Library loot

This library loot post is for the benefit of my colleague who looked longingly at my bagful of library books at lunchtime on Monday. I was gulping down soup and crunching on rice cakes so I had to disappoint her by not getting them out, but my readers here can benefit too from my laziness earlier in the week! I seem to have been doing well at the library recently, and what with the cross stitching that I have on the go and my frazzled brain I think I am probably taking them home faster than I can read them...

Here's what I got!

Little village school (Gervase Phinn). I've loved his books about being a school inspector so I couldn't resist picking up this copy of what is his first novel even though it was a hardback.

Suddenly (Bonnie Burnard) is a book I think I read about on the Virago website; it's been on my library wishlist for a while and was finally in. I think it will be quite a challenging book as it's all about death, so one to read when I am in a suitable frame of mind.

Back home (Bethan Darwin). I picked this novel up simply because it is published by Honno Press who do for Welsh women's literature what Virago do for women's literature in general.

Uncoupling (Meg Wolitzer). I read a review of this a while ago and have been waiting for it o appear in the library; I greatly enjoyed her last novel, The position, which I think was on the Orange prize list.

Stealing Stacey (Lynne Reid Banks). This is actually a teen novel, but I have loved her adult novels, especially The L Shaped Room trilogy, and I couldn't resist picking it up when I spotted it. She seems to write a lot of childrens books these days which is a shame as I have read all of her adult novels.

Me and my sisters (Sinead Moriarty) and The very picture of you (Isabel Wolff) - chicklit by authors who I have previously read.

The Vintage Tea Party Book

I picked up The vintage tea party book by Angel Adoree when I spotted it in the library, partly because I can't resist a baking book, but also because I knew that a couple of friends had raved about it.

What a lovely book it is! Divided into three main sections to cover brunch tea parties, afternoon tea parties, and evening tea parties with appropriate recipes (e.g. tea related cocktails for the evening), there were a wealth of recipes that I wanted to make immediately. But it is more than a recipe book - there is advice on hunting for vintage china, instructions on how to make decorations and vintage style aprons to wear whilst serving, illustrated descriptions of vintage hair styles such as the victory roll and make-up suggestions. The book is beautifully presented, and somehow both modern and retro.

I've already made two things from it:

Here are the spinach and parmesan muffins which I served for lunch with soup:

I also made the chocolate and coconut granola. I've made granola several times before and Mr W really likes it for breakfast, far more than muesli, but I've never made a chocolate version before.



I am planning to make two more recipes from the book in the next week or so, so I'll show those in due course.

New acquisitions - part 1

I have a number of recent acquisitions to share, some inspired by other bloggers.


Two VMCs:

Simon at Stuck in a Book recommended Red Pottage on his blog a couple of weeks ago.

Jane at Fleur Fisher recommended Woman in the wall on her blog last week. It's good to have recommendations for the VMCs that I haven't yet read as it helps me through my challenge.

Campfire, a commenter on my blog, recommended the Madeleine books and found a cheap copy of the first one, The little Madeleine on ebay for me.

Finally, a dance biography, The everyday dancer by Deborah Bull. We are approaching ballet going season - in fact, Mr W and I went to see Strictly Gershwin yesterday, and we have tickets for Nutcracker (traditional), Nutcracker (Matthew Bourne), and Sleeping Beauty over the next 6 months - so this will make a nice accompaniment.

There are also an embarassing number of cookbooks that I've purchased in the last few weeks (I blame the mumps and having too much time to peruse Amazon).



I've already blogged about the Great British Bakeoff book, and I'll be blogging about the other ones as I bake things from them (I still have 3 of them to even open!). With the possible exception of the Beas at Bloomsbury book which I found really disappointing - I wasn't enticed to make anything when I read it!

Mincemeat

Having had a large bag of apples from a colleague in exchange for a bag of our pears, I decided to make mincemeat again - it's always good to get ahead for Christmas, even though I still have a jar left from last year! I used Nigella's no suet recipe, and as I could only buy a 500ml bottle of cider (and the recipe calls for 250ml), I decided to make a double quantity. It only just fitted into my Mum's pressure cooker (I don't use the pressure bit - I wouldn't know how - but it is the most cauldron like receptacle that I have). I've somehow ended up with 13 jars of the stuff! As I ran out of jam jars, I had to use an old Nutella jar and an old coffee jar which obviously don't seal properly - I'm keeping them in the fridge for now. But this is where my readers come in - please share with me your favourite things to do with mincemeat apart from mince pies as I'm going to have to try to use it up in the next couple of weeks. I'm thinking about an apple and mincemeat sponge pudding or maybe crumble, but does anyone have any other ideas?

This week

This week has been tough. It's what Oxford University calls "0th week" (the weeks of term are numbered 1 - 8, so the week before term starts is obviously week 0...), and in Michaelmas (Autumn) term, this is when all of the new students arrive. I spent a day and a half delivering library induction presentations to new historians (a total of 7 times, more than any of the other history library staff!); only 2 students fell asleep, and I managed to stay awake. Combine this with starting a slightly different role and trying to bond with the two members of staff new to my team, some shortlisting, and firefighting a number of other issues, I was absolutely shattered! Consequently I haven't done as much of anything other than work as I would have liked this week really, and I even missed a card making evening that I'd been really looking forward to as I needed to go to bed! Today, Saturday, I am feeling quite frayed around the edges, and although I managed to go for a run/walk, I had to give up on my swim after 1km.

This week in reading
Last weekend I enjoyed reading The Easter Party by Vita Sackville-West, one of her novels that hadn't made it into the Virago Modern Classics series and which I had been inspired to seek out after my visit to Knole at the August Bank Holiday weekend.
I also reread my favourite Famous Five Book - Five go on a hike together - which bore rereading. I love that book!
I reread Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy as part of my rereading her oevre - I think this is one of her best ones.
I read a memoir of a man who moved to Tenerife to run a bar (having been unable to find a book about Tenerife to read ahead of my trip there in February), called More ketchup than salsa, which was really quite tedious and told me next to nothing about Tenerife.
I read A sense of an ending by Julian Barnes which Claire had lent me when I was poorly with mumps. I find Julian Barnes work very variable - I loved Metroland, lent to me by Mr W's predecessor, and Talking it over, and also Nothing to be frightened of, but most of the rest of his work has left me cold. I liked the story in this but found it quite pretentious.
I also read The vintage tea party book by Angel Adoree which I will post about separately in the coming week.


This week in training
Since getting my running shoes, I have been back on the Couch to 5k programme and been out 3 times. I am now up to running for 16 minutes during the half hour session.
I have cycled 57 miles (2 x 6 mile round trip to the pool, 5 x 9 mile round trip to work) and am astonished to find that my legs are 50% less flabby than they were a week ago. Seriously! I'm still trying to learn to love my bike, it's helped that the weather has been ok, but I find it hard going cycling back with my panniers.
I have swum about 21km, and even made it to a Tri Club swim session (hadn't been for over 2 months). I'm being given access to special training sessions to do on my own ahead of my swim camp in Tenerife, so have got to do the first one tomorrow!

This week in cooking
I've made my Christmas mincemeat (post to follow), and a couple of recipes from the Vintage Tea Party book (also post to follow!), but otherwise I have been defrosting things from the freezer to feed Mr W and I in the evenings.

This week in the house
We are now fully double glazed following new windows in the bathroom, hall and kitchen. Annoyingly they are far nicer than the already double glazed windows in the rest of the house which we see more often. We opted not to have frosted glass in the kitchen like the window it replaced, and it has made the kitchen so much lighter.
As I type Mr W is putting a light fitting into the bathroom light, so no more light bulb dangling from the ceiling, and if he has any time left this afternoon he's going to get on with painting the walls in the hall.

New PINK laptop!

Look at Cardigan Girl's new toy! I've had it since the start of the week but today is the first day I've been able to wrestle it from Mr W...I thought the pink would act as a deterrent but evidently not. It was only the arrival of his new bike that meant I got my hands on it.

I hope it'll make my blogging easier - it's better all round as it has an English keyboard (our PC has a Russian one), and I can use it when Mr W is using his. But mainly we got it so I can stay connected when I go to Tenerife in Feb - given the HUUGE bill I had for using my phone in Austria when I had Mr W's company, a laptop seems like a bargain as long as I can find somewhere with some wifi. It's got a webcam too so I might even be able to show off my suntan to Mr W.

Library loot

I thought I'd do a quick library loot post since I popped to the library at lunchtime. I have to say that I am heavily aware of every library book that I borrow now that they have to be added to my panniers (which are already laden with swimming kit and change of clothes) for me to take them home.

More ketchup than salsa: confessions of a tenerife barman (Joe Cawley)

What I really wanted was a book about Tenerife; I have booked the swimming camp that I mentioned the other day and since I've never been anywhere like Tenerife I thought it would be prudent to get a book about it. I know that it is a volcanic island and that the beaches won't be white beaches of my imagination, but rather black sand, but I know very little else. Sadly, all that was in at the library was this book by an expat barman. Still - it was better than nothing so I've taken it.

Scarlett Feather/Copper Beech (Maeve Binchy)

My brain has been fried again this week so it's been back to Maeve again. They're chunky books and I've read them before but they're lovely to sink into at the end of the day.

The brightest star in the sky (Marian Keyes)

Like Maeve is Marian Keyes. I'm not too sure if I've read this one or not, but it looks like a good "end of the day" book for me.

Vintage tea party book (Angel Adoree)

You can never have too many baking/tea books. Actually, you can (umm yes, there might be a bit of a confession coming up in a few days time...), and that is why, despite hearing good reports about it, I haven't actually bought this. So I was delighted to see it in the library. Lots of lovely picturs. Again, that makes a nice "end of the day" book for me when I am too tired to actually read.

What have you been borrowing from the library recently? What do you like to read for a good "end of the day" book.

Cake makes everything better

Yesterday was a hard day; I was absolutely flat out at work and by the time I eventually got home there was no way that I was going out to make Christmas cards :( I had dinner of a mars bar and some peanut M and Ms and went to bed at 9.15. I got up in the middle of the night to have cake as I was hungry and there wasn't anything else that didn't require cooking. This is the cake:

It's an apple, pecan, gingerbread cake, and I spotted the recipe here.
I have a strong belief in the healing properties of cake. Today has been far better, I managed coffee and tea breaks, had lunch with a friend (and bought her flowers to cheer her up), I've eaten healthily and got in my 5 a day (although I know I really should have had 10), and I fleetingly met Yvann from Reading Fuelled By Tea. It's also the final of the Great British Bake Off tonight - I have sent Mr W out to his cycling training session so that I can concentrate on it properly. It is a busy week though, so please bear with me on the posting front!

October

Well, September wasn't the best month was it?! I learned that I am bored at home on my own, I got plantar fasciitis and had to abandon a 9 week running programme after only two sessions, and THEN I got mumps. I didn't manage a chore free evening...

But I am determined that October will be better! I bought some running shoes yesterday and today I made it out for a 30 min run/walk. I then cycled down to the swimming pool (3 miles) and swam 3km before cycling back again. (Isn't it funny that I cycle and run in miles and swim in km?). I hope my legs will be ok tomorrow - the swim stretched them out - and although I was worried that my foot would start hurting again, it didn't seem to. I hope to go out running again on Wednesday evening.

Tomorrow will be a chore free evening! I am going round to make Christmas cards with my wedding lunch photographer. If I'm honest, the hot weather has made me lose some interest in Christmas - I'm cross stitching a mini beach hut at the moment.

Otherwise in October I'm looking forward to a trip to the theatre, a trip to London and a singalonga Faure Requiem!

With regard to reading, I have no especial plans. I would love to get back on track with the Virago Modern Classics books but it is a bit of a struggle to be honest. I am hoping to write a post once a week mentioning all of the books that I have read each week - I think it would be nice to share what I am reading a bit more, even though I lack time and brain function to write "reviews" this time.

Finished cross stitches

I managed to procure the thread to finish off my Boofle cross stitch earlier in the week, and I have to say that gentle stitching in the rest of the feet and fact was a very relaxing activity at the end of some mega busy days this week.

I also finished this Christmas bauble from the set of designs that I found in the cross stitch magazine. I rather like it as it is so colourful.

What next? I have to confess to having bought another Boofle design when I bought the thread; it's not Christmassy though and perhaps I should stick to more mini card designs. I did enjoy the bauble, so maybe another one of those...