Yummmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

I love Nigella, so yippee, here are some of her Christmas recipes from her new book, as published in You magazine. It looks like some of the recipes are recycled from her earlier books. I recognise (and have made) the cranberry sauce and gingerbread stuffing as I have used Feast as my constant Christmas cooking companion for the last few years.

The picture is of a piece of her sticky gingerbread which I must make again, especially since I bought some of Theresa's Gingerbread Marmalade at the Milk Market yesterday. She reckons it would be good drizzled over warm gingerbread, so in the interests of research.....

Crazy carrot

What a beautiful carrot! At first I thought it was two carrots entwined around each other. But then I realised it was one carrot that had split in two. I think they do this when they meet a stone or something as they grow downwards, but the way it has wrapped back around itself is enchanting.

The weather has been lovely here for a couple of days. (Well, my kind of lovely anyway- cold and sunny with clear blue skies.) Serious frost on the car in the mornings, icy roads and a hushed whiteness all around the fields.

Babycake update

Lee and I went in for my 32 week antenatal visit yesterday. Nothing too serious... all's well as far as we can tell with the Babycake. They seem to think my hernia shouldn't cause any bother at delivery and might go away after the birth. I'm very relieved, as I was worrying they might use it as an excuse to induce us or do a caesarean.
We had a scan from a rather unfriendly lady which didn't really show us anything. The Babycake was hiding his/her little face.
Afterwards we had a lovely lunch in Delish.
On a different note, I'm afraid my Ebay habit has resurfaced.

Tinsel

Digga!

Digga was at work today, which explains why we couldn't find him when we left the house this morning.

I suppose I would...;-)

Here's a picture of the Babycake's cardi, a work in progress. I’m using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK, a blend of 55% merino wool, 33% microfibre and 12% Cashmere. It’s lovely and soft and I hope, practical. The yarn label says it can be washed at 30º, although it’s a bit of a risk for something that so much time has gone into producing.
I started knitting it on the October Bank Holiday weekend, when we stayed in Castlegregory.

We don't know the baby's sex yet so I picked a neutral colour. By the way, the most likely names at this stage are Toiréasa, Tess for short or Criostóir. Lee must read the Baby Names book though. He broke two ribs last week so he needs to take it easy.... but isn't.

I might have a hernia, I'm not sure. It depends on whether you can believe someone who tells you that Listeria is a virus.

All Hallow's Eve

I heard this song on the radio this morning, so for the day that's in it, I thought I'd put a link to Haunted. It was out when we were in college, 1995.

Birthday cake:-)

This is the passion fruit Victoria sponge I made for the love of my life! And you can also see the Babycake!

this is an upside-down view of Lee's birthday Shepherd's pie.

Tinsel ...or Billy?

Here's one of the donkeys we met at the Donkey Sanctuary in Liscarroll a couple of weeks ago. It was a lovely sunny day and we enjoyed walking along the paths in a very well organised place. There were signs up telling people not to feed the donkeys, but they should have warned us about the cheeky dog who jumped onto our picnic bench when our backs were turned and scoffed our lunch!

We may or may not have met Billy the donkey from Ballinahinch too. Who knows? He wasn't giving anything away.

Today is World Food Day according to an email I got from Trocaire. The picture shows one week's food, which costs this family in Kenya 2 and a half times their income, so they have to borrow to pay for it. Maybe Brian Lenihan's Budget doesn't look so bad now...

Babycake update: I went to the hospital for my 26 week check this morning- blood pressure etc ok, thank God and there maybe some good news on the Homebirth front. Babba Roo and I were looked after by Breda again.

And yesterday I put the last button on the long saga that was Wee's cardie. Here it is being modelled by the little man himself.

Yesterday, Gran came to the pool with us. I think she enjoyed it although she had been a bit apprehensive. We met another pregnant mum there with her 14 month old little boy, who had that worried look on his face that Roo used to have. The water was a bit colder than usual, but Roo is so comfortable there now that it didn't seem to bother him at all.

Nearly finished Roo's cardie

It's a pity I didn't look at this tutorial about sewing on a button before I started putting them onto Roo's cardie. I've been making it up as I go along. I wonder how long they'll last? Hee hee! The site is called Purl Bee and it could either inspire you or make you feel completely inadequate depending on which mood you were in at the time.

Swimming update

Roo asked to put the swimming cap on today! ..which I think is another indication of how comfortable he is at the pool now. We did quite a few wheeeees around the pool: that's where I support him and we walk around the deep end of the pool. He even did some little leg strokes while holding onto the wall in the children's pool. Next week we're hoping to bring Granny along too!

In which Babba Roo gets his hair wet...

We're back from the pool again. Wee really likes it now. He was getting all excited in the changing room.

Today's progress report contains the thrilling news that Roo got his hair wet!! Just the ends but it's a start. He still doesn't like the shower, but will just about tolerate it when it's at an almost imperceptible trickle. We did some kicky leggys while sitting on the steps and a bit more supported floating. He was really tired afterwards and is now having a snooze to get his energy back for the afternoon.

Thrifty or scabby?

I know a little boy who's 6 today and here's the card I sent him. I made it myself. Partly because I thought all the cards in the shops were a bit babyish for him and partly because I'm not very flush at the moment. There is a recession on you know, as Dad would say. Anyway, I hope the recipient's parents don't think I'm too scabby. I don't think the little boy himself will really be that bothered. And he can re-use the stickers if he wants! (Personally, I LOVE homemade cards and am always happy to receive one.) Not that that's a hint or anything...

Looking ahead and keeping abreast ....!

Just discovered this new site: it's an Irish breastfeeding site trying to change this country's irritating attitude to BF. I'm proud to say I breastfed Babba-Roo until he was 15 months old and I'm looking forward to doing at least the same with Babycake number 2, please God.

It's a new site, so it's still under construction. I will have to check back to read how to prepare toddlers for feeding your new baby.

Happy Feast day!

Today is St Therese's feast day. It's raining again today here, but I bet it's lovely where she is.

On the subject of the Babycake, I found this little piece on Rollercoaster.ie. It's quite cute. BC is very bouncy and active inside my tummy at this stage. He/she can hear very well now, so I've been playing Ella Fitzgerald, although heavy drum beats seem to go down better with BC.

Splash!

Roo and I went swimming today. We joined the gym just before his 2nd birthday, so now we can go to the pool whenever we like, during off peak hours. Today was the first time he didn't get nervous and cry before we went in. Probably because we were there last week and he enjoyed it. They have a lovely children's pool that he can walk about in and he loves playing with the floats and toy animals. It's nice and warm there too, so that helps. At the moment our aim is to get him to enjoy the water, rather than try to teach him things. He still resolutely refuses to get his hair wet, but we made progress today when we moved out to the adult's part of the pool. There are lots of graduated steps which he likes to walk on and in one section there's a jacuzzi-type thing (middle right in the picture) that has a really useful seat/step which he can stand on and then I briefly lift him into the deeper water.

It was such a horrible day outside, but the pool offered a lovely respite from the wind and rain. (Yes, it's back again!)

Today is the anniversary of St Therese's death. Her feast day is tomorrow.

Blog this

Here's a close-up of my new lace edging. I took the photo on Lee's new mobile, which has a more direct link to blogger.com.

mobile blog

Still messing about with phones. This is just a check to see if my own phone can still send posts. It's a picture of my new knitting job next to what it should look like.