An Old Friend

My friend and fellow blogger Sarah Rooftops set a challenge to write a blog post on your most treasured possession. Not including partner, family or pets.

Well, my 36 year old teddy bear Ruth is pretty close to being one of these really. Ruth sports a vintage 1974 cardi in striped towelling which I used to wear when I was a baby. She has been much loved over her three decades and has undergone various remedial procedures including a new face (made of old towel) and new nose (actually for a toy dog). But her original expression and personality was carefully retained.

In my mind, Ruth is a Buddha like figure of silent wisdom and comfort and a secret Ninja master. The perfect sidekick in fact.

Winter Wonderland

It snowed today! And I enjoyed my favourite walk along the old railway line (now a cycle track). There were loads of gorgeous red berries on holly and rowan trees. Here, a blackbird enjoys the berries. Interestingly, they are poisonous to us, but not to them. How does that work?

Getting Medieval With It

No, it's not the scariest tomato in the world (for Alistair) or a beachball with piercings. This is a clove studded orange aka a pomander. Pomanders became a big thing for Xmas in the C17th and C18th. They were also believed to protect against disease, including plague! Better safe than sorry, I say...

Make a pomander by studding any citrus fruit with cloves and it should naturally dry and fragrance in a Christmassy way. Oranges are traditional but you can use limes, lemons, or kumquats (don't ask me, I wouldn't know one if I saw one.)

Edwardian Elizabethan

Sorry no blog alst week as my Mum was visiting. We did go for a great Historical Walk though, exploring around Rubislaw Den. The area has the amazing old quarry ('the biggest hole in Europe' apparently) enticingly ringed by big DANGER signs and some of Aberdeen's most expensive homes. Most date from the early 1900s and are so varied you feel the client just stabbed his finger in a picture book and said 'I'll have one of those please'. This one on Queen's Road is Elizabethan, a style you don't often see in Scotland where Baronial is more the thing. Presumably this is because Elizabeth I and thus Elizabethan didn't have any impact up here (a fact I always overlook in my English parochialism.) Anyway, much lovely home eye candy to enjoy, recommended.

A Full Vase

A full vase is a happy vase. And a house with plants and flowers is a happy house, to my mind. Actually I didn't really get into flowers until I started the Apartment Therapy programme, thanks to fellow blogger Sarah Rooftops. One of the home projects is to buy flowers. These giant fuzzy crysanthemums/dahlias are one of my favourite flowers. I like any big, colourful flowers. Flowers I hate include those miserable supermarket roses, baby's breath (like dust stuck on a twig) and those mini cabbage flowers (decorative cabbages= weirdness).

Perfect shoe

Finally, the perfect evening shoe! Not like the Louboutins I saw on holiday but as I don't have £900 to spare...

This fabulously retro black suede T-bar shoe is from John Rocha at Debenhams. I felt it had a really lovely 1940s-y look to it.

Halloween

Halloween is one of my favourite celebrations. I see it as a last burst of fun before the winter closes in. (Alistair says I like it because it is anarchic...) I like dressing up, I like watching Hammer horror movies, and, this time, I liked making Halloween themed cupcakes. Cupcakes are really easy to make too, bar an impressive icing sugar explosion. The colour theme is supposed to be Frankensteinian with a rotting flesh green and silver metallic balls. The flavour was vanilla.