Dinner, Children's Literature and Doll Blankets

At this time of year, there are so many Christmas catch-ups, parties, dinners and the like, that on nights when we do not have some sort of eating occasion to attend or host, I try and cook something more snacky than substantial.  Tonight, I made oversized pumpkin scones (recipe HERE, I cut them into rounds about the size of an English muffin), split open, filled with Gruyere cheese, incredibly smokey Fernleigh Farms free range ham, and lots of my beloved Beerenberg green tomato pickles, then popped back into the oven to melt together:

Afterwards, we had more pumpkin scones with butter and plenty of golden syrup.  Pumpkin scones are good at any time of day.

My friend had a baby - I bought the baby a gorgeous little knitted sock monkey, but for her toddler girl (Tabitha's age), I crocheted a doll-sized blanket.  Everyone says you ought to take a small gift for the older sibling/s, so they don't feel left out, and I thought a special blankie for her baby dolls would be just about right:

Sock monkey on top, blanket on the bottom:

I mentioned months and months ago that I quite enjoy ironing Tabitha's little clothes - they are so cute, and don't take more than a minute per item, being so small.  It's like ironing dolls' clothes:

I've been re-reading many of my childhood favourite books lately - I don't know why, but it's suddenly all I feel like reading (children's fiction and books on backyard chook keeping, in preparation for getting some lovely Pekin Bantams next year).  In the past few weeks alone, I have re-read:

• The Railway Children
• Charlotte's Web (every time I read it, I enjoy it more)
• Stuart Little
• Famous Five books 1-4 (#3, Five Run Away Together, is one of my favourites, because of all the food)
• Little House in the Big Woods (my favourite of the Little House series)
• Mary Poppins (far better than the film, in my opinion)
• Malory Towers books 1-6
• Ballet Shoes (my sister's red toy Poodle, Posy, is named after one of the protagonists)
• Seven Little Australians
• What Katy Did

That is a lot of books to read in a few weeks, but that is part of the appeal - you can easily finish off a Famous Five book, or the like, in a day.  This can be very satisfying when your days are so fractured, chasing after a toddler - a couple of hours during nap, a few hours in the evening, and you have the satisfaction of having finished a whole book.