The weird and wonderful

Hello again lovely readers, how are you this mid-week? I have had a strange old time these past 3 days at work, a real roller coaster of emotions, but I am pleased to say I am feeling quite at peace and balanced this afternoon. I hope your week has been treating you well.

Can I introduce you to my new hot drink? I was perusing the shelves of the gorgeous natural / organic / health provisions shop Plenty in St. Leonards-on-Sea this past weekend and discovered the joy of this weird but I think wonderful brew... licquorice tea

It's almost impossible to describe how it tastes but I find it very uplifting and refreshing. It's unusual and you may need to acquire the taste for it but I find it a bit of fun and something different from the normal herbal teas I tend to go for. There are many health clains for licquorice and it's a herb commonly used in chinese medicine. If you have a few spare pennies / cents give it a try you may be pleasantly surprised xox

So, the weekend was a lovely one, deeply buried under the covers I read more of my book, perused my latest Country Living magazine and knitted these...(Do you ever knit in bed?)

Don't you just love the Debbie Bliss Scottish tweed yarn with all it's pretty moss green variations! I felt quite pleased with myself for knitting these from this great book by Lesley Stanfield

What I was pleased about is that I avoided using DPN's to knit these leaves as per instructions in the book. I don't know about you but I seem to have developed a fear of double pointed needles .... I avoid any pattern which suggests you use them like the plague!(Alice @ Crochet with Raymond HELP!!!)

I know it's just a confidence thing and I think I need to make it one of my goal is to conquer this irrational fear very soon! I need an "idiots guide" on how to use them, no doubt Youtube may well oblige... or the lovely ladies in my LYS I am sure will smile when I arrive all knotted up, to help teach me this new skill.

Oh well, I will have to put that goal on my growing list of things to do in the first half of this year. Shall I give you a little hint of where those leaves are going? OK then, just a little hint ...

That's an obvious hint if there ever was one. Look out for my next post for the full glory and ta-dah moment of early February. (See the green garter stitch? That's Alice's latest knitting xox)

So, back to the previous weekend, sunday was sunny here on the south east coast and so we went down to the De la Warr Pavillion to see the latest exhibition and along the sea front for a stroll and cup of tea. There is much movement going on at the moment on our sea front with digging, building, planting and updating, so this summer should bring about a different feeling down there. Some of the locals are not best pleased with what our Council is doing, my judgement will be reserved for when it's all finished.

Alice really enjoys the exhibitions and it's good fun hearing from a child what they think of the installations / art  that is being exhibited. At the moment its all about moving portraits and there were some weird and wonderful exhibits... a bit like my licquorice tea really!







I'll leave you all with a couple of pictures of snow drops we discovered in a church garden on the way home. Oh so very quiet and very beautiful for soul food in the bleakness.

Here is sending you all hearts of joy this February and see you all soon xox