Rioting in the borders

Our garden has been pretty much neglected over the last 5 weeks due to the weather, holidays etc, so the plants have been given their heads and have gone pretty much beserk.

Whilst I love the cottage garden look, I do like some kind of order in the borders, but alas there is some major work to be done.  Amongst everything are lots of pesky weeds, gone to seed forget-me-nots - you can at least rip all these out and they will just reappear next year. The brooms have finished and gone all leggy, so they will need a haircut and some kind of staking. 

My main problem is that my garden also harbours an enemy - the mosquito.  He ignores Peter but makes a bee-line for me. I am sporting 4 bites just from a walk down to pick some rhubard.  I therefore have to dress with not an inch of flesh showing and be liberally sprayed with insect repleant. Not so bad if you plan a day in the garden, but a real pain if you just want to spend a short while out there.  Not sure what I can do, but really the garden is a no go area for me, which is such a shame.  But then its not like we have had any "sitting in the garden" weather yet!

I ventured out this morning, early enough for the blighter not to be about and took a few pictures for you.  Enjoy.......... 

Friday with Rufus

Fun day with Rufus, we did our usual stuff, visited the market, went to the park, jobs for Mummy, gardening and silly things

No, don't want to pose

I told you don't want to pose

Alright then

Bit of TV after his nap - wakes up really grumpy (takes after his mother!)

Must have been interesting

Love it xx

WIP Wednesday, its been a while

Not much knitting has been done for the last month due to gardening and holidays.  Last night I sat down made a list of what I needed to get finished, started, or shelved.

A new WIP started last night due to running out of yarn on the project below.  Its

Design E - Baby Cardigans by Sirdar Spinning Ltd. Sirdar 301, Early Arrivals No. 2 which I'm knitting in Sublime Cotton Kapok, colour way Milkshake

Can't believe that I didn't get this one finished sooner - ran out of yarn with about 3" of sleeve to do.  More ordered

Few rows done on this one, no hurry

This is a couple of projects I'm planning for Rufus - knitted in Sirdar Denim Sport Aran and Cascade 220 Quatro. I'm a bit unsure of the Cascade as its 100% Peruvian Wool and not superwash, my problem is I only have 300grams so it needs to be something small.   I'm not sure my daughter will be happy with something that she can't chuck in the washer and dryer,  especially with the new baby due soon, so maybe I will do a rethink.

To Portugal and back.... its a long way

 This years' summer holiday was 2 weeks on the Harley going to Portugal - thats 3291 miles, hard on the bottom to say the least.  The weather was mixed, but the predominate feature was the wind, followed by rain.  We did see good weather through Spain and Portugal but always with the wind.  Something to do with the jet stream I believe. 

Our route took us from Cambridge on 8 June - by the time we were ready to leave it had stopped raining.  We crossed via Eurotunnel to France on the 9th to overnight in Tours (Fr) - St JeanDe Luz/Ciboure (Fr) - Salamanca (S) (2 nights) - Badajoz (S) - Cascais/Sintra (P) (2 nights) - Porto (P) (2 nights) - La Coruna (via Santiago de Compostela) (S) - Burgos (S) - Angoleume (Fr) - Chartres (Fr) - St Omer(Fr)- Home

The photos are in no particular order as Blogger has decided to mix them up and I can't be bothered to move them around.



Jambon Serrano & Iberica

Cascias Harley Davidson European Rally



Port in Porto!

  

Flowers around Cascais

Porto - see the use of corrugated tin as siding for houses!

Along the coast from Cascais

Cork Chalet at the Pena Palace - Sintra

Pena Palace Sintra

Cathedral in Salamanca

Cascais - Rally

Salamanca - the first of the tapas

Porto

around Salamanca

Street art in Salamanca



Salamanca

 

Views from Pena Palace

More Pena Palace

Lock Garden in Salamanca

We really liked Salamanca and when looking through the photos, most are from there.  We loved the tapas culture, not actually eating a proper meal, just tapas and beer or tapas and wine.  We had lots of jambon, lots of coffee.  They really do make good coffee in Spain and Portugal. We couldn't find the yarn shop, and lets talk about shops, why oh why do they close for so long during the day, so frustrating.

Portugal, we'd not been before and I'm not sure I'm actaully that keen to go back.  Cascais was ok, full of Harleys as you'd expect, it being the host town for the European Rally, but I don't like resorts with huge hotel complexes and really that is all you can see along the beach line.  Along the coast we did find some beaches with less buildings, but with it being the Atlantic Coast the sea is very rough. Sintra old town was lovely and we enjoyed a good breakfast - see pic below. We did enjoy the Pena Palace and Park, and spent a good proportion of the day wandering round the grounds, the Chalet,  the Palace which we went inside but no photos allowed. 

Portugese Custard Tarts - Peter's favourites

Porto we found really dirty away from the main river/tourist area and we actually felt a bit uncomfortable, also their sewage system leaves much to be desired, I'll spare you the photos!!!!  The best thing was the glasses of Port and the sardines.

We called into Santiago De Compostela on the way to La Coruna, amazed at all the walkers doing the Pilgrims Walk, and its a long one.  Found a yarn shop - closed.

Found another yarn shop in St Omer - but the selection was dismal, lots of nasty cheap acrylic

So there you have it, our summer holiday for this year.  Not sure we will do another long bike trip, think we are getting to old for all the one nighters and the packing up every day.  What a difference the years make.

Normal service will be resumed

In case you were wondering why I'd not replied to any of your kind messages to my recent posts, its because we have been on holiday for the past 2 weeks.  So glad you enjoyed the scheduled offerings.

Back now with tales to tell, it has been an interesting, bottom aching trip, in which the weather played an interesting part and no yarn was purchased. I did try...

Anyway, still trying to catch up on all the reading so it may be a few days before I get round to posting again.  Also promise to put together more posts on the US trip, still so much to come. Pauline, the parts he put on the bike were all shiny add-ons!!!  No problems apart from to the wallet.....

Travelling Tales - Part 7

Route 66 here we come. We purchased Route 66 Traveler's Guide & Roadside Companion by Tom Synder.  This became our bible for all things 66 and proved a very useful tome.



Gemini Giant at the Launching Pad Drive-in

 Polk a Dot on Route 66





We met with a group of students at the Polk a Dot, they came over to inspect the bike and ask the usual questions. They were with the main man from the Illinois Route 66 Preservation Society and they invited us to tag along with them.  This actually turned out to be a good plan as we got to see in lots of places normally not open to visitors.  Whilst waiting for everyone to sort out their rides a guy (Don) on a Harley turned up and came over for a chat.  He decided to join us all and as it turned out we rode with him until 3 June - more on  that later.

 Riviera Roadhouse - which has now been destroyed by fire

Jail House - Gardiner IL




 Marathon Oil

 Standard Oil Gas Station

Funks Grove Maple Sirup

 We overnighted in Springfield, having our first Mexican meal of the trip, and what would priove to be lots of beers.  Don was a hazard to the liver, not that we needed much encouragement.

29th May - Breakfast at Cozy Dogs where we met up with the students, continued along 66 into Missouri, stopping at the Chain of Bridges - the bridge allows you to walk acorss the Mississipi River back into Illinois

Old cars outside our hotel

Soulsby Service Station

 Chain of Bridge - some of the students

 At this point we parted company with the students and headed into St Louis to see the Gateway to the West, heading then to Ted Drewes for frozen custard yum yum.  Continuing along we had no real plans for where to stop.  Bumped into the students again along the way so ended up overnighting in Sullivan, more Mexican, more beer, it was a mess............

If you missed any parts try the label Travelling Tales or USA Trip 2004 and that should bring up all the previous episodes!