Blog Archives - MODERN WELSH

Wassail...

12/30/2014

No, gentle readers, you are not looking at a mutant chicken - THIS was the goose we consumed on Christmas Day. Despite the huge size, I can assure you there was very little left once it was cooked and the Trolls had fallen on it with their usual level of energy. A good time was had by all, and I've even managed to fit in a little quilting in this strange week between Christmas and New Year.

The really cold weather has set in and we've had our first snow of the season; but not on Christmas Day itself, which was unusual. Sitting and quilting, with the cats around me, a crackling fire, Radio 4, and some nice nibbles and drinks, whilst it's snowing outside ranks fairly highly on my list of 'best life experiences', although it lacks the drama and excitement traditionally associated with such ennumerations, I know. I guess that's just ME - much happier, really, at home and being creative than trotting around conquering mountains, running marathons, or taking on the more headline grabbing challenges. I'd be interested to hear what other people think of this, and also what constitutes THEIR best experiences; my guess is the most satisfying ones would usually involve family, friends and cosy times...

A happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year to you all!

The First Noel...

12/22/2014

... Was a fervent prayer of thanks that the Christmas geese actually got here, as the Trolls had to postpone their cross-Channel activities by 24 hours, thanks to a nasty storm. I would NOT have been amused if they had ended up in the briny!

We are almost done with the Christmas preparations now, following an extended trip to IKEA and one of the larger supermarkets in Dijon today. Tomorrow involves picking up the tree, laying in a stock of wood for our woodburners and generally making sure we can all kick off our shoes on Christmas Eve, dress the tree and start the week or so of feasting which seems to be the main point of the Troll existence.

The weather is steadily getting colder and we are promised snow next week, although not on Christmas Day itself, which is unusual. THIS is why I have posted the above picture. It is taken from the pigeonnier at Saucy, our neighbouring village, and looks over towards the hills of our valley. Doesn't it make you feel warm and happy just looking at it? Believe me, I **am** looking at it, clad in my three jumpers, thermal undies and hand-knit socks hehe!!

I also found the perfect cutting out table at IKEA today. Now, I know I won't find this in my Christmas stocking, because Troll has already been very generous with regard to recent fabric purchases... but, it is certainly something to aim for as a bottom line for my pattern sales. It's good to have a dream, isn't it??

Catching up...

12/18/2014

Well... doesn't time fly??

I am now back in France, having caught the Fullest Plane In The World (well it felt like it!) coming back from Heathrow to Paris and am very pleased to say the mild weather has followed me. Yes yes, I KNOW we need a nice cold spell for all sorts of reasons, but if it could hold off just a leetle bit longer I'd be grateful.

The big news of the latter part of my lightning trip was that Troll did indeed come to the quilt shop with me, and that he didn't find it nearly as bad as he thought he would. He even LAUGHED, and the photo above is my proof! (The end of the world is nigh, let me tell you....) He was also remarkably well behaved when we visited the Bath Christmas Market afterwards, although I am quite sure the opportunity he had to sample a lot of the lovely food and drink on offer there had a lot to do with this. I'm not knocking it, but I am under no illusions as regards the baser nature of my two Trolls...

So, the presents are (almost) all wrapped and those which need to be sent have been sent. The geese arrive here tomorrow, along with a whole bundle of other goodies the Trolls are bringing across the Channel with them, so things - so far, and touching every piece of wood within reach - are going well. Time for a tea and a little bit of quilt-time planning, I think.

Whilst out wandering in the garden this morning I found this... the mild weather is having a very strange effect on my plants. I only hope they don't get too much of a shock when the usual wintry spell really arrives. But then, I suppose, I will have them under cover; I do my best, honest. And you can see where some of my inspiration for the colours in my quilt designs originates - I just LOVE this combination!

Is it really, really wrong of me to already be looking forward so much to the quilt-retreat time I have planned at the end of January-start of February? I love my family, I love my house, my garden and my cats and ALL things about living in France (well, possibly not the rubbish supermarkets and lack of decent quilting shops, but that's another story!) but I confess my really special times are these opportunities I take in Port Isaac, Cornwall, to be on my own with my trusty Janome, crappy UK daytime TV and a fridge full of ready meals. They are real jewels in my diary, and I'm already preparing what to do for this next one.

In the meantime, there is also a lot of planning going on for keeping my Trolls fed over the next couple of weeks. Back to the kitchen for me....at least I have Radio 4 to keep my mind busy!

Winter Wonderland

12/13/2014

I am glad to say that I have raided Waitrose and am guarding my stash like Smaug and his pile of gold. One job down... roll on the remaining million or so hehehe

So, tomorrow, I am going to give myself a little bit of a treat and I'm off to one of my favourite quilting shops - Midsomer Quilting (www.midsomerq.com) - which is about an hour or so's drive away. In fairness, it is true to say I do have a couple of large quilts to collect which they have layered up for me on their longarm, and I'm taking another over for the same treatment (it certainly saves all that crawling around on the floor!) but the biggest surprise is that TROLL IS COMING TOO!!

This will doubtless cut down the time I spend in the shop in half, because there's only so much free coffee Troll can consume and the Sunday paper will only keep him busy for so long. But, gentle readers, it's a little Christmas miracle he is coming at all, because normally he avoids all things quilting as if they will pass on a combination of the Black Death, rabies, yellow fever and Ebola in short measure. Let us hope that Chris is on form to chat with him and generally soothe the troubled Troll breast...

Afterwards, and as a compensation for Troll being a Good Boy at the quiltshop, we are off to visit one of our favourite cities - Bath. It has an absolutely fabulous Christmas market, and I'm hoping the atmosphere and all the lovely things to eat on display will get us all in a Christmas spirit, something which comes about as naturally to my Trolls as flying to a kipper. There is also the not inconsiderable issue of what to find the GrandeTrolle for her Christmas present...

... Ah well, let's hope a little Christmas miracle occurs, although after the massive one of getting Troll into a quiltshop I'm not pushing my luck...

Leaving... on a jet plane

12/9/2014

Apologies for lack of blog over the last couple of days. Things have been just a leetle bit crazy here as the warm up to the festive period really gets into its stride.

Tomorrow, Henry ap Troll and I are making a swift trip to the UK. I will be returning in just a couple of days, after I've beaten both sizes of Troll into performing their pre-Christmas necessaries, played snatch-n-grab at Waitrose to get the things I need, run around like the proverbial blue bottle, and generally slapped the preparations into shape.

I confess I LOVE the idea of Christmas, but not so much the reality. The former is an amalgamation of all the cheesy old festive films, with a bit of frosting on top in the form of Bing, Nat, Doris, and Dean to name but a few. My absolutely ideal festive period is embodied by Nat King Cole's 'Christmas Song', which I am not ashamed to say still manages to bring me to tears most times I hear it.

Sadly the reality is usually more like THIS

Look familiar?

Yes, the thing all the films forget to mention is that all that lovely food does not either make itself or clean up after itself. It's a messy business, Christmas, from a culinary point of view, more akin to the arena scenes from 'Gladiator' than Doris in a pinny calling everybody to partake of the massive turkey and all the trimmings.

Let us hope Waitrose give me the necessary weapon upgrades this year. Although I suspect the biggest one would be something they Do Not Stock - namely, a helpful cleaning slave who will silently clean the mess up in return for troughing its portion of the vittles. Ain't gonna happen, something tells me...

After the Main Event, I am planning to demand part of the Trolls' Christmas present to me is they LEAVE ME ALONE to some dedicated quilting time, to destress myself in the best way I know.

Ah well, a girl can hope. And this is what the season is all about, isn't it??

In the bleak midwinter...

12/5/2014

Troll and I have been married over 26 years now, and in that time I have never lived in a house we've finished renovating. Somehow, just as we almost get there, we find a new and enticing wreck into which to throw our time, effort, love and money; the old one gets a few finishing touches, I kiss goodbye to the remaining pie-in-the-sky ideas I had which would have made it absolutely perfect, and we pass it on to new people whilst we move on to another nightmare of mud, damp and dodgy electrics.

The place we have now in France is a case in point. It COULD be beautiful - indeed, it IS beautiful when the sun is shining and if you don't look too closely at the paintwork. However, as it's only been lived in for one month a year for at least the last four-five decades, you can imagine... What work was done on it during this time was done on the cheap and without regard to any aesthetic considerations, that is, when the work was done at all. So now, here we are, once again living in a barely habitable (albeit large) shack, dodging the bits of the electrical circuits which are likely to kill us, turning a blind eye to the various funghi and fauna which appear in various areas from time to time, and generally Making Do until the trusty builders are aimed at the place.

It's OK to live like this for a while. It's even quite pleasant in the summer. In the winter, however, it is NOT FUNNY. The big kitchen (there are three all together - but that's a long story) is laughingly (sic) known as Icebox Kitchen because that is what it most closely resembles. In fact, I could make some extra cash in the winter by hiring it out as a refrigerated storage facility, were I so inclined. Cooking with fingerless mittens, woolly hat and three jumpers quickly loses its appeal, let me tell you... And as it's suddenly turned cold in Burgundy over the last few days, I confess I am already gritting my teeth, pulling out the Blitz mentality and shaking it off, and generally preparing myself for another few months of ingenuity and endurance. We CAN do this... we can, we can...

But PLEASE.... pleasepleasepleaseplease... can this be the LAST winter without central heating, reliable electricity in all rooms and a water supply which doesn't immediately freeze when the external temperatures drop?? Or should I be offering myself as cook for the next Antarctic expedition NOW, 'coz I certainy have enough training!

Thank goodness I'm a quilter. My quilts more than earn their keep during the winter!

I am however tempted to knit this for myself....forget chic, even if I do live in France...

Perversity...

12/3/2014

Well despite saying I was really really busy earlier on today, I sat down and quilted this afternoon.

Yes, gentle readers, I am the Queen of Displacement Activity. Probably, if I had to get a quilt done urgently, I would be doing my knitting. I guess humans are just perverse...

Anyway, I had some help... this is Hyssop, one of the first kittens to be born at my cattery, who decided she just HAD to sleep in one of my project boxes. Despite the fact she is what Alexander McCall Smith would describe as being of 'traditional build' and this was not one of my bigger boxes.

I guess it is not only humans who are perverse....

Christmas is coming...

12/3/2014

... and this particular goose is NOT getting fat. This goose is running around like a wet hen trying to get everything done - WHY did knitting all my Christmas presents this year sound like a good idea (in August)??!

In the meantime, I've never been a fan of Signor Clooney, but perhaps if he lived here and said this to me I could be converted...

Procrastination...

12/2/2014

...is the thief of time. I can almost hear my Nanna saying it - usually as a prelude to asking me to do something I **REALLY** did **NOT** want to do...

Anyway, today I SHOULD be doing a whole raft of stuff. But I'm not: I'm tinkering with this website, poking around Pinterest (can waste hours on that one), playing with the cats and in a minute I'm going to accept defeat on doing anything 'worthy' today and I will go and do some quilting. At least Teapigs (my tea makers of choice) will be doing well, because if there's one thing I cannot do without when I'm piecing, it is TEA. You can take the Brit out of Britain but...

The picture is my latest design - 'Happy'. So called because just looking at it makes me feel good, especially when we are having the first cold snap of the winter so far and I NEED to know that Spring will come soon enough with all the light, colour and joy the grey days of Winter lack. But, hey... I guess that is just Nature balancing out the monochrome with the colour, huh? Just like all good designs... and it's true we would not appreciate Spring if we did not have anything to contrast it with.

... and there's always tea, whatever the season...