indefinitely

Indoors:

~Made dahl from my new cookbook. Christmas is just not Christmas without a new cookbook. This one was given to me by Esmé. I am never sure about legume consumption, but I like red lentils a lot. I add them generously to nearly every soup/stew I make, just to give that nice thick consistency. This is the first thing I made from the book and it was good (and shhhh, the first dahl I ever made without throwing in a save-the-day stock cube). A scoop on the side of scrambled eggs and bacon was just lovely. But it needed salad too. A quick run to the green house with scissors and it was all ready to go (no I didn't wash the leaves, I live dangerously).



~I am also still going strong with my water kefir. It's been sitting on my worktop now for over six months. Not the same batch, obviously. But the same grains. I let it sit with a chopped lemon for about 3 days. It's good them. Any earlier and I find it too sweet. My kids all fight over it, I never seem to have enough! I need to get more grains and a bigger jar, they seem to grow really quite slowly compared to the regular kefir grains which multiply like gremlins.



~Knitting is moving briskly on and I will soon be out of wool. I think I have knit these in the size bigger than I thought, yes.... I am looking at the instructions and see that the little pants are for an older babe. That is what happens when you sit watching three episodes in a row of the BBC adaptation of Great Expectations and hence knit mindlessly. Gillian Anderson made a very good Miss Havisham. Splendidly decadent viewing. I am very proud of myself for actually watching thee entire episodes. I am a fair-weather tv/film viewer and often feebly trot off to bed after ten minutes of something to get back to my book. Of half way through a film I will wander off through to the kitchen suddenly having decided to bake scones. With Gruyere. And a batch of tahini fridge fudge, on the side... I forget I am supposed to be watching something. I was so tired though that this time I stayed put. I sat, knitted away and let The Man sort everyone out for bed.



~This is Boo-boo's new doll, the first Barbie type to enter the house. And it has scented hair! Scented frickin hair. It is so gross. I already washed it (on Christmas day) and it still stinks. I keep hiding it from us all, trying to keep the toilet cleaner smell away. Why scent doll's hair?? How bizarre and unnecessary! I will be sure to read labels very carefully from now on and try to escape the lunacies of doll manufacturing.

Outdoors:



~It's wild and windy here. Downpours followed by scouring winds mean the ground dries quickly but flooding is always an issue. The flood plains look beautifully like the secret flower meadow world in Howls Moving Castle (minus the flowers tho, this is after all the UK in January). See, how I manage to sit through children films tho? Hmmm. To make that comparison. I do indeed watch more children's films that grown-up ones. Which is good. As long as I keep Disney at a long arm reach. Esmé is IN LOVE with Totoro. Me too! Snap! I tell her. Every three year old should have a copy. There's no danger, no crisis, just relaxing music and weirdness. The hallmark of a Ghibli Studio film. The Man thinks they were all written by some geek tripped out on acid. Which no doubt they were. Which makes them no less good I say. Better than sugar coated and boring princessified Disney. I'd rather have a child-witch delivering bread rolls than a sappy Cinderella wearing cute clothes.







~Outdoors though, the wind makes it possible for us to fly like witches and watch out we don't snag waist length hair in the manner of wandering sheep.



~Isaac is back at school, his second term as a a school-going child. It's weird. He's nearly 11 and really seems to want to go, but still, I prefer him at home. I miss him. His absence changes the dynamics of the day and how Felix and Esmé live theirs.



~We still have our tree up and are all reluctant (minus The Man) to see it come down. It smells good still and is a cosy twinkling bright beacon when the rest of the world is grey and dull. But, I suppose one can't keep a tree up indefinitely, or else seem really bonkers. Plus it does take up a LOT of space It's pretty much the 12 days after now, I think... well tomorrow then :)