Knitting news & garden

Hello there,

Thank you for visiting my blog last week and for leaving a comment, I read every one. 
I hope you all had a lovely Easter... I meant to post this on Friday. 
 
This week I've been knitting up a storm. I've finished the Shawl from a Facebook KAL (knit-a-long). It was chosen as a suitable Lent project. Yesterday I blocked it and left it drying overnight. It's the first time that I've blocked properly. In the past I've pinned and sprayed the knitting with water... it didn't work satisfactorily. I've decided to have another go at blocking a Lent scarf, that I made a few years ago. It has never looked flat, rather the edges have curled in. 

Close up of the lace design

I finished this book last week. I'm working my way through Faith Martin's series 'Ryder and Loveday'. I'm thoroughly enjoying the series. It features 1960's WPC Loveday being put to one side to 'help' coroner Dr Ryder. He used to be a top surgeon until his health forced him to change career. When cases seem unsatisfactory in the coroner's report, Ryder requests it is looked into further. Loveday 'assists' part time, then returns to the station daily, to continue her regular work. I've ordered the next book through the library. 

The fenced off area, Mark is trying to improve the soil. It is wet and slippery clay soil. So he's removing clay plugs and replacing it with multi-purpose compost and grass seed. He sectioned the first part off with a fence. 

In the autumn we emptied one of the compost bins onto this bed. Last week, we added some chippings from Johnny's work. The men dropped half a builder's bag off and stopped to cuddle Angus, of course. Hopefully it will help to keep down the weeds. If more chippings are available, we'll continue round the corner with the wild flower border.

A lovely lot of bulbs waiting for their turn to bloom, after the daffodils.

Take care and have a good week.

 

Easter :: Friday Catch Up

Hello there, I hope you had a lovely time at Easter. This week has flown by with lots happening in a short week. We had a lovely time over Easter... a 4 day break. Followed by Doctor's appointments for thyroid blood check (waiting results). Hospital for dietitian, very interesting but hard to understand (foreign accent), feeling hopeful but it's all going to take time. Doctor's today for an inflamed lump... antibiotics and a letter sent to the breast clinic. Always check and go see your doctor... it may be nothing.
My Nan passed away today, at 97 years old, she lived a good life. She had 10 children and numerous grandchildren. It's safe to say that she will be missed. Mum phoned and said that my uncle passed away 12 days ago as well. 
I feel all behind lately, so a quick Friday Catch Up blog today. Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment, I'll try to catch up with visiting this week. 

Easter flowers and an enjoyable read. Set in wartime Britain, not children evacuees but pregnant woman. The WI are involved and plenty of cups of tea.  

Easter Cactus from Morrison's. I thought the flowers would open like the Christmas Cactus. These flowers open in the sun and close in the evenings. 

The mystery KAL (knit-a-long) for Lent, finished - all he ends have been sewn in now. It's 50% wool and acrylic, so nice and warm as a small lap blanket. The Kildalton Cross, Isle of Islay. 

Book read for the Bookclub. A very good read, not a psychological thriller (thankfully) but with twists and surprises, you'll definitely be entertained.  

A before and after of a 'clean & treat' garden bench 'Nancy Birtwhistle' style. Using home ingredients  to remove the algae and bird droppings and to preserve the wood. 

At the village coffee morning, a little girl handed out crochet flowers. Her Grandma made them. It was so sweet to be given a flower and have your cup of tea and scone order taken, by a little person :)
I think she was 7 years old. 

 Not a lot of birthday cake left over. Morris is his name. 

Happy Birthday to my son, first born, number 1 son... Nathanael / Nat... 25 years old! 

That's all my news for now, take care.
Cx

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Craft & Garden

Hello there, I hope you are well.
Yesterday was the local WI meeting, I went with a friend and met another 2 ladies from my village. One of the ladies, I see at the monthly coffee morning, the other was her daughter. Sadly I didn't win anything in the raffle. After the business (minutes of last meeting read out, any notices, birthday gifts handed out etc) we listened to a speaker, the lady accompanied by her husband talked about their involvement in Tanzania. It was interesting because the WI is not a religious organisation (though we do sing Jerusalem), I'm so used to hearing about Christian involvement in helping other countries - such as Compassion UK in Kenya where we sponsor a girl... that to hear how they manage to find money, mostly from family and friends, then go and help was amazing. 
I felt that I recognised them both, they are around 70+ years, so after the meeting, I went and spoke to them. It turned out that they are indeed familiar, serving in the Co-operative health store in town. It's a partner run store, quite small and not related to the nationwide Co-op stores at all. I think that the work they do is amazing, especially as they aren't part of a big organisation and have no major financial input.

I wasn't really sure what I was going to show you on this week's Five on Friday, it falls in with craft and garden, so here we go.  

 1) A Christmas gift from Mark. It's a wooden Hare coaster which I think is too good to be used. One day I may use it but for now, it sits on the table next to me in the lounge. I love it.

2) Kalanchoe plant, a gift from my son and Fiancée. I hope that it survives for a while... any plants that are needing repotting or look half dead, I take to a lady in our old village. She loves tending to them, whereas I don't. I trim plants as needed and feed them in the growing season but that's all. I did re-pot a Christmas cactus once but the roots never spread into the soil. I once followed the lady's advice for an orchid and it developed growth and flowers. That is my limit though.  

3) Finished Craft Project - A knitted shawl for a lady that I work for. It was supposed to be for Christmas. Anyway it's finished now. It's knitted in James Brett Marble chunky yarn, on size 6 mm UK needles. I can't say that I like kitting on big needles, Aran weight yarn is the thickest that I'm happy to knit.  

4) Angus outside topping up his Vitamin D 

5) The view from my kitchen window at the front of the bungalow and the heather round the back  garden. The view is of the Lincolnshire Wolds, which I can see reasonably clearly, though not any detail. The soon as the camera is pointed at it, it's blurry or looks non-existent. It's a lovely view that I never tire of seeing whilst washing up. The bush needs cutting back twice a year, with sharp thorns all over it, Mark bought some long leather protective sleeves. He chain sawed the top off to bring it to about 5ft tall. It's supposed to stay at 4ft according to the deeds on the property. 

Bye for now.

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Finish & Start:: Five on Friday

Hello there, a few recent finishes and a walk today. I thought I'd try a Five on Friday post today and see if anyone is interested in joining me. I still remember when Tricky used to host these on Fridays. It was always fun to see who'd joined in and go visiting new blogs. 
The first two photographs were taken at Knit & Natter in the week. I'm knitting a shawl now and reading 'Five Little Pigs' by Agatha Christie for the Read Christie 2025 Challenge  I may not read every month's book choice, just if I can get the book from the library in time. 

1) Finish:: Crochet baby blanket, intended for a charity make but... it's still at my house at the moment!
The bold colours are Rico baby cotton dk Grey blue, Mustard, Red, Plum and Blueberry. The cream is Stylecraft Bambino dk Clotted Cream. 
3.5mm crochet hook
The Ripple pattern is in this book I missed off a few inches in length. The border edging I made up my own, as I didn't fancy the scalloped fussy edge in the pattern. 
My edge has 2 plain cream edges, top and bottom a blue yarn to fill in and straighten the edge. Then 2 rounds in different colours and another round of slip stitch. 

2) Start:: Put the kettle on and make a cuppa. This is the photo that went on the church Facebook page to advertise the coffee morning
(My cat mug, Mark's Land Rover, Johnny's Guitar mug)
This week I started going to 'Movement To Music', it was a lot of fun. There were routines to 'wake up your brain' first, stretch out your muscles, help balance and general just 'move to music'. We finished with a cuppa, chatting with the next group to arrive for Line Dancing.  

3) Finish:: Holy Island by L J Ross - for the December bookclub read. A murder mystery with pagan ritual killings. My copy was on Kindle, generally I go with the cheapest, World of Books or Kindle. 
The reviews on Goodreads were quite poor but as it was for the bookclub, I felt that I should read it. I was hoping that the sisters could've resolved their issues, but overall I thought it was a good story. It's the first in the series of DCI Ryan Mysteries. 

4) Finish:: Another book for the bookclub, this time it was my choice. I borrowed this one from the library. Shay, the main character, cares for her parents and looks out for her adult children, typical of my generation. There are several stories interwoven, unravelling dramatically and resolved at the end. I enjoy reading Milly Johnson's books, there have been several of her books chosen for the bookclub. 

5) Finish:: A walk with Angus, at a local beach. The water is a long way out but thankfully it's not all grassed over with muddy dunes. Angus loved running up and down on the sand. He paddles quite happily without going in the main sea. It was a cold day with plenty of frost about.
Sadly the last two photos, the sun shone through the camera lens. The pathway leads you from the carpark to the sand. The sea is visible to the eye but lost in the glare. 
 

Thank you for visiting today. 

What are you making at the moment? 
What are you reading? 
Until next time, have a good weekend x

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