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.