kittycafe

Corner View: Seasonal

For those who follow the blog, you'll notice my last post was titled Seasonal before I knew what this week's theme was. You can go there to have a look at some of what I've been up to. I may have mentioned I was busy but not crazy busy -well now I'm in the middle of the crazy.

 Because I work in a food shop making food for other people's holiday dinners, well, you can guesss this is the busiest of weeks for me. 

So I had to get most things done little by little in the preceding weeks , apparently today's theme, as well!

  So if I don't get back to this space this week, I wish all of you a very merry Christmas (or just a relaxing long weekend if you don't celebrate)  

I look forward to sharing more Corner Views and other blog goodness in the new year.

 

 

Seasonal

Just a few things keeping me busy (but not demented busy) this December:

Soy Candles

I have been keeping a few pottery cups I made this summer to fill these but never got around to it until now.

Ginger Syrup  

Very nice with sparkling water ( and last night I tried it in tea, lovely! strong!) and there is the added bonus of having ginger to candy after making the syrup. I think I may need to dip these in chocolate, too.

Christmas Soap is ready!

In the front is gingerbread-scented and in the back, chocolate mint layered with cocoa on top.

It's beginning to look a lot like...you know

Winter!

At least it did last week. We are getting rain this week (as I write), which should make for icy mornings. This heavy snow lasted almost a week on the trees, very unusual and very pretty so I was busy with my camera, too. 

Here is the walnut tree that gave me the makings for the liqueur (still in hiding)

 

Advent.

I made this candle holder a decade ago and it never made it to it's giftee. It remained in hiding until this year - I guess because I prefer chunky candles.

It is basically a ring-shaped water reservoir (so your flowers/greens stay fresh) with candle holders on top.

When I lived in the city, I would have went to the corner store and got a bag of fresh holly and maybe plundered the cedar hedge between myself and the neighbour's house to decorate this. Now though, I just walk the property and see what I can find.

Cookies.

These were for food baskets that are given out in town to families in need. Those who work at our little food shop always make the cookies.

How are you spending your December?

The Story of an Unplanned Apple Tart. SOLE Food, part 1

 

I am taking part in the Dark Days Challenge, documented at Not Dabbling in Normal, making meals following the SOLE criteria - Sustainable, Organic, Local and Ethical.

I had a meal planned but it just worked out that I made dessert first!

On my day off, I was driving down to my neighbour's , where I buy my eggs (and had a little chat with an older gent who had also stopped at the roadside cooler and we discussed how good theses eggs were) and a little ways down I noticed an apple tree, still full of late November apples on the side of the road.

I stopped to have a look. They looked pretty good,  so I picked some of these and went on to my next stop, which was a sheep farm to photograph, well, sheep of course, for the Wovember 100% wool contest. After scraping the mud from my boots before I got back in my car (will it ever stop raining?) I had a plan.

(insert random sheep photo for local colour)

It was only a short distance to Whole Circle Farm, where I purchased some  lard and a few other things.

I had the local honey and flour already at home.

And thus, the makings of an apple tart:

Apples - foraged.

Egg for pastry - my neighbour

Lard- Whole Circle farm

Flour  - Hockley Valley 

 Honey - Caledon Honey

And there it is, no recipe, just an intuitive process, just like the "shopping" for the ingredients.

Sooner or later...

we had to get some snow (which promptly melted)

and some freezing rain (at my favourite farm)

(then crazy warm again)

and sooner or later,

I would finish my summer knitting  ~I did say I would be busy~ in between the snow and freezing rain.

leisl by cocoknits

Photographing this was like taking pictures of your new black puppy - a black blob.

And it was November, dark and raining (or snowing).

Sooner or later I would give up trying to come up with a good photo. My teenage photographer was getting a little impatient standing out in the rain, hence the blurring ones in the bathroom...

and the equally crappy one with flash.

But I do love the tunic.

For something so simple, I had two false starts, one with size issues and the other, something I have never ever done before - I twisted my cast on row on a circular needle and didn't discover it until several rows in...  sooner or later it had to happen. For 30 years knitting it's a pretty good track record, though.

I used a cheaper substitute yarn than recommended, it was that or not knit at all (sacrifices due to being poverty stricken) but I do like the way it came out in the end and there should be no stretching-out problems.

And the saving grace is that it can be worn with a turtle neck, so I'm calling it a year round knit that I just may have started in summer, ahem.

I now have a more seasonably appropriate one halfway done.

Let's just pray for some light.