Friends to visit

Had a lovely afternoon, yesterday, with 'Frin & Dyfrig.

We ate home made hot cross buns,

toasted crumpets with jam and played Devil Bunny hates the earth. This is a Cheapass game which, we decided, essentially works like a sort of complex multi-player Mancala. Not too bad once you get the hang of it. We followed this by watching Freeway, one of my favourite films. Essentially it's a sort of twisted Red Riding Hood for the modern age and stars Reece Witherspoon and Kiefer Sutherland. Well worth checking out - it's very funny in an extremely dark sort of way.

Once they had left, I wandered off into the woods with my camera and got these lovely shots:

which I'm rather proud of, before coming home and devouring pizza. A lovely day.

She's here!

I got a text this morning to tell me. My little niece Alexia was born at 5 past midnight weighing 4lb 2oz. About as minute as her sister, in other words! Not yet got any pictures, but will post as soon as I have. Very much looking forward to meeting her! Mother and baby are both doing ok.

Cambridge

It's official - I'm in love. With Cambridge, that is. What a beautiful city. (If unnervingly quiet). And it was shown off at its best with yesterday's weather. The glorious sunshine just enhanced all that gorgeous architecture.

On arrival, we pottered round the market - a foodie heaven. There was a stall with all manner of teas and coffees, another with herbs and spices etc etc. Given that we had the rest of the day left and a two hour coach journey, reluctantly, I had to resist all this temptation. So we popped into Indigo cafe and indulged in a very nice bacon toastie, followed by investigation of the two nearby bookshops in King Edward's passage.

Next, we went to The Sedgwick Museum, which describes itself as 'One of the World's Major Collections of Fossils'. It's not kidding. The place is absolutely chocka with them. The museum is named after Adam Sedgwick (1785 - 1873) who was responsible for improving the geological school at Cambridge by vastly expanding the existing collection and he founded the museum in 1841. There are some very cool skeletons there, including these two:

I apologise for the way I look in this photo. I wasn't feeling so well. Neither, I imagine, was the Irish Elk next to which I'm stood.

Given that it was so close, it was only natural that this was followed by a visit to Kings College Chapel. Which, frankly, is just astounding. Truly beautiful and full of all sorts of interesting details. As you can see from these photos:



Which are, respectively, the main chapel, the Lady chapel (including that fabulous glowing icon) and the lecturn (which is apparently something to do with Robert Hacomblen, Provost of the chapel from 1509 -1528).

Thereafter we wandered down towards the river at Trinity college:

We were hoping to go punting, but when we got to the place that was advertised as offering this, we discovered it was closed. Disappointed, we wandered further along, to discover that it wasn't possible to go much further along and so we doubled back into town. Once there, we were gently accosted by a very nice chap (whose name I've forgotten, sorry) from Scudamores who was selling chauffeured punts. Given that he said he would book us in as students (£2 cheaper than the adult price) I was very pleased. We had half an hour to kill, so went and grabbed some money and then had a quick drink at a nearby pub. (The Mitre, which was very nice and reasonably priced too. Very much recommended - it does real ales, single malt whiskies and decent cider.)

So, 2pm we begin our tour with our guide, Tom. Despite some difficulty when we were setting off, he warmed up nicely and enabled me to get some very pretty pictures. As you can see:

The above is the third replica of the wooden mathematical bridge, designed by a student of Isaac Newton. Apparently it is so called because the original was held together with no nuts or bolts. Impressive, huh?

And this is the Bridge of Sighs. Named after the famous one in Venice. They did tell me the reason, but I forgot to write it down. Sorry!

Clare College, the oldest college in Cambridge. Founded in 1338.

And this is Magdalene College, which was the last to admit women - in 1988! Not only that, but the students and dons walked around with black armbands when it finally happened in protest. Shocking lot.

There are lots more photos, but this blog post will be huge if I publish them all. So I'll leave you with this pretty shot:

Bits 'n' Pieces

So, yesterday I made this for dinner:

It's beef noodle soup (from One Pot Cooking by Sarah Edmonds) and it was in a bid to soothe my throat. And that plan worked in that, if you scald your throat then you don't really notice any other pain. This stuff gets very hot if you boil it. (10 out of 10 for observation, Allie, very clever). Yes, I know that's obvious and a child of three knows more than me, but I was so eager to eat it that I didn't do what I should have and either waited for it to cool a little or blow on it. Ah well, it was very nice. And there was enough for my tea and today's dinner, so I don't think that's too bad.

In other news, this lovely stuff arrived this morning:

Isn't it beautiful? I have no idea what I will make with it, but it feels lovely and soft and I can't believe how much nicer it looks in real life than it did in the eBay photo.

I also promised you a photo of Keziah's waistcoat in progress didn't I? Well, here it is:

I'm using the Sundown Stripes pattern from here:

http://www.knit-today.co.uk/latest_issue.html

And I'm desperately hoping that I don't run out of yarn. The pattern assures me that I can get away with using only two balls of Noro, but I'm not entirely convinced. Unfortunately I only have two balls and I can't find any more of the same dye lot on eBay. Now, it may be that if I can at least get it all done bar the frill that I might be able to get away with buying a different dyelot or even a complimentary plain yarn, but I'm panicking. Seriously panicking. Cross your fingers for me!

Tickets to Cambridge are now booked, so hopefully there should be some pretty photos for you tomorrow evening.

Cassoulet

Well, this is what I made yesterday. And it was yummy! Very expensive (it had duck, French garlic sausage in it and all sorts of bits and pieces), but nice none the less.

I also managed to make a significant start to Keziah's waistcoat (of which more later).

I singularly failed, however, to make any further progress on Alexia's jacket because a) I am a slack person b) I had to do the shopping for the above cassoulet and c) I was cleaning.

In other news, however, I am starting with yet another sore throat about which I am decidedly less than pleased. What sort of mean cosmic trick is that to play on anyone? I get a week off work and instead of being able to enjoy it to the full, I start feeling ill and grumpy. Most unfair.

As a result, I am now addicted to 'Relic Hunter', 'Mutant X' and 'Jake 2.0'. And I have joined far too many groups on Facebook. Oh well, at least I don't have to work, I suppose.