the book. It featured lots of pictures of clothes she had worn in the past and her reminiscing about how she felt when wearing them, why she bought them and how she felt about them now. I expected the book to be more of the same.

Instead the book was both angry and bewildered in tone. Picardi was clearly affected deeply by her sister’s death (and who wouldn’t be) and this theme of loss is one that runs throughout the book. She also seems to be rather obsessed with feathers.

However I intend to use what I expected the book to be about as inspiration for future blog entries. It made me think about clothes in books I read as a child. My favourite Enid Blyton story was The Enchanted Cloak (from Tales after Tea). I had a purple crocheted cloak (where is it now?) that I called by the name and used in endless games.

I remember the Fossil sisters in Ballet Shoes (Noel Stratfield) needing dresses for auditions. I remember Pagan, in Lace, taking her dead father’s clothes from the attic and finding a use for them and Maxim’s wonderful French style. I think Lace was the book that made me wear black and white for years because it claimed it was the best way to stand out I newspaper photographs (for maximum impact, wear stripes!). This was clearly before newspapers all had colour photographs. In fact, I’m sure I would of embraced a catalogue that came with my copy of Easy Living this month. All the clothes in it were black or white. I doubt I would have actually bought anything but I would have kept it next to my bed as a style bible.

Time for a rest

I'm training for the Playtex Moonwalk once again. I did 8 miles on Sunday and got totally drenched. I only realised how wet I had gotten when the clothes were still wet yesterday. I took advantage of the better, although windy weather yesterday to enjoy a number of hours working on my allotment. The planting season will be here soon. I'm still finding potatoes from last year's crop as I dig the ground over. These are very welcome as the pantry at present only contains those too small to bother peeling.

I also did lots of cooking (and therefore washing up). I redyed my hair for the first time since I had it cut short (dyeing with Kool aid doesn't really count). I'm used to having a large porous surface (i.e. lots of hair) to soak up the dye so yesterday it was going everywhere. I looked like I something form a disaster movie. Hence the bathroom then needed lots of cleaning.

Anyway as a result of all that physical exertion I began to ache all over yesterday evening. Therefore I'm planning on a nice quiet evening with a book on the sofa. I've just finished World War Z : an oral history of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. It's an amazing book, but one that does tend to stay on your mind (paranoid? me?).

Tonight therefore I will be reading Not buying it: my year without shopping by Judith Levine. I imagine that this will have no mention of zombies. I'm hoping it may provide further inspiration for my frugal quest. Additionally I've heard very mixed reviews. I read an extract in one of the weekend papers last year and I must of enjoyed what I read because I wrote down the title to check on the library catalogue.

I'll report back later this week (hopefully) on if Not buying it was worth the wait.