Silver Gilt

Great excitement at Pixie Towers, Ian entered the front garden category of Richmond Borough in Bloom, I had picked up a leaflet at the library it said that gardens should have a wow factor. Our front garden is real thirties suburban design, front pedestrian path, driveway leading to a garage that is way too small for a modern car. 

We told no one we were entering the competition as we had no idea of the standard required apart from the wow factor, the planting scheme - well we originally didn't have one but gradually tried to ensure the garden was insect friendly, colourful and a bit zany. How many front gardens have potatoes and squash growing, these have seeded themselves in our home grown compost? Somehow too there are nettles, many of the colourful flowers have come from Ian's habit of buying plants very cheaply when they no longer look their best, perhaps not been watered by the retailer or the last ones left. 

Some plants have been there for ever, like the privet hedge to the left of the garage, the roses to the right of the front door, the grass which was more extensive as there were no beds in the centre before. The hydrangea was originally one huge plant that also had been in the garden for ever according to a neighbour, was split into three, two for our garden and one to a friend. 

The following photos were taken last Monday, the judging was early July so the vista has changed a little, Ian has added more plants, moved some pots and there has been much rain since July. 

View from front door looking towards pedestrian gate. 

From front door, slightly more to right of previous photo. 

Centre bed in middle of grass looking towards front wall. 

View from garage door towards front wall and road. 

From front of drive looking towards house. 

Looking over the front wall towards the house. 

Looking towards the bay window, there is a water butt behind the big flower pot in which is growing one of the banana plants. 

The result of the competition came last Saturday, so there is joy that Ian has received Silver Gilt, we are thus off to an award ceremony next month celebrating 25 years of Richmond Borough in Bloom. Another personal pleasure for us that he is the only winner in our 'village' of Whitton, a district looked down on it is felt compared with fashionable Barnes, Teddington, Strawberry Hill and St Margarets. 

Editing my phone.

Today much of the afternoon has been spent editing the contacts list in my phone. It all started when Ian asked me if I had the contact details of a friend of his, checked phone, didn't, found the information elsewhere, but looked more closely at the phone list, it isn't just a list of phone numbers, but email contacts, often with no phone number either. Much of the information had carried over from my iPad, information on there had carried over from my laptop. 

So, much editing of the database that is my phone was needed, I gathered my address book, Filofax, diary, pencil, paper, sat at the table in the garden, deleted, amended, changed names into lower case, added addresses, puzzled over names and emails of persons unknown to me. Where there is a field  for company I have started adding the context in which I know the person, so a Mary Smith will have Great British Yarn Crawl2014 as her business. 

It still took longer to type the details onto the small phone than to write them down, changed addresses are gone for ever on the phone, my address book and paper diaries are records of friends and families lives and house moves, but a phone scores high for portability. Haven't quite finished the task, there are entries requiring addresses but it is a start. 

All this activity in the garden meant I spent enough time topping up my Vitamin D levels, much better than crunching ghastly calcium tablets daily. 

Being flexible

Last Monday met up with one of my friends, J. Have known her for over 34 years, we were both part of a group of five Mums who took it in turn to go to each other's homes with our babies. No sitting in coffee shops then, just a race around to ensure the house was clean and tidy, with the added worry that one's children would not share and play nicely. We all had boys first, all parents and thirteen offspring in this group have stayed in touch, J's son was best man to DS. There are further links with J., she lived six houses from my parents, knew all about me via my father before we met, we belong to the local history society too. 

I had invited her to my home for tea/coffee, she had an appointment in the local high street first, but she suggested we went out for coffee and then for a walk. When I considered this it seemed almost alien to me, I am used to going to friends' houses for coffee and chat, if Ian and I go out, say to Kew Gardens, we would have tea and cake, but it isn't something I have ever done with girl friends, yet it seemed quite routine to J.  Notwithstanding my doubts it turned into a lovely afternoon, we went to the Pheasantry Cafe in Bushey Park, gluten free carrot and nut cake cake and Earl Grey tea provided plenty of energy for walking around the Woodland Garden. 

Didn't manage to photograph the rabbits, but did attempt to capture this heron on my phone

It was good to walk, talk, laugh in the fresh air, much better than sitting in our stuffy house, all part of my attempt to try something new. 

Nowadays I just use my phone for photos as it has more pixels than my camera, by magic the pictures appear on my iPad, also photos of Edward sent by Whátsapp end up there too. I am not so pleased with my attempts to take photos with my iPad, however that comes into its own for FaceTime instead. 

Late night blog

Just a very quick knitting blog to show the BSJ - Baby Surprise Jacket - made for Edward. The pattern was devised by Elizabeth Zimmerman in the late sixties, it is amazing, all knitted in one piece so only seams are across the shoulder and sleeves. One can add the stripes wherever, mine was guess work, I am quite chuffed how it has turned out. 

This photos taken before the final pressing.  

Edward is coming to our home for the first time tomorrow so lots of hugs, today his birth was registered, after which the parents took him next door to the public library so he could have his own ticket. His father considered carefully whether he should be giving his son permission to have access to the library computers. Yes, that was one of the questions on the form. 

One thing of which I am certain, Edward will have every opportunity to become a bibliophile, like his parents and grandparents. 

This and that

Am starting with today's picture of Grandson, now 10 days old, finally discharged from hospital after his check up today. He has spent most of the first days of his life in hospital, had jaundice, weight loss, an infection that wouldn't go so was attached to a cannula for regular doses of antibiotics. 

Pleased to see him wearing the Peripuerium cardigan I made him, it is supposed to fit up to a 9 lb child, suspect he will be able to wear it for some time. 

Have been working on crochet squares, now I have enough to join them to make a throw/ blanket.  Ian kindly sorted them into colour piles on the big tray I use to transport knitting and crochet around the house.  Must add I have a smaller Moomin tray that I use for carrying notions and small items from my study/workroom/den/spare bedroom/bolt hole to the sitting room. Most useful, it's about the size of a standard iPad or an old fashioned slate. 

 I used double crochet to join 24 squares into a strip, 12 x 2 squares thus:-  

Then when I have joined up say 144 squares will arrange the strips to try and ensure each square is surrounded by a different colour. Not easy as I have a disproportionate amount of brown and beige but as this was designed to use up double knitting yarn and not to be a precious heirloom like the Beekeeper's  Quilt it doesn't matter. I ended up buying bright colours of Stylecraft yarn to compensate for the dreariness. 

In between joining squares I have been working on a pair of socks for Ian, yesterday bought a second pair of circular needles so could avoid second sock syndrome by casting on, knitting to heel of second sock so will be turning heels of both simultaneously. 

Have done a lot more than this, just for the record as this has become a craft blog. 

Welcome to our world.

Last Thursday 16th July, our first grandchild, Edward George Drummond Swann was born at 1.16pm, weighing in at 6.12oz. 

This is the first photo of him, as of yesterday he didn't look much different, he is so gorgeous, I've had a few cuddles.  

Don't think I will forget where we were when we had a phone call from DS, we had just emerged from the Underground at Leicester Square, had walked up to Cambridge Circus when my mobile rang and DS told us we had a grandson.  Ian and I were on our way to the appropriate named Prince Edward 

Theatre to see Miss Saigon, booked a long while back through the U3A theatre group.

That bulk booking meant we felt we couldn't really walk out, but neither of us enjoyed the show, the music wasn't memorable, the singing sounded like shouting with a noisy background, the raunchy action was over the top. Quite a few patrons left, there were plenty of empty seats, I could see why the admission price had halved and that the organiser had struggled to find ten people to go, we didn't read the reviews beforehand. Not often we don't enjoy a production, the last one I remember disliking was A Little Light Music at the Adelphi some 40+ years ago. 

We have booked, optimistically for Guys and Dolłs for early next year. As my Mother always said "Something to look forward to". (She didn't worry about preposition and their place in a sentence, apologies to pedants)

Running low on iPad battery so more another time,  cheerio from this new grandmother, to be called Mama if you wanted to know. 

Nearly there

Where? Kitchen completion, just two doors to be supplied tomorrow, one replacement and one missing from the delivery. 

At least we don't have to worry about missing items, that was the beauty of using Magnet's subcontractors to install the cupboards, they take the stress and worry. First time we haven't directly employed workman so there wasn't the empathy, the familiarity of shared experience or the link of recommendations that we use usually. No complaints about the standard of work though, five days were allowed for this project, it was completed in less than three, not allowing for the doors as above. One unforeseen small detail was that the new worktops are a small fraction lower than the previous ones, after carefully ensuring that no tiles were broken we will have to replace them all, there is a gap between tiles and worktop.  

Doesn't look much gap in this picture but even one millimetre is a gap.  Also shows the real wood worktops in spite of the shadows from me and my phone camera for the shading is less extreme but will they be suitable for kneading bread? Maybe not as I use olive oil rather than flour when kneading so will stick to the glass board. (Pun intended)

It is about time for a knitting update, today I went to a knitting group in the nearby High Street's branch of Costas, after about a couple of hours had made progress of a pair of sock for Ian. The yarn is Regia Design Line Jazz Color by Erika Knight, purchased from The Knitting  Parlour in Malvern back in May. 

Isn't it fun when stripes of grey and greens become bands of colour?