Cornflower

Where there's a will ...

    Val - tongue-in-cheek, I'm sure - asked for suggestions of books on willpower to help her avoid the baked goods we've been talking about this week.

    In case it's a topic in which there's some interest, I thought I'd give it a post of its own and say that while I'm no expert here, the one book that springs to mind is Gretchen Rubin's latest, Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life. I haven't read it, but I have read and enjoyed her bestselling The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, and having followed Gretchen's blog for years and tuned in to her podcast, I know a certain amount about the substance of the habits book.

    The gist of it is that if you can identify which personality type or 'tendency' you are - upholder, obliger, questioner, or rebel - then you will be better able to adopt particular strategies which will help you establish good habits and avoid the loopholes which can make it harder to break 'bad' habits. Simple!

    If you can recommend a book on willpower, habit-change, personal development generally, do tell us in the comments.

Just a thought

    My apologies to Val (see her comment on yesterday's post), but I thought that with a quick roll in the hand, the chocolate nut butter could easily be made into truffles!

    Dust with cocoa powder or leave them as they come, but again, store in the fridge and eat within a few days.

 

Edited to add: Come to think of it, a little syrup from the ginger jar would be a good addition.

Chocolate nut butter

   In the brownies post the other day, Nan kindly left a link to her post on Nutella substitutes, and that reminded me that I had a recipe for 'Chocolate Nut Butter', as it's called. If you have Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Light & Easy: Healthy Recipes for Every Day you'll find it there, otherwise, (rather round the houses) go here and then click on the number 392 next to 'chocolate nut butter' in the right-hand column.

    I made it with almonds and I'm very pleased with the result (it yielded about 300g., by the way). It's much stiffer than Nutella, more grainy, more chocolate-y, and less sweet - wholesome, darker and richer, I'd say.You must keep it in the fridge and use it within a week, but I doubt that will be hard. Very much worth a try.

Blue birds

    Flying North socks by Maria Montzka of the Stitched in Sweden podcast and blog. The pattern is written toe-up but I made them top-down with a slipped stitch heel.

    The wool is Eden Cottage Yarns BFL Periwinkle. I love the colour, but I found it inconsistently spun, quite splitty, and on the thin side - I had to go down to a 1.75mm needle.

    The Ravelry project page for the socks is here.

Simply Nutella

    The quickest, simplest brownies ever from Nigella's new book, Simply Nigella: Feel Good Food. They contain only three ingredients: Nutella, eggs, and a pinch of salt.

    Nigella says she has never seen anything disappear from a plate faster than these, and they certainly went down well here. You might add some cocoa powder to deepen the flavour, but there's no real need to gild the lily.

Spice girl

    Apricots, dates, prunes, ginger ... Delia's Christmas Chutney.

    Kay of the Bakery Bears podcast made it in her last episode, and that was what prompted me to give it a try. Kay uses ground allspice instead of the whole berries the recipe specifies; we had the whole spice, but can the quantity given - 3oz/75g - be correct? I used the contents of a 30g. jar tied in muslin, and that seems to have imparted sufficient flavour to the mixture, and Delia's damson chutney uses only 1oz/25g to a larger quantity of fruit, so go carefully if you're making it.

 

Holly berries and milk bottles

    I'm talking about Hallowe'en over on the books blog today, and jumping ahead to December here it seems, but just in case you haven't seen it and you want to knit some seasonal socks, I thought I'd mention that West Yorkshire Spinners have brought out a Christmas special colourway in their Signature 4 ply range: "Holly Berry."

    I'm going to pair mine with "Milk Bottle" (from the Sweet Shop Shades range) and do contrast heels and toes, I think.

    Deb* at Fondant Fibre also stocks "Holly Berry", as does Brityarn, while at Suffolk Socks you can find it sold as a pair with "Cherry Drop".

 

*I can recommend her Knitters' Soap among many other things.

Friday flowers - Spring in Autumn

    "It is more than three hundred years since Francis Bacon advocated that 'There ought to be gardens for all the months of the year,' proceeding to relegate to the Winter months 'things that be greene' only. Laurels and Privets and Euonymus have ceased to satisfy the modern gardener. He wants flowers too, and the smallest garden may boast its patches of Cyclamen, bringing it Spring in Autumn and Summer in the clouded months of English Winter."

    Gardeners' Choice by Evelyn Dunbar and Charles Mahoney, from which that passage comes, has just been reprinted by Persephone Books, as has Greengates by R.C. Sherriff.

Nostalgia

    Mr. C. spotted this Ladybird book in the window of a secondhand books shop the other day and bought it.

    Hands up if you remember shops like these.

    I do (and the outfit I'm wearing here is not so far from Susan's).

    John comes away from the toy shop with a car, while Susan, despite eyeing the teddy, etc., gets a ball - a bit of raw deal, I'd say.

    To end on a metafictional note, above 'British Wild Flowers' in the foreground there is 'Shopping with Mother' itself.

A square meal

    Not quite a plateful, but at least there's something to pick.

    Here they were three weeks ago.

Sunday breakfast

 

     Try these; we've had them three weeks in a row (using these oats, and maple syrup may have been involved).

Friday flowers - hellebore help, please

    This hellebore has just come into flower - it seems very early, but I'm no expert. I think it's 'Double Ellen Pink Spotted', but again I'm not sure. If you know, please tell!

Currently making ...

... Posh Toast - and very good it is!

A little bit of sewing

    A case for my phone - made up as I went along - using Liberty Lifestyle 'Cranston', Sevenberry 'Seigaiha', a length of grosgrain ribbon, and some wadding.

    Here's the finished piece inside out showing the ribbon pull by which the phone is lifted out of the case. One end of the ribbon is stitched a third of the way up the inside of the front, then it runs to the base of the case and up the inside of the back where it is held in place by a fabric tab.

    Right side out. It's a good fit, nice and snug, and the wadding front and back gives sufficient protection without bulk.

Friday flowers - in the rain

    A bejewelled Blush Noisette.

    See also this and this.