For the Love of Textiles

For this weekend the plan was,to plant red tulip bulbs on Bram's grave on Saturday and to do some heavy gardening in our garden on Sunday.  Yes, I still feel it is "Our garden", and for the moment it is still difficult to write "My garden". I have never been a real gardener myself. Bram was the one in our relation who always did the garden, and I was the one who enjoyed it. He was not a man with plans for the garden. In a way, that was more or less his attitude towards life in general. Not too much planning, and see what will happen. The funny thing is that in his work he was totally the opposite. His designs really needed planning, and he was good in that. A few years ago it was time for me to step in. Bram had no more energy to do the work after his aneurysm operation. The garden had become a mess. Everything was over grown with weeds, and our little City garden behind our historic home really needed some work to be done. I remember a bit chilly Autumn

I always love the Weekend.. The Fridaynight together with a glass of wine... Time for shopping, the laundry etc. on Saturday.. And time for...whatever.. on Sunday. On Fridaynight I watched my all time favourite Cookery Writer: Nigel Slater on the BBC with his program.: "Dish of the Day" in which he demonstrated a very tempting Lemon and Thyme cake.  I did find the recipe also in this really GREAT Cook-Book I have bought some years ago.. A great Read, esspecially if you like -as I do- reading Diaries, and this one is combined with very tasty recipes. But if you don't have the book and want to make it: The Recipe is  HERE  . So, this morning I decided to give it a go..Placed all ingredients together and the beating and mixing could begin.. More about the Cake later.. I just love baking.. Guess I have that from my late Mum. She was excellent in cooking and baking.  Now I really regret it that I don't have her much loved recipes.. The chewy chocola

Holiday is almost over.. 7 weeks of wearing sandals and shorts... Tomorrow my working-life starts again... Waking up at 5.45 and getting back in that routine.. I am a bit nervous how things will go.. Work combined with the situation at home... Over the last weeks Bram's condition is going down very fast.. Walking is getting very difficult, which is not very practical in a house with 2 staircases.. So therefor we get a stairlift which will be placed this coming thursday His energy is very low...and I am afraid that he might fall and break something.. He is very fragile... So we get more care from the nurses from Buurtzorg. Twice a day and maybe more the coming weeks.. We'll see how it will go... So it feels rather difficult, and different to go back to work this time... The coming week will be filled with meetings, writing on a project and tasks..and inbetween that: visits to the hospital on Wednesday and Thursday...and on Friday an excursion to Amsterdam..

Yes, Autumn has arrived. The leaves in the garden are getting beautiful colours and there are days with rain, storm and sun. Autumn is -with Spring- my favourite season because you can feel the "change in the Air" and the nature is changing rappidly. It is also the season to curl up in the sofa with a good book or something to knit. Talking about knitting. I have finished 2 pairs of socks (the Lighthouse Gansey socks and the Elevator: patterns on Ravelry and 2 new socks are on the needles. They are the Earl Grey in bright red yarn (maybe with a bright green heel and toe for a change) from Brown Sheep yarn and the Kawkawesque in Wollmeise Yarn (love the yarn and the colours) You can't have enough handknittd socks I always feel and I love to knit them. As a treath for myself I have ordered yesterday some handdyed yarn (socks that rock) from Blue Moon fibres and a friend will take them with her from the States (where she lives: thanks MJ) and I will pick it up probably o