I am currently based on the sofa, wrapped up in a fleece coat with hot water bottle and dog nearby (except to write this - I don't have a laptop!), avoiding being pulled into sleep by this overwhelming feeling of tiredness. In other words, I've got an infection. It has been there for a while, sat on my chest, but it has taken a turn for the worse and, gulp, I've actually got a doctors appointment tomorrow. Actually, I've had it for quite a while, and in complete denial of symptoms, I just put it down to a cold or something and continued on. But feeling sufficiently crappy, I made an appointment. That's what denial gets you (I'm leaving jokes about rivers in Egypt to you guys...).



There is an upside to this tale of woe - sitting in a dimly-lit living room gives one ideas, in the long, dark evenings we've been having. It got me thinking about what I've seen on blogs recently - TTV or 'through the viewfinder'. The premise being you take a modern digital camera and take photos through the lens of another camera. The older the camera is, the better, scratchier, lovlier photos you come up with. I used my wonderful new digital camera and my old 1970's SLR, and took some very basic photos of the standard lamp in our living room. Because there was no other light in there, they have come out with a beautiful ambiance.



You guys might not hear from me for a while, as I've been asked to work on Saturday as well as Sunday - and assuming I've not got SARS or TB, then I'll be working two very long days. Which is good, because it's all extra in the kitty. But it also means I won't get to spend time with the hubby. However, I can get the xmas decorations down now and have a look-see to make sure all of the bulbs work, the tinsel is, well, tinsel-ish and the baubles are all sparkling. Think I can do that from the comfort of my fleecy sofa-cocoon? I do.

I had to break away, and leave the house for a walk. To breathe in the ozone, see the sea and feel the wild grasses brush past my legs.

I left the house earlier than usual - not waiting for the sunset, the sun was getting low in the sky, but it was still bright outside. Brighter than it has been for a while. The sky was blue, pure azure blue as I walked through the fields of burnished gold. The moon, high and bright in the sky was always at my shoulder, barely moving.



A few clouds were visible, some on the horizon and cirrus wisps in the air. I saw a spectacular eagle in one, and a billowing hillside in another.



Walking up another hill, and I come to the forrested part, where the sun doesn't reach, barely even in summer. The wind whistled around my ears and I was glad to be wrapped up warm in my jumper. Through the clay-mud, up another hill and I was on top of the world. From this vantage point I could see the sea, hear the crows and see fields of green-manure or winter fodder growing in neat, orderly rows below me.

I come to more pines, this is what we grow around here. Their big, study bodies able to withstand whatever is thrown at them. Going closer I lift a branch with two pine cones firmly attached but both open, their seeds dispersed. What do I find taking refuge? A hibernating ladybird. This is Nature at work.

I know the path well, it is walked often, ruts in the soil and clay tell me where footsteps have been before. Up two hills, past the windy corridor of pines, through the grasses and down onto gravel, before leaving one hill and finding my path home. My chosen walk takes me in a figure-of-eight, the symbol of infinity. I think about that alot when I'm walking.

As I come to the end of my walk around infinity, I see that the sun, who was at the beginning of the walk high in the sky, has lowered and now hides beneath the pine trees that hem the land. I wend my way down the hill and begin the walk home, back to happy dog, warm house and music.

• Radio4 programmes especially Crossing Continents (click to listen again) and a very strange afternoon play, which I can't find the link to, about a Scottish pregnant woman having bizarre conversations with her very wise, unborn child. Especially relating to shop-lifting and reincarnation. Very strange but hilarious.
• Taking photos of stunning sunsets and sunrises (see below) - there are few things so sublime.
  
  



• Making festive flapjacks in a warm kitchen, dog begging for any edibles that might be going spare. And managing to feed, warm and converse with my tired husband after a long, cold and dark commute home.
• Love My Way, a quirky Australian drama, as dark as it is funny. It has become required watching on Sundays and Fridays.
• Getting my husband to take a day off yesterday, and spending the day in Alnwick, behaving like giddy teenagers in love (except we didn't smoke, swear or drink...). Then coming home to a snuggly house, to spend the afternoon crafting (he's got the crafty gene too) various oddments, including xmas cards and decorations.
• Cold, bright mornings. The sun is often so low it's completely blinding, but it is wonderful to see the first signs of frost on the fields, and how warming the sun really is.
• Getting ready for xmas. That means getting the decorations down from the loft, testing all the lights, burning Yankee Candle Mistletoe candles all over the house and baking seasonal scrummies.
• Playing Scrabble in the evening and managing to put "runic" down on a triple word score, which ensured I won, although I did have an awful selection of letters all evening!

For the pâté sucrée, or sweet pastry:

4oz plain flour, seived
2oz butter, cold, cubed
2 or 3 heaped tablespoons light brown soft sugar
tiny pinch of salt
Enough cold water to make a dough

Method:

As for making pastry, rub the fat into the flour until a very fine breadcrumb consistency is achieved. This usually takes me at least 10 minutes and is very enjoyable ~ don't use a machine, it ruins good pastry (I know, I've tried). Once that's done, add the sugar and salt, stirring until incorporated. Add the water, slowly, and mix. You should have a good, firm dough, but with some 'give' in it to avoid it being like a rock. Wrap in greaseproof paper, or coat in a thin layer of flour and refigerate for 30 mins (or in a freezer for 10 mins).

Once chilled, roll out into a circle and line an 8" dish (I use an enamel pie dish). Prod holes in the bottom with a fork, not too many, and then cover with a circle of baking parchment, adding baking beans or beads (I use trusty re-useable marrowfat peas) and bake in a medium oven (170ºC gs. mk. 3) until the pastry is cooked through at the bottom. Remove parchment and beans, leave to cool.

Now, this bit is up to you. You can either use pre-made supermarket-bought custard (I have tried it and it does work) or you can make a crême patissierre (French vanilla custard). Crême Anglaise works well too. Of course the best tasting, healthiest (ha!) and most satisfying is the crême patissierre/ crême Anglaise, but if you're time-strapped, feel free to use shop-bought. The crême patissierre ingredient quantities I'm giving here is one found on the internet, as I'm not absolutely sure about the quantities I used as I do almost everything by eye. This is the one that looks the most similar to that which I use.

For the Custardy-inner:

150ml milk
2 egg yolks
30g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod (or real vanilla extract), halved and the seeds put into the milk. add the pod as well, however remove this before filling the pie dish.
1 level tablespoon cornflour, made into a paste with some milk
{1oz ground almonds}
{1 handful mixed fruit}

Method:

Boil milk with vanilla seeds and pod. When the milk is heating, in a bowl whisk the egg yolks, caster sugar and the cornflour-milk paste. Once the milk has boiled, remove from the heat and remove the vanilla pod. Whilst whisking voraciously, add the milk slowly, ensuring that it doesn't curdle. If it does, you have a chance of saving it by having a bowl of ice-cold water nearby, and plunging the bowl into that and whisking harder. Or use a blender to blend it back together. When the milk is incorporated it should thicken. Put it back into the pan and place over a low heat to make sure it thickens thoroughly. Keep stirring. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Add almonds and mixed fruit when cool.

For the apple topping:

1 oz butter, cut into smallish cubes
1 tbsp light brown soft sugar
4 approx. apples. Either russets, golden delicious, spartans or jonagold.


Method:
In the blind-baked pastry case add the crême patissierre/almond/fruit mix and spoon evenly around the base. With the apples in pretty slices, arrange in continuous circles, filling any gaps that appear. Pop some little knobs of butter on top, along with the sugar, sprinkling evenly. Bake in a low oven, gas mk. 2 to 3 or 160ºC to 170ºC, on a high shelf, watching carefully. It should take around 30 mins.

Perfect on a cold winter's day, in bed with your beloved, or wrapped up on the sofa all to yourself! Enjoy!

It's getting to be really, really cold around here. Gusty winds, ice and a bit of sleet yesterday all trigger my "comfort-food" reflex ~ excellent for my husband, not so good for my, ahem, curvaceous body! But that aside, not only have I been making some wonderful culinary creations (blowing my own trumpet much?), I've been inventing some new ones along the way, and rather surprisingly, they have come out very well indeed.



My first cake is an old faithful recipe that has never let me down. Even if I've had to make it in the worst of circumstances (this one was concocted whilst a beast played the bongos in my right eye), it still comes out wonderfully. It's from a book by the Chocolate-guru Helge Rubinstein called, invitingly, The Chocolate Book. If you can find a copy, I very much recommend a read of it. There are usually good stocks of it in charity shops up and down the country. I took liberties with this cake, and added ground almonds, which made it more voluptuous and more melt-in-the-mouth. I took it out earlier than usual, to ensure complete gooey-ness. Served with cream as more of a dessert than a cake, it hit the right spot when in need of some chocolate therapy.



Those cupcakes are carrot-cake cupcakes, altering an already-tested recipe from the CupcakeBakeshop blog. The incredibly swirly icing was because, at the very last moment, my icing bag split. I could've done it manually, but I used an unused (and sterile, I hasten to add!) syringe from the dog's medicine cabinet. See, necessity is the mother of invention!



Then comes my pièce de résistance, an apple tart. This is completely my own recipe, although they are all pretty in style. You have three parts: pastry, custardy-inner and apple slices on top. My pâté sucrée, or sweet pastry was of my own invention as well (not that it's a secret or anything). I wing things, and they either work out or not. But I have now been cooking long enough to know by rote when things look like they'll work or they wont! I'm posting the recipe separately because it's just a bit too long (and a bit too special) to be lumped in with this post as well, so it'll get posted tomorrow!



I haven't even mentioned the Festive Flapjacks yet. My own concoction which I'll also post the recipe to, they are my new favourite sweet-thing (diets be damned), and will be made often, especially in the run up to xmas!

Those three words, strung together like beads on a necklace, are my favourite. They evoke lines from Dylan Thomas' poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night". Although that poem was relating to ageing and the death of his father, I somehow see it in a more natural context. The poetic link apart, for me, those three words signify my favourite time of day. The ending of what might have been a bad day and the beginning of something new. To watch a sunset is profoundly spiritual and unique. Each sunset will be watched by thousands of people all over the world, and for each and every one it will be seen at a different angle, at a different time, in different conditions. No two will ever be the same.



For the last week or so, I've made the point of escaping with the dog, down the garden path at the same time, hoping to catch this wonderful spectacle at the highest point I can find. If nothing else, the colours you can catch here are just spectacular. When we first leave the door, the clouds are white or grey-white, with deep blue skies all around and just the tiniest hint of the sun lining the clouds.



Then come the ice-cream skies. These are in the east, in the opposite direction to the sunset. The clouds are usually pinks, purples, blues and oranges, making every single bit of the sky come to life. The colours darken and change every second, until there is nothing there and the sky becomes deeper blue and greyish.



Towards the sunset the colours darken and silhouettes are clearly visible. My horizon is edged by lacy Scots Pine trees, giving a delicate fern-like appearance. I love pine trees and pine forests. We are lucky here, we're hemmed in by them.



As the sun slips between the clouds for the last time, rays of sun fill the sky, before twilight descends. As this happens I feel very close to the world, seeing it in a different light. Twilight is very surreal, it changes the tone and colour of the world, it puts birds to roost and gives the signal for nocturnal or diurnal animals to reappear. Walking through the long grasses at this time is very satisfying, but we walk slightly quicker, so as to be home before night darkens our surroundings.



And then the sun has nearly gone for another day and I'm pleased, because I saw its slow arch back down to earth again. In summer we sit and watch this in the garden, but as it's so cold right now, I must wrap myself up in layers of fleece and gloves. The dog straining at the lead to smell a new smell. Though when I stand still to watch this wonderous phenomena, she stands still too.



Towards the pine forest, through the thicket, down a path, over a meadow and back home. Darker than when we left, and cooler too. One last peek before we go inside for the night. Snug and warm, renewed in vigour and waiting for the next outing tomorrow.

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Ff everything just find is have.
Standing there often wonder of thinking or hope its.
Weak strong heres a where belong perfect wont around. Its therell come day!
Priest rsaquo Touch Evil.
Those crazy used miles between wouldnt am memories Joan.
Gir Judas Priest is rsaquo Touch Evil mesmerise slowly Till. Rededar en tu in espalda tienes.
Eyes of Ecstasy controls serves right in Without warning.
Those a crazy used. Rededar en tu in espalda tienes.
Woman listen shines more than any bagguette. Singin another dime of jukebox am dance smiled a asked his in name.
Girl When everyday am say a mm youre passing am on way.
Wed together trijet didnt? Arms neglected aware rare moment despair is.
Coils queen therefore treat royal.
Had in chance dark or angel sin Preying from within.
Plant seeds soil bending a bed a coils in queen.
Not to think of youbut who.
Saw is mourning love for youand a touched handi knew.
Knees arrodilla is estas feliz fine next black un.
Taste or fear Irsquom afraid am.
Knees arrodilla is estas feliz fine next black un.
Impress cars wealth will drive in herself.

~Taken from a spam email message, trying to get me to buy stocks and shares in some erroneous company. The spam-bots who compile the email trawl the internet in search of phrases that will, hopefully, by-pass any junk-filters being used. This one failed, but what poetry it contains! It appears I'm not the only one to find the beauty in this random assemblage of words.~

I told you I've been busy. Hard at work, straining my poor eyes, with felt, seed-beads and thread. But it's been worth it, because these decorations are wonderful. I am inordinately proud of them, like a parent whose child manages to remember their lines in the school nativity play. Silly really, but so worth it.

A star, made from red felt, with a mirror in the middle and seed-beads at the tips.



And a tree in rich coniferous green, beaded with care and pride. A little bell at the top, so it will jingle whenever the dog walks past.

I know, I know, I am an awful blogger - it has been a week since I last posted anything and I've yet to comment on blogs. Sorry! But I will, I will. I have been keeping myself busy in the house, keeping myself free of the bugs that are doing the rounds at the moment and doing, fun, wonderful things like shopping in Hexham with my mum and making xmas decorations for us and others. I love the cool crisp mornings we've been having, although recently it's been mild, apart from a biting wind. Today is dreary, so I'm making myself do the dreaded bits of housework that I really don't like doing. Namely tidying. Which I usually leave to the husband, who can tidy until the cows come home.

Thankfully after last week's little dodgy doggy episode, TheG seems to be her own cantankerous self again, willing to chase my mothers' ageing cocker spaniel around the house, much to Chelsea's annoyance. It's not dignified for an old lady of 13 to be chased around by some young upstart! The cheek!

With my mother's visit we also made wonderful, delicious homemade pasta, bought a dehumidifier to dry out this house which suffers from condensation (most-likely causing all of my mysterious asthma-like symptoms) and drank many cups of delightful coffee whilst catching up on our lives so far (you wouldn't think we'd spend too much time doing this, seeing as I talk to her on the phone every. single. day. but there you go!).

The pasta is a Nigella recipe, incredibly easy to make and moreish to eat. We made enough to feed a rather large army, and enjoyed scoffing the lot!



You start with sifted flour. You season it and make a well in the middle to which you add...



Eggs. Then you get your hands very messy and mix the goo until it forms...



Dough. Which is best left to settle, in a cool place for 30 minutes before you start the mammoth job of...





Rolling. The only downside being the rolling, as we don't have a pasta machine, the roller is my husband. See, not just a pretty face! It has to be rolled many times, the more the better, and the finer the pasta will be. It all has something to do with gluten molecules stretching or some such. Then you get the job of cutting it into...



Tagliatelle. Yummy.

Now off to craft (more on that later) and prepare for a strange man to visit our bedroom! Get your minds out of the gutter - he's the British Gas man, to service our boiler. Tsk!

I will keep this brief as I'm up to my eyeballs in busy-ness! From one moment to the next things haven't stopped, and this is the first time online for what seems like ages (a day and a half, I think). I was under the weather last week, probably from the local bug doing the rounds, and some stress from work didn't help in the slightest - but now that's 'dealt' with I can get on with things and am feeling better.

The Dog, who is usually cantankerous but always well, was unwell last Sunday. We don't know what did it, but she woke up from a sleep, stumbled into the living room, wet herself in front of us and then collapsed, more than once, before vomiting. Include a frantic phonecall to the vet and £198 later - well, you get the picture! Blood tests, palpations of the stomach and another slightly less frantic ride home, in which I had to stop myself from getting worked up, and she seems much better. They gave her some medication which seems to have helped, although we don't know what the exact problem(s) were. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it was a one-off and she'll be fine from now on!

I have the most wonderful husband, who showed me just how much he adores me, by painting the dining room a most wonderful green. It's only above the picture-rail, so it's not too green, but it looks so much nicer than the royal blue it was before (I know, the previous owners must've been colourblind - you should see the turquoise bannisters!).

My vigour has renewed when it comes to getting this house into some sort of shape - so much so that I spent a merry few hours in our yard-area with nothing but a bowl of hot, soapy water and a stout scrubbing brush. It's algae time, the yard was green, and now it's back to the colour it should be. I, however, appear to have collected most of the algae on myself... Ho hum. I do still have another half to do, but it's raining, so I'm not going to be silly and get myself even wetter! Talk about a work-out, the cardio-impact I was achieving out-did any run, hike, walk or cycle. So, ya know, if anyone wants to do some exercise, my yard is always game for a clean ;-)

On the coldest nights we've been having recently I've taken photos of the stars. My extra-wonderful new camera can do such things! We caught the milky-way on one photo, arching right over our kitchen roof. You might think taking photos of the stars is strange, but I rather have an astronomical obsession, and seeing those little things brought out when I adjust the gamma curve borders on the silly. But there you go! This photo is just a time lapse of some sky...



We also saw plenty of these.





Old English tradition. Effigy, Guy Fawkes, burning, gunpowder treason plot etc. Usually just means that fireworks are let off by little yobs who throw them at each other in daring attempts to lose limbs. I knew someone who had a lit rocket put in his... pocket. Lost a leg. But we didn't have many this time, mostly they came from our neighbours' garden, where they had an enormous display. It included a rocket so large that two persons were needed to carry it. The dog was enthralled and loved the show they put on. She loves fireworks.

I will get around to commenting, I really will at some point. But until then, arrivederci!

I'm having a hard time not knowing quite what to do with myself at the moment. I awoke, after a horrid night's sleep, wheezing with some as-yes-unknown bug/allergy that's sitting in my chest, with an obscene passion for cleaning and tidying. So I now have an immaculate kitchen, but that, somehow, was not enough. So I thought I'd brave the garden because it's been hideously ignored for the past few months, since we got back from honeymoon (yes, that long!). We've mown the lawn, had a new fence erected but the whole place doesn't look loved. So I made tentative steps out there today, apologising to the cosmos who have been battered by an arctic wind and not propped up, the borage which hasn't been pulled up and composted, and the weeds which are growing everywhere - stifling everything in sight.

I made amends in a small way, but it felt good to be out there once again, and I cleared alot of stuff. I pulled out many of the annuals that we had during the summer, I know by now that they'll have seeded if they're going to, and most were on their way out anyway. I planted some Oxford Wonder tulips which promise to be enormous, the flowers measuring up to 8cm! It all looks a bit better now. The lavender bushes have been given a hair cut (remember not to cut back onto old wood, lavender can only put new growth out from the last year's growth) and I've filled two compost bins in the process.

And now it's cold. Very icy, it's supposed to freeze tonight, the first time this year that it might hit freezing! The house is starting to feel a little colder too, I'm having to wrap myself up well and make use of my slippers - lest I should get the dreaded chillblains again!

I was going to write an informative garden post, but all inspiration has fluttered off. Which is now exactly what I'm going to do...

P.s. Do you like the new banner at the top?