Recovery

This week the theme has been extreme tiredness from the cold/flu bug, I have been at work but exhausted by 8pm and asleep in the chair. Spring is really waking up the flowers in our garden and the pots outside our back door are beautiful, even on gloomy days like today its as if we've trapped a few sunbeams. The cowslips are forming a beautiful clump just behind the terracotta birdbath. The Polyanthus and Daffodils together with a little purple Wood Anemone brighten up the base of the wall. Further along the border the ruby coloured Helleborus are almost finished flowering but the pink Bergenia (Elephants Ears) are just beginning to flower. Our garden is small, only 15 foot long x 20 foot wide, but I try to have something in flower or colour foliage all year round. The last photo for today is of the camellia at the end of the garden against the garage wall. I planted it as a small cutting approximately 9 years ago, It is now just about 5ft tall and looks beautiful. The photo doesn't do the colour justice, but then I was playing with my old camera! Tony took one earlier in the week with his camera and the colours are much better. I have finished my shawl and it looks lovely. I think I need to crochet or knit an edging so I'm on the hunt so a suitable pattern, any ideas please? I have started a wrap in a beautiful mauve yarn which I bought from a table sale, 50p for a 300g cone. I decided it would be perfect for a lacey shawl I wanted to knit, but oh dear, the yarn is slightly fuzzy so if I made a mistake it was very difficult to undo as it knotted its self up! I decided to knit it up in stocking stitch and then crochet a fancy border. Hopefully it will be lovely for a summers evening to keep off the chill. I have also just cut out the pattern for a shirt in a mauve liberty print cotton lawn, so I shall be doing some sewing this week. I hope you have a happy week, we are on the downhill ride to the Easter holidays so three days of school, a parent consultation day then an INSET day - yipee! holidays. Jane x

Mothers Day

We spent Mothers day at Nymans National Trust House and Garden. It was a beautifully warm sunny day but I was not feeling very well from my cold, so I'm dressed as though its six foot of snow. The gardens were full of plants in flower: Daffodils, Camellia, Magnolia, Fritillery and Rhododendrons. We wandered at our leisure admiring the views and then chose a bench in the sun to picnic on. It was a lovely day, just what a Mummy needed - sunshine and flowers. I hope your weekend was good too. Jane x

Glass Bowl, a Rainbow Shawl and a Rotten Cold

Last weekend on our visit to Dorset I bought a lovely little green glass dish, its quite an unusual shape. Does anyone know what it was originally used for please? on Monday Evening I started a cold - not that unusual, except Tuesday morning I felt so rotten I couldn't get out of bed. I had all the usual symptoms of temperature, sore throat, streaming cold, aches and pains but I also felt as though my legs wouldn't hold me up and I lost my appetite. I spent some time knitting which has speeded up progress on my shawl wonderfully. I am up to row 87. I have also slept quite a bit, and yesterday I made a Bounding Bunnypin which Jenny had designed. Sadly I managed to mess up one ear but Em thought he was cute, so instead of throwing him away I stitched a safety pin to the back and she pinned him to her Ikea heart cushion. Hopefully I have turned the corner now and life will resume its normal pace soon. Happy Weekend and Happy Mothers Day for Sunday to all Mums around the British Isles. Jane x

Birthday celebration, Ofstead and Knitting

On Saturday we went to visit Ali for a Birthday celebration, we had a delicious meal out. Now I can show you a photo of the teddybear jumper I knitted for Ali's bear, Timber. I knitted it on dpns and I followed a pattern which I found here. There is also a blog which I thought looked interesting, and I like the monkey blanket. It is very cute and also it might appeal to Monkey Maker. Yesterday the school had its Ofstead inspection and at the moment we are awaiting the final report for the grading but it is a good result. Needless to say the staff are all very happy and relieved. Knitting hasn't been so good. When I started the shawl I made a very silly mistake. So, having done 120 rows I had to take it all out and start again. It took me 2 hours to rip out nearly two weeks knitting work - groan and it looked so lovely too :-( I have started the shawl again and managed 18 rows thus far, at the moment my rows are 360 stitches long and seem to take for ever.
I hope you have a good weekend. Jane x

Sewing and Bushfire Appeal.

This weeks return to school has been a busy one and our three years is up, so an Ofstead Inspection is due to take place in the next 12 months. At home this week there was a lot of excitment for Emily as she started her Electric Guitar lessons on Thursday. She loved her teacher and enjoyed the lesson, which was a relief. On the crafting front I have been making pincushions and needlecases; both sets are going out to Australia. I sent one set in a zippered pouch with the books to Jarryd, the other is going to the quilter who lost everything along with a couple of fat quarters. I have continued to knit more of my shawl and it is slowly growing, the rows are so long it takes me nearly ten minutes per row! I had to frog my sock as it was too big, so once I need a rest from ten minute rows I'll start again with a smaller size sock. On Friday at work, we had a coffee morning to raise money for the Australian Red Cross Bushfire Appeal. We raised £60. 86 which is approximately $135.00 which was wonderful and several people bought / made cakes too. I made the one in the middle with the white icing and Thank You written in blue, lots more delicious cakes arrived after I had taken the photo which I'm sure helped us raise so much money. I'm off to knit some more of my shawl now, I hope you have a good week. Jane. Oh and this pretty and clever young lady is celebrating her birthday tomorrow. Happy Birthday Ali from Mum, Dad and Em x