My New Hobby or should I say Obsession is....

Knitting!

It must be nearly thirty years since I did any knitting worth speaking of, but I started knitting some party collars for my Doggy Dazzler customers to wear at Christmas and now I can't stop! The collars are on my website and my new Etsy shop, Lyncrafts.

So then I started to knit miniature clothes for the woolly celebrity Lurcher SOS dogs - yes, I lost the plot long ago! Myrtle and her brother, Merlin go on holiday with loopy people like me, to raise awareness and funds for Lurcher SOS.

After that, I thought it would be nice to make some human winter warmers, as it's turned rather chilly lately. My first need was for legwarmers, and I found luxurious, soft Alpaca wool in these heavenly colours. I love random wool.

I'm now hurrying to make presents for certain family members, which I can't put on here till after Christmas, for obvious reasons. Then, after Christmas, I want to start making nice things for my Etsy shop (see above).

Christmas Cake - Yum!

The Christmas cake was made a week or two ago...

Unfortunately, it got a little dark around the edges! I have fed it today, but I'm worried about the burnt bits tasting bitter. I may cut the worst bits off, before I cover it.

I always make Nigel Slater's recipe, as it is the fruitiest, most delicious Chrissy cake I have ever eaten. I found it in a magazine some years ago, and not having been thrilled with any before, I instantly fell in love with this one. It is filled with all the yummy dried fruits you can ever want and whole almonds, and now I can't wait till Christmas! The only way I differ from Nigel's recipe, is that I soak the fruit overnight in the juice and brandy.

I'll make my own almond paste and royal icing, as always, then rough ice it in crunchy little peaks with robins and snowmen added for the children. My mum always did this and I like to carry on the snowscene tradition - plus I hate fondant icing and can't smooth ice to save my life!

A Doggy Christmas Story

Please read the story below - copied from Lurcher SOS.   If it makes one more person consider taking an older dog out of a rescue this winter, and giving him/her a nice warm forever home, the anonymous author will have done a great job.

Ollie - In the care of The Oldies Club

If only all wishes came true....

Toby knew what he wanted for Christmas. The same thing everyone here wanted. A ring!

Christmas was close, he could feel it. Ribbons were hung on the walls, and there were special treats with dinner. More people came by to visit, and everybody was in a good mood. Except Emmett. When Toby shared with Emmett his Christmas wish, Emmett just shook his head.

"Toby, you and I don't get rings," he said. "Look at us, a couple of losers who were given up on. It's the youngsters that get rings."

Toby looked at his reflection in his water dish. There was gray on his muzzle and along the tips of his ears. It was true he couldn't play fetch like he used to. And his legs hurt when he walked too much. But he could still race to the front door when he heard it swing open, wagging his tail like a pup, and go on a slow walk around the block, sniffing here and there. And how he loved to curl up at the foot of the bed, keeping watch during the night.

But those were the old days. Now he was here, with Emmett instead of with ...

"See, here we go again," Emmett said, as puppies up and down the long hallway yapped and barked, a sign that people had just arrived. Emmett stretched out on the concrete next to his water dish. "Wake me when it's over."

Toby peeked through the gate and saw a little boy and girl walking slowly his way. They stopped in front of almost every kennel, and sometimes they would kneel in front of one and laugh. Toby wished them closer, his tail wagging. He knew if they saw him, then maybe . . . just maybe . . .

"Don't get your hopes up," said Emmett, his eyes still closed. "You'll only be disappointed."

Toby looked down the hall. The woman in the blue shirt who brought food every day was opening one of the gates. A brown puppy bounded out and into the arms of the girl, who squealed with delight. From her back pocket, the woman in the blue shirt brought out a ring, pale gray, just like all the rings. She slipped it over the puppy's head.

"Everyone wants cute and adorable," Emmett said as he heard the door close, knowing what surely had happened. "Years ago we were cute and adorable. No more."

But it was Christmastime, Toby thought. Things are different at Christmastime. There is happiness. There is cheer. There is hope.

Toby remembered when he had a home and a bed and a yard and a person who loved him. But one day people came and they were crying, and the next day he was here. Now all he wanted was a ring, again.

Emmett opened an eye when the barking started again but closed it as he stretched out. Toby pressed his muzzle to the gate and wished again.
"It's Christmastime," he said. "A season for miracles."

He saw the woman in the blue shirt, and she had by the elbow a man walking very slowly down the aisle. They were talking, but Toby couldn't hear them over the barking. They came closer. And closer. Almost, thought Toby. Almost. Toby squeezed his eyes shut. He wished harder than he had ever wished before.

"Hey, fella, what's your name?" Toby heard. He opened his eyes.

Toby noticed the man had gray around his muzzle and more gray around his ears. He was bent over slightly, and Toby noticed a cane holding the man up.

Toby wagged his tail and put his paw on the gate, and when he did, it opened.
The woman in the blue shirt reached behind her. There in her hand was a ring. Gray, like all the rest. But the man shook his head. Please, Toby wished. Please.

The man reached behind him and pulled out his own ring. It was red and had green and gold stones that glittered in the light. He slipped it over Toby's head. Toby was going home.

"C'mon, boy," the man said. "Cute and adorable, you are. Lots of life left in you, fella."

As Toby placed one paw outside the kennel, he stopped for just a little. Lowered his head for just a little. Glanced behind him for just a little. The man looked at Emmett, and Emmett looked at the man.

"That one, too, if it's OK," the man said. "Looks like a set I'd hate to break up. My home may be a bit small, but my heart is big enough." The woman in the blue shirt took the ring and slipped it over Emmett's head.

And that's when Toby knew Christmas miracles do happen.

Emmett wagged his tail and spun in a circle and barked. Just as if he were a puppy.

ANON

Copied from  http://lurchersos.proboards.com/index.cgi 

T is for Trip Planning

As the cold, damp gloom takes over, I begin to plan next year's holidays. It is a lifelong habit, which I began when I was a child, looking through brochures with my mum. Those were the black and white booklets put together by seaside resort councils in the 60's, like Ilfracombe in Devon and the Isle of Wight. We would spend hours poring over it, looking for the perfect 'private hotel', ie. small hotel. In memory of those times, when I saw an old Ilfracombe brochure in a charity shop, I bought it and it could be the one, who knows. But anyway, the Cavendish Hotel is in it, advertising the dancing, among other things redolent of that era. My sister Jenny and I will never forget the laughs we had attempting ballroom dancing to the music of three very aged ladies, who looked as if they'd climbed out of the grave! We had so much fun.

I have always loved holidays, who doesn't, but it is more of an obsession with me! Once I had my own children, the brochures changed to coloured glossies of places abroad, Spain, then Greece and again we had loads of fun planning and then going on family holidays with their dad, Brian.

 Since I met George we have always planned our own holidays on the internet, until this year,  when we happened to find the perfect house in the perfect place with free car hire, so we booked through an online travel agent. it was indeed perfect in every aspect.

Assos

And now we are thinking of next year's holidays, and we want to take Ruby with us, so we are planning to go to France, probably staying in gites in Normandy and Brittany. The basic plan is to drive down, take the Shuttle, so Ruby doesn't have to be left in the car on her own and I don't get seasick, then drive to somewhere in Normandy. We hope to spend a week there, then go on to Brittany for a further week. I have a very longheld wish to go to Giverny, to see Monet's waterlilies in the flesh, so to speak, as I fell in love with them and the garden years ago in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. I'm just not sure it's possible with a Greyhound!

Giverny

I get really nerdy every year, saving accommodation, images of places to visit and articles in folders, but I have to say, we always love every minute of  our trip. It's so exciting and it doesn't half help me (as I'm a dreadful pessimist) to look forward to something positive. Roll on the summer and a happy, doggy holiday!!

S is for Scrumpy!

I adore scrumpy and traditional cloudy cider, but it’s not that easy to find Oop North, so I often have to make do with bottled fizzy ciders, which aren’t the same. However, yesterday I found a lady on Freecycle offering loads of cooking apples, so following on from our embryonic wine-making career, I asked George if he thought we could make some cider. I phoned the brewshop and found we could hire a fruit press, so I asked the lady for some of her apples, we collected them and we were off!

We got four carrier bags of apples, and I started washing and cutting them, while George manned the scary drill/chopper bucket and the fruit press.

We’ve got half the juice pressed, and will do the rest tomorrow morning. The apple juice is divine though not the usual colour, and a lovely accompaniment to dinner. Now I can’t wait to try our Derbyshire Scrumpy, though the apples are from over the Stockport border. Thankyou so much, Lorraine, for your generosity. If it turns out ok, we’ll bring you a bottle! I do love Freecycle, especially when it gives us free food.

And another food freebie - George has found watercress growing locally, so I made a panful of watercress soup - a drizzle of cream on the top, and we had a perfect starter, plus two packs in the freezer.

                                                           Goyt Valley Watercress Soup

R is for Ruby....

...our Greyhound, who we adopted from Tia Greyhound and Lurcher Rescue in Yorkshire, three years ago, as we had a dog-sized hole in our lives. She was about five years old and had been taken to the rescue when her owner had gone into hospital, arriving with her mum and four sisters. We asked for a quiet, gentle dog who would be good with our grandchildren and not pull on the lead, and as we walked her up the lane, we knew she was the one for us. Many Greyhounds have had rubbish lives before they end up in a rescue, and it is so rewarding to give them a chance to enjoy life. We don't know a lot about Ruby's previous life, except that she lived in a concrete kennel and may have been run on the un-registered flapping tracks, but we took her home and she settled in as if she had always lived with us. 

Ruby - The first day, looking a little unsure of herself

Many people think Greyhounds and Lurchers are too big, or will need too much exercise, but they are happy with two normal half hour walks a day, and if they can be let off to run in a big garden or secure field sometimes, that is even better. It is a wonderful sight to see a Greyhound running at full speed.

Ruby running on the beach

They will then flop in their bed or on a sofa for hours, and can squeeze up to make space if you need them to. They are usually sweet, funny and gentle dogs and they really love people. If Ruby passes a door as it is opened, she will always try to go in, as she just wants a bit of a stroke - and maybe a dog treat, if it's one of her 'special friends'. These dogs are such lovely pets. They are well worth adopting, and wherever you live, there will be a Greyhound and Lurcher shelter near you. We have just raised money at our garage sale for Lurcher SOS, a shelter based in the south east, which re-homes dogs across the country.

Ruby doing what she does best!

Q is for Queen

Sorry if this is controversial, but Q is for Queen, because yes, I really like her!

 This may seem odd to some people, but I have a lot of respect for the Queen and some of the royal family, especially Princess Anne and the two princes, William and Harry, and I did love the royal wedding. The Queen and her OH, even if he is bolshy, have always worked like trojans and there is no doubt that they bring loads of visitors to Britain. I think we should keep the status quo, with the monarch as a figurehead, as it does us no harm and the pomp and circumstance occasions are watched with envy, particularly from America (and lots of us like them too). However, I'm really not keen on Charles being king! Nuff said and please don't get angry!!

Being the age I am, I also rather like the music of another Queen, especially the twiddly guitar stuff of Brian May, though I never appreciated it until the last few years!

I can't believe I just put this on my blog!!