Cool Dude!!

Look what Aunty Rachel did to me!!!

Smile .........

Well he makes me smile

We be jammin........

It's been jam central at our house today, Rachel and I have made Victoria Plum, Cherry Plum and Blackberry & Apple Jam. We also have Confetti Courgette Relish on the go, another couple of batches of MD's courgette meatballs. Now Peter and Rachel are making curried vegetable soup for lunch.

Its finally stopped

Just back from dropping the husband off at the station.  He's armed with his Lords umbrella, radio, tickets, money, phone.  I nearly kissed the man being dropped off in the next car, made his day, luckily his wife smiled!!

Travelling Woman

Travelling Woman , originally uploaded by sspeechley.

used my time off yesterday to good use even if I was feeling rubbish, got this finished last night.

Now on to my list of items for Rufus

Under the weather....

So how sick are you of all this rain?  As I lay awake last night with stomach cramps listening to the rain I thought we may be in need of a canoe and paddles this morning rather than a car.  It actually hasn't stopped raining since tea-time yesterday and looks fairly content to continue all day. 

The husband is due to go to Lords for the cricket tomorrow, lets hope rain doesn't stop play!

I'm feeling really rubbish this morning, tired from not sleeping well and still have acid indigestion and stomach cramps, in fact I've felt 'off' for the last few days.  I have given myself permission to have a day off. It's back to bed with a peppermint tea, hopefully to sleep, if not to read.  Then maybe a bit of light knitting later.......

All systems go......

on the knitting front.  Ethereal with 3/4 sleeves is finally finished, I think I'm pleased with it, it still could have been a bit longer but never mind.

Today is the start of the Grandma's Hand Group on Ravelry's, KAL - Travelling Woman Shawl.  I have spent a pleasant afternoon casting on and knitting the easy bit of the shawl.  I'm thinking that the lacy bit might be better done inside incase there are swear words, would hate to shock the neighbours!!!

I have been very good with this project, using yarn from my stash rather than buy more.  The yarn has a silvery fleck in it so looks very pretty, but you can't really get the true effect in this picture.  Watch this space for regular pictorial updates.

9 weeks today

we had lots of visitors today and I was a good boy

our Sunday morning harvest

today's pickings include salad leaves, dwarf and runner beans, tomatoes, courgette, potatoes, basil, carrots and mouli (which has fly damage)

Basil - Pesto for our pasta

Mixed Salad Leaves for our Roquefort Salad lunch

Some of our grapes which are coming on nicely

Playing again

8 weeks old

I got to spend a few days with Rufus and his mummy as his daddy was away with work. We had fun, lots of cuddles and lots of pictures. I have decided that I need to buy a new camera though to cope with wriggling babies, I have lots of blurred hands!!

Yesterday he got to have his first injections, poor little thing they came at him from both sides at once, still I suppose thats easier than trying to get a second needle into a screaming baby. He did settle down quite quickly once we got him outside. His mum and I got soaked through getting to the doctors surgery I think we had a weeks worth of rain in one afternoon.

Treated myself to a new top from White Stuff which has just opened in Stamford, so many nice things could have spent a fortune.

I have plenty of new knitting projects planned as Rufus has picked out some lovely items for me to knit, we just need to decide on yarns.

Courgette fest...

arriving home yesterday I checked the fridge for dinner ideas, the veg drawer was overflowing with courgettes from the garden with more coming on daily.  I decided I needed to do something with them all before we became truly overwhelmed.  First off Delia's Courgette Soup, freezes well.  Secondly, 2 batches of Madhur Jaffrey's Courgette 'Meatballs', I make up the balls, cook and freeze, then just pop them into the sauce as needed, cuts down the time it takes to make the recipe from scratch.  Next on the list was some Ratatouille as I also had a couple of aubergines in need of use, I used one of those, then made Stuffed Aubergine with the other.  A satisfying afternoon.  I plan to make Confetti Relish with my next batch, I make this every year and it always goes down well.

I managed to get the back of my Ethereal finished last night, the knitting really is going very slow at the moment.....

Gardening and there was blood.......

yes the husband cut his finger with the secutears dead heading my daisies, we both felt faint, there was lots of blood.  A couple of plasters and a rubber glove later and he gets a large splinter in the next to finger, men! 

The garden is looking much better for a day of tidying, the weather this year has really spoiled the plants, they've scorched then soaked, my daisies which normally give weeks of joy, flagged in the heat then went brown and soggy in the rain, as did my roses, I don't have much luck with roses, not sure why I feed them but they just don't look too happy.  The veg garden is fairing better than the flower garden, we've got lots of courgettes, beans, lettuce and potatoes.  The tomatoes are just starting to turn, the beetroot, well not sure whats going on with them.  Swede and parsnips look ok, picked my first mooli (white radish), its great not to have to buy veg in Tesco.

Just tried to get the splinter out, there was lots of shouting and jumping about, needless to say its still in there!!

QG Jam?

so what is QG Jam? Last year I made Quince Jam which was very sharp and Grape Jelly which didn't set very well.  Having been through my store cupboard today and decided that these items were unlikely to get eaten, I thought I'd mix the 2 and see what the resulting jam was like.  Actually very good! It has a good set and has sweetened up the Quince, result. Some of it will be going to a charity sale which one of our knitting ladies is holding in September.

I have had a busy day, cleaned my house, done the washing and ironing, and altered the neckline to a top I bought a few weeks ago.  Peter is cooking dinner tonight, so I now plan to put my feet up and continue with my knitting, especially as it has rained and the garden is too wet to do anything.

Knitting update

It’s been a bit quiet on the knitting front lately, not sure why, I just seem to constantly run out of time. I guess being away twice over the last 6 weeks hasn’t helped. Anyway I’m back on track and busy finishing off some WIP’s (works in progress), in preparation for a couple of KALs (knit alongs) that I’m doing on Ravelry. We are going to be knitting the Travelling Woman shawl on the Grandmas Hand forum. This will be my first attempt at anything really lacy so I’ll let you know how it goes. And the Salute Hat on the Knitting for Boys Forum. I have the yarn for both projects so won’t be tempted into any shops just now.

So currently on my needles is the 2nd Ethereal waistcoat that I'm knitting for myself, which I started weeks ago, I'm about half way up the back, so still a way to go.

I'm meeting with one of the Monday night girls for some one to one knitting this afternoon.  I'm hoping that she will get something out of my visit apart from a hot chocolate and sticky bun at the local garden centre