Hands

Natalie at the Yarn Yard first did this idea when we went to York back in January. I finally had chance to do the same for some of the ladies in my knitting group when we were knitting in public on Sunday. (World Wide Knit in Public Day is held to raise the profile of knitting as a hobby, and to try and beat the stereotype that we're not all old ladies!)
Rather than plaster people's faces over the internet here are some photos of their all important hands, every time I see any of these hand close ups I find it amazing how differently we all do the same thing, to make the same finished project.

Celebration

Over the past 12 months we've been celebrating the start of Guiding. We've had lots of events over the year for girls, but today was chance to say thank you to the adults who run all the units. I've just got back from a garden party where it was most strange to see all these ladies who normally you only ever see in uniform dressed in their best. The weather was little chilly so I was very glad to be able to wear my Aeolian shawl (for only the second time!) for some much needed warmth.
I showed you the finished photos last year but I don't think I ever showed you me wearing it, and it's very nearly guiding blue!


Happy birthday Girlguiding, here's to another 100 years!

Mary, Mary how does your garden grow?

Well not quite with silver bells and cockle shells but certainly it's growing at a great rate of knots.
While I was away riding the weather was sunny and warm and this last week it's rained a bit and the plants have gone crazy! Some of them a bit too crazy as some of the salad leaves have started flowering!

My tomatoes are flowering like crazy, and even the pepper which has clung to life for the last month has put on an inch. The courgettes are starting to show signs of flowering and I had my first mange tout for lunch on Friday. To think, this time last year I hadn't even moved in yet so nothing was growing!

Up hills and down dales

We went for a walk with boyfriends parents yesterday in the Derbyshire Dales, it was one of those damp misty days, that eventually turned to rain.

Very sensibly the cows were lying down.



It's stil raining today so I've been busy catching up on my knitting!

Success

Finally a joyous post. I have a job for next year. It's at one of my old placement schools, and I couldn't be happier! It won't be without it's challenges, but it will be somewhere I an be me, and not feel guilty about it!

I think the cows would approve!

Lots of hills

I've spent the week riding in Mid Wales, the area just north of Hay-On-Wye. None of the hills round there are very big, but they are beautiful swathes of open land where we saw no one all day. Beautiful wide grassy tracks to ride on, and of course the sunny weather all helped to make for a memorable week.



This picture was taken from the top of The Begwns at a place called The Roundabout, which I can't find any information about. It's a circular stone structure on top of the hill, with trees, the sort of thing that there must a history to, and if it was in snowdonia you'd have no trouble, but in this less visited part of the country you struggle!

Return

I've just got back from a week's riding in Mid-Wales. The photos are still on the memory card, but I will put some up later. Knitting has been going well, and Mum and I returned home to find more progress had been made on the house. It's actually starting to look finished which means attention is turning to renovating the garden....