Friday Smiles 2022: Week 4

It has been a wet and cold week, but I am not complaining as we have a comfortable home to stay inside until it improves. In fact the sun is due to shine again on Saturday, and the ground has benefitted from a good soaking. In fact quite a bit of the rain has been during the night which is even better.

But it has been colder than we are used to, so on Monday I decided to make a warming casserole for our lunch. I had roasted a small chicken on Sunday so the next moring I stripped the rest of the meat off it, and put the carcass and skin into my instant pot (basically an electric pressure cooker), with some water, and left it to simmer for an hour or so to make stock. While that was happening I cut up a range of vegetables that I rounded up from the fridge and cupboard. I always think it looks so nice and you just know it will taste good. Then I added a small jar of garbanzas (chick peas in UK).

I strained the bones from the stock and put the veggies back in the pot with the stock and again cooked it for around 45mins. Finally I decanted what I thought we could manage to eat that day, into a heavy casserole and added herb dumplings, and finished it off in my mini oven. (I could have just added the dumplings to the pot and continued cooking with the pressure reduced, but I find they do better in the oven).

It was a very welcome mid-day warmer, and the left overs were 'zizzed' in my smoothie maker to make three portions of thick, smooth soup for the freezer.

Another thing which warmed us up was a squishy parcel that arrived from the Aran Sweater Market in Killarney, S. Ireland. I had bought Chris an authentic Aran woolly jacket for Christmas and he has worn it exclusively ever since. So when I had notification of their January sale I suggested he bought a second one, and he chose a lovely jumper in a shade called evergreen. It is a dark green-blue mix and as you can see, he is very happy with it. There was a time when I would have knitted it for him, in fact I did make several back in the day, but as I can no longer hold the needles, this was a good alternative.

I also treated myself to one and I chose a long length cardigan in what was called 'sienna'. I was worried that it might a bit too bright orange from their picture, but it is actually a lovely russet brown (rather like a red squirrel), and it has been wonderful in the chilly mornings this week.

We both have Irish heritage so these intricate cable patterns really appeal. And in keeping with that I have done some more work on Chris' Celtic Tiles blanket. I need twenty tiles, and I finished the eighth one last night. Here it is waiting to be blocked. I have been very sensible and sewn in the ends as I finish each one so it is ready to be blocked and joined. I have one on my board from a couple of days ago which is dry and can now come off, and the new one can go on. You can see what a difference it makes. The slight stretching really brings out the pattern, and of course, it ensures they will all be exactly the same size for joining them up. I stretch them onto the block dry and fix them with the bar pins. Then I have a small hand-held steamer which I use to steam them enough to relax the fibres . This makes them fairly damp so they stay on the board until they are quite dry, by which time I usually have the next one made.

My main focus now is to finish the big project started in the Autumn. I can see the end is in sight, albeit a little way ahead yet, so I tend to work a double row of that first and then work on one of the tiles, or my Crimbo Limbo shawl until bed-time.

My lovely ginger cat Tango has a urinary tract condition which means he has a special diet and he drinks a lot of water. He has a water fountain in the hall and a bowl outside the kitchen door. Tolly doesn't like the moving water in the fountain and mainly drinks from the bowl (or the dogs water bowls round on the porch). The other day when I went out, Tango was having a long drink from their bowl, and Tolly was patiently waiting his turn. I did even see them both drinking together one morning, but of course I didn't have my camera to hand, and it doesn't happen very often.

I did get a set of Christmas cards made for a challenge this month. I used the bauble images from a card I received at Christmas, and duplicated it and cut it out, and made a matching set of five cards. You can see how it was done on my craft blog. Here is one completed card and the pieces ready to make four more.

I have become rather obsessed with the new game that is sweeping the internet, called Wordle. I don't know whether you have all seen it. I know Lisca has had a go. The aim is to find the chosen word for the day. It is a randomly generated five letter word from the English dictionary. The game is similar to the old peg and board game Mastermind that I played with my boys years ago. You are given a blank five by six grid and you enter any word on the first line. If a letter is in the word of the day, but not in the position you have put it, then the square turns yellow. If you have a correct letter in the correct place, it turns green. If itis not in the word at all, then it turns white or grey. With this information you guess another word until all the letters turn green. You have six guesses and then the game is over and you have lost. If you manage to find the word you can copy the grid and paste it in Facebook. Here is one I did a few days ago. The 4/6 means I found it in four guesses. The good thing is that it is free, there is no App to install, (just search on google), and there is only one word each day so it doesn't take up too much time to play.

On Thursday I really impressed myself by trying the game in Spanish, and I managed to find it with five tries!

With very little sun, we have not had any dramatic skies this week, but I did have a lioness looking down from the clouds one evening.

And with that little gem I will link up with Annie's Smiles on A Stitch in Time.