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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Five on Friday - Memory Lane

Do you remember Five on Friday? Tricky from Fastblog ran it last and before him it was Amy at Love Made My Home. I've no idea who Amy took over from? A few of us in Blogland have missed seeing the Five on Friday posts, so I thought I'd host it and see if people want to join in. 

What is Five on Friday? 

It's a party inviting you to share a link from your 'Five on Friday Post' to mine, helping bloggers connect with friends through regular blogging. 

What could you post?

Anything that you share on your blog, eg craft, cooking, reading, trips, events etc. It could be 5 separate subjects or one subject with 5 steps eg cooking recipe steps, or craft steps made of your progress - to put together in a post. I wrote a post years ago about a walk and posted 5 different parts of the walk. It's really up to you.  

On my Kitchen windowsill I won the mauve plant in the pot at the WI raffle, any ideas what the plant is called please? There is a table of raffle prizes each month, my number was called first so I got to choose. The Primula or Primrose plants were a Mother's Day gift from Nat my son. Mark planted some form Johnny my youngest son, in the back garden. I love the cheerful colours of the plants and will enjoy seeing them flower each year.

On a dog walk Alpacas and Hyacinth, I love seeing flowers in people's gardens. The alpacas were a surprise. Our old house didn't have a front garden, so it's still a novelty seeing what people grow. We have a few bulbs growing wild to the side of our front garden. We planted them straight into the grass, when they die down, the grass is cut as normal. 

A spot of de-cluttering.  All the books have been bagged up ready to go. Every now and again, it's good to have a clear out of the excess stuff. Despite downsizing and getting rid of furniture and many, many items in cupboards, on shelves, in the shed and in all the rooms, there are still too many things. Now we are in a smaller property, our things need scaling back again. It's not as if I love shopping, but at some point, more things have come into the bungalow! Angus is hoping we've not de-cluttered the biscuits.

At the beach.  From 2 different beach walks, the first 3 photos are from Donna Nook. The sea is the other side of the sea defence (second photo), though even then, it's still a long way out. Donna Nook is an RAF bombing range, so you have to stick to the path when the red flags are out. You shouldn't wander off anyway, as there could be unexploded materials on the ground. The area is flooded with tourists each Autumn as the seals beach to have their pups along the coast line. It can be tricky with high tides as the fencing protects the seals from inquisitive tourists and their dogs, but it can stop the seals finding sanctuary in the dunes. 
The last photo is at Saltfleet, with no bombing range, instead there are several static holiday homes. This was inland, close to one of the holiday parks. I guess some may sit there and go no further, the sea is still a very long way out, so not one for paddling. Mablethorpe or Cleethorpes are better for paddling and spending the day at the beach.   

Hellebore my MIL favourite a lovely memory plant of her. They are beautiful plants, even if their blooms point down. Angus was her dog and he's been with us nearly 3 years now. We visited her grave last September, a long way to go back in Hampshire, so not a frequent trip. 

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Happy Friday

Hello there! Happy Friday, it's the weekend.
I hope you've had a good week. I'm not going to forget this week in a hurry, that's for sure. My youngest son Johnny couldn't start his car after work yesterday. I thought I'd try helping by jump starting the car manually... pushing. The trouble is neither of us really knew what we were doing, apart from me pushing the car across the car park. I now have achy arms and pain behind my knee. I felt the muscle go, ouch! 

After collecting him from town and grabbing the jump leads, we drove back into town later and met Mark. Starting in no time and keen to check the lights are off before locking the car for the day, we headed home in convoy. I'm so pleased that there was a Spaghetti Bolognaise waiting for us in the slow cooker. 

Mark's jigsaw puzzle finished, I bought it for his birthday 2 years ago. It has become a tradition around Christmas and New Year to work on a jigsaw puzzle. Though I didn't help, I like to see it finished and I think this one is nice... makes you think of holidays.

Beach walk

Out on a walk with Angus, just Mark and me today. On leaving the car park we walked along the tidal estuary, we met a man who was concerned about a lady in trainers, walking her dog far out towards the sea. We did see her but by then she was just a dot in the distance. 

I posted about this particular walk once before see here May 2017. It's changed quite a bit since then. Gone is the massive expanse of flat sand, now the grasses are taking over, they stretch far into the distance. To walk on them you need sensible waterproof shoes, not trainers. We wore our walking boots but didn't fancy dodging boggy muddy puddles. 

We've not walked this way before, usually we walk further out on the dry part to an island. We used to collect driftwood there but it was a struggle carrying it all back. This way leads to the campsite, these benches will be used a lot by the holiday makers very soon. 

A slim Angus, he's been on a diet. We started reducing his food as soon as we took him home, he was probably over 40 kg. We changed his food with the advice of the vet and pet shop. Sadly the food we chose was discontinued. We then started a long journey trying 2 different brands phasing in the new type. Neither type suited him and the vet warned that his weight was creeping back up again. I went back to the pet shop to find something else. 

Once he was settled, I noticed he was always hungry, thinking he was starving we went back to the vet and then started a proper 6 session weight loss plan. It has taken a long time but I'm pleased to say, he's reduced his weight to 32.8kg. Like Labradors, Goldie's have a tendency to always want food, so he'll always seem hungry.    

The Kennel Club Pedigree recommend 32 - 33Kg for his breed. With the help of the Vet Nurse, his food has been recalculated and this week his food has been raised to maintain his weight. We'll see the nurse next month to assess his weight. The vets are very pleased with his weight, it was slow and steady. He's done well too bless him. 

Thank you for visiting, take care. Do leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you. 
TTFN
Cathy