random humph pic

another blissed-out doggy pic:



and in other news - happy birthday to n! who hates this sort of thing but was still able to be convinced to have a lovely bbq supper of t-bone steak, asparagus, grilled tomatoes, and a very good bottle of wine, followed by vanilla ice cream and dark chocolate salty cookies. i have also started socks for him, despite my protestations about foot size. i am a sucker for the puppy dog eyes, both canine and male, although we have compromised and they are aran weight yarn. the socks. the eyes are pure cashmere lace-weight - irresistible.

potential

i received some unexpected money last week and promptly blew the lot on wool - so, so much more fun than work shirts which is what i meant to spend it on. who could resist? n is on skein-winding stand-by, poor sod.

there is so much delicious potential in that little pile - humph agrees, though his designs are nefarious and he must be carefully watched. needless to say, neither of our wool fetishes have diminished with time.

and happy summer solstice! hopefully yours has an accompanying summer. it is still cool and damp in the uk. but still - the light is beautiful and we biked up to the shipwright for a solstice pint, and mighty good it was too.

smells like...

right now, our house is being devoured by amazing smells. there are three types of bacon smoking outside in the smoker - the door is open and a porky-smoky tang is filtering through, mixing with the smell of taragon and lemon roast chicken and the goose-fat silkiness of roast potatoes in the oven. it's times like this i really feel quite sorry for sir humph - who, with a sense of smell 600x ours, must really be suffering. sometimes, it is really really great to be human.

it's a lazy sunday here at the oast - n had a gig at the elephant last night after that amazing lunch, and today we are somewhat subdued. hangover eating - the best kind. especially with bacon. and chicken. and cheese. and olives. and wine. and roast potatoes.

yup, it really is good to be human sometimes.

ahh pleasure piggy

this afternoon we had a fabulous, looked-forward-to birthday lunch at the sportsman. we first found the sportsman on our bicycle explorations when we moved to kent in 2003. a weather-beaten, veranda'd pub in the middle of nowhere? must go in and explore further. then we saw the menu and fell head over heels in love. since then, they've won michelin stars, but it is still the pub/restaurant we fell in love with. i studied for many of my exams in their sunny veranda, and many times we've popped in for a drink when we couldn't afford lunch.

lunch, however, has always been special, and today was no exception. we took a taxi there, rather than biking, because "the weather outside is frightful" even though it's june. we were slightly early, and settled in at the bar, where we caught up with one of the owners over the merits and intricacies of home smoked bacon and the menu on offer today, written in chalk near the bar. n had slip sole in seaweed butter to start, folowed by aylesbury duck (breast roasted pink, leg confit). i had the pork terrine to start, and the turbot with smoked pork belly.
pudding was a chocolate mouse with milk sorbet and salty caramel.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

i'm not sure i can even write about lunch here - but what i can say is that i love it here more than any other restaurant, i think. i always feel comfortable here - even though the food is amazing (the guy makes his own sea salt for crying out loud!) i never feel like i don't belong - everyone is friendly, and more than than, happy to talk about THE FOOD, which, frankly, is the point. by the middle of the main course i have that soporific happy-food pleasure-pig feeling which just increases until, by the time we hit the dessert wine and salty caramel, i am pretty much ecstatic.

i also managed to get a lovely pic of my sweet:



isn't he lovely?

more knitting...

a stripy-sock photoshoot with added greyhound:







i'm not so crazy about these socks even though i love the colour - i used a different pattern that i won't use again - i find the toe a bit pointy and somehow i managed to make them a little big. they are, however, insanely comfortable and so warm i think i need to take them off now.

in other news, it's friday - yayyyyyyyy!!!!!!!

lazing on a sunday afternoon

it's been a quiet day. we've been racking wine: 4 gallons of elderflower, 1 gallon of rhubarb, and 3 litres of elderflower cordial. i have had quite enough of elderflowers for this year. i will scream if i have to pick another tiny finicky little flower off of another flower head. that said, i sure love the wine. we made a gluttonous mac and cheese for lunch, did a bit of knitting, wandered down to the pub at the end of the road to see what the band sounded like (3 wings songs in a row - down the pints and move on out). a movie, some popcorn, a bit more knitting...

a lazy pleasure-piggy day .

granted, we are still a bit subdued from n's excellent gig on friday night, then staying up till the wee hours drinking absurd amounts of red wine and laughing the night (and a good chunk of the morning) away with the most amazing (and very funny) m. m & his wife now complete the full set of all my (straight) friends in my age group are either having or have had snappers last year and this. i think it's awfully nice of them all to have lovely babies for me to play with and snuggle (and give back as soon as they cry/shit/pee/throw up). in my opinion, babies are delightful, up to a point (see previous). i do intend to be a great honorary auntie, however. any tips?

and, for your viewing pleasure, a very cute pup, encountered on the way to the anchor last weekend:




happy sunday - have a good week :)