Anyone for a Cuppa?
Well, despite the grim weather today, and the huge amount of homeschooling we had to get through, I was determined to get some form of gardening done. Jen and I had spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon discussing gardens and plants, and ogling over the Sarah Raven catalogue, so I was all fired up and raring to go!
With the garden doing it’s best to become the latest wildfowl and wetland sanctuary it would have been foolish to attempt anything much, so I decided to plant my newly purchased herbs in my rather wonderful teacup (a Christmas pressie from my Mum and Dad). I think it looks great, and the oregano, purple sage, garlic chives and thyme should see me through until I can get some more growing from seed.
…and just to confirm their belief in the circle of life, the dogs kindly pulled up and massacred the last remaining heuchera as I was doing my planting.
“Oh well….”
All That Glitters….
Yesterday we celebrated our parents’ Golden Wedding anniversary.
50 years married.
That’s some commitment.
50 year’s ago:
=> Elvis Presley was at number one this week in the record charts with “Rock-A-Hula Baby/Can’t Help Falling in Love” (and remained at number one for the next three weeks);
=> Harold Macmillan of the Conservative Party was Prime Minister;
=> The British Motor Corporation launched the ADO16 – the Morris 1100 – on 15 August;
=> Earlier in the year BBC Television broadcast the first episode of a their “realistic police drama” called “Z-Cars”;
=> There was a military coup d’etat in Burma;
=> President John F Kennedy was in The White House;
=> Jon Bon Jovi was born;
=> The UK made a claim to 660,000 square miles of land which they called “British Antarctic Territory”.
Back to yesterday, though, Mum and Dad took all us kids together with their lifelong friends (hello Auntie Liz and Uncle Ray!) for a posh nosh.
We presented Mum and Dad with “Olympic” gold medals and a Certificate of Achievement in recognition of their 50 years together!
Charlotte (eldest grandchild) had used her PhotoShop skills to slightly “edit” an original wedding photograph (clue: four of the heads in this picture weren’t even a twinkle in their as yet unborn parents’ eyes 50 years ago!).
No, not a gold tombola, but a “Gold Hamper” which Mum and Dad opened in the Hotel lounge bar (much to the amusement of other guests!).
Joe and Hannah enjoyed the occasion…
… but it went on a bit late for Hannah!!! (aaaahhh!)
It was a great way to celebrate a very special occasion, and it certainly gives me and my sister something to aspire to!
Some Good Advice
A while ago I was having a chat with a close friend and we were discussing the times we’ve both had (and, in fact, I still have) when life really does get you down, no matter what you do. She made a suggestion that I should investigate poetry, since it was her experience in the past that reading inspirational poems had really helped to lift her spirits.
With this in mind, last time I visited Foyles up in London I chose a poetry collection, “Poem for the Day” (edited by Nicholas Albery, published by Chatto and Windus). I didn’t know enough about poetry and poets to select a specific writer at this stage.
To start with I found I didn’t really “get” a lot of the poems I read, but over the weeks when I have dipped into this collection, I have begun to find just that odd one or two which have really struck a chord. Yesterday was one of those times, and I felt compelled to share this with “the Blog”.
So, with grateful acknowledgement to poet John Dryden (1631-1700) who apparently translated this poem from the Ancient Roman poet Horace (65 – 8 BC), I give you “Happy the Man:
Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own:
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Be fair or foul or rain or shine
The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.
Amen! (my word, not the poet’s!)
Highlights of the Week
Other than the Music and Drama Festival, some pretty good stuff went on this week, including:
1. Teaching Hannah to crochet
2. Actually repotting the spider plant cuttings given to me by Jen (rather than procrastinating about it, then watching them wilt and die!)
3. Making two (out of an intended four) crochet coasters, as featured in this month’s edition of Mollie Makes
4. Discovering that I DID actually have some (?)viable growth on my Brussels sprout plants (despite the dogs’ attempts to prove otherwise!)
5. Finally making up a ball of string from all the organic veggie boxes we’ve had over the past few months. I’m planning to crochet a veggie bag or similar for the summer…
6. Washing my hair using the egg and lemon shampoo bars Jen and I made last month, together with the parsley and lemon hair rinse I made today (and no, my hair hasn’t fallen out, and yes, it feels lovely!)
7. And lastly, having a great CCG Meeting with Jen on our “renew your spirit” day, where we made plans for the garden, March tea cosies, stripy socks (Jen, not me!) and more wonderful crafting/self-sufficiency projects!
Not a bad way to end the week!!
:0)
Happy Girl!
Through a series of complex negotiations, I finally agreed to make Hannah the Owls sweater, designed by Kate Davies (she of Sheep Heid fame).
The wool arrived today….
Beautiful donuts!!! Almost good enough to eat! One very happy knitter….
… and one very happy daughter!
Moving Things On
Despite the build up to the music festival, I have spent the last couple of weeks reviewing all my work in progress. This is primarily due to the fact that I became absolutely disenchanted with the February socks, and just couldn’t face picking them up again. The new method I found for the jogless jog didn’t seem to work at all, and I don’t want them to end up looking like they looked before I frogged them!
So, in a rather bleak mood, I went through my other projects looking for some inspiration. The biggest white elephant in my project bag has to have been my Liydia sweater dress. I had just fallen out of love with knitting it so, consequently it was sitting there festering. This was not a kind way to treat something which, despite my current lack of love, had seen many hours of work poured into it. So I decided to follow the suggestion of a couple of friends, and give Liydia a new lease of life …. as a BAG!
I confess that the whole project was a bit Heath Robinson, but I am actually really pleased with the result… And what’s more, she’s been put to good use already!
I crocheted the pale pink border around the top edge of the bag, and added a button and crochet loop as a finishing touch.
I’ve now turned my attention to the beautiful Old Rose Wrap by Juju Vale at Loop which, again, has had several false starts since I bought the yarn. But I’m going great guns now, and am really enjoying the crochet.
It’s made up of individual crocheted squares which are then joined together on the 3rd and 4th sides as you go. There are 13 rows of 5 to do, but I’m loving the look of it already!
My final project rejuvenation has been the totally gorgeous Jared Flood Celes scarf. I have just today completed the first half of the pattern!
I’m much more comfortable knitting lace now than I was at the start of this project, so am looking forward to completing the second half of the scarf within the reasonable future! Not sure how I’ll cope with the edging work but hey, I’ll cross that “edge” when I come to it!
So far as the fated February socks are concerned, they might just be lucky enough to be rescued from the project bag by my good pal and fellow CCG member Jen, who has super kindly offered to knit them up for me!
Thanks ever so, Jen :0)
Pride….and Pancakes!
Although today has it’s own caption on the calendar, in our house it was called “Festival Day”, since Hannah was to be singing in three different classes in the town’s annual festival of music and drama.
The first class was for the duet that she and friend Molly were singing. “O Holy Night” is easily one of my all time favourite hymns, and I was really pleased they were going to be presenting this as their entry.
Now at this point comes the conundrum – they sang like angels… It was absolutely divine – but should I say this? Clearly, as a parent I would be assumed to be biased, plus is it politically correct these days to “big up” your own child? I was pondering this before I wrote this blog and, do you know what? I really don’t care about political correctness! And Hannah would argue that as her teacher as well as her Mother, I am her worst critic, therefore for me to withhold genuine, heartfelt praise and the pride I felt for her and Molly would be both disingenuous and a dis-service to the girls.
They were fabulous!
Having said that, Hannah made a huge gaff in the middle of the song (she was exceedingly nervous) which threw them both for a few bars, although they pulled it together again well. The adjudicator told them that they “would have walked away with the prize” had it not been for that mistake in the middle. But that’s fine too….
The second class was the choir. Although there were no other competitors in the class, the group scored a distinction and have been invited back to sing at the Winners’ Concert in a week’s time.
And now we are waiting to go to the final class – light opera – in which Hannah is singing an extremely complex work from Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro”. It is arguably a piece way above even her Grade 8, but she will stand up in the hall and give it positively her best, talented shot. I don’t think any parent could ask for more than that….
And while we wait …. PANCAKES!!!!!
Hasta La Vista February Sock!
The first February sock didn’t go at all well:
The so-called jogless jog didn’t work, the heel turn was a nightmare, and the Fair Isle pattern didn’t really show up as I had thought it would. I let it sit for a week or so, then last night bit the bullet and frogged the entire thing …. well, down to the last (?first) couple of stripes since I didn’t have the heart to do the rib again.
I’ve now found a different method to help avoid the jog (ha – in more ways than one!), I’m going to ditch the Fair Isle pattern and just work stripes, and use the heel turn from my Sunday Swing socks. Here’s hoping….!
Before I entered de-construction mode, however, I played a little more hooky and produced a jam jar cover. It’s so sweet that I intend to make several ready for the preserves in the spring/summer. I just had to take a piccie, and included the teapot wearing it’s lovely new tea cosy, the jam jar and it’s cosy, and the friendship cake – fully baked and tested!
I had tasked myself to complete the moss stitch scarf today, and since I couldn’t get over to Jen’s because of the weather (icy country lanes = not good!) I sat myself down with a movie this afternoon and did just that:
I even added a little hooky decoration to the ends!
Tonight I’ve requested the use of Gary’s arms – to help me wind my skeins of wool into balls – so we’ll probably be sitting comfortably watching a DVD whilst getting all tangled up and knotted! We’re not very good at doing this … Maybe it’s time to save up for an umbrella swift and a ball winder?!!!
February, so far…
I don’t thrive in the winter months. I love the build up to Christmas, but once we hit mid-January I just seem to get bogged down with the weight of the world. It doesn’t help that we’ve been hit by some hideous weather of late – it’s cold and icy – not pretty, just grey and very slippy. I’d got so used to being in a mild winter that I’d stopped thinking about winter woollies, so the onset of the snow and ice has not been terribly welcome.
Anyway, today I have decided to make a conscious effort to fight the seasonal blues, so let all things positive come flooding forth….
Our garden fence was repaired (having blown down on the January wind) and it really is a lovely job – completely hand built, rather than pre-fab panels. It’s just a shame our garden looks rather like a bad imitation of a Siberian wasteland, thanks in no great part to the dogs…
You can see Henry admiring his work….
But, in the new spirit of Feb, I’m looking forward to giving it a makeover come the better weather – a potting shed, some raised beds and a (dog-proof) herb garden are all on the cards.
I was planning to bottle the pea pod wine and the apple wine sometime soon, but it’ll have to wait until it’s less icy – the bottles are coming over from Jen’s, and even our road/path is too icy to risk the carrying of major items of glass!
On the knitting front, the MuckleMitts weren’t terribly successful as they were too small (I know – I should’ve done sensible things like gauge and measure and stuff!). BUT, on my last trip to London I bought just one ball of Noro yarn and the Noro Mini Knits book, and came up with these:
You probably wouldn’t think, looking at them, that I took great pains to wind the ball on so that I could start the second mitt with the same colour pattern…. I guess that’s the joy of Noro. I have also started a double moss stitch scarf from the same book, but with a skein of yarn from my stash! (very proud of this fact!).
I did, however, have some trouble with my neck and should this week, so decided that some crochet might be a better option. I found a fab blog called Crochet with Raymond written by a lovely lady called Alice, and who clearly has a calling to produce tea cosies! This is exactly what I was after, so I used one of her basic patterns and had a go:
Very happy with that! Thanks Alice!
In summary then, the second half of February is going to be subject to a concerted anti-SAD attack, with plenty of knitting, crochet, dog walking, blogging and general creating … Ooh, and a bit of teaching too (keep forgetting about those pesky teenagers upstairs!).
Bring it on!
Gumboot Socks and Ice Cream Quilt
Well, with a few days still in hand, I have completed the January Gumboot socks, and I am very pleased with them:
And I wasn’t just modelling them for the camera either – they got their first outing to our local park this morning for my walk with the hounds:
Now granted, I don’t have on the corduroy mini skirt, coloured tights and short Hunter wellies that the girl in the knitting book photo has, but I still think they look pretty good!
I had worked hard all through the week (housework, grown up work, Homeschooling etc) so that I could have a free weekend, so on Saturday, following the urge to do some sewing, I decided to set up the machine in the kitchen and endeavour to finish the Kaffe Fassett Ice Cream Quilt that I have had going for over a year. Gary was out at work, so I was able to turn the kitchen table round, put up the extension bit, and pretty much take over the kitchen for the whole day. The quilt had become so big that it was really quite difficult to work with in anything other than a large space! Anyway, following a last minute dash into town to get some cotton batting (I think that’s how you spell it!), I was finally able to sew in the last stitch this morning:
It’s amazing just how perfectly it matches in with our newly decorated room – clearly I’m fairly consistent when it comes to favourite colours!
(the colours aren’t brilliantly represented in the photo, since the light was quite poor, but I wanted to put the picture up anyway!)
So that’s one huge project completed, and one smaller project completed – both really great in their own way.
Today Jen came up for a Sunday afternoon meeting of the CCG, and we agreed that it wouldn’t be cheating to cast on the February socks…. I also cast on some Muckle Mitts using some of my remaining Shetland wool, since snow has been forecast! I so enjoy wearing my Sheep Heid hat that it’ll be great to have some mitts in the same colours.
Jen also brought me a sourdough starter for a Friendship Cake which I now have to nurture for ten days until I can use it to bake a cake, but also divide off some of the mix to give to two other friends. I think this is a really delightful idea – a sort of edible chain letter really – and I’m looking forward to passing it on I due course. Along with the starter, Jen also brought the apple cake she had made with her mix, and it tasted delicious!! I have to say that the CCG certainly has made, and continues to make my life richer!
