Anknel and Burblets

dreams come out my ears and go round my head and i read them.

  • To the islands

    porcelain flower by ande – astrid’s second grandma A few people have asked me why we came here, as in back to London. A few reasons really. One of the main reasons, in fact the very most main reason that was the one that overrode all the doubts that arose in the weeks before we…

  • So, what did you do today Charlotte?

    Forgotten Tales from Hedgehog Fibres – I love this Well, I dropped Astrid off at Lorraine’s, went for coffee and knitted a couple of inches of Astrid’s wrist warmers. Then I came home, sent an email or two, during the course of which I wrote a list of things I wanted to do and things…

  • The Alchemists

    Such magic has been around me this week. Knitting time. Time to meditate. Winding time. Time for calm. Time for patience. A time to begin, slowly slowly, to transform what resides in the mind. There is simply no arguing with, nor hurrying along, tangled silk. A green, forest path, an enchanted forest, an emerald forest,…

  • Astrid’s first (proper) word

    Yesterday Astrid said her first word while they were all out at the zoo. She said Tiger. And she said it again last night just before seven when daddy asked if she said Tiger that day. Astrid said Tiger! And it was a real, proper, audible word! Mornings before daddy goes to work and before…

  • immer hin

    There’s a phrase in german, immer hin, which means something along the lines of always going there, always getting there, always moving towards it. Immer hin. Yeah. Things might take a while but you’ll get there in the end. A little conversation about rhubarb cake reminded me of it recently. I like immer hin you…

  • just in case anybody wants to know

    We left all our pots and pans behind in the assumption we’d magically be able to afford a set of Le Creuset when we got here. Instead we’ve been living with a £5 set of crap from IKEA, which keeps food colder than the plates do. Anyway, they must be discontinuing the colourway, but the…

  • us and the bump we go walking

    Lovely Shops has been updated including Yvestown + Shinzi Katoh, an amazing exhibition of creatures, the new Cath Kidston site and some rather delicious body creams at Beauty Expert. Did I mention I now have a terrible cold? This is on top of losing my voice a few weeks ago, not to mention the nocturnal…

  • A week of feeling (home)sick

    In the spirit of Yvonne’s publication of her email to me on the matter of her having a shit week, here’s the email I bashed out during a precious moment of Astrid-sleep. I’d been planning a week of feeling (home)sick post – and, just like Yvonne’s, my email was destined to become a (highly unedited…

  • Lovely news

    It’ll be a while before it’s got everything in it that I want, but I’ve made a start on www.lovelyshops.com – a little project that’s been bubbling under for some time, waiting for me to finish other bits of work. Lovely Shops will be a pure shopping guide of all my favourite, mostly online, shops…

  • astrid’s birth story

    I read a birth story about a month ago that scared the living daylights out of me, hence the purchasing of the mimulus. Thoughts of an epidural this time were becoming more of a reality. Frightened of having a baby in the English healthcare system, of not having a midwife I knew. We went home…

  • And she sewed

    Hooray. I finished sewing Astrid’s dress. It’d been loitering around on my shelf for weeks waiting to be hemmed and elastic’d. The fabric is a wool silk cotton blend from Linnet which I really had to stop myself from over-ordering. Still, I don’t regret it. I have enough fabric from last year’s buying rampage to…

  • My amazing medicine cabinet

    Feeling slightly nervous suddenly quite terrified about the approaching birthing process I’ve been thinking I must buy another bottle of Mimulus. The last time I needed it was during the time before Astrid was born. In fact I probably finished the entire bottle, which is a) why I sailed through her birth and b) why…