Retro Grow-Your-Own

Does anyone else remember the seed sprouters of the '80s?

I have vivid memories of a brown and clear plastic stack of trays on my parents' window-sill which we used to grow sprouts in for salads. Well I managed to find the same sort of thing in the local garden centre.

Loving the quick return on effort, I've never had too much patience with gardening, seeing a return in 2 years simply isnt for me.

These little seeds were planted at the weekend and I've been snacking on them for a few days now

Fun and a healthy snack what more could you want?

Iceland - A surprisingly crafty place

Ok so I have been back a week, sorry for not posting this sooner, but there is just one more Icelandic discovery I wanted to share with you....

Iceland is a super crafty place

I was really surprised, not only did I discover the superb yarn and fabric shop on the high street but also I stumbled upon the Handknitting Association of Iceland Shop

There were woolie jumpers gallor, never seen so many in one place....

quite amazing and who knew they were a nation of knitters and sew-ers???

They were all quite a distinct design which reminded me of skiing and sitting drinking mulled-wine next to a roaring fire. Could have been tempted but they were pricey....about £100 for an adult jumper so left them all behind

Volcano-tastic

Thank you for the kind words wishing us a safe trip home, am happy to tell you we slept in our own bed last night. It was a long journey which included severe flight delays and a rather indirect route from Iceland to London which practically took us to Sweden, anyway we are home and by the look of the news we are certainly some of the lucky ones.

Not sure I've ever linked to a news story on this blog so forgive me if you find this a little strange, but I've always been a bit of a geology geek (a slightly regretted missed calling I think) and of course the events of the past week have only fuelled this urge to learn.

I've just read this great (but quite long) article on the Guardian website which explains that the current eruption is merely a baby compared to what has happened on earth before and some of the previous consequences, really quite fascinating if you are interested in this type of stuff.

Iceland volcano: why we were lucky we weren't wiped out

Just wanted to share.

I've got something else I want to share with you from Iceland but will have to wait till the weekend when I have some time to write to you in full.

Oh suits you sir

Iceland is a very casual country; jeans, jumpers and trainers everywhere, so I'm not sure if I was actually surprised to see this instruction manual as to how to tie a tie on a side wall on the high street.

I've got images in my mind of all the business men in Reykjavik crowding around this every morning before they go to work. Loving the 'tasch

Iceland

Well what a lot of chaos we are experiencing around the world, who would have thought that a volcano in Iceland would have grounded planes around the world and caused hundreds of thousands of people to be stranded. Well I'm one of them...yes I am currently stranded and ironically I'm stranded in Iceland.....

Yes, I'm in Iceland. It was R's birthday on Wednesday last week and as a treat I thought I'd take us somewhere a little different for a long weekend rather than doing the usual present and nice restaurant. So I booked flights to leave London on Wednesday evening and back on Sunday evening. I even managed to keep the whole thing a secret and only told R where we were off to on the train to the airport on Wednesday evening. The special treat of the holiday was the hotel I had booked for 3 nights from Thursday. Hotel Ranga advertises itself as a luxury hotel in the south of Iceland overlooking a salmon river and a volcano.

Yes you've guessed it the volcano the hotel over looks was the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano which has been spewing ash across Europe since Wednesday morning and closed airspace since Thursday morning. Thankfully the hotel is NE of the volcano so we werent evaculated or covered in ash.

We had an amazing volcano, and I simply cant convey the how strange it was to be enjoying the out door hot tub watching this powerful mountain erupt. Fascinating really.

Here is one of my shots of the volcano, surreal really to be right there and then to see the news reports of the chaos.

Unfortunately the volcano watching is now over and we are back in Reykjavik waiting for a flight home. Anyone who has been here will know that whilst this is a lovely city, there isnt too much to do. So I was very excited to discover some rather fabulous yarn and fabric shops right on the equivalent of London's Oxford St / Manhattan's 5th Ave.

Look how beautifully their goods are displayed...I simply dont see this range of colours, textures and patterns at home....I felt like a kid in a sweet shop

I havent quite got to grips with the exchange rate just yet (185KR = 1GBP is a tricky calculation) but I've worked out enough to understand that the beautifully displayed yarn is quite pricey so I'm hoping to get home before I spend any more time and money in the lovely shops. Fingers crossed for a flight tomorrow

Funky Shrug

Hope you have all had a great Easter break, filled with lots of yummy chocolate and family time. I’ve had a lovely break from work and as it typically me I get very excited about all the chocolate and then never actually eat it, think I just like to anticipate it and look at the boxes on the mantel piece. I’ve broken into one but still have 3 more to go I expect I’ll crack (!!) this weekend and have a big chocolate covered smile

The major activity this weekend was shopping….as the sun continues to peak out from the cold winter clouds the time has come to ditch the winter woollies and update the wardrobe for spring so off to the shopping centre we went. Not a particularly successful shopping trip, mainly due to the number of people who seemed to have the same idea, urgh….

But I did stumble upon this rather interesting shrug….remind you of anything???

This is made from cotton crocheted granny-squares and I couldn’t help but see the similarity between this and my cross-stitch pictures….freaky resemblance actually.

I could have been tempted purely for entertainment value but the price-tag of £115 put me off slightly … I appreciate the work that will have gone into producing this but seriously £115 for a cotton shrug in a highstreet store you have to be kidding…. if I'm still tempted in a couple of weeks I'm sure I could figure out the pattern