Hester

a vicious British tar

zip me up

Hey, Jenny: That does look like fun! Fencing and dancing lessons combined! I'm taking English Country Dance classes right now. Many of the dances we learn are appropriate to the GAoP. There's also a fencing course that takes place in town, and I've been considering trying that one year -- but it's quite popular and fills up very quickly. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to attending another Regency-era ball in May. Cheers, Hester

^That I'm supposedly a mentally ill alcholic (according to some twat who's never met me and knows dick-all about my life). < Need to spend less time on-line and grow a thicker skin. V What's the weirdest message you've ever received in a PM?

[sorry, I messed up the turn taking there.] Broadway

Stilton cheese Dust bunnies A nasty Brit folkie who called me a mentally ill alcoholic Stuart Townsend ... mmm!

nevermind

-y mess

Really drunkk t'night, but couldn't bear nmoer than 3 mins of th DVD. Like a bad High shocol play. ...even the ru m couldn't save it!!! Mujppets were bewtter.. more reviews wehn I'm sober.... Capn' Kidd Cokctails. .... so smootth.... G'niight Hester

[Arrgh, ya lily-livered scallywags! Be ye too timid to touch that preceeding segue with a barge-pole?! Aye, well, looks like I'll have to reply to it meself!] ...fearsome maw. "Achoooo!" "Gesundheit,"...

Cool, Matusalem! [be yer first name "Ron", perchance?] The "related" links are good too, such as: And for your drinking pleasure as you listen, might I suggest this traditional drink favoured by Cornish sailors and fishermen: "Mahogany" 2 parts gin 1 part black treacle (aka molasses) I came across a reference to this drink in a biography of Ashley Hutchings, the founder of the folk-rock bands Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span. One night in the early 70s, his wife at the time, traditional folksinger Shirley Collins, was performing at a pub in Plymouth, with a backing band. The locals began to ply the band with this drink. When interviewed, 30 years later, members of the band said they had very little memory of the night, except for that drink. Hutchings recalled it as "hot gin & molasses", but none of the recipes I've seen on-line mention this. I suspect he may have thought it had been heated because it does have quite a "burn" going down. Apparently, this mixture is also drunk up in Yorkshire, where it's called "Whistlejacket" and is considered a traditional cold remedy. Cheers, Hester ... "coz I spent all of me tin, with the lassies drinkin' gin, and I think I'll have to go back there tomorrow!"

Hi, Cap'n Zed: Those blankets are charming! I suspect you'll find that Kass's patterns will make your machine superfluous, though. Cheers, Hester ... who swears a lot when she sews, and now remembers she's got some mending to do, using her mother-in-law's temperamental hand-me-down European sewing machine

-14 degrees celsius right now. Happily the wind's died down, but we had -35 degree windchill warnings this morning. I thought March was supposed to be part of Spring! Expecting a thaw by the weekend, but rain coming with it. Cheers, Hester

slime erupted from his...

his back molars. Suddenly,

except the feathers got

and swallowed the puffin.

What is it with nephews and hamsters? When my sister was in labour with my youngest nephew and on her way to the hospital with her husband, they dropped off their then-7-year-old son at our house (I was still living with my parents at the time) with a cage containing his two pet hamsters. The hamsters were fighting, and one had already eaten a couple toes off the other one. My nephew was distraught, and crying louder than his mother who was in contractions. He begged me to stop the hamsters fighting. So, I had to reach into the cage [um, why me?] and rescue the injured one, which then promptly bit me for my trouble. So, then I had to call the emergency department to see if I also needed to go to the hospital for a tetanus or rabies shot -- but the nurse on the phone just laughed at me, to add insult to injury. Okay, to get this thread back onto the topic of food. Being Canadian, my first thought when I hear "hamster" is Tales of the Riverbank: ... based on The Wind in the Willows: ... which includes my favourite description of a picnic: `Hold hard a minute, then!' said the Rat. He looped the painter through a ring in his landing-stage, climbed up into his hole above, and after a short interval reappeared staggering under a fat, wicker luncheon-basket. `Shove that under your feet,' he observed to the Mole, as he passed it down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls again. `What's inside it?' asked the Mole, wriggling with curiosity. `There's cold chicken inside it,' replied the Rat briefly; `coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssan dwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater----' `O stop, stop,' cried the Mole in ecstacies: `This is too much!' `Do you really think so?' enquired the Rat seriously. `It's only what I always take on these little excursions; and the other animals are always telling me that I'm a mean beast and cut it VERY fine!' I can't wait for the river near me to thaw, so that I can go for a spring picnic. Cheers, Hester

"Breakfast!" said the Kraken...

Hiya, Jenny: I'm about to have some fruit salad and tea for breakfast. Although porridge might be more weather-appropriate! (Sounds like you're living in the same arctic air mass responsible for the pretty frost patterns on my window this morning.) Cheers, Hester

"Hush, cranky beastie," said...

Homemade fish chowder, and open-face crab-melt sandwiches.

Hi, Black Anne: ^ I love the colours, especially the sepia/sunset/blood-tinted parchment background with its pen & ink scrawl. The flag, the rose, and the ship are all wonderful motifs. The only thing I don't like is the white lettering of "Black Anne Rose" on top of all that. The font itself is wonderful, but it obscures the images behind and muddles the overall visual effect. It's also a bit redundant, as the flag on the left already has your name. So, I would separate that white lettering out from your signature, and use it somewhere else. v As for my own signature, well, you can tell I was in a bit of a snit when I chose it. [Although, I also do love Chrissie Hynde's piratical punk-poet attitude.] I was actually expecting a bit of grief from the moderators over it, but no one complained (that I know of). Anyhow, I think I'm pretty much over my snit and am ready to change my signature to something more demure now. And, I might as well start participating here again, as you bloody pirates can't be any ruder than that lot of folk-rock Brits I've been hanging out with lately. Cheers, Hester

Great purse, Alyx! I covet it! And Black Hearted Pearl wrote: >>>This fashion designer is a little slow on the uptake and inspiration. Gwen Stefani's line "Lamb" had better pirate-inspired style in last year's line.<<< Well, Pearl, I doubt Anna Sui would ever claim to have invented the pirate-punk style -- this is merely her own interpretation of something that's been percolating through fashion for at least the last quarter century. Sui's choice of Bow Wow Wow as the soundtrack for her runway show was clearly a nod to Vivienne Westwood, the doyenne of pirate-punk fashion in the early 80's. And as the blog entry Alyx posted points out, designers such as Betsey Johnson, Alexander McQueen and [as you noted, Pearl] Gwen Stefani have also explored this fashion theme in their own unique ways. Cheers, Hester