All together now ...

Finally, I have the girls back from their exciting adventures and, 'Stone me!', DD1 actually bought me back a gift from Normandy ... yarn!!

After the pleasant shock dispelled we made tea, looked at photos and chatted for hours mostly listening to her tales of the fun evenings spent on the beach with good friends and 'cool' teachers, who for once were letting their hair down to reveal very 'human and likeable personalities'.



Also, on a more serious note, she spoke about how moved she was on her visit to the war cemetries and the on-going gratitude shown towards British visitors for the friendship extended to France during WWII. I'm very grateful too - very grateful that I have such a mature and compassionate teenage daughter.



Whilst clearing away the tea things I put the teapot back on the shelf and realised what I'd make with her yarn ...

Friendship Tea Cosy
Size: for a 2pt tea pot
Materials: British Breeds Yarns Guernsey 5 ply as the main colour. Phildar Oxygène, shades 102 and 106, as the 2 contrast colours. Used just over half of each ball.
Needles: 3.75mm
Pattern: Tea by the Sea by Keren Smith

Another 5 days

What an exhausting and emotional week. The house has been like a departures/arrivals lounge with all the girls’ comings and goings on school trips. Not to mention the rehearsals for 5 concert appearances and 2 performances of the school play! All were simply amazing and enjoyable but after 3 hours sleep on Sunday night, and only just getting DD2 back from her week away, I couldn’t restrain the tears when waving DD1 off to Normandy at the crack of dawn on Monday. “It’s only 5 days mum!”, she calls back as they drive away in the drizzle. Only 5 days …

Love this time of year! Gorgeous long sunny days, usually not too hot or dry, and the rest of a hopefully long lazy summer stretched out ahead. Thanks to good Spring weather, the garden is absolutely bursting with blossom and fresh green shoots and looking it's very best at the moment - thankfully seducing my DH into developing his green fingers for a change this year ... and he's loving it!

After a massive clear out of wild blackberries and weeds in late April and a back-breaking digging over, (even proudly adding a sprinkle of home-made compost!), the vegetable boxes have been planted with red cabbages, beans, lettuces and shallots, and elsewhere herbs and tomatoes have been squeezed in to borders and potatoes stacked in stray buckets and tubs. Previous years' tayberries, blueberries and strawberries are plumping up once again - in fact, everything's shaping up nicely for those yummy summer muffins, salads and ices.

From top to bottom, left to right: tayberries, pyracanthus, peony, monarch,
lavendar, foxglove, smokebush and a mixed herb bed

Top left: cabbages and beans. Top right: blueberries.
Of course this all prettry tantilizing for rabbits, Sugar and Spice (bottom)

We're also busy preparing for holidays. Not our own exactly, but our two girls are are both off on separate school trips to Normandy and Somerset at the end of the month and I've been inundated with kit-lists, wish-lists and post-it notes everywhere reminding me about timings, schedules, emergency contacts, medical consent, diet sheets etc etc

And I'm trying really hard not to increase my burgeoning yarn stash at the moment or start another shawl. Instead I'm trying to finish my works-in-progress and planning ahead for Autumn / Christmas gifts - if you knew how unorganised I am you would understand. The good news is though that I have finished the lovely Clapotis this weekend thanks to a very very long day at the girls' music centre's annual garden party picnicing on strawberries and cream and listening to those very talented children performing a succession of soothing classics - my favourite was the cello quartet playing Pachelbel's Canon - sigh, a blissful afternoon.

Finished Measurements: Approx 60 x 12(-20) inches, unblocked
Materials: Skein Queen Elegance in Plumcious, DK, 2 skeins (200g)
Needles: I used 4mm which was smaller than pattern suggested.
Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert

Look at what I bought

What can I say ... I've been in a bit of a flurry over the past month, shamelessly knitting at every opportunity. I behave like this frequently when swept away by a new idea. Plus I've been feeling like an accomplished knitter after my Swallowtail Shawl and all that. Then one knit night, Skein Queen bought in a selection of her latest hand dyed yarns including 2 skeins of this little beauty which she had dyed especially for me ...

Skein Queen - Finesse in Plumcious

which I am turning into this ...

Clapotis Shawl - Kate Gilbert

and I also made another little purchase ...

Skein Queen - Finesse in Olive Tapanade

which I am turning into this ...

Madli's Shawl - Nancy Bush

Then I sat, slightly giddy from all that lovely yarn, knitting and quietly reflecting on the change in me over the past 7 months since I re-discovered knitting. Everything else can wait - the laundry, the weeds in the garden, the shopping - there's always tomorrow, right? Right! That's what I thought. I will get knitting into balance with everything else, soon. I'll just do a few more rows and reflect on that a bit more.

hi

well, here we go! ... my own blog

I perhaps should have done this years ago. I've gained so much recent inspiration from other generous bloggers, and so much encouragement from the Ravelry community, that I finally feel I can start sharing in this goodness that's abound in the creative online blogging community too.

So that's that for now, first post done.