Generally Gemma

Turning

 

I am christening this the year of the Sumer that never was. It seems far too early this year for the leaves to be changing colour and to be getting out my boots.

I'm normally more than ready for Autumn by the time it comes. Ready to wrap up warm in gloves and scarves but this year it seems like I've hardly had a chance to get used to sandals before it was time to put socks on again. Even though the socks are bright and hand knitted it still feels a teeny bit wrong.

I wore ballet shoes on Monday and got thoroughly drenched on my walk up the road to work. Squealchy and I had to use my dry change of clothes for the first time this year. So out came the boots and the raincoat. Love my knee high boots, even under my trousers, so warm and cozy. I am on the look out for a trench coat thing though. My rain coat is repulsive and I don't think I can bear wearing it another year. I don't mind the cold so much it's the sogginess of it all. Not driving at this time of year is the utter pits.

Anyway, enough rambling from me, I just hope that Autumn actually is Autumn this year and we get some crisp sunny days rather than heading straight into freezing dark damp Winter and skipping yet another season.

My blog and me

I've seen this meme doing the rounds and thought it was quite an interesting one. Sometimes I find memes a bit well meaningless and don't find they require much thought but this one I found rather intriguing

1. Do you promote your blog?

I don't really as I don't think I have anything to promote. If you are selling through your blog then I can see why you would but as I do it just to be here then there doesn't seem to be any point. When I first started I did comment on an awful lot of blogs, I suppose that was a way of self promotion but I don't tend to comment as much these days unless a post seems especially apt or moving to me. (Or unless there is a giveaway, I love a good giveaway. I should really do one myself one of these days!) I do link my flickr profile to it does that count?

2. How often do you check hits?

Not as often as I used to! Now it's once a day if that. I become intrigued by how people get to me and what they searched for to hit my blog. Every couple of months it's the phrase "mainlining alcohol", they must be sooooooooooo disappointed when they end up here!

3. Do you stick to one topic?

I don't think so. It's generally whatever is on my mind at the time or if I've done something interest. Just a slice of life I guess.

4. Who knows that you have a blog?

Not many! I've found people don't really understand and think it's rather odd and there isn't really a good way of explaining it to people. As you probably already know if you are a regular reader my Mother and Brother know as does G. Some friends know as they ask why I am taking such odd pictures and G tells them it's for "THE BLOG". I don't mind real life people knowing about it but I don't really want them reading it. Does that make sense? I don't think they would really "get" it. And as my blog and this lovely community have become something quite important to me I don't really like it being taken the mickey out of.

5. How many blogs do you read?

I'm not sure. The regular ones are the ones in my sidebar. I then have some others in my Google reader. I really don't know how many. I stick them in there as I find them. Some I just lurk on, some I post on. Some I read the instant they post others I save and read the new posts in a batch. I don't really have a regular pattern. I always visit people who comment here too. I love finding new blogs!

6. Are you a fast reader?

Yes thank goodness! Otherwise I would spend my entire day reading feeds!

7. Do you customise your blog or do anything technical?

I play with photoshop a bit. I always crop and sometimes tinker with the levels. I have also been known to airbrush stuff out too. I don't think I really customise at all because typepad makes it all so easy that I haven't found I've had to.

8. Do you blog anonymously?

No. I am me. Gemma is my real name. The only way I am anonymous is that I don't often post pictures of myself, in fact not at all until recently but that is more because of personal issues than a desire to not be known. I try not to post many pictures of G or use his full name as he is a teacher and I don't really want to take the chance of school , a child or a parent stumbling across the blog and perhaps taking things out of context. Although what they would I don't know, I don't think I post anything that could be misconstrued.

9. To what extent do you censor yourself?

I try to only be positive here. I can be a terribly negative person in real life with a bad depressive side and a good dose of SAD to boot. So yes I do censor myself. Not for the benefit of you good folk or because I want to keep this a happy place but because blogging stops me dwelling. It forces me to recognise the good and the cheerful and makes my day that little bit brighter. Sometimes a bit of misery comes through but I try not to let it because I don't want it to taint this little corner of the internet that is my happy place. It's cheaper than therapy!

10. The best thing about blogging?

LOADS OF STUFF! I've learnt so much and been inspired to do things I otherwise wouldn't have considered otherwise by reading other peoples blogs. Without blogging or reading other peoples I wouldn't knit, quilt or embroider. I wouldn't take photos as much as I do. But most off all I love the community of it, the people I've met that I like to call friends. I love it all, all of the quirky little world that I like to think I'm a part of.

I'm not going to tag people for this one, in fact I may stop tagging for memes althogether, it always feels a bit chain maily. So if anyone feels so inclined go ahead and consider yourself tagged!

Sweet and Good

There is a health drive going on Chez G&G. After seeing various photos of ourselves during the Summer and the horror that was "back to school" clothes shopping we are firmly on the healthy eating band wagon.

Previously we used to get boxes delivered by Abel and Cole but we both found that we were wasting quite a lot of it as there was only so much chard, onions and bean sprouts that our little household could get through. However, I recently discovered that G's school runs their Farmer's Choice scheme. A bag of fruit or veg or a mixed bag of both that directly profits the school PTA, so in the hope there would be fewer onions we have decided to give it a go.

The picture above is a taster of what arrived in our bags today. Far more manageable! So tonight we will be dining like kings on courgettes a plenty and G will have plenty of tomatoes to sustain him until his home grown ones begin to look a little more like this.

So with the lack of sweet things in our house at the moment I had to replace them with something. I finally cast on for something that I bought the yarn for a year ago! Is that common? To plan and then leave languishing forever and a day?

So with that I shall be off to cook my healthy dinner and look forward to a pudding of sweetness on my knitting needles.

Profiterole mountain

G said the other day thank-you for not putting the pictures of me on your blog and I suddenly realised that I hadn't exposed him to the humiliation that I had intended to!

For his birthday BBQ last weekend he had asked one of our friends to make him profiteroles for his birthday cake.

Which she kindly did and assembled into a profiterole mountain in our kitchen. Gorgeous huge adequate sized nuggets of air filled with Baileys cream and smothered with rich dark chocolate sauce.

And as you can see from the first photo, completely and utterly gorgeous when devoured!

Branching out

In more ways than one. Branching Out is the pattern and I was branching out technique wise into the new world of lace knitting. You know what? I think I might like it.

I love how it can go from this

to this with just the aid of some water and pins.

Only problem is it's not really the sort of thing I wear! So for now it will just have to live with my shelf of special things.

(Note to self: look into camera tripods.)

Back in the day

AKA why face book is a bad, bad thing!

This sort of thing crops up. And you suddenly look down and realise that more than ten years later you are still wearing the same red jumper! Quite literally wearing it at that precise moment!

 

You start to wish you still looked like that and wonder why on earth you thought you were fat!

Then you find photos like this one and you realise that if face book can give you back moments and people like this then perhaps it isn't such a bad thing after all.