Look who is 4 months already

Travelling Tales - Part 15

Next stop on our trip was Sturgis, the mecca for Harley owners every year in the first week of August.  In reality its a little nondescript place the rest of the year.  It has a good dealership with plenty of bargains!

After Sturgis we headed along to Deadwood, the ride in was a bit sad, a large deer shot across the road in front of us straight into a van coming in the opposite direction, it went up and over the roof, clipped the crash barrier.  The van stopped but we weren't sure the deer survived. This really upset us, but actually if we had been a few seconds earlier we may not be here to tell the tale. Deadwood -was awful full of casinos and not much else, a quick look and we were on our way.



Next stop Custer State Park - having first negotiated the Iron Mountain Road, known locally as the pigs tail, twists upon twists, luckily for me there were lots of cars so it slowed Peter down.  Lots of buffalo, prong horned deer, and prairie dogs.  We had planned to visit Crazy Horse Monument but decided not to bother as they charged to go in and you could actually see it from the road - cheap I know! We also didn't bother to go back to see Mount Rushmore as we had seen that before.  Back in the park we took the Needles Highway - lots more twists and turns, road going through rocks - Peter had a grin from ear to ear, I had my knee brakes on - we ended the day in Rapid City.



July 8th - more buffalo, more prong horns - our destination was Mitchell via the Badlands National Park, and Wall Drug - an amazing place, lots of things to look at and poke around in, food too. It was a lovely ride through the park, its a bit like Canyonlands and the Painted Desert, lots of hills and plains. Mitchell was a long drive but it was warm and sunny.



















A misty start in Mitchell but we checked out the Corn Palace - its basically a building covered in heads of maize, corn and rye.  The theme changes each year its very interesting, well worth the visit and its free..







Dealership stop at Sioux Falls - neat Harley cover!  More bits for the bike purchased.



Over night in Council Bluff, really nothing to say other than its not somewhere I'd stay again.  Tomorrow the Bridges of Madison County

I'll start saving the tablets...

I am just back from visiting my uncle, who has recently been moved from hospital to a nursing home on the side of town where I work.  A visit long overdue. I have no excuse.

He knew who I was immediately, which was good as my parents had told me he was a bit confused, then during the visit he asked who I was?!  His short term memory is poor, but then I have this problem at times and I'm only 56. His long term memory seems to be fine and we managed to find plenty to talk about, even though he still remembers my girls as being teenagers - they are 32 and 30.

Confusion reigned over where he has been living, insisting that my younger brother had just got rid of his house in Oxford Road, a home he lived in with his parents and brothers many many years ago, I decided it was easier just to agree with him.

A big thanks by the way to my younger brother who has shouldered the burden of keeping an eye on our uncle over recent years.

The nursing home was warm and inviting BUT it not home, all the "inmates" for want of a better word sit in their chairs with the door open to the corridor and there they sit from the time they get up til bedtime.  Meals appear to be eaten in the room.  I asked if there was a common room but my uncle said the people that went there were all gaga!  He can no longer read, he has TV if he wants it, otherwise he just sits. He does have a window which looks out onto the garden and there is a bird feeder and he can see the passing traffic. I'm sure he is a bit depressed, he said that he thinks about how much longer he has, and that he thinks he is happy with how his life turned out - he never married so we are the only family he has left.

Depressed yet? I certainly am, so with that I will leave you with a photo of my favourite place

This is where I want to end my days - scattered on the beach

Weekend Review

As predicted the weather was awful on Saturday, started out cold and foggy and by mid morning it was rain and gales.  Luckily I was happily ensconced at the Sheep Shop for my crochet class.  It was an interesting morning. I now know the principles and I think with practice and some patience I can crack this.

A colleague had shown me how to do a treble a few weeks back and I was pleased to see that I remembered how to do it.

These I did with a colleague before going to the class - I'm actually really pleased with them now, I thought they were rubbish before!

Peter kindly picked me up from the class and asked me if I would like to go out for lunch.  Not needing to be asked twice, we headed out to the Crown & Punchbowl at Horningsea, a perfect lunch for a miserable day, plus it meant that I didn't need to cook dinner, as we don't normally have a 3 course lunch!!

I decided that Granny's World needed its own page on Facebook, so be sure to pop over a "like" it - it also give you another way of reading and keeping updated - thanks in advance

Knitting during the afternoon and evening - I got this little jacket finished and worked on a couple of other projects.

just need to block and find a button

Sunday was a bit better, we managed to see a bit of sun, I did some housework )-: and Peter cleared the tomato plants from the greenhouse, presenting me with 2 and a bit pounds of green tomatoes. I just had to make chutney, luckily I had all the necessary ingredients to hand

Ingredients

Peelings

that's a lot of chopping

Soft stage

add the sugar and spice (to make it nice)

reduce it down

pot it up

And after all that I spent the rest of the day knitting - secret projects

My November garden...... its a mess

After days of rain I finally managed to get out in the garden.  The high winds have bought down the leaves and the last of the cooking apples.  The birds have been making the most of the windfalls, so I left those on the ground so they can finish them off.  The borders are bedraggled and very wet, it is going to take a while to get this all cleared up.  I spent 3 hours out there, the green bin is full, I got wet sleeves and a stiff back but I have made a small start.  The weather for the weekend is not looking too bad for Sunday, so we will see how much more we can get done.  Saturday I am off to the The Sheep Shop for a Beginners Crochet Class, wish me luck, I really want to make granny squares.

Here are a few collage of the garden

The mess

Still a bit of colour - love the Mahonia (that's the yellow spikey one if you don't know)

Figs that won't come to anything - cooking apple anyone? - Do you like my wellies? I have a red pair with white stars too

Have a great weekend

Travelling Tales - Part 14

So where were we?  Oh yes, Yellowstone..... our route through the park was hampered by roadworks so lots of back tracking. Plenty of wildlife in evidence.  The weather was mixed and we got wet on a few instances, but the scenery was beautiful and the thermal activity amazing.  We went to the mud pots and on checking my photos realised we only took video of this, which I don't have access to so you will have a take my word for it.















4 July - Drove up to Mammoth Springs, watched the deer chasing and playing in the river, appears I didn't take photos of that either! Being the holiday weekend nothing much was open but we did manage to get a hot drink and shelter from the weather in Gardiner. Back into the park via Tower Jct we came across a large number of parked cars and stopped to be nosy, only to discover a black bear - our first sighting - lumbering across the meadow - of course this is on video too!!  Further up the road we caught sight of him again as he rounded a hill and we tracked his progress with binoculars.  Whilst watching the horizon through the binoculars I picked up another bear, a mother with 2 cubs, I was so excited, the cubs were running around and climbing trees.  On our previous visit we had not managed to see any bears so can you believe that 5 miles up the road we came across another - so that was 5 bears in one day.  Also saw 3 large elk but no moose.

The rest of the day was a bit of an anti climax due to the weather, we had an early dinner, watched a bit of the parade, then ended up watching the fireworks from the hotel room as it was pouring with rain.

5 July - Out of the park via Mammoth Springs it was so cold, liners back in jackets and waterproofs.  As the road was quiet Peter took the opportunity to warm the bike up..... we stopped for another bear sighting and whilst there was asked very politely by a Park Ranger to keep our speed down!!!!!! As we had exceeded the park speed limit.  So suitably told off we left the park.....slowly.  The ride out was spectacular  heading for Billings via the 212 Beartooth Highway, a few words describe this pass - cold, high, twisty, snowy







Billings was a dealership stop - bike to be serviced, which we had booked ahead, that took care of the morning. Then off to Spearfish via a scenic route through 2 Indian Reservations, the first 9 miles was under roadworks, they had removed the surface of the road so we were riding on loose gravel, not fun and very challenging for Peter especially when a truck coming in the opposite direction sent up dust and stones due to his excessive speed.  The language from the front to the bike is not printable here!  We survived (if somewhat dusty) and once back onto tarmac enjoyed the ride apart from the deer who decided it was fun to play dodge with the bike rather than run in the huge empty spaces around them. We passed from Montana, back into Wyoming and then into South Dakota all in one day... and that's where we will leave it for today

WIP'less for a short while

As mentioned previously, I managed to get lots of knitting done whilst away last week.  I took my 3 WIP's and also yarn in case I needed to start another project.  I am pleased to report I finished all my WIP's.

The first was my Lady Kina which has been around for a while.  I am happy how this turned out and wore it to work yesterday with a black skirt, top and boots.  I am so pleased I made this with the 3/4 sleeves.  It only took a small amount extra yarn.  I used Click Aran with Wool

Next along was the Childry Shawl which I knitted in Zettl Cortina.  As this is a 3ply/light fingering yarn it came up slightly smaller than it should, so more a shawlette.  It can still be worn around the shoulders and fasten with a shawl pin or worn 'bib style' in the neck of a coat or jacket

Then a couple of jumpers, I won't show until after they have been received but here's a peek

As you can imagine I was pleased to come home free to start the next items on my list. Last night I cast on Baby Eyelet Cardi a simple top down cardigan which I am doing in King Cole Big Value.  This is the first in a number of cardigans that I am knitting for a friend who is to become a granny for the second time in February.  I have a pile of yarn and patterns to go through and decide what looks OK for a baby which we don't know the gender of.

I have also been asked to knit a Christmas jumper for my youngest, would you believe she wants a Christmas Pudding jumper!!