Jack Frost

 Today, as I write this, I am incredulous to write that I had the day off from school because of the snow.

There was no snow where I live! I couldn't believe it when I received the message saying we had no school but apparently there was where my school is!

However, there was constant frost all weekend.

On Saturday, I was out in the garden in my pyjamas to rip up the teabags from school (98 this week!) and I noticed some beautiful frost which I decided to photograph!

Then again, my bike chain got tangled as I put up my bike after church so I ended up walking my bike home so I noticed lots of pretty frost decked foliage.

Please enjoy!

Miserable Russian lady visits London's oldest wine bar

There is a reason I smile in all my blog photos (or virtually all of them).  This is because I look like this if I don't smile! Miserable!   CBC met me at Stratford on Sunday to go up to London to a friend's birthday.  We got on the central line and I sat down.  I was suddenly aware of being watched and saw CBC with his Smartphone up in 'photo position'.  I glowered at him sullenly aware that he was mocking my garb and the result is this (with some old-fashioned grainy filter on to make me look even more like an extra missing from a Chekhov film!
With the 'inclement weather' (I do love that phrase- it feels so contrived!) I brought out the big-guns in the hat department with my Joyce Anderson of Corbridge sheepskin cossack hat but decided that it needed cheering up so added the turquoise butterfly clip which CBC found rather incongruous!

We headed up to a place near Embankment tube station called Gordons Wine Bar which is apparently London's oldest Wine Bar, established 1890 (and possibly the oldest in the world)  If you want to go somewhere atmospheric and different to drink wine (and not much else I am afraid- the only other choices are orange juice or water but you can bring in your Starbucks coffee if you want, as one of our companions discovered).  It is located in a cellar- so you sit at Candle-lit (and lamplight) tables with the roof barely above your head (you have to stoop to stand if you are Giraffe-like).  It is surprisingly warm and cosy.  We sat in a cubby at the end and happily sat there for several hours.  The only downside of it being a snowstorm all day was there did end up being drips on our coats by the walls, since it is a cellar and the walls and roof are near you.

The wine and the food is served a bit higher up some steps with proper ceilings.  A cheery-kind man was serving the food.  It was buffet-style.  You could buy a roast-dinner plate, carvery style for around £10.95 but what we went for was the cheese platter.  For £12, you got to choose 3 large slabs of cheeses (and they were big and I tried 3 large chunks of cheeses before I chose) the equivalent of almost a whole baguette sliced and then you can help yourself to pickles, chutney, butter, gherkins etc from the 'cold buffet' (there's also cold meat platters and a pate platter with bread and pickles which we got for £5.95 I think).
The Corsican ghost's cheese was delicious as was Saint-Nectaire and something else!  I had a mulled-wine (£4) which is the only tolerable-way for me to drink wine.



If you're interested in the history-side, it really hasn't changed in the years it has been there and apparently, quoting the website, it has an impressive residential history:

...the building in which the bar is situated was home to Samuel Pepys in the 1680s and more recently (1820) by Minier & Fair, a firm of seedsmen who used it as a warehouse. This came to an abrupt end when, in 1864, the river was embanked and the warehouse landlocked, following which it was turned into accommodation and Gordon's wine bar began its life. Rudyard Kipling lived in the building in the 1890s as a tenant and famously wrote “The light that failed” in the parlour above the bar, the building is now named Kipling House. Angus Gordon who set up the bar in 1890 was one of the few remaining “free vintners” who were able to set up and sell wine anywhere without applying for a license as a result of Edward III’s Charter to them in 1364 – granted as a result of his financial embarrassment at being unable to repay a loan made by the Vintners to him some years earlier! The current Gordon family who own the bar are not actually related to Angus Gordon but it was a happy coincidence that Luis Gordon discovered the bar and took it over in 1975 so was able to maintain the Gordon name.

Taken from the website, quoted above.

I really recommend it, it was a really friendly place and I enjoyed the vibe in there, plus it's so convenient being located close to Embankment tube (Circle, District, Northern and Bakerloo lines) on Villier's street.


After we left, CBC and I with a friend, went to look at the river where we delighted in the virtues of waterproof gloves and made really satisfying snowballs without a hint of wet-frozen hand I am used to and attempted to throw snowballs onto the deck of a small rowing boat moored alongside the dock.  We almost managed it, but no, we were too rubbish!

You can see me modelling my new Christmas frilly umbrella and also my Yaxtrax snow-grips! Honestly, I really recommend them- you can attach them to any shoe, not only sturdy-walking boots like mine, you can attach them to any of your high-heeled fashionable boots, they have rubber construction at the edges so they wont mark your shoe. I bought mine from QVC last year

****
In other news- I caught a MOUSE!!!!! I spotted a little mickey run across my floor the other day and I bought a humane mousetrap which yielded fruit in under a day.  I came home to mickey trapped inside.  I took him along to the park and released him where he frantically scurried away.  Let's hope he doesn't come back, which everyone has ominously told me they do if you are kind to them! Anyone have mouse-experiences they can share?

Art deco

 Hello! 

I've been procrastinating in a bad way when I have French to mark (yawn!)   How is it that my kids have been learning French for a year and a half and have had to write, read, say the word "C'est"a million times and I STILL find work in which it is spelt "Ce!!!!!!"

(especially when it was up on the board, has been up on the board every week and there's even a laminated "c'est" on the wall!!!!)

I went out for a glorious meal on Friday night with CBC, WKWTTG and his friends to Bohobo (or something like that) in Covent garden, a Japanese place.  It was wonderful- they bring you skewers of different orders at different times.  My ultimate order was a plate of crispy tofu and Klimchi.  Missy Miller has converted me- it's amazing!!!!!!!!

I dressed up thus.

 The difficulty of this Miss Selfridge dress has always been, it's too cold to just wear on its own.  It's very very thin and has silly floppy chiffon shoulders.  I do love it though.  I've tended to wear with a polo neck under neath (Primark)

I was wearing about 2 pairs of leggings and tights here, together with my lovely new handbag (won in the kind and delightful Hazel's giveaway!), fingerless mittens (some shop in Mumbles, Swansea) and Bunny necklace plus my newish Sheepskin boots. 
Wretched things keep shedding pile onto my feet and my tights got attached at the toe in one foot!  EEEEEEEP!!!!!!


They all went to see the Mousetrap before.  Have you seen it? I was sad not to be able to make it earlier but I know WHO DUNNIT!!!!! I accidently read the playscript of it when I lived in Indonesia and was starved of English fictional reading material!  I guessed right!!!

Let it snow let it snow let it snow! (Singing in the snow escapades!)

Hello there!  How are you on this excitingly white day?!  My newest follower Lea (hello there, so kind of you to follow!!!) thinks I am sane, so I intend to disprove her opinion with this picture in one fell-swoop!!!!!

 It's been such fun seeing the world changed so much purely by the addition of a little frozen water!!!
I'm back!  We've had a week of prayer and such at church,which has been glorious, so I've been there much of the week and not on here!!!

 I wasn't even the slightest bit cold at church this morning!  I am quite sure I am wearing more fluffy clothes than is permissable for the average person!

 More insanity! Just after this took, as I landed, my turquoise furry muffler (dangling round my neck) bopped me in the face!  Still, better than yesterday when I was climbing a kids suspension bridge in the park and misjudged the distance to the ground and fell badly on my ankle landing in a heap!!!! Oops, how to explain that to my boss if I had seriously damaged something!

 Isn't it amazing how everything takes on an amazing Narnia-like magic and sheen in the snow! I thought I'd take some shots of my road and garden.

 I love this palm down my road.  Moreover, I love the juxtaposition of it and the snow!

 Mmmmm, makes me think of lemon drizzle cake!

 In the vicarage garden, where I took a sneaky shortcut... It really is the Secret garden in there!!! I thought of Dickon and Mary entering the garden!

I also appointed myself as adjudicator for the snowman competition and here are the finalists.

 In third place, with a stoop and rounded shoulders, suggesting more of a senior snowman, plus an unhealthy-looking carrot-cigar, we have 'Old Man (frozen) River'

 With sinister red-beady eyes and a disproportionately round lower-half in comparison to slender arms we have: "Red Round" in second place.

 In first place we have "Slim Jim" in an attractive hat and scarf combo (wins every time!) He even sweeps his own path!

 I didn't have to share the snow in my garden so after this, it was BIG footprint frenzy!

 I'm surprised these figs still remain on the tree!  The blackbirds were BACK when I went out!

 My dear Dad has been on at me for ages to get some of those springy snow-grip-things you attach to your shoes so I christened them and they are brilliant thus far!  You can attach them to any shoe. Here I attached them to my sheepskin boots and there have been no slippages! Unfortunately, my friend who doesn't have them wasn't so lucky and has hurt her recently healed fragile-broken ankle! If you want some, I got mine (Yaxtrax) from QVC here 

 The hat of course!!! I'm Lara again!

Have you had snow?  Are you expecting it?!  Sorry to blogger-friends who didn't get any! :-( 
Cheerio for now!!!!