Happiness

Last weekend was one of the times that become embedded in family history and memory for all good reasons. Son, Daughter-in-law and grandchildren came to Pixie Towers for the weekend, Son was to attend an old boys dinner at his school on Saturday night, Sunday included me reading at church, grandchildren came too, Grandson went to junior church where the main activity was planting cherry tomato seeds, he proudly told all that he had been planting bulbs with Poppa (Ian) so he knew what to do!

Linked with last Sunday was another family tradition, we call it East of Brighton. Imagine, a boy, I think aged 10 and a girl aged 8 being told they were going on holiday but not where, just east of Brighton, imagine parents driving south on  M23 deciding they needed caffeine in the form of a coffee, parking up at Gatwick as cafes always open here,  parents suggested taking luggage as it would be risky to leave it in the car while elevenses are consumed, inside terminal instead of going to cafes our family join a queue. Suddenly a child’s voice pipes up:- Are we going on a plane? Great laughter from other travellers going to Almeria.  The tradition has continued, last Sunday was the latest, as Ian said I’ve been had! The one sacred rule is no lies, always honest and rely on normality, absentmindedness and unawareness, so we have been part way to North Wales, Brussels and just casually walked past the Adelphi theatre, popped in to look at the publicity photos as requested before producing tickets for the show.

This time Ian didn’t notice the chicken planned for Sunday was eaten on Saturday, no lunch preparations were made on Sunday morning before church, the norm is to chuck ingredients into the slow cooker and go. Even Son’s request to drive our big car, he’s on the insurance was met with

acceptance to go for a drive round, then a walk that just happened to be past an Italian child friendly restaurant we often frequent so when Ian mentioned this, Son said why don’t we go in.

Days later we our still smiling about it, his birthday celebrations continued on the Monday with an unexpected visit from Daughter bearing gifts, a two hour drive from Dorset arriving at 7.20 the time we’d scheduled a FaceTime call on the actual birthday. Not so much of a surprise, I took Ian out for lunch at Petersham hotel, after which we drove at 20mph around Richmond Park, have to accustom ourselves to this speed all over our Borough even though a small majority were against a blanket speed limit the council are implementing it anyway. What’s the point of asking residents’ views then ignoring them, a majority is a majority even if it is only one vote - was it Churchill that said this?

Sorry no pictures, too involved to take them last weekend, however this is the first time I have compiled a blog using iPad in the garden, our Utility Warehouse signal must be better than Virgin Media.

There is much discussion about links between mental and physical health, this week I had personal experience of how the two are linked. Way back last year Daughter-in-law asked me to crochet her a blanket, the grandchildren have theirs, Son has his camp blanket from Scouting days, she would like her own. Lucy Attic24’s Moorland blanket was chosen,  yarn purchased and I started the difficult for me wavy pattern.  The mantra was learnt, 2 double crochet, 2 half trebles, 2 trebles, 2 half trebles, 2 double crochet done over 4 rows so the highs and lows balanced out. I struggled, the fabric produced seemed thick and heavy, my heart wasn’t in it but I had promised a blanket and this blanket with the colour sequence matching the Yorkshire moorland was her choice.

J

Along came the Sweet Pea blanket, light airy and a very simple trellis pattern, I succumbed to the yarn pack and the CAL, so enjoying working on this meditative crochet, however as it is too big to take to a Knit and Natter, especially in a cafe with food and drink so I resorted to taking the moorland blanket instead as it is much smaller. Chatting as one does I mentioned my difficulties with the work, Jean suggested such an obvious solution, make the moorland blanket using the trellis stitch.  Wow, why didn’t I think of that? It was meant, for in my bag was the colour yarn with which one starts a Moorland, this was the next colour I should have used, The garden centre where we meet has a haberdashery section, sells Stylecraft yarn too so I purchased a size 5mm hook, for the Sweet Pea I
had crocheted a swatch so now knew that 4mm hook had caused the tension problem. I was able to crochet the starting chain, usual difficulties of making it long enough but I’m there, ready to start the next colour.

Health wise, I don’t feel sick when I think about the Moorland blanket but am keen to work on it,  for it can be a portable project for a while.

Procrastinating

Last year I challenged myself to try to fill in sudoku puzzles, Ian explained it to me, gave me hints, gradually throughout the year and up till now I’ve made good progress. I have concentrated firstly on completing the easy puzzle in The Metro, proceeded to moderate there and in our daily paper. Two moderates in different papers are not the same, the Metro appears to me the easier.

However there is a downside to this, I am not quick so much time is spent solving the puzzles, time that in my heart I know should be spent ironing, dealing with correspondence, reading the book club book, haven’t really got started on Fahrenheit 451 the latest tome selected by the public library for our group, crochet and knitting projects take second place to solving these so called logic puzzles.

One day I will be better at time management, ha ha, it is unlikely as another obsession comes along.

Tangled

Like thousands of others I’m making an Attic24 Sweet Pea blanket using Posy pattern, so just started row 44 using cream colour when the yarn misbehaved and so the yarn will have to be rewound, time that could be better spent crocheting.

As I’m working row 44, or will be when the winding up is done I realise I’m over half way through working the body of the blanket, there are seven rounds for the border so it is technically not quite half way. As long as it is complete by June 16th, our 40th wedding anniversary.