Whatever the weather...

One of the things I like about being a Brit is our obsession with the weather. This is one of our national stereotypes and source of amusement in other countries.

When a friend from New York moved here she put away all her winter clothes on the first mild spring day as that's what she did in the US as when the weather warmed up there it stayed that way. A few days later she was horrified that it was snowing and below zero and she had to scramble around in her freezing attic to find warm clothes. I think this is where our weather obsession comes from. British weather is unpredictable but also has subtle variations. In places where the weather is predictable why talk about it?

Our recent winters have been wet but mild so this one is taking us by surprise. I'm enjoying the snow and loving wearing my hand knit socks - did I mention I love handknit socks? I also love the beauty and quiet snow creates. Here's a picture from NASA of our green isles turned white. Beautiful.

Comments

Anonymous said…

See, the Minnesotans know better than to put away winter clothes before at least May. I'm only half kidding.

26 January 2010 at 11:20

Deb said…

I love your blog and seeing England up close. I'm from Canada and have roots through the line of the "Bonnie" Prince Charlie. I think this picture is cool. I am more of a crocheter than a knitter. You knit beautifully. Love your socks.

20 April 2011 at 01:31

Lashing and lashings...

As well as talk of Clementine Cake on twitter there has been talk of brewing Ginger Beer. Ginger beer is my drink of choice and I'm always in search of a good one. I find many commercial ones too sweet. Once on holiday in Brasil I had a ginger beer made with freshly squeezed ginger which is the gold standard at the moment and a tough act to live up to. @eskimimi (who has a lovely blog ) linked to this River Cottage recipe last week . I had to hunt around for brewers yeast as the brewer's yeast you can buy in chemists and health food shops is deactivated so won't work for brewing, despite the name. (trade descriptions act anyone?). I ended up buying my yeast online after consulting my brewing guru Bioniclaura . As well as knitting Laura brews her own beer, which I got sample when I stayed with her and her lovely dog and husband in Dublin when I went over at the end of October. More on that later. I couldn't wait to get started but had to wait til we returned from Hasti

We have a winner...

Check out my pea seedling, how intact and un-nibbled it is. My mysterious object, as correctly guessed by Madmurdock and Montyknits, is a gastropod guard. It seems to be working. I'd heard that slugs and snails don't like slithering over hair. I tried using hair clippings a few years ago as a barrier. It worked for a few days, til I found chewed, leafless stems and on further inspection a guilty slug covered in ginger hair. Hopefully the fleecy barrier will stay in place and mean I get a good late crop of peas. Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who took part.

Ceilings

Over Easter we went to Istanbul. It's one of those cities that's been lurking in the corners of my mind, from tales of Roman Constantinople, to bordering Europe and Asia with its dreaming mosque minarets. So I booked a bargain of a city break two days before we left, chucked some clothes in a bag, picked up a guidebook and off we went. There are more blog posts and photos on the way, as we had an excellent time there, but as you can see I was quite taken with ceilings and spent most of our four days there looking up.

Ginger Knits UK

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