Menu -- 7th-13th October 2025

 

Tue: Stuffed marrow

Wed: Fish pie

Thu: Lamb Scouse

Fri: Chicken tagine

Sat: Risotto

Sun: Roasted veggies with pesto and feta

Mon: Sweet potato and leek lasagna

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I'm keeping a record of what we are eating. Hopefully it will make future meal planning easier.

Sail Away

It was an incredibly broken night for me. At 4.30am, my brain said, 'Enough! No more sleep.'

The crossing was 'bumpy' and the seats were horrible. Although I did manage to doze off a few times. It wasn't proper sleep, it wasn't even improper sleep, just a a pale imitation.

10am saw our arrival in Liverpool. We had a look around the World Museum whilst I was research a back story for Sophie.

At lunchtime, the gluten-free offerings were soup, scouse or salad. We elected to try scouse. It is the rich stew Liverpudlians are named after. Its main ingredients are lamb, potato and carrots. When we get back home, I'm going to give it  a try.

Manchester Cathedral is between the railway station and the Travelodge. We stopped in there to escape the almost biblical levels of rain. A cathedral guide was very happy to info-dump, her brain to our brains.

The first person to use the code '007' was John Dee. He had been sent by Elizabeth of England to Manchester to be the collegiate church's warden. It took a few centuries before it became a cathedral.

During the English Civil War, Salford (just across the river) an Manchester supported different factions. People would climb onto the roofs of the churches and shoot at each other!

Amy, First Storm of the Season

Storm Amy is brewing in the Irish Sea, and will start its rampage at around 3pm tomorrow. That's when we are due to sail to Liverpool! Our sailing has been brought forward to 7am.  

I'm all of a twitter, full of anxiety as to whether we will be sailing or not. It feels like anything could happen in the hours of darkness and we won't know about it until the morning. 

I want to go to Liverpool, and on to Manchester!

Mitred Squares in Riot

Many, many years ago, I saw the most fabulous knitted jacket in reds, purples and blues. It is the project that brought me back to knitting. Eeek, I've just realised it would have been 20 years ago!

Now I have to the time and inclination to make that jacket. More accurately, a similar jacket. I'm pretty sure the jacket I saw was made using triangles, and I'm going to use mitred squares. 

Cast on 30sts in yarn A (King Cole Riot DK Rhapsody).

1. Knit 15st, place stitch marker. K15.

2. Switch to yarn B (King Cole Riot DK Party), Knit to 2 stitches before marker, K2tog, K2tog, K to end.

3. Knit.

4. Switch to yarn. Knit to 2 stitches before marker, K2tog, K2tog, K to end.

5. Knit.

Repeat this pattern until there are 2 stitches left. Then knit the two stitches together.

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Make a second square, and then pick up the stitches on the sides of the squares to form a new square.