Around Town

I walked into town after work last Friday to leave my flute in a for a service - and since the shop is closed for lunch, it was a slow walk. Luckily it was a lovely day, and I got to see the more cultural end of Temple Bar, which isn't normally somewhere I pass through...

The first one isn't actually part of that walk at all, it's the Christmas window display in the local bakery near work.

Then we have some utility box art celebrating Handel's Messiah, just outside Christchurch. Love the hat the fiddle player is wearing!

The back entrance to Dollard & Co , this is the staircase...

Window boxes in the Clarence Hotel

I've often walked past Christchurch and have never gone into the grounds to see what this is - it's a memorial to the Armenian Genocide.

And this last one, I couldn't find any information about. It's beside the back entrance to the Smock Alley Theatre, and is obviously an interpretation of the stars and constellations, but I'm not sure what the boat represents.

December Favourites...

Happy New Year!

This month's header is from the knitted wreath which I finished just in time to hang for the holidays in 2018. I can see that, thanks to my sore shoulder, I'm going to be short of real photos for headers this year.

I can't believe that I, a knitter, stamped the needles the wrong way in this sheep's hands - I ascribe it to tiredness. But I liked the meadow background.

This next one is a canvas, about 9 inches by 6. I added a hanging loop before gifting it, but I like it and will probably make it again for myself.

The butterfly is vellum. I love adding Stickles - it cockles the vellum and adds both shape and strength.

A new illustrator for Purple Onion Stamps, I couldn't resist a couple of these little animals from Julian Charlton. They reminded me a lot of the black and white illustrations in the Moomin books - a childhood favourite which I am slowly collecting again in the special editions.

We were expecting a friend of C's for the day on Boxing Day - but like so many, he was sick and unable to travel. I scaled down the dinner menu - ditching the starter which was going to be a green bean salad from The French Laundry, and substituting Thai rice for the dauphine potatoes (which I had really been looking forward to), but having already taken the duck out of the freezer I was committed to it. And having spare real, homemade, custard in the fridge from an ice-cream making session, I was also semi-committed to the Chocolate Fondant desserts - I can't remember the last time I made those. I halved the recipe, to make four, and we had them oven-fresh two days in a row - as you can keep them in the fridge quite well for a day before cooking. 

The duck  with Asian-style plums recipe was a new one from Diana Henry's From the Oven to the Table. So far everything I've tried from it has been a success, though C says he thinks the sausages baked with apples, blackberry (and maple syrup if I remember correctly) would be nicer with couscous than the suggested potato.