looking forward

2008 has been a good year, with lots of positive things happening, but I prefer to look forward to 2009 than back at a summary of 2008. I've been thinking about 2009 and things that I would like to achieve this year - not really resolutions - but more goals and aims. David and I have been thinking about places we'd like to visit and experiences we would like to have, but I thought it was worth having a think on a more personal level. Some of these are craft related, so I thought I'd write them down here (in no particular order):

Learn to knit continental style - I did teach myself to do it last year, but I would like to actually knit something this way around so that the method sticks properly in my head.
Continue with my City and Guilds (which seems to be paused at the moment).
Make a really concerted effort with my quilt.
Continue using stuff I already have, and generally reducing the amount of "stuff" I have.
Sew more clothes.
Design something myself.

Some of these will overlap and hopefully lead into each other, which gives me a nice feeling of continuity.

Easter hare

We saw this lovely fella in the garden yesterday evening. We believe he's a European Hare. I'd noticed footprints through the snow on a few occassions recently that definitely weren't cat or bird and looked too big to be rabbit, so I think it must have been him. We stood in the kitchen watching him, while he sniffed the air and twitched his ears towards someone walking by about 100m away, all the while we stood in the kitchen undected about 5m away.

With the hare's mythological link to Easter/Eostre I thought it was very fitting that we saw him the day after Easter, I wonder if he was going home after spending the weekend hiding eggs?

musings

It's been a good easter weekend - nice and relaxed. We had a few people over for drinks and food on Sunday. David did most of the cooking, apart from some moroccan flat bread using a recipe from Jamie Oliver's return of the naked chef and some hot cross buns from Nigella Lawson's Feast.

I've not made hot cross buns before and am not a huge fan of Nigella's - I was reading a blog the other day that then linked to another blog that talked about Nigella that made me giggle as I'm pleased to hear there are other people out there that have a similar perception of her. I haven't watched her programmes much, wouldn't go out of my way to watch her, but if I do come across her I probably wouldn't switch over, but would watch amused, as the second blogger I linked to above appears to be, by her - not quite believing that she's real. Anyway, the hot cross buns came out well. I'd like to try to make some crumpets next.

I also think I've been watching too much TV lately - we seem to be watching American Idol... anyway, I've come to the conclusion that there's a certain similarity between Paula Abdul and Sandra Bullock I'm not quite sure what it is, but there's definitely something.

Edit... I posted this but there was a third thing I wanted to mention and in my usual libran way forgot. We were talking about the David and Goliath t-shirt slogans last night.... well, I kind of was, everyone else was thinking I had completely lost it - we'd had a bit of wine and I started talking about the slogans, I think in relation to certain boys turning into toads rather than Princes. Anyway, I looked it up on good 'ol Wikipedia afterwards and thought I'd link to my ramblings. I don't think I'd realised there was quite so much controvesy over the slogans - but thought their range was quirky and fun.