Other than travelling...

I have photos…but as the title indicates they are not travel related. I’m still going through those ones but should have some up this week.
Apologies in advance for the formatting. I just can't get the photos to stay where I want them to! Keep scrolling...

The day after we got home from Ireland we went to Ladies Day at the Brighton Races. It wasn’t Ascot I guess but it was a damn good excuse to dress up and wear hats (strangely not as easy as it sounds) and have a great day. I’ve mentioned it before and so I won’t go into it but here are some pics for you to look at.


This is us pretending we're all posh n stuff and trying to keep our knees together in a lady like fashion!












This is our fancy buffet lunch!











Me watching the race!













As you know we've had some guests over from Italy...here they are!












and their little boy who is quite possibly the cutest little boy in the world!! Dontya think?














I mentioned the wedding we went to recently…what I didn’t mention is what happened as we were leaving. I saw my first wild hedgehog!!!! Not a big deal for some perhaps but it was quite exciting for me and I jumped out the car and snapped this. However they move really, really fast. I was lucky to get a shot at all once he got moving!




And finally a brief mention of the travelling. When we were in Galway guess what I found???? KNITING!!!

My Freakishly Short Arms...

The weekend passed in a streaky blur that included more house guests (reservations only please) cooking, no study at all, some desperate tidying of the garden, 5 mins of sitting quietly and resting, 2 bottles of wine, food shopping, underwear shopping (too much information?), more cooking, a smidge of cleaning, 1 hour of TV and several hours of frantically staring at my computer wondering where to start with all the photos. Oh yeah and a whole whack of time ripping back ¾ of the arms of me knitting.

Thursday night saw a sombre conference with my knitting mentor where we stared, poked, prodded, measured and shook our heads over the arms in the vague hope they would somehow shrink to fit. It was not to be and sadly I accepted that there was no other way but to rip and rip big. I needed to take out 80 or so rows in order to get back to where I could safely take out the 16 rows to alter the length. This I did and with some sacrifice of sleep I managed to get well on the way to getting one of the arms finished…again!

It was quite an effort and towards the end I was quite pleased with myself BUT I was also a little confused.

What I was knitting didn’t seem to gel with what the pattern was telling me. The number 50 kept popping in to my line of sight…which was strange as I’m sure it never did before. So I re read the pattern another 100 times to be sure and yup….I was clearly knitting many more rows than the pattern suggested.
I had to be since it was saying that 50 rows was what I needed to knit and I was only half way to finishing my decreasing. It was as if the pattern had completely changed.

I have now re read the pattern about a million times more and I’m positive that I’ve done something very stupid and no amount of staring intensely at the pattern has morphed it back to what I could have sworn I was reading/knitting.

As best I understand (and I doubt my every word at this point) it seems that instead of decreasing every alternate row I was decreasing every 6th thus adding on some 20-30 extra rows to the arm.
While I was marvelling at my stupidity it dawned on me that this is why the arms were so long and not that my arms are so freakishly short!! Thank heaven for small mercies!!!

It also dawned on me that I’d need to rip back one arm again. *Sob*

As it was by this time, 9.30pm Sunday evening I carefully rolled up the wool, folded up the arms and set the knitting aside before going in search of something to drink!

Long Live the King!

Yup I’m an Elvis fan and so on the day of his death I celebrate his life and wonder what he’d think of all the hoo hah. Anyway just a small moment to mark the occasion.

So I’m a bit behind on the organisation of the photos…there’s just been no time to sit down and do it since we got back. No need to panic tho as I anticipate getting some processed before we take off for Canada. However there is loads to talk about aside from Ireland and so hence forth this post shall be Ireland free!

The day after we got back from ‘you know where’ was Ladies Day at the Brighton races and YUP I was there. All dolled up in me fanciest frock complete with my most hurtiest shoes and, a little strangely for me…a hat!! It was a great day and although I didn’t make any money I think I came out even or perhaps slightly ahead…I dunno

We’ve also been to a wedding which was lovely and elegant and held at the gorgeous mansion that is Stanmer Park. While it wasn’t something I would have chosen for myself it was really nice to wander around the place and pretend we were all a bit posh for the day!

On top of all that we’ve had guests over from Italy who arrived on the day we got back and even though we have been pretty much exhausted since then they have been lovely, trouble free guests whose little boy is the happiest most adorable baby I’ve ever met. I think he cried once during the week and that was because he hit his head on the table…something that makes me cry as well. They are leaving today and we shall miss them heaps.
But I have to say that the thought of being able to go home and flop on the couch without worrying about anyone else is an attractive one!

Cooking…
I made an awesome vegetable soup the other day. I love it when something you’re doing without guidance suddenly works really well. I even remember what I did so I should be able to do it again. I just boiled the veg (carrots, onion, cabbage, broccoli and potatoes and added some salt and pepper, garlic and a tspn of curry powder. Whizzed it all till it was smooth and added in some cooked soup mix (various split peas, barley, pasta etc) and sprinkled some shavings of parmesan on top to make it look posh! I think next time I’ll use actual chicken stock as the base and roast the veg but other than that I think this one’s a keeper!

Knitting…
I have problems with my arms. Actually I have problems with many things but at the moment the focus is on my arms or rather the arms that I’m knitting. I think they are too long and I’m going to have to undo the one I’ve finished. The thought of undoing all that knitting has filled me with dread and a reluctance to continue on with the other sleeve till I know what I’m doing. So last night I started something else!! I am entering into the world of felting and have picked a gorgeous bag out of Rowan's "The Felted Collection" book.
The theory is that I knit the bag and wash it at a high heat causing the fibres to meld together (felting) and then I simply sew up the bag!! Sounds easy huh!
There’s a photo here of the bag. And for those that might care I’m using Rowan Kid Classic, 851 – Straw for the main part of the bag and Rowan Tapestry, 174 – Rustic for the details.

Gardening…
Not much going on here I’m afraid. The lettuce I planted out before we left for ‘that place we went to’ has grown and is ready to eat but little else is good. The beans died while I was away and the tomatoes are sad and pathetic to say the least and I’ve only had three cucumbers from four plants. I don’t know what’s going on with this year so I’m blaming the weather and eel worms for all my gardening ills. (although I suspect that Blight is largely to blame for the tomatoes)
On the up side of things the cactus’s I grew from seed (yes from seed!) have tripled in size. I’ll have to get a picture of one of them on here cause it’s split into the strangest shape.
Also my basil is doing great and ready for pesto making!

Weekend Plans…
Pesto Making!!!! (and sleep!)

Here I am...finally!

Apologies for the delay in posting. We are back in the land of normality…at least for a few weeks anyway but we came home to house guests and life has been way too busy for true comfort or blogging.

Ireland was great….a truly beautiful country and I’m so glad we finally made it there.
It wasn’t the easiest holiday we’ve ever done but that was mostly us rather than the destination. Things were very hectic before we left and it took us a long time to relax and begin to enjoy ourselves properly. There’s a lot to share but I’ll do it over the next few weeks rather than in one 952 page blog post! First Ireland I think and the last week or so of our trip.

From Dunfanghy we moved south through the gorgeous scenery of Glencolumbcille and from there on to the charming tows of Sligo, one of our favourite places of the trip. We checked out Knocknarea Cairn where Queen Maeve is said to be buried standing upright with her sword in her hand. We wandered around the Connemara national Park for a bit before heading for Galway where we sat ourselves down in a pub and spent the night listening to music, chatting and drinking…well…when in rome!
The Burren was great with loads to see. We went into the Aillwee caves, visited all the forts and ruins we could find and still found time to comb the beaches.
Dingle was one of our favourite peninsulas with so much to see and all surrounded by stunning scenery. And despite the other travellers around we never once felt crowded or ‘touristy’.
Cork was a city we’d like to go back to (and are thinking about a long weekend very seriously). Great atmosphere, great shopping, great music and overall just a really good vibe to the place.
Ventured down to Kilmore Quay where we had the best food of the trip…lovely monkfish at “the wooden house”. And then up to Glendalough where we spent our last day wandering around the monastic city and national park before making our way back to Dublin.

We found some of the best spots by doing a little research beforehand and doing a little exploring on the day. I have to say I found most of the ‘big’ touristy sights to be a disappointment but then I do like to get off the beaten track and I’m not at all saying they weren’t worth seeing…just that they weren’t as special or as impressive as I’d thought they might be. Still…that’s just my personal opinion and I think it depends on what you’re looking for too.
Overall it was a great holiday and I’d definitely encourage everyone who can to go over there. The people are friendly, the food great and the scenery and sights amazing…more about some of the highlights in a day or so.

Soggy-ness

First and foremost our thoughts are with those who have been affected by the floods and other "freak" weather's across Europe recently.
(It seems that whenever we go away something happens....sometimes war or bombings....this time it was the floods!! I'm not sure if stuff waits till we're on holidays to occur or if we're just more aware of things that happen when we're away...probably the later.)
Either way it contrasts vividly with the travels we're doing now since we've had almost nothing but sunny weather since we arrived and only a few days of drizzle. Beautiful big blue days of rolling lush green Irish hills and rugged windy coastlines.
From Belfast we went north as most people do to see the Antrim Coast. The Giant's Causeway is the big draw up that way and it was touristy but spectacular. Bushmills Distillery was delicious and the lesser known Mussenden Temple was beautifully perched on the clifftop.
We fell in love with Londonderry - a gorgeous city with a great atmosphere despite it's violent past.
Dunfanaghy we found the best fish and chips and the best place to eat them. Sitting on top of Horn's Head (large cliffs) and looking out across the ocean. Afterwards we sat and pondered the meaning of life as the sun went down!!!
We've done heaps since then (too much to mention everything) but a general overview goes something like this....
Driven through beautiful scenery to wander around intriguing ruins and climb very steep hills for spectacular views before staying at sumptuous B&B's, meeting ever so friendly people at every turn and drinking delicious beer in gorgeous pubs whilst listening to toe tapping traditional music!!!
Excuse me while I find my thesaurus!!!