Having waited with eager anticipation to learn of our new Princess’s name, I was amused to hear it was Charlotte having recently been to Kew Gardens and Kew Palace the main home of King George III and Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.  I was interested to learn that King George III had met Princess Charlotte on their wedding day and that they went on to have a very happy marriage being blessed with 15 children – and remarkably (for his status and the era) he never took a mistress, mind you, when would he have had the time.   I think its rather cute that our youngest Prince and Princess are named after a true love match all of those years ago and may they be very happy growing up together.

We had a lovely day, it was beautiful, enjoy.

 

Toile has invented a new game, we are calling it Path Footie. The rules of the game seem to be to bat the ball along, at high speed, trying not to let it veer into the grass and to be able to turn 180 degrees at an even higher speed when she runs out of path and needs to go back the way she came.  She loves it.

I popped into John Lewis, as you do –  we all know its my second home in London – and spotted this lovely pattern, Burda 6950, a button front gypsy styled top,  which I thought would be a good excuse to use some of my lighter weight cotton fabrics to give me some nice floaty summer tops to wear.

I bought this batik in Stratford upon Avon at Fred Winter’s and have long since forgotten the price, I bought 2 metres.  The pattern called for more and I was lucky to squeeze the pattern onto the fabric, I mainly did this by ignoring the instruction to place the neckline casing on the bias and risked it on the straight.   I looked at the neckline, worked out that it wasn’t that big a curve and went for it, it was fine.  This is my first draught, or a toile by any other name, and you know I always do my toiles in a wearable fabric as life’s too short to make it up in calico/plain cottons, so lets have a look at it. 

Finished result.  Mmm, I need a little extra fabric from the neckline  to the raised waistline to accommodate me.  When I looked at the tissue patterns I nearly added it there and then, and I should have done, it also shows how far I have come that I can now look at patterns and realise that I need to make that little tweak.  Its only an inch, but it would make all the difference.  I also think adding a little bit on the shoulder, maybe half an inch, would make it feel more secure/comfortable in everyday wear.   I like the skirt of the blouse, but if I were to lengthen it to make the dress, (I’d need to add extra length)  I’d like it just a little bit more flouncy.  And that is enough to achieve by splitting and opening up the pattern.

Again you can see maybe the back needs to be a little bit longer, just to bring the back neck up a little.

Details are sweet, two different widths of ribbon to add contrast.

And then the waist ribbon removed, so that I can tighten the neckline to allow me to wander out and about without fear of showing a little too much.

Its fun and it will be perfect in the warmer weather.

I had heard about this mythical bread many years ago, but it wasn’t until I was safely ensconced in London, where wonderful bakeries abound,  that I finally tried some from an artisan baker in Hackney, E5 Bakehouse if you happen to be passing, their Hackney Wild is a thing of beauty, a truly wondrous bread and one day, I shall pay out and have classes on how to make it, its just that good.

I’ve made lots of bread in the past, but when your on your own, its just easier to eat oat cakes or buy a commercially produced wholemeal when the call for a bacon sandwich becomes too strong to ignore and then leave the rest of the loaf on the side to eventually, when the green spots begin to illuminate, throw it in the bin.  The memory of the flavour of the sourdough won’t go away and it calls to me in the night and I’m too lazy to catch the train to Hackney, just for a loaf, although it was a close run thing, I nearly did.  One night last week, at about midnight, I got out of bed, flung a dressing gown on, made my way downstairs towards the kitchen whilst Toile stared at me with a quizzical look on her face and then proceeded to throw water and flour together in a jar, gave it a quick stir, left lots of lumps, didn’t close the lid for fear of explosion – yes I know, but it may have worked that quickly and I was half asleep and went back to bed.

Low and behold, eight hours later I had this,

Bubbles, lots of lovely bubbles, which was more than I could possibly have hoped for.  So then I started looking on the internet along with giving instructions to hubby to bring some of my bread books down whilst at the same time feeding this little baby every twelve hours, equal parts water and flour.  I had no idea if this was correct but it felt right.

And when Crust by Richard Bertinet arrived with hubby I was able to go to stage 2.  To recap, I’d made the ferment and now I was making the sponge, I think, different bakers call them different things. Anyway, stage 2 looked like this.

And then you leave that for 24 hours and use 200g of it and start to make the bread.

Rather than adding this to the flour and trying to work it in with the water, I added it to the warm water and broke it up by rubbing my hands together,

to form a gloopy mess the type you imagine life would have formed from in the murky prehistoric bacteria ridden swamps.  There was a smell, it wasn’t overly powerful but you could smell the yeast’s and you can see the bubbles, I shivered with delight.  This might just work.  Then I added spelt flour, strong white flour and salt.

Then you knead it and it really is a very wet dough, I’ve never worked with such a wet dough and it was very messy, but I think I will get better with practise, but basically you knock it about a bit and stretch it around rather than kneading with the heel of your palm. There are lots of videos on utube.

Then you leave it to rise and knock back, twice and then you form it into your bread and your meant to leave it for hours and hours, I can’t remember how long I left it for but I wanted to go to bed.

I think it could have been left longer, but it would have been overflowed by the morning, sometimes you just have to go for it.  I made my proving baskets with cereal bowls and some cotton fabric, and dusted with lots of flour.  Then in a preheated oven ten minutes at 230 c and 45 at 200 c, I had these little babies.

I must say, they are absolutely delicious.  They were crunchy and chewy and melted in the mouth, the flavour changed with every mouthful from slightly acidic to toffee flavoured caramel, it was amazing fresh and days later made the best toast. From start to finish was six days.  When we are told about bread being the staff of life, this was the loaf that they were talking about.  I am absolutely hooked.

Whilst admiring the views at Sky Garden I realised just how close the Tower of London was and being a member of HIstoric Royal Palaces and trying to tick them off  decided to pop along as I hadn’t seen it for a fair few years.  There were as many steps as I remember but being a tad taller I was able to see over the ramparts, which made it much more enjoyable as I really hadn’t enjoyed that particular school trip.  A quick trip around, a gawp at the crown jewels and then it was time to head off to do some shopping.  I’ll come back another day and explore further, but until then, enjoy the photos.

 

I came across this little gem and booked immediately, you have to book three days in advance, making sure you take ID with a photograph of yourself on it, but on the plus side and this is a big plus considering The Shard is £25.00 to be placed in a unfurnished viewing platform that according to other photographers I know has dirty windows, its free.  Yes, that’s right, free, an hour and a half of lovely viewing time (although I didn’t see anyone being asked to leave)  to admire the 360 degree view, the three tiers and of course the planting, lets not forget the planting – but we know its all about the views.  There is lots of lovely seating with blankets and throws scattered around them, lest you feel a chill and an open air balcony to wander along.  I loved it.  Its lovely to go and see the old buildings, but its absolutely amazing to see the brand new ones.  The lift takes you straight up to floor 35, my ears actually popped it was that fast.  As you walk out, the atmosphere of the place, the view, the space, it just explodes your senses. I actually gasped at seeing London laid out like this.

I am definitely going back to see sunsets from here, but as the free viewing finishes at 6.00 p.m.  I’ll need to become a paying guest in one of the three restaurants, I can think of worse places to enjoy cocktails!

Hope you enjoy the photos.

 

Just to prove I have become mad cat lady, here is a video of Toile discovering her birthday presents. Enjoy.

One thing that has been missing of late in this place of mine was a laundry bag.  I was using a straw basket bought from a French market when it came to town but that was cast aside and put into the bin when it got the blame for housing moths eggs and allowing a draw full of socks to become contaminated, resulting in breathtakingly large holes.   I’m sorry I haven’t been able to talk about it, it was just too painful, but safe to say I got the outbreak under control and fingers crossed non of the little critters survived my onslaught with the moth killer and judicious use of the freezer, sometimes in tandem.

And this idea has been trundling along, so today I glanced at my stash and having found a very pretty fabric, set too and made this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very simple laundry bag.

Which looks very pretty next to my lovely dressing gown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it gets too heavy to hang because its full of washing, it can be perched in the corner and still look pretty.

A couple of weeks ago I was messing around one evening and made these, a couple of make up/knitting socks bags.

I was just exploring how to insert a zip that included a lining by machine.  I think they came out reasonably well and donated them to the community library were I meet for knitting to help raise funds, hopefully they sold.

Happy 1st Birthday Toile,

love Mummy and Daddy

xxxx

Son no.1 came down to London to see me yesterday and we had an amazing time at London Zoo.  We walked around from 10.00 a.m. until 5.00 p.m. and then walked the twenty or so minute walk through Regent Park to get to the tube to go to Soho for a meal.  It was at this point he begged for mercy he wanted to eat at Euston and go home, I’d worn the poor boy out.  Mind you I felt pretty tired, but this was the sixth out of seven days that I have been trotting around, so I’ve had a day off wandering around London today.

We really did have the loveliest of days and so much laughter, I hope we do it again soon.

The zoo is the most wonderful place to practise photography, one is  moving from dark to light, fast moving to stock still almost continuously.  I think I am learning,  probably not but it’s fun trying.  I only take one lens, the bag becomes heavier by the hour, I find the 85mm is a nice lens and lets in a lovely amount of light, I’ll have lots of time to practise with other lenses as we’ve become members so we will be able to trot along quite regularly, now I have the time.

Hope you enjoy the latest batch of photos.