Whew, just realised it was over a week ago I posted last and it’s not for lack of things to say…quite the opposite really.

So, when I spoke last we were getting ready for our Annual Barbecue, this has become a fixture in our social calender since we invited people round for a barbecue on our 1st wedding anniversary…actually before that I used to have an annual summer barbecue for my work colleagues years ago when I was single and then a second one for my friends. Since Jon and I got married we’ve carried on inviting our friends and family over at least once during the summer for a big get together.

We have smaller gatherings with just a few friends all through the year but twice a year we invite everyone. One of these events is a pre-Christmas Mince Pie and Mulled Wine party for just our friends, not family. We have this on the last Friday before Christmas as a chance to spend time with our friends before Christmas as we are all focussed on our families over the Christmas period. This event is always very relaxed with maybe 20-30 people, we have parlour games and everyone gets a present from Santa’s Sack - it’s a bit like a bran-tub affair with lots of very silly, cheap presents.

During the summer we have our barbecue which seems to get bigger every year, all our friends and family are invited and we provide meat and veggies for the barbecue with everyone else bringing salads, desserts and drinks. It’s a wonderful day every year, a lot of our friends have children so they are running around the garden playing swingball, quoits, climbing our trees or playing on the swing. It’s open house all day from about 2pm so people come and go depending on the age of chidren who have to be taken home to bed, people working and coming over later in the evening…this year over the course of about 12 hours from 2pm to 2am we had around 30 adults and a dozen children aged 10 months to 9 years old passing through our garden.

Here are some of our photos - click to see them larger or to go to Flickr to see the rest -

As you can see from the pictures the weather was VERY good to us, probably one of the hottest sunniest days we’ve had all year…very similar to the weather 7 years ago

As the sun went down on our barbecue it stayed fairly warm and there were people out in the garden till pretty late, we lit the candles and torches and one of our friends put on a show for us with his “Fire Poi”

As usual, a lovely day and not enough time to talk properly to all our friends.

Since then the weather has turned and it’s been cold and today it’s wet and windy so I think we picked the best day!

I’ve been doing plenty of knitting this week but most of it is secret so I can’t show you much - I’m in several Swaps at the moment and I know my partners are checking blogs so can only tell you this much.

This is a project for the HSKS3 swap

 

As you can probably guess, my swap partner is in Hufflepuff House!

I’m also working on this for my hubby

ok- so that’s just a bag of yarn I know! From the colours the observant amongst you might see the Harry Potter theme here as well, bought this about a year ago for the Gryffindor colours and it’s been lurking ever since. This is being knit into a top secret project for J (no peeking….)

Non secret knitting has been started -

 

I finally decided between the three projects I’ve been wanting to start - Rogue, Eris and Arwen - and went for Arwen from Interweave Knits Winter 2006. The yarn was purchased specifically for this project (or whichever of the three I decided on) with an Angel Yarns voucher I received in Secret Pal 3. I’ve made a couple of adjustments to the pattern.

As I’m substituting Jaeger Extra Fine Merino DK for the Debbie Bliss specified and this has a lower yardage on the ball band I wasn’t totally sure I would have enough yarn. It was going to be tight anyway so I decided to knit the hem facings with a different yarn, this i an airforce blue Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK I’ve had in the stash for a while. Contrasts well with the baby blue Jaeger.

Also, rather than sew the hem facing up and have to do invisible stitches (and I hate sewing stuff anyway) I used a crochet provisional cast on with waste yarn -

and then when the body was the same length as the hem facing I took out the waste yarn, put the stitches on another needle and then knit together one hem stitch with one body stitch across the row. I think it looks very neat -

I’m knitting this on my Brittany Birch Needles (birthday present from hubby) which I really love using, they are so smooth and so light!

I’ve completed the back of the cardigan and reached the sleeve on the left piece of the cardigan. For anyone not familiar with the pattern it is an unusual construction in just 3 pieces. The back is knit as one piece, then the left front is knit, when the armhole is reached stitches are cast on to form the sleeve, the shaping is done with short rows and the sleeve is then knit along with the body thus knitting up and over the arm. The sleeve stitches are then cast off and the left side of the hood is then knit in one continuous piece with the body. The right side is knit the same.

I’ve knit the left front to the sleeve and currently working my way over the shoulder… I’d forgotten how much I love cables…

More swap news, I recently hosted a swap on swap-bot for Knitting Accessories - send at least 2 knitting accessories (stitch markers, row counters etc) to your partner. My partner was Marie Sierra and she sent me this wonderful parcel

 - includes a skein of Plymouth Encore DK, a box of green tea, a hand-knit wash-cloth, some lavender sachets in this beautiful pink organza bag

and best of all (I actually squealed when I opened it) the book Amigurumi: Super Happy Crochet Cute by Beth Doherty. I have wanted this book for so long, it isn’t sold in this country - I could get it on Amazon but I’d have to pay huge amounts of postage so this was so lovely to receive as a gift

J has already requested the monkey on the left of the picture!!!

That’s about it for now - I’ve just sent off two swap parcels so will write about them when they’ve been received.

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Tags: SP3, HSKS3, barbecue, amigurumi, arwen,

This evening we let the chickens out in the garden for the first time. They’ve been with us a few weeks now but they’ve been living in their ark. We didn’t plan to let them out this evening, I was going to wait a week or so more and get the fences & gate checked out properly..however, Demelza had different ideas.
I was home early today as DH and I both had to go for medicals (for the adoption application) and when I got back I went out to check the chickens had water and give them a few handfuls of grain. As I was changing the water Demelza made a bid for freedom and  bolted past me and out of the ark, as she was out I decided I may as well leave the door off and let the other two out.

We had hours of amusement watching the three of them investigating the garden. DH spent the whole time panicking that (a)  the cat would get them (b) they would jump over the fence or (c) they wouldn’t go back into their house.
As far as (a) went, Simpson did have one go at them - they squawked a lot and fluttered away. He then spent the evening sat with us on the patio watching them VERY closely!
(b) Well, they didn’t jump the fences but Morwenna became very determined to jump on the pation chairs and then the table.

She did this several times before making her final intent clear and making a bid for the roof of our single storey extension! Luckily she didn’t make it or goodness knows where she would have ended up! She then wandered off down the garden a bit and promptly “flew” up into a bush at which point I decided I had better clip her wings. As she was perched in a bush it was quite easy to pick her off her branch, DH got the scissors and we clipped her feathers on her left wing. Hopefully that will stop her!

And as it started getting dark they wandered back towards their ark (with just a little encouragement from us)

So, all very exciting but I’m very happy that they made it through their first outing safely. I’m planning to let them out every evening when we’re home then all day at weekends to start with and then I may just leave them out all the time just shutting them up at night.

As this is supposed to be a knitting blog here is some knitting content -

This is the finished Ms Marigold. I actually finished her about a week ago as she was very fast to knit taking about 3 days to knit. I love the finished tank-top, it’s just what I wanted for work on those slightly colder autumn days - smart but with slightly querky features such as the ruffles on the shoulders.

The pattern was not the best pattern I’ve ever followed, there are no stitch counts after increases - it simply says “increase until the piece measures x inches” so you are not sure how many stitches you should end up with. I increased as much as I wanted, worked the body and then did some extra increases at the side to fit over my hips…then realised  I had an even number of stitches but not one that was divisible by 4…except I didn’t realise this until I worked the first round of 2×2 rib and got back round to the beginning to find I’d just worked 2 knit and needed to work another 2 knit for the beginning of the second round!!!!

However, I do like the idea of knitting the shoulders and back altogether and then joining in the round so there are NO seams to sew….I love this idea as I hate seaming and also you get such a smooth outline with no seams.

I wore this to work today and got lots of compliments.

I’ve also made a start on some Christmas knitting - as two people told me in the past 4 days how many weeks it is till Christmas!

This will be a “Weasley Sweater” from Charmed Knits by Alison Hansel although it is also available for free on her blog here. It’s based on the sweater Mrs Weasley knits for Harry Potter for Christmas in the first book, this one has a “T” as it’s for my friends son, Thomas.

The yarn is an aran weight tweedy wool in a dark navy and a bright green. I bought this in a little craft shop in Dingle, Southern Ireland a few weeks after Thomas was born, I’ve tried knitting it up about 4 times since then but always been disappointed and frogged. This sweater seems perfect for it - being a big believer in fate etc I am convinced I was drawn to buy it in order to knit a sweater for Thomas when he was older. I bought him a pottery mug in the same shop as a Christening present.

I am still working on the Genome Socks from Interweave Knits Fall 2007 for a swap partner and have just about half the leg to complete.

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Tags: chickens, leghorns, knitting, weasley, genome, marigold

Well, it’s been a very busy weekend - but a very enjoyable one. The weather here has been lovely as well which made it much nicer.

On Saturday we finally got to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End. We went to the cinema in Maidenhead to “The Gallery” — this is a more expensive ticket which means you get a seat in the back two rows of the cinema, the seats are huge leather seats (which I can actually curl up in) with loads of leg room and a table for your drinks etc. Before the showing you go to a separate little bar area where you can have free popcorn, chocolates, nachos and soft drinks. You can buy alcoholic drinks and take these in to the cinema with you. We often buy a bottle of wine and take that in. Just before the film starts you get ushered in to your seats and taken right to them….it’s brilliant and we often pay the extra for big films that we really want to enjoy.

DJ is 6′4″ and so he appreciates the leg room, I love being able to curl up in a comfy seat. Also, the seats have more banking and so you get an uninterrupted view with no-ones heads in the way, with me being somewhat shorter than 6′4″ I appreciated that!!!!!

The film itself was great - I love Pirates and so was very excited. It was funny, exciting and had a bit of mushy romance too….I really enjoyed it. Yaaaarrrrrr!

Sunday was a very busy day - did some gardening then after lunch we went down to the park in Marlow on the banks of the Thames. We bought an ice cream and then settled down to watch the cricket -

They went in for tea after the visitors were all out for 121

so we went down to say hi to the swans

and then wandered home via the supermarket where we decided to buy the makings of a meze for tea as the weather was so lovely. When we got home we made a pitcher of Pimms and settled down on the decking to enjoy our meze -

Pitta, houmous, olives, mozarella & sundried tomato, falafel and cheese pies - delicious! We could almost imagine we were back in Turkey where we went on holiday last year.

I then decided to go on a nature hunt around my garden - I aim to have a wildlife haven but even by my standards the garden is a little overgrown at the moment. I wasn’t able to do much work out there last year and so things have got a bit out of hand. Still, here are a few highlights from the garden at the moment -

This rose is called “Anniversary” and was bought for our wedding anniversary by a friend a few years ago. I love it as it’s an old-fashoined rose with a lovely scent.

Yellow Flag Iris - I try to plant native plants only around my garden and in particular in my pond. Yellow flag iris can be seen anywhere there is water in Britain. They are also called Jacob’s Sword and are a sign of spring and often thought to be the source of the fleur-de-lys in heraldry. Apparantly the root is a cure for toothache! There are now loads of these in my pond and they are about the first thing to show some colour in the year. They are going over a little now but are still a big attraction for bees and dragonflies…..

….as is this - I’m not sure what the shrub is as it was here when we moved in, (possibly a Syringa of some sort?) but the bumble bees love it with it’s sprays of multi-petalled flowers. You can see the pollen sac on the back leg of this bumble bee. I love seeing the bees in the garden and have several bug and bee houses around the garden to give them places to hibernate, I try to be organic and encouraging bees and ladybirds ensures other bugs are kept down.

Cranesbill - this is he hardy geranium and spreads like mad all around my pond. Not strictly within my “native plants only” ideals but they were here and they cover the ground so whilst other things are being established I’ll let them stay.

This is a dog-rose (Rosa Canina) planted as part of a native hedgerow I am growing at the end of our garden. The hedge also includes hawthorn, field maple, guelder rose, spindle and honeysuckle. It as reached about 5′ this year from tiny bareroot “canes” planted about 18 months ago. This year I hope to trim or “lay” the hedge to thicken it up and provide a real habitat for birds and small animals.

Blackberry brambles - yes, I have brambles in the garden….probably a few more than I’d like but I do encourage one particular patch of them at the end where the native hedge is as they are the archetypal English hedgerow plant as far as I’m concerned. It also means I don’t have to go far to do my blackberrying in the autumn.

Victoria Plum - we have a large, ancient apple tree at one end of the garden and last year we planted a plum, a cherry and another apple tree close to it as the start of a small orchard. The land our house is built on was once an orchard, or so we’ve been told, and so our old apple could be one of the original trees from that orchard. The trees we’ve planted are only about 4′ tall at the moment but the plum at least is loaded with fruit.

Lupins are my favourite plant, they are just so “cottage gardeny” the flowers are these wonderful spikes in various colours and the leaves are like little hands. After it’s rained each leaf has a water drop caught at it’s centre. I’ve planted loads of these but so far this year these are the only flowers I can see.

Foxgloves - these self seed themselves everywhere in the garden and pop up in the most unlikely places in all sorts of colours. I’m trying to encourage them at the very end of the garden where I’m trying to establish a small “woodland” area - I’ve planted a silver birch, a rowan an alder, spindle and a few woodland plants so far. Hoping to get bluebells, snowdrops and anenomes down there too.

Simpson loves our garden as it provides lots of places to prowl and hunt, unfortunately he does this quite successfully and last night came in with a mouse! Luckily (or unluckily?) he always manages to capture his mice alive and so we have to get him to drop them and then try to catch and release them. The one he brought in last night managed to run straight into the utility/downstairs shower and is now hiding somewhere behind the washing machine…..

…that’s what he thinks of that!

Later on Sunday evening we had an online, transatlantic baby shower for our friend Lunesse and her hubby. We’ve known Lunesse for a long time but never actually met in person. We communicate via email and i-chat so we do actually speak “face to face” as it were via the wonders of webcams and the internet. Lunesse was feeling a bit down as nobody had organised a baby shower for her so we decided we’d throw one, after all if we lived nearby we would have been holding one for her so why let the small matter of 7,000 miles, an ocean and an 8 hour time difference stop us?

We posted off a big parcel of goodies and instructions not to open until they were online through the webcam. We organised for the party to take place at 9pm our time on Sunday and so we got ourselves settled with a glass of wine and some baby shower decorations up. We also sent decorations across to the US and so we had the same decorations both ends of the web link-up. We had a great time chatting to our wonderful friends and I think they liked the presents we sent…..they have about 10 weeks to go before the arrival of the baby and hopefully some day we will get to meet them all.

Incidentally, in order to check the distance between us for this post I typed their zip code in google maps and then requested directions to our postcode in England. I’ve no idea what I thought it would give me as directions but this is what I got. Drive out of their place in the west of the US, drive right across America to New York and then…

28. Turn right at Long Wharf

29 Swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Entering France

30 Slight right at E05

Can you believe it, someone actually programmed it to tell me to swim across the Atlantic!!! Made me giggle for quite some time! Interestingly to cross the Channel I’m not advised to swim (guess I’d be too tired after the Atlantic) instead they suggest the train through the Channel Tunnel.

Finally, knitting! Yes, I did manage to do some knitting as well

The Cobweb Shawl in Melon pattern is progressing -

The border is actually now much further on, I’ve complete one long side, the corner, one short side, the next corner and about a third of the second long side. I think this should be complete in the next day or two and then will have a severe blocking.

I also started the groom’s present for this wedding - I’m using this

to make these -

I should point out that my friends are South African and so these socks are in the colours of the South African flag - black, red, green, gold and blue (I know there’s also white in the flag but I’m not sure if I’ll use any white).

So there you have it - a June weekend in rural England!

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They have been enjoying Springtime in my pond and this is the product of their “activity”

also in my garden

Daffodils -

Forsythia -

and Rosemary

all in bloom VERY early. Wouldn’t expect to see most of these until mid to late March and they’ve been out for a couple of weeks already. All our news programmes are talking about climate change and global warming and Spring coming earlier.

We’ve had a very mild, very wet winter here in England and things never really stopped growing but I still love to see that Spring is on the way and I’ll be able to get out in my garden planting things soon.

technorati tags:spring, frog, frogspawn, forsythia, daffodils, rosemary, yellow

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This is the scene I awoke to this morning

It is now 10.45 and it is still snowing (not quite as much now as it was) and J and I have just built a snowman !

…rolling snow for his body…

 

…the artist sculpts his features….

 

 

 

….here he is!

And some arty snow shots of my garden -

 

 

….a leaf bud on my hazel bush…

 

 

 

 

 

 

….and a catkin on the same hazel bush…. 

 

 

 

 

 

….and snow piled up on another hazel, a corkscrew hazel ….

 

 

 

 

More pictures onFlickrr of our garden and the park in Marlow.

I’m staying at home today knitting socks!