Wednesday 24th January

Here's my November December January cross stitch picture;

As usual the finished piece was not quite how I imagined it;

Somehow the curves of my sketch didn't quite work out as I'd planned, but I'm happy enough. I stitched the background with nearly all the different greens I had in my stash. I had promised myself NOT to buy any more embroidery thread, so I only ordered two skeins.... oops

Having done all that mish mash of green for the vegetation, I couched brown perle thread and a metallic filament to make the frosty outlines of holly leaves (new technique for me) and then embroidered cream or white perle plus metallic filament - I wish I had a sharper needle, but didn't have a combination of large enough eye AND sharp point to hand. It took a bit of thought to work out how to do a holly flower... 

Finally I added the berries - three or so perle stitches set close together. No filament. I had broken a couple of needle threaders by then and run out of patience. 'Enough is as  good as a feast', I thought!

The theme was the 'sans day carol'; here are the words

1. Now the holly bears a berry as white as the milk,  (I'm sure I learned the word flower, not berry)
And Mary bore Jesus, who was wrapped up in silk:

Chorus: And Mary bore Jesus Christ our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree in the greenwood, it was the holly.
Holly! Holly!
And the first tree in the greenwood, it was the holly!

2. Now the holly bears a berry as green as the grass,
And Mary bore Jesus, who died on the cross:

Chorus

3. Now the holly bears a berry as black as the coal,
And Mary bore Jesus, who died for us all:

Chorus

4. Now the holly bears a berry, as blood is it red,
Then trust we our Saviour, who rose from the dead:

Chorus

I had intended to use 'The Holly and the Ivy', but after I had done the holly leaves I decided against trying to couch down the outlines for any more leaves!

I love the way many of the Christmas carols tell the whole 'Jesus' story, from birth to resurrection. This one doesn't mention Christmas at all, so covers the tie from November to now quite nicely!

Sunday 3rd September - Job Done

I shall be putting August's cross stitch collaboration piece in the post to Ang tomorrow morning. It's gone 9pm and I finished stitching about ten minutes ago.

We've just been out slugging, but it's too early. Yesterday evening's jaunt round the garden with a torch was a great success and I can report that slugs appear to be as susceptible to cider as they are to beer. We'll go out again later before we go to bed. I'm still obsessing about these sneaky molluscs as I have transplanted the swiss chard now as well;

They are all looking a bit despondent at being turfed out of their pots, but hopefully they will recover. I have covered the entire surface of the pot in slug wool, and also propped up any leaves that were flopping towards the edge of the pot so the slugs and snails can't reach across. 

It was a beautiful day for being in the garden; I cleared a number of pots which had optimistic labels like 'spring onions', 'spinach', 'cauliflower' stuck in them, but after over a month no evidence of anything growing. 

The earth is so lovely and soft and crumbly that I prefer not to use gloves but stir it around with my hands - I love the feel of it. The pak choi and kohl rabi have survived overnight. The pot right at the back is labelled 'lettuce' but now only contains forget me nots. I haven't decided whether to let them stay or weed them out.

That's Aki, the cat next door. He had been an 'indoor cat' for the first year or so of his life; he was completely astonished when tentatively exploring our garden to discover other cats. He obviously knew about, and understood people, but had not met another cat since he was a kitten. It was very amusing to watch him and our elderly (sadly no longer with us) cats; he was non-plussed by our cats, and they were alarmed by him. Partly because he was a new cat, and partly because he had no idea what was going on when they hissed at him, or tried to stare him out.   

My friends in Canada were asking if we had issued our slugs with passports and sent them their way - apparently their borders are crammed full of them too....

Thursday 24th August - Falling in Love Again

 Yes, it's true... we are in love (I don't mean with each other, no, that hasn't come out right. We've been married for nearly 46 years and we are most definitely still in love...)

but a new love has come into our lives.

It is a bright red Fiat 500x petrol hybrid It is smooth, polite, deferential, willing, cooperative and incredibly well behaved. We have owned it for only ten hours, and our minds are made up.

It is also an automatic; I've never driven one before. I was seriously concerned as to how I would cope. I was also very apprehensive because since Lockdown in 2020 my driving journeys, mostly to visit friends locally, could be counted on my fingers, not including thumbs, so I am seriously out of practice.

Himself drove it the twenty miles from the dealers mostly in a silence of deep concentration but occasionally saying 'oh joy' or 'that was so much easier' every mile or so.

I have driven it round our local residential roads with some success so far, in that I didn't have any scrapes, bumps or near misses. Himself sat as copilot offering encouragement as necessary. I mostly concentrated on Turning Left, but have tried Turning Right and Reversing Out Of A Cul-de-Sac. It took a couple of circuits, but I am beginning to get the sequence of 'Mirror Signal Manoeuvre' in the right order, and to be able to interpret what I see in the mirrors rather than alternately staring straight ahead or looking wildly round in all directions without registering what I see. What impressed me most is that I only tried to use the clutch pedal once! ("Tuck your LEFT foot as far back and out of the way as you can").

If I can add half an hour's driving every day in ever increasing circles, and start introducing Traffic Lights and then Roundabouts I am hopeful that I'll get back into the swing of things. After all, in my previous existence before Covid I used to travel anything up to 100 miles a day from one end of the County to another between schools, filling in the time between driving with teaching samba drumming, djembe drumming, trumpet, clarinet, flute, recorder, ukulele, guitar and sometimes piano, cello or viola!

Luckily I did not teach ALL these instruments in the same day, just half a dozen on a busier day. Loading the car used to be a mix of memory test and puzzle solving. Do I miss those days? On the whole, no. The music, the fun, the companionship, the buzz, yes. The exhausting classroom management of difficult classes, and lugging instruments and resources in and out of schools, no.

........

We didn't go out slugging last night. This morning I discovered one of my pak choi had been et. I have sprinkled coffee grounds around then next, and somehow I need to summon the energy to go slugging tonight. Ang asked what I did with the slugs and snails. I drop them into the council garden waste bin, whereupon they spend their days trying to climb up and out. The slugs sometimes manage to ooooooze their way to freedom. 

..........

Somehow half an hour's cross stitch got done this evening. Not the best time for me, but there wasn't that much left in this particular section and and just about managed to finish it without too much unpicking. I absolutely LOVE my Sarah Homfray variegated threads. You can feel the quality as you sew. The colours are beautiful with so many shades in each skein. Worth the money.

   

Tuesday 22nd August - You'll be so pleased when it is done

This has been my motivation for much of what I have done today. 'Getting things done' is a mysterious and arcane skill that it can take many decades to learn - at least for me.

So I have hoovered downstairs, and yes, I am pleased that the task is completed.

I have paid an invoice straight away, rather than thinking 'I'll get round to that sometime'.

I did an hour's cross stitching in the earlier part of the morning, and I have to say it's turning out as I had hoped - so far. Ang does trial pieces before committing to anything that is a bit uncertain; I ponder for a while (sometimes days!) and then just GO for it. I have finished all the counting business, so can just play about with different combinations of colours and thread and see what happens.

An hour is about what I can manage before my eyes go funny. I'm sure I ought to visit an opticians at some stage. The main obstacle to enjoying the piano at the moment is being able to see the music clearly; my current vari-focals are hopeless as I need to look out of the bottom third for both the keys and the music, so my head nods up and down like the Churchill Insurance nodding dog;

https://admascots.fandom.com/wiki/Churchill

Trawling through the internet, I discovered that he has been replaced as part of a campaign by animal welfare organisations to stop breeders from breeding dogs with ever more extreme faces, causing all kinds of health problems for the dogs. A good thing too; this demand for 'designer' dogs and cats bred for their 'cute' appearance regardless of their welfare needs to be checked.

Now, what is it I ought to have been doing instead of hunting down information on nodding dogs... I've forgotten. I'll remember later when I find I didn't do what I intended to do...   

Friday 28th April - strange dreams

I found I was dreaming cross stitches last night, rather in the way I used to dream minesweeper and tetris grids in years gone by. Disconcerting,  and not restful.  After yesterday's lack of cross progress I set to big time today, so I suspect I'll be dreaming of stitches again tonight. But, I am within shouting distance of completing it and posting it tomorrow or Sunday. The bank holiday means that it's going to take an extra day to reach Ang. She's already posted hers to me!

When I can't sleep and my thoughts keep going round on a loop I distract myself with selected audiobooks. They have to be just interesting enough to distract me, but not too exciting or terrifying!

I'm currently most of the way through the second of the Green Knowe children's books by Lucy M Boston. It is nearly too interesting, almost too exciting to be properly sleep-inducing. I set the timer for 30mins, after which the voice fades away, but last night I gave myself an extra 30mins as the story had come to an exciting bit.

We've sent off for a light-weight compact folding rollator, not for me, I hasten to add, but because my father’s super deluxe rollator is an absolute nightmare to fit in the rather small boot of our car. We have to put half the back seat down, empty the boot and and wrangle with the folded rollator while trying not to injure ourselves.

Now that he's accepting lifts from us instead of driving, we need to solve the rollator issue as he prefers it to his walking pole. He's due a visit from an occupational therapist who will hopefully find a better walking stich than this pole he's been using for a couple of years. 

And I've made spring rolls in the air fryer! I made up a mixture of  cooked chicken, spring onion, sriracha sauce, a couple of pieces of jalapeño pepper from a jar, red peppers, fresh coriander and lime juice all chopped small and stirred together. Because I was using cooked chicken I could taste it as I went along.

Then I took two sheets of filo pastry, cut each in half, and made 4 spring rolls. I sprayed them with oil and cooked them for 8 minutes at 190°C, turning and spraying the other side half way through.  For a first attempt I was very pleased; we had them for supper with a little soy sauce for dipping them. It sounds a huge amount of effort, but was actually not that bad. I'll make them again to use up the rest of the filo pastry.

Sunday 16th July - Broad beans for supper

 The crimson flowered broad beans are ready now, and we had some with supper tonight. They do taste good, nothing like the horrid sullen grey slabs that we were served at school. The convent prep school I went to had an extensive kitchen garden beyond the playing fields. This produced a seemingly never-ending supply of spinach (served slimy and sandy), red cabbage (boiled to a repellent grey colour) and the aforementioned broad beans. 

Luckily I was a day girl, and my mother was an excellent cook or I would never have eaten any of these vegetables again. Pity the boarders...

When I boarded (at a different school) much later on, I pitied us boarders too then. I think the supper dish called, if I remember rightly, 'kidney turbago' went back untouched. The smell, as of a public lavatory, was enough to stop us in our tracks.

Nowadays I'm a grownup (in years anyway) and eat what I like. I even leave the crusts from my sandwiches if I don't feel like eating them!

The mitred square blanket continues...

I had a mega 'sewing in the ends' session yesterday evening while watching television; sewing about 30 ends was no great hardship with various programmes to distracted Mr.

I completed the missing corner today, and will carry on until the current double knitting stash runs out. It's the sort of thing that one can always add to. At this width it us more of a wrap than a blanket.

This time round I've experimented with using patterned and self-striping yarns, and mixing and matching two sizes of squares. 

I found the pattern and concept here at Loiuse Tilbrook designs, but have modified it slightly to suit my less than meticulous nature. The main difference is that I found it was too much of a fuss to remember whether I was knitting a right-side, decreasing row, or a an ordinary wrong-side row. So I knit to the central marker, slip the marker, and then k2tog on every row. That makes it easier to knit and watch TV at the same time.

I'm also not that bothered the my diagonal lines caused by the central decreases go in different directions.

Unlike when I am cross-stitching; 

I managed to do 45 mins cross stitching today so I've reached where I hoped to be yesterday.  Never mind. Tomorrow is another day. Progress was slowed at one point as I became totally confused when I changed the direction of a line from vertical to horizontal and couldn't work out which stitch was the criss (lying underneath) and which was the cross. I think I got there in the end!

 

Friday 14th July - so many reasons for feeling better

 Such as

getting started on the cross stitch! It doesn't look like much yet, and I'm still mulling over the colours but at least I can get on with something while I ponder.

Next, these miniature rose seeds arrived in the post today. I've read the sowing instructions several times over; they need a temperature of 18-22C to germinate, so, having looked at the weather forecast, I will have to start them off indoors. 

Just 15 seeds in the packet, but if they should all germinate then I will have more than enough!

These roses;

There are nine blooms on the one spindly stem, clamouring to be allowed indoors out of the rain!

And talking of rain - there will be no need to water the pots and tubs this evening.

My father nearly had a wardrobe malfunction; we had a plaintive telephone call asking if we had a thingy for making holes in his leather belt! The answer is no; but Himself took round his Dremel drill set when he delivered the shopping and drilled several holes as requested. Things should be easier now! That drill was a leaving present ('you want one a what?') when he retired from work. It has proved its value many and many a time.

I discovered a 'new to me' gardening magazine today (thanks to the pressreader app) called 'The English Garden'. There were only two issues available on pressreader; The older one was 'A Year in the Garden' and goes through month by month with luscious pictures. I am the other issue for tomorrow; it will be my reward for after the next stitching session!

Friday 30th June - just a weeny bit weird?

Cross Stitch Collaboration Update;

We have managed to exchange our June stitcheries just before the end of the month - Ang received my box yesterday, and hers arriveded here this morning.

Now, I promise you, we try not to even hint at what we are doing, but more and more often we are clearly thinking along the same lines;

here are my initial ideas for my piece;

Originally I thought of some kind of hexagon back ground, with a bee, or maybe bees, and perhaps a hive, and could I fit the words of the old rhythm about swarms? 

like this, perhaps, with the bees in and around the words, and something pictorial - hive and folowers at the bottom, or between the words?

 It all got too complicated and I completely changed my mind. Perhaps I'd revisit this for July.

Here's is Ang's piece;

She made larger, honey-coloured hexagons so that each one could be filled with a different blackwork pattern. Isn't it brilliant!

I was going to use an all over hexagon pattern for mine, as you can see in my first doodles. But I think Ang's version is terrific, and would make a great sampler! 

Ang also slightly re-jigged the top left border to solve the problem of the empty space in the 'no cross, no crown' piece for April. ('I have a cunning plan....') 

The 'flat presents' are a sample sachet of granules for adding to pots and containers to retain moisture, and a matchbox size box of bee friendly seeds.

So, if I gave up on the bees, what did I sew instead?

I liked the effect of the completely red 'no cross no crown' piece, but didn't want to use red, or the equally traditional black thread. Green seemed a good choice, for the bird - probably meant to be a dove, by my garden is full of pigeons - and plants. This is part of a Victorian design for a border, with an alphabet added top and bottom.

Here's my chart;

As usual, once I've sorted out my ideas I chart it on a photocopy of the actual fabric, magnified to about 140% . As I go along I can mark the design, either by colouring in shapes different sections, or by numbering the stitches in each row to help me keep track of where I've got to. 

But both of us thinking of bees........ I wonder what we are both going to do in July? Perhaps I should do something Christmassy to be sure of being different?

Friday 23rd June - but will they grow?

I have sown more french beans, peas, spinach and spinach beet this afternoon.

The broad beans have got some promising pods growing,, and there are a few on my one remaining pea plant, so I am hopeful for a slight harvest this year. I suspect the potatoes rotted in their pots, and will tip all the contents into the compost heap, or use it for mulch. Thank heavens for shops!

I've also done some more cross stitching after taking a break - I did try earlier in the week, but had to unpick what I'd done s soon as I finished - too many stitches crossed the wrong way round. I'm stitching on what will be my piece of cloth, as was tempted to just let it go - maybe if there had been just one stitch the wrong way round...

Air Fryer Experiments;

Christine's Oatie Biscuits - 

You know how sometimes you meet someone, and you hit it off, and you know that you could be good friends, but somehow time slips past and you don't use your time wisely, and then... you realise you've missed an opportunity and 

oh well. She died (breast cancer) several years ago, and I remember her real Goodness, her remarkable gentleness and honesty. every time I make these biscuits.       

It's a pretty basic recipe - I've photographed the page from my tatty recipe book

If you make half quantities, you can cook just four in the air fryer at 150C for 15 mins. Roll the rest of the dough (assuming half quantities) into balls and put in a lidded container in the fridge.

This way you will only eat four biscuits at a sitting, (or two each shared between us) instead of pigging the lot in one go. The next time, take out four little balls, leave them to soften for about 10 mins at room temperature before cooking them.

I'm very keen on using these reusable non-stick silicone air fryer liners;

 for all sorts of air fryer cooking - they come in different sizes.

But as you will see, the recipe predates all the air fryer excitement. 

Saturday 17th June - better than Friday

That's not to say there was much wrong with Friday, but today was better.

How?

I just had more energy, completed a couple of tasks, and feel the lighter for it.

Cross-stitch8ng, and un-cross-stitching, and un-re-cross-stitching and re-re-cross-stitching happened after lunch. Probably not the best time of day as it was getting hotter by then, but overall it was progress. I sit here to sew;

but with the curtain open. In the afternoon the sun works round to shine in through the patio doors, so I close the curtains to make it a bit cooler. Everything is cleared away, ready to begin again tomorrow morning.  I shall probably stitch while the church service is livestreaming. Either that or knit more sock...

Lunch was spaghetti with sausage meatballs. Himself is usually in charge of the victuals, but today he was feel uninspired by the sausages listed for today, whereas I was feel8ng in the mood to cook.

A rummage in the cupboard produced a jar of red pesto which had been lurking for a while. 'Stir 1-2 tablespoons per person through cooked pasta and serve hot' was the serving suggestion on the label. 

Here's what I did;

I divided each of the 6 sausages into four pieces. They have changed the skins, these new ones are so thin that next time I will just cut them, rather than skinning them and rolling them into little balls. Then I cooked the little meat balls in the air fryer for 5 mins at 180. While that was going on I sliced a red pepper into thinnish strips. After the five minutes were up, I lobbed the bits of pepper on top of the meatballs and gave them another 10 mins. If you don't have an air fryer, a frying pan would do.

The 150g (enough for 2) spaghetti took 10 minutes so this was going on as well. Just before the pasta was done I added a handful of frozen peas. 

Although I made 24 meatballs the plan was to eat 12 and save 12 for another meal.

So, I drained the pasta and peas, returned it to the pan,stirred in 4 tablespoons pesto, 12 meatballs and all the red peppers. 

Served it with parmesan and and black pepper and some basil.

Now we have 12 meatballs in the freezer, and half a jar of pesto in the fridge ready for another time.

My haul of tsundoku continues to grow.... kindle keeps offering me books for 99p... yesterday I stumbled across an episode of Hamish MacBeth on television and guess what, one of the books is.... 99p! 'Death of a Snob' by M C Beaton of Agatha Raisin fame. Now I don’t care for much Agatha, but Hamish...

Wednesday 14th June - Flowers, Sewing, Knitting

 I'm so pleased to be up and doing again. Maybe doing a bit much? I can feel my eyelids drooping a little... Ah well. That's what happens...

I spent an hour and a half this morning sewing the cross stitch project. Getting properly started and making some progress - and no unpicking - is a relief. I find getting started is always the hardest part. I've done enough to think that, barring serious mistakes, it is not as complex a design as I feared.

Then I had the usual zoom chat and piano lesson with a friend where we put our worlds to rights and incidentally do a bit of piano. 

Lunchtime! And because I had taken off my step counter wristband at the beginning of the lesson, it now recorded at mere 128 steps for half a day! I do try and take it off for playing the piano, as I can gain anything up to 1000 steps (teaching Scott Joplin Rags and any kind of 'oom cha cha' LH is particularly good, or bad, for step counting).

After lunch I answered a question about my work-in-progress sock that was bugging me; did I have enough yarn to finish the pair, or would I need to start the last ball for the second sock? I did all sorts of complicated weighings of sock (2 inches to go), needles (2 stuck in the sock, one free). In the end, if I had thought about it, all I had to do was weigh the sock, weigh the yarn, and think. (Never do anything the easy way, if you can make it more complicated somehow...?)

But in one way I am glad I did, because on the piece of paper I used is this;

'Apricity' the warmth of the sun in the winter'. What a lovely word.

Later in the afternoon I wandered into the garden and started transferring some of the little plants I've been growing on since they arrived as thimble-sized plugs. Of the 72 wee little babies - too young to have left their nursery, surely! - about 56 survived. The main casualties were busy lizzies and rudebeckias, but the petunias, nicotianas, lobelias, gazzinias, bacopas, begonias and pelargoniums are mostly doing well. I just hope the snails don't find the containers I planted today.

This was a nice cool place to set up a little workstation. In the window box are individual lettuce seeds, on in each pot. On the table; right at the back the latest arrivals, some coleus plugs, a re tray with a few remaining petunias and the nicotinas, in the pale tray the geraniums.

On the ground; a mniature Christmas tree - if it survives then 2023 will be its third year, some mint, a tub with petunias, bacopa, and some snapdragons (I think) self seeded from last year, two smaller tubs with petunias and lobelia. 

Here are the three cardoons, already about twice the size they were when they went in. I was thinking of stashing the nicotina plants in the spaces around them.
 

The sweet pea has some companions now, I am pleased to see.

Monday 12th June - Reboot!

 After nearly three weeks feeling stuck in the doldrums I am now ready to launch back into action.

Today I have Done Stuff;

Changed the pillowcases, and hopefully the sheet ntonihht. I have ripped it (not literally!) off the mattress,  as a statement of intent, so tonight we will have to finish the task.

I have just about untangled the unholy mess that is my record keeping of who paid me how much for what and when; when piano students pay half-termly or in blocks of eight lessons (eight? Why eight? That's neither a half term nor a whole term? Madness) or a sort of guesstimate of how many lessons they think they can fit in, or after each single lesson, it doesn't take long to lose track. Especially if they then miss a lesson, when I credit or reschedule. 

Chest infection induced brain fog just made everything- well, foggier. 

I have planted two erigerons into bigger pots, added strings and supports to sweet peas, sown six lettuce seeds into individual pots to go in the window box of shed, and also a tray of radishes. Why are they called French Breakfast radishes, and do the French really eat radishes with their coffee and croissants for breakfast? 

I have charted the current cross stitch 3 times, and, once I have erased the current version,  will chart it again tomorrow. 

And I have taught a piano lesson to a teenager. One of those lessons where I explain how to play it smoothly, they pay no attention and carry on regardless for a while, all the time ignoring my cries to desist, before stopping and in an aggrieved tone of voice demanding to know how to make it sound smooth. 

The lesson was over zoom, and I am not, and never have been a 'knuckle-rapper' teacher so all ended well. Eventually. 

Summer Supper; (we had this on Saturday)

 Fresh capelleti or ravioli or similar, the sort that comes packed in clear pl*st*c with a nice long date (sorry, ecofolks)

Sauce (more of a dressing, really); walnut sized piece of butter, lemon zest and juice to taste, finely chopped spring onions and parsley, suitable greenery like fresh spinach or pea shoots or whatever, roughly chopped if necessary.

Grated parmesan and black pepper

Gather up and prep the sauce ingredients first. Cook the pasta according to the packet. Ordinary pasta is OK but I like capelleti.

Drain the pasta, return to the pan and stir in the sauce. Serve with parmesan and pepper. Pine nuts might be good too, or perhaps chopped walnuts. 

Friday 2nd June - I'm at the stage where

I feel so much better that as well as sowing the carrots again (the watering can wasn't that heavy) and

slipping some copper rings around the stalks of a couple of broad bean plants to fend off snails and slugs

I also staked my one remaining pea shoot this morning.

Then I came over all jelly legged and went inside. I did manage to make the mid-morning coffee without mishap, although there was a moment when I nearly poured milk into the water glasses...

Cross Stitching

I thought this would be a nice quick one to do for May;

As usual I did my charting on an enlarged copy of the actual fabric which seems to almost work for me

Although something changed in the execution and I  needed to copy the half-finished work to help sort out what to do in the white space.

Monday 8th May - In and out of the garden

It has been a grey day for most of the day, but I managed to get quite a bit done. I go out every day to encourage the broad beans. They give me a ridiculous amount of pleasure. I just stand and contemplate the little leaves bravely pushing up through the soil.

Not all the peas have come up, so I have planted another dozen or so in individual pots so that I haveca Plan B. And with the help of Himself, doing the heavy work of filling the bigger pots, the three tomato plants are now in their 'forever' homes.

Cross Stitching - 

it's always a big relief when I get to the point of starting to stitch. I spent an hour this morning, only unpicking about four times - not bad for getting back into the rhythm after a break of over a week.

Knitting - 

I've managed to unpick and reknit the cuff of one sock, and learned a stretchy bind off from youtube which is easy to do. So that sock is finished, and I have undone the cuff of the other sock, and picked up (most) of the stitches. Is the end in sight? We shall see.

Drawings - 

I copied this from a photograph, the idea being to draw a picture of this church on a card I wanted to send, This is the practice version,  which I drew in my diary which is why it is on dot paper. It's quite small, around three or four inches square.

Would it look better with a bit of colour added? I think so... (the first picture was taken in daylight, the second with the main light on)

In the end I scanned, printed and stuck a copy onto the card because I was running out of time.

Sunday 30th April - And so to bed...

I forgot to post this post!!! 

Here endeth an eventful week... 

I have packaged up the cross stitch for April, but there was no rush to get it into a post box, as today is Sunday and tomorrow's a Bank Holiday.

We took my father for his covid booster this morning. They offered us the option of having it done in the car - what a brilliant idea! We sat in the car with doors and windows open to enjoy the sunshine and birdsong and in due course someone appeared with a tray of syringes going from one vehicle to the next. I asked if I could have one too (I hadn't booked, but am allowed a booster because I take immunosuppressant medicines) and she obligingly fetched the appropriate vaccine and did me as well. Unfortunately Himself is underage - irritating,  as it seems to me it would be a good idea for family members of people who are vulnerable to have boosters but hey, who can understand the machinations of The System? 

The whole process took less than an hour door to door.

Here endeth an eventful month; 

Tomorrow will be a new day, a new week and a new month. 

Wednesday 26th April - Notebooks, cross stitch, daffodils

In other words, a random set of topics...

Notebooks

I think I've got it sort of sorted;

On the left, my current Commonplace Book which doubles as the new Sketch-a-day journal, and under it (with the little monogram) my paper diary/note book.

On the right, previous Commonplace books and sketch journal.

In the middle, a couple of old journals which are now torn into pieces and in the recycling. That sounds a bit drastic! That's because the writings in these are me expressing whatever upset me, annoyed me, stuff that I really wouldn't want anyone else to read. So, to avoid consequences, these journals are destroyed unseen by other eyes.

Finally, there is another diary upstairs where I write about the events of the day. Like a good friend dropping by yesterday with a bunch of daffodils;

Sunshine.

Or the mouse/rat (I had another go at drawing it)

Cross stitch

Another 160 stitches (crosses) completed. That leaves about 270 to go...

Tuesday 25th April - The long wait is over

Posting to this blog, and keeping up with projects and admin has been erratic for the last couple of months.

There's a reason for this;

Here are some of the daily drawings that I held back;

Thursday 19th January - top right, an appointment with a wonderful gastroenterology consultant (Himself was also there, but I ran our of space to include him in the drawing);

Back in December 2022 I had a routine CT scan of my lungs. At the follow-up appointment with the Lung clinic consultant in January, I learned that my lungs were more or less unchanged, but the scan had shown something in the pancreas area. She said she had asked for me to be referred to the local hospital gastroenterology department for further investigation. This appointment came through pretty quickly, and resulted in an MRI scan just a few days later; bottom left drawing!  

It was a long scan - about 30 minutes, maybe more; hard to tell with your eyes firmly shut! But then I had to wait - and wait - and wait to hear the results. I had been assured by the specialists - lung and gastroenterologist - that the most likely thing was that the unidentified objects would be harmless cysts. I had been in contact with the medical secretary because they wanted to get hold of the original CT scan, so I knew that my case had been reviewed within a week, but then she said the follow-up appointment would be 8-10 weeks... Oh. My. Word. 

I tried to stay calm by thinking that they would get in touch sooner if rapid action was required - I had been referred as a 'fast-track referral'. Even so, 8-10 weeks.

Meanwhile my father (who will be 94 in a couple of months) was ill in March for three or four weeks, so there was worry and appointments and so on for him as well...

Well, he has recovered and is back to his usual self, playing bridge every week, going to the quiz night, and hopefully even joining the weekly chair-exercise sessions which are beginning again!

And yesterday;

We had my follow-up appointment; yes, they ARE just cysts, and nothing else needs to be done about them (let sleeping cysts lie?). Another hugely helpful, knowledgeable, kind consultant - surgeon this time - took the time to explain everything very clearly.

I'm very relieved, and it is only now that the effort of staying calm, coping with the daily round of life plus dealing with what I think of as 'unexpected items in bagging area' is making itself felt. 

Normal service might be resumed soon...

Cross Country Collaboration

There have been many days over the past few weeks when I have been completely unable to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. But today was a marathon cross-stitch day. I have worked out that I will need to do 1,910 stitches for April's picture. Today, after an hour or so this morning, and again in the afternoon, I have completed 1,380 stitches! You don't know how good this makes me feel! So that means just 530 to go. I might even get it into the post box on Sunday!

  

   

Thursday 20th April - Half-way - That pesky delete button - Feinman - Asimov - Gardner

 I did some sums as I was feeling that I had A Long Way To Go with the current cross stitch. Hurrah - I'm half-way through - I've done about 800 stitches, and there are two blocks, of 330 and 460 stitches to go. Now it is looking more achievable.

It will be more than this, because my stitching tends to be make a dozen crosses, sigh, un-thread my needle and undo three crosses, thread the needle and make another dozen. Hopefully I will improve my success rate as I continue.

I really must stop trying to publish comments using my phone. The number of times I have caught the 'delete' instead of the 'publish' command is ridiculous. If I zoomed the screen before I started touching the commands that would save me - and you.

So, Jane-from-Dorset, I apologise to you for not publishing your comment which was as follows;

Jane from Dorset has left a new comment on your post 'Tuesday 18th April - Yogurt, Seeds, Quantum Physics':

Yes, do add some skimmed milk powder, it improves the quality of the yoghurt.

The Feynman diagram news sounds interesting-off to investigate as we spent a whole course using these at university.

As soon as one touches 'delete' it becomes impossible to rescue the situation, apart from copying the comments and adding it, but under my own name. Which I have done. 

The picture I found of a Feynman diagram was from a video on youtube. So if anyone is interested, have search. Feynman is mostly beyond me - in the sense that I'm not willing to invest in the time and mental energy it would take to understand the science. But I do enjoy his lighter weight books - I suspect as a personality one would have to consider him as a 'man of his time', but there's no doubting his giant intellect and lively writing style.

The first science writer that really grabbed my attention as Isaac Asimov - maybe better known for his science fiction, especially the Foundation series and the robot stories. But I remember reading 'View From a Height' sub-titles 'a brilliant overview of the exciting realm of science'. I am tempted to get a second-hand copy to see what made such a vivid impression.... maybe not at that price...

 And I leaned from a twitter friend (a real person - I do actually know him!) that you can buy Martin Gardner books - so there's another treat in store for Mathematicians. In fact the bookshop of the American Mathematical Society will let you have a complete collection, including his columns Scientific American for $99. Himself is Very Tempted.

I only managed to sow broad beans - white flowered, and crimson flowered, and peas on Tuesday. It was too cold. It's too cold again today; lovely bright sun, but that wind!

Saturday 15th April - A Good Day for Doing Things

 First of all (and this was a tense twenty-five minutes) I have started the heel of my sock;

Step one was to watch the Arne and Carlos video on how to pick up the stitches for 'the easiest sock in the world' - they make it look so easy...

Like I said, it was a tense time, with many pauses to check a) I was doing it correctly b) that my jaw wasn't clenched c) that I had remembered to blink my eyes d) that I was still remembering to breathe. Eventually I managed to pick up all 60 stitches, 30 on each of my bendy needles as opposed to splitting it between four needles as they do. 

More tension, as I unravelled the contrast thread that I had knitted in where the heel was going to be all those weeks and weeks ago

Leaving the stitches (31 on one needle now - how did that happen? And should there have been 32? Oh well. I couldn't see any dropped stitches anywhere....)

The next problem was 'did I have enough blue sock yarn?' The knitted swatch was a trial for another project, on larger needles, and weighed 1.5g. The little nest of yarn that I had left for the heels was 3g, so not enough for one heel let alone two. The ball of multicoloured sock yarn weighs 24.5g, so that made the decision for me - contrasting heels!

And I'm off!

The heel is going to be the most peculiar shape, as you just follow the instructions for the toe in reverse.

 Arne, or is it Carlos?, assures us that it will sort of round itself out with wear. I believe every word he says, I think... 

I've also cleared another couple of overdue emails, prepared two more tubs for veg planting and done a good deal of cross stitching.

Now why is everything centred on the page, and refusing to left align?

Friday 14th April - weather dependent

What is weather dependent?

Whether we get any gardening done... yes, as a matter of fact. There was a brief spell in the afternoon when himself roared up and down the grass with the lawn mower (it was the lawn mower doing the roaring, I should explain). Heavy work, as the grass was long (first cut of the year) and not as dry as would make things easier. Meanwhile I sat on my trusty little trolley seat  and cleared out another couple of tubs ready for vegetable seeds - when? Ah, well, that's weather dependent too.

(No, this isn't me - I've snipped the picture from amzn)

I'm amazed that the trolley still supports my weight. We keep it outside, and every time I trundle it out from under the potting table I expect the plastic to have perished, and to find myself ignominiously dumped in a heap on the round.

Was it really last September and October that I was poring over seed catalogues...

This is the first year that my windowsills haven't been full of little trays of earth and hope... 

Whether I am feeling energetic or sluggish or downright dismal. This changeable weather can switch my mood as many times as the sun shines or the rain pours or the wind blows, often all at the same time and then where am I? 

Whether I get things done - I am slightly celebrating because I have dealt with a number of tasks  including sending the invoices for the next six week's piano teaching. There are too many Monday Bank holidays this half of term so I'm not sure how that will play out for the Monday evening pupil. Mostly we ignore them and keep on trucking through.

One thing I have started today is the cross stitching. I charted it yesterday (twice) and began stitching (twice)... luckily I had only done a row and a half and it was easy to unpick. So no heavy sighs or regrettable language.

The stand magnifying glass makes such a difference...

Whether a blog post gets written or not, no, nothing to do with the weather. More a case of suddenly remembering at 7.59 pm that I was hosting a group zoom at 8pm...