Antidote

As an antidote to the stress that we seem to have been experiencing recently, I spent the afternoon knitting on the deck. Enjoyed the flowers, the sun, time to talk to J and finishing my Swallowtail Lace Shawl.




We've all (including the pigeons) become quite base about this chap.

Not the highest waterfall in England

apparently. I thought it was, but Cautley Spout is 9 times higher.


Drove out to Teesdale today, stopping at High Force.



We live near the mouth of the River Tees, where the beach is that features so heavily in this blog, but this is up near the source of the Tees at Cow Green.



Nice walk and the waterfall is quite impressive as a result of all the rain we've had recently.

Turner painted it in 1816, when there were two less impressive falls.


We rounded off the trip by calling in at Bowes Museum, founded by the family of the late Queen Mother who was part of the Bowes-Lyon family. To be honest, the experience was decidedly underwhelming, although the scones in the cafe were nice. The collections are not particularly well-displayed or interesting. £7 entrance, £6 for students.

Don't say anything and we'll get along just fine

J got a new car.

Haven't got rid of his old one yet so we've taken to referring to the drive as 'the forcourt'. j suggested balloons, bunting and an inflatable giant gorilla to complete the second hand car lot feel we've got going.

I drove it today. It's very big, low, powerful and black. I'm not small but I feel quite dwarfed in it. The sports seats are very low and the angle of the back window gives you just a slot to look out of. I feel a bit like Bob Falfa.


Finally made some progress on the knitting front and finished a pair of socks.


These are Aurelia, knitted in Twinkletoes sock yarn. Although the pattern doesn't show brilliantly here, they're a nice mix of cable and lace.

The wanderer returns

My last travelling scarf returned home from Germany this weekend. I love how the soft palette of colours has been maintained by all the knitters who contributed. It's lovely!
The pattern is Brooklyn Tweed's Striped Noro Scarf.

And the sky was grey

Well, more rain and overcast skies; we keep making trips out, dodging the deluges, but to be honest, it looks like it's set in for another summer. We haven't made plans for a holiday this year, but have booked for next.

A year to the day, in fact.

We're flying to San Francisco, staying for a few days and then heading off on a road trip which will take us to Carmel, Yosemite, Death Valley, Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon and Los Angeles. Quite a trip.

School's Out!

First day of freedom :)

Woke up at the same time, but it doesn't matter. I'm technically on holiday for six and a half weeks. Don't consider the three boxes of work I've brought home with me or the fact that I will actually be going in next week - the holidays have started. Just as well, it's been a fairly difficult week and I'm exhausted.

Last night I cast on a celebratory sock and got to the fifth line of the pattern before my brain became so foggy that I just couldn't make sense of it, lost the ability to count where I was up to and had to put it down. Simple lace pattern, too.

He's still here. Every morning I came down to this sight from the kitchen window.


J is less enchanted than he was initially. The lawn is covered with divots as Tufty, here, rips up the top of the turf, pushes his haul underneath and pats it back down again. If these seeds germinate we will have a sunflower plantation next year. Still, he's lovely to watch.


I've bought this to inspire me over the summer.


I'd like to figure out how to make a Zig Zag vest without having to buy the kit for $170.

What I would really like to do, this summer, is learn how to spin.

Nunchuck

Now, this isn't a word you would normally find in my vocabulary, but we bought a wii console with wii fit this weekend.


I'm totally addicted - and quite good at hoola-hooping, I must say. I do have the hips for it!

Did half an hour yesterday and again today on the wii fit and we've been bowling and playing tennis this afternoon - great fun and we're not sitting down.

My wii fit age is, apparently, 56. I need to lose 10 years.

What progress on the knitting front?

Well. It's difficult at the moment. I have had little time and I keep falling asleep at 8pm on the sofa. Furthermore, I don'twant to knit any more garments for me until my weight stabilises. I'm already going to have to pull out my Hey Teach from last summer as a combination of weight loss and the cotton stretching has made it too big now.

Consequently, I've been sticking to non-garments. This mass of green malabrigo sock (lettuce colourway) is going to be a Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl or scarf. Note the lifeline. Falling asleep with knitting needles in hand is, for me, incompatible with lace knitting. I've frogged this three times already, but I'm determined to finish a lace shawly thing this summer.

Kite Festival

It has been the International Friendship Festival in Sunderland this weekend. This incorporates the Kite Festival.


Naturally, we chose a day with very light wind to visit.


So very few of the bigger kites were in the air.


Still, there were some spectacular designs.

Recent garden visitors

It's that manic time of year again. Two more weeks of school and about seven weeks of stuff to fit into them.

We've had some extreme weather too, making it difficult to do lots of the usual things involving going outside.

Today was hot and dry, thankfully and I got some knitting done outside after taking j for new glasses and trying to do some shopping in hot, angry crowds.

Some pictures of our garden visitors this weekend:

An out-of-focus woodpecker. I've been trying to photograph him for months, but he's so fast and easily scared.


The reason for the recently escalating cost of peanuts and sunflower seeds.


A drowsy bee staggering across the top of a scabious, covered in pollen.

A splash of colour

A splash of colour to distract from yet another blogging hiatus. I guess I've been too preoccupied by life to write about it.

June, so far, has seen me alternately baking in the sun and freezing in my woollies again - I can't believe we had to put the heating on this week, but we did.

Work is hectic as the Summer term always is. The concept of non-contact time has gone out of the window at the moment as four of my colleagues are at Carlton Camp with one of our classes and the rest of us are filling in where we can as good supply teachers are a rare commodity at the moment. I seem to have had a lot of Continuing Professional Development Courses recently, too and these have taken me away from school for days on end. My 'to do' list grew into a 'to do' pile and now it's a 'to do' bag.

Of all the things I've been doing recently, I think the Primary Movement Programme is the most interesting.


I finished my sock monkey. I'm rather fond of him and he was a distraction. The picture above looks like a bad monkey passport picture. The greeny yarn is Twinkletoes Sock Yarn and his hands, feet and muzzle are Wollmeise. A luxury monkey.


News Flash! - j passed his driving test and is now the proud holder of a proper pink licence rather than his provisional, green licence. I'm now the proud owner of a whole new set of things to worry about.

Information Seminar

I went to the weight loss surgery information seminar last night. I found it all very stressful. I had expected to feel elated to be getting this far, but I don't.


J couldn't come with me as some friends had come over to help him with his car, so I had to go on my own. When I got there I was the only person on her own and I just felt like crying. It was such a strange experience. So many big people all in the same place. I don't often feel ashamed about my weight or size, but I did there. The seminar room had 'normal' chairs and specially-built fat chairs.

The seminar was informative and frightening. Peter Small, the surgeon, was frank and matter of fact about the statistics. My chances of dying from the surgery are much less than dying from my fatness.

The dietician who spoke about the lifestyle and diet changes after surgery was also very frank and informative. Do I want to never be able to eat bread or red meat again? Red meat I could live without easily, but bread? My relationship with bread is a given part of my life. It'scomfort, basic, a joy.

I feel ridiculously emotional, even now.

Trying not to think about going back to work

Another gorgeous day in the garden. I caught up with some knitting. Will have my sock monkey finished soon. I've had to make a lot of it up as the pattern I chose doesn't seem to be very clearly written. Maybe it's just me.

Next up, this:

Destined to be Sackboy.

I'm re-reading Men at Arms when I'm not knitting. It's another book that I must have devoured when it first came out. I'm finding so many things I missed in these books as I read them for a second time. Next on the pile is Monstrous Regiment.

I love my battered old Birks

It's this time again!




The last six weeks just whizzed by! In my last post I was moaning about the cold, but today it's 25 degrees C on the deck.

What have I been doing?

At work: occupied by preparation for SATs and then SATs, interviewing for new teachers and moving rooms around. Coping with the latest pressures and initiatives from the Government (APP - Assessing Pupil Progress, FNE - Free Nursery Entitlement, CC - Duty to Promote Community Cohesion, to name but a few acronyms)

At home: coping with being the parent of an increasingly independent young man. There is currently a space on the drive beside J's car, where my Fiat Punto usually rests on its weekends off. Today it's somewhere, filled with young men buzzing around Teesside. Yes, j passed his driving test and I am now the mother of a driver. More things to worry about.
Apparently, it's liberating driving without me in the passenger seat making 'that face'.


I've been knitting on the deck this afternoon after retreating from the shops at Middlesbrough before lunch. I can't handle that every weekend, but I do like a mooch. I bought some 'lovely' tops in lightweight cottons and cheesecloths. Looks like I'll be back in Middlesbrough next Saturday, returning them. I think I'm too old/too fat for frills and smocking.

Every year Buddah gets burried more and more by marsh marigolds and siberian irises. It's nice and shady down by the pond though.

Make the most of the weekend.

Woe is me! Only two sleeps til work starts again.

The weather is horrid and even a walk alongour favourite local beach is rather unpleasant due to the steam and smoke and smell from a fire at the Greythorpe recycling plant.



There's a haze over everywhere.

Due to the return of winter, I cast on a sweater for me:


I'm having another go with the Unpatterned formula for a top-down sweater. The yarn colour here looks quite washed out and grey, but it's Cascade 220 in Duck Egg Blue.

I'm hoping to bash on quite a way with this this weekend, in between trips out with j to practise for his upcoming driving test. Although he is very good, I think knitting in the car might count as a dereliction of my duties as supervising driver.

Plan to put my feetup and knit this evening - Britain's got Talent!. Keep threatening to sign J up for this or the X Factor. He has a very loud penetrating disabling fine singing voice.

Maybe we'll watch a movie. When I'm at work I get up early and get tired early in the evening, but I've surprised the lads with my ability to stay awake and watch a number of films this holiday.

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.