Wohooo,

We’re back.

The long awaited holiday report. Well, you’ll all be mystified, right. Given that I didn’t send a single post card from Germany. My address book is still missing and I left the laptop at home.

Well, how about a few highlights? The adventure begun on the flight, my in-laws are about as lovely as they come –BUT. They cannot be described as the most experiences travellers. So travelling with them is a lot like travelling with small children. Scene at the airport – “Do you have any liquids in your hand luggage?” “No, just passports, cigarettes and the jam.” “Jam?” “Yes, it is a present, it is not liquid, is it now?”…

On the weekend we went to my dad’s exhibition. The opening was nice and I met a lot of old friends I would never have had a chance to meet otherwise.

We went to the market, mostly to get the world famous dry cured sausages… yumm. We visited the Wasserkuppe, and spend a very entertaining hour frightening my mother in law that she would have to get into a hang glider in the afternoon. She said she was never fooled but we know better!

We also went to the theatre in the ruin (The Odyssey, very cool! http://www.bad-hersfelder-festspiele.de/index.php?rubrik=1&content=101). First time I saw an entire theatre cast in Wellies!

And of course we visited the former border (http://www.grenzmuseum.de/content_en/). They build quite a nice museum there. I expected it to be quite dull, but it was actually interesting for the guests and I got a few good giggles. Like the best of the former UDSSR vehicles. There was a personnel carrier with the same engine capacity as my Polo (1.2 l) it reached the almost the same top speed as my Polo (60 miles/hour) but used 30l diesel/100km to do so. How did they ever get that dog into space?

We didn’t do touristy things all the time though. We also spend a good deal of time in my father’s lovely garden soaking up the sun. And watching the Hawfinches feeding their chicks. Actually we saw a surprising about of birds in the garden, without mentioning all the ravens and red kites that flew over. Gibby desperatly wanted a photographic proof of all the kites, so he snapped a stuffed one in the border museum... CHEAT!

I even squeezed in a trip to the local wool dealer. Ohhhh, ahh - Gibby is still horrified how much money I left there. But in my defence, all that wool is actually for knitting Christmas presents with.

On our last day we bought some goldfish to restock my fathers pond without telling him. He is still convinces they appeared naturally. How he expects a single goldfish to breed or a heron to bring in a 2 inch fishies we shall never know…

Other then that, we’ll the return has been busy. I even didn’t manage to download the photos yet!

We have managed to cut the grass in the garden though, well Gibby has. And there are suspicions that there are actually plants hiding under the weeds somewhere. The neighbours did a most excellent job looking after my potted flowers. Several went there green and came back in bloom. The only losses were my mandrakes. I am a bit upset, but honestly, they were never the most beautiful of plants anyway.

• finely chopped bird’s eye chillies
• 1 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup sugar
• one teaspoon grated ginger
• 3 large cloves of garlic squished
• 2 teaspoons of tomato puree (just for colour, really)
• 2 teaspoons flour or starch

I recently read “Storm boy” a great kids book and I always loved the depiction of the whale people. I also happened to have some spare yarn kicking about… so I proudly present: The Orky Socks.

If I had had spare white yarn I might have knitted Minky the Whale Socks… an affectionate nickname my dear husband loves to shout whenever I decide to go swimming anywere…

Needles 2.5mm & 3.25, yarn grey leftover 2 skeins Cygnet wool rich 4ply and  Regia 4ply uni in red.

I have no written pattern, but I will write it up if there is any interest.

On our day off today we both went a bit decorating mad... well I did the artsy crafty bits, Gibby made sure the tree stood upright, the wraeth wouldn't flatten the postie and the mobile is balanced.

First the wreath, all materials collected within a mile of our house! Well allbut the creatures and the tartan ribbon.

I got the larch cone reindeer/people from work. Love them! You can't see them very well but the reindeer have actually little antler twigs!

From a few shurikans I originally folded for the tree and 1.5 chopsticks I created a start mobile. Only half visible because it is bloody freezing and our curtains are drawn ;-)



And tadaaaaa there is a tree. It is actually an almost 6 foot massive pine. It is really densely needled. I love the pointisetta ornaments. It actually aquired them from the cheap shelf in Tesco! I was really concerned we would not have enough ornaments so I bought a pack of tartan ribbon from ebay, I love it, slightly tacky... well maybe.

Gibby thought the tree was not sparkly enough, so he went out to get to more LED light chains...it wears three now.



My favourite bit of the lights is the shapes the lights cast on the wall, the wall is a light coffee colour and the lights cast paler snowflaky shapes- very very nice. The rest of the room has a few more tartan ribbons and of course el stocking! A door holds some of the Christmas cards we have received on a tartan ribbon, were else. The rest of the house has been spared, but I do love the living room.

Christmas, an I've embraced the British traditions with gusto! Look at our mantlepiece! Christmas cards, some even from as far afield as Stuttgart!

And the piece de resistance, Gibby's new christmas stocking. Look aththe details, the Scottish lion, the love birds, the celtic cable, the Hersfeld cross pattern. Some patterns I've poached from other patterns. Email me if you want to know were they came from. The colours may be unconventional but the wool was leftover DK merino from various Christmas presents.



The garden may be in hibernation but the inside flowers seem to try and make up for it. My biggest surprise is this orchid. It reflowerd after a year with a third flower stem, I've never managed that before.
On the other side of the same window there is a huge bunch of flowers from Gibby and my trusty IKEA amaryllis. I hope to see a flower later this year.



Not the best photo, but this is our dear little bonsai and the ridiculously fast growing passionflower. It had over 30 flowers last summer. Can't wait to see it flower again.



ANd finally my remaining three mandrakes. I repotted them last year, and honestly they looked justlike the picture on the right! I swear. Picture of the screaming mandrake is from the Harry POtter movies of course:-D