The sweet face of success.

Hello Dear Readers,

Stuck on holiday where I don't speak the language well means lots of posts! I got to meet my nephew in person today and give him his Christamas (New Years) present in person for once. He got a little owl and a sweater vest. It fits! Hooray! Here is Theo Christakis holding him down for a photo.....
Way to guess on the sizing! I think I've trained him early enough that he won't be adverse to handknits or allergic to wool, but I'm not going to take any chances, sweater number two is all ready to be delivered for his second birthday and I see a sock monkey in his future....

Happy New Years Everyone! Drink lots of champagne and think of me, it's my favorite....

Greetings from Cyprus!

Hello Dear Readers,

Chris and I made it to Cyprus on Monday with no difficulties, it was amazing to come here for the first time without being totally jet lagged! And flying into the Paphos airport (15 min drive from Chris's house) instead of Larnaca (2 hours drive). The weather has been really great, sunny and warm, a nice change from London and I get to give my summer clothes an airing, which is good since I'm tired of the winter ones now! So far we've spent our days visiting friends which means drinking a lot of tea and coffee and eating.
I did get a chance to take a walk around the village and see all the changes in the past 4 years since I last came. Here I am with Chris's aunt and his cousin Christiana. They are the two that are helping me the most with learning Greek. Today we worked on colors!
I get a lot of oportunities to pratice as well as listen when we go to big family gatherings like this one at his cousin's house. This was after we ate when about half the people had left or were in the other room! Of course after about an hour of loud Greek chatter I need a little break, so I always have my knitting handy for tuning out and unwinding. I brought my blue lace sweater and I think I'll probalby finish the sleeves by the end of the trip, especially as we'll have more big get togethers around New Years.
I have been trying to take photos for the blog, but we are just so busy! And it's hard to wrangle people in to photographs (here are Chris and I with his other cousin Valando, Christiana's sister. They live next door to Chris so they are more like sisters than cousins). I also have been taking many family photos to put in the digital photo frame Chris brought his mother last time he was here. He hadn't loaded it with pictures so I've put on a bunch I had on this computer but am trying to get some more current ones on. Tomorrow his sister should be here with his nephew and I'm sure I'll be snapping lots of photos of that. New Years, not Christmas, is the gift giving day here, and it's also the big dinner and celebration. It's nice because it's like I get two Christmases this year!

Happy Christmas All!

Merry Christmas Dear Readers!

This will be a pretty long post as I've been saving things up till I got around to posting! Busy busy week as usual, we had our work Christmas Party this week with a theme of "What I wanted to be when I grew up" (the English are obsessed with costume or "fancy dress" parties). I hadn't planned on going until the last minute so I'm not dressed but my two office mates did. Later I snapped a shot of them in our bay in the Cryptogamic Herbarium ("Crypt").

Hannah is wearing her "thinking cap" leftover from her Christmas party costume and Elina is gloriously draped in barcodes for our specimens. Just outside and to the left of the stone windows you see is our very own gargolye. I love this buidling!

Speaking of which, I made Patrick keep his promise of taking me to see Harry Potter (he had free movie tickets and Chris has trouble following the plots so we agreed to see it together) and as he had a half day of work Friday I made him come to the Museum so I can show him the behind the scenes tour.


These monkies crawl up the arch near the steps to our door, such detail! The museum was closed to the public Friday so we pretty much had the place to ourselves to poke in the neat corners, open the old books in the library and generally enjoy the place. Afterwards we had a snack at Carlucci's, a place I always see on my way to work outside the bus and wanted to get in. Then we saw Potter which was AMAZING! See it if you haven't already!

Later that evening we did presents via Skype with my parents and spoke to my sister this morning. She showed us her "Chocolate of the Month Club" gift from her boyfriend...... NOT!!! A few hours later she called us back from her boyfriend's parents house and showed us this:

The chocolate of the month was a decoy! (of course I'd prefer that to a ring but still) Congratulations Cat and Jeff! Now you just have to decide on a day! After having a traditional American Christmas dinner (Turkey, potatoes, sweet potato casserole with marshmallows, cranberry sauce, stuffing and pumpkin pie) we sat playing with our toys, here is Patrick on Guitar Hero and Chris simultaneously playing with his laptop and his new IPAD which I gave him for Christmas, which we've all had a few turns on... it is SUPPOSED to be for him.

The most fun toy tonight has been the long paper roll from the wrapping paper we finished off this season, we are using it as a microphone, megaphone, telescope and giant comedy ear horn....... ah the simple things in life.
Probably the bottle of champagne Patrick gave me as part of my amazing Hotel Chocolate gift box of which I'm on my second flute of doesn't help....

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you are all having some kind of fun or at least catching up on rest and relaxation! Off to Cyprus on Monday, will report on that soon!

let it snow!

Hello Dear Readers,

Yeah yeah, fell down on my resolution to post every weekend. Oh well. It's been pretty busy at Chez Felsham, one of our room-mates is moving out and we've been interviewing all last week to find a replacement. We've got a lovely guy called Nathan from Wales who will move in as soon as our old roommate moves out. That also means Chris and I are moving from the smallest room in the house to the second smallest room, yay for space! I'll even have my own table area for my sewing machine and crafts!

I've also been busy working, in addition to my new job at the Natural History Museum I still work on Saturdays at Kew and every other Sunday teaching Knitting at a local sewing shop. Busy busy, plus Chris has been knocked out with a viral chest infection this week so I've been cooking and and cleaning trying to help him to feel better, if not get better. Last Thursday was our Kew Christmas party which I attened and had tons of fun at! It was spectacular to see the old faces again, even though it's only been 3 weeks it feels so much longer. Photos are probably on facebook soon for those that use it.

We've also had a bit of snow here as you may have heard on the news. Actually, it's really only a little bit of snow but it's caused major disruption for us here! So far I haven't been affected but Chris and I are going to fly out of Gatwick airport on the 27th to go to Cyprus, my first trip since I've arrived at the UK now that I finally have a Residence Card! Cross your fingers for me, White Christmas, Green Boxing Day!

Christmas Card Fun

Hello Dear Readers,

Well I seem to be managing to keep up with my promise to myself to blog once a week, so here we go with post 2 of December! This weekend my friend Nina came to visit me on Saturday. I made a lovely nut roast with roast potatoes and (brussel) sprouts, or just sprouts as they are called here. Not to be confused with bean sprouts, which I don't know if they really eat them here. Afterwards we did a little knitting and socializing, where I finished a child's vest for my friend Clare's son.


After that we made some killer christmas cookies in red and green, just like mom used to make. I bought a set of cutters that had a star, boot, candy cane etc. and one shooting star. After picking it up my brother was asking what relevence that has to Christmas. Duh! I was singing " a star, a star, hanging in the night with a tail as big as a kite, with a tail as big as a kite". Nothing. What a Scrooge! Oh well, he ate the cookies anyway. (and for Pat who I know reads this blog (and thanks for that by the way) this middle finger is for you.....)

In the middle of making cookies I remembered I wanted Nina to take some pictures of us in front of the house for the Christmas card this year. Patrick HATES being photographed so he was a real trooper, but Chris can't get enough of it. I wanted to do more funny shots, but this is the only one we managed...Even after all that cookie dough they could still lift me. What a good day. I'm trying to do something a little Christmassy every weekend. Next weekend Patrick and I are going to buy a bunch of hard candy (or "boiled sweets" as they are known here) and make a gingerbread house! Or something, maybe we'll do a gingerbread Double Decker Bus or Big Ben, or perhaps a crew shell in gingerbread? Hey, we are making our own so we can do whatever we like! Pictures to follow.

Today I'm sick in bed with a sore throat and therefore catching up on a lot of things while Chris vacuums and cleans and I listen to Christmas tunes. Ah, December is turning out pretty good.

Musings on a Snowy morning

Hello Dear Readers,

Ahh, the 2nd of December and the snow is gently falling outside my window as I sip hot tea and wait for the oatmeal to finish on the stove.....This was the scene that greeted me as I put the trash on the back porch:
Which gave me the perfect opportunity to photograph my newest sweater for Odie in the early morning light and the glow of the snow:
Unfortunately it's still in the 70's in Cyprus right now but hey, it gets chilly sometimes......

Still all the snow is great ambiance and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. I have my penguin pajama's on, and have hung stockings by the chimney with care
and loaded up the presents delivered by Santa via my brother when he came back from visiting the States over Thanksgiving. Still haven't touched them yet, aren't I GOOD!

Yesterday was my first day at the new job at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. The old building is AMAZING as you would expect it to be. I'm in the "crypt" as it's called, short for the Cryptogamic Herbarium where the non flowering plants are kept. It's a really nice setup because the two other girls I work with have desks right next to mine (there are 4 in a square). So different from my isolation unit over at Kew where I could not see a soul for HOURS in between tea times...... One of the girls is from Cyprus, so I'm hoping I'll be able to practice my Greek a little bit more. Yesterday we started at the luxurious hour of 10 (as we do today which is why I'm getting in some early morning blogging and cooking/cleaning) and pretty much straight away went for tea and cake. I love working in England! Then we had tours around the buildings and met a ton of people. Everyone seems perfectly lovely but I couldn't help feeling pangs of homesickness for my friends at Kew, an Irish girl reminding me of my friend Emma, a fashionably dressed Londner reminding me of Nina. Sigh.

Today is more of the same I think, meeting people, learning about the collections, wandering like rats through the labyrinth of old and new and newer buildings. They keep telling me not to worry if I can't remember the way. I tell them I'm not worried, I KNOW I won't remember the way. But I'll figure it out soon, my army brat new places new faces instincts kicking in. Another year, another house, another job.

Time to eat some oatmeal and get dressed and get prepared to go out my front door into this:
Ahh, I love weather, and there is so much of it here! Hope the buses are running alright, I'll have my knitting (almost finished with a fantastic apple vest for my friend's son) so I'll have plenty to keep me occupied.

Row row row your boat

Hello Dear Readers,

Today was the 4's Head race where Patrick was rowing in a cox-less four (number 183). I invited some friends over from Kew to come watch the race then come to the house for brunch. Here are Jo and Saren

We got out to the river about 9:45 and saw the first boats coming down, finally came Pat's boat with us all yelling "GO THAMES!" and "GO PATRICK!". He said he actually heard us this time!

Here he is coming off the water, exhausted:

Pausing to survey the action on the water:

After the race and brunch, Seren and I went to the Ocktoberfest Party at the clubhouse, our housemate Sally did a fantastic job decorating and Patrick wore some fantastic leiderhosen as well, though I don't have that photo right now.

In addition, I finally finished a baby sweater I've been working on for a while (too long, I keep having to rip it out!)

Also finished off a cute matching Teddy which Jo is modeling handsomly.

All in all a good day, and best of all Chris is coming back from a week in Cyprus, woo hoo! Off to make dinner for him now, he just called from the airport that he's on his way home.

P.S. I am going to be changing jobs soon, I have just accepted a 6 month position at the Natural History Museum. While I'm very sad to leave my friends and work at Kew, I'm excited to start something new and work as part of a lager team again instead of by myself. Who knows, I may end up at Kew again in 6 months if something opens up.

They all laughed......

Hello Dear Readers,

Some of you laughed, some of you scoffed, some suggested combustion, but hey, I have always been on the cutting edge of fashion, a year or two ahead of the trend (jeans to skirts in high school, shawl/ponchos in college, knitting way before it was a fad, green before it was chic etc.....)

Now, vindicated once again, featured on project runway;

KNITTED UNDIES! (or PANTS for my Brit readers)
and the fancy cabled version from Urban Outfitters:

and of course, to refresh your memory on my fine contribution to the fashion world:
that is all.

New Couch

Hello Dear Readers,

Well, we didn't really get a new couch, but we have these two old plasticy faux leather couches in the living room. The stuffing and structure is good, but the cheap plastic cover has been steadliy eroding and peeling off.

I scored some black linen a few months ago and recovered two of the worst cushions, but the rest have been falling into decline. Not willing to sink money into this house (anything in public use gets trashed anyway) I covered a third cushion with some denim material from jeans I had worn out and other roomates/friends. I finally put out a call at knitting night for any old jeans people had and luckily there was a girl who said she had a bag full to give away! There were about 7 or 8 pairs which was just about enough to cover the last 3 cushions plus a pair that fit me to wear! How awesome! Vertical stripes are very on trend now, Paul Smith, eat your heart out!


Also here as promised (I'm sure you were waitin with baited breath) a photo of Chris's neck warmer (also on Ravelry)

South Hampton

Hello Dear Readers:

A few weeks ago Chris and I took a train trip for the day to see the city of South Hampton. We really had no idea what to expect, but we hear so much about different cities we jsut want to see what they are all about.The coolest thing about the city is that it used to be enclosed by a large stone wall, parts of which have been preserved and there is a walking trail around the remaining parts. You can climb up to some of the towers and look out over the city. There are interpretive signs all around and some parts of the city are so well preserved you can really imagine what it must have been like.South Hampton is also where you can catch a ferry to the Isle of Wight and France, and also where the Titanic sailed from. There is a Titanic museaum and a White Star Liner resturant, not sure if it's good mojo to eat there.

There is a bit of a marina area too, but for a port city I was dissapointed by their waterside offereings. It looks like it's trying to spruce up a bit but it still has a bit of an industrial feel.

There was quite a bit of new shopping though, and Chris and I poked around a few interesting stores including ASDA, which is a British store that was bought by Wal-Mart, so we were curious. It's kind of like and English sized Wal-Mart (that is to say, small). Chris also went to his very first Ikea store!

I also finished some more cowels on that trip, one for Chris, which can look like a scarf when worn long, or a cowl when doubled. I also made a cowl for Patrick to wear when he cycles to work. I'll try to take photos of them for the next post, it's dark when I leave work now so there isn't a lot of good light for taking pictures, and it's been pretty rainy all week.

Done!

Hello Dear Readers,

This weekend I had a lovely time visiting with my friend Nina at Kew. We went in and sat at the Orangary which is the resturant staff are pratically banned from during normal lunch hours. We had a nice long tea while I taught her to knit and I worked on my Wizard of Oz qult.... and finished it!
I snapped a few photos of it on Sunday afternoon just before the light went.
I'm well pleased with the way it turned out. Originally I had planned not to quilt the yellow bit, but my sister requested that I do a bit more, so I put in some bricks on the yellow brick road.

I also did details around Dorothy and the witches
All in all pretty good. Now I can get back to my spinning and knitting projects...... I've been so busy this year though I'm almost out of wool!! Ah well, as my gym instructor keeps reminding me, Christmas is only 12 weeks away!

Baaaaath

Hello Dear Readers,

On Saturday Chris and I took a trip to the Historic City of Bath (prounounced Baa -th here, it confuses the locals if you say it with a very short a). What an awesome place! If you ever come to England, outside of London of course I really recommend you visit this place!

The first stop was the Pump rooms and roman baths mentioned by Jane Austin so often in her book Persuasion. We toured around the old part seeing all the underground sluices and canals where the Romans filtered the balmy 50 C water into 3 different pools. There is currently a spa nearby where you can enjoy the waters much as the Romans did 2000 years ago, and I think some friends from work and I are going to treat ourselves to a trip there soon to indulge.

After that the next absolute must stop was Sally Lunn's tea house. My friend Elizabeth and I used to walk down to the bakery at WIlliam and Mary sometimes and get Sally Lunn buns, but I didn't realize they came from Bath, and in fact this tea house in bath. The menu is hilarious, you can get anything you want, but it all comes in, on or with a Sally Lunn bun, which is a sort of semi sweet large roll.
As you can see, it's universally famous and even Tom Baker (my first Dr. Who) has been known to taste the Sally Lunns. The building is great, the current incarnation dating to 1450, but the site had been used as a tavern by the Romans before then.
We spent the rest of the day walking around the city enjoying the distinctive Bath stones and architecture, we went up to the famous Crescent and Circus, featured again in many of Jane Austin's stories.
We even stopped by her old house on Gay Street just south of the Crescent, but on other people's advice we didn't bother to go in.

There were lots of lovely shops and a riverside walk and lots more fantastic stuff that we didn't even have time for. Hopefully we'll go back soon and maybe even stay the night, I'd love to check out the fashion museum and more of the river and the Abby. So much to see so little time..

Still some crafting going on, finishing up a quilt, more sweaters, and there is a newly pregnant friend in my life that I get to plan all sorts of exciting baby things for!Woo hooo!

The Angel in Heels

Hello Dear Readers,

Last week was super busy as Chris's mother, aunt and cousin came for a more or less surprise visit (i consider less than a weeks notice a bit of a surprise). They stayed with his Cousin in Guildford for most of the time, but spend Saturday night at our place since all of our housemates were gone.

They came up in the morning and we took them out to Kew. Being typical Cypriot woman (and built for comfort - not for speed) we opted to take the Kew Explorer around which is a tram that takes a 60 min spin around the gardens - at 10 mph. We saw most of the highlights and managed to make it back to the train before it started raining.

Here they are standing at Kew Bridge before we got onto the train.

After that we took them to eat at their first foreign restaurant - the Slug and Lettuce, a little gastro pub chain that's on the high street. The London prices and London portions amazed them, as did the fact that no bread was served with the meal. How do we live here!

Laster that night they wanted to head up to Shepards Bush to go to the huge mall that opened up last fall as Christiana wanted to get some boots. This was annouced at 6 pm, and the mall closes at 9, and it takes a good 45 min to get there, but hey, they were guests. We narroly managed to get the 22 bus to Putney Bridge to get the 220 (note: Cypriot woman are not used to husteling, but the bus driver was VERY nice in waiting for them to mosey across the street). WE settled in to the top of the bus as it started to drizle and made our way up Felsham High street. 1.5 HOURS LATER WE HAD GONE 1.5 MILES!!!! TRaffice for some reason was at a standstill (later we learned that an accident had closed the A4, a major highway, and all traffice was divertey to where we were). After sittin g30 min and going literally nowhere, we decided to get off the bus and try to catch a bus back. As we got off the bus we could see the 220 goin the other way stopped across the street. I ran for it, but, well, as I say, built for comfort not for speed. No matter, we'd just wait for the next one. Me and 5 Greeks. In the dark. In the, now pourning, raing. For 1.5 hours. Again. I thought I would die there. I would never see my bed in Putney again. Finally an Australian girl arrived, fully decked out and dressed up to go out, waiting for the bus. We started chatting about our optinos. Try to run for it in the rain to the nearest tube station? no good, thte tube was too far, and anyway the line that ran to our apartment was closed that day. Call a cab? Someone else had tried 3 times and they were all out. Walk home? Not with 3 slow Cypriot women at night in the rain. Finally she managed to flag down a cab, YES! All 6 of us smashed illeglally into the back and the cabbie nervously took us to the end of our street, and the Australian Angel In Heels (her name was Lauren) went off to her house party in Clapham Junction. What a relief! I don't know what we would have done if she hadn't gotten that cab, because everyone was thinking well we have waited this long, another 220 must come soon, but I don't think it ever did. What a hellish night. Here is a picture of a wet and miserable me, yearning for a cup of hot tea and my bed!

Anyway, the rest of their trip was fine after that, and we took them into the city on Tuesday, did the British Museum, saw the Eye of London, Buckingham Palace and Big Ben etc. I have to say though that I was tired out!! I have had more relatives visit this summer than I have since I moved out of the house after High School! Yesterday though Chris and I took the opportunity of a weekend when I didn't have to work to go explore the historic city of Bath. What a marvelous place! I'll tell you about it later in the week when I'm more rested.

Cheerio!

What I did on my Summer Vacation

Hello Dear Readers,

Here is part of what I did on my "summer vacation" or my time as Grass Assistant Botanist at Kew

I'm famous!

Arrrrgh you ready for another blogpost?

Hello Dear Readers,

It's been awfully quiet I know, I've just been busy and tired and not taking too many pictures but there has been a lot going on.

Last friday was my last day officialy as the assistant botanist in the Grass section at kew and there also happened to be a party for the horticulture students who were leaving. It was a pirate themed party which was really fun, they even had a pirate band!


Patrick and I went together, and I dressed the both of us. The best was my hook hand (made from a coat hanger). I really wanted to keep it, but it would have made handling herbarium specimens a little tricky....I'm still working at Kew, digitizing some specimens for a researcher in Zurich or as I like to call it, "freelance botany". I also have some potential to do work with the Tropical Africa team on a freelance basis and have applied for a few jobs that have come up.

On the crafty side of things I'm working on this 'well awesome' quilt for my sister in a Wizard of Oz theme. The backing is going to be a blue check to match Dorothy's dress and red binding for the slippers. I am going to start quilting as soon as I can get some batting, the local shop is out (curse you small English stores!)

I'm also working on my blue lace weight cardigan. The cardigan is nearly finished, but I kind of don't want it to end as it's been so lovely to have something to just knit and knit and knit on, plus the yarn is like buttah. Commissions anyone? You send the yarn, I'll send the finished item...... fall is coming, my favorite time of year to curl up with a good audio book and a knitting project...... if I ever find the time!

Off to eat dinner and work on some spinning (Christmas present for Pat, never to early).

Cheerio!

Bank Holiday Weekend

Hello Dear Readers,

Instead of having labeled holidays like in the US (Labor Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July) the English very neatly and orderly arrange their holidays to be more or less spaced out over the year so everyone gets a rest once in a while. Therefore we have "Bank Holidays" and Monday was our end of summer bank holiday which was lovely. My foot was acting up a little so I spent much of the weekend resting which meant knitting, reading and catching up on good movies.



On Monday we had the pleasure of a visit from some new friends of ours, the girl in the green shirt is Kelly who I met through my knitting class. She is from California and her boyfriend (on the right) is of French/American descent but sort of also Spanish... anyway he went to school in California as well and they both just moved to London a few months ago. It's nice to meet some fellow expats that are more or less in the same situation as Chris and I (US educated, EU citizens and partners trying to settle in the UK). We had afternoon tea together and chatted for a few hours (they meant to stay only a few min, oh well....). My brother also got into the fun of it, and for about 3o min he and Kelly conspired to buy and fix up the house next store, but first devised many elaborate ways of ascertaining whether or not it was currently occupied. Oh dear.

Anyway, lots of knitting going on too but I was too lazy this weekend to get photos done, more to come soon.

Last two weeks of my job at Kew, it's been a really great summer and no matter what happens next I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to work in such a great place. It's kind of like going to Jefferson (the magnet school I went to for High School). It's a place full of people more or less interested in the same thing, so you feel like you can really fit in with most people. Will keep you posted as any job prospects develop there.

Off to bed now, I had knitting group tonight as well, then a 4 way video Skype with my family (yes! conference calls now supports multiple videos!) but I figured I better blog now or I won't get a chance till next weekend.

Cheerio!

Busy Weekend

Hello Dear Readers,

Due to the EXCESSIVE leave that I get working at Kew, I have enough left over to work only 4 days weeks until the end of my contract (Sept 10). I took last Friday off to take care of some business, including working on a paper for publication and finally registering for a GP! It seems the real problem I had before was going to the wrong one, one that as I was informed the first time I went there was "only for keeping English people healthy." I thought that didn't sound right, so the second time I went there to register they told me I had to prove that I was going to be in the UK for 6 months which I could only do by showing I was a registered student or had a job for 6 months. So when I went back with proof of my job at Kew and a letter from the place where I teach knitting, they informed me I needed to show I had been in the UK 6 months AND was going to be there 10 more months. I showed my letter from The Sewing Rooms, but since it didn't have an end date (it was open ended and implied I had a job as long as I wanted) it wasn't good proof I would be here 10 months. At the advice of some of my friends I went somewhere else, and guess what? All they wanted was proof I had an address in the UK and a copy of my passport for identity!! My first clue that I wouldn't get satisfaction should have been them saying it was only for keeping "English people" healthy, foreigners beware! Ah well, at least I finally got in the system!


In other news, I've been busy knitting! I made this cowl for keeping warm in the chilly herbarium. It works perfectly because it keeps me warm without dragging in the specimens.
It was a quick project that I could work on while chilling out watching movies on the weekend.
I did a double twist in the tube to make a pleasing drape on the neck, I think it works pretty well. Originally I did it about 5 times too big, but the second try is the charm.
I've also been working pretty steadily on my lace-weight cardigan which I'm making from some yarn Patrick got me for my birthday. I'm already under the arms and working down the body.
Madeleine was also here on Friday on her way back to Amarillo. She gave me a fantastic bag with dachshunds on it and a cute sewing kit that will be perfect for me to take with me while I'm working on a new quilt. She also dropped off these two gems of books for me to use while she's out of the country. Beautiful illustrations of a new flora to learn, perfect!!

Just working 4 days again this week, I will try not to get too used to it. The other thing I did Friday was to apply for 3 jobs at Kew that would be starting in a few months, so keep your fingers crossed for me.