The Wool Palace

Weekend catch-up

I am trying to get back into more regular blogging, although work and life in general continues to conspire against it.

We had a busy weekend.

Our hall has gone from insipid yellow to 'Entrance Hall Pink'.  I didn't know the name of it when I picked the colour, but it's nice to know that Farrow & Ball agree with me on what colour a hall should be.  Unfortunately it's still covered in horrible woodchip, but at least it's a better colour now.

After picking the colour, I left Toby to do the actual painting, seeing as he's about 100 times faster than I would be.  I indulged in a little garden centre shopping.

My plans for summer planting schemes failed miserably this year, but I had good success with my tulips in the spring, so bought some different ones to play with this year.  I went back today and got crocuses and a few other things to naturalise in the corners of the lawn and under the hedge.

I have been doing some knitting as well.  I've had Salina on my to do list for ages now and decided to make a start while we were on holiday.

I had some Felted Tweed left from my Hourglass Sweater that turned out miles too big and had to be frogged.  I had washed the yarn and reskeined it and put it away to wait for a project.  This seemed like the right time to bring it out.

I'm knitting the body in the round and have just divided for the armholes.  I've added 5cm to the length but plan to do the rest as written.  Must hurry up and finish it so I can start the Tangled Yoke Cardigan...

Rain, rain, go away

I was all together to do a post yesterday, then Typepad was down.  So you get yesterday's post today.

Toby has been working away for almost three weeks.  The weather has been awful, although Somerset has got off lightly compared to other parts of the UK.  I am getting bored of my own company.  The children and I have seen too much of each other.

Luckily we have a couple of new friends to distract us.

Yesterday was a wonderful oasis of sunshine after days of grey.  We spent most of the day in the garden.

Sam practised his cricket catches.

I tackled some of the weeds and picked sweet peas

and pulled up carrots.

We finished off with high tea.

I provided the rock buns and cucumber sandwiches, Josie made the fruit salad.  There was tea, although I snuck in a G&T, as it was nearly dinner time.

It's raining again today.  Ah well.

Jump around

It's half term already, which seems to have come round very fast.  Last week was a whirl of days out, meals, rather a lot of wine and general family stuff.  Sam came home from camp on Friday with sunburnt cheeks and full of stories of walks in streams, collecting fossils and singing songs round the campfire.  He devoured two plates of spaghetti bolognese, went to bed and slept for about two hours longer than normal the next morning.

I've given the sock knitting a rest for a bit and have reaccquainted myself with the Rib and Cable jacket.  However, it looks just the same as the previous photos, just a bit longer, which doesn't make for a very interesting photo.  I've also started another garment, which is currently a big blob of black stocking stitch that I'm sure you can do without photos of at this stage.

The weather was glorious last week but less so this week.  Rainy days and children home from school result in rather too much jumping and crashing in the house for my taste, so I dragged them out on a long walk yesterday in an attempt to get rid of some of the energy.

We walked a different way to our usual walk and passed this church, in a village a couple of miles from us.

I hadn't been inside before and was delighted to find this beautiful memorial to ancestors of the local gentry.

According to the information provided, it dates from circa 1380.  I love finding things like this in unexpected places. 

This one was a bit more recent, 1647 I think.

While the walk depleted energy levels yesterday, sadly it's raining again today and banging and crashing levels are reaching my breaking point.  Thankfully the children are being taken to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean in about 20 minutes.  I think I should be able to hang on until then.

We're in the middle of a family centric week.  My parents are making their annual visit from the States and my sister and her boyfriend are in attendance also.

Sam has gone off on his first ever school camp - 4 nights away from home.  I waved him off this morning, looking (to me) terribly small under the weight of his rucksack and sleeping bag.  My mind keeps skipping off to thoughts of what he is doing right now.

Tomorrow we are meeting with more family to scatter my grandparents' ashes on Dartmoor.  My grandfather died 3 years ago and my grandmother 8 years before him.  It's taken a while to iron out all the details.

Everyone decamps by Friday.  I'll take the weekend to regain equilibrium and will be back next week.

So, the holidays are over and it's back to school.  We've had a good break with fantastic weather but I have to admit I did feel quite happy waving Sam and Josie off on the school bus yesterday morning.  The last couple of days, with boredom levels rising, were a bit of a challenge.

However, before that we did lots of fun stuff.

We went for walks

and looked at the obligatory spring lambs.

Talking of lamb, we had quite a few barbeques as well, but I'll spare you pictures of us with our mouths full of food.

We took a trip to Symonds Yat and walked by the river.

We didn't make it to Cornwall but we did spend the day at Woolacombe.

And of course, there was an Easter egg hunt, with predictable results.

Thanks for all your support over the driving test.  I've rebooked, so let's hope it's second time lucky...

I know I've been quiet, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything.

Here's some of the things that have been keeping us busy at The Wool Palace.

Baking muffins to brighten up rainy afternoons.

Bringing a touch of spring in from the garden.

Squeezing in a bit of shopping at Stash while on a weekend trip to London.

Putting up a new fence in a vain attempt to keep the hoards of rabbits from eating everything in the garden.

What's been keeping you busy?

Precipitation

This weekend marked the beginning of a cold snap, or rather, a return to the normal temperatures for this time of year.  Fortunately this also meant we had some sun, very welcome after days of rain and wind.

We were looking after two of Toby's mum's dogs for the weekend, which gave us a good excuse to get our and about.  Toby and the children went to the beach on Saturday while I was at Get Knitted, so on Sunday we decided to vist a new (to us) bit of the Quantocks.

Things didn't get off to a great start.  When we were halfway to the car park, Sam tentatively asked, 'Should I have brought my walking boots?'.  To which we replied, quite emphatically, yes he should have and no, we weren't going back to get them.  So Sam had to walk in his Heelys, sans wheels, which meant, he declared, that his 'heart wasn't in it'.

Still, the sun was shining, so we set off - and then there was a hailstorm.

Even the dogs aren't looking too impressed are they?

Luckily it passed and the weather cleared.

We spent a happy couple of hours tramping through mud and enjoyed some good views across to Bridgwater Bay.

It was the first time in a while that we've all been out together; it felt good to get some fresh air.

I'm away for work for the next couple of days so probably won't be posting or replying to email.  Normal service should resume in the second half of the week.

Gradually equilibrium is being restored.

We spent yesterday relaxing and not doing much at all.  There were a few strops from tired children, but by the evening we were all feeling much better.

Here's Sam reading the 'How to talk to girls' section from his Dangerous Book for Boys.  Josie is listening carefully before offering her opinion on its accuracy.

I bought Toby a pasta machine for Christmas, so we broke it out last night and feasted on fresh tagliatelle with the last shreds of the Christmas ham in a cream and mushroom sauce.

Tonight the children are away but I think we'll have a fairly quiet one; there's a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge and if we're feeling really wild we can always stroll over to the pub for a couple of drinks later on.

I'll leave the knitting round up until the New Year has started, so until then, have a good one and here's to a happy and peaceful 2007 for us all.  Cheers!

Back on the horse

Are you all enjoying the holiday season?  I'm finally emerging from the fog of alcohol, sugar and rich food and starting to feel a bit more normal.  Christmas Day was lovely, although cooking Christmas dinner for 11 did keep me pretty busy, both on the day and for about 2 days beforehand too.

I haven't had to work at all so am enjoying a few lazy days; however the Christmas cooking and cleaning has played havoc with my hands so I have done no knitting at all.  Even worse, a couple of Christmas knitted gifts didn't get finished - oh, the shame!

I think tomorrow will be one of the first days where we have had no one visiting and no visiting to do.  Although it's all been fun, I'm looking forward to a few quiet days before the children go back to school and work starts again.

Best misheard song lyric ever, combined with case of mistaken identity

For some reason we were talking about Lily Allen.

Josie:  Who's Lily Allen?

Toby:  You know, she sings that song.  Cue attempt to sing some of 'Smile'.

Josie:  Oh, I know her.  She sings, 'I wish I was a humpbacked girl with flowers in my hair'.