Birthdays....

Yesterday was my birthday.

 

It is the only day that I get all my own way from start to finish.

 

I get hugs from the teenage daughter whenever I want them.

 

I get a happy family who stop arguing the second that I ask.

 

I get cups of tea made for me. 

 

My birthday is always a lovely day.....

 

 

Such a shame they only happen once a year......

 

 

Knitting a Family Tradition

I wanted to write a little bit about my current knitting project as there was a special reason for this project, which is to do with family.

My Dad's family have always lived abroad, they moved to New Zealand before I was born.  His Mum, Dad, two brothers and two Aunts all emigrated.  Obviously my Dad didn't go and I'm speculating that was because he had just got married and had a good job.

So we didn't see much of his family, in fact I never met my Grandad.  But, Grandma would come over from time to time and when she did she would knit things for me and my sister.  I still have a poncho and some of the dolls clothes she knitted for me.

My Great Aunt Lily, Grandma's sister, was the person who taught me to knit and crochet. 

Earlier this year my Grandma reached 100 years old. 

This is Grandma at her party at the retirement village where she lived in Australia.  My Dad and my Step-Mum went over and she had a great time surrounded by her family and friends.  She was even in the local paper.

Unfortunately not long after her birthday her health deteriorated and she died in September.  She had a long and happy life and so I am not sad, only sad that I didn't know her better.

Not long after she died my cousin, who I have never met, gave birth to a baby boy and so I decided that I would like to knit a blanket for the baby.  It seemed like a nice thing to do and I felt it gave me some connection to the family and particularly to my Grandma.

As the blanket is nearly finished I contacted my Aunt and told her what I was doing and asked where to send the blanket to. 

My Aunt was thrilled as she doesn't knit and told me Grandma had got the ladies together where she was living and they used to knit constantly, beanies for the troops in Afghanistan, items for the local children's hospital and baby items galore.  But my favourite of all; she liked to crochet "knee blankets for the elderly".

You've got to love the spirit of a woman at 100 years old making items for the elderly, apparently it was said without irony as she never saw herself as old. 

I'm hoping I have some of her spirit and humour when I get to that age.........

The view from my office

The view from my office is generally uninspiring.

Where I sit at my desk I can see the top of some shortened poplar trees, the end of a warehouse roof and sky, quite a lot of sky.  Today the sky is grey, flat and heavy.

Next door to where I work they erect stage scaffolding and all sorts of removable structures for festivals and stage shows.  Sometimes my view is of some enormous structure, which usually looks like a stage and I wonder who will be playing on it in the future.

This week the view was made more interesting by the introduction of this......

I rushed outside to take a couple of closer photographs.  It is difficult to get a perspective on how big he was (I'm saying 'he' but it could have been a 'she').  If you look at the bottom of the photo above you can see a fence post, so that gives some indication.

 

Later in the day Bear moved into the sky, and then as the sun started to descend he changed colour, to blue then bright pink and finally green.

 

Unfortunately my little phone camera couldn't cope with the fading light and I couldn't get a photograph.  He looked lovely all lit up and when I left work he had a soft green glow.

 

I was looking forward to seeing him when I returned to work the following day.  

 

But he was gone.

 

It was strange the amount of joy that massive Bear brought to me and others at work and it is hard to explain the disappointment I felt the next day every time I looked out of the office window.

 

Colourful Crochet and some Knitting

Apologies for the quality of the photos but here are some of the

items that have been on my hook....... and needles

 

 

My Granny Stripe and the start of my crochet journey

 http://attic24.typepad.com/

 

 

My colourful squares car blanket.

 

My Elmer squares baby pram blanket using the pattern

from this lovely blog www.littletinbird.co.uk

I love the colours of this and the best thing was I didn't have

to think 'random' because it was rainbow stripes.

 

My ripple baby cot blanket, again using Lucy's pattern 

(but not the coastal colours, just what was in my stash)

I should have taken a photo of this in good light but the baby

 was imminent so I had to get it packed up and handed over.

 

My chunky sampler picnic blanket which is still a WIP...

Inspired by Little Woollie blog   http://littlewoollie.blogspot.co.uk/



And finally my knitted baby blanket.

I made the pattern up.

 

No reason for this other than I am showing off...... there, I've said it.

I'm too old for this.....

This weekend we decided to do a bike ride. And we went at it hell for leather.

I can't remember the last time I got on my bike, but I have to say that despite it languishing in the garage for ages...... I bloody love my bike. 

I got it about three year's ago and it is a sit up and beg style but with 21 speed gears.  It is a 'comfort hybrid' and it is comfortable.  Very.

When I was younger I did a lot of mountain biking, proper stuff on proper trails with pumped thighs and a seat that I barely sat on.  But times have changed and now I sit on the saddle which is designed to accommodate you sitting on it.

We cycled from the North end of Bridlington, past Sewerby, to the North bay at Flamborough.  When we got there we couldn't go down to the bay because they had just been filming the new Dad's Army film down there.  So we sat at the top, ate our lunch and enjoyed the day.

 

Realistically when we got there I had had enough. 

About 6 miles of rolling hills on legs that were not used to cycling is about enough.

But of course once there you have to get back...... bother......

So we cycled back on the road,

into the head wind

and when we got back my legs were like jelly and my knees were killing me!

 

 

But this was the view in the late afternoon sun looking towards

where we had just cycled, even though I felt old and knackered

I did feel like I'd achieved something....

And we had really enjoyed the day out.......

So the question is... am I really too old for this?