me on Monday

gazing out of the window at another wet and windy day with no prospect of a nice walk with camera. Hoping that the wind won’t blow away all the camellia blooms on the bush opposite – they seem so fragile in a wind.

It was a weekend of such weather which meant plenty of reading and some clutter tidying and old printed photos sorting and braving a dinner of UFO (unidentified freezer offering) which nicely thawed to be marinated chicken and some ‘art therapy’ (seems to be the new word to make colouring-in sound OK for adults!). Plus a slight feeling of disorientation due to the clocks moving an hour.

I did venture out once to visit a new local craft fair but didn’t buy anything as it was one of those ones where I looked at each stall and thought ‘I can make that’. 

Waving to you all and hoping your week is brightened - by sunshine or daffodils

and an extra wave to Sian for this lovely collection of waves each Monday

up, up and away in my beautiful balloon

I’ve been having fun with more amigurumi crochet.  As soon as I saw the pattern for the hot air balloon with basket my fingers were itching for a crochet hook and some yarn.  The pattern came together easily and I found some wire to hand the basket below the balloon

then I added 2 people nicely wrapped up in warm hats.

I intend to hang this up near my ceiling so it really looks like they have gone up, up and away.

pairs in my garden

one of the delights of my front garden is the succession of bulbs that flower in spring.  First are the snowdrops and crocus and then the daffodils and then grape hyacinth.  These two photos were taken only 5 weeks apart

I'm sure I'll be sharing more pairs of this view as the changes continue through into May.

Looking forward to some visual treats and some interesting stories in your pairs this week.

me on Monday

hello spring – hope you all have signs of the new season where you are

in the UK the first day of spring arrived in spectacular fashion with a solar eclipse – over 90% up here.  I did my research and went out with 2 pieces of card, with a pinhole in one.  I admit I was sceptical while reading all the instructions but when I held up the 2 cards I could see a small crescent shape which changed as the moon moved in front of the sun.  There was passing cloud which actually allowed for some photos – I know it looks like a crescent moon but that was the sun.  Strange light because it was dark but the sun was still high. 

Then the weekend proper was full of watching rugby – 3 nail biting games with lots of scoring and the champions only determined at the final whistle – my favourite of the 3 contenders won so I was happy.

I was caught up with the feeling of spring, and my feet feeling too hot in my boots – so I performed my seasonal unpacking of the warmer weather clothes a week early and put away a few of my warmest clothes. Then I embarked on the frustrating exercise of looking for some new items of clothing on-line.  Frustrating because I clothes shop with my fingers and no-one has invented an ability to feel photos yet.   And while the inventors are at it can we please have an app whereby I have my body scanned and then I can ‘try-on’ items online to see how they will look.  I didn’t see anything that made me hit the ‘buy now’ button so am watching the ‘new in’ sections.

As an antidote to all that screen time and frustration I crocheted a cute new friend

Waving to Sian for encouraging a Monday wave

Waving to all blogfriends and hoping spring is with you this week

final finds

As the end of winter nears, I’ve found the final items in the winter scavenger hunt – thank you to Eileen and Joy for taking the initiative and providing this fun list.

19 street musician – there is a piper on the main street in Edinburgh most of the time and I finally managed a photo without any tourists

8 a fish – I noticed this was part of a sculpted column in the local theatre – I love their big lips

2 – someone wearing a funny hat – in this case an Italian rugby fan in town for the match

16 – a collection – not sure why this was the last one I took when it has been on my living room wall since I first read the list

and finally one of the subs because I didn’t find anything that worked for me for ‘someone dressed for the season’

new life – happy to see rhubarb emerge from the earth

Which means I found 20 items and feel nicely satisfied at a list full of ticks.

Pair of mallards

I'm keeping it simple this week

beautiful plumage on both birds - the male has the eye-catching jewel coloured sheen but the female has intricate patterns.

a pair of childhood learning memories from this pair of birds
- 'duck and drake' takes me back to primary school lessons when we had to learn lists of names for male, female and young of lots of species
- Mallard ducks may well have been the first birds that I learnt to identify - from a colouring in picture in an children's activity book that came with a farming magazine, when I was 4

what memories and stories will be prompted by all the pairs this week?
 

me on Monday

waving to blogland friends on a wet Monday morning after a weekend of taking a plant to my Mum, watching rugby on TV and lots of crochet.  I finished the piece that I shared last week prior to unravelling a large section – and here is the completed piece - tada

what’s it for, you may wonder?  I’m inspired by this cartoon which reminds us of the usefulness of happiness – I need to block it and stiffen it and then I’ll put it on a wall to enjoy and smile at.

My weekend was also filled with thoughts of Vanuatu and the terrible hurricane that caused such destruction. It is a popular holiday spot from New Zealand and I’ve been there 3 times. I loved the friendly people, the fabulous food and the stunning scenery. I went back to look at my photos of my last visit in 2009 – here are some of a village on one of the smaller islands and my hotel cottage in the main city (top left). 

Hearing reports that every building has been damaged is hard to comprehend.  In my experience they are a resilient and positive people.  With an aid operation underway I hope that they can rebuild their houses and economy.

[me on Monday is the brainchild of Sian and she nicely lists other participants each week]

5 in 5 with crocuses

I spent 5 minutes in my front garden admiring my crocuses and taking lots of photos for Sandie’s lovely 5 in 5 monthly meme and here are my favourite 5

I love the richness of the colours and the subtle patterns and I love the spring bulbs splashing colour over the otherwise drab ground.

Pair in the sunshine

Outisde on my river walk for my pairs, to prove I do have tiem away from my crochet hook!

I've been managing to time my walks for the sunny breaks rather than the rain and enjoying the patterns made by the tree shadows and thought that would be a good candidate for a pair

I walked around the tree in the 2 shots which is why they don't line up - I'll try to remember about that aspect next time but it didn't occur to me until I was back at my computer looking at the images next to each other.

Hope you are all getting some sunshine this week and looking forward to another week of wide ranging subject matter for the pairs.

1 photo, 20 words

I followed the pattern but it’s too big – I unravelled the red fan to start again with pattern adjustments – sigh!

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following Abi’s monthly meme to match a photo with no more than 20 words

February was

February was a month with some lovely sunny days to enjoy a walk and coffee on the go.

February was a month with lots of cold and wet days, perfect for staying inside to read and crochet and watch TV.

I read 5 books, all by authors I had enjoyed before.  Alternating crime mysteries with women adventuring into the unknown.

Tired of standing looking at shelves of books with no idea of what to pick, I got organised and set up notes on authors that I have enjoyed with a list of their works that I have already read or got on my shelf waiting.  I also added some from lists of prize winners, best books etc.  All of these notes are on Evernote so that I can read them on my phone when I am faced by shelves of books but I can also update it on my desktop.

On the crochet front my on-going project was a striped, small blanket – finished now.  At the start of the month I made an amigurumi weeping angel (Dr Who character).  In the last week I started experimenting with multi-colour spirals.  First 2 stripes, then 3 then 4 stripes then 6.  I’m thinking about creating a big sun inspired mandala to hang up instead of my winter wreath.  At the moment I’m thinking the 2 colours on the right but with more stripes, maybe even 12. 

February was also a month of great light

creating lovely colour on the beach

and beautiful soft sunsets

Pairs in a spin

I've been trying out crochet spirals with several colours.  After admiring lots of fabulous examples on the internet and reading several tutorials I sat down with wool and hook and a pile of stitch holders.

The first part of the process is a fiddle but once the pattern is established it is methodical but you have to pay attention to count stitches and change colour.  I'm pleased with the end result and ready to move on from practice to a real project.

Hoping you are all having a good start to March and looking forward to what you are sharing in a pair.

Me on Monday

Happy March everyone. The meteorological start of Spring brought a blustery weekend with some icy feeling wind, perfect for staying inside to crochet and watch rugby and read and get accustomed to my new robot floor cleaner.

Thank you to Shirley for my sixth postcard via Sian’s lovely postcard swap – fabulous snowy view of the Grand Canon.

And say hello to Caleb (he came with that name) the njiri (Shona for warthog)

I happened upon a stall selling cute knitted animals from Kenya.  I liked the balance of African women knitting items to send to UK.  The Gogo Olive charity provides a living wage for the women and creates a fun range of animals – their site is here and I was told an online shop is imminent.

Waving to everyone and wishing you all a great week.  Thanks to Sian for suggesting the weekly wave.