Christmas 2011

This was my very first Christmas by myself. Not bad really, for 35 years worth.

I managed not to be morrose at all though. I had my own tree, I called the family, and spoke with them on Skype for a good couple of hours and then I watched movies and did a lot of needleturn and went on a 'London Walk' walk of Dickensian London.

That was quite amazing - there was easily 100 people in my group of tourists, (the photo shows as many of the group as I could catch - no there weren't any other peoeople around, just us!) and there were five or six guides on the day. Obviously not much to do in 'ole London Town of a Christmas day. It was truely strage to not see a single red bus the entire day though. And the rain held off until the very end of the tour, which was lovely.

And then I cooked a proper christmas dinner. It even included roast potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots - although I managed to undercook the carrots and overcook the brocoli but never mind - it's really quite hard to judge food preparation times for just one person when I'm so used to cooking for many! Entre was Bree and specialty cheeases and complimented by a Jacob's Creek Shiraz/Cab-sav. And I even had my own little christmas pud with custard and brandy butter. So the food compliment was achieved.

On boxing day I caught the Doctor Who Christmas special, which was indeed special. Humany-woomany tears! Lovely.

Aunt Millie's Garden Blocks 9-14

I've been remiss in my showing off of this wonderful quilt. It really has taken me far too long to get it done, but then I've had great excuses!

Here are Blocks 9-14. I now only have blocks 15 & 16 and the borders to do. Mind you, it'll probably take me another year just to do the borders! Sheesh they're big. And I have to decide which of the duplicates to put on the quilt and which to make into cushions. But that's a problem for when I've finished all the blocks.

So here they are:

Block 09, finished December 2010


Block 10, finished January 2011


Block 11, finished July 2011


Block 12 , finished November 2011


Block 13, finished December 2011


Block 14, finished December 2011


You can see I got inspired after going to Houston - but I'll tell you about that in another post. :)

It's been a while...

I've been doing things and not blogging about them for quite a long time now. It's been a busy year but I haven't written the blog because writing it was becoming a chore and something to be guilty about, and there are so many other things I could do voluntarily that would make me happy rather than guilty, so I did those instead. Simples!

But while doing NaNoWriMo this year I realised something very valuable about this blog; It forced me to write regularly. And that act of writing regularly, turning over my accumulated impressions of the world around me and filtering the rubbish from the stuff that could make good compost, gave me a wonderfully rich and fertile ground for my imagination. This year during Nano, I ran out of inspiration. I could not get excited about the very few ideas I had because I had no others to link them to.

I had neglected my garden, I didn't turn or contribute any nutrients to the ground and weeds grew and strangled it. I was only hit by inspiration at the very last minute, and that wasn't particularly original inspiration. A new take on another's tale in fact.

For as long as I've been doing Nano, I've been doing this blog. I didn't realise the two went hand in glove. Of course, I could have written my own stream of consciousness in a diary or some such, but that doesn't force me to edit as I go along, and it somehow is not so sharp a stick for producing regular work.

I did a lot relating to writing this year, I've been particularly studious in fact, but I concentrated all my efforts on revision rather than on creating any new content, and I feel the lack most direfully.

So, I am going to try here on in to be a more faithful correspondent. It's for my own good after all.

Hello again world!