Soggy Saturday

The postman returned with some good looking yarn this morning. The Regia 6 ply in crazy colours is for the Baby Surprise Jacket & the Bamboo sock wool is for..... socks..... for me.....! I think the bamboo will be a road trip project when we head for Scotland next month. The next picture is to show how, surprisingly, the garden is surviving the weather. These little patio roses look really vibrant in the dark, rainy weather. Everything in the poly tunnel is thriving -no problem with bolting due to the heat & I have never had so many flowers on one tumbling tomato plant. This is ONE plant!Some are even turning into tomatoes. Ups.. forgot to rotate the photo first!The rain has now arrived in North Yorkshire. Dog & I got VERY wet on our walk when the drizzle turned to heavy rain. Better go and put some fresh washing to dry on the Airer/ round the Rayburn.......!

A long time since I knitted one of these!

Mrs Z's February baby jacket! For a baby geographer yet to be born! Over 17 years since I knitted a baby item & there were few of them then! My sister was the main knitter. She crafted wonderful fine knits, largely from Phildar so I was less inclined (& too kn********) to try. To our horror, both now as 'born again' knitters, all of our Phildar books seemed to have been flung! The issue of the baby surprise jacket has been 'resolved' so I now need to do a little yarn shopping (tough work but.......!!!!!)

I have been playing with the camera on my new mobile phone. As I was due an 'upgrade' I decided to go all out for having one with a great camera so I would always be able to have a camera with me to point & press. The photos on this post are some of the results. I must say I am delighted with it. It is a Sony Ericsson 800i, with 3.2 mega pixel camera! Its OK as a phone too!

The rose is a 'Climbing Arthur Bell' taken before the deluge! Talking of deluge.... yesterday was interesting! As good geographers both, me & Mr J went back out in the rain at tea time to photo and film some of the floods in Nidderdale.

The film clip is of the River Nidd at Hampsthwaite. The pack horse bridge is over 500 years old & the river is in the field!The video clip uploaded to Youtube was also taken on the phone!I have put photos on Flickr & have some 'proper' video footage waiting to be played with. All to appear in a classroom near here in September!

Is summer over? Nothing to do with the weather but because rugby has reappeared in our lives again! Son & heir is to do his first level refereeing qualifications over the next two weeks & starts training with both school and club!

More of a cry for help!

After posting yesterday a few cogs clicked into place & I realised that if I was to knit something for the 'baby geographer' due just after the end of term, then I had better get cracking! I had some reasonably suitable yarn & Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Knitting Almanac' so have started on the February Baby Sweater which is making speedy progress. The yarn contains too much acrylic for my liking but its a good 'test drive' however..... I would LOVE to knit the 'Baby Surprise Jacket' (in self striping yarn!)designed by the wonderful Mrs Z BUT I can't justify the £35 needed to buy the Opinionated Knitter via Amazon Marketplace - where else can I get the pattern? Soon? I have found a couple of US LYS's that sell paper patterns but I'm not in the US! Does anyone sell a download? Would some kind soul lend me theirs? I will give our local library a whirl but I am not too optimistic.

Not too much knitting but progress is being made!

Not too much happening on the anything front apart from work! The shawl is nearly complete to the border & Mr J still only has one sock -I may cast on the second before we go a watch son & heir play cricket. It seems so long since I cast on the first toe up it is possible I may have forgotten how! Planning ahead the postman bought me something nice this week though! 10 balls of so soft woolly squidgyness. They are for a shawl from 'Folk Shawls' but the exact project has yet to be decided.


There is the difficult question of what knitting project(s) will accompany me to Tiree in five weeks time to consider of course. The new shawl plus some socks I guess. Socks are good for cars and planes and boats (trains too I guess!)
Five weeks to hols means four weeks until school is out for summer -where has this year gone? I had a week to put the big 'Leavers Celebration' for year 11 together as the Head of Year went on long term sick leave. This has become quite an upmarket affair (for the state sector I guess)after the last core exam, with a marquee, band, silly awards & formal final assembly with proper prizes. When the head thanked me (again!) I think I said (through slightly gritted teeth) "I wont say its nothing, because it was about 30 hours work"! Still it was a grand day. The year group are a good bunch & thoroughly enjoyed it. 'Leave well' was what we asked & that's what they did. Now its catch up with the rest of my Year Teams, plan my bit of a new GCSE course & pick up Year 12 after their AS's & start them on A2. They are not 'my' group either but they will be next year as my colleague goes off to have another little geographer!
I managed to get a day out of school and go on a course on 'Academic Coaching'. It was excellent but now I have to work out a programme to introduce it into school, so thats another plate to get spinning!
We have also booked the first of next years holidays! Another ski trip to Bourg St Maurice & 'Paradiski'! This will be the fifth in four years but the first time in mid-winter. The rest have been Easter jaunts.

Not so much to report!

The KSH shawl is coming on nicely. About 8 pattern repeats to go before tacking the border. Its a handy thing to be knitting outdoors -whilst watching cricket on Saturday it got a little chilly after tea so I was able to wrap it around me! Mr J still has only one sock!

The garden has some real colour now & the new bed that we have created by the gate has flowers - the yellow 'Arthur Bell' rose x 3 and 3 white lupins form the centre of the bed & will hopefully withstand wind, dog & balls! Hopefully I can post some pictures this weekend.

The vegetable plot is a tribute to the bean! Runner & four varieties of dwarf bean! Plus beetroot & courgettes & some more salad crops. The polytunnel is a braccia dominated zone. The downside is they might bolt in the heat, the plus is that they cannot be bird or butterfly food!

Sister & her DH arrive today -a long weekend to celebrate my 'significant' birthday on Monday. Hmm ..... not sure how it feels really! They celebrate a half century in cricket! Pity I have to go to work both tomorrow and on Monday!