Interesting...

Anyone who has seen some of my Monday posts will know that I am a big fan of words. I find them fascinating. I love finding out where words come from and how they have developed.

Well, thanks to a link on twitter, I discovered this Mental Floss article, about words that do not have an English language equivalent. The most well known word of this sort is "schadenfreude", meaning taking pleasure in someone else's misfortune (as evidenced by reality TV's popularity I think *laughs*)

The list I linked shows some different ones, so I've picked out a couple that I particularly like. Check out the link for more because some of them are really quite funny.

Shedmomedjamo (Georgian word) - literal meaning is "I accidentally ate the whole thing"... you know, when something is so tasty you keep eating even though you're feeling sick and full.

Pelinti (Ghanaian word) - "to move hot food around in your mouth"... and I think we've all done that when taking an impatient bite of something *laughs*

Rhwe (Tsonga, South African) - "to sleep on the floor without a mat while drunk and naked"... I don't think I need to say anything about this one!

But my favourite is a word that I think we should have in English (and isn't food related, as I realise the other two are!)...

Zeg (Georgian again) - "the day after tomorrow"

Now wouldn't that be a helpful word *laughs*

Work In Progress Wednesday Number 22

Good morning and welcome to another post in Tami's Work in Progress Wednesday and Ginny's Yarn Along memes *smiles*

One thing may strike you about this picture... My blanket is conspicuously absent *grins* Come back on Friday to see the (finally!) finished item in all its glory ;)

So, that brought me down to two WIPS - my Cria and my sock. The sock hasn't seen much action in the last week, I've just not been in a sock knitting mood. Cria however, despite appearances, is slightly longer than the last time I showed it. It doesn't look much longer, but there has been progress. Just slow progress, as I am really not enjoying this knit. The yarn is lovely but, whilst it is very soft, it is 50% cotton which I don't love knitting with.

Eagle eyed readers may now point out that there are 3 projects on the needles in the first picture *cheeky grin* And you would be correct. At the bottom of the picture is the start of this cute wraparound shrug/crop ballet jumper top.

What can I say, I need more than 2 projects on the go or I get bored (and super secret knitting projects at this time of year don't count!)

The book in the picture is Z for Zachariah, a book I loved as a teenager. I tracked it down and have been enjoying it again. I love re-reading childhood favourites, although they can sometimes disappoint as an adult!

Cookbook Challenge #3

This weekend I felt like baking. Instead of going for my usual recipes, I thought it would be a good opportunity to cook from a cookbook. It doesn't all have to be savoury food *grins* The point is to cook from books that are on my shelf that haven't been touched, so I picked up a cupcake book that I hadn't used before:

Now, whilst boyfriend and I often like the same things, we are fairly incompatible when it comes to cake *sigh* I prefer chocolate cake, he likes Victoria Sponge. So this generally means I either make 2 cakes/batches of cupcakes or one of us goes without.

However, this book presented a compromise... Marble cupcakes *grins*

As you can see, my marbling was more effective on some cakes than others ;)

Of course, cupcakes must be decorated, so I broke out my cake decorating supplies. I have an antique oxo tin with icing tips from my granddad - who was a baker - and lots of colourings and powders from my mum.

OK, so they don't look quite like the ones in the posh bakeries, but that's mostly because I am far too impatient *laughs* I particularly liked these 2 though:

The creamy coloured one actually has gold and silver dusting powder on it, and I tried to replicate the marble effect with the icing on the other one.

They were pretty good - although I found the chocolate cake a little flavourless... The recipe makes a batch of regular cake batter, then you split the batter between two bowls and add a tablespoon of cocoa to one of the bowls... It doesn't make for a particularly chocolatey cake. So, although they were enjoyable, and it is quicker than making 2 completely separate cake batters, I don't think I'd choose this recipe again.

V is for...

Vastness.

The vastness of space specifically. I absolutely love looking up at the stars, which is something that is unfortunately not very satisfying where I live (near a city and an airport!) due to the light pollution :( Visiting my mum's house has the added benefit of a brilliant night sky where I can see hundreds of stars.

But the best view of the night sky I have ever had was in Australia. I spent about 10 weeks backpacking there some years ago, and one of my favourite memories (and I have a lot of great memories from that time) is the night I spent on a boat around the Whitsunday Islands.

The boat's skipper was a trained Celestial Navigator, and after sunset he offered to give a little talk at the back of the boat. Only a few of us joined him, most of the other passengers were more interested in the bar *laughs*

They really missed out. The sky was so clear, I've never seen anything like it at all. The skipper (whose name sadly escapes me) had a pair of incredibly powerful binoculars and let me use them - on the basis that I hadn't had any alcohol and the binoculars cost thousands and thousands of pounds ;)

As I looked, he talked about how the stars on the horizon seem to twinkle more than the stars higher in the sky, due to the way their gases interact with our atmosphere. He pointed me to the stars he was talking about and... Wow. They flashed red and green, like disco lights.

The skipper pointed out all the constellations that we could see, and told us the legends of how they came to be. We saw Scorpio (my favourite constellation) and he told us the story that one of the Gods had decided that Orion was getting too big for his boots, so he sent a crab to kill him. The crab, Cancer, failed so the Gods sent a scorpion. Scorpio succeeded, but one of the other Gods brought Orion back in the stars. For this reason, Orion and Scorpio are never in the same hemisphere and cannot be seen in the same sky. I love this sort of story, and I will restrain myself from telling all of them here, because I could go on for hours *laughs*

Amongst the star gazing and moon gazing (very bright through powerful binoculars by the way!) one of the other people who had come to listen to the talk said something like, "it's so clear, apart from that one weird cloud" and pointed to a smudge across the sky. The skipper laughed and told her, "no, that's the milky way".

It was completely breathtaking. I honestly don't have the words to describe what it was like, sitting on the back of a boat, on the other side of the world from my home, looking up at this incredible sight that I never expected to see.

This isn't my picture, but it's the closest I can find to what it looked like - although, really, it doesn't come close!

Angles are Attitudes*

Just a quick FO post today, as I haven't finished anything from my WIP pile yet ;)

More Smoothie Hats *grins*

I have posted about the Innocent Big Knit before (at the end of the post), but in summary - Innocent Smoothies have a charity drive where knitters produce little wooly hats for their smoothies. Each be-hatted drink that is bought donates 25p to Age UK to help keep older people warm in winter.

Obviously it's a good cause, and the little hats are quick and fun to make. Some people go crazy with it and create the most amazing and bizarre hats. As you can see, I have stuck with simple ones *smiles*

The first one in the picture was actually my attempt at a crochet hat, which isn't perfect but was extra quick to make. The 4th one is some wonderfully fluffy blue yarn, snowflake type I think. It was gifted to me by a colleague and seemed perfect for a smoothie hat - although I think it needs little googly eyes - it reminds me of a creature from Sesame Street or something *laughs*

My favourite is the most relatively simple one though:

But it's orange, so of course it is my favourite ;)

And, being Friday, you know the drill: head over to Natural Suburbia, Tami's, Wisdom Begins in Wonder and Plumslife. Have a great weekend all :)


ps, blogger seems to be having a bit of an issue with commenting on here yesterday/today, so I've changed the comment box to a pop up and you might need to click the "post comment" button a couple of times to get it to show up, sorry about that! 


* "Cock your hat - angles are attitudes" - Frank Sinatra

Cookbook Challenge #2

Click picture for more information on my cookbook challenge :)

The latest recipe plucked from a cookbook to come to life in my kitchen came from this book:

Nigel Slater's Real Food. I really love the way he writes, the descriptions of the food are so evocative and I can just sit and read this as a novel rather than a cookery book.

So, on Tuesday I decided to make Griddled Mustard and Herb Chicken. I was a little dubious of the marinade initially - mustard, herbs, red wine vinegar and oil... To me it seemed like I was making a salad dressing *laughs*

I used thyme instead of the parsely specified in the recipe - partly because I already had fresh thyme but mostly because I really don't like parsley ;) And I used chicken breasts rather than thighs because that's what I had defrosted. Other than that I pretty much followed the recipe as it was written.

Mmmmm.... It was really tasty, much more so than I expected actually. I've had mustardy chicken before, but usually with wholegrain whereas this was Dijon (french mustard). It gave it a great flavour without being too hot.

The recipe did tell me to throw the marinade into the griddle pan after taking the chicken out... Well that didn't go so well! My kitchen surfaces received a nice coating, as did I, and the marinade seemed to congeal in a bizarre and not pleasant way *grimaces* Not sure what I did wrong there. But never mind, it was enjoyable without, anyway.

We had it with tiny roast potatoes - essentially new potatoes cut in half/quarters and roasted in duck fat (usually I roast them in oil with garlic and rosemary based on my mum's recipe, but I had some duck fat which makes them extra crunchy, and there was enough flavour in the chicken not to need to flavour the potatoes so heavily).

See, crunchy *grins*

Now, due to my failure to ever remember to cook additional vegetables, the plate didn't look fantastically photogenic - everything being pretty much the same colour *laughs* So that would explain why you get close-ups rather than a proper photo ;)

Work In Progress Wednesday Number 21

I feel I should apologise if my post last week was a bit confusing - I showed my plans for the blanket and quite a few people commented saying it was a good design and when was I going to start it...

I actually started it some time ago, and used the Modern Baby Blanket pattern. But because I didn't follow the pattern dimensions particularly, mine was going to be much shorter and therefore more square (the first image I showed last week). So I designed a few more blocks to add on, in the spirit of the pattern (the second image). So, I'm sorry if it was a bit confusing!

Anyway, in terms of progress, I have been pretty focused on the blanket. As I suspected, having a plan gave me a bit more impetus to get on with it *laughs* I only have one block left of my additional sections, then the border, and it's done! I have even woven in most of the ends already, to save a mammoth weaving in session at the end ;)

Apart from that, I have cast on my second Kool Aid sock. Not much progress so far, but at least it is on the needles *grins*

The grey swatch (yes, I actually swatched!) was going to become my next WIP... Well, I finished boyfriend's socks, so I figured I had a space for a new project ;) I swatched, cast on and knit 5 inches of 2x2 rib...

And then I discovered that I had cast on half the number of stitches I was meant to *sigh* After tearing it all out, I couldn't bear to start another 5 inches of rib over 180 stitches, so I decided that project could wait. Luckily, the yarn (Mirasol Miski, 100% baby llama) was so gorgeously soft and fluffy that I didn't feel as cross or hard done by as I might have expected, it just means I get to play with it again *laughs*

Bookwise, I'm flicking through The Goddess Guide. I picked it up in a charity shop (thrift store?) because the cover was flocked and I liked the texture ;) I'm not very girly, but the design is great and it's easy to pick up and flick through.

As ever, join Tami for WIPW and Ginny for the Yarn Along :)