patchwork quilt

While fiddling around in our loft area after our new bedroom was finished I came across this quilt.I made it when my children were small and used bits that I had used to make clothes for my daughter and myself.It all looks terribly dated now but it brought back so many memories.Also how did I find time to handmake a quilt of this size!!

I think it deserves a place in the new bedroom either on a bed or as a wallhanging.

cambridge

Punts on the river Cam

Kings College,Cambridge

Ella and I had a girls morning out and had coffee and ? in Starbucks.Great.The boys were watching Finlay play rugby and Mum was running a charity race round Cambridge.

We had a super weekend with the family but it just went too quickly.We visited the Cambridge Food Festival which was quite good but not as good as the one we were missing in our home town!!Too many rides and temptations in C and not enough food.WE had a lovely ,lovely time and managed to get home in 3 hours.I slept most of the way and my plans to knit went awry.I did knit all the way down.Socks are great for knitting in the car.I also found a wool shop in Cambridge and bought 2 lots of sock wool and some Snuggly DK to knit Ruby a jacket.

We shall be down in Cambridge again in 5 weeks.

a busy week

I thought being retired meant I would have lots of free time.Not true.Already this week I have met 2 different friends for coffee,had a long lunch with 2 friends I have met through a magazine,been to a talk on Victorian Narrative Painters.Last night we went to the theatre to see The Browning Version and Swansong.Peter Bowles (To the Manor Born) should have been in it but he was ill.A friend comes with us whose wife has died recently.
This morning I went to my Reading group.We were discussing Birdsong By Sebastian Foulks.It was a good discussion and very interesting.I had an hour at home and then we were off to pick Emily up from school ,take her to ballet,pick Ruby up from nursery and then take them back to their house for tea.(Shepherds Pie which my OH had made while I was at reading group.He's very good and it was delicious).We then handed over to Dad.Mum is away overnight with school on a trip.
Tomorrow we are going to Cambridge for the weekend to our son's house.So I think it is about time I went and sorted some clothes out.
Don't ever think life is dull when you retire ( I retired at 50).I don't know how I found time to work!!!

It's all happening here today!

We live in a 3 bedroom bugalow with an enormous,high pitched loft.We have already had a staircase put in last year and now we are having a fourth bedroom put up there.So, it's all banging ,drilling ,hammering etc.Over the weekend we had a great sorting out up there.Both our children have their own houses but guess what all their "stuff " is still here.but not any more.We are going to our son's in Cambridge on Friday and we will be taking his enormous football programme collection with us( his collection of NMEs went last year),his T shirts from pop concerts etc and all his university memorabilia.Anything up to 18 I am keeping because I am an old softie. Sarah's is a much smaller collection .

I resisted buying Posh Yarn last night but am thinking of joining the Violet Green sock club.

Comments

Some people have told me they can't leave comments on this blog.I have the same problem with someone else's.But if I go to Preview it seems to work that way.Please try it.

2 gorgeous little girls

We met my daughter for coffee in Borders this morning and then went on for lunch in a store nearby.Thought I would share these with you.Sisters having fun.R was desperately trying to do do what E was doing but couldn't because she was holding a bottle of juice!

What do you do with your left over bits of wool.I started doing this afghan last winter and as the nights draw in I think I need to complete.Snuggling under that with my hands free to knit sounds good.

my first project

I never throw patterns away and have so many but this one has a special place in my collection.It is the first garment I ever knitted.I did it in a beige flecked wool.I think I had just started secondary school.My mother always encouraged me by saying she would buy me the materials if I made it myself so I got to knit and to sew with this incentive.You can see how old the pattern is.The price 6d-old money-pre decimal.

Apart from knitting I have lots of other hobbies and one is penfriends.I started this by someone telling me about an organisation called International Penfriends.The idea was to promote international goodwill.

I have penfriends all over the world.14 of them I correspond with as regularly as I can.They live in places as far afield as Australia,U.S.A ( HI Fran),Japan,Russia,Estonia etc.It is a fascinating hobby.I have heard first hand about changes in society and life eg South Africa,Estonia,East Germany etc.

Emily, one of my granddaughters started school on Friday,just for an hour, but was fine.It was Mum that was a wreck!!

latest project

This is my latest project.I am knitting a scarf for myself with some Posh yarn I bought last Sunday.It is Esme Superwash Merino.It is actually much greener than it looks in the photo.( Just wanted to check again that I could do it)l

an experiment!

As I say this in an experiment that I can actually take a photo and put it on the blog without C's assistance.It is a photo of one of my 4 hanging baskets on the front of the house which are almost finished but what hard work they have been.In a terrible summer they have needed a pint (I use milk bottles)of water every day and sometimes two.They have looked very good but will I do them again next year-I don't know. I then noticed that C had been filling cracks on the house!!
He has been out walking with a group of friends today so I have had the house to myself and just pottered.We are usually so busy we don't have time to potter.
My daughter started her new job today where she will be teaching one and a half days a week.Her elder daughter starts in the Reception class this week.It seems she has had a great day and has got the right vibes about the school and the staff.
The decision about having another cat has gone on hold again.I would love one but they are a big commitment,