hazeljoy

"achingly beautiful"

it really is.

i can't sleep

and this is keeping me company

it is beautiful cover of a smith's song

and is in this is england

quietly melancholic 

with a gentle sense of triumph

and a realisation that you understand and believe.

mystery silhouette 7

the lovely and very talented jenny lee fowler cut me out! 

i am very excited - i have always secretly wanted to be one of jenny's papercuts. eek! and now i am. yay! every now and then she does a 'mystery silhouette' cutting from one of her flickr contacts... and this time it's me. she has a website and etsy shop (and of course her flickr) - go check out her amazing work!

this was the picture she used, just so you know..

hot chip, leeds academy

 

 

i could not recommend these guys highly enough

amazing

(more here if you want to see)

learning to crochet

oh yes i am. look:

anyone who can crochet (and i'm assuming that's most of you, this is a skill i see others using and i've wanted to be able to join in for a while now) will recognise the wonky stitches and bad tension control of a beginner. i liken learning this to when i first learnt to knit (not that i'm very good at that either - i can do squares and rectangles, most of the time) and it's just as frustrating for me. i do not recommend using white yarn when trying this for the first time.

however, these tutorials (youtube) are excellent: one, two and three. i thoroughly recommend them.

i do have one question though - the lady in the video is talking about single and double crochets, but i think i read somewhere that these are the american names and that the uk names are different. or maybe it's the stitches. am i making this up?

beverley nichols

a little while ago, i mentioned that i had been reading merry hall by beverley nichols. well, i have now finished it, and i can report that i have loved it. his writing has a gentle pace, and is peppered with post-war british humour. it is mostly-fact and part-fiction, but i find myself fascinated with the people, the characters (the old gardener, the stern butler, the nosey neighbour) and the place (merry hall is a real place in ashstead). i have even picked up garden tips and plant ideas. ideas that i might just put into place in the new garden.

merry hall
how amazing would it be to live in a house like this? i love the symmetry, the square, boxiness of the facade. i am a little upset? no, dismayed at the fact that much of the garden from the books has been develo

i have now gotten myself the second and third books in the trilogy (laughter on the stairs, and sunlight on the lawn) so i can carry on this little journey.

the year of the rat

anyone else not realise that chinese new year began last thursday (7th feb)?

it's normally all something that's all over the news, local and national, or something i see a lot of in the papers. but it seems to have passed me by this year. hmm..

my apparent head-in-sand movement through the last week is, however, a great chance to link to one of my favourite musicians (a certain badly drawn boy) who happens to have a song entitled the year of the rat. you can also find him here - when the page opens you can listen to some of his loveliness. enjoy

oh yeah and his latest album (born in the uk) is being used in the film definitely maybe and has been revamped and rereleased.