Getting busy

Can't you tell I'm back at work, the posts have all but disappeared!
It's Friday and I've done the first week, only 5 more to go as it's only a 6 week half term (does happy dance!). I've been out a few nights as well this week, though it's been nice not doing Rainbows this week. Last night I went out to the house of a friend I met at my knitting group, which is being kicked out of our lovely cafe, the owner doesn't want to stay open late any more so we are going to be come slightly more nomadic... but it does mean we will probably stay later than 9pm, so I suppose more knitting and chatting time.
I've finished my first lace project of the year which will also be my first Christmas present. I blocked it yesterday so plan on taking photos tomorrow in real daylight, something that's in short supply right now. How I long for summer and days where it's light until 9pm...

Settling down

As nice as the holidays are it is nice to be back in to the routine of work in the daytime and relax in the evenings. Work so far is going ok, No major panics, and when I think back to the teacher I was back in September the difference amazes me!
It's also meant that I now only get time to knit in the evenings, not that this seems to be stopping me. I'm part way through a pair of socks for me, a lace scarf which will be for Christmas next year, and last night I knocked up these. Panic not Mum they're not for me, they're present for someone at school whose wife just had their first baby.


PS. Don't forget about pay it forward, sign up if you want something made by me, there really can't be only 1 taker!

Pay it Forward

This idea has come from Sam over at The Life and Times of me, it seems like a lovely way to start 2009.
Simply if you are one of the first 3 people to leave a comment here I will hand make you something, quite what it will be I don't know yet, it might involve knitting but then again it might not. If you get lucky then you agree to pay it forward and make the same offer to readers of your blog. The gift can be of any price range and you have a whole year to make it. Don't be shy, form an orderly queue and no pushing!

New Years Day

It was a beautiful frosty day today and I was in need of some fresh air after my pajama day yesterday so I went out for a walk around where I live. Not far, and I was only out for an hour, I wandered vaguely, I live on the edge of the city and am surrounded by parks and countryside so new that if I walked in a general direction I would escape the houses, and could walk in a rough circle through the countryside and get back to where I started. There's something nice about not walking with any planned destination.


I now need to get on with knitting the partner for this, as it would have kept my hands lovely and warm today!

more Mull

I'm pretending New Year isn't happening, well as I'm in bed with new pajamas on it seems pretty certain I'm not going anywhere. However Chocolat is on in a little while and it's a film I've always wanted to see and never got round to. I may watch that treat myself to the chocolate fondant recipe I listed in the advent calender and have some of Mum's homemade sloe gin.
I have planned my Rainbows for next term and got everything planned for next week. I'm also about to cast on a new lace project while I wait for my mittens to dry so I can check they fit before I cast on the second one.

Meanwhile some more Mull



This was the view out of the front window. We'd put leftovers out for the birds every morning and one morning we saw a buzzard/eagle on the front lawn. the debate has rang all week. If it was a buzzard it was the largest one we've ever seen, but it seems unlikely you'd get an eagle on the lawn eating leftover sandwiches!


Between us we spent most of the holiday ill. I travelled up on Saturday with a fever and generally feeling like I was going to die. I still wasn't up to much on Sunday so we just went for a walk around the cottage, and met some cows on a beach.



After that everyone else one by one fell to a vomiting and diarrhea bug, finishing with my Dad the night before we left, as a result most of the things we wanted to see before we left went un-seen. We'll be back!

The bottom fell out of his boat

If you hit refresh a few times, or if you just got lucky on the previous post then you'll have seen a few pictures of a rather broken boat. We found this on the last day on a beach quite close to our cottage. We think it had been wrecked during the dreadful weather that Scotland had a week on Friday, as the engine was still leaking fluids, and everything looked very fresh. The only thing that had been taken out was the electronic equipment in the cockpit, even the brass propellors were still there. We think the people responsible will be back to salvage more after Christmas week ( we were there on Boxing day).




He must have hit the rocks with the propellor still running, as you can see from the scrape marks. We followed the path it must have come in over as you could see marks left on the granite rocks.



The ship was called Boy David and we've tried to find out more about it but with no luck. It must have been a terrifying experience for whoever was on the boat. A real reminder of the power of the sea.

Some photos

There are nearly 100 photos from Mull, many of which look very similar, all of which show what a beautiful place it is. I'm going to write a few posts about specific things over the next few days, but for now, here's a random selection. If you hit refresh you should get to see a new selection, or you can click and go to my Flickr site.

www.flickr.com