Sewing Update

 I have been sewing on, slowly and persistently and also knitting.

I am currently sewing a brown 70s style corduroy skirt. I have been increasingly drawn to 70s stuff lately. It was to have been trousers but the cord was too thick.

Projects completed: a festive stretch red velvet dress in the cheapest fabric ever, about £2 a metre. It looks surprisingly ok. 

I am also planning to knit some legwarmers in this colour to try out different cabling techniques 🧶 

And I am doing a skirt and a pair of fingerless gloves for Leen.

For some reason I have hardly any winter bottoms, one skirt and three pairs of trousers one of which is too small. I see more corduroy in my future. 

Pop Autumn

 

I love Autumn leaves and combined with inspiration from an online course on Pop Art here we are. Stencil leaf, acrylic paint, sellotape.

Blairs College Linocut

 

Another doomy linocut of the old Menzies House across the road from my work carpark. Notice impressive old oil tank on left.

Cooking Flavour Experiments

 This weeks cooking experiments include:

Cake of the week: Gingerbread. I love ginger and saw this on Mary Berry. I try and make a cake every fortnight. The last one was coconut celeriac and fruit muffins. I ran out of the specified carrot and apple. Basically most things are ok with enough cinnamon in. 

Breakfasts of the week: avocado toast and eggs benedict

Vegetable of the week: boiling beetroot. I have been scared off by the excessive redness, leafyness and rootyness of the beetroots before but giving it a go as I really love beetroot and the tinned stuff is not very flavoursome.

I like to work each food experiment around a flavour or ingredient that I fancy. Also getting into more Autumnal foods.

Castle Print

 

Then I did a version of my Braemar Castle picture as a mono lino cut. Which do you prefer? 

Breakfast Experiment

 I love a good hearty breakfast. Unfortunately I am also the most useless and grumpy person in the morning. Not a good combo. So to celebrate a week off I am making a week of good breakfasts. All served with juice and coffee.

French toast with bacon

Blueberry pancakes

Banana pancakes with more banana bits and nutella

Hash browns (potato cakes) with sausages

So far pancakes are winning out as you can make them in advance and even freeze them. Requiring less morning effort. And no, I can never face a full fry up although I would consider it minus eggs and baked beans. The best breakfasts I ever had were in Canada, home of very large pancakes. 

Castle Round the Back

 

A bigger building for my round the back series. Braemar Castle; proving that even wonderful old castles need somewhere to put the plumbing, the sheds, the telly aerial and even a cheese press! Just out of sight: a horrible old garage on the right, full of mowers, wood and bits of old furniture.

Charity Shopping

 Finally got out to do a morning at Braemar Castle, measuring the temperature and humidity and checking for pests. A beautiful drive with all the autumn woods and trees.

On my way back, joy as my favourite charity shop in Ballater was open. I got a blue jumper, three classic crime novels (The British Library reprints) a cookbook and a stash of vintage sewing supplies all for £8! 

Quite tired after the very long drive now of about 54 miles each way, as have not driven that far since March, but it was so good to scoot along under the mountains and by the river in the sunshine!

Heraldic

 

Found this obscure but delicious wine in the back of the wine cupboard under the stairs on friday. The wonderfully gothic heraldry on the label reminded me of the knights in the series of King Arthur books I am reading at the moment by Rosemary Sutcliff. I am loving the novels and plan to read her one on Beowolf next. Her most famous book is The Ninth Legion about the supposed disappearance of a Roman legion in the north of England, (although they may have actually been wiped out in the infamous rout that was the battle of Teutoberg Forest against the Germanic tribes).