Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland
Originally uploaded by AnglersRest.

A posting to a heritage mailing list that I am on reminded me of the Winter Wonderland that occurs each year at the Model Village at Babbacombe. Despite the rain and horrid wind we decided to vist with Mum. It was well worth the £6.90 to get in and we enjoyed it.

More photos Loaded at Flickr

Not all the models were done in a Christmas theme, but many were and we had a wonder into Santa's groto, Santa of course had fled back to the North Pole! Nevertheless it was a great afternoon, I enjoyed spending sometime with Mum and think we should visit earlier next year - before Christmas.

The Art of Knitting

I saw this Mag & DVD in Dumfries in April. Bought the first issue and set up a subscription & a direct debit. About mid May I received a letter from the publisher saying it was discontinued due to lack of interest. So, imagine my horror and delight to see that it is republished. I'll keep an eye out in Smiths for the rest in the series.

A quick rummage in my very disorganised study and I have located issue one, plus all the wool, needles and the DVD.

Thanks to all my Book Crossing and Live Journal buddies who alerted me to this.

Apple of my Eye by Helene Hanff

I really enjoyed this book, but then I have enjoyed all the Helene Hanff books I've read. An interesting web site about Helene Hanff is Here

In this one, Helene tours New York, and sees places that she has never seen before, despite living in the City. With her she takes a friend, Patsy, who she had lost contact with, but who she had ran into a week or two before, and together, the two of them tour the city and explore their friendship. On page 32 there is a great description of the World Trade Centre, which for those of us who have never seen the building, never will, so the book, in its own way creates a peice of history.

Having read the book, and not knowing New York (although I would love to visit) I've decided to obtain my own copy and read it clutching a New York map. I'm one of these visual people and I want to "see" the areas that Helene and Patsy walk as they prepare for the book.

I especially enjoyed the details about Ellis Island (pg 118-120). Like so many, my husband has relatives that entered the United States through Ellis Island and if you stop and think about it, those who entered into the US through Ellis Island had closed one chapter of their life and were hopefully opening another. An interesting site about Ellis Island with links to search for those entering through into the US is Here

Thanks so much for sharing this book, I loved it!

Christmas Narcissus - Week One

Planted on Wednesday 20th December. Look how well they are doing after just a week.

NSSFC December 2006

What can I say, I am simply overwhelmed at the genorosity of my NSSFC partner - Rillaith. I consider myself very, very spolt

2 books from my wishlist
2 bars of Lindt chocolate
Several smaller bars of assorted chocolates
Christmasy gold coins
M & S small Christmas cake
a packet of Biscotti with chocolate chips
A book - The writer's block
3 bookmarks
various stickers for scrapbooking
a mini keyring torch
a really useful notepad on a keyring
a Lush christmas pudding
small notebook & coloured pencils
Captain Corelli's Mandolin audio edition
bath/shower gel in a plastic champagne bottle
and a fabulous soft heart radio.

I am simply overwhelmed Sally with your kindness.
Your packages were a delight to open.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

I've had a look through the other journal entries and see that there has been a mixed response to this book.

The concept is a clever one, and altough not one of the best books this year, I did enjoy it and found it to be a profound and thought provoking book - who has impacted on our lives and whom have we impacked on. Who would I like to meet again in heaven and who would be there to greet me? Very thought provoking.

Stitch 'n Bitch Handbook by Debbie Stoller

I managed to catch up with my reading this afternoon, and although I had a few others in front of this one, this book had an appeal today.

I really enjoyed reading this one and found that I needed a note book as I was reading to jot down a few web page addresses and some notes. A really useful book and I enjoyed reading it.

Christmas Eve reflections

All the presents are wrapped and under the tree. Stuart keeps having a prod and shake...what a child he is!!!

I finally got chance to ice the cake today, not the best icing I've ever done, but it was tricky with the heating on and the backdoor open to try and keep the kitchen cool, while the oven was on for festive cooking. It didn't help that I had had several glasses of a rather a nice rose from Tesco!



While I was having an icing crisis, Mum was busy making the rum truffles, with the proper stuff, not the cheap essence. Every year, this rather tatty extract from a Woman's Realm Mag appears. I had chance to have a proper glance at it. The receipe is from The Archer's Country Cookbook by Martha Woodford published in 1977.

I can certainly vouch for the truffles!

4oz dark cooking chocolate
4oz icing sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons ground almonds
2 tablespoons double cream
2 tablespoons rum
chocolate vermicelli

Melt the chocolate over a basin of hot water. Beat in the icing sugar,egg yolk,almonds,cream and rum and pound altogether until mixture is smooth, and form into little balls. Roll each truffle in a little vermicelli and coat it.

Happy Christmas

Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2007

Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham by M C Beaton

Another delightful read in the life of good old Aggie!, sorry Agatha!! Only a brief glimpse of James, but there is lots of Charles and a rather dodgy, but eventually dead hair dresser, a rather grumpy,rude vicar and a rather iffy episode with a depilatory cream. Need I say more?

The Coal Tattoo by Silas House

The storyline was wonderful,with beautifully descriptive scenes and written in such a way that there was a genuine innocence about it. In this third book by Silas House, we effectively complete the cirle of the characters from the author's first two novels, and in finishing it there is a sense of completion, but yet I find myself wanting to know if there is addition to the series.