Merry Christmas!

Family Christmas cards from 1920, 1938 and 1921. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

A handmade Christmas card from my Great Aunt Minnie circa 1983. Feel free to print him (or her) out and color her in as Aunt Minnie suggests if you need something to do while sipping eggnog.

Blue Christmas

Hello all. Bit of a blue Christmas here. I realized I've been avoiding all the things I miss because thinking about them makes me feel like something very large and heavy is sitting on my heart. It's a bit of a backwards way to manage, I suppose. I miss my little attic and so many things it's hard to count. To all the far away people I've been missing (you know who you are) I send very much love and a promise to not be so quiet. Happy Christmas!

stiff upper lip

One of the best people I know reminded me that I should find a stiff upper lip in my passport, right next to the lion and the unicorn. I must remember to have a look for it in the morning.

I miss my ocean

I'm having a hard time settling in here.

This story is from Orford, Suffolk, near where I was born. I think it's terribly sad.



'Men fishing in the sea caught in their nets a wild man. He was naked and was like a man in all his members, covered with hair and with a long shaggy beard. He eagerly ate whatever was brought to him but if it was raw he pressed it between his hands until all the juice was expelled. He would not talk, even when tortured and hung up by his feet. Brought into church, he showed no signs of reverence or belief. He sought his bed at sunset and always remained there until sunrise.

He was allowed to go into the sea, strongly guarded with three lines of nets, but he dived under the nets and came up again and again. Eventually he came back of his own free will. But later on he escaped and was never seen again.'

hair

I am still experiencing... shall we say... very intense culture shock. I've been getting my ducks in a row and working to secure studio space to use while I'm here. Not much else to report, but I have received some amusing comments about my hair this week. Riding in the car one of my cousin's four-year-old twins told me my hair looked like a monster. It was perhaps the best hair compliment I've ever received. Then today I was queuing in the library and an elderly gentleman said, "It's just not fair! You have all that hair piled at the back of your head and I don't have any!" It made me smile.

mosquitoes, family & lots of pie

I started my American sabbatical with a trip to Michigan for a family reunion. My great grandma was one of seven children and the families of those seven have been getting together every summer since 1923. This year my branch of the family (the Esta and Jake Smith clan) hosted the reunion at my cousin Cindy's house in Adrian. It's farm country and the green and skies were beautiful...

my cousin's back yard...

the fairground food wagon and our reunion tent...
Dad and my sister launching balloon lanterns at night...
my soon to be brother-in-law and I in the bouncy castle...
the food trailer by night...
breakfast!...
toasting marshmallows for s'mores in the fire pit...
early morning...
crossroads near my cousin's house...
We had a very fine reunion... and running around in the fresh air is a great jet lag cure. I've also discovered my superpower: resistance to mosquitoes. It's not as useful as flight or invisibility, but on summer evenings in Michigan it makes you a superhero!

The Steam Powered Man

One of my best friends and a proper gentleman, Max Humphries, was on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square on Tuesday as part of Antony Gormley's One & Other project. A different person will stand on the plinth every hour, 24 hours a day for 100 days to make a "living portrait" of the UK.


In case you might have missed it (as I did because I was traveling) you can watch Max's full hour on the plinth dressed as a steam powered robot on the One & Other site.




See more pictures and find out about the design and construction process over on the Brass Goggles Steampunk Forum.




...and there are more pictures over on Ms. Steele's Flickr account.

I'm so proud!

traveling gifts

My wonderful friend Kieron made this cushion for me as a traveling gift. Isn't it lovely? It's a little bit of England to take with me on my travels, and was sewn with a very hot needle as my mother would say. Some of the fabric is from costumes at Les Mis, but shhh, don't tell anyone. It's just the right squishiness and the perfect size for airplanes and sleeping in strange places, like a pop-up caravan, which is where I'll be next week. Thank you Kieron!!

a hot time in the old town

Hello... I'm still here!



I've been quietly making big decisions and sorting lots of things... and boy, has it been hot! We've had several strawberries from our balcony garden and a few things have gone to seed... it's a bit like a miniature meadow. We're attracting ladybirds and butterflies.


Here's Joel breaking in his new ukulele in the sunshine.


and this is my new god-niece, Margot. Isn't she lovely?
she's the hairy one at the front, not the hairy one at the back.

...and here's a bon voyage pie with a pastry Statue of Liberty and the Titanic (this one didn't sink, Max says). Yummy!


More news soon!

July Mint Juleps

This is a non-alcoholic take on the classic Mint Julep, usually made with bourbon.

Boil 3/4 cup of sugar and one cup of water for ten minutes or until sugar is dissolved to make a sugar syrup. Allow the syrup to cool.

To the syrup, add the juice of three lemons or four limes (strained), four bruised sprigs of mint and one pint of ginger beer or ale. Mix together.

Fill glasses half full with crushed ice and pour in the julep mixture. Garnish the drinks with sprigs of mint.

Enjoy!

a lot of allotment

I spent yesterday at a friend's new, overgrown allotment digging out a small mountain of couch grass. Despite not having planted anything yet we managed to come home with fresh rhubarb, spinach and even some potatoes. There are several blackberry, currant and gooseberry bushes on the plot too which should mean tasty jam later in the summer.

in and out the window

Spring has sprung, the weather's warm and the wisteria has bloomed. We planted some rosemary, basil, thyme, two types of lettuce, rocket, black violas and a little strawberry plant on our kitchen balcony.







Usually bees and wasps fly in my windows in the spring and summer, but today a large peacock butterfly come to visit:

Happy Birthday!

to my sister the Cheezelady, with love.

a forest in the chest

It must be a slow news day as the Guardian is reporting the story of a man in the Urals who supposedly had a spruce fir seedling removed from his lung. This seems more suited to the Fortean Times than the Guardian. It makes me think of fairy tales, forest curses and the scene from Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain in which the conquistador drinks of the tree of life.