Sad

So today I found out that someone from our past has passed away. Another link with our youth and my Dad gone. Hadn't seen the guy in years, J was in a pushchair last time our paths crossed, but still it makes me sad that he died so fairly young. And it makes me evaluate my life and time on this planet.

What have you been doing Mrs?

Well Bloggie on Friday in all that awful snow I was in the car with M driving and J in his own little Ipod world heading to Wiltshire. We had a family weekend away booked at Centerparcs at Longleat (Ma was dog and kitty sitting). The journey had some rather scary points and took at least an hour and half longer than normal and Centerparcs itself was having some issues but by four pm we had unpacked and were in our cosy little villa.

Outside looked snow scene picture perfect. Inside there was a log fire and hubbly bubbly bath and we had lots of things booked and planned. There was swimming, saunas and a lovely manicure for me and J? Well J had a ball......as you can see from the pictures above and below.

We heard a couple of "Whoa Nelly" and a few "Whooohooooos" so I think he had fun.

We spent a lot of time feeding our neighbours who seemed to appreciate  the food.

We enjoyed the view.

We enjoyed this as well.

There was a lot of fun and laughter. Lots of relaxing and we a lovely time.

The snow stayed and grew a bit but the journey home was fine and dandy and involved a detour to a pottery suppliers and wool shop.

M has gone back to work today though and J has a bit of a sore throat bug and we are happy to be home. I'd rather of not had the snow to contend with but we didn't let it get in the way of trip and it was an 'experience'.

The reading continues....

Magician by Raymond E Feist (authors preferred text)
Format - kindle

I read this book in my late teens originally (I haven't read the two that follow it, though I have a faint recollection of giving up on the 2nd one) and when this came up on my Kindle I couldn't resist it. I have to say the pleasure I first felt when following the adventures of Pug and Tomas hasn't left me and the extra details given in this version really added to the story for me. I was swept up in the story from the first chapter and gave a little sigh of regret at the last one that it was done. Perhaps later this year I will get the others and see how I get on.

The Fault in our Stars by John Green
Format - kindle

Last year I read 'Paper Towns' by this author and loved it. It was different and compelling and a literally breath of fresh air. I kept meaning to read another but didn't. This one showed up as a recommendation, I wasn't sure at first when I read the reviews and saw it dealt with cancer but I had faith in the author and needed a holiday read so bought in anyway. I am so glad I did. Yes it has a storyline that includes cancer but it is so much more than that - it is sad but not maudlin. It is a very different little book and in its own way, even with the subject matter, is a refreshing read. I really must read more of this guys work because it is so nice to find a novel that really satisfies but also gives a kick to convention and subject matter.

Spring Crocus Woven Scarf.

Plain weaving on my knitters looms using up oddments of Rowan Tweed Dk. The green is the same as I used for the Leaf hat in the photo. I have enough left to make gloves or mittens at some stage.

Books so far this year....

My reading mojo is off to to a slower start this year as I ended and started the year by re-reading a load of chick lit over the holiday period. It felt like the right thing to do. I did read a couple of new ones but they were so light and fluffy that I can't be asked to post about them.

I'm not counting what I read this year. I am reading just for the pleasure of it with no goals or aims at all. I have decided to carry on posting what I read though. Partly because I enjoy doing it and also because it's a record for me to look back on.

I am reading a lot but my main book is a long one so it's taking some time to get through. I have a couple of audio and side reads to post though.....

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
Format - audio book

I love to listen to this book. It's narrated by the author who does the  best job of telling his own tales and poems. He has a lovely voice to listen to and the stories within the book have twists and  turns that delight and bemuse. I never tire of them. I love the American God based novella at the end revisiting the character of Shadow, it is a very clever tale that ties in characters as well from an earlier short story in the book.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Format - audio book

Another re-visit to a favourite audio version. There are aspects of this book that I have always found disturbing but I still love to this to it. This is a dramatised version and although I think the main narrators voice sounds too young for a 15 year old it is still very well done and is a joy to listen to.

The Anne Boleyn Collection by Claire Ridgeway
Format - kindle

This is a collection of essays taken from the authors website The Anne Boleyn Files. It is an interesting read but there is some repetition of material but not enough to annoy. I did learn some new information about this interesting character and the format is very easy to read and not as dry and dusty as some books I've read on the subject. It isn't a particularly long read either but as it is presented in bite sized chunks it a good read for those days when you only have a few minutes to spare. The web page is very interesting and well worth visiting too.

The Constant Princess by Philipa Gregory
Format - book

This was lent to me and I had a short time frame to read it in which might account for the fact that I struggled to get into it. I put it down for a week and  then had rush to finish it to return it on time. Although I am forever fascinated by the Tudors and Henry Viii in particular this one just didn't do for me. It was good and I enjoyed it but I didn't put it down and think - Wow what a read - in fact I put it down and give it little or no thought at all.

I have loads of books on my 'to-read' list this year and my kindle is overflowing with new downloads. Am off for a long weekend soon so hope to find some extra reading time then.

Steptoe

Knit for a friend to match her hat and scarf. Made the pattern up as I went along really - to fit a small to medium hand. I used 2.5mm circs and 2.5mm glove dpns for the fingers. The yarn is Jamieson's Spindrift which I actually bought on Shetland when we visited there a few years back.

To thine own self be true.

Dee over at the blog at her shop - Posh Yarn has a word for the year - hers is a very good word, it is 'intrepid'. I can really understand that.

I can't think of a word and I don't do resolutions (see yesterdays post) but I decided to have a phrase or a mantra for the 2013 and the favourite one is "To thine own self be true". I like this.

I quite often walk away and swallow my principles for peace or for the sake of a quiet life, and I am not looking for a fight or aggro, but I am rather fed with being the bigger person (metaphorically), and when others pride themselves on 'speaking as they find' etc, without a thought for how this impacts on others, I normally turn the other cheek. I don't with those I truly care about - like M and J - but I do with other lesser beings.

I think it is time to stop doing that now. To put what I truly think and feel out there. So I have a mantra for 2013 - I shall be true to  the real me and I shall no longer back down, turn the cheek or play the peace maker.

It feels very liberating.

I don't do......

resolutions or regrets. I don't do if only and I should haves either. I don't live retrospectively or in the future. I want to enjoy this moment right now.Yesterday is a done deal and tomorrow is only a possibility.

Time for another?

Been busy knitting for others and the whole time I was, I felt an overwhelming need to start some crochet. This is weird because after finishing two fairly long term crochet projects earlier this year, I had had enough of hooky stuff. But I have this lovely colourful collection of Rowan Pure Wool DK from a frogged project and I love this particular square and  the rest as they say "is history." I made the first two squares yesterday and my fingers are itching to make a third.

The block is called 'Square Target' and comes from this wonderful book by the lovely and talented Jan Eaton. The book has wonderful suggestions of colour and design, a great 'how to' section and really easy to follow clear instructions. It is a book that I go back to time and time again and is a worthwhile addition to any yarn crafters library.

I'm sure that my initial enthusiasm will wane and it is my intention that this will be a long term 'pick up and put down' project but at the moment I am loving it.

Valentine Honey Badger Socks

Last minute belated birthday gift for a friend.  Hope she likes them!

Tucking in the blog for Christmas

Time for the blogs Christmas snooze. See you the other side.

Here's a bit of traditional Christmas lyric for you. Enjoy!



The boar’s head in hand bring I,


Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary.

I pray you, my masters, be merry
Quot estis in convivio

Caput apri defero

Reddens laudes Domino

The boar's head, as I understand,

Is the rarest dish in all this land,

Which thus bedeck'd with a gay garland

Let us servire cantico.
Caput apri defero

Reddens laudes Domino

Our steward hath provided this

In honor of the King of Bliss;

Which, on this day to be served is

In Reginensi atrio.

Caput apri defero

Reddens laudes Domino

A Christmas Story

A group I'm a member of is having a Christmas story writing competition - this isn't my entry, this is my first attempt that is about 300 words too long. I liked it too much as it stands to try and cut it down, so I decided I'd post it here instead.

Old Mrs Brown had a Christmas tree of sorts. It was small, a little bent and a little bald on one side and the tinsel that its boughs were made of was less silver and more yellowed through age. She had found it on one of her rummages at the back of a local charity shop and had bartered with the lady, a robust W.I type behind the counter, down to a price of 75p. Which was a bit of a bargain.

She placed the tree on her small occasional table which stood before the bay fronted window of her little house. It leaned slightly to the left and had a drooping appearance but it was a tree and she felt that they had a lot in common. She was past her prime, had become stooped with age and her hair was now more silver than the gold it had once been.

She felt quite tired out after her excursion into the busy high street so settled down in her favourite chair with a nice reviving cup of tea, and as she sat there, she looked at her little tree and sighed. Once her Christmas Eves’ had been filled with family and bustle. The comings and goings of groceries being delivered, the last minute baking of mince pies and sausage rolls. Ferreting around in all the nooks and crannies of their little over crowded family home, trying to remember where all the carefully hoarded presents were hidden. The twins had been devils for finding them and as money had always been tight, it had meant buying little bits throughout the year when she had some extra pennies. Gifts often were so well hidden they didn’t get found until Easter. Even the twins failed to find one present that to this day had eluded detection. Still, she thought, it was easier to buy for one, and although the high street had been busy today, she had managed to stretch this weeks money to include a nice breast of chicken and a packet of cranberry and chestnut stuffing, which would do her a meal with a Christmassy feel. A small individual Christmas pudding she could microwave would round it off nicely. She sighed again, drank the last of her tea, and with a little effort and a groan got to her feet. She wanted her tree, battered as it was, to have at least a few lights and some decorations before the evening was out.

The box with the her few remaining decorations was like a trip down memory lane. There were the paper bells that folded out, the colours now faded and dusty but she remembered the twins being fascinated by them throughout their childhood. The glass baubles with their names written on them, one for her, one for Fred and one each for the twins. Her Mother had bought them the year they were born. Each carefully tissue wrapped parcel uncovered another memory. She found the small string of lights at the bottom of the box, small plain white ones. After checking they still worked, which amazingly they did, she slowly wrapped them around the tree which bent even further under their added weight. Next, on went the tinsel, she only had one piece of faded red and silver but it looked very pretty against the lights. A few baubles and a rather dilapidated fairy who only had one wing and the tree was done. Poor fairy, she thought, another Christmas relic who had seen better days. Still, that fairy had been bought over 40 years ago.

Mrs Brown stepped back and admired her handy work. She smiled with a childlike joy brightening a face that normally looked tired and aged. It was Christmas Eve and she had a Christmas tree of sorts. This was the first time she’d bothered with Christmas since her Fred had died 7 years ago, and she didn’t know why she had suddenly felt the urge to have a tree this year, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Her stomach rumbled and she checked the parlour clock. Goodness it was way past tea time and she had been too tired to bother with lunch. Time to get something to eat and then maybe to watch a little TV before bed. She picked up the last thing to make the tree look perfect, a small brightly wrapped gift that had come in the post that morning. Sent from so far away, it was a little battered in one corner, but it had a ribbon and matching ribbon curls and the label that swung from it read “To our Mum, Happy Christmas, love from ‘The Terrible Two’ xxxx” Christmas tree and a present - perfect.

------------------------------------------------------

They didn’t find Mrs Brown, until after the New Year. She hadn’t been missed by anyone over the holidays and as she didn’t have a phone she couldn’t have called for help if she needed to. The notes made on her post mortem stated that she died of natural causes and that she looked at peace.



Copyright P Lainchbury (2012).

Please remember to keep an eye open for your elderly neighbours this winter. xxxxxx

Tis the season to be.......

Grumpy with a side order of sarcasm. In other words, in my book, tis the season to be the same as usual. A complete stranger wished me Happy Christmas the other day and then added 'Cheer up love it might never happen' I refrained from replying 'It already has with a complete tosspot like you speaking to me just because it is Christmas this month.'  I find it very difficult to do the fake smiley happy thing at the best of times, but at this time of year it becomes nigh on impossible. I try, I really do. I creak my mouth upwards and kind of grit my teeth into a cross between a rictus of a smile and a grimace, but then I feel the muscles at the side of my mouth tremble and quiver, and the default setting of bulldog chewing on a wasp falls back in to its usual position.


I just don't get why people have this overwhelming need to be nice and smiley and friendly and jolly now. What difference does one day make? (The above statement does not apply to those moments of trolley wars and check out queues on Christmas Eve.) If you have the ability, and not all of us do, to be that nice and pleasant why not attempt it all year round? I am sure it would make the world a better place, unless you stumble across people like me, it would just make me want to punch you.

As Christmas and New Year approach, I find it harder and harder not to say 'Fuck off' to every wish of a Happy Christmas/Happy New Year that I get when I am out and about. And don't even get me started on the fake kissy-kissy hugness of New Years Eve (I need to carry a bucket with me on that day.) I don't mind a hug and a 'mwah' from people I know and quite like but from turds on legs, slightly pissed full of fake bonhomie, it is just a massive mistake if they to try and get close to me. M reckons I pull a face like a frozen fart and that scares them off a twenty paces, I should hope so, I've been perfecting it for about 40+ years.

I just hate the assumption that jolly becomes the norm at this time of year. I'd much rather people were just themselves all year round or that they could be that 'nice' at other times not just because it is seen as the right thing to do. Buck the trend, go against the flow, join with me and yell that resounding 'Fuck off!' You will feel better for it.

Reading continues - booktastic mate.

Since hitting my target of a 104 books in a year I've continued to read and list them. So here, for your delectation are books 105 to 115.

Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars and The Chronicles of Avonlea - by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Format 3 - Audio Books/ 1 Kindle

I love these stories. They are lyrical, funny and wonderful. They make me feel good as I read them because they lift my spirits but don't tax my poor brain. I can drift off to a different time and land and just relax.

Loki by Mike Vasich
Format - Kindle

I will admit to struggling to get into this book. I did put it down and walk away a couple of times. But I am glad I went back and gave it another go. It was worth it and is quite an epic read. I love any mythology and have dabbled in a couple of other books that use Norse mythology as a theme but this was the best by far.

The Lady of the Rivers by Philipa Gregory
Format - Book

I have mixed feelings about this author. Some of her stuff I have loved and devoured, others have left me cold. I didn't realise this was part way through a series but it worked OK as a stand alone read. I really enjoyed it, liked the setting, found it really interesting and will read the others in the series.

Kiss of Midnight, Kiss of Crimson, Midnight Awakening and Midnight Rising by Lara Adrian
Format - Kindle

Very similar to the Black Dagger series. OK reads. More vampire tough guys seducing human women - very good sex scenes (if a little samey). Quick to read, non taxing in any way. I think these type of books are like breakfast cereal - they do a quick fix hunger fill but an hour later you start to feel empty again. For what they are they are good but they do not sustain. Sometimes that is all you need and I use these type of books as a de-stress tool but they do always leave me wanting something with a bit more substance.

This had better stop now

Where did that third one come from?......Mr Wilbur Woot.

Then there were two....

introducing Cedric Hoot-a-nanny!

A wol called Tufty.

Inspired by Bezzie's blog post. I remembered that I had this pattern by Ana Clerc in my Rav queue. And as I needed no encouragement to put off other stuff I should be getting on with (tries to look innocent and fails) I decided to whip a quick stocking filler for an Owl mad buddy.....and Tufty was born. He is almost beyond cute....now I want to make one for me!

Sometimes

Sometimes you just need a project that is mindless and kind of knits itself. Plain socks in a self patterning yarn works every time for me.

My plain sock pattern, knitted in Opal Van Gogh yarn - the colourway is Bedroom in Arles.

They are so pretty.

Whoops another fall from the yarn diet.....

But who could blame me? Juno 'Buffy' sock yarn in 'Treehouse' and 'Storm' - honestly the crappola light here today does not do justice to the richness of the colours - they sing! Also the base yarn is very similar to my favourite Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock which makes it even better.

I bought this from Tangled Yarn who I have to say have some truly glorious yarn and knitty stuff on sale - their service is pretty spiffing too!

I have stashed these until I get something else off the needles.

Just 'Call me Sweetheart' mitts

call me sweetheart 004
Originally uploaded by loobles2002

Had the idea for these warbling around my brain and it just had to come out. Am very happy with the result.