The mid life crisis is here!

Collected today, off tommorow! Cool huh? Yarn space is a little limited, but there is plenty of room in the truck!

Day Two

Its the second day of the summer holidays, its warmish but overcast here & we are promised the collection day for our demountable camper is nearly here! Monday morning at the latest! This is good, 'cos if we get away on Monday evening or Tuesday morning we can still squeeze in two weeks in Scotland before A level exam results day! Mr J is Head of Sixth Form its a 'big day' for him & S&H gets his results too! He is "excited", I am nervous! Our holiday plan (two plus dog) is to head for Skye, wait to here that S&H has landed back in the country after meeting up with his 'inter-railling' pals in Prauge for four days and then cross The Minch to Harris. About five days on Harris (probably going no further north than Callanish) then across the Sound of Harris to our beloved Uists & Berneray. All is ideal camper van territory!

I am busy preparing, plotting & planning various knitting projects to take. I have finished another pair of fingerless mitts for Mr J. They were going to be socks but I didn't have enough yarn. Basically they are twisted rib sock legs with a peasant thumb! I have cast on for my Ravelry 'At Home in Harrogate' Knutty Knitters Summer Swap -nuff said on that! I have also cast on Fetching as an easy 'travelling' knit. The yarn is Brigantia Luxury DK in colourway 'Autumn'.I am so into fingerless mitts at the moment and have purchased the lovely 'Snow on Cedars' pattern from Knitspot after eyeing my friend Anne's sensational mitts. These may require a little more concentration I suspect. I have laminated all 7 pages of the pattern!

It is a while (possibly) since I bought any knitting books but Folk Mittens arrived yesterday (How DID that happen? I was only looking at Amazon .....maybe...!!!!) Anyway it looks great so I have stocked up with some great superwash DK from Scandinavian Yarns, which as always arrived a fast as is actually possible by Royal Mail. Which, by the way, is a hell of alot faster than the combined efforts of UPS & Apple! Two weeks to take delivery of an empty box to send back my son's dead, 6 month old, IPOD classic. Collection is due anytime now & then heaven knows how long to repair it & get it back to me. In a place where I will be! ...... UPS man has just been - he says he delivers around here all the time & has never been here! Where were they trying to deliver the empty box to????

Last Sunday Mr J competed in his second 10k race. The Burton Leonard Village Feast 10k. Its part of the 'Black Sheep Brewery' series of 10K races. In contrast to the Leeds 10k it was almost all 'off road' & his time was a fairly respectable 47 minutes. The runners made quite a picture setting off from the village green. Next definite race is the Middlesborough 10k for both him & S&H.

The recent sunshine has done something for the garden. The courgettes are as pretty as a picture with their bright & big yellow flowers & they will not get any bad press from this gardener. The carrots are great eating & I have just picked our first french beans.

Garden

"We come from the earth, we return to the earth, and in between we garden." (and in my case knit!).

Thank you for all of the lovely comments about our garden. As we sat outside by the front window this evening, trying to enjoy the sun & stay out of the wind I remembered this quote that my sister & I included as we wrote a eulogy for our Auntie Chic, who had recently died. This was nearly three years ago now & I doubt that she would have approved of the chaos that the wind has brought but she would have loved the flowers and the bird life that abounds in the garden. I went inside for the camera (& a glass of red wine!). The sparrows fill the garden. The seed feeder has to be filled daily, There are also three nut feeders and a fat ball feeder. The delphiniums have lasted well but I feel that even with a scaffolding of canes they will not last much longer. They have been wonderful though, despite the windy weather.

Poppies grow at will amongst the Lady's Mantle & the roses. My lovely David Austin rose 'The Pilgrim' (I think) struggles to hang on. The flowers are lovely but its plagued by blackspot.

Moss enjoys the garden, but is more impressed with 'his' field where he can chase footballs and things. The back garden faces north. It can be wild, doesn't always get too much sun but the view is grand! On Sunday I managed to sit on my big cushion, sheltered by the while & knit awhile.

An update from 'On the Hill'

The front garden in shock! Its not raining, although its still fairly windy. Its still fairly colourful & I spent an hour or so yesterday weeding & planting some lupins that I have grown from seed earlier this year. Stuff in the polytunnel is doing well (once I gave up on things that slugs and snails love that is!). There is a courgette glut on the way (both indoor & outdoor plants) and hopefully there will be plenty of tomatoes. The runner beans took a rare bashing outside but hopefully they will recover & the french beans will fill the gap. The cute bag & needle holder is from zigzagstitches on Etsy. Too cute & very useful. I probably need another 'cos I am not a 'one project' kind of girl!

There is a bit of knitting activity to report on (even managed a bit of knitting outside today!). I have almost finished my 'Stulpen' fingerless mitts in King Cole 4 ply with a bit of Trekking XXL.
Mr Greenjeans got this far but I decided to push ahead with the mitts as they may be more useful camping in Scotland!

I have finished the first of my 'design your own' 'clog socks'. Not sure how well they will wear though. Hopefully I will manage a better photo though!

With just 7 manic school days to go until the end of term I am beginning to think about holidays in general & holiday knitting. We don't yet know if our camper back for the truck is in the UK yet, so its all a bit vague. Scotland...... of course...... islands...... almost sure to...... camping.....of one kind or another....... Just me, Mr J & Moss. Son & heir is know working for cash to go skiing this winter!

Bagged!

Photo from 'At Home in Harrogate' Knutty Knitter meet last night. Four Namaste bags from four proud knitters (one was missing). Mine is the 'Malibu' on the right! All came from the excellence that is Purlesence . I guess that these bags symbolise more than something to put knitting in -any tote would do the job I guess, but they represent the sharing & the bond of friendship that has developed through Ravelry & 'At Home in Harrogate'. Ravelry has truly knitted friendship & must be treasured for that alone (& a GREAT stash of yarn...... & a clutch of finished items......& a a LONG queue....!!!!!!!). I am a bit out of my comfort zone here but it needs to be said!

Before I start blubbing on the keyboard........ I have actually started to knit something with SLEEVES (no seams though!) The wonderful & long Wimbers final gave me a headstart on Mr Greenjeans. I dived into the stash I produced some New Lanark Mills Aran. So far so good, although some of the sizing stories would have given me nightmares if I hadn't already been having them because of 'stuff' at school!!!!!

Excuse the fairly brief & emotional post. I will get my act together in the next few days. Must go knit some sweater!