Treading Water

For a while I thought we were drowning, in a sea of anxiety, problems and unhappiness.


But strange heroes stepped up to the mark to rescue me, whilst I was rescuing MadMum.


There were all the landmarks I decided to aspire for and try to achieve in the past year:-


The 10k run to raise money for Alzheimers
The rock concerts I'd been missing
The fun and the laughter of days out, nights out and holidays


In a whistle stop summary, during the past year I ran (with my DD, her partner, and my DIL) 10k in the Great Manchester Run, raising over £3k for Alzheimers.


I went to Hard Rock Calling with DD and her OH, to see the Kaiser Chiefs and the Killers.  I went to Oxygen with my schooldays chum, for 4 nights and 3 great days of concerts and caught unforgettables such as Coldplay, Beyonce (pre-baby), Brandon Flowers, Black Eyed Peas and Slash as well as great performances from Ke$ha, Noah and the Whale, Tiny Tempah, The Strokes, Foo Fighters (awesome), Beady Eye and so many, many more fantastic acts.


I went to Harvest at Jimmys Farm, and saw the Feeling and Eliza Doolittle.


Went to BBC Good Food show and saw Jamie Oliver bantering with Gino; James Martin with a broken foot and so many foodies and ate awesome yumyums.


Went to Centre Parks with my DS, DIL, fantastic twins, DD and OH, and we cycled, swam, treasure hunted and canoed; we got sore bots and sore feet, we drank wine and we laughed and had enormous fun.


I went to LIsbon, for the first time and walked up nearly all of the ten or was it nine hills ... which nicely offset the pounds that would have been accumulating because of the awesome food.


But the strangest of heroes was Harry Potter with knitting.  On Ravelry there is an HP Knitting and Crochet House Cup; the folk are fun and the challenges are awesome.


When things got difficult with sisters who are angry, or loved ones who are ailing, there was knitting.


I knit some fun things and some wonderful things.  I sorted my stash and I found caring friends.  Knitters are, for the most part, caring fun people who enjoy making things that make other people happy.


I found shawls.  I will end with a random few

And so, after some absence, shawls, music and happiness have made their way back into my life.   

May happiness and laughter sneak back into yours too.

Not so easy jetting.

Life is sometimes a little too interesting. Lately, like this past couple of years, it's been too interesting and too complicated.

We flew to Spain for a quick respite break and, thanks to the wonderful people at Easyjet who cancelled our plane after technical difficulties, we spent 3 hours waiting for the flight, one our collecting our embarked then disembarked luggage, and 4 hours queuing to get a replacement flight. So, after around 10 hours at Alicante airport we had a flight for 2 days later, four cancelled appointments, a distressed madmother, who didn't know why I wasn't visiting or talking to her, an extra car hire bill of Euro 150 and aggravation from Easyjet customer service who appear not to want to abide by the terms of European legislation, particularly EU Regulation 261/2004 which says that Euro 400 should be payable to customers who have been denied flights. Automatic compensation - not claimed for; not argued about but payable. The "debate" rages on. But for now, my personal opinion, avoid any "service" that doesn't offer customer service.

Meanwhile DH's indigestion was getting worse, it became compounded by a gastric bug which gave him "traveller's diarheaa" Lovely! This was so bad that it affected his heart, and he now has atrial fibrillation which, coupled, with his slight heart murmur, has left him debilitated, breathless and weak. Once home the GP has popped him on beta blockers, asprin (totally aggravating the indigestion) and now PPIs to reduce the acid and hopefully diminish the acid levels in his stomach.

I've got a cold. Poor me. It's only a cold, but instead of being able to mope and keep warm I'm playing nurse to a sickly husband and minder to a mad mother.

All bad things have a silver lining and the knitting is yomping home. on 3rd pair of socks ... the latest for "son-in-law", ie partner of daughter, whose birthday is next monday. Also going well is the Aeolian shawl, Kingscot, DA's mystery blanket, and sock of the month club.

Meanwhile, as I have no knitting photos to show you, here's one of MM herself ... slightly puzzled as to why I am pointing a phone at her!!

I've met up with a lovely friend, whose Mother is waiting for the results of investigative tests, and my fingers are crossed for the results of that. She's a knitter too ... we agreed, like so many others, that knitting keeps us (almost) sane during stressful times.

So wherever you, and whatever you are knitting, or frogging, or sewing up, or contemplating, may the needles treat you kindly.

Love and hugs

Seriously silly week

MMother set her alarm off twice more ... she now regularly talks to the wall - she has no idea who is asking her if she is all right, but she talks politely back. The alarm is situated next to the phone ... but even after nearly a year, she's not quite twigged it yet.

On Thursday afternoon I spent an hour and a half at the audiology clinic, to get her a new hearing aid ... which she will lose, trash, deny she ever had, or swear she doesn't need.

On Friday I telephoned to tell her I would be over first thing on Saturday morning with shopping for my sister's visit this weekend (this sister has to travel from her current role in Leeds by Network Rail, mmm, to Brandon!) and that I would also bring her hearing aid.

On Saturday I am heading to pick up sister from Brandon station and take her to MM's, along with shopping and hearing aid. Needless to say NRail delays mean sister is delayed. I try to ring MM - no answer.

Having picked sister up we are heading to MM's house when we get call from paramedics, MM on her way to hospital she's had "funny turn" After 6 hours at West Suffolk she is discharged - she had walked too far and had a panic attack. I get home at 7pm having eaten nothing all day. (West Suffolk has norovirus so I didn't want to take the risk!) Worst thing ... hadn't taken knitting as I was driving ... so nothing to do for the 6 hours!!!

Today was RSPB BigGarden Birdwatch day ... perfect I thought for chilling out - just sitting and counting feathery things for an hour, knitting my KLC Rumpled socks (first project of the sock club this year) ...

Was toying with grabbing glass of wine to go with the spanish beef casserole I was cooking, when ....

Life just gets weirder … I swear I’m living in someone’s bizarre imagination.

there was a very loud bang, the windows vibrated. A goose had flown into house. Seriously! Went outside, Goose is at least 1m+ tall and staggering. I back off fast.

He (or she, who knows with geese) sits down in lavender bed and stares at me. No sign of blood or damage … Goose seems confused, but again who knows how non confused geese act? Later goose gets up, staggers across drive (bumping into DH’s large and unmissable car - obviously!) then climbs into lavender bed on other side of drive. Goose now has thing for lavender!!

I spoken to RSPB, who told me to ring RSPCA. I spoke to RSPCA who told me to leave it until morning. Goose now snuggling up to largest lavender bush.

My conspiracy theory is that the goose had come to check out humans after humans had been checking out birds all weekend! He\She is still out there … do you think it wants wine or knitting to while away the time?

Say hi to the pretty things

Well, not difficult to tell where I was when I found this pair ... but they hadn't seen any yarn  shops and despite a perfect place to stash a project, they didn't seem to have any work in progress ...

And although hard to see, Koala is there, sleeping in the tree, so no socks or sweaters there either ...

The ibis were happy

 playing and paddling ... no knitting ...

The lizard was just catching the rays ...

The brush turkey (AKA bush turkey) was very happy ... a protected species and allowed to wander without fear of cranberry sauce ... but definitely not a yarn addict

 And a pair of homo barbequiens laetus maritum novitor (thank god there are no romans around to criticise my awful latin!) ... who were so busy with each other, being married and cooking breakfast that they had no time for knitting and are now convinced knitting is something you do when deprived of a partner and conjugal rights .. (actually let's not even go there!).

So that left me ... knitting and photographing all the amazing wild life that just wanders ... no zoo just out there.  Of course I did do a little surfing (yay dude get me!!) and sailing, swimming and walking .... but when I got a little bit in need of something to be nice to me I got out my silk and merino!

I'd go back in a heartbeat ... but the knitting comes too!

And top of the evening to you ...

So here I am with my camera, trying to get hat and head in focus. However, I'm really no good at it so you will have to make do with hat and eyes.

I should be off sewing up groom, but am still in a quandary about bride. Bride is knitted with body and arms incorporating the colour for the dress, so I couldn't just knit a new dress to match the colour of my dear sister's dress ... I would have to knit a whole new bride and arms and legs ... I think tomorrow I may search for some burgundy silk ... and sew a weeny overdress and corset .. so she can be a mix and match bride - traditional vs dreamy, floaty and midsummery in burgundy.

So, whilst in my quandary, I have taken heart; I have said naughty words to the sewing up and am sipping a wee glass of wine instead.

I like my hat ... but I'm not sure it's the right look for the wedding.

Happy St Patricks day ... sending hugs
xxx