Just found this post lurking in the drafts where it had become lost in limbo - whoops! Enjoy!!!

30th October 2007

Well, I am sitting in an empty house thinking it is very, very quiet. Our friend Tracey has been visiting with her two daughters (aged 5 and 9) since last Thursday and it’s been a busy few days.

On Friday we took the girls to Legoland Windsor which is about 15 miles away from us, I think they had fun….

and we saw lots of lego….

…I even found some knitting….

…and because it’s close to Halloween they had a huge firework display at the end of the evening. This was probably the best firework display I’ve ever seen and it seemed to go on for ever…the photos don’t really do it justice.

On Saturday we walked down to feed the ducks and swans on the river in Marlow and stopped at the craft shop to buy paper and glitter and crayons to make witches hats and draw fireworks pictures. My brother came over late afternoon and we all went out to our local pub, The Marlow Donkey, to have dinner. When we got back home we played Singstar on the PS2 - Tracey and I singing along to our favourite 80’s songs!!  

Sunday was a quiet day at home playing on the computer games, with lego and then a killer game of Monopoly with Katy, Lucy and myself.

Monday we had a trip to London to visit the Natural History Museum - lots of dinosaurs

and then a whistle-stop tour of some of London’s more famous sites including the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament

We had so much fun this weekend and really loved having Tracey, Katy and Lucy stay with us…but my house now seems so quiet. I think I’ve finally reached the point where a house full of children seems normal and an empty house with Jonathan and I seems wrong. Throughout the adoption process which Jon and I have been enduring for the past 2 years we’ve gone through various stages - panic (can we really do this?), worry (will they let us do this?), dread (do we really want to do this?) but finally it feels right, I feel I have room in my life for children and things I want to share…..spending a weekend with 2 energetic girls I think settled any lingering worries about that.

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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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This is a long blog post as I’ve got loads of news to catch up on…

I promised more photos and full story on the Moonwalk last weekend. This week I’ve been feeling jet-lagged from missing a night’s sleep but otherwise fine - no aches and pains which is good.

This is mum and I with our medals in Hyde Park around 7.30 Sunday morning.

Ive been feeling jet-lagged all week but otherwise ok, no aches and pains to speak of so the training was worth it! I’ve collected around £560 from sponsorship which I’m really pleased with. The event was good but I didn’t enjoy it as much as when I took part 3 years ago. This year there were 15,000 entrants - nearly 3 times as many as 2004 - and that is just too many.

We never got clear of crowds and so were unable to get a good power-walk pace going, you were constantly having to slow, overtake and worst of all stop completely to wait to cross roads. This happened 3 times in the first 5 miles and at one point we had to wait for 14 minutes before we could get across, each time you were just getting a good pace you had to stop, get cold and then get your pace going again.

I don’t think either mum or I will do this event again, we will definitely do some more power-walking but we’ll find other events or plan our own and get sponsorship for Breakthrough.

Which reminds me - still time to take part in my prize draw! And tell your friends about it, link on your blog, put up a poster ….whatever.

Knitting News

I’ve finished my first crochet project - ever!! It’s a simple granny square cot quilt in Rowan Handknit Cotton DK, I love the bright colours.

I have loads more of this yarn as I purchased the quantities to crochet a full size blanket and only made a cot quilt so I may do some more crochet with the remainder. This quilt is a baby gift for a friend so I’m glad I got it finished in time. The baby is due in the summer and I wanted to make something summery - a bright cotton quilt seemed suitable and I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

I knit these super-quick this week, they are knit to a basic top-down pattern from The Natural Dye Studio in their Alpaca/Silk sock yarn. Amanda from Natural Dye Studio is running a competition for the Sock Yarn Club members to submit a photo for the cover of her pattern.

J is going to take some photos tomorrow for me to submit to Amanda - hopefully we may get some sunshine.

This is more Natural Dye Studio knitting -

A lace shawl in cobweb mohair in a lovely purple shade. The pattern is the Melon pattern shawl/scarf from Victorian Lace Today and I’m knitting this as a wedding present. I’ve only got a couple of weeks to get it done but it’s knitting up pretty quick. So far I’ve done 18 pattern repeats (out of 62) and I only cast on yesterday. It’s a 6 row repeat pattern over 10 sts and very easy to memorise.

Finally some of the many birds living in my garden -

This is one of a pair of wrens who often visit my patio - they spent a couple of hours this afternoon hopping round in this bush right outside my lounge chirping very loudly at each other. The picture isn’t brilliant as it was taken through the glass of the french windows.

Another visitor was this starling who perched on the table on the patio outside the lounge. Today we’ve been cutting the grass and doing some tidying out in the garden and also seen robins (they always come to see what we’re doing in the garden) a green woodpecker, the collared doves who nest in a bush in the garden and on Thursday a sparrowhawk which came and landed on the sundial/bird bath. Possibly the same one which killed a pigeon on our lawn a few months ago (see J’s photo on his blog here)

technorati tags:crochet, cot-quilt, sock, knitting, wren, starling, moonwalk

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I think I’m obsessed with them, hopefully it’s something I’ll work out of my system and then it will be gone….

First there was this one :-

Column of Leaves in Baby Camel DK from www.poshyarns.co.uk

Then there was this one :-

Old Shale pattern in Patons Spirit

…and now, there’s this one as well : -

This is Branching Out from www.knitty.com in Rowan Summer Tweed. I’ve had these two skeins in my stash for about 2 years now since I knit myself a summer top from Rowan 31. I realised last week that a friend’s birthday was fast approaching so went digging in the stash for something suitable for a quick knit present and came across them again.

What could I do with them - suitable colour for the friend, Summer Tweed seemed a sensible yarn to be knitting for a birthday at the beginning of May as the weather warms up….I really wanted to knit this friend a lacy shawl or stole but knew I did not have the time for something in Kid Silk Haze or some other cobweb yarn so could I perhaps knit a lacey stole/scarf in Summer Tweed?

The answer is yes, I could and here it is blocking on my kitchen floor -

I modified the pattern slightly - as I have a thing about symmetry I knit the two sides of the scarf from cast on edge to middle identically and then grafted them together. This means the lace pattern runs in the opposite direction on each side of the scarf which means that when it’s being worn the pattern will look symmetrical on each end of the scarf as it is worn……is it just me that has a problem with one side of your scarf going down and the other going up???

I have to say that the purple is not just in my knitting, here is just a random selection of the colour purple in my home.

my vacuum cleaner -

my bedroom -

my slippers -

Anyway, the birthday is tomorrow so I hope the summer scarf is well received…..I’m off to dig out the purple cobweb mohair I have lying around somewhere…….

technorati tags:knitting, yarn, scarf, knit

First a finished object, this is the Column of Leaves scarf I started knitting in Cornwall with the DK Baby Camel yarn from poshyarn. It was going to be my scarf for my ISE4 partner, but shortly after starting to knit I realised it just wasn’t right for my partner so it will now be a gift for a family member.
The pattern is the Column of Leaves from http://brookenelson.com/leafscarfpattern.html

I really love this pattern and will probably knit it again, as for the yarn - it is absolutely gorgeous, probably the softest yarn I have ever knit with. It was a joy to knit and I wil DEFINITELY buy Camel yarn again.

Here’s a close up of the pattern

It needs blocking and the ends weaving in, once that’s done I will post a final picture for you.

Now for the WIP -

I know…it’s not knitting but it’s what we spent all weekend doing! So, the walls,ceiling and skirting boards have a lovely fresh coat of paint, the horrid yellow paint on the windowsill has been removed to reveal the lovely quarry tiles and the light switches and plug sockets have been replaced.

So from this -

to this -

and from this -

to this -

Now we need to get new carpet and we’re done. We even had time to paint the smaller room as well -

Now we just have a pile of junk to get rid of that was filling these rooms!

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Regular readers may remember I mentioned a while ago that I had signed up to an online sock knitting competition “Sock Madness“. This is a timed competition to knit a pair of socks to a specified pattern. You are paired up with another knitter in your division, the pattern is sent out at a specified time then it’s needles up and race to knit the socks quicker than the competition. First to finish and post a picture on the flickr group wins and goes through to the next round.

So far I’m doing well and made it through to Round 3 which started on Wednesday afternoon UK time - I have great problems knowing about the time difference between here and each of my competitors so far who have all been in the US. I go to bed knowing they are still awake and knitting - I think I’m going to wake in the morning and find they’ve finished!

Anway, here’s the socks I’ve knit so far:

Round 1 - Mad Cows by Jennifer Booker Young

Yarn = Opal petticoat shade 1295 and Opal Uni in a sky blue.

Needles - Addi Bamboo 2.5mm dpn’s

Time taken - cast on 11.45am Saturday 10th March, second toe grafted 1.15pm Sunday 11th March (all times GMT)

The pattern is available on the Sock Madness blog here.

This sock is lovely - the pattern was really easy, just repeating stripes of solid and variegated with a short row heel and a flat toe with a kitchener graft. Very comfy to wear.

Round 3 - Madtini by Karin Bole

Yarn - hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester sock weight from the Natural Dye Studio colour “Blossom”. The photo on the left is much truer to the colours - the finished photo was taken under electric light at

Needles - Brittany Birch 3mm dpn’s

Time taken - the pattern for this arrived sometime on the evening of Thursday 22nd March but as this was my birthday I was out having dinner with my DH. I was off work the following day however and so managed to cast on about 9am Friday 23rd March and then finished sock no 2 at about 1.50 am Saturday 24th March (yes I stayed up until nearly 2 in the morning to finish - and this was actually 2.50 British Summer Time as the clocks went forward an hour at 1.00am, so I lost an hour!!!

I think these are my favourite Madness socks so far. The twisted rib on the cuff is really interesting and the simple spirals of looped stitches works brilliantly with the hand-dyed yarn. The heel is eye of partridge and this is the first time I’ve knit this.. but definitely won’t be the last, and the toe is again a flat toe with a kitchener graft.

Round 3 - Painted Madness by Tricia Weatherston

Yarn - Opal Handpainted “Herbstmelodie” colour 1980, this is a limited edition hand-painted yarn which is 75% superwash wool and 25% polyamide (and so machine washable - hooray!). It’s very much an autum leaves colour which makes it odd to be knitting in Spring - but I love autumn colours.

Needles - brand new Brittany Birch 2.5mm dpn’s sent to me by my Sockret Pal, Roo.

Time Taken - pattern arrived about 3pm Wednesday 4th April but I was at work, well technically I was at home but I was working from home which made it worse as I knew my yarn and needles were in the next room calling to me but I had to carry on working! I hadn’t actually decided on a yarn before the pattern arrived, had several to choose from. Finished work at 5pm but didn’t then cast on till about 5.30pm as I had to make a final decision on the yarn and then wind it. Finished 1.50am Saturday 7th April BST - another late night!

This time around I really didn’t think I had any chance, what with being at work on Thursday and then having a Moonwalk training walk that evening. Friday was a public holiday here in the UK (Good Friday) but we are indulging in the traditional British Easter weekend activity of DIY so I spent all day yesterday stripping wallpaper off walls, filling holes with plaster and scraping paint off windowsills - we are trying to get our spare room re-decorated so we can transform it into a child’s bedroom in preparation for our adopting a child/children.

However, my opponent this round, Neecie, emailed me on Thursday afternoon to say she was having to pull out injured….I’m really sorry for her but it did mean I’ve gone through to Round 4. Managed to knit Wednesday evening until I was about halfway down the foot. Completed sock 1 when I got home on Thursday before I went walking. Then cast on sock 2 and knit the cuff. Knit a bit of ribbing when I got up on Friday then the rest of the sock on Friday night after we stopped the DIY.

Not sure about these socks - love the colours and love the points on the cuff, however for me I would like the cuff a little less deep and to knit a little bit of leg between the ribbing and the heel because this would make it fit better with the sort of shoes I tend to wear. The heel is a flap heel which is fine but the toe is a “round toe” which I don’t find very comfortable to wear. Not sure if this is because I have very narrow long toes but to me the round toe looks like the sock has just been grabbed and drawn up like a drawstring bag - it doesn’t follow the shape of my foot like a flat toe or even a star toe…I may well unpick the toes and put a different one on now the competition is done. The photo below illustrates this  I think -

So, more DIY today, here’s the progress we made yesterday, forgot to take a before photo but if you look at the photo on the right - yes that wall is painted in camouflage! Imagine all four walls painted like that! The other walls were covered in wood-chip wallpaper painted in camouflage so we spent yesterday stripping that off.

The white spots everywhere are where we had to take out screws and rawl plugs and then fill the holes in the plaster…yes there really were that many screw holes in the walls! Today we have to sand the walls to get them smooth where we’ve filled and hope to paint the ceiling and put a base coat on the walls. My dad was helping yesterday and my brother is coming over today…. and the weather is lovely outside of course, if I’d planned on gardening it would be raining non-stop.

Enjoy whatever you’re doing this weekend.

technorati tags:sockmadness

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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! 

…it has been a lovely day. The weather was fantastic - cold but wonderfully sunny with a perfect blue sky.

J and I went shopping this morning in our nearest big town which is something we do very rarely, I’m not a shopper and don’t enjoy fighting my way through busy shops full of people but….J needed trousers and I needed to get some yarn and a pattern for a swap I’m in so….

We left home a little before 9 and arrived at about 9.30 so the shops hadn’t been open long and it wasn’t too busy. J got his trousers in Debenhams and we headed to John Lewis for me to buy the yarn and pattern.

As I very rarely get into an actual shop selling yarn (as opposed to virtual online ones) it was quite exciting to see all the colours together…I had a leaf through some pattern booklets and couldn’t resist buying two Debbie Bliss books-

on the left is the “Pure Cashmere” book and on the right Debbie Bliss Book Seven which has patterns for Soho and Cashmerino Aran. When I was sorting my stash the other week I discovered 4 hanks of pure cashmere in bright red, a bag of cashmerino aran also in bright red and some balls of soho (again in red) … not sure how I managed to buy so much bright red Debbie Bliss but there are some lovely patterns for hand warmers and scarves in the Pure Cashmere book and a pair of bright red cashmere hand warmers sound yummy!

Also in this picture is Rowan 41 which arrived in the post yesterday….I spent last night flicking through thinking “that’s gorgeous, I can see me wearing that” to practically every pattern!

After John Lewis, J and I strolled around the Oracle shopping centre in Reading and I did some serious luxury purchasing. It’s so long since I’ve treated myself to some real goodies so I went to town.

First stop, Hotel Chocolat this place firstc came to my notice about 8 or 9 years ago when they were just a mail order business and ran something called the “Chocolate Tasting Club”. The idea was you subscribed for a number of months for a fee and each  month in the post you received a box of a dozen chocolates, two each of 6 different chocolates I think. These were serious hand-made chocolates and you had a feedback card to fill in which then went back to the chocolatiers so they could try out new recipes and see what the reaction was.

The business grew and a few years ago changed it’s name to Hotel Chocolat but they still sell <i>serious</i> chocolates. Just before Christmas they opened up a shop in Reading and today was the first time I’ve been in there  - talk about a kid in a sweet store!

I bought three little packets of truffles (well, if you bought three together you got them cheaper) and a packet of the most amazing hot chocolate pictured above.

It comes as litle “marbles” of solid chocolate which you drop into a cup and then pour boiling milk over them and stir till they melt. The packet I bought is called Aztec Chilli and is as near as we can guess how the Mayans and Aztecs would have drunk chocolate - very bitter and flavoured with chilli and vanilla. I added a spoon of honey as well.

It’s definitely a differnt taste to Cadbury’s drinking chocolate - J didn’t like it (shame!) but I love dark, bitter chocolate and think it’s wonderful. I’m drinking it as I write this post - you get a real kick in the back of your throat from the chilli and the chocolate is as bitter as it gets. Yummy!

Right next door to Hotel Chocolat is another of my favourites - Whittards of Chelsea, tea paradise! I bought some things in here that are for presents and swaps so no pics I’m afraid. Also bought a jar of instant green tea with echinacea to take to work. I can never remember to take in milk so it’s easier for me to take instant tea or fruit tea, at the moment I’m drinking Rooibos (much to the amusement of my South African colleague!) 

After satisfying my insides it was time for some luxury for my outsides so next was a visit to Body Shop and then Crabtree & Evelyn. J always makes a pilgrimage to C&E at Christmas to buy me lots of goodies and a year or so ago he bought me a gift box containg goats milk products. I now use their Goatmilk Comforting Body Lotion all the time - it is wonderful. Goes on like silk and really does make you feel comforted!

This Christmas he dutifully bought me a gift box of Goatmilk products but it didn’t include the Body Lotion so I bought myself a big bottle today and then some Vitamin E moisturiser and Ginger shampoo in Body Shop.

This photo sums up my idea of heaven - a bath followed by covering myself in body lotion, a box of chocolates and my knitting!

Our final stop was at Waterstones. I cannot resist a bookshop and, despite having at least 100 books in my “to be read” pile, I still buy more. My excuse this time was I needed to buy Secret River which is the next book that my book group are reading …

…and when I picked it up it was one of their 3 for 2 books so it would seem silly not to take advantage of the offer. I immediately saw the Mitch Albom book “for one more Day”. I loved Tuesdays with Morrie (let’s face it, who didn’t?) and so had to buy this. Then I spotted “A Winter Book” by Tove Jansson.

As a child her Moomin stories were my favourite books but I’ve never read anything else by her. For those who don’t know her, she was a Finnish/Swedish writer born 1914 who died recently in 2001. Her parents were a Finnish sculptor and a Swedish cartoonist. Tove is most famous for the Moomin books which she wrote and illustrated - if you have never heard of them go get one and read it, they are wonderful.

This little book “A Winter Book” is a collection of short stories and essays written throughout her life.

And okay, I bought 4 books - it’s been ages since I read a good crime/detective/murder mystery so I bought Minette Walter’s latest “The Devil’s Feather”

I’ll just add them to the pile…..

We finished our shopping by midday and drove back home, I had to be round at my friend’s house by 1 to drive to High Wycombe to see a matinee performance of Swan Lake on Ice by The Imperial Ice Stars.

 We were taking her daughter (my God-daughter) who is 6 and also my friend’s sister was coming with her two girls 5 and 8.

The show was amazing - we were just transfixed all the way through. An ice-dance show in a theatre, can you imagine???!! They had laid ice on the stage (somehow…) and they were doing all these amazing ice dance moves, which they usually do on a huge ice-rink, on a tiny stage.

My G-D thought the best part was when the prince dances with Odile (the Swan Queen) for the first time. She was on a wire so kept spinning up into the air whilst they were dancing. One minute they’d be spinning on the ice, then he would lift her up, then lift her above his head .. then she’d keep going up into the air. My G-D now wants to go flying on a wire….in the woods….

II couldn’t promise to get her to fly (even if I am her Fairy Godmother - very long story) but I got her a t-shirt, and then bought one for myself. Ok, it’s a child’s t-shirt but who cares I think it’s cute….I got a pink one (of course) for my G-D and a white one for me. I’ll get a picture of hers sometime but here’s mine

So, knitting progress today very little although I did sit and turn the heel on my Bayerische sock whilst watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (gotta love Johnny Depp) this evening, followed by Notting Hill.

Off to bed now. I have swap packages to pack tomorrow - very exciting. Magic Yarn Ball swap and Winter Scarf Knit Kit swap to sort and pack ready to send to my swap partners.

I also hope to finish the first Bayerische sock, pick some yarn for my Vintage Sock KAL for Feb/March - Plain Winter Sock - do some more on my UFOs and, if the weather holds, get out for a walk to keep up my marathon training.

Busy weekends….I love them  

I have a very special love for the book Peter Pan - probably comes from being called Wendy. I don’t know when I first read the book, or how many times I have re-read it since, but it always amazes me each time.

The book was also, apparently, my dad’s favourite book when he was a boy and his younger brother was named Peter at his insistence! (not sure if I’m Wendy for the same reasons!). My dad is John so we only need a Michael for the set.

I always identified much more with Peter Pan than with Wendy - fighting pirates and indians sounded much more fun than having a Wendy house and looking after Lost Boys.

About 11 years ago I moved to Marlow in Buckinghamshire and in exploring my new town came across this drinking fountain at the end of the High Street

The fountain has an inscription indicating it is a memorial to Charles Frohman and, intrigued, I did some research to find out who Charles Frohman was.

I discoverd that Charles Frohman was a Broadway stage producer who, in 1905, bought the rights to a play by James Matthew Barrie which no-one else would consider. The play was, of course, Peter Pan, and it made fortunes for Barrie and Frohman. If you’ve seen Finding Neverland then Dustin Hoffman plays Frohman.

Frohman loved Marlow more than any place in the world and spent all his holidays there. He had even picked out a place to be buried in All Saints Church yard however he was drowned when The Lusitania was torpedoed in 1915 his body washed up on the shore of Ireland and flown back to America.

After the war his friends decided to erect a memorial in the town he had wished to take his last rest in. The model for the sculpture on the memorial is supposedly Pauline Chase, an american actress who lived in Marlow and was one of the first people to play Peter Pan in Frohman’s original production. Pauline often stayed in Burnham Beeches but spent a lot of time in Marlow where she would be joined by Frohman, collecting him from the station in her car and taking him to The Compleat Angler.

So - another link with Peter Pan in my life!

A little over 6 years ago I met J (my husband) we talked about films and music and books and I discovered that he too was fascinated with the story of Peter Pan. In fact when we were first seeing each other one of his friends laughed when told my name was Wendy saying “well it would be, wouldn’t it!”

J too has read the book more times than he can remember and I bought him a 1st edition for 1st wedding anniversary.

In addition to his love for the book there is another Peter Pan connection in his family. His parents have two Newfoundland dogs, Bosun and Otto. For anyone who doesn’t know Nana in the Peter Pan story (the children’s nanny) is a Newfoundland dog and not a St Bernard as depicted in the Disney cartoon.

J M Barrie’s and his wife, Mary Ansell, seem to have had an unhappy, childless marriage and Mary appears to have redirected her affections towards her dogs - Porthos a St Bernard and his successor Luath, a Newfoundland. Nana was probably an amalgam of both these dogs. (In the film Finding Neverland they morph these two dogs into Porthos, a Newfoundland!)

As a piece of trivia for you - my name “Wendy”- was invented by Barrie in affection for a friend’s little girl, Margaret Henley, who called Barrie her “friendy” but with a child’s pronunciation of the “r” this became “fwendy” and so Wendy was born.

And now, J and I are preparing to adopt a family - our own Lost Boys (or Girls) as J puts it - somehow it seems fitting.