Zebedee's mum & dad

Clarissa & Joe have moved.....to our village. Yay.
It was Clarissa's birthday yesterday & they had a birthday party/housewarming party. Time to let their hair down. You can see Rob here doing a very nice "Dad" dance!
P.S. Zebedee now weighs an incredible 5lb 11ozs.....& should be home for Christmas.

For years & years I've loved & wanted to sing a gorgeous Aretha Franklin song called "Nobody like you". I've tried to get other people interested to try & get someone to play it for me while I sang it
At last....Richard listened properly to my ancient tape of it (must be 20 years old now) and fell in love as I had....if you click on this link there is a snippet from the Amazon site.
We are doing it tonight for the Christmas show at the Church. Fingers crossed I can convey the goose bump factor!!!!!

Rupert bear house

At last I've discovered where Rupert bear lives....... Just up the road from us.
Now I also happen to know that Noddy lives not far away either....in Trumpington.

Camels

A Christmassy photo for you.

Quidenham

Thanks Kelly, the concert was just the ticket.

We sang with the East Harling choir at the Quidenham Carmelite Monastery last night for Advent. Some really tricky Latin choral pieces & some other gorgeous songs.
It's always an absolute privilege to go there. It's a closed order & the nuns don't get to see many visitors. They sing in a seperate part that's away from the congregation, so the audience can only hear this ethereal music coming from around a corner of the chapel. The choir however does get to see them. This is where they sing from....
Afterwards we get to meet up with them in another smaller room and sing Christmas carols with them. There is a low bench that still divides them from us. Richard says when he used to sing there with East Harling choir in the 70's there was a metal grill that divided you, just in case you wanted to kidnap one away.

This is looking from their choir stalls back toward the High altar...
It was an amazing scene to be a part of, with us all robed up in our red outfits and the nuns all in their unassuming brown with sandals & socks. To be surrounded by such music is a healing experience & quite a few times looking around at us all singing so earnestly I had to just mouth the words or they would have come out as sobs.

(I've put in a few pics from their website as it's too hard to take photos at the time. They're not great quality)
http://www.carmelite.org.uk/Quidenham.html

Lost in a world of curtains

Dear committed blog readers.
I know I haven't posted for ages. I have been having a shit (forgive the swearing, an indication of how frustrated I am) of a time really.
Making curtains (or trying to make curtains).
I thought I was a good sewer, I thought curtains were easy. Both thoughts were wrong, naive (the dictionary definition is correct "having or showing a lack of experience, judgment, or information").
Here are some photos of Richard putting the eyelets into a set of huge cutains for some clients. I managed to take the picture even though my fingers are down to the bone from all the work I've been doing.I've been getting up at 6am to try & get everything done. I keep making mistakes. I had to remake a curtain completely because of a large "wee like" stain from the "Crease away" ironing spray product that I sprayed on with too much enthusiasm.
Still I haven't even looked at the one job I really want to get onto which is the altar cloth for the church which is meant to be done for Christmas.
At this stage I'll be hiding under the Duvet when Christmas rolls around.

Just when you'd think I had enough work, I foolishly took on another giant loose couch cover too. Stupid stupid.
The only consolation being that the house I went to to measure up at was absolutely, amazingly gorgeous.17th century half timbered 3 story Tudor MANSION. Here are a few shots of the interior. Complete with grand piano. Beats working in a factory I suppose.

Now where did I put that thimble........

Just hanging around

We've just been hanging round the house lately. Hibernating inside.We did however have some friends over for lunch (Goats cheese croquettes, tomato & olive salad and baked apples with gingercake custard) on the weekend.
We went for a walk after lunch past the beautiful church in West Harling. It stands in a field all by itself. No electricity or anything. It's great when they have a Christmas carol service & the whole place is lit by candles & smells like mince tarts & mulled wine.

More autum colours

I just finished the last post & looked out the back door & what do you know, suddenly the leaves have changed & everywhere there is glorious colour......

even inside...

Autumnal colours

We went to a gorgeous English Pub on the UK Suffolk coast at Orford on Sunday for lunch with my brother & sister-in-law. The Crown & Castle is well worth a visit. Quiet & tasteful.
Afterwards at about 4pm!!!!! Yes it's getting dark mighty early these days. We went down to the quay & watched these beautiful colours as the sun set

I've just come home from a coffee out with my friend & old boss Caroline & this is what greeted me at our front door. I've been going in & out without noticing that the highlighter pen has been out.

The dinner

Yet another fabulous dinner has to be recorded.
Tonight's meal was "Beer-can chicken" from Waitrose.com...."Never was there more amusement to be had from roasting a chicken. The bird is 'stuffed' with a can of beer, which bastes it from the inside out. Result: extra moist chicken. Two things to remember: don't drink too much of the beer or your chicken will fall over (possibly you will too); and make sure that the chicken is at room temperature before cooking."

Here we see Richard doing a fine impersonation..it was amazing & delicious.
(Do be careful if you cook this, the beer gets mighty hot.)

The Cook

Richard (as you probably know by now), is an absolute star.
And after waiting 43 years he's now all mine (although there have been a few requests to go onto the waiting list for when they clone him).
Since he's been working on the boat (see previous post) & hasn't been getting up as early at his usual 5.15 am !!!! he's been cooking almost every evening meal. He sits down on the weekend with the latest Waitrose magazine, works out what we'll have for the week & then we get to sit down to an amazing gourmet meal every night. WOWEE KAZOWEE. How good is that?
Here he is with a meal from last week....racks of lamb with sundried tomato & herb crust, home cooked borlotti beans, roasted carrots & sugar snap peas.