A small soapbox moment....sorry...

plus some other stuff too.

I haven't ranted on here for a while - all the negativity made me shut down for a bit - but what the f**k - 'tis my blog and I will say what's on my mind etc.

So, if you a offended easily, please miss the next paragraph - thank you.

I know this is non-pc but what gives with peeps who are religious? Why because of the way I appear do they automatically assume that I am a Christian? Why is it OK for them to say 'God bless' to me - they wouldn't say it to someone who they might assume was Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist would they? No. Because they would judge that person beliefs by their outward appearance - saffron robes are a give away! And then another why - why do they get knickery when I ask them to refrain from this practice as to me it is offensive? Why is OK for them to ram their beliefs down my throat (metaphorically)? I wouldn't dream of telling them that it's a load of old bunkum and to stop being so gullible! I am 'not' tarring all Christan's with the same brush - but I have been accosted on the street more than once week by God squaders - if it's OK for them to shout out and God bother me in public then it should OK for me to stand next to them and tell them A) to piss off and get a life or B) that they are all demented for believing such utter tosh! Lucky for them I am a Humanist and would never dream of doing either because I respect their right to believe what they choose - why can't they show me the same respect I wonder?

*gets off soapbox*......OK it's safe from here on down.

Lottie went to the vet, her 'vulva' is still too immature to be spayed - so she goes back for another check in 2 weeks. I'd rather err on the side of caution here than run into health problems in later life. She weighs a whopping 7.20kg - the vet said "She's doing fine and is a well put together little dog." Actually she's a right guinea pig bothering cow bag at the moment - but we luvs her.

Cake is in the oven for tomorrow - keeping all crossed >. .< for good weather!

Oooo bought some lovely yarn - one lot of which I am *whispers* crocheting.

Lists are being complied for packing/laundry marathon - yay for holiers!!!

J is over excited about going away. I am worried about the animals (Ma is critter sitting) - she's great with them - but I always worry - I am sooooo going to miss Lotsie.

Ooo did you (if local) hear that storm the other night? - Massive! Loobles laid down beside my side of the bed and parped in fear - I ate shitcake! Lottie was a bit bemused, her first storm, she wasn't frightened but she didn't like it. It must have been bad cos Conkers jumped on the bed - he never bothers about storms normally.

That's it for now - yarn pR0n tomorrow if I get a chance to take photo's - if not ...sorry.

It's.......

Rip Van Lottie.
'Oh she's tired!'

Yesterday

I wore my new shoes.
We took J and Lottie to Singleton http://www.wealddown.co.uk/ Open Air museum. J was in charge of photos.
We saw lambs with waggly tails.
Lottie discovered geese and she wants one!
She quite fancies a chuck or two as well. She also saw horses, ducks, crows (again) and Carp. She met another Border and we met some other Border mad peeps - she was much admired.

It was hot, sunny and windy. We had a picnic, walked for miles, explored lots of history and bought a membership because we all love it there so much.

In evening we took Lottie to Ruby's house to play (J and the cousins played too - so did the grown-ups) but the two pups played for 3+ hours solid without respite! So today Lottie is 'tired', so many adventures for such a little girl. She's in the kitchen helping M cook Sunday lunch - hoping just maybe a little piece of beef may come her way.

I got tagged.

Steph from http://crochetknittykitty.blogspot.com/ tagged me for this meme......

Rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

J was approaching his first birthday and was teething and I was wondering if I'd ever get the hang of this mothering malarkey! I found coming to terms with being a 'Mum' the hardest thing ever and it didn't come naturally, so I was quite depressed and often despairing. I remember feeling very trapped and worried.
I had also taken up patchwork and was going to classes to get 'out' of the house and had applied to start my degree so there were some +'s too.

2) 5 things on my 'to-do' list today?

1) As little as possible!!!
2) Phone my sister (done).
3) Drink red wine - roll on Sunday lunch time.
4) Knit.
5) Can't say *wink-wink*

3) Snacks I enjoy?

Anything with Marmite - toast, ricecakes, breadsticks. I adore savoury foods more than sweet and have a weakness for crisps, nuts and savoury cheese biscuits. I also enjoy dark, bitter chocolate.

4) Things I'd do if I were a billionaire?

All the normal stuff - stuff for my family etc. Move to the country have a 2nd home in Cyprus. But most important to me would be to give more to the charities I support and are important to me. I'd also like to fund research into finding out more about the chronic disease M has so he wouldn't have to pop so many pills everyday just to stay healthy!!! Oh and pay for J to have a maid service for his 'pit' - I hate his mess!

5) Place I have lived?

Oh wow - this is a hard one....where to start? Mmmmmm Brighton, then Brighton, followed by Brighton and currently.....you guessed it Brighton!

I can't think of 6 peeps to tag who haven't done this or one similar....so if you read this and you'd like to do it - fill yer boots - let me know though so I can come and be nosy on your blog. Ta.

Before and after!!!

Starting the day with that wind blown, carefree, scruffy look (she zonked out after her walk this morning - chasing crows is very tiring!).
This is Lottie before her first trip to the doggy hairdressers - she was excited to have someone to tell of her holiday plans and to discuss last nights episodes of 'The Dog Whisper' and 'Dog Borstal' with. *joke*

Enjoying a post hair cut biscuit - checking the groomer (Lucy - who is brilliant) had left her nose in tact! Look at the neat and tidy Border-marauder! She looks so grown up, sleek with neat toenails - even her curly monkey-bum has been trimmed. Lucy said she was very good, except for trying to gnash the hair dryer. I'm really pleased with her and it will be so much cooler for the summer than all that shaggy, wiry wildness of yesterday, wet shaggy, wiry, wildness of yesterday, Lottie loves water and spent most of the afternoon (after her walk) in her own version of a paddling pool killing the hose!

Half way house

I finally found the time and the mojo to finish spinning the first half of the second batch of Jo's fibre http://freestylefibre.blogspot.com/. This is 50g, Navajo plied same thickness as previous forest floor batch - so sock weight.
It has a lovely sheen and a wonderful hue of squashed berries - almost Summer Pudding coloured. The pictures are before the twist was set - but I'm very pleased with it. Now just need to spin the next 50g.

I do like me some purty!

Yorkie http://yorkshiregal.blogspot.com/ and I did a kind of mini swap and today I received this...KnitPicks Felici sock yarn in Mixed Berries. Now in recent years my colour taste has changed but deep down inside, no matter what, I have always loved pinks and mauve's - I am a closet pink girl! Strange my sister likes these colours too - sometimes I have to fight my pinkness urge when buying wool cos my true nature always gravitates to these colours -though apart from socks - I don't actually wear pink that much. So when I saw this on their web page I gave in to my inner pinkness and Yorkie - bless her voluptuous bosom - facilitated me.

She also sent a great card and a knitting keyring - cool! But Oooooooo pink squooshyness.

Life is still manic but good - all three of us are busy and have stuff on. We're off on hols in a couple of weeks too - we do need a break!

Lottie is growing, she has all her big dog nashers now - she looks like she's wearing a bigger dogs teeth - denture dog! She goes to have her coat stripped for the 1st time on Friday and then the following week off the vets for pre-op weigh in and check, she'll be spayed when we get back from our break. All the other furry and eight legged amnibiles are fine, healthy and doing good.

I need to go and pack J's swimming stuff, get the washing on the line, groom assorted critters and get busy with the duster and hoover - life is soooooo exciting some days.

Me and sock yarn

Just look at this colour....puts me in mind of the murkiness interspersed with brilliant brights that you see at the height of summer in a still pond. You know there are weeds and all kinds of life lurking under the soupy surface and like Tennyson's Lady of Shallot you are drawn to it and the coolness of the willows dipping into its surface.....ok I'll stop with the poetic waffling now.
The yarn is my all time favourite Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Huron. I have to date never completed a pair of cabled socks, I get bored with them so easily, however, with this hypnotising yarn I will attempt to break my duck and knit Cookie's BFF socks.

The face behind the yarn is a rescue from some very old stained glass that came M's way (he uses it in pottery) this is the face of Jesus and it was the only complete piece - although we are a non-religious household - the beauty and skill of the art stirred M and I so until we decide what to do with it, it will reside on the book shelf next to my Greek Icon that came from the monastery of St Neophytes in Cyprus.

('The Lady of Shallot' can be found here - )http://charon.sfsu.edu/TENNYSON/TENNLADY.HTML

St Neophytes - http://www.kypros.org/Sxetikos/Monastiria/NeophytosE-1.htm

Bliss

I don't do heat. Our house is hot and I mean hot! Rooms in the roof have that problem. So M bought me an air con unit - it is bliss. I get so grumpy when I overheat - worse than the worse ever PMT grumpy. I love it as much I love the Duet sock yarn I purchased from Socktopus - it's the skinny version.
Lovely autumnal colours - puts me in mind of CTH in its texture. The colours IRL are more muted.

I have spent happy hours this week reading 'Victorian Lace Today' by Jane Sowerby - not only amazing patterns but sooooo interesting. It's taken ages for Amazon to get it in stock again but is well worth the wait. I also started looking at Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Knitters Almanac', another fascinating read.

We made a vet appointment for Lottie later this month as a pre-check for her to spayed and micro chipped. SIL has just had her Border done (Ruby is 4 weeks older than Lottie). We will delay it a couple of weeks because we are away on hols and I don't want to leave her post-operative. If she looks sad it's because she just got told off - she pooped in the house - she is 'meant' to clean now - but still throws a curve ball (a nice brown one) every now and then to keep me on my toes.
Not the best picture (I am a crap photographer) but when I drew back the bathroom curtains this morning (around 7.15am) the muslin's where covered with life! This green Lacewing for a start - isn't it pretty? I just read about them via Google - fascinating! There was also a yellow/ochre smaller Lacewing, a small beetle and two spiders. What made them all come indoors last night......insect vampires on the prowl? A need to use the loo? An urge to try out my new shower gel? We may never know the truth.

We have another busy weekend and week ahead - life is good but slightly manic (still). Have a lovely weekend.

Forest Floor Socks

These will be my May socks for SAM5 kal. M said colours reminded him of the forest floor so it seemed like a good name. The yarn is homespun, as previously mentioned, I won the fibre on a blog spot contest here - http://freestylefibre.blogspot.com/ Jo is a wonderful fibre artist, I hope I have done her proud with my efforts to make sock yarn and socks from her work.
The yarn is a Superwash BFL knitted into a basket weave pattern that I made up as I went along using a SR heel on 3mm dpns.

I have about 40g grams left from the 100g fibre that I spun - so either will end up as fingerless mitts or used as cuff/heel/toes on another pair of socks.

***best laid plans*** so much for a relaxed weekend of outings and chilling! Never factored into the equation a blocked main drain and 7m of roding and about 4 hours of work for M to clear it! Never factored into the equation a missing cat at 1.00am - Conkers the house cat who is fascinated yet terrified of outdoors, jumped out of J's bedroom window Friday night - we spent hours looking for him - he did come home - very frightened but all in one piece. Never factored that the same night Loobles would have one of her dementia turns and be up wandering and moaning all night or that she'd wake the puppy who would poop then vomit in turns. Never factored sitting up at 4.00am on Saturday morning drinking tea cos 3 hours sleep is plenty!! Never factored my perennial rhinitis flaring up big style after years of being under control and making me feel so dizzy and light headed.......best laid plans!

Tomorrow we will all feel more awake, less tired and it will be a good day.

Appy Berfday Loobles - the real Loobles!

These are the best of a bad bunch - but I decided Lou-Lou needed her own birthday post. She was not impressed by the whole camera/flash thing and refused to look at me at all.
She's gone back to sleep - huffing and puffing about all this silly nonsense. Just wait till she hears her lead being picked up or a food bowl rattle - she can still move like shit off a hot stick when the mood takes her!

Got that Friday feeling?

I have. Long weekends - I love them. I treated myself this week to a new knitting bag (about time) my other one has seen better days and some. I have been coveting one of these bags for many moons - this one is called Mia and is by Mili - 'tis very lovely.
I also ordered some books (more details when they arrived) and treated myself to some yarn. My 1st ever order from Socktopus - "Wow!" I am impressed - great service - quick, efficient and personal too - lovely.
This sock yarn is from 'The Knittery' and is a handpaint from Australia. It's a merino, cashmere and nylon mix and the colourway is called 'Moses Fire' = perfect mix of hot reds, oranges and pinks. I still have a thing about this colour mix - even though my taste these days is straying towards more autumnal hues mixed with greens.
This was Lottsie-Botsie's chosen sleeping position last night - we called it the 'splat dog'. She'll be 21 weeks this Saturday and is really starting to turn into a lovely little girlie.
The night before she was incognito!

Thanks for all the nice comments - much appreciated.

Today is Lou-Lou's 13th birthday - I tried to get a good photo of her, but Granny (as she's now known) was having none of it. She's sleeping the morning away in her much adored smelly blankie, guarding her Kong and Eyeball toy from marauding Border-buggers. I worry lots as she is really showing her age now - she's a game old duck - but she's very grumpy, has chronic insomina then sleeps all day and creaks like an old wooden floor board - she's still my spotty puppy though.

Have lots to do this weekend - there is a massive food fayre at a favourite open air location, there is alpaca shearing nearby and a Robin Hood Festival at a local garden.....I don't think we'll fit it all in but will attempt to do as many as possible - weather permitting.

Have a lovely weekend.