Bloglovin? Feedly?

... which should I choose?

         

As you probably know by now, Google Reader is disappearing in  a few months, so I decided I'd better try and get to grips with another reader before it goes completely.  Question was, which reader?  It seemed to me I had two choices, either Bloglovin or Feedly. 

I am the type of person who learns more from using something rather than just reading about it (and yes, I am also the person for whom the phrase "if all else fails, read the instructions" was invented) so I am currently conducting a test.  I am running both systems in parallel for a few weeks to see which I prefer.

So far there does not seem to be much to choose between them, but there are a couple of niggles I have with Bloglovin.  Firstly, from what I can see, any posts which I have not read after a couple of weeks will disappear from my reading list.  This is not really a problem, but it might be if I found myself in the middle of the Sahara with no electricity or internet access for a month - not at all likely, where would I be able to plug in my hair straighteners and sewing machine - then I might miss something really important that one of you have written.  The other thing I'm not happy with is that they tell me I must "claim my blog" (I'm not sure why, but I did what I was told, and lo and behold, there is this little button thingy that appears, that looks a bit like this:
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
and that annoys me, cos you may not want to use Bloglovin but may not realise that you can still follow in other ways.

Any way, I will carry on using both, and will report back in a couple of weeeks.

Somebody's telling porkie-pies ...

... it's spring, "they" said.  So how come, this is what I see when I look out of my window this morning?

Where are all the lovely spring flowers like daffodils, and where is the beautiful cherry blossom on the trees?  Come to think of it, I'm still waiting for the crocus and snowdrops, which should have been flowering in January and February.

See why I think someone's not telling me the truth?

Production line ...

Previously, as I worked on my Country Charmer quilt, I have been cutting the fabrics for one block at a time, but today I changed my process.  I've now every single piece cut for all the remaining blocks.  All I have to hope now is that I don't lose any pieces.

Now my legs and back are killing me and I'm looking forward to a night in front of the television with my feet up.

Once upon a time ...

... a long, long time ago, (1943 to be exact) a young sailor in the Merchant Navy, sailed across battle-torn seas, and eventually arrived in Halifax, Novia Scotia.  While he was there, he visited a cafe where he had the most wonderful pie he had ever eaten.

It was called Butterscotch Pie.  He has never forgotten the taste of it but has never seen it or eaten it since.  Now, he wants to eat it again and he has asked his daughter to make him one.

His daughter has never heard of this pie, so she hunted on Google and found a number of recipes, some with meringue on top, some without, but they all seem to be different.  So his daughter, (yes, that'll be me then) who is not a good cook, thought she'd better ask for help.  Please can anyone tell me where I can find the proper recipe for this pie?

I'm boasting ...

...  At Christmas  the Professor (DGS1) took some exams which he would normally take in June 2014 and he got his exam results yesterday:

Chemistry: B
Physics: A
Biology: A*


Of course, he got his brains from me, you understand!

Country Charmer progress ...

Due to circumstances beyond my control (I decided to go down with flu turning to a bronchitis type of thing cos I felt that it was my turn for some sympathy) progress has not been good this month. I have not even been near my sewing machine for two weeks.  Excuses, excuses!

That changed yesterday, and I made another block.  Today I am hoping to get at least two more blocks done.  This month several people have mentioned the "puzzle page" that Lynn has provided with the patterns, so I thought I'd talk about it too.

Here's a picture of it naked, and you can see that all the block pieces are shown.  The idea is that you can then cut the fabric for your block and lay them out on the sheet so you can see what your finished block will look like and also so you can keep track of the 53 pieces that are needed for one block, like this

It is such a clever idea, and I have found it very useful in helping me to decide which fabrics to use where.

Here is a picture of my progress so far.  As you can see, I've still got quite a way to go to catch up with some people, but I will get there eventually.

There are people all over the world making this quilt, called Country Charmer, designed by Lynn from Sew'n Wild Oaks.  You can buy the pattern here, and join us.  This is a very laid back sort of quiltalong, being hosted by Lesley, The Cuddle Quilter and a couple of times a month Lynn is writing a post with some handy hints and tips on things like colour choices, etc, and on the 1st of every month Lesley is holding a Linky party, so do hop over to both of them and see what's going on.  There's a Flickr group too, so as you can see, there's lots of places to go for hints, tips, encouragement and inspiration.  Thanks Lynn and Lesley.