February Redux

April was the second month of the Roman calendar and it bloomin' well felt like February this morning.


We walked at Saltburn and almost had the beach to ourselves.



Well, there was us, the chap who drives the beach cleaner and these oyster catchers.



Then some surfers arrived to brave the freezing water. I can't imagine how cold it was, even in a wetsuit. I had all my storm flaps securely fastened down in - reminiscent of all my childhood seaside trips.


According to the Guardian, "Saltburn is one of the original centres of the north-east surf scene and the locals are friendly despite the busy waves. Good beginner waves can be found either side of the pier. The guys at Saltburn Surf Shop above the beach can provide everything from lessons and hire to advice and new boards, and after thrashing around in the cold North Sea there's the option of great coffee and smoothies at Camfield's Coffee Bar, or beer and pub meals at The Ship, both right above the beach"

How can this be?

I've just stepped on the scales.
Not something I often do. It upsets me.

It upset me more than usual today.

I'm exercising.
I've reduced my food intake.
I'm taking the *&£$!^%+ Orlistat.

Not a pound down.

Have a review of weight and BP with my GP tomorrow. That will be fun.

Spring Break

I've been enjoying just relaxing this Easter. I'm glad we decided not to try to go away somewhere as I've been so tired and it's wonderful to know that I still have another week of R and R.




Another gorgeous day today. The freezing and wet Easter that we were promised gets pushed back every day.

J and I walked around Cowpen Marsh this morning and I got to the top of the hill wihout stopping (thought I needed oxygen at the top, but it's a start).

The view from the top:


The garden has appreciated the warm weather we've had recently.

Developing a scarf theme this week.

My second Travelling Scarf has come home and it is a real beauty!


This one is by the Ravelry Traveling Scarf Group 50: Teachers who Knit Europe/UK.
There are some gorgeous yarns used here and the colours work wonderfully together. I'm very pleased with this scarf.

Who wouldn't want to live on Treacle Mine Road

or Peach Pie Street?

The builders, Wimpey, are giving people the chance to do just this in Wincanton. Wincanton, which has in the past been twinned with Ankh Morpork, has named two streets in a new development after the Discworld locations. More details here.

Scarfie come home

My first travelling scarf came home:

A big Thank You to all the knitters of the Ravelry Travelling Scarf Group 27!

The second one, from Group 50, should be due to return in the next week or so, which just leaves me one more (Group 53) travelling around Europe.

I've enjoyed the Travelling Scarf experience, but I think I will probably have them out of my system by the time number three comes home. It isn't the knitting, it's the trips to the post office that are difficult when, like me, you can only go at the weekend.



We walked around North Gare this afternoon. Despite all the forcasts of rain and feezing weather, it was lovely.

Finally...

Finally posting a photo of my International Scarf Exchange 7 scarf.

It's lovely, and based on the Monkey sock pattern.

A moment of quiet

I love the spring in the garden.



I love the acid green of the euphorbias.







The hellebores are just beautiful at the moment.

Monkeys and mice

Finished at last!



I can't remember the last time I was so disenchanted with a project as I have been with this. It was a boring pattern to knit, the wool stuck together, making the ladders hard to drop and it just seemed to go on forever.

Still, it's finished now and I quite like it. Clapotis is definitely out of my system.


Can you tell what this is?

I've had some interesting suggestions so far. Obviously it's a sock monkey leg, in Twinkletoes sock yarn with a Wollmeisse foot.




More monkeys. Another pair of 72 stitch Monkey socks. I love this pattern. It fits so well and is a little more interesting than plain socks. Malabrigo sock yarn. Feels lovely.


Drove out to Egglestone Hall Nurseries this morning.
Couldn't get a table in the tea room :(
Didn't find the plants we were looking for :(
Prices seem to have really gone up so only made one impulse purchase :(

Did see this little chap, though :)

2 inches long.

Spring tides

At certain times of year the tides are high and low enough to change the whole appearance of the beach at Seaton Carew. The submerged forest starts to emerge for short periods.


It's the remains of fens and a birch and alder forest in a peat bed from 8000 years ago when there was still a land bridge from England to Europe.

These posts, however, are the remnants of the supports of some drainage pipework from the 20th Century rather than anything foresty from the Mesolithic. Does make me think of Flag Fen, though.

Happy Mothers' Day

A cold and blustery day after yesterday's sunshine. Had to wear a hat when we went for our walk this morning. Managed to find increasing patches of colour in the garden, though.



My next photographic mission is to capture the woodpecker who has started visiting J's feeding station. Every time I creak onto the deck to try to snap him, he shoots off like a dart.


My gift from j today was a tidy room. I have been nagging him for such a long time to decontaminate his bedroom and now it is done. I'm content. Doesn't take much now, does it?

Considering a decision

I'm on the fence about the whole surgery thing.

When I told j, my son about it he was really enthusiastic: 'Go for it', 'I'd have it done tomorrow!'

He's not fat. He used to be but still thinks he is. I've managed to mess him up too.

My husband, J, says I should do what I want. Thing is, it isn't what I want, but what I seem to need. It seems so extreme.

I've been tossing it around in my head. I think the problem stems from the fact that I had been thinking that surgery - especially NHS surgery, here in England - was only for people whose issues were much bigger than mine and I didn't want to accept that I am in the same place as them.

I've asked my GP to refer me, but am still thinking about it.

In the spring...

...a young frog’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.

(I don't suppose Tennyson will mind too much)



Our pond isjust one big frog orgy at the moment.


14 degrees this morning!
Walked through Cowpen Marsh this morning and took my fleece off!


The water birds are all starting to pair up and the swans are gathering nesting materials. It definitely feels springy.

Health issues discussed, look away now

I'm wary that this is turning into a catalogue of health issues. An update anyway:

I haven't managed to lower my blood pressure by relaxation, exercising and wrestling with my diet, so I've now started to take some medication to help reduce it. I also had a chat with the partner I'm now seeing at my GP surgery and have started to take Orlistat to help with the weight loss. I must say, the side effects read as very glamourous.

She also asked me if I wanted her to refer me for gastric band surgery, which is done on the NHS in the next Health Authority.
I must admit, the idea floored me at first. It just seemed so far out there.

I've been doing some research. This is what they do:


Some of the resources I've been looking at.
UK Gastric Band
Living with a lap band
Gwen's WLS Blog
WLSInfo

We're going to discuss it some more at my next appointment.
In the meantime....

More monkey business

I succumbed and wound this into a ball.




Then I cast on for another pair of Monkeys.

My bad...

Where did February go?

I can't believe it's the end of the month already! Where did it go?

My month was swallowed up by work and illness, I'm afraid. My half-term holiday brought a chest infection, sinus infection, minor gynae surgery and pleurisy - which I thought was a medieval, or Victorian at the latest, disease. Alas, it's alive and well and living on Teesside.

I recovered enough to go back to work at the start of the new half term...



J and I visited the newly opened RSPB bird sanctuary at Saltholme. It looks like it will be really wonderful in a year, when all the walks are open and the landscaping naturalises a bit more. It's amazing how quickly things start to look like they have been growing there for ever.



These two certainly approve and are voting with their flippers.


Some very sad news: my new nephew died before his birth. My brother and his wife are devastated, naturally.

Not snowed under

We had a little snow. Not like most of the country. Here in the frozen North East we have been, largely, problem-free. My school has been without closure (awww!!!!) and the roads have been passable.

Our parish church

We're very fortunate to have an amazing building to house the church to whose parish our school belongs. St Hilda's Church was built in the 12th century on the site of an abbey established by St Aidan, from Lindisfarne, in the 600s.



My class and I had a private tour this week, thanks to some wonderful volunteers who took immense time and trouble to explain, to the children, the features of a building they take for granted. You mean everyone doesn't get to use a medieval building for concerts and celoebrations whenever they feel like it?

I'm nithered

from this morning's walk in the snow down at the Tees estuary. And I had my vest on. (English vest, not American vest).


My right ear is still tingling. I really need to make a hat with better ear protection. (As if I need an excuse, but anyway...) The car told us it was 3 degrees as we drove away, but there was no way on earth that reflected the wind-chill factor down there. I was really thankful of my cowl. J says he'll have one for tucking his chin into, but he can't stand polo necks so I'm not sure how I'll make that work.


We seem to have quite a colony of curlews down there now. We saw at least ten, this morning, pottering around in the grass. Also saw some birds I think may be smew but, according to my bird book, it's unlikely, this far north.


J wasn't bothered by the cold. Nothing gets through his Irwin.

Is this the most boring knit ever?

Clapotis.





It's starting to look like one now, but I'm bored!



I want to knit socks...



...or some other small, instantly gratifying project.

Light at the end

I can see some light at the end of the tunnel.

I'm trying to slow down, while simultaneously trying to catch up with all the things on my 'to do' list and get on top of my job again.

This week I've been forced to slow down a little at the start of my day as a consequence of the contraflow section on the A689 road into Hartlepool. I sat there for 25 minutes, fuming and adding to my stress on Monday. Tuesday I took a different route and went up the main road into the top of the town. I used to drive this road everyday for my last job and I had forgotten how much I hated it.
Wednesday, I saw the light and went out through Seal Sands and along the coast. It's alonger drive, but takes me through the new Saltholme RSPB reserve

and Greatham Beck, where the seals live.

Then it's through Seaton Carew, past the newly restored art deco bus station and along the seafront to the Headland.

A nice start to a day when it isn't essential to arrive really early.

*****

Streamlined the 'to do' list into a 'to do this week or Monday' list. I put lots of things in the bin, delegated the things that were appropriate towards other people and spent yesterday working towards the surface of my desk.