Magic Stuff - and Not Just the Flute.

I really need to crack on and blog about our truncated time in Glasgow recently which was very enjoyable.

We started off driving to Leeds, which is of course a long way past Glasgow but I was meeting with my Dorothy Dunnett reading friends and we had a good day although one was absent as she is undergoing chemotherapy. There is every reason to expect a good outcome thankfully but it's not a pleasant experience and although she was between rounds she certainly wasn't up to travelling a hundred miles. So we missed her of course, but still enjoyed ourselves. 

The it was back to Glasgow for several Scottish Opera related things. First up was the party for the production supporters on Sunday afternoon. This was great fun; we started off with a tour of the set on stage which was amazing I now some people don't like to do this sort of thing as it lets light in on the magic, and I can understand that, but we really enjoyed seeing the fiery serpent and hearing all about how he is operated and a close up of the set and learning how the three boys  flew - and it was noting to do with their revolving umbrellas! It's a steam punk themed/set production and I much preferred it to the weird version we saw in Stockholm a couple of years ago. 

After the tour we had a beautiful buffet meal and every table had an allotted cast member on it. We were lucky with ours because not only was she great fun and we found we had a lot in common (Leeds mostly as she has sung a lot for Opera North) she also brought lots of other cast members over to our table and introduced them so we got to talk to loads of them. They were bubbly and funny and really good company. 

Monday we had a quick tour round the production studios and saw some costumes and sets being prepared for next season. We were also invited into the session which the Education Department run for dementia sufferers, which was a real privilege and even if it sounds gloomy it wasn't a bit. Lots of laughter and singing and craft going on. 

Tuesday we spent some time in IKEA where we got the last bits of furniture - table and chair - for my craft room . We haven't been able to put them together yet, mainly because A has been away a lot, but they should be up by the weekend and then there will be no stopping my crafty activities (in theory). 

In the evening we actually saw The Magic Flute. I have to say it is far from being my favourite opera. despite the music being lovely and there being some great tunes for baritones. I can't help feeling there is something really really creepy about Sarastro, and certainly in this production he came over to me like one fo those weird cult leaders, like Jim Jones or David Koresh. However the OH loves it; as so often with opera, it's horses for courses. It was certainly an enjoyable evening; well sung and acted and played. What more can you ask for really?

And the next day we got up really early for the long long drive to deepest Devon .....

Baking Subscription May

Carrot and pecan squares. I daresay it/they look lovely. I do have to record a shocking instance of cheating in their creation though; I bought ready grated carrot. I hand-grated carrot the first time I made carrot cake and it took forever. The next time I put them in the food processor and the carrots were grated really quickly, but it took forever to clear out the machine. So when I saw Mr Tesco sold bags of ready grated carrot in the correct weight for the recipe I took it as a sign, and bought a packet. 

The buttercream on the top was supposed to be piped in rows of little dots but life is too short. It should also have pecan brittle sprinkled on the top, but I am too incompetent. I had two attempts at making the brittle, which I have never done before, and they were both abject failures. I must try again another time. 

Aside from the cheat and the failures with the decoration I have to say these were nice; surprisingly light for a carrot cake. But I think I prefer my carrot cake with sultanas rather than nuts. 

For the observant among you, no I have not yet made April's box. We were away quite a lot, plus it involves remembering to take raspberries out of the freezer the night before. So far, I'm managing a total fail on that one. 

A Big Boy Made Me Do It, and Then He Ran Away!

We are back from our mammoth trip which was far too much driving in far too short a space of time. It was always going to be a lot but it was exacerbated by not being able to stick to our original plan of breaking the journey to and from Devon by overnighting with my sister, because sadly she was ill. This meant an extra night in Tavistock and having to stay an extra night in an expensive but very luxurious room in the hotel we were already booked into. (The room we had booked previously was not available for the extra night we needed it sadly) Pictures of that another day. But meanwhile ....

Going away means the opportunity to visit wool shops that are off your own patch and I managed that twice while we were south. First up was Spin-a-Yarn in Bovey Tracey while we were in Devon, followed naturally enough by the  Yarn Cake in Glasgow. Because how can you go to Glasgow and not make the trip to the Yarn Cake for a catch up with the owner, a coffee, some cake and well yes, in the end some wool purchases too? I have so far been very good about not buying more wool this year; none at all in January, March or April and only the one lot in February which I immediately made into  sweater, which I have subsequently worn a lot. I should not have been quite so proud of myself because it seems that my non buying habits have resulted from a lack of opportunity, rather than self control. 

I'm not sure if it's the wool fumes, as some claim, which sap my determination not to buy any more, or if it's just the OH egging me on (see title of post!), but anyway here's the haul from Bovey Tracey.

There was another skein but that was for a gift and it was so beautifully wrapped that I couldn't unpack it just to take a picture. I have the perfect hat pattern for the cream and blue skeins, with the slight proviso that it is available only in Norwegian, and although I have learned some Norwegian in the past it was a) a while ago and b) didn't include knitting pattern technicalities. That said  I also know a couple of Norwegians locally, one of whom knits so I can always shout for help. The teal skein on the left was the OH's pick and he wants 'something' made from it, goodness knows what, perhaps some fingerless mitts. Regular blog readers will not need telling that the bright sock stuff at the top was also his choice. 

In the Yarn Cake I bought these

The OH wasn't with me so I can't really blame this time. I have a specific project in mind for the Drops wool. The blue and yellow is for socks for me and naturally enough the orange and blue is once again for socks for the OH. I think there should be a law banning this particular brand of sock wool (schoppelwolle) because it is irresistible and therefore dangerous like crack cocaine. 

Tomorrow I might blog about something a little less 'niche' than wool and knitting. It's not as though we didn't do other things while we were gone! 

A(nother) pair of socks

Obviously in all the drama that was finishing off the thesis I wanted some plain knitting to do so I picked up a ball of Ravelry de-stash sock wool and cast on for my favourite as-plain-as-I-do socks. It's a 3x1 rib on the leg and instep because, despite evidence to he contrary, I always worry that socks with plain stocking stitch legs will fall down. They don't, but I always worry that hey will.

Anyway these were destined for the charity box but the OH saw them and his eyes lit up and he said 'Bright Socks!', so they are now his. 

We are about to go away for 10 days. The trip involves going to Leeds, then Glasgow, then mid-Devon then back to Orkney which is not the way you would organise it if you knew beforehand that you were gong to those places in close proximity time wise, but we thought we were just going down to Leeds and then back to Glasgow for a week. Sometimes life just catches you unawares and you end up doing stuff unexpectedly. 

Luckily, son no 2 having finished his studies for the current academic year was available to come and cat sit which means the cats don't have to go to the cattery and gives him a change of scene too. And after almost two years of going nowhere I'm not going to start grumbling about going away! Especially to do mainly nice stuff.

Music in Amsterdam

The break we booked in Amsterdam was a music one, with a performance of The Messiah on the first (Monday) afternoon, followed by Madam Butterfly on Tuesday evening and Tannhauser on Wednesday. 

We missed The Messiah as at he time it was on I was in a hospital waiting to have my eye checked out by an ophthalmologist, so that was a bit sad. Must remember to get round to doing the insurance claim for that .... 

The Butterfly was underwhelming. It was well sung and well played but the cast had no chemistry and it was about the most uninvolving Butterfly I've ever seen. Everyone on the trip said the same. 

Here's a picture of the less than exciting set. It didn't change much all evening. 

That left Tannhauser which I was dreading. I am not a fan of Wagner, but the OH had been excited about it because it is the only Wagner opera he had never seen a live performance of. It was the day we went to Keukenhof and luch dragged on interminably and it was an early start and it was six hours with intervals and it was going to be awful...

Except it wasn't. It was totally and utterly fabulous. The music, the singing, the production were all absolutely amazing. Given that it turned out to be the highlight of the holiday and given how much I enjoyed the Flying Dutchman at Opera pa Skaret back in 2016 I'm starting to think that maybe I do like Wagner after all. Who knew? 

Keukenhof

We were thrilled to discover that our trip to Amsterdam included a morning at Keukenhof Gardens, and we had a really lovely time there. Cue for taking hundreds of flower pictures we  may well never look at again

Here's a few of them

The gardens are only open for eight weeks a year and get over 1.4 million visitors in that time. I was glad we went in the morning because they were really starting to fill up when we left for Haarlem to have lunch.