What Katie Did

Twenty one years ago

We have had Very Big Winds here and the phone lines are affected. The internet cuts off every few minutes making prolonged use impossible. BT have been informed, but I am not hopeful. Today it is still and calm, so I am going to risk a post.
Today is Martha's Twentyfirst Birthday.
Here she is about 18 months, having a tea party with the cat.

She is celebrating her 21st in Helsinki, but I will be remembering the day as it unfolds and all the landmarks of a labour that ended so beautifully with the birth of my darling girl. (about 5pm GMT if anyone wants to get thoughtful with me). She was an angelic baby. I felt sorry for other mothers - their babies looked like piglets dressed up in baby clothes compared with the exquisite child I had produced.

Anyway - while I have been having connection problems, I have been busy with a felt making day (forgot my camera) the Hexham Christmas Market (forgot it again) two knitting days (we sneaked in a Saturday to catch up on some of this CHRISTMAS KNITTING!)

Oh - and work - lets not forget work!
Last monday I was on the panel of a 'Question and Answer' session for a group of orthodox Jewish women in Gateshead, about 60 of them. That was interesting to say the least!
And The Parent Education Department (me and Catherine)  hosted a Christmas Party. A lot of hard work, but worth it  for the happy people.  I am always amazed by how grateful people can be for a sausage on a stick and a cream bun.

The Christmas production at Owen's school is My Fair Lady. For the last several years we have had someone in the play at the end of term - but now that John has left and no longer entertains us with his theatricals, we go to see Owen who sits on the lighting rigging with a set of headphones on. Last night it was magnificent. I grew up with my Mum and Dad singing those songs - I don't think of Audrey Hepburn singing 'All I want is a room somewhere', but my Mum, who didn't have to manufacture a cockeny accent, she could just dig into her recent past and produce an authentic one. Blooming Loverly.

Christmas preparations are slow. I can't believe how little I have done this year. I am usually in a frenzy of activity about now, with the house all decorated and the presents hidden. This year there is Nothing Going On At All and it feels more like October than the week before Christmas. I did make some sweetie garlands the other day.

But with the last posting day on Tuesday I need to get going if we are to have Christmas in this house!

So what am I doing today? Going to a clothes swap in Alnwick? Very seasonal!

Twenty one years ago at this very moment, I was eating a bit of Weetabix and half a banana to keep my strength up and wondering how much more painful contractions could get....... 'a lot' was the answer to that one.

Happy Saturday bloggers!

A Lovely Day Was Had By All

Finally managed to find a day when no-one was doing anything other than visiting Nana and Grandad. Their first hug with John for over a year! And its been a long time since they had a hug with Owen too (but there is always plenty of hugging)

Martha phoned too - so we had the whole family nearly together for a while

I got help with the next stage of the squares quilt I started in the spring, so now I can do the quilting part, which may take until next spring.

We had Nana's scones

everyone got to do what they liked best

Hence the title of this post. No picture of the egg and chips Martha, but we don't want to make you too homesick. They were the best, with Grandad in charge of chip pan and Nana on cakes.
They were pleased to see John and amazed by how much he has grown

He can't even fit in the car anymore!

Thanks for a great day!

Sunday

Fresh from the garden
French beans
Broad beans
Swiss chard
Courgettes
Carrots
Beetroot
Potatoes
The only thing we didn't grow was the organic chicken which got lost under mountains of Vegetables!
This was our version of the 'fatted calf' and John had his first roast dinner in a year.

The garden is really enjoying all the rain we've been having

And the greenhouse too - with Geoff's beloved peach tree

I have had a happy morning in my shed. i bought some lovely fleece at Woolfest with plans to make some more felt.

I'd like to make some more felt balls for bracelets and necklaces - I am thinking of Christmas already! It's never too early to start on that one!
AND

This is my shirt collection. I really like the quilt in the Kaffe Fassett book using shirting for a baby quilt. I might have a try?

Here is the banana fibre knitted into the bag from Knitty - but from memory as I was driving around in South Africa. I have made the thing too short, but I think I have a way round it. watch this space!
In texture it feels a lot like sari silk yarn. I don't really want to think too much about how many chemicals they must have used to render banana fibre knitable!

We had a lovely long phone call with Martha last night - she is really enjoying Damascus and starts the Arabic course at the university next week. She is living in rented rooms on the third floor of a building in the Christian Quarter, exploring the city enjoying the food and playing backgammon. I knew it was worth teaching her to play that years ago!

And I will leave you with a bit of Saturday Sky. I think I may try and organise myself enough to take part in that one.

It's good to be back!

Well! we're back and there's so much to tell, I hardly know where to start! We had a fantastic time and saw so much. I think I will put some of the photos into a separate album for anyone who is interested - otherwise there will be a whole post full of zebras and hippos and the rest. This elephant was my second favorite sighting of the holiday, the first most certainly being my boy, after nearly a year without him I was thrilled to find he is just the same lovely John but with even more of all the things I missed about him - his sense of humour, his energy and his lovely generosity. Don't blush John!

We did an epic journey through South Africa, landed at Cape Town, drove north to Potchefstroom (near Johannesburg), east to St. Lucia where this elephant and his friends were then back via Durban and East London to Cape Town. 5000km in three weeks. In retrospect, this seems a little crazy, but we certainly saw a great deal of contrasts. I can't resist a few more pictures here -

Simply thousands of little settlements like this one

Table Mountain looking like it has icing on. It is winter in South Africa now and this means it is like an average summer in the UK - in fact, you all had the heatwave while we were away and we were probably more comfortable in South Africa's winter than you were in UK summer!

No respect for geography here - the Indian Ocean here at the opposite side of the country, warm enough to swim in and stretching for miles and miles in all directions. I think I would have been happiest if we had stayed here for three weeks and left the car in the hire shop! There is something about the ocean that makes me sing Joni Mitchell songs - I wonder what that is about?

We spent a day with a guide in the iMfolozi Game Reserve and saw several of these, lots of these

and in the St Lucia World Heritage Wetland Site there were many of these

and a list of animals and birds in Geoff's note book that covers many pages!

Knitting ..... I took some with me and searched out wool where I could. Not a great deal on offer, but I found some banana fibre in Kimberly, some nice locally spun and dyed merino in Stellenbosch and some lovely variegated chunky wool in Fish Hoek. Otherwise it was mostly acrylic or novelty yarn which was everywhere!

I knitted on the plane there and back without raising a Lufthansa eyebrow.

Socks, I managed two pairs... it's a long way to South Africa!

And now I am back. John is home next week so hardly any time to miss him. Martha flew to Damascus yesterday where she plans to learn more Arabic at the University there for the next six weeks. A bit concerned about her at the moment.

I am looking forward to catching up on all the blog doings for the last few weeks and getting back into the way of work, garden, Poppy, my shed, Oxfam shop ......... life goes on.

Thanks for being patient. I hope you still call by to read my pink blog....... say Hi!

Back in August

Is there a formula for packing and leaving a house and dog and garden for three weeks? If there is I don't know it.

Please return here in a few weeks time for more of my knitting, felting, matting, chatting, bargain hunting and of course, my lovely family!

I'll post some random photos for you for no reason at all, except I think a post without pictures is a bit dull.

I wonder if Poppy will behave herself for Bruce the House Sitter?

This is what John looked like on his 18th birthday - I wonder what he looks like now?
(John is a big Swedish Football Fan for some reason known only to himself)

I wonder if Owen is having as much fun in Cape Town as he was having this day?

My three year old neighbour Thea is always very confused about where Martha is when she goes back to university. Bristol and Cape Town are all the same to her!

And I wonder what the garden will look like when we get back?

Enjoy your July - I'll have such a lot of catching up to do when I get back.

Woolfest, England and counting down

A mixed post today and in no particular order... link heavy as the camera is in Cape Town!

Woolfest  was really lovely on Saturday. Annie and Ann and Sue and Dorothy and Marget and Ruth and Lyn and Ann and Janet and Mary (I think that's everyone) all had a wonderful time too. I got some fabulous Rooster yarn in green and a sort of orangy colour, half alpaca and half merino, very soft and delicious. And some sock yarn made of 45% bamboo! (which I can't find a link for). I want to make some more felt balls too - like the ones at the top of my page, so I got fleece from Wingham Wool in all sorts of fabulous colours.

We had breakfast at The Village Bakery in Melmerby and after the wool buying and a great pic-nic lunch, Sue and I went to find a venue to watch the England v Portugal game. We found a pub in Cockermouth serving tea, set up our stools near the huge TV and got out our knitting! It should have been a wonderful end to a beautiful day, but for those of you who follow these things you'll know that it wasn't.

I have had a couple of emails from the kids in South Africa, none of them telling me anything I want to know. like what they are doing or how John is or where they are staying - nothing very informative. I got very excited when I saw one of the two mails had a photo attachment.... great - a picture of my three lovely children with maybe Table Mountain in the background??? I got more and more excited as the photo loaded..... then there is was......

Thanks Owen.

I have one more day at work......

and I will leave you with a photo of my neighbour's Garden Station

Happy Fathers Day

This is 1935 and that is My Dad accepting First Prize for the Daily Mail sponsored Sand Castle Competition. This is Southport and Dad is nine. And this is one of my favourite photographs of all time.
Happy Fathers Day to all Dads, but especially mine.