An American in Leeds

It wasn't technically spring yet last weekend. But, it felt so springlike! I felt the need to go walking. I headed out to Sutton Bank with my walking group. Believe it or not, I have no sheep pictures from this walk. No cattle, either. This stretch in the forest made me think of all those walks Anne took in Anne of Green Gables . I still not-so-secretly aspire to be Anne. Lake Gormire I love taking pictures of the footpath signs. Maybe as much as I love taking pictures of sheep.

But I'm going to show you pictures of this dress I sewed anyway. They were taken at Kirkstall Abbey, so that covers the Leeds bit in my blog title. I call this the Star Trek dress, since it seemed like I was always watching Star Trek reruns while sewing it. Except that time I was watching Dirty Dancing . It's actually Colette Patterns #1006, Rooibos dress . Grey cotton gabardine with orange cotton trim/ lining. The only alteration I made was to use a regular zipper instead of an invisible zipper. I hate installing invisible zippers. I used an orange regular zipper, just to be cheeky. And so this isn't just all dress pictures:

This amuses me no end. But ticks me off at the same time. I will explain. A while ago, I bought a satchel . It's big enough to fit in some papers, a book, an umbrella, and my wallet. It helps me avoid dragging a bunch of junk to work that I don't need. It has a strap long enough to put it across my body, leaving my hands free to push pedestrians walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk out of the way. It also fit in with my slightly dorky academic style, which I came by honestly by the fact a) I have a PhD in virology, and b) I have a job in academia. Now, this style bag has been on the runway. And a designer, Mulberry , has made their own satchel which means soon everyone will have one. So, I'll look trendy! Not only trendy, but ahead of the curve by a few months! That's a new sensation. However, this will mean hipsters may start carrying one as well, which cheeses me off. Those of you that know me well, or happen to be in my vicinity when I mutter "fucking hip...

This past Christmas, instead of moping around Leeds, I decided to go somewhere. I thought about a couple places, then it was recommended to me to go to Edinburgh. Which turned out to be the perfect place to spend Christmas, because it snowed. Edinburgh is a great city for walking. I spent all of Christmas day just walking around, and still didn't see everything I wanted to. So much history! It's a violent, bloody, poverty-stricken, challenging-the-authority history. Leeds is a young city in the grand scheme of things, so walking around a city that's had some sort of human habitation in it since the Bronze Age was fascinating. I went to 5 churchyards/ cemeteries while I was there. I like churchyards and cemeteries, so this was heaven. I separated out most of the cemetery pictures, so people don't groan "Not another headstone, Kat!". Here they are. My camera battery died on my second-to-last day. I didn't bring the charger, because I'm an idiot sometimes...

Been a while, hasn't it? Big update soon, I promise. Here's a little light entertainment in the meantime: "Charles" the Cross Stitch:

This is Chester: