Snicker-ish Dates Again

 Last month, I posted about the snicker-ish stuffed dates I made with some medjool dates given to me by a friend. I loved them and wanted more, but had no medjool dates in the house. I have lots of dates, but not the big ones that can be stuffed. I get my dates at Aldi in 500 gram bags. These bags contain dates of various sizes and are already pitted. The friend who gave me the medjool dates orders hers online since there's nowhere around here to buy them. I like the Aldi ones just fine so don't feel the need to order online, but they're not really suitable for stuffing. So it was time to work with what I had to get the snickery dates that I wanted!

I poured a bunch of the dates (probably around 20 or so of varying sizes) into a bowl, covered with boiling water and let them sit for 15 minutes. Then drained them and placed them side by side on some baking paper on a cookie sheet. I opened them up and flattened them out a bit.

I melted 150 grams of dark chocolate and stirred in 1/2 cup of peanut butter (1/3 to 1/2 cup works well for this amount of chocolate, depending on how much you want). I removed the dates from the baking paper and spread out a thin layer of the chocolate peanut butter mixture. I didn't cover the entire surface, just made a rectangle.

I placed the soaked, flattened dates side by side over the thin layer of chocolate. I put some small dollops of peanut butter fairly evenly placed across the surface of the dates, then sprinkled chopped walnuts over the top. Finally, I spread the rest of the chocolate peanut butter mixture over the top. I let it sit for a few hours in a cool place to firm up then cut into pieces. 

just after spreading chocolate on top

the inside after cutting

Yum, yum, yum! I love these and so much less fussy than trying to stuff the dates. I'll definitely be making these on a regular basis--at least as long as Aldi keeps selling dates!

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Slow Stitched Cloth Journals

 In December, one of the women from the art gallery next to the library asked me about the possibility of teaching a series of workshops this year. She said to have a think about what I'd like to teach, so I let it simmer over the holidays. When we left for Killybegs, the gallery was still closed so when they opened, I emailed her and suggested a series of workshops on slow stitched cloth journals. 

I wrote:

These could be created in various formats, depending on what the stitcher wants--scroll, bell pull, book, individual piece, or whatever else they could think of. It would all be done by hand--slow stitching--and would incorporate whatever cloth has meaning to the stitcher, scraps, upcycled cloth of various kinds, perhaps some pieces of embroidery or lace created by a person of a previous generation, etc. Embellishments could be anything, including bits of deconstructed jewelry. Photos and other meaningful paper (or other material) objects could be incorporated in various ways. Pockets could be included to stick things in, for example. Or individual pieces could be made and then mounted into an artist sketchbook, leaving some blank pages/areas to write down memories or stories.

I see this as being a project that could be made for a specific event, such as weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, or as just a sort of memory journal. I was describing the idea to a friend and she immediately thought of doing one for her granddaughter's birthday, making each page structured around one letter of the girl's name and including pockets to tuck in photos of the child's father (my friend's son) in the pages and possibly stories about his childhood. 

I think there would be a fun social aspect to this as well, as participants could share ideas, stories, and even swap fabric scraps while they stitch. That's one facet of such a project, but it would also include upcycling, slow stitching, life story writing (if desired), sharing of memories and stories, and time to slow down and play with colors and textures in the cloth. There is no need for perfection and precise sewing--it's all about the process of the stitching and all skill levels would be welcome. If someone wanted to do all simple running stitch, something lovely could be created. If someone is really into embroidery, they could do that and something lovely could be created.

She loved the idea and was going to work on a grant to fund materials and things. I understood that we were waiting to see if the funding came through to know whether or not the class would happen. One day I saw that the class was scheduled to start next month. I didn't have any photos to send her so she could use them in advertising and since I was away from home, my supplies were limited. Fortunately, we had gone to a charity shop where I found some good cloth for slow stitching--fleece scarves, flannel sheets, cloth napkins, and a bag that was labelled 'material' but when I opened it, it was pillowcases. Fine with me. I went rummaging around one of the project pouches I had with me, grabbed a couple scraps of ribbon yarn left from a kumihimo braid I'd made, and started thinking about how to at least make a cover so I could at least create a cover. I'm quite happy with the results!

front cover

back cover

I'm calling this journal 'She Makes Things' and it's honoring the work of women from previous generations, especially their handwork. While I'm including things from and a tribute to several women, some who I knew and some who I didn't, it's primarily an homage to my Nana. When I was little, and at school or somewhere, I was asked who I admired most or some such question. While I don't remember the exact question, I do remember my answer, 'My Nana. She's so cool. She makes things.' I still think Nana was cool. Now I make things. And I'm making this slow stitched cloth journal for myself both as a tribute to all those women like Nana and as a reminder of where I come from and who I am today. 

I'm just about done with this journal and I'll post more about it when it's complete.

Update: Sorry about that white box above. I can't seem to get rid of it. 

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January Reading 2

Here is the second half of my January reading wrap-up.

The Silkie by Gill Edmonds (borrowed from a friend)

In December, a friend handed me this book and said she thought I'd like it. She said that she was in no great rush to get it back so I brought it with me and read it with a dog on my lap. It was fascinating. It's a layered novel based on folklore and with more folklore embedded in the story. I found the structure quite interesting. It's not the kind of thing I usually read so I did have to pay attention to what was going on. I was reminded of the time Bill and I were doing an independent study class in Inupiaq Eskimo language and one of our assignments was to translate some stories from Inupiaq to English. This was somewhat tricky at times because of the folkloric nature of the stories and we would be wondering, for example, whether the rug really was turning into a polar bear or whether we were way off in our translation. But back to the book, which starts out with a disturbing rape by a water person against a woman who lives on land. When a pregnancy results from intercourse between sea males and land women, eventually the sea male comes to claim 'his' child. In this case, there are twins and one is claimed and the other hidden. Neither knows their origin story and neither fit into the cultures and societies in which they're brought up. The sea hominids have their own cultures and ways of being. They interact and befriend other sea creatures. At times they attempt to befriend land humans, but mostly they hang around with each other and other sea creatures observing and trying to come to grips with the devastation of the sea and her creatures by the land people. I found this book very engaging and I'm glad I read it.

The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustace (my e-book)

An episode of the Shedunnit podcast dropped with this as the subject, so before I listened to that, I read the book. I loved it. It's the only novel that Sayers collaborated on and the only one of her novels that doesn't involve Lord Peter Wimsey. It's an epistolary novel, written in the form of letters between various people. We first meet the Harrisons--an older gent and his much younger second wife. Also present in the household is her live-in companion, Miss Milsom. In the downstairs flat, an artist, Lathom, and a poet, Munting, move in. Munting is engaged and many of the letters are from him to his fiancee. The Harrison's marriage is not in great shape. In addition to being much older than his wife, Harrison is quite controlling and doesn't want her to have friends outside of those that are mutual, nor does he want her to have a job outside the home. She's bored and stifled and reads voraciously. The Harrisons do not have any interests in common, but he will defend her and shows affection for her when speaking of her to others and when writing to his grown son (from his late wife) who is abroad. It is this son who, after his father's death, believes there is foul play at work. He collects the documents and talks to people and eventually gets the police involved. Published in 1930, this is an excellent Golden Age mystery, which includes newfangled (at the time) discoveries in science and thoughts about psychotherapy.

The Aloe by Katherine Mansfield (Serial Reader app)

This novella was apparently autobiographical. Set in New Zealand, it follows the Burnell family as they move house and settle in. It's a quiet book about the daily lives of the different people in the family--mother, father, three daughters, grandmother and sister/sister-in-law. There's no great plot or intrigue--just ordinary lives and in that way, quite an interesting read.

Taking Chances by Molly Keane (published under the name MJ Farrell) (personal copy)

This one one of Kean's earlier novels, published in 1929. The story revolves around the aptly named Sorrier siblings (and it'd be hard to find a sorrier trio). They live in the big house called Sorristown, their parents having died. They're all adults--Roguey is the oldest, Maeve the only woman, and Jer is the youngest. Maeve worships Roguey, and Jer worships Maeve. The dynamics of the relationships change when Maeve becomes engaged to Rowley. With the wedding fast approaching, Maeve's bridesmaid, Mary arrives. It's clear that her arrival will be the cause of much upheaval, the ripples of which will impact several people. At first I wasn't sure that I'd like this book all that much because it seemed pretty predictable. In a superficial way, it was. Deeper into the layers though, it became a page-turner and one that I quite enjoyed. This is, I think, the third Molly Kean novel I've read and I'm keen to read more. 😉😏

A Dangerous Train of Thought by Faith Martin (BorrowBox audiobook)

This is the latest in the Arbie and Val mystery series. I'd read the first two and enjoyed them well enough, so when I saw this had been added to BorrowBox and was available, I checked it out to listen to whilst stitching at night. It was a fun book. Arbie is a young man who doesn't really need a job but on a lark wrote a book called The Gentlemen's Guide to Ghost Hunting, which was about ghost hunting tourism, basically. We're talking 1920s. This was the foundation in the first book. By the second book, Arbie was a bestselling author working on book two. In this book, he's working on book three and he and his childhood friend/literary assistant and vicar's daughter Val, are off to a big house party. In the nearby village, there are stories about a ghost train and they're going to investigate. It's quite a coup for the hostess to have the bestselling author as a guest at her weekend party of people who probably shouldn't be together at all. But together they are until one of them doesn't make it to the second day. It looks like suicide but there are things that bother Arbie and Val about the situation, so their sleuthing skills will be needed once again. These are fun books, but this one was also a bit sad as far as one of the characters went. The ghost hunting aspect seems to take less of a role as the series goes on, other than being a reason for the pair to be in various places. That said, there is a storyline associated with the ghost train. 

And this concludes my January reading wrap-up. Three weeks left in February, which I hope are filled with many excellent books! Happy reading.

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January Reading 1

 Here we are already a week into February, so it's time to post my January reading wrap-up. Here we go--in the order in which I read them.

Hotel Exile: Paris in the Shadow of War by Jane Rogoyska (NetGalley book--to be published on February 26, 2026 by Penguin Press UK)

In this book, Jane Rogoyska is exploring the experience of exile in various forms. She does this describing the lives of people who fall within three different groups, all having interacted in some way with the Hotel Lutetia on Paris' Left Bank. She states that, "This is not the story of a famous Paris hotel. It is about three groups of people who are connected to a particular city, to that particular hotel, to one another, and to the grim ideology which dictates the course of their lives. These groups are linked--willingly or not--by race, nationality, language, and their status as outsiders. They all live in exile, in profoundly different ways. They are displaced, dislocated, their lives disrupted. They are temporary beings who live out of suitcases. Their drama plays out in many hotel rooms. The Hotel Lutetia is the prism through which we view their lives." (p 3) The three groups she focuses on in this book are people in the resistance movement in France, Nazi occupiers, and finally, people who have been liberated from concentration camps at the end of the war. Within each group, there are particular people the author writes about and through them readers get a sense of the larger environment in which events occurred. She writes in present tense for most of the book, with occasional paragraphs of objective historical fact written in past tense. She does speculate at times about how someone might have felt in a particular situation, but it's very clear to the reader when this is happening. I found this to be a fascinating, heartbreaking, thought-provoking, and very readable book. At times it read like a novel in that I cared about what was happening to some of the people she highlighted and wanted to know what happened to them. This is an important book both for the historical information provided but also because of the idea of different kinds of exile. More and more people are finding themselves in one kind of exile or another, whether through war, invasion, climate crisis, hunger, political oppression, etc. It is important for all of us to understand better what this means. Of course, exiled people today will have different circumstances in some ways than people described in this book. But there will be similarities as well. I'll be thinking about this book for a long time. I highly recommend it.

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky (personal copy)

This book opens with Price Myshkin on his way home to Russia from a hospital in Switzerland. On the train he meets Rogozhin who will remain an important figure in his life. Upon arrival, Myshkin goes to meet a woman who may be a distant relative--and his only living relative. He becomes attached to the family (her, her husband, her three daughters) and their circle. Myshkin is known as an idiot because he doesn't play the kinds of games that are expected in this kind of society. He also suffers from epilepsy. He's very open and honest with his thoughts and feelings, which is unusual. He is popular, but also set apart and seen as odd. He's been described as a Christ-like figure. The story follows Myshkin as he tried to acclimate to Russian life after being away. There is much running through this book as we follow Myshkin and those he encounters--philosophy, religion, class structures and expectations, gender roles, and more. I loved this book. Having read a couple of Dostoevsky's novels on Serial Reader before this one, I can say that this is an author I love and I will definitely be reading more of his work.

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey (personal copy)

I picked this book up at a charity shop in December and decided to bring it with me when we were away. The story begins in Alaska in 1920, where Jack and Mabel have settled to try and make a go of farming there. They'd come from Pennsylvania where they made an unlikely pair--she the daughter of a professor and he a farmer. They married and had a stillborn baby which drove a wedge between them due to lack of communication about their grief. Alaska was a chance to start over, but it wasn't what they thought it would be. Hardship can drive people apart or bring them together and as they struggled at the beginning of winter, they had a momentary thaw in their relationship at the first snowfall. They built a snow child. Shortly thereafter, a girl entered their lives. Are these two experiences connected? Based on a Russian folk tale, the story goes on from there. I enjoyed this book for many reasons--the characters were well drawn, the cultural aspects were interesting, the relationships were true to life, whether the marriage between Jack and Mabel, the friendships that developed, and the parent-child relationships. I will say that the book is set in rural Alaska in the 1920s. There is hunting and lots of it. This would be true of life in rural Alaska today, but even more so a century ago. So if that's something that would be disturbing to you, this might not be a book you want to pick up.

A Danger to the Mind of Young Girls by Adam Morgan (BorrowBox book)

This is a biography of Margaret C. Anderson who was a lesbian publisher--the first to publish James Joyce's Ulysses in the US. She was arrested for this. Her trial would change literary history, but she's largely forgotten today. At the time, it was thought that reading modern literature would turn young women into "disease-ridden lesbians and prostitutes." I suppose this was a step down from the ideas of the Victorian era that too much reading and education for women would cause wombs to shrivel. 

The book opens in winter 1921 in New York City with this sentence, " On a cold afternoon in the heart of Greenwich Village, Margaret C. Anderson bumped into the man who wanted to put her in prison." From there readers are taken back to Margaret's childhood through her teenage years and into young adulthood and independence from her family of origin. The author writes about her passion for literature and art throughout her life and how this put her at odds with her family and the larger society. This book is all too relevant today as the Comstock Act and its successor are being used--again--as threats against citizens of the States. Now as then, misogyny plays a role. Margaret C. Anderson lived a fascinating life and this is an excellent book. 

Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen (personal copy)

I reviewed this book here

I think I'll end this post here at the halfway point and post the second half of my January reading tomorrow. I hope February is a great reading month for everyone.

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What's Old Is New Again

 We're home. The friend whose house we were staying at came back the other day and stayed at Finn's mother's house. We spent the day with him as he came over to have coffee in the morning and later supper with us. In between we took Finn to Inver Beach, where he had some fun. He's a fierce one when it comes to sticks 😄 We didn't bring balls with us, so sticks were an acceptable substitute.

Not to worry--he had balls back at the house.

You can see that it was a grey day--the wind was sharp. I was glad I brought a cowl so my ears were very well protected.

He could tell something was up after supper as I started packing and he was subdued and looking at me with his big brown eyes. I explained that his mom was coming home and he'd be so happy to see her. Of course he just kept watching me--poor guy understands what suitcases and bags mean.

Yesterday we left early enough to stop at the grocery store, haul our stuff in, and have coffee here while they were on their way to the airport. Since we're not that far from the airport and it's a two hour trip one way from Finn's home, it made sense to do it that way. I was sad when I said good-bye to Finn and he was too, but I knew he'd be very happy shortly thereafter when he saw his mother after a month apart. I'm told that's exactly what happened--he was very quiet and somber until they were at the airport and then the joy arrived. He was apparently shattered last night.

As I was putting the groceries away, I discovered that the food in our very small freezer compartment in our under-the-counter fridge was no longer frozen. Thankfully there wasn't much in it--probably around €10 worth--but still, I don't like to waste food. There was nothing else to do but throw it out though. I'm not sure what happened--the food was cold and the fridge seemed to work fine. I'd bought a few things to put into the freezer so I did that and decided to see what would happen. I figured that since it was still keeping things cold it'd be safe and if I had to, I could cook everything and keep it in the fridge to eat over the next several days. Thankfully that won't be necessary since this morning everything is frozen solid. 

I got the rest of my stuff put away this morning and am getting my head into normal life mode again. I'm having a laugh or two at myself because we were gone long enough for me to do many things on autopilot at our friend's house. We've spent just less than half of our time there in the last 4 months. Now that we're home, I sometimes find myself having to stop and remember how I do things here, where things are, and that kind of thing. Time to put away the new autopilot that became normal and embrace the old autopilot which seems new again. And the beat goes on...

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Not Just Another Thriller: Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen

 Last month I was in Letterkenny with a friend. I was in a charity shop scanning the shelves when I spotted Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen. 

This is an author Bill loves so I grabbed the book. I wasn't sure if he'd read it before, but the title didn't seem like one I'd seen before and besides, for 20 cents it didn't matter anyway. He hadn't read it and brought it with him when we came to care for our furry friend. Soon after he started it, he commented that this book isn't like what he's come to expect from her. He said more than once how good the book was and that he was sure I'd like it. So when he was done, I picked it up and started reading. I'll be honest, it didn't grab me at first. In fact, I set it aside to read a biography, which i finished yesterday. This morning, I was sitting here with a sleeping dog on my lap and this book was within reach. I picked it up again and read on. I was gripped. Later on I was glad that I had a quick supper planned because I was going to finish the book before I did anything else. And I did. It's an excellent book and I think the publisher did the book and the author a disservice in the way they packaged this book. They make it look like the usual thriller sort of book. There's nothing wrong with that--plenty of people love thrillers and that's what Gerritsen in known for, I suppose. It's certainly what Bill expected to find when he started the book, both because of the cover, the description on the back, and his knowledge of the author's work. There is a thriller aspect to the story, but it's so much more and, for me at least, that was the least interesting. 

This book has a dual timeline. The book starts with the main character of one of them, Julia, in Rome. She's a violinist in a quartet and is soon returning home to her husband and three-year-old daughter in the Boston area. She's looking for a souvenir for herself and she finds it in a dusty antique shop--a musical score for an intense piece of music she's never heard before. She buys it for €100 and brings it home. After a week or two, she gets it out and as she's on the patio with her daughter and the elderly cat, starts to play it. She's so intent on the music that she's unaware of the violent occurrence taking place. The cat is dead. A while later while she's playing again, another violent incident occurs. What is going on? Is there something wrong with the child? I confess that at this point, I wasn't having high hopes for the book, but then things moved to Italy in 1939, where the story shifted to Lorenzo, a talented violinist, and his Jewish family.  I was engrossed in this from the start and when it was time to switch back to Julia, I was annoyed. This changed though and I was soon immersed in both storylines which revolve around this piece of music. It was the historical storyline that gave me goosebumps, hit me emotionally, and was far more powerful--and all too familiar. 

I've read just a couple of Tess Gerritsen's books. One was fine and enjoyable. Then there was this one, which was at a whole other level. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time. 

Gerritsen herself seems to have many talents. She trained as a surgeon and her medical training is evident in parts of this book. She's also a pianist and composer who composed a piece of music called Incendio, the name of the composition at the center of this book. Here's a performance of the piece:

I'll close by saying that Bill was right--I did love this book--and I'm not really a thriller reader. I can highly recommend this one, though.

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Spirals and Balls

 Greetings from our temporary home! We're dog sitting again, so have been playing lots of ball--our furry friend prefers the ball to be kicked, but will accept throwing on occasion. It also has to be the right ball, so he chooses among the many he has available to him. As for the humans, we just try not to step on them and trip over them as they lie around underfoot. When I was given a crate of his supplies, I was told in a low voice (to avoid him hearing), that Snowflake the bunny, the dog's one plushie toy, was in need of help. Upon examination, I discovered that poor Snowflake was suffering from a severe laceration of the leg and was leaking stuffing. Since this is clearly the leg that gets pulled on the most during games of tug o' war, based on the fact that it's about three times longer than the other leg, it was clear that emergency surgery was indicated. I got out my needles and threads and got to work. Once the surgery was done, it seemed a bath was in order, so into the washing machine she went. The dog was busy elsewhere during this time, so didn't know any of this was going on, which is just as well. 

I've had a little time these past couple of nights to play with some yarn and I finished a kumihimo braid. I made it to go specifically with a pendant that I acquired by deconstructing a necklace I got at a charity shop several years ago. 

photo by Bill Burke

To make the braid, I used 6 strands of a nylon ribbon yarn that a friend gave me a while back, and 2 strands of a chunky boucle taken from a scrap ball. The cabochon in the top right of the pendant is a pale purple--not so light as to be lavender, though. Rather than leave the ends hanging plain, I sewed them in a small spiral, leaving the fringe. For some reason, I've been quite smitten with these braids sewn into spirals and am always thinking of new colour combinations and embellishments to go with them. Ah well, I have plenty of yarn scraps to play with--at home at least--and it keeps me out of trouble. It's very meditative. Making the braids is mindless so I can do it even if I'm tired--no counting or anything. Once the yarn or thread is set up on the disk, I don't need any other tools, either, so it's a good thing to take with me when I want to have a project just in case I find myself with time on my hands. It was difficult to decide which stitching projects to bring with me when I was packing (same with books, although the e-reader helps there), but I did make sure to cut the yarns for a couple more braids in case I finished this one. I started the next one last night. I find that this is a good way to use certain novelty yarns that I've been gifted, particularly ribbon yarns. I wouldn't like them crocheted or knitted, but they work well for kumihimo. Many of these yarns were very popular at one time and people were making scarf after scarf. Now they've gone out of style and people don't want the yarn anymore. They're fun yarns with gorgeous colours and textures, but the scarves made with them just aren't my thing. I love using the yarn this way though and I'm glad they can be used.

Well, I think Himself wants to go outside, so I'm off for a stroll around the grounds in the dark. Hope you're having a pleasant day, whatever you're doing!

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