Christmas + Boxing Day

On this side of the pond, the day after Christmas is Boxing Day. I've always seen this marked on calendars, but had not the slightest clue as to what it was. Now that I'm in the land of its origin, I decided it was time to do some research. It turns out Boxing Day is called so because charitable organizations went around asking for donations . . . one website sites that you offer gifts from your Christmas box. However, it seems it's actually a celebrated holiday, maybe kind of an extension of Christmas? Because Christmas was on a Saturday this year, Boxing Day is today! Apparently it's a good day for shopping, kind of like Black Friday, and there's a full day of watching Rugby and "football." I think I'll make chicken soup. 
(For more insight check out this site.)

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas; we enjoyed a nice evening with friends and I learned a great deal about the Dutch and Icelandic Christmas stories (it is fascinating, in Iceland there are 13 Yule Lads that are quite mischievous and the Dutch story is that Santa Claus arrives on December 5th from Spain by a great big ship filled with gifts, he then mounts a white horse and sets out to deliver presents!). 

happy holidays!

Thanks so much for sending us treats, we miss you!
p.s. Can you find our resident turkey amidst the presents?

It's been a while since my last post, it feels like a lot has happened since then. . . I sent a bunch of my applications in so I took some days off to do some leisurely reading. I'm reading Frederick Seidel's book, Going Fast and I'm nearly finished reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and what next? I'm thinking either John Berryman's biography or Twilight of the Mammoths. I love choosing a new book! I did a bit of Christmas shopping for everyone back home this week too, which was quite fun. I'm finding some cool stuff. And Ray is now off from school!


It snowed again the other night, it was just enough to coat everything in lovely white. Yesterday morning I went out and the snow was unsullied. One of my favorite things is finding animal tracks in freshly fallen snow. I found little paw prints near our front door, likely the cat I've been seeing in our backyard and a winding trail of bird feet prints. I think my other favorite thing is how the snow sits on the wiry branches of trees and on the roof tops, of course. 

back in the land of the living.

After living like Zombies for a few days, we've recovered from the cold and are back as real people! However downtime wasn't lost on me, I took to the Christmas movies and have now watched The Muppet Christmas Carol, Home Alone (1 and 2) and Elf. Then I finished reading David Sedaris's book, Holidays on Ice, which was very very funny. He reads a few of the stories on various "This American Life" shows and it's quite a treat to hear him read!  

I just love when Scrooge makes the change. Good song, too.

curious.

A very neat English pine cone. 

I think this pine cone is so neat looking. One thing I've found while living here is there are plenty of similarities, but some things are tweaked just enough to be unusual, this pine cone being one of them. There are beautiful black and white feathered birds flying about that are unlike any city bird I've seen in the States; along with that, their unfamiliar songs sound lovely.

snow!

Perhaps the last photo in this series. . .
The snow is quite lovely here, I love watching it fall and the way it coats the trees.
My first snowy winter. 

Chroma.

Ray's silhouette in the lift, the record player on the floor.

Saturday evening Ray performed in a concert piece, Chroma, by Rebecca Saunders. The concert was held in the Town Hall, which is a beautiful building. The musicians were placed at various spots in the hall, some of them moved around carrying their instruments to play in different designated spots throughout the piece. The audience members were encouraged to walk around the space and experience the music at different spots in the hall. With the antique lighting, the elaborate organ, the instrumentalists perched in high in architectural coves, pockets of light, or found at the turn of a corner, in a stairwell, and with the array of music boxes on the stage, the folksy record playng in the lift, it felt a bit like living in one of Joseph Cornell's pieces. I really enjoyed it. Ray took a turn playing the organ and was also spotted in the lift (the elevator) playing a record of what sounded like an old Norwegian folk song. 

Thanksgiving and the French Market We Found.

We had a pretty successful Thanksgiving across the pond. We roasted a whole chicken! (Marking the first time I've ever cleaned and roasted a whole bird before, well, Mom and I did have a practice run over the summer. . . ) Tim also chipped in and made mashed sweet potatoes and creamed peas.

I've been thinking a bit about Christmas gifts now, and I'm wishing I could send food home! There's been a lovely open-air French market in town with stands selling all sorts of delicious food! Ray and I both had a lamb sausage and baguette sandwich, and passing the baker's stand of baguettes and fruits tarts, croissants, I picked a piece of decadently rich chocolate pie. There was a stand selling French cheeses, a stand with a variety of sausages; duck, stag, bull, goat, pepper, paprika, red wine, a stand selling dried fruit, one with the most beautiful garlic bulbs, one selling sweet treats: Turkish Delight, fudge and toffee, and of course one with French cookies where I had a fantastic madeleine and coconut macaroon.

our first snow!

A photo of a "gingerbread house" I made a few years ago,
designed mostly in an effort to have a truly delicious  gingerbread house, not just a decorative piece.
If I recall, it worked. 

We woke this morning to a thin layer of snow on the ground. . . Is it time to hang the Christmas stockings and decorations? 

hcmf + happy thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been a busy week for us in Huddersfield as the contemporary music festival is in full swing. We've heard some great pieces performed by some fantastic musicians and it's been wonderful to meet new people and spend time with Ray's friends, everyone's been lovely. 
The week started off well on Monday when Ray's piano piece; Diagrams of Drawings Not Meant to Correspond, was given a stunning performance by Kate Ledger, an amazing pianist and friend who also attended the University but has since graduated. Also in the concert was a piano piece by Ben Isaacs and one by Timothy McCormack. The pieces were united in their interest in the physicality of music and performance. It was a great concert and well attended. . . hooray!
Today we're not going to any concerts, but are taking the day to do some work and to have a Thanksgiving feast. We don't have a turkey, but we do have a whole chicken to roast with some carrots and potatoes. This morning I started dough for a loaf of rosemary wheat bread, and I baked a pumpkin spice bread with cream cheese frosting for dessert. I think we'll also have a spinach and pear salad.
Oh, and this morning we had snow flurries!?

the pub life.

It's been a nice week. The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival has begun and Ray and I are attending some crazycool concerts starting this evening with a performance of John Cage's music by pianist Phillip Thomas. He'll be playing in an art gallery exhibiting some of Cage's drawings, which I've never seen and am quite looking forward to. 

On Thursday I went along with Ray to a lecture by an American composer, Evan Johnson, who's in town for the festival. It was a great lecture, well delivered and I was intrigued by the sounds of his music as well as the perspective he takes towards work and notating scores. There are many overlaps between music composition and writing, perhaps all of the arts, really, and it's nice expanding horizons like this. 

Afterwards, we walked over to the Rat and Ratchet, a pub nearby. My first English pub experience! I had a half pint of pale gold, an English brew. The atmosphere is somewhat like a hotel lobby, or a den-ish lounge, but a cozy one with low ceilings, stone (or were they wooden) floors, ornamented red carpet in some areas, lots of wooden pillars, wrought iron banisters along raised and sectioned seating areas, small upholstered chairs and little round tables, curtains, framed posters and a pinball machine in the corner of the place. Plus they have what are called beer gardens, which is essentially a patio, but even someone's backyard patio is referred to as a beer garden, unusual isn't it? I will get some pictures next time, in fact, I may make it a project to take photos of pub signs in town. (Starting with the Olde Hatte from a week or so ago.)

oyster shells and my two feet.


(an old photo from Yscloskey.) 

grapefruit.

a photo of uncle jr.'s grapefruit tree from a year or so ago.
makes me think of home.

(will write more soon!)

crisp day

a loaf of rosemary wheat bread. 

This is the second loaf of bread I've made recently, and it is delicious. I learned the hard way that convection ovens take less time to cook than what I'm used to. . . the last one was a bit charred. . . but still edible!

It's been a nice weekend across the pond. Besides our usual work, we went out on Saturday to do a bit of shopping, and we really lucked out with a beautifully crisp day. After all of the rain last week, most of the leaves have dropped from the trees, and coat the sidewalks yellow and orangey red.  

baking.

I think this cold, wet weather has me inside wanting to bake. . . 

white chocolate raspberry scones. 

And I baked a whole wheat bread. 

(Here's one with frosting and a glass of milk, ers!)

the weekend.

Guy Fawkes Day:
November fifth is Guy Fawkes Day here in England. Guy Fawkes was in charge of protecting the explosives that were to be used in the Gunpowder Plot set out by Robert Catesby, in his plan to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch. However, authorities were tipped off that there might be something suspicious in Westminster Palace, so on November fifth 1605, they searched and found Guy Fawkes guarding the explosives in a storage room beneath the House of Lords. He was then questioned and tortured the following days and finally gave the details about the plot. Before his scheduled execution on January 31, he jumped from the platform where he was to be hanged, breaking his neck, and avoiding the drawing and quartering that was to come.  So in remembrance of him, people shoot off fireworks and have bonfires. (I think it might help to get an insider's take on this one. . .) 


Saturday evening we took a walk to the Victorian Christmas Fair in town! which looked promising, except that vendors were packing up early. There were stands with knitted items, spices, cheese, Harry Potter treasures, stones and gems, nuts and dried fruit, Turkish Delight, cookies and breads, jewelry, hot chocolate and cider, AND the vendors were dressed in Victorian attire. Quite lovely, really. We picked up a very tasty cupcake along the way. 


Fantasy Football took off on Sunday evening, and so far my team is looking pretty good, Ray is also winning. Plus, I saw the Saints won, LSU won, and the Hornets won. Nicely done!


Yesterday I decided we needed a treat, so I baked cinnamon rolls. And they are delicious.

Ray gives them a thumbs up. 

Here is a picture I've been meaning to post, of the new scarf I found at a vintage clothing store in the arcade.

pizza: trial one.

Two delicious pizzas.

(When I look at this one I keep thinking, "I'm a little teapot. . ." you know the song.)

Last night we made homemade pizza with whole-wheat pizza dough. To dress the pizzas, we used a basil pesto I made from scratch, spinach, mozzarella cheese, mushrooms cooked with a bit of garlic and shallots on one, and bacon on the other.  

Thanks to Ray for taking the lovely photos. 

november!

Yay, it's November! That means it's Dad's birthday and Ray and I's anniversary month; five years! (We can't remember the exact day, so we have the whole month.) 
Other highlights for the month include the showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part I in the theaters, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, a visit from Tim, and Thanksgiving! 
It's been a busy last few days and I haven't blogged in while; as Ray says, "Two whole days and nary a blog post." So here are some pictures from recent adventures. 

On a dreary Sunday, we set out with our umbrellas for a walk in the town. . . 

(Foggy Halloween morning.)

The Olde Hatte; a local pub.

Mail can be dropped off in these Royal Mailboxes. 

We aren't entirely certain what "Franked" mail is but I think it's metered mail. 

A nice tree we passed on the way home. . . 

And some little berries Ray picked for me.

(In the background, an old picture of Blaine and I in Yscloskey.)

Halloween night we walked from our house over to Kate and Iain's to watch scary movies and eat sweet treats. There were zombie gingerbread men, zombie guts cupcakes, pumpkin pie and Haribo chewies. We watched what I think was my first Zombie movie ever? called Flesh-Eating Zombies. And we watched an older film, The Haunting (1963) with Julie Harris, Claire Bloom and Richard Johnson. Both were great picks. By the end of the night we all agreed that Ray would be a very good person to have around should any Zombies creep out of the ground. It was a dandy night hanging out with some new friends.

happy fall!

I took this picture to show how much the leaves are changing here; it's the same shot that I previously posted- the view from my window. 

We've been enjoying the fall here, the weather's been quite nice this week; it's been hard to stay inside and work on applications. I've been eating pumpkin butter on toast and plan to bake a pumpkin spice bread; there's so much good fall food!

Tomorrow's Halloween! We aren't exactly prepared, but if we were to dress up, I'd like to wear Erin's hotdog costume, and Ray could be a hotdog vendor, maybe even Ignatius J. Reilly. Or else, I'd like to dress up as a Turkey. (I'm not sure what that would make Ray. . .) And maybe I can do that for Thanksgiving. 

tidbits.

Tuesday I got a heart-warming and belly-filling package from home! This means, along with all sorts of treats, reading material and delights for the house, we now have maple syrup. We've been on a quest for the stuff for a few weeks and now that we have some, I see a morning of french toast and bacon in our future. Yum!


In other notes, I won a very good game of Fantasy Football this weekend. 


And, we've been living in our house here for one month now! 

(A canal near our house and the ducks that hang out there.) 

Jellyfish Magazine

Check out the new Fall issue of Jellyfish Magazine! They published a poem of mine in this issue as well as other writings by up-and-coming poets in the States!

Jellyfish Magazine

early morning frost.

saturday.

While Ray was in Leeds for a music conference, I went out walking in downtown Huddersfield. They were hanging the Christmas lights and decorations (I think there will also be an ice skating rink on the way!) and everyone was looking very bundled on a cold and misty Saturday. 


I passed an owl rescuer who had about seven owls in cages in the Plaza. He said they are only kept in cages when brought to town, usually they are allowed to roam. I think he was selling them, or else just accepting donations to go towards his care of the debilitated owls. And I actually hadn't thought about it at the time, but now, of course, I'm thinking of Hedwig. 

(Ray and I + one pet owl?)

Along the way I stopped at Caffé Nero for a hot chocolate.

Vegetables and herbs to roast with chicken for dinner. Yum!

chocolate chip cookies; good with a cuppa!

I baked chocolate chip cookies this afternoon for the second time this week. Kind of crazy, I know, but we devoured the first batch, so I made another batch! I got the recipe from smittenkitchen.com; an excellent food blog with plenty of tasty recipes. (I used the recipe titled "our favorite chocolate chip cookies."

(Tasty Treats.)

Yesterday I went to an arcade in town; a kind of shopping plaza. In case, like me, you hear arcade and think of a game arcade, hear's a picture of the Cleveland Arcade (thanks to Wikipedia).

The arcade I visited is much smaller than this one pictured, but it was a really neat place. I found an art supplies store, a used bookstore, a vintage clothing store, and a nice cookware store on the top of which is a place where you can sit for tea and biscuits!

I have been drinking quite a bit of tea here. There's plenty of it and it's very good. A cup of tea is often called a "cuppa." 

Nice, isn't it?

One more language tidbit: a common greeting here is "Heya!" and of course, "Cheers!"

Ray and I ended the day with a visit to the Asian Market; the Dong Dong Market on Beast Market Road. Next maybe I'll find the Beast Market?

Cheers for now!

I've got a bit of catching up to do.

I thought it would be a good idea to (very briefly) review the past few weeks:


Ray and I set out to Huddersfield, UK on September 21st. We arrived here on the 22nd and stayed with friends, Ben & Jen, until we found ourselves a nice little terraced house to rent. Ray has started class and has been teaching, and I've been settling in, working on writing, exploring and researching MFA programs. I've also been trying quite a few new recipes (more on that later). 

This is the view from my room. 

One thing that has intrigued me since I've been here is the now overturned assumption that we use the English language in the same way. There is an obvious similarity in language, but it's tweaked just a bit. For example they often use "s" where we use "z;" apologise, cosy. Cookies are often called "Digestive Biscuits" because it was once thought that the sodium bicarbonate (or baking soda) aided in digestion. Pieces of fruit in jam or in orange juice are called "bits," so if looking for pulp-free orange juice, "No Bits" is the one you want. These are fun to come across, and I find the subtle differences in the use of language quite fascinating. (There will be more on this. . .)

Our indoor herbs.

We have chives, thyme and rosemary. 

I love house plants. 

my blog

Hello!

It's my first day blogging and I think it will help me keep in touch with folks back home as I spend time in England as well as be a good place to share pictures and paintings, writings and recipes and other neat stuff we find in life. Enjoy!