Have listened to CDs 1-7. It’s quite long (20 CDs), without a lot happening, although the prose is lovely, and certainly very pleasant to listen to. I have to admit that it sort of merges with Philip Roth’s Everyman in my mind (Everyman being the last audiobook I listened to, with similar themes of mortality).

Made the wild mushroom pocket pastries last night – delicious, and reheated beautifully in the toaster oven for lunch at work. A few substitutions: I made 8 rather than 9 (it’s much easier to cut 16 square from puff pastry than 18) and used spring onions/scallions instead of shallots. I’d make these again, and I like the way book includes variations on a theme – I can imagine making the zucchini version of these, too. My suspicion is that they’d freeze well, but I haven’t tested this.

A recommendation from Solar. Have watched episodes 1-9. I sort of wish I was Veronica Mars in high school (although without the drama of her life. I just like her self-confidence). So far, so good. Have no idea how I’m going to make it to the end before it’s due back in the library (one week from today, and I’m going away for the weekend), so I might be watching this over several weeks/months.

I spent a very pleasant day yesterday reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I’ve never before read an installment of Harry Potter on the day it was released, but I’d ordered it online months ago – when I needed to make an order up to $25 for the free shipping- and was pleasantly surprised when the shipping notice arrived in my inbox on Thursday, and unexpectedly excited when the book was delivered on Saturday.

For the first time, I was really worried that someone was going to tell me how the book ended before I got to it – that didn’t happen, and I’m not going to spoil it for anyone else, other than to say it was a most satisfying read, and that I nearly shed tears (although I didn’t come as close as I did in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which I listened to on a particularly well-read audiobook). In many ways this is the most mature of the books in the series: it’s quite a dark book in some places, but there’s also less coddling of the reader (the reminders of the story up until this point, etc.) than there has been in previous books. This was probably happened at least partly because there’s a lot that happens in this installment. The book would be unreasonably long if Rowling were to assume that the reader had not read the earlier books.

The copy I got from the library was badly scratched – I needed to return it and am now waiting for a different copy.

Ever since I heard Getting Away With It (All Messed Up), I’ve been wanting to pick up James‘ Pleased to Meet You.

Given that Pleased to Meet You was released in 2001, it’s a little embarrassing that it has taken this long for me to get my hands on it, but better late than never. It is currently their most recent release, though. So you can’t accuse me of being so far behind the times! I’ve been listening to Pleased To Meet You on and off for most of today, and I’ve been enjoying it. I think my favorite tracks are Space, Senorita, and Getting Away With It (All Messed Up). I can imagine playing it at dinner parties, and the like.

An indie band from Manchester, James is probably most famous (at least in the US and Australia) for Laid, which makes me think I should look out for a copy of their greatest hits album, The Best Of

Although James unofficially disbanded shortly after Pleased to Meet You was released, they’ve recently regrouped, although they don’t list any US touring dates yet. Still, I’ll keep my eye out, both for a local concert, and for a new album.

I got Cafe Paradiso Seasons on the recommendation of Charlotte, who was recommended it by someone else, and it looks excellent. Cafe Paradiso is a vegetarian restaurant in Cork, Ireland that gets stunning reviews, and it’s recipes look great. The vast majority of them seem to be less-than-straightforward (weekend rather than weeknight cooking), but I’m looking forward to trying them out. The recipes are organized by season, with sweet dishes mixed in with mains and sides, and with any luck, I’ll have chance to try out some of the summer recipes soon!

Around the time of my birthday, Mum spent two weeks in New Zealand, and bought part of my birthday present there. Birthday Yarn from Mum.

You might not think that it looks particularly special, but check out the label on the inside of the cone: Possum/Merino/Silk

I’ve never used possum yarn before! This vegetarian (well, sort of vegetarian – I ate meat for the first time in 6 years on Friday night!) hates to think how they got the fur off the possum. Roadkill? In any case, the possum is an introduced species in New Zealand, and regarded as a pest, so I feel less badly about it than I might otherwise.

In any case, I have Wrap Style out of the library, and I wanted to make something out of it. To be honest, I’ve found Wrap Style to be a bit of a disappointment; the vast majority of patterns included in it are poncho-type things, which I can’t ever see myself (or anyone I know) wearing. There is one stunning exception, though: Evelyn A. Clark’s Shetland Triangle. This triangular shawl is just stunning, and it turns out to be perfectly suited to my possum yarn. I really love the way the columns of stitches curve around (isn’t knitting amazing when it creates something like this?).

Start of Shetland Triangle

I’m actually a little further along with this now, having completed 3/10 pattern repeats, and really am in love with this pattern. It’s a relatively simple lace design, but it’s incredibly effective. Knitting with the possum yarn is an interesting experience: it sort of smells like dead, wet animal (perhaps because that’s what it is?), but I love the result.

Cross-posted on Grevillea.

A while ago I mentioned that I’d bought cookie stamps for Mum and myself, basically because we both wanted to make Spiced Date and Walnut Scones, as featured in Silk Road Cooking. Back then, Mum already had a copy of the book (which I’d given her for Christmas), and I was waiting for the copy that I’d ordered for myself to arrive. The book arrived a little while ago, and it was definitely worth the wait. It really is an excellent cookbook, although I wouldn’t call it’s recipes “quick and easy” – which is to say, it’s something that I’d cook from on the weekend rather than during the week. That said, everything that I’ve taken the time to make from this book has been delicious – well worth the effort.

Because Mum had the cookbook before I did, and because I refuse to pay for faster shipping on Amazon.com (this is something that Barnes & Noble definitely has over Amazon.com – it’s free shipping orders definitely arrive in a more timely fashion – but, I’m cheap. If the book’s for me, I usually decide I can wait if Amazon.com is selling for less than Barnes and Noble), so I really had to wait for my copy to arrive, she had her scones all made up before I’d even received my book – despite the fact that she had to wait for the cookie stamp to make it from Boston to Perth (this is how slow Amazon.com’s free shipping is: slower than international mail). In any case, I’ve made my scones now, and they were delicious!

A few notes:

1.My scones and Mum’s scones look practically identical. This is because we are related. Really.
2.I didn’t have any candied orange peel, so I just used orange zest. It was fine. I’m sure it would have been better with candied orange peel, but orange zest works just fine as a substitute.
3.I forgot to brush my scones with oil before cooking them. This didn’t seem to have an adverse effect.
4.The scones weren’t really scones (as I know them) at all. But they were delicious. From Mum’s pictures you can kind of get an idea of what they really are. The filling was mainly made from dates, walnuts, and pistachios. And orange zest.
5.They kept really well, and were super-filling.

Cross-posted on Grevillea

There was a time when I used to knit something for all the babies I knew were on the way. This has sort of fallen by the wayside – partly because there’s been a sharp increase in the number of babies on the way that I know about, and partly because I’ve been busy. That said, it really is something that I’d like to try and do more of. There’s something about making sure that a newborn baby has a hand-knit of it’s own. With this in mind, I borrowed Zoë Mellor’s Adorable Knits for Tots from the public library. It turned out that this was a seriously good idea – the book is great. There’s lots of really wearable designs for kids, for a wide range of ages (new born through toddler), with a wide range of difficulty and complexities. To give my self an achievable goal, I decided to make the Baby Slippers for my friend, Ros, who is expecting a baby at the end of this month.

This pattern really should be called something like Baby Mary-Janes. The end product is a pair of adorable little shoes (I guess the pattern book is well named!) with a strap across the top, held in place with a button. I’m knitting mine using some Rowan Cotton Glace (the suggested yarn) that I happened to have on hand – the whole pattern uses less than one ball of yarn.

The two slippers are knit identically (which means you have to be careful when it comes to sewing them up, so that you don’t end up with two slippers for the same foot) and in one piece. When it comes to sewing them up, there’s a little bit of an origami trick that you have to do, which I always think is kind of fun. The slippers are also an incredibly quick knit. I started working on them last weekend, and without a whole lot of time on my part, I’m already well into the second one.

The slippers are knit in moss stitch, which is possibly my favorite stitch ever: very simple, but it yields a beautiful fabric. I’ll probably do away with the three little crosses across the toe of each foot that are suggested by the pattern, though. I think they’re borderline too cute, and probably a little fussy to do and make sure that they are finished nicely.

Yesterday, I went to Windsor Button to get some buttons to use as strap fasteners. I’m always happy to find an excuse to go to Windsor Button – the store is excellent. Most importantly, their staff are great: very knowledgeable, always available, and not at all pushy or gushy. They’ve got a fantastic button selection, and their yarn selection is pretty good, too – and it improves every time I visit. Since I’ve come to Boston, it’s become my favorite yarn store. I ended up buying some pearly light pink buttons, that I think will be just perfect. Now I just have to get the slippers finished and sewn up!

Cross-posted on Grevillea