House of Hendy

The Hendy Home Store opened its doors a few days before Christmas. Inside, as you would expect, is a meticulous attention to detail on all floors and every nook and cranny. Every item for sale (whether new and unashamedly utilitarian or found object) is displayed with precision and care - think Labour and Wait with a darkened interior with a little hint of Dennis Sever's house about it or perhaps a period interior from the Geffrye Museum. I did a double take as I thought, for a fleeting moment, Mr Hendy was Mark Gatiss serving in the shop, immaculately dressed in crisply starched and ironed apron and shirt. Here's the Hendy Shed for you to get the idea of the interior of the shop. Don't miss out on this labour of love if you are in the area.

Tambourines and Ribbons

I had meant to give this hand-painted tambourine by Claire Fletcher away as a present. But I decided it ought to stay with me. More of Claire's original work can be found at Made in Hastings along with Sophie Azimont's delightfully sinister paper map rabbits (of which I'm building up a collection of).

Winter Solstice

BBC4 appear to be celebrating a musical 'night' themed session to compliment this time of year - nice mixed footage including Mercury Rev's 'The Dark is Rising'. Happy Midwinter Solstice...

The Kitchen Jukebox

Is undergoing a revamp ready for the Christmas guests who are due to arrive in the next few days - a bit of Cocteau Twins and Pixies added maybe... and making a note to get the new Baxter Dury from record shop Resident in Brighton. (The three 45rpm Stiff label cover artworks you can just see is by graphic genius Barney Bubbles. I was obsessed with the Reasons To Be Cheerful cover artwork when it first came out and bought three copies one of which is above, one is in a box and the other was given to a friend Louise when I was at school).

Smog's 'Ex Con'

Another one from my record box: Smog's Ex Con has fabulously skewed lyrics if you haven't heard it. One of my many favourite tunes. Not sure where I first heard this. Probably John Peel's radio show, maybe...

Orange Juice - Falling and Laughing

Had a rummage round the house and started opening boxes of my vinyl 45 rpm records because I couldn't get two records out of my head which I knew I had - somewhere: Smog's 'Ex-Con' and Catchers 'Cotton Dress' which I fancied listening to. I came across my copy of Falling and Laughing by Orange Juice and have fond memories of using my school lunchtime (and dinner money) to catch the bus into Lewisham and buy records from a chap known as 'Swinging Cat' who served at the counter of HMV. It's one of my favourite covers. I vividly remember having a copy of this thrown out of a window at a party because the oaf whose party it was thought it was 'crap'. Shame on you. Ah, the olden days...

Hastings Beach

Caught the train down on Friday evening after work to Hastings. Amazingly sunny first thing on Saturday morning as I took an early morning coffee and walk from the Old Town via the beach. Not many people around as Christmas Shoppers had all headed off into the direction of the town centre.

Bracing in Hastings

Neil Jordan is in Hastings town filming 'Byzantium' with Gemma Aterton and Saoirse Ronan. Based on Moira Buffini's play "A Vampire Story".

Tree Biscuits

As I'm having a home day cooking I thought I'd try my hand at these All-spice biscuits. Folk are due over from Norway shortly and we'd thought we'd give these biscuits a go to hang as decorations. An outline in white icing would be a good touch, but the cupboard is bare in that department at the moment, so the next batch will be given the makeover treatment to glam them up a bit. (Don't forget, as I have done here, to make little holes at the top of the biscuit before you put them in the oven so you can thread ribbon or string through. I'm reliably informed by Thora, whose recipe this is, that a chopstick is the perfect tool to use!)

400g plain flour

100g butter

150g sugar

1 free range egg

4 tablespoons golden syrup

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon mixed spice

bake at 140℃ for approximately 30 minutes

Let There Be Lights

Liking this simple idea for delicate lighting in the home for this time of year as found on Scandinavian stylist Johanna's blog.

Calling All Loafers

I found this Wholegrain Spelt bread recipe courtesy of Doves Farm and it's brilliant if you are pushed for time as it only needs one proofing. So you can have a finished baked loaf from start to finish in 2 hours. It has a really great open crumpet-style texture.

Oven 220 ℃/Fan 180 ℃/400 ℉/Gas Mark 6

500g/1lb wholegrain spelt flour (Doves Farm Organic)

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon quick yeast

1 teaspoon honey

400ml/14 fluid oz warm water

1 teaspoon olive oil

Method:

1. In a large bow mix together the flour, salt and quick yeast.

2. Dissolve the honey in the water and roughly mix it into the flour.

3. While the dough is still craggy and in it's rough stage, add the oil and mix well.

4. Knead or work the dough for a few minutes then divide it between two 500g/1lb bread tins.

5. Cover and leave dough to rise for about 25 minutes in a warm place.

6. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes.

7. Et Voila - Enjoy!

Please Make it Stop

Got in to work at 8.30am and just 4 days into my new job only to find that the office had been fitted out with alarming decorations; yes, it's the 1st of December. However, there was one lone decoration I wouldn't have minded and that was a rather menacing and tatty Blair Witch/Wicker Man style pentagram star made from wonky sticks. I believe that intriguing number came from Poundland. I've now got to work hard on making highly plausible excuses for not attending the office parties. The Ramones 'I Want to Be Sedated' is my official seasonal theme tune. I'm dishing up Bah Humbugs by the kilo load.