Looking up in NY and LON

An email from son one in New York saying all was well took a weight off my mind
so I went up to London and had a lovely time walking about - looking up.

This doesn't look like London does it?
Amsterdam maybe?
The engraved lettering reads, Lavers and Barraud. They were partners in an English firm of stained glass manufacturers who specialised in High Gothic revival glass from 1858.

Crane's nest.

Newly restored St Martin in the Fields

A Moorish turret on The National Gallery

Looked for Vanessa's cardigan pattern in here, try John Lewis they said.
But I wasn't in the mood for Oxford Street.

Kim's game

Went to the supermarket today , but forgot my lengthy and sensibly planned list.

Here is what I remembered:

cream
sour dried cherries
steak
condensed milk
sugar
butter
Swedish vodka
cardomom
red wine
dried pears
crystallised ginger
almonds

so that's all right then.

I can make my grandmother's May toffee
(recipe follows)
pear and ginger loaf
steak for supper
and
Glogg

May toffee is a misnomer, we only make it in December and it always turns out as a fudge.

The tray never divides into even squares.
It is your duty to tidy that edge up so that no one ever knows this.

I have no idea what the sour cherries were for.

Quack, quack, time to get a Mac

Not really a post,
just somewhere safe to put these pictures while my computer crashes again.

Christmas Fair

Yesterday in Brighton

at 6 Clifton Street, opposite this white iced house

where even the cars look like cakes

I was invigilating at the Christmas Open House
run by Judy Stevens,

with Peter Archer's beautiful turned, engraved and stained sycamore bowls.

and Jenny Turtill's jewelery.
( This piece made from labradorite and sterling silver came home with me,
beautiful but impossible to photograph.)


And keeping an eye on my vintage Girl comic badges,
while drinking Glogg and eating pepparkakor.
This recipe for Swedish Glogg is in the indispensible Nigella Lawson's
How to Be a Domestic Goddess:

1 bottle red wine
150ml Swedish vodka
2 cinnamon sticks
8 cloves
12 cardamom seeds
25g caster sugar
25g blanched almonds
25g raisins

Combine all ingredients except for the raisins and almonds in a large pan and let steep, preferable overnight.
To serve, put a sprinkling of raisins and almonds in the bottom of everyone's mug, put the pan on the heat and slowly bring almost to the boil. Strain into a jug and pour over the raisins and almonds in the waiting mugs.

Fork handles

I saw these in the cafe where we go after our 'run'.
One cyclamen on each table, popped into a white paper cup.
Seven seemed to be the right number for a shelf in the kitchen.
And when I have time I'm going to get some new candles.
I spotted the ones I want at the Alston Craft Fair thanks to Katie.
I think four should be enough. Enjoy.

Advent red, white and green

and today I ordered the tree.

While you were away...

we had a musical feast. Son one singing in the Queen's College choir's Advent service.

And son two singing at his school's Winter Concert. Both basses.

So we had Beethoven, Shostakovich, Earle Hagen, Herbie Hancock, Corelli, Vaughan Williams, John Rutter at the latter and J.S.Bach, Elgar, John Rutter, Giovanni Gabrielli, Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten, Peter Warlock, and J.S. Bach at the former.

And today I made the Christmas cake from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries.


and this Christmas card.