Cats & Dogs

Indeed it’s been a photo week and I’m not going to stop here! With all the practise I’m getting, the ability to post photos without unsightly spacing issues has to sink in to my brain. At some point!

Plus there’s not much else to blog about really. It’s wet here. Very wet. Even for summer!!! Everything is waterlogged including the people and the devastation caused by flooding (particularly in the north) may have even made it to TV’s in OZ (where some of you are)

We ourselves have not yet been effected by the flooding, unless you count the fact that we are unable to get out into the backyard due to a large lake that forms in that area every time it rains heavily. Of course since it’s raining there’s no reason to go out into the back yard. Certainly not to water with the many containers of water I have saved up for a non rainy day!!
And just think...this time last year I was madly lugging those containers around the yard trying desperately to keep everything watered and alive.

For all the anti global warming views that float around you have to admit that something is going on. Something is changing and in all likelihood humans, as the species with the most influence and impact on the earth today are probably to blame.
The real question now is…is this going to be a change we can live with.

My that was all very deep for a Friday morning of, as yet, only one coffee!! That’s probably my thinking quota for the day!!
So to end the week on a more positive note here are some photos of the backyard (as promised earlier) in dryer times! Have a good weekend everyone.

Bee in flight...a sharper shot than the one I posted earlier this week.
Spotlight of sun on white flower.

The flower was under a tree and in dappled shade. I'd like to say it was skill that took the photo but it was just pure luck that the sun shone through when it did.
One of the many frogs we find in the backyard. You'd think with all of them out there I'd have no problems with slugs eating the veg....you'd think.

Pretty knitting!

Loads of things going on but it's all a bit...bitsy so I'll leave that for a day when I've got my thoughts together and am able to make coherent sentances of it all. In the meantime here are the long promised photos of my current knitting work in progress.

This is the back.....very nice hmmm?













This is the left front that gave me sooooooo much trouble that had nothing to do with extreme tiredness or knitting in front of really interesting TV shows.















This is the right front. I'm almost finished this one now and it's more advanced than the photo shows.












This is an arty close up cause I'm quietly chuffed that I've managed to knit so much so evenly and I feel it needs showing off!
Also this is the photo that's closest to the real colour. It's a really lovely mossy green with lighter and darker bits flecked through it.

For non knitting readers I might have some non knitting photos tomorrow taken in the backyard.

I know you can hardly wait and you never know I might just get the photos to display properly!!

Pretty Pictures!

Today is a photo day...here are some photos!

Go West at Music Park 2007

Go West in action...they were rather good I thought.

Howard Jones at Music Park 2007

Howard Jones and his keyboards.

Kim Wilde at Music Park 2007
Roadie in non black clothing...and shorts!!! Gave us endless amusement for some reason.
Blue flower...no idea what it's called.
Blue flower and bee. I know the bee is blurry but I like this shot alot anyway.

Above is the water lilly at Sally's allotment
These are some of the rasberries that we picked at the allotment
These are some beetles doing what beetles do!!

Monday-itis

Another Monday morning dawns on our collective groans as we realise that yet another week has begun and the weekend is once again as far away as it can be.
But let us not be down hearted…I had a great weekend! And now for your reading enjoyment and in an effort to delay anything resembling work, I shall relive it for you!

Friday night I went to Music Park 2007, The Eighties. It was a great night. It threatened rain but held off until the very end and by then no one cared. The audience was predominantly older…as you’d expect but there was a strange

feeling of unity there. Everyone reliving memories of where they were and what they were doing when this music was around and popular and the whole event was incredibly friendly. It was fantastic!!
Now I was still quite young in the eighties and have to say that the names of quite a few of the artists performing were not familiar to me. However I knew a lot of the songs. I guess I was too young to be into the bands thing but old enough to hear the music…particularly towards the late eighties.
Anyway we sang, we danced, we cheered and we got rained on! Great night

Incidentally if you don’t recognise the artists/bands in the ever so slightly blurry photos they are from top to bottom, Altered Image, Limahl & Paul Young.

Saturday we ventured up to the wonderful world that is the allotment of Sally & Steve where we picked raspberries, admired potatoes (then picked/dug them too) and took a few photos…as you do! As soon as we got home the potatoes turned into potato salad which we lived on for the rest of the weekend! YUM.

That afternoon we hiked up to Crawley where
there’s a new hobbycraft store just open. Makes a nice change from the 2 hour drive to the Southampton one! Spent an hour or so wandering around thinking of all the crafty things I could do. Bought a book on felting….it’s got some lovely bags in it that I want to try and they seem easy enough.

Watched a couple of episodes of Doctor Who Saturday night, we’d taped them previously. One of these was titled ‘Blink’. Dunno if anyone's seen it but if you haven’t: don’t. Well do, but don’t. I mean it’s the best one I’ve seen to date but it’s also the scariest and you’ll never sleep again. Freaked me right out but so, so good.

Sitting in front of the TV means knitting and I got a huge chunk of the right front done. I remembered to take some photos and will post them tomorrow. Not that it looks like anything much yet.

Sunday it rained…from start to finish. SO I made some chicken stock, a blueberry cake and a chicken roast as well as a rhubarb & raspberry crumble. Comfort food!

Not overly exciting but not a bad weekend really and for once it felt like a long one rather than the “blink and you’ll miss it” kind that I normally have!! (blink….shudder)

Hope everyone has noticed that I've got several photos in the same post...almost (not really) behaving! Now I just have to figure out why the spacing with the text is a little out of kilter and I'll be set.
Hope your weekend was as good as mine! I’ll post some more photos tomorrow.

I've been told!

Well, I’ve been told off! I don’t know…you go out of your way to tell people about your life and suddenly they are picking up on every little thing.

Apparently waaaay back in May I may have blogged about a box I was to pick up at the post office. It was all very exciting at the time as I was expecting several items and didn’t know which one it was.

Apparently I never let you know what was in the box……

SO…in the interests of keeping things neat and certain people (you know who you are) happy I am now letting you all know what was in the box.

It was yarn.

Yarn that I bought off ebay to make into a blanket for someone’s Christmas present. I can say that on here because I know she won’t ever read this. (But if anyone tells her I’ll open a can of whoop ass!!) I may knit it or I may crochet it…I’ll let you know.
Hmmm, just so you know the grey in the picture is actually a light green in real life. The colours go really well with the roomwhere the blanket will be kept.






This yarn I have mentioned before and also got it off ebay. However I am still undecided about what to do with it. I saw it, fell in love and bought it in the space of about 3 seconds.
I think it will probably be a scarf because it would show off the texture and colour. Only 200gm of the stuff but sooooo lovely.
Suggestions are welcome.

I also received the next day (I think) the needles that I got off ebay to knit the shawl for a friends birthday (and I got it done in time but didn’t take a photo). One book came later the next week and I have just received (last week) the remaining books that my lovely mother sent me for my birthday!! I love new books in a very serious way.

I’m sadly not expecting anything else at the moment which means your all up to date with my mail situation.

Some knitting content? Well things have been progressing but in a slow and excruciating way. Apparently my brain has slipped out in the middle of the night in search of a home where it might be better appreciated because I’ve been making the same mistakes over and over again.

Having started the left side of the front of the cardigan it seemed only natural to try to finish it however that was when my brain went awol. After the ripping marathon that was the beginning of the front I thought it would get easier.

I was wrong.

The last week has been a festival of dropped stitches, purling on a knit side, tinking back to increase a stitch and forgotten decreases. I finally finished the left front last night and strangely you can’t see any of the blood, sweat or tears involved. Actually that’s probably a good thing aesthetically speaking.

The soul destroying thing is that this is not hard stuff...even for someone of my tiny knitting experience. So we’re onto the right front and hoping that this will be significantly easier than the left. Although just to be sure I’m off the wine this week!!

P.S notice how I got two pictures to go where they were supposed to this post!! How proud am I!

Ghosts of the Forest

Tuesday was a horrifically early start of 2am in order to get up to Heathrow in time. However the trip up was relatively painless as was the flight to Helsinki. We then had a 7 hour or so wait as the flight in the middle of the day to Kajaani had been cancelled several weeks prior. We wandered around the airport……played the “spot the other photographers” game and generally sat around staring into space. Eventually we boarded our connecting flight and spotted the other photographers. At this point we started to feel rather inadequate with regards to our kit due to the size of everyone else’s backpacks….but nothing we could do about that.
We arrived in Kajaani and piled into a mini bus for the 2 hour drive to the lodge. By this stage it was almost 10pm and still as light as midday. Saw a few moose on the drive. Strange looking creatures they are…all legs and antlers.

The Lodge was very impressive and not just because we arrived around midnight. Comfy beds, the best showers ever and best of all….no mosquitos inside!! Yup cause it’s mosquito season in Finland and going outside was like walking into a swarm of the little blighters. We had bought some all natural repellent before leaving and then panicked at the airport and bought some cans of 100% Deet as well….just in case. However the natural stuff worked a treat (as I knew it would all along!) and I only got bitten once. Of course I swallowed a dozen of the horrid little things but you can’t get a spray for that.

The next day was pretty relaxed to start of with. We went for a walk in the woods with the resident reindeer. Billy is fairly tame and likes his walks. There was no way he was being left behind which was nice since he clearly knew the way better than we did!!
Here’s an interesting point. Did you know that reindeer antlers are warm to touch?? I didn’t.

Right then…on to the important part. We had an early dinner (side note…the food was great) before setting of to the hides at 4pm. This entailed a brief mini bus journey followed by a 2.5km trek through the bear & mosquito infested woods!! Brown bears are timid creatures though and you’ll never see them in the wild unless they want you to or they don’t know your there.

Weather wise it wasn’t the best…cloudy and raining. Good for the bears as they don’t like the heat but it created very low light conditions for photography.
The hides (there were two) were quite comfy with car seats (cause they recline) set up near the viewing positions. Once we were all settled in our places we were locked in for the night. We had a guide stay with us to provide information and cups of tea, there were bunk beds for those who couldn’t stay up all night and a chemical loo!!

The bears failed to show at 6pm which was the expected time however they turned up by 7pm and the sound of hard working cameras filled the air. I’m surprised the bears didn’t turn tail and run and I’m sure they heard the camera but they must have got used to it over time as they really didn’t seem to care. Possibly the mounds of salmon was distracting them!

It rained on and off over the night but that only seemed to encourage the bears. They came and went at will right up until about 3 or 4am when the action tapered off. Although the sun never actually set below the horizon it did get a little too dark between 11pm and 2am for my camera/lens set up and so I managed a few hours sleep in my reclining car seat.

The second night was the same deal…early dinner and then the drive and walk to the hides. It had been raining on and off all day BUT started to fine up as we were walking through the woods and we ended up with sun and blue sky. A few clouds remained but they only served to highlight the colours of the sunset and sunrise. The trees did a pretty good job of that also turning a fiery red for much of the evening.
This time the bears were in much better form and almost from the moment we arrived they were there. I was so busy taking pictures of a lesser spotted woodpecker that I never even noticed the bears to start off with!
They call them the Ghosts of the Forest because you never hear them coming for all their size and weight. And they are right. There were about 16 bears in the area and we never knew where they would appear next. They just floated in and out of the clearing at will.

Four of the bears were large males and none of them with a decisive advantage over the others. So we didn’t see any of this year’s cubs as the mothers would have been very wary of all the males. The oldest bear we saw was late 30’s and the youngest a yearling.
There were a couple of fights and squabbles, some power plays and some bonding, a number of half hearted attempts at mating, loads of back rubbing and scratching, quite a few chases (bears move very, very quick and sound like thunder when they run) and a huge amount of chewing with mouths open (bears have no table manners).

The first night we were woken to the sounds of threatening growls and grunts. Looking outside we saw one very aggressive male chasing off all the others. The second night we woke up to the sounds of frantic scrabbling and saw a yearling shooting up a tree at the speed of light. It went up and down several times before deciding to make a break for it and tearing off into the undergrowth. The bears it considered threatening barely looked up from their salmon!

I was amazed at how soft and fluffy they looked and really wanted to go out and just sink my hands into their coats. I didn’t…..but I wanted to! Their social interplay was fascinating to watch as bears are usually much more solitary and don’t gather in groups such as this. You could clearly see that some bears didn’t like other bears and some were friends or old buddies. You could see those at the top of the hierarchy and how the other reacted.
Seeing that first bear was an amazing moment. It was hard to believe we were really seeing bears in the wild! I feel incredibly privileged to have seen them and I can’t help but think if more folk saw animals like this in their natural environment, just doing their thing….then we wouldn’t have to worry about animals becoming endangered.
One of the shortest trips we’ve done…..but one of the best.

I learnt quite a lot on this trip despite how short it was. I learnt heaps about low light photography but I also learnt that I’m too old to be staying up all night and that changing your sleeping patterns for just two nights is enough to make it a real struggle to change them back again! Also I confirmed that BA is the worst airline I’ve ever travelled on but that’s another topic altogether! (nuff said about the flight home huh!!)

I’ll try to put more photos up as I find time but it is a lengthy process and we have upwards of 500-600 to work through so please be patient. I’m so, so glad we managed to do this trip (although disappointed it’s already over!) It was so worth the lack of sleep and long travel hours to be able to spend time with these gorgeous animals. We had an amazing time and I hope that, despite our lack of ‘kit’ the photos reflect that.
Since I'm having some trouble with photos and layout here you can see the photos if you click HERE!

Pygmy goats, jellied eels and pony dogs

OOOOooo I’m very excited today. Can hardly focus on what I’m supposed to be doing. I probably should have taken today off but never thought of that until this morning. I’m not the brightest sometimes!
The reason I’m so excited is that we’re going away for the rest of the week. We’re off to Finland to take photos of Brown bears….not knitting related in the slightest!!
For ages we’ve wanted to do a photography based holiday and earlier this year we spoke to someone who’d done this trip and raved about it. We thought why not….after all we tried to see bears in Canada but when faced with the sole black bear that we encountered we fled. Now I know this was the smart thing to do but it would have been nice to actually have seen that bear rather than just flee in fear on the word of some other terrified tourists. Although it makes a nice story!

This time we’ll be prepared, we’ll be hidden (in hides) and we’ll have cameras at the ready. And if there’s a god in photography heaven I’ll be praying that I bring home at least one pin sharp, half decently composed, correctly exposed and semi adequate shot of some bears…..just one….it’s not much to ask!!

On to tales of pygmy goats, jellied eels and dogs the size of ponies.

What else could it be but the South of England Show! We went on Saturday and it lived up to all our expectations even thought we didn’t make it round the whole area….we never do, the place is massive. But we covered the most important bits…..wine stalls & ice cream stands etc. For research purposes you understand!
We got the food and wine shopping done in the morning (very organised!) and then wandered around for the afternoon making sure to stop often at stalls to test the merchandise and keep our strength up.

Oh the things we saw……..pygmy goat judging (tiny goats….very cute), massive bulls, tiny piglets, leopard print wellingtons, donkeys, chickens, ducks, death defying flower arrangements, cowboy hats, some stunning knitting (thanks WI), insect eating plants, punks (of all places to find them?) cakes, combine harvesters, log cutting, fox hunting (display only…no actual foxes were used), a one man band, boxes of wine (you know who you are!!), lovely liquors, various ice creams, gorgeous flowers, very well muscled farriers…

Ohhhh the list goes on…as normal it was a great day with heaps to see, loads to spend your money on and if you didn’t go…go next year…or go to the Autumn Show and Game Fair in October. You won’t regret it.

My highlights from this show were:-
…the pygmy goats. I don’t like goats normally but you’d be hard pressed to find much cuter than these.

…the wines. As usual one of our main stops was at this winery’s stall. Highly recommend you try some of their wines…lovely

…the pate. A new stall for this year I think (least I’ve not seen them before) Pate of the highest quality.

…jellied eel. Something I’ve wanted to try for a while now and I finally got up the courage to do so…watched by almost everyone in the hall I sampled the strange looking concoction……and it was good. Really good!!! Not overly keen on the jelly as it reminds me of spam. But the eel is good.
According to a small girl who was fascinated by my choice of snacks, eel is not quite as good as a strawberry ice cream, but each to their own!

…the oversized dogs. Wish I’d taken a photo of one or two of them but I was stunned and a little frightened every time we saw one. Not part of the show, just people bringing their dogs out with them but impressive because at least four of them would have come up to my shoulder….almost! Big enough to ride on definitely…possibly why they were brought along, I know my feet were hurting by the end of the day! Hehe

…people I went with. Awwww, it sounds a little sucky perhaps but there really isn’t anything better than hanging out with your friends. Even if they don’t understand your pygmy goat obsession.

And as for the weather??? Well, it did rain……as we were walking to the car to go home!!!! It just doesn’t get better than that!!

I'm too lazy today to put photos into the blog so if you want there are some on here you can browse for yourself. I promise to try harder when we get back!

Shenanig-bins!

It is Friday morning...not yet 9.30am and they have confiscated my bin. In fact they have taken everyone's bin away. Apparently it’s to encourage recycling however it's making me want to do anything but. In fact it's making me want to collect everyones rubbish and dump it all in the middle of the office.

The official word is that since we all get up to get tea/coffee quite frequently that we should be able to throw things out then. Of course the sole kitchen bin is always full and now that everyone in the office block has to use it for everything it will soon be overflowing with all sorts of stuff.

Sounds great huh? It's creating an atmosphere of ‘them’ against ‘us’ and I know of several people who have stolen back their bins from the pile and secreted them away.
There must be better ways for the company to go about this surely?

On a slightly less hysterical note thanks to some careful explaining of the obvious by my knitting mentor I have managed to get the hang of increasing without creating large and unsightly holes. Apparently the trick is not to move the first stitch onto the left needle…who knew!!! Knitting is not as easy as it seems unless you are smarter than me.
I will probably still rip the little bit I have redone to try to get it even neater still but am quite pleased with myself that I have picked up yet another useful piece of knowledge.

Now back to the hysterical and overly excitedness that will definitely end in tears towards the end of Saturday as I get over tired.
I am off to the South of England show. This once a year show is the best ever and is full of tons of lovely things that have me running with glee (yes glee) from one stall to the next. They have piglets and chickens (two of my favourite things should I ever choose to sing that song) and loads of local food stuffs to stock up on including wines from my favourite vineyard Lurgashall who produce the most gorgeous wines from fruits, honey, vegetables and flowers!
Ahem…of course I’m not just going for the alcohol. No I’m not!

There are heaps to see and buy and I will be taking pics of everything. Hopefully I will get to post some of them on Sunday or early next week. For those of you already pointing out the weather forcast……A) I don’t care and B) even if I did care (and think that it was the most unfair thing in the world that it should rain on the day I'm going out AGAIN) it’s not going to stop me!!

packing my suitcase

Welllll, matt spoke to his aunty in canada…finally and it’s full steam ahead. We’ve been told officially that there are beds for us to sleep in and that our invites have been posted. I’m rather excited now. I love Canada and besides that the Yarn Harlot frequents the Toronto area and yes I know the odds are against me bumping into her on the street…but I live in a world of dreams!

Roll on September!!! Now I'm too excited to work or even look like I'm working! In canada there are people we love and long to see again...not to mention the fabulous yarn shops to visit!! Can't wait, can't wait!

Plus on the weekend I was walking past some shops and I saw a dress in the window that would be perfect…for someone else perhaps. It wont suit me as it’s strapless and wearing dresses with the bodice hanging down around my waist is not a style suitable for weddings...at least not for me.
But I did see some other possibilities further in the store so the dress hunt has commenced. A very important hunt indeedy as it is for two weddings and possibly a day at the races!!

So all I need to do now is book the tickets (this week), hire a car and plan what we want to see while we’re there! I think we’ll be sticking to Ontario while we’re there this time. I’d love to get out into some of that wilderness again but I doubt we’ll have time.
Of course in my tiny little mind that sounded like a challege!! Oh dear.

The bad news is that once again we are going at the wrong time to see polar bears. Sigh…

Knitting is going slowly. Last night I ripped what I’d done of the front as it was looking pretty bad. There are so many ways of increasing and decreasing stitches that it’s gotten rather confusing. I do this to myself at times. I believe it’s caused by thinking too much and thus complicating matters. Anyway I had a play around and I think I’m a little better but it might be time to visit the knitting mentor…...which for some reason I can never say without hearing a fanfare in my head.

My head is a strange and mysterious place. Enter at your own risk!

Whoosh goes the weekend!

Good lord the days are flying by! I meant to post on Friday but never actually got online and the same thing happened with the weekend. And let’s not mention that suddenly it’s June and yesterday it was February!!

The weekend was a good one….finally. The weather was lovely…sun and blue sky. Much like you’d expect for this time of year instead of the miserable grey, wet and windy conditions we’ve had of late.
This meant that we could get out in the garden and finally put out some of those plants we’ve been hardening off. I’ve been a bit too busy for the garden this year…and it shows a little with weeds everywhere and a lot of slug damage (I normally go slug hunting with a vengeance) however it felt really good to get out there and get digging. So nice to do something completely different to work and computers!
SO, planted out the tomatoes (roma), cucumbers and beetroot. Potted up some basil and sowed some more lettuce n herbs. Even put some spinach in.
Had to pull up some more onions tho. Four of them are ok for using but the rest are riddled with the same pests as last year. Long, yellow/brown flat centipede type things. Don’t know what they are but they area eating my onions and garlic. Little blighters!
Strawberries are covered in ….well…berries but so far are all green.
Looks like we won’t get any rhubarb off the rhubarb plant again this year, despite it being a two year old crown. It’s growing much better now it’s out of the pot but the stems are tiny thin things and I don’t want to stunt it by picking it now. Will give it another year and see how it goes.

Also this weekend we moved the birdfeeder so that we could see the birds feeding when we were sitting down on the bench. Such a small thing but makes a big difference as before the birds were hidden behind the tree. I love watching the tiny little things. We get mostly sparrows, blue and great tits and robins. They have little fear of us now and flit back and forth consuming seed at an alarming rate considering their size.

Knitting wise I thought it was time I posted a photo of my current project. It’s a Sidar pattern and I’ve tried to find a link but it seems I have the only copy in existence as it doesn’t seem to be on their site. So here is a picture I found somewhere of the pattern book. (ooo my first pic post!)

I tried to take some pictures last night but the colour was so washed out I decided to try again tonight in daylight. It’s a lovely shade of green with faint flecks of yellow and deeper green and it deserves a nice picky.
I finished the back last Friday night and was rather happy with myself. A few bits that could be better but nothing I can’t live with and I can’t face ripping it back. Does that make me less of a knitter? Well it is only my second major project….I don’t know any better!!
At the moment I’m persevering with the front. There’s shaping involved and so I guess one of the lessons for this project is how to increase and decrease neatly. I think I’ll probably have to start again but I’ll keep going for a bit more in the interests of practising.