Hi there Blogasphere!
It’s been ages since my last blog, as I’ve given myself a little summer break, so here is a MEGA POST with updates of various summer happenings …
I’ve been having a lovely summer, enjoying the Tour de France, which came right past our house! We had a great street party and featured in the local paper.
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The whole event was brilliant – from the ‘caravan’ of sponsors that came through the village ahead of the Pelaton (including Fruit Shoots! How could they see to steer those things?), to the sense of camaraderie between those of us who live here and those who were visiting. It was so well organised and really brought out the best in everyone. You may notice an absence of photographs of any actual cyclists – truth is, they were just too darn quick! None of my frantic clicking turned into anything worth sharing!
We’ve also done our usual bit of travelling, including Sidmouth Folk Week where we had a great time, seeing all the gang from around the country whom we often only see that week of the year, and celebrating the life of our friend and Sidmouth stalwart Ralphie Jordan, who passed away in December. It was also lovely to spend time with our collective parents who came down on holiday too.
This is a picture of my parents’ Parson Russell puppy, Alfie. I didn’t take too many photos at Sidmouth, as we were generally busy playing, but it was Alfie’s first festival, and he was really very well behaved, so I thought he deserved a mention.
Further good news was the marriage of my friend, Heather on August 1st (Yorkshire Day). This gets a mention on here because it was a very joyful occasion, but also because of the crafty nature of our gift to her and her husband, Dave. As I have mentioned on here before, the boy indoors is a musician and sound engineer, so what were we going to do for a gift but record the music of the service for them and present them with their own CD?! This was particularly relevant as Heather is a music teacher, and the music for the service was written and arranged for her by two of her ex-students. But … what is the crafty knitter going to do for her contribution to this gift? … Well, I’ll tell you what … she’s going to make a cover for the CD sleeve out of … wait for it … knitted blanket squares! Here you go … retro-funky, no?
The square patterns were from a lovely book called ‘Blankets and Throws to Knit: Patterns and Piecing Instructions for 100 Knitted Squares’ by Debbie Abrahams (published by C & B Crafts). It’s a great book but my blanket making always gets overtaken by other projects, so I average a few squares a year. I may manage to complete a blanket at some point in my lifetime. I live in hope.
Speaking of other projects … Behold, the sparkly purple top of anarchic lace (well the back thereof), my first experiment with freestyle lace knitting! It’s great fun and so refreshingly stress-free as you can’t go wrong!
In addition to some crafting this summer (more reveals to come in the next weeks and months!) there has been much growing and preparing of one of my major passions in life … FOOD! Here are some ‘arty’ photos of some green peppers I grew!
Anyway … Now for the big news! Time to introduce you to the latest additions to our family: William and Theodore (Bill and Ted).
They are great, and are keeping us very busy!
A little bit of social media news before I say goodbye for now …
Firstly, for those readers who also use Facebook, I have set up a group on there called ‘Daily Positives’ where people record and share the positive things that happen in their daily lives. I did this to provide a counter balance for all the tragic things that appear in Newsfeeds, and it’s proving to be quite popular, so if you fancy a look we’d love to share our good news with you on there!
Secondly, William the kitten has taken to Twitter (!!) so if you fancy following him and keeping up to date with his and Theodore’s antics and life in the Madhouse, you’ll find him at @williamthecatt. He’d love to see you on there!
Anyway, enough daft ramblings for now … time to do some proper work – or maybe a cup of tea and a bit of knitting …
All the very best of loveliness and thanks for reading.