Bye, bye wheat!

So on top of the arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome, it would appear that I have an intolerance to wheat!
This is a PITA, because I looove bread. I mean really, really love bread.

Crusty french bread, warm from the bakery; salt and pepper baguettes; wholegrain loaves; my own home-baked efforts; croissants and (goddess help me) Danish Pastries; rye bread.....need I say more?

However, I don't think bread (or rather, wheat) loves me *sob*!

The trouble is that every time I eat bread, I get the most awful stomach cramp. My tum bloats like I'm six months pregnant and I also get awful wind and indigestion. Doesn't matter whether the bread is fresh from the oven or a couple of days old. I get the same with biscuits, scones, cake.......you name it, if it has wheat in it, I eat, I bloat!

Having done a little reading around the subject, I am now wondering whether my arthritis, as well as the bloating and 'digestive discomfort' might be alleviated by going gluten-free for a trial period. Then a Facebook friend directed me to the Doves Farm website  www.dovesfarm.co.uk and the recipes contained therein.

I have a breadmaker, so when I found a recipe for a gluten-free breadmaker loaf, I went out on Saturday and bought the gluten-free bread flour, yeast and xanthan gum specified, came home and mixed up a loaf.

I was a bit concerned after I mixed everything together as per the instructions - it was more of a batter than a dough, but I left the breadmaker to get on with it while Kevin and I made Whisky Marmalade.

Half an hour later, we had six jars of orange yumminess.

The bread took another two and a half hours.

It has an 'interesting' texture - more 'cakey' than bread-like and it tastes OK.  Also, it toasts well.

So on Sunday, I had gluten-free toast at breakfast and a sandwich at lunchtime.No other wheat-containing products at all, all day.

This morning, I had a gluten and wheat-free muesli for breakfast and a sandwich for lunch.

I have to report......zero bloating, zero - *cough* - digestive discomfort.

Hmmm - I may be on to something here.Will keep you posted!

Sometimes older is better!

I have an all-singing, all-dancing sewing machine. It is computer-driven, has umpteen squillion stitches built into its clever little brain and nearly sixteen years ago, it cost more than my first car!

I haven't had much time to sew in recent years, but today I got the machine out to make arm-covers to hide the mess that the cats have made of the arms of our sofa. I made up the pattern, cut the fabric and toddled upstairs to start creating.

My Bernina Artista 180 clearly had other ideas as it snarled at me and snapped the needle.

On close inspection, it was evident that the needle was hitting the bobbin case - meaning that somehow the timing was out.

I'd love to know how THAT happened. I mean, has the machine been taking itself off to sewing-fests? Getting down and dirty with overlockers and embroidery machines?

So I rang the Bernina people, who gave me a main dealer's number and THEY gave me the joyous news that the machine would cost £96.00 (incl. VAT) to fix and take 10 days. Humph!

I then found a mechanic who will do home visits - £89.00

Being somewhat short on funds (and wanting to get this job done asap), I considered my alternatives.

Then I remembered The Singer.

Some years ago, a friend kindly gave me an old, hand-operated Singer in the iconic bentwood case. I intended for it to be a fun objet d'art, so had put it away in a cupboard to await the right place and time to bring it out on display.

I rootled in the cupboard and emerged with the machine. It looked in lovely condition, complete with all sorts of feet and the original instruction manual, so I pushed the Bernina to the back of the table and began to set up the 'antique'. I worked out how to fill the bobbin and thread the machine up and then gave it a trial crank.

BRILLIANT!! Beautiful straight, even stitches. This machine is AWESOME. I didn't even need to alter the tension!

I finished my arm-covers and proudly fitted them to the sofa, then decided to check out my Singer's history.

My neat little Singer Model 99 was made in Clydebank, Scotland in 1916 - yes, you did read that right! I have just sewn with a machine that is 98 years old, that has not been serviced in heaven-knows-how-long. O.K., it doesn't have any fancy stitches, it just does straight stitch, but it does it well.

I wonder what things have been made on it over the years - the childrens' clothes, the shirts made and mended, the pretty party dresses. I wonder when it was put away, in favour of the electric version. And I am really grateful that my friend thought to give it to me, instead of throwing it out. The repairs to the Bernina can wait, while I reconnect with sewing as my grandmother would have done!

Here it is, with the Bernina in the background.

Cat Update

It occurred to me that when I started this blog, we had four Maine Coons - Whisper (Silver Tortie Tabby), Spike (Black & White), Hobbes (Red and White) and Paddy (Classic Brown Tabby).

Sadly, Spike fell asleep forever in 2012; our big cowardy-custard boy, who hid every time that the doorbell rang, effectively had a stroke.

The house felt wrong without him; time passed and we decided that we should find another boy. On contacting our usual breeder, she said that she had a silver tabby lad that she had thought to keep as a show cat, but if we really wanted him.........

When we arrived at her house, we simply fell in love with him - big ears and all. There was a little red and white girl in the kitten pen with him, whose mother had rejected her, the only kitten in the litter. This little scrap had been brought up by the silver boy's mother, but had a tail fault so couldn't be bred from or sold.
We decided that we had to have the silver lad; then the breeder offered us the wee red girl - we hesitated, after all, Maine Coon kittens aren't exactly cheap - but we had misunderstood. We were being offered a BOGOF.

And that is how we left home, expecting to bring back one kitten and returned with two. We could never have separated Bearz from his little foster-sister Rosie, or Rosie from him. What we couldn't have anticipated was Hobbes' reaction - as Rosie hesitantly stepped out of the cat-carrier, Hobbes was struck with a coup de foudre! We have never seen such a perfect example of love at first sight and Rosie was similarly enamoured.

So,until mid-January 2014, we had five Maine Coons. Whisper had, over the previous year, begun to look very old and was becoming increasingly frail. The others took it in turn to groom her and to sit with her, walking out of the room with her (her eyesight was clearly beginning to fail) - we were amazed at the apparent care and devotion that they were demonstrating towards our old lady.

In December, we discovered that she was becoming forgetful (as in forgetting where the litter tray was), but we compensated by checking up on her and mopping up her occasional accidents. However, in January her increased rate of drinking and her enlarged pupils signalled something very wrong, and the vet confirmed that she had kidney disease and would not be with us much longer, even with drug treatment.

We decided to take her home. Our vet trusted us to know when it was time to let her go and so we had her with us for two more weeks. On 22nd January, Whisper slipped away, peacefully and without pain at our veterinary surgery.

So now we have four Maine Coons again.

See you again one day, Spike and Whisper xxxxx

Keeping motivated.....

I have been studying consistently but what with getting the house ready to sell, the possibility that Kevin will be out of action soon (he has to have an operation on his knee that will put him on crutches for a bit), trying to find and view properties (if The One falls through),  I was beginning to feel overwhelmed.

Unfortunately, I have developed RA and OA and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both hands and can't hold a pen to write for more than a few minutes without my hand cramping up, so the Open University allows me to take my exams at home on the computer, with an invigilator sitting next to me. The thought of doing this, surrounded by moving boxes, either here or at the new house, was too awful to contemplate.

With all of these factors in mind, I decided to defer my current module (A230, Reading and Studying Literature) until October 2014 and pick it up again then, alongside the Creative Writing module. I had the idea that I might be able to continue to work on the module, without the stress of submitting assignments or revising for the exam in June, thus giving me a head start in October as I will then be studying almost full time on two quite different modules.

I enjoy my studies immensely - so why is it that I can't seem to settle to study? I need to go back over the Romantic Poets and then read and work on 'Wuthering Heights', but today I sat staring at the module book, quite unable to start.

Perhaps I just need a break; I have to register for both modules in April and maybe that will be the motivator but part of me doesn't really want to leave it that long - there is a lot to read and take in on A230, even though I have banked the (less-than-impressive) marks for the first two assignments that I had submitted.

It doesn't help that my study area is filled with sewing and spinning stuff - reminders of what I could be doing.

The answer is for me to take my books and study elsewhere - somewhere without distractions.

But it can't be somewhere without coffee.........so the Library is out!

Looks like the dining room may be my next port of call!

Dreaming of Devon

As I said in my last post, Kevin and I intend to move to Devon this year. Our home is lovely but it is a big family house with a massive garden and deserves to be occupied by a family, rather than two people and their four cats.

The house went on the market on Wednesday 22nd and we have had six viewings so far; the cats are completely confused by the increase in visitors, some of whom clearly love cats and others....not so much!
We have to be here during viewings because ours are strictly indoor-cats and it is simply not fair to place the responsibility for their safety on the estate agent. If the front door was left open accidentally, Hobbes would almost certainly dash through it and the gate from the deck to the garden is another vulnerable exit.

However, that means that we are very much 'in residence' - not ideal for viewings. We have to keep moving round the house behind the prospective buyers which makes us look as though we are stalking them.

We have been house-hunting virtually for a while, checking out places on Zoopla and RightMove and then looking at the locations on Google Earth. This is well worth doing, as some estate agents' photos tend to omit the less-than-attractive views, not simply of the property but of the buildings nearby. One particularly lovely cottage had a commercial coach garage, rather than fairies, at the bottom of its garden - unseen in the brochure but very evident on Google Earth!

Having selected some properties to view, we left the cats in the capable hands of our cat-sitter and drove down to Devon last Tuesday. We saw three properties and then spent the night at the Barnstaple Travelodge. On Wednesday, we breakfasted at Sainsbury's and then went to view four more.

The first place was a disappointment - a Grade II listed money-pit. The house did not appear to have had any maintenance carried out for years, and it was right at the top of our budget. We also knew that the vendor would not entertain any offers, so we sadly drove away.

We were, however, soon feeling much happier -  the second cottage we visited is (subject to a full structural survey) 'the One'. Like the first place, it is Grade II listed, but it is clear that it has been loved and cared for over the years. The village is lovely, with excellent amenities and the nearby market town has a 'proper' high street, rather than the cloned look so prevalent these days. There are TWO butchers, a proper greengrocers and numerous independent shops, a library, doctors' surgery, vet, banks, hardware store.......

We eventually tore ourselves away to view the other two houses, each nice in their own way but not The One and then drove to my cousin's beautiful thatched cottage in Hatherleigh, where we were to spend the night.After a great evening catching up and being given masses of information on local surveyors who specialise in listed buildings, thatchers to sort out the roof ridge (the only thing that The One might need replacing), electricians, carpenters and so on, we climbed the stairs and fell into bed, with details of buildings dancing in our heads.

We punctuated the journey home with two viewings, but these two cottages had one adverse thing in common - narrow, twisted and steep stairs that Kevin found really hard to negotiate.

So from that trip, we have found our prospective new home and I am trying hard not to pin my hopes too hard on it - even though it is The One. After all, we haven't had an offer on ours yet!

From Company Director to Student in one move!

Wow - life has a habit of throwing stuff at you and that kind-of explains why it is almost four years since my last post.

So what has the Spinning Witch been doing then? Being made redundant and generally surviving like so many other people have had to do.

Long story short.....we were forced in the end to close down the company - too many reasons to go into here but to say that the bank wasn't entirely helpful would be an understatement.

As a result, we and our staff were suddenly redundant, with the added bonus that the Job Centre staff didn't hold out any hope for me or Kevin when it came to employment. Too old, too independent, too well-qualified.............and that was just me - Kevin is eight years older than I am and apparently totally over the hill   *sigh*!

I applied for everything and anything (and I do mean EVERYTHING) - and didn't get a single interview. Not one.

That was when I decided to 're-train'.........and take an Open University degree in English Literature.
The intention is to get my degree and then offer private tutoring for GCSE and A Level English students.

Oh, and move to Devon.

Kevin has effectively retired now, although if we get the house that we are hoping for, we both could be busier than ever.

We have decluttered, decorated and put our house on the market. My loom and my two spinning wheels, along with fleece, fibre, yarn and endless boxes of books, have all been moved to a storage unit, so the Spinning Witch will have to wait until we move.

In the meantime, I will blog about the move, my studies, the cats and anything else that comes to mind, partly because my next degree module is to be Creative Writing!