Little House by the Railway Line

2009 Goals

Learn to make yoghurt
Pickle walnuts
~~Make marmalade~~
Perfect my granola bar recipe
Grow green beans to eat
~~Grow spinach~~
Grow peppers and winter squash
Save seeds from peppers and winter squash
Knit lots of dishcloths
Finish my hidden stars quilt
Make napkin rings
Finish cardigan back
Learn how to do water-bath-canning
Knit a pair of socks

Preserved this Year

February: Marmalade, 10 1/2 standard jars, 2 tiny jars
February: Blatjang chutney, 6 jars
March: Caramelised onion chutney, 6 jars
June: Elderflower cordial, 5 jars
June: Strawberry Jam, 7 standard jars, 3 tiny jars
June: Elderflower cordial, 4 1/2 jars (2nd batch)

Projects in Progress/ Planned

Navy and pink lap quilt
Hidden stars bed quilt
Sampler cardigan
Amish Alphabet Cross-Stitch
Knitted scrap blanket
Planned: summer blouse and skirt

Scripture Memorised this Year

Psalm 8
Psalm 103
Romans 12
Romans 13

The Quilter's Kitchen

16:17, Wednesday 19 November 2008 .. Posted in From the Bookshelf .. 4 comments .. Link

This is the latest installment in the Elm Creek Quilts series, which I've really enjoyed. I was really looking forward to this one - I thought the combination of quilts and cookery sounded right up my street.

I did enjoy it, but I hadn't realised it was going to be such a short book - only 200 pages, small volume, and more than half the text was actually recipes. There wasn't very much story covered, just a conversation taking place one afternoon while two of the characters clear the kitchen cupboards and enjoy a trip down memory lane. It was all very nice but I couldn't help but wish there had been a bit more to it.

A Circle of Quiet

16:17, Tuesday 18 November 2008 .. Posted in From the Bookshelf .. 0 comments .. Link

G got me this book as an anniversary present (1st anniversary = paper = books), and I've just finished reading it. It was quite slow reading, as it's very meditative in style, but I enjoyed it a lot.

Although I found the woolly liberal "christianity/agnosticism" espoused by the author rather annoying (as I'm not at all in favour of the lets-just-love-everybody-and-not-mention-any-problems sort of christianity, which seems to me to be profoundly unbiblical), it didn't hamper my enjoyment of the book. I found that I did agree with the author on issues such as child-rearing, education, society's dealings with the elderly, and village community.

The book didn't really have a plot or storyline as such, being more a collection of thoughts journalled over / looking back over a particular summer (obviously very much edited and tidied up!). It was more of a glimpse into someone's life and way of thinking than a normal novel, which makes a pleasant change. Life doesn't have a plotline, so it is probably rather unnecessary that a book should always have one.

It's always agreeable to find a book that doesn't offend me - I'm probably a bit too picky about books these days, but I refuse to waste time reading things that seem to me to be lacking in morality. I encounter quite enough in the way of fractured souls and broken families in real life; reading for me is mostly escapism (or edification in the case of theological books etc) and I don't feel the need to be reminded that the world is in a very sorry mess in the twenty minutes of reading I get before I go to sleep at night. In this particular case, the book is the first of a series of four, so I'm hopeful that the other three should also be acceptable pleasant reads.

A Handful of Earth

09:21, Thursday 25 September 2008 .. Posted in From the Bookshelf .. 1 comments .. Link

I borrowed this book from the library, intrigued by the idea of a diary of a year in an allotment. I've been intrigued by allotments generally, lately, and thinking it would be nice, if I weren't at work for so much of the time, to rent one to grow vegetables on (obviously, ideally, one would just have a big enough garden, but our present house doesn't, and we've no intention of moving unless it actually becomes necessary). I seem to recall my grandfather had an allotment when I was very small, but I don't think I ever saw it (he was 70 by the time I was born, so probably gave it up in his mid-seventies).

I quite enjoyed the book, but not as much as I'd expected to. I think this was largely because it was a bit new-age-y; there was a lot of discussion of things I'm really not comfortable with and don't agree with theologically, like statues of buddhas and acupunture and tai chi and yoga. I also think my approach to gardening is to make it produce food, rather than meditate on the aesthetic qualities of the garden itself. Which is not to say I don't like flowers, just that they don't excite me that much.

All that said, however, I did learn some interesting things from the book (such as carrot fly hating the smell of beetroot), and there were some potentially useful ideas for recipes I could make. I think I just found the author's outlook rather alien. I find it very difficult to comtemplate issues such as death from a non-christian viewpoint

The Winding Ways Quilt

14:33, Monday 8 September 2008 .. Posted in From the Bookshelf .. 1 comments .. Link

I ordered this book from the county library system, and went to pick it up from the village library last Wednesday. It's the twelfth book in the Elm Creek Quilts series. I have copies of books 1-9 on my bookshelves at home. Books 10-12 I'm still hoping to acquire (along with book 13, due out later this year).

However, when I discovered that this one (not any of the others, unfortunately) was available from the library here, I decided to reserve it, even though that means I'm less likely to buy it (and a potential hole in my collection - my librarian tendencies may have trouble with that), and I'm very glad I did.

I consumed it over Thursday and Friday last week, reading it on the bus to work and at the breakfast table after my husband had left for work. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was really interesting, reading the stories of how the different women had come to enjoy quilting in such varied ways. Some of the stories was rather sad, and I almost cried at the story of the adopted girl rejected by her grandmother.

Even though I'd missed out two of the books in the series, I don't think I'd missed much. I think, looking up the two I've missed out, they were chiefly flashback books, rather than dealing with the main present-day timeline of the series (which I find the most interesting part of the novels). My only disappointment is that the book didn't span a very long time period, so at the end some of the things that have been set in motion have yet to happen.... I'll have to wait for the next book to come out to find out what happens.

Trip to the Library

08:48, Thursday 4 September 2008 .. Posted in From the Bookshelf .. 1 comments .. Link

I went to the village library after work yesterday, to pick up a copy of The Winding Ways Quilt that I'd ordered. It's the first time I've used the library; usually it isn't possible to go as it isn't very often open out of working hours and I have to carefully arrange the schedule to fit it in.

I came back with five books:

In addition the Elm Creek Quilt book I'd reserved, I picked up book about the history of the local river (along which G and I walked 17 miles in the early summer, a really lovely walk), one about the history and anecdotes of the local area, one about a year of allotment gardening, and the story of a family moving from the city to a smallholding. The last two look as though they may be a little too hippy-ish for my taste, but they still sound interesting.

About Me

Hello! I'm Jo, I'm 26 and I live in a small house in England with my husband. I work full time in an office, and in my spare time I help out with Sunday school and the church youth group. When I have time, I enjoy reading, cookery and crafts, and I'm trying to learn about the garden.

Links

The Cotton Patch
Sew and So
The World's Healthiest Foods
Daily Bread
Bible Gateway
E-Sword
The National Trust