Anyone for cake?

A rare bit of baking, Nigella Lawson's Coca Cola Cake from How to be a domestic goddess.  Tastes rather good, even if I say so myself.



On the knitting front I'm a bit more than half way through my first London Underground sock and I am on the first front of my Double V cardigan, having done the back and one sleeve so far.  Both enjoyable knits, I love how effective the cardigan's lace pattern is for such a simple pattern.

Later: I went back to that "simple pattern" to find that I had gone wrong a number of rows back so I am only just now past where I was yesterday, having spent a considerable time unknitting (also known as "tinking" - knit backwards) and reknitting.  Hopefully it will go better from here on in, but that will teach me!

Sheep!

Of course, an important part of our visit to the farm was seeing the lambs while they were still little and we took endless photos.  At the start of the week the lambs were still very much at the tottering stage but by the time we left they were venturing further from their mothers and beginning to career around the field, jump and play.  Not much more to say, but here's a selection of photos, you can see the full set here on flickr.






I love how their tails wag when they feed.







Lastly not the greatest picture, but I feel it is very expressive.

More of our holiday

Despite all my best intentions I did not get any more blogging done while in Sussex, so here belatedly are a few highlights of our holiday.  I may split the posts up into subjects.

First some pictures of where we were staying and the view from our dining table:



And there was a lot of visiting wildlife including a very sweet rabbit and two strutting pheasants, watching a male pheasant run makes me laugh every time, there's something most Captain Mainwaring or Mr Pooter about a male pheasant.





There were well visited bird feeders on the trees fairly close to our dining table window, we saw a robin, blue and great tits, a nut hatch, greater spotted woodpecker, magpies (alas) and chaffinches.  While I thought we had problems keeping our feeders filled, there it was a several times a week job!  My sister got some great shots of the blue tits bickering and feeding - she has more great photographs on her flickr photostream.



The farmers are delightfully welcoming and encouraged us to walk around the farm as much as we liked, an invitation we took up eagerly.  This is one of my favourite views out across their land, looking vaguely north across the Low Weald.



Most evenings there were the most wonderful sunsets, it is truly a lovely, if windy (being on top of a rise in the landscape) spot, I was so sad to have to leave.  Next time: lambs!





For those who are interested, we stayed at Heath Farm near Plumpton Green, they are comfortable, spacious cottages and the farmers are lovely people, I would definitely recommend them.  They are quite disabled friendly, being on one floor with flat access and wet rooms.

Arrived

Magnolia

We are blessed with a beautiful magnolia tree outside our house in the front garden and in front of that on the kerb some variety of cherry tree and right now both are blossoming magnificently.  It's a wonderful sight and the bees seem very keen on it all although they show a marked preference for the cherry tree, partly I think because of the profusion of flowers very close together.  Anyhow, I managed to get some photographs today and I thought it might be cheering to see them.







Expect the next post to come from deepest Sussex as I am off on my holidays to a farm - with sheep!

A time of firsts

I am sadly aware that I have slipped well behind with my blogging, this is mainly due to life appearing to move at a far faster pace than I can keep up with and to feeling very tired, not that I should be surprised about that, it does go with the territory.  In the meantime I have been watching an astonishing number of spring firsts emerge as the weather has finally warmed up a little.

We have had the first blossom on lots of the trees - wild and flowering cherry, plum and magnolia all out together - cherry and magnolia shown here outside our house.



The first cowslips flowering, they have taken to the garden, from the two plants put in a few years ago we now have nine in the garden, in addition to the couple we have given away.  My dad is a great advocate of the cowslip and I do love their cheery flowers, yellow is so sunshiny, although we also have the genetic rarity of a red cowslip.



The first bees emerging, I adore watching the bumble bees proceed from flower to flower.  They are nigh on impossible to photograph however.  This year there have been many flowers out awaiting them, including the lungwort, not the world's most prepossessing plant perhaps, but a hit with the bees over many weeks.  The other evening the cherry tree pictured above was abuzz with bees, such a joy to see.



The first fritillary of the year, part of the William Morris theme to the garden, fitting in with the period and style of the house.



The first days of sunshine and sitting outside, watching the birds and remaining still so that they will approach and feed while I am there.  As always the robin is first down, often coming very close in the holly bush to see what I am doing and to twitter softly and sing, but blue tits, dunnocks and even the gold finches have been joining him.  I love seeing both robins together at this time of year, one has started feeding the other with choice titbits and various birds have been spotted with nesting material.

All this has brightened a tough few weeks, with spiritual and physical struggle all ongoing.  On the knitting front (this is supposedly a knitting blog after all), I have finally finished a cardigan, but not managed to photograph it, and started a new one, double v, from an Interweave knits magazine a couple of years ago, in Vinni's Colours Nikkim, which being a cotton can be hard on the hands.  The colour is wonderful though, called peacock, it is rich and deeply saturated.  Hopefully it will not take as long to knit as the last cardigan, which I started last May.



Onwards and upwards as they say.

52 Weeks of Happy - week 13

It has been yet another marathon week filled mainly with a heady mix of toothache and anxiety.  All in all this has been a horrible month and I shall be glad to see the back of it, maybe April will be better?

1. Good Friday - Jesus Christ died to set us free, the best good news ever.

2. Tulips - beautiful Easter flowers from a friend



3. The Girl in Blue - by P.G. Wodehouse, my new audiobook, a delightfully complicated confection involving  a large cast of improbable characters and read by Graham Seed, aka. ex-Nigel from The Archers.  It's so lovely hearing his voice again.  I find audiobooks a great accompaniment to knitting and a good one can draw you in completely.  It is not just the quality of the book that matters but also the reader.  As someone who has listened to a great many P. G. Wodehouse audiobooks I can recommend those read by Jonathan Cecil and Martin Jarvis (who has done the world a great service by his readings of the Just William stories).



4. Isaiah 41.10 - a verse I found in a list on the Desiring God blog, just when I needed it to help me with dentist related anxiety.

fear not, for I am with you;
    be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

So rich in promises and just exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it.  God is good at that and I do tend to find that I need reminding of His promises, I am hopeless at remembering on my own.  The original blog post is well worth reading - Nine Reasons Why You Can Face Anything