April 2014.

I arrived with our seven kitties to start our new life in Denmark with my husband Peter, who had already been living there since September 2013.  It was a big step to take as we had only just returned to the UK in June 2013 from Saudi Arabia and had spent time doing up our home in Devon.  Here is our hired van (with the kitties) crossing the Storebælt toll bridge connecting Funen with Sealand (£25 one way, ouch!!!).

Isis (Mum), Horus, Fluff, Pepper, Hobbs (Bobs), Sid and Buttons (Toots), all flew to Denmark using their Pet Passports.  Due to “regulations” they had to fly on two separate flights – the boys on BA with Peter and the girls on SAS with me.  At least they all travelled on the same day and all the various people involved in this were wonderful.  Although it was distressing, I need not have worried as all seven cats arrived safe and well and settled into the new house at once, asking to go out the very next day.

When I arrived, I found that Peter had already done a lot of work on the house and garden, but there was still a lot to be done.  Peter had set up a lovely shower room, had got the central heating working, put a new floor in our master bedroom, taken out some silly partitions, put up the walls of our new bathroom, taken out the old bath and trimmed our apple trees and our encroaching forest.  Plus a few other DIY projects, so he had clearly been busy for the few months since we bought the place.

Still a lot of work to do.

There was still lots of work to be done, though, and we’re slowly getting through the list of jobs.  Our main problem is finding a builder, though.  It seems that the system in Denmark is very much like it was in the UK 60 years ago, with each trade doing only one thing – like the old Flanders and Swann music hall song “The Gasman Cometh”.

‘Twas on a Monday morning the gas man came to call.

The gas tap wouldn’t turn – I wasn’t getting gas at all.

He tore out all the skirting boards to try and find the main

And I had to call a carpenter to put them back again.

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.

 

‘Twas on a Tuesday morning the carpenter came round.

He hammered and he chiselled and he said:

“Look what I’ve found: your joists are full of dry rot

But I’ll put them all to rights”.

Then he nailed right through a cable and out went all the lights!

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.

 

‘Twas on a Wednesday morning the electrician came.

He called me Mr. Sanderson, which isn’t quite my name.

He couldn’t reach the fuse box without standing on the bin

And his foot went through a window so I called the glazier in.

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.

 

‘Twas on a Thursday morning the glazier came round

With his blow torch and his putty and his merry glazier’s song.

He put another pane in – it took no time at all

But I had to get a painter in to come and paint the wall.

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.

 

‘Twas on a Friday morning the painter made a start.

With undercoats and overcoats he painted every part:

Every nook and every cranny – but I found when he was gone

He’d painted over the gas tap and I couldn’t turn it on!

Oh, it all makes work for the working man to do.

 

On Saturday and Sunday they do no work at all;

So ’twas on a Monday morning that the gasman came to call…

The wee loo before and after.

We just can’t find a builder who can do the full job like we did in the UK: it seems that general builders don’t exist here and each trade will only do one thing, so they come for 30 minutes, do their job and disappear – we then have to ask nicely to get the next trade to come, so that a three week job is taking forever to complete!

We took a quick trip to the coast last week, the sunny days are getting few and far between so we thought we would make the most of the ones we get. It was chilly but clear and bright, it was lovely to get away from the building work at home.

Meet my friends Julia and Ethel.

Julia is a brilliant seamstress, look what she has run up for Halloween.

We both bought this same fabric a couple of years ago when I lived in Saudi Arabia, mine is still sitting in my to do drawer along with the pattern, Julia still lives in Saudi and she made this dress for a Halloween Ball she attended, I think this is the most beautiful and stylish Halloween costume I have ever seen!

While on the Halloween subject, my friend Ethel, who also lives in Saudi Arabia, pieced and quilted this fantastic Halloween quilt for her grand-daughter Izzy. Ethel and I learned to quilt together in 2010 and have been quilting buddies ever since.

Ethel is an amazing stitcher and a freelance longarm quilter, she quilts many quilts for the ladies of Saudi Arabia, in between quilting everybody’s quilts she even has time to do some for herself, aren’t they great!

This week, I’m focusing on Horus, our alpha male cat. Yes, it is Horus and not Horace. Why Horus? Well, our first cat was called Isis (see my earlier post) and this was the biggest kitten of her litter, even when he was only a few days old.

In Egyptian mythology, Horus is commonly described as the son of Isis and Osiris, and is often shown as a bull or falcon, so his name is very appropriate for us. Horus was born to the goddess Isis after she retrieved almost all of the dismembered body parts of her murdered husband (and brother) Osiris. Once Isis knew she was pregnant with Horus, she fled to the Nile Delta marshlands to hide from her brother Seth who had murdered Osiris and who she knew would want to kill her son, too.  There, Isis bore a divine son, Horus, who became a great and important Egyptian diety. So much for the Egyptian connection!

Our Horus is a big lad, weighing in at around 8Kg of pure muscle and he likes to think that he’s the boss.  Except that he always gives way to Isis who is the real boss of the gang! Horus is the one who catches our moles (5 at the current count) but he does not demean himself by catching mice and birds – he leaves them to the others.

Horus’s main priority is to catch a nap as often as he can, as you can see from the photos.

Six more paper pieced blocks done!   I find green a difficult colour to work with, but my husband challenged me to try making a green quilt that I liked and so far, I am loving these blocks.  I’ve already got one plan for how I’m going to set them in the quilt, but that could all change later once I have completed all the blocks.

As the sun was shining, and the sky was blue, I thought it would be a good time to take a few photos of the boys quilt I am working on at the moment.  As soon as I hung the quilt top on the line the wind got up, so it was a challenge to get any photos as the wind whipped the quilt around, fraying the edges a little.  Luckily, I always add an extra half inch to the border so I can easily trim it off and I quickly snapped these for you to see. Once I quilt it, I will embroider little extras to the applique pictures.

One day, a small Calico (Tortoishell) cat turned up on our doorstep in Saudi Arabia as a wild, feisty, underfed feral cat.  We tried to persuade her to go away but she just knew that her new home would be with us and she kept coming back.  She wouldn’t let us catch her for a long time, though, and when we managed to grab her and get her to the vet, we found that she was already pregnant.

The vet said that feral cats never settle down or become domesticated and that we should put her down – how wrong could they be as Isis quickly became such a lovely, placid cat!  We decided that she should have her litter and we would keep one or two of the kittens, and give the rest to good homes.  Isis set up a few nests all around our house and settled down really well.  She had 4 kittens and was a super mother, nursing them all and moving them between her nests from time to time.  Each kitten was very different and we suspect that there were 4 different fathers as Calicos/Torties are well known to be promiscuous.  To cut a long story short, at the end of the day (predictably, I suppose), we couldn’t bear to part with any of the kittens so the whole family is still with us, having moved from Saudi Arabia to England and then to Denmark – Jet Set cats indeed!

Why Isis?  Well, we had to think of a name quickly and our new cat had such gorgeous green eyes that the ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis instantly came to mind: we thought that green eyes were typical of Egyptian deities, though actually, Goddess Isis is not noted for green eyes.  Historically, Isis is one of the earliest and most important goddesses in ancient Egypt. She was regarded as the feminine counterpart to Osiris, his sister, and later, his wife.  She was revered by the ancient Egyptian people as the great mother goddess and she represents the maternal spirit in its most intimate form – exactly correct for our Isis.  Isis is often seen suckling her young son Horus and is also depicted on the foot of coffins with her long wings spread to protect the deceased.  Isis was a great enchantress, the goddess of magic.  Isis taught mankind the secrets of medicine and was the embalmer and guardian of Osiris.  End of history lesson!

Now, our Isis is still boss of the gang and is still very much at home.  She only has to look at one of the other cats snoozing in front of the fire and they immediately give up their cozy place to mum.  Isis has a big bond with Horus and they’re often seen cuddled together.  She certainly changed our lives as we were adamant that we would never have a pet before we left Saudi Arabia as it would be too much of a tie!

Well, I thought it was a good idea, but it turned into a minor weekend disaster.

With the winter coming on, and the steady drizzle, my washing line doesn’t dry clothes any more, so I persuaded Peter to buy a tumble drier on Friday.   No problem, we installed it simply enough in the evening but on the first try it blew all the fuses in the house!  We managed to get two sockets working but had no lights and no hot water (the boiler went down, too, and, of course it was dark by then).    We had lots of spare fuses, but Murphy’s law kicked in and we didn’t have the right size for the ones that blew.  Lots of extension cables, candles and torches, the camping gas burner and the log fire kept us going overnight, but it was even more camping than usual.

We managed to get the correct size fuses on Saturday and eventually we got everything going except the boiler, so we still have no hot water.  Peter loves that as the shower is out of action!

When the electrician saw our system a few months ago, he insisted that we re-wire the whole house and it looks as if he was quite right!!!

Here are a few photos of the slow progress with the house, so far………

Fluff is our ginger and white cat – unusual as she’s a female.  Fluff knows that she’s pretty, and is very like a 1930’s “Flapper” or a debutante coming out at the ball!  She has an amazing fluffy tail and hates to go out in the cold and wind in case she messes up her fur.  Very prim and proper is our Miss Fluff.

Autumn is the season for gathering fungi, and we have a lot around in our woods and fields.  Peter trained as a mycologist and happily cooks and eats wild fungi as he knows what to eat and what not to eat.  Still, I don’t trust eating them, but Peter says the best ones are delicious.  CAUTION – never eat a wild mushroom unless you are sure it is not poisonous: some can kill.

Here are a few photos of some of the fungi we’ve had this autumn – most of these are either poisonous or inedible, but they are pretty.

This week, we had a nice crop of the Shaggy Inkcap (Coprinus comatus), very striking.

The giant puffballs (Calvatia gigantea) that came up in August have matured and they now produce their spores in large clouds (7 trillion from one fruiting body).  A little known fact is that if every spore from just ONE giant puffball germinated and produced one new fruiting body, the puffball mass would be 800 times that of the earth.  Lucky for us that most spores fail to germinate!

We also have lots of the the common Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) growing mycorrhizally with our birch tree.  No sign of any Gnomes or Fairies appearing, though!

On our bike rides around the lanes, we spotted loads of small field mushrooms (Agaricus campestris), probably growing on the straw and manure they spread in the fields a few weeks ago, so it really is good for fungus forays at the moment.

Unfortunately, I’ve just found out the Chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius) are very rare here in Denmark and we certainly haven’t found any in our wood.  My Mum collects them by the bucketload from her wood near Inverness – I think I would eat them as they are so distinctive! She spends a great deal of time cleaning them, as you can see.  Her mushroom omelettes are great, too!.

I wanted to use up some of my scrap stash and I really like Sarah Fielke’s “Coming up Roses” pattern from her Material Obsession Two book so decided to have a go.  It’s a huge king size quilt and I’ll quilt it just as soon as I get my long arm up and running.

I needed a laundry apron for myself so decided to make one for my Mom too (hers has the sunflowers on it ).  I used a free pattern from Youcanmakethis.com, its called “Washday Apron” – it was very easy to make and quick too.

Peter and I spent all day Friday at Den Gamle By museum in Aarhus, which is a superb outdoor museum that was started in 1914.  Houses from all over Denmark were collected and moved to Aarhus, and set up to represent a small market town in various periods from 1500s onwards.  We wanted to get some ideas for our house (built in 1750) to bring it back to the correct period look.  We especially looked at the ceilings as we have just stripped back all the many years of horrendous additions to our house.  Now we’re back to the old ceiling beams and boards, so we have to decide where to go from here!

Eilschou Almshouses, Hans Christian Andersen visited here as a child.  I love the wooden sink – I would not break so many dishes in that one.

We went to the bakers and bought some giant meringues, then some lavender soap and enamelware at the ironmongers in Sondergade.  It was all so beautifully wrapped, what a pity all this customer care has gone out of the window – you can’t even get a plastic bag in the store to put all your shopping in these days!

Back to the real reason for visiting, ceilings.  My favourite is the blue and white but all are suitable for different parts of the house.

I love the log burners, unfortunately they are not practical for modern use.  Look at the fabulous paint work on the living room walls, all hand painted on plaster (a bit over the top for our house, I’m afraid).  For the outside colour scheme, we liked the pale yellow, natural beams and white windows for the outside of the house.  Our house is a much darker yellow, and has dark brown windows, so when it comes to repainting the outside, we have a good idea what we want.

A few photos from around the museum:  This museum its one of my favourite places to visit as I see something different every time I come.

This lighthouse is at the end of “Denmark’s nose”.

Two quilt tops finished – a baby blue sail boat (a free pattern from AllPeoplequilt.com) and a paper pieced number from a pattern I got a couple of years ago and never got round to making.  I really enjoyed sewing the PP blocks as I like working with lots of colour: I used up a lot of my batik scrap pile to make this one!

Also, I made six more 4.5″ paper pieced block from Quilting on the Square. I’m half way there and very soon I’ll have to decide how I am going to put the blocks together to make a quilt.

Sid, our white cat, went missing for 4 days recently.  It was most unlike him as he always comes home for supper regular as clockwork.  We were very worried about him but he came back early one morning, as dry as a bone, very clean and fit, just very hungry. We have no idea where he went but he was clearly not living rough!  Maybe he found someone else to give him supper (he’s called Sid after “six dinner Sid” because he was a stray in Saudi Arabia, visiting many houses to get fed, before he decided to stay with us) and he forgot to come home.  Now he stays out late most nights, coming home around midnight, so he’s confined to barracks for the rest of this week until he gets back to normal. Perhaps it’s that time of year, but I thought that was in the Spring?

I’ve been doing “Quilting on the Square” free BOM, and I’ve completed the first 4 months.

Here is a link to their site. http://www.quiltingonthesquare.com.

These are 4″ finished Paper Pieced blocks, with a great mix, some a tad more challenging than others (which are pretty easy), all do-able! When completed, there will be about 72 blocks – more than enough for a good sized quilt. I started doing them to practice my paper piecing but have become hooked.  If you sign up for their newsletter you will get six blocks sent into your email once a month, the instructions are super easy to follow and with only six to do at once they are not overwhelming at all.

I chose this colour scheme because Peter challenged me to do a green quilt, I picked up most of this fabric in Saudi Arabia when I lived there, a bundle of fat quarters and added some more brown, black and grey.

Hobbs was not happy about me taking photos, he really gets grumpy when a camera comes out! I thought at first he did not like the flash, but I rarely use the flash now and he still gets grumpy but he’s so nosey that he still wants to know whats going on.

Lucky for me that the tractor (see my last post) was a simple fix (a drive belt had slipped off in the wet), but Peter broke the mower bed and that turbed out to be more of a problem as an important casting had broken and the agricultural mechanics need to order another one and do a temporary repair until it arrives all the way from the USA.

Over the past couple of week ends we’ve been working at clearing up our bit of woodland, making paths and cutting down dead trees.  Some of the fallen and half fallen trees were too big for us to handle so we got in a local tree surgeon to take them down and cut them into logs for our wood burner.  Now all we have to do is collect the logs and split them (a job for Peter with an axe, wedges and a sledgehammer over the next few weeks).  The wood certainly looks in better heart now and hopefully we’ll have a nice canopy with a healthy understorey.  We can now see that we have a really nice mixture of many different trees including oak, ash, elm, birch, beech, lime, sycamore, spruce, Scots pine, hazel, apple, willow and larch.  You name it, we seem to have it!  The kitties all seem to like what we’ve done and it makes our daily woodland walks much nicer.

Unfortunately, I used the lawnmower to pick up the logs and broke it, OOPS, Peter is away so I have had to just leave it where it was. I am in trouble when Peter gets back!!!

The weather here has been a bit wet and windy recently, so the kitties are staying indoors a lot more, not even venturing to the barn.  Fluff and Hobbs rarely even speak to each other, let along snuggle up together, so I had to have a photo.  Toots is the only kitty who will go out in the rain, but even she hid under our garden table during the heaviest rain. Here she is drying off between showers.

Julia (a wonderful crafter who can turn her hand to any craft and do it well) sent me a couple of photos of these small crochet baskets she made.  I think they’re wonderful and I’m going to make up a couple for myself.  Here is a link to the blog with a free tutorial.

http://crochetincolor.blogspot.com/2012/02/chunky-crocheted-basket-pattern.htm

Julia also sent me a photos of an amazing Wingspan scarf she has just finished, the pattern is,

Wingspan by maylin Tri’Coterie Designs from Wingspan and Beyond

Lastly, I have slowly been knitting up a scarf using this giant ball of wool that has lots of different wools joined together to make up the chunky knit.  It’s from ONION Knit, http://www.onion.dk.