More Than I Deserved

I was being a bit of a pain yesterday evening. (I can be, just now and then). I was in a bijou  stropette because we didn't have anything for dessert except shortbread biscuits, when I had thought we had a couple of mini magnums in the freezer,. Someone else must have eaten those. 

Anyway the OH came up with various alternative suggestions from a tin of rice to the shortbread to the raspberry ice cream and I turned up my nose at them all - for perfectly valid reasons - it was too cold for ice cream (although not a mini magnum somehow!), I'd eaten shortbread all day and didn't want any more, and I didn't 'feel like' rice. 

Not my finest hour and I knew it at the time, and I was a bit cross with myself for taking out my disappointment on him because, although I hadn't eaten the mini magnums, it was at least my fault as much as his that we didn't have anything I wanted for dessert. 

It was coming up to Masterchef time - yes , we are still watching it and yes Greg Wallace is still getting more unbearable each season, even though gazillions of us think every year that  that can't actually be possible, and the OH disappeared into the kitchen, from whence came some whizzing and buzzing and dropped cutlery sort of noises and then, just as Masterchef started he came back into the living room and delivered this to me. *

* In case you're wondering, he did make one for himself as well. 

Raspberry souffle. 

It was delicious. 

And I didn't deserve it, given how I had been behaving, but that did not stop me eating it. 

Books to Read Poster No 45

Every once in a while (and not nearly as often as I would like) the poster throws up something really good. And this was one of those times. 

The book was The Kite Runner by Khaled Husseini. I avoided it when it first came out, partly because I didn't think it was 'my sort of book' and partly because I tend to avoid things that everyone is suddenly raving about. It's a silly attitude; there are far too many things I have put off for one or other of those two reasons which I have then thoroughly enjoyed and by my age I should have learned that. 

I loved this book.  It taught me a lot about Afghan culture, and recent Afghan history, but without serving that up in unpalatable indigestible chunks. It was all seamlessly blended in as part of the narrative. The story itself, and the writing were tender and lyrical and honest and moving - and in some places shocking. And  although the people in it were flawed they weren't completely  unlikeable as so many characters in too many books I have read recently have been.  With one notable exception, they were products of their upbringing, their environment and the circumstances in which they found themselves, and this made their stories, and the redemption arc of the narrator, all the more believable and poignant. 

A definite hit. It's been a while! 

It's a Small World

I've hardly ever mentioned my Dolls House here since I got it back to Orkney, although that was largely because there wasn't a great deal to say. My original plan had been to visit shops and browse  miniature fairs on our various trips south and furnish it slowly with things I picked out, having seen them first. This was because I made a mistake ordering fireplaces on-line when the house was being constructed and bought the wrong sort and I didn't want to make the same mistake again.

Covid put paid to any thoughts of miniature fairs and as far as I can ascertain there are no shops selling dolls house furniture in Scotland at all. I find this surprising, but the one I did find details of on-line proved to have closed down when we finally had a chance to visit it. 

 A good friend in American bought me some furniture for Christmas from her local miniatures shop and that was really almost all I had, and recently I realised that I could leave the place empty until a mythical 'one day ' when somehow I was going to have a huge choice of shops and fairs, or I could bite the bullet and actually get some stuff! So I got some stuff and the result is that I now have two rooms almost complete. 

Here is the maid and cooks bedroom. 

This is complete apart from a few more accessories 

And this is the library/study of the gentleman of the house. This is an illustration of yet another of the perils of ordering on-line. I was so fixated on ensuring I got the best price from the several firms who sell these things that I didn't double check the finish on the chair and ordered a walnut one rather than a mahogany one by mistake. D'uh. However I will replace it with a mahogany one in due course and the walnut one can go elsewhere. I still need a wing chair and a small table for this room, plus again, accessories, but I'm pleased with it so far. I think my fave piece here is the map chest ( left wall behind door) because I hadn't thought about getting one, loved it when I saw it from an independent small seller, and it only cost me £4.00 which was a bargain. And I have even found somewhere where I can buy miniature maps to put in the drawers! 

Clearer  view I think if you click on the photos to enlarge them. 

Not in the plan -

- but this one I did finish! 

We were having a deep clean and sort out of the living room last Saturday after the builders left and I found this part done on a shelf under a window. (As you do!)  I say part done; it only had Be ...appy and the dark outline of the beehive. So I picked it up, worked on it this week and finished it yesterday.  It was an enjoyable little stitch and I could even work on it without wearing my head magnifier,. since the fabric is so loosely woven and the holes relatively large. The magnifier is great, but a tad uncomfortable to wear. Now that it's done I'm not sure whether to try and find a frame for it or attempt to put it on a project bag when I have my next sewing lesson. We'll see. 

Also on the finished side of the line are these

made from grey left overs and an Alice in Wonderland set from My Mama Knits. I am so pleased with these for two reasons. The first is that they turned out to be a lovely colourful pair of socks. The second is that I know if you had said to me two years ago 'cast on the grey, make the rest up as you go along and by the way make them non matching' I would have run for the hills screaming in horror. Possibly a little creativity, as opposed to just following a pattern, is struggling to birth. 

 

Great Ear Rings - Shame about the hassle

I have raved here before about the Literary Gift Company. A couple of months back I go a15% discount coupon and because of that I finally succumbed and bought a pair of ear-rings I had been eyeing up for years. In my favourite phrase they were Not Cheap, but with the 15% off it was a price I could bear to pay because they were such fun. 

So I ordered them and a few other things and when the parcel came I fell on it with delight and anticipation - only to come crashing back to earth, mainly because of this

One of them was broken. Well not so much broken as fallen apart . I was really disappointed. Obviously I got in touch with the LGC straight away and they got the supplier to send me a post paid label so that I could send them back for repair. It didn't take long for them to be done and I can;t complain, although a little niggly bit of me says that actually the LGC should just have sent me another pair and returned the faulty ones to the supplier themselves. But you know, this way was probably quicker and less hassle all round and they were all very responsive and efficient. 

I don't know if this coloured my reaction to everything I had bought, but of the other three things only one was an unqualified success and the other two were a bit meh! 

It hasn't put me off the LGC though. I still look at the website sometimes and want to give them my credit card and say just send me one of everything until the card is maxed out! 

Books to Read Poster No 44

 

This was Misery by Stephen King. I didn't enjoy it, but I'm not going to be too critical because it is a horror book and horror is a genre that has never really appealed to me. Which would be why I had never previously read any of King's  books - although I am aware that not all of them are horror stories in the way this one is. 

Style wise I found it a bit repetitive and bloated; how many times can you describe someone screaming with pain and not have it become less effective on the reader each time? Subject wise I found it - well, horrific. 

On the upside it had some interesting things to say about writing, and writers, and the drive to write what comes naturally versus the desire to please publishers and readers and earn money, about what rights, if any, readers have over writers and their books (absolutely none of course, although the demented reader in this book would obviously argue the other way. But she is crazy, so draw what inference you like from that. And King is very good at ratcheting up tension, I did find myself holding my breath or on the edge of my (metaphorical) seat a good few times. 

So,  not for me, but probably excellent of its kind. 

Playing Tourist

So last Friday we went to Celina Rupp's which has become our go-to for coffee and cake, not that we do that as often as that phrase probably makes it sound! In any case on this occasion our main reason for going was to select  a gift for a friend which we duly did, but we did have coffee and cake at the same time and we also picked up the new Orkney Craft Trail brochure for 2023.  

Now it's a while since we paid much attention to this brochure, because we're not tourists here any more  and we know most of the businesses that feature, and really they sell things that tourists buy. However there was a page featuring a new-to-us textile artist with a gallery in Finstown so on Saturday, the weather being glorious, we decided to give ourselves a half day 'off' living here, be tourists and drive over to mainland Orkney and take in this textile gallery (which looked sumptuous) and generally enjoy the weather and the views, take  a little walk, whatever. 

Those of you who follow me on Facebook will know  what happened as regards the gallery. Here's the post I put up on there

So yesterday we went all the way to Finstown especially to check out a textile gallery/shop. Opening hours are April - October (check). Wed - Sat (check) 12 - 4 (check).

So imagine how thrilled we were to discover a locked dark gallery and this notice on the door.

Come Again?

That's a probable No.

As I said to a friend, the addition of Sorry and Please to this sentiment would have made a world of difference in my attitude to the concept of 'Come Again'.

It wasn't all loss. We did go and have a walk in Firth Park, where some people will remember I did a photography project a couple of years ago taking a photo on the same spot on the first day of the month every month for a year. For old times sake I stood on the spot and took a photo

and I used to always take a close up of some other thing that caught my eye while we were there and I did that too. 

I didn't record. at the beginning of this month the OH's favourite day of the year in Orkney, which is the opening of Geri's Ice Cream Parlour, although we did go there on opening day. We went again on Saturday and the OH had one of her takeaway Sundaes - I think the Salted Caramel. Nowadays I generally stick to cones which are better for me but which aren't particularly exciting to photograph. here's the OH's Sundae though 

which again, looked better in the old 'sit in 'days when it came in a glass!

And here are a few scenic photos of the Orkney countryside, although as per, they feature lots of big sky and in some cases big water as well! 

This one is taken form the high point of Firth park and I'm toying with the idea of repeating my project next year and taking photos from this point. Haven't decided yet.  

The hills of Hoy ....

...and the Ring of Brodgar

and Finstown 'harbour' in the sunshine.