Heatwaves and holes in the ground

 

It's been too hot and sticky to think, let alone do any work, or very much crochet! Thankfully it has rained today, which makes it a little cooler, though I gather it has been torrential further east.

Not long ago, a hole appeared in the pavement outside our front wall. We knew our drainpipe to the main sewer was right underneath it, and there have been a few occasions when the drain has backed up, but that had been OK for a couple of months - and then suddenly the sinkhole.  

We didn't do anything immediately because of several recent blips with Mr Bufo's health, but on a recent Tuesday I spent what seemed like forever on a 'webchat' to Southern Water, including needing to send them a photo of the hole, which at least meant they gave us a 'job number' and said they would send someone within 72 hours. By 3pm that afternoon, someone had actually arrived, and did a bit of investigation down our manhole in the front garden. He put in a report and said someone would come the next day. 

So on Wednesday morning someone came and spent a while digging and not seeing anything, so he said someone would come with a camera the next day, as he couldn't see much wrong, and left a hole which he put barriers round. 

So on Thursday 2 blokes turned up and did a bit more digging. They eventually found the problem just under the front wall, where their pipe had slipped below our outlet - so our front garden had been getting a lot of extra fertilisation - but thankfully they 'owned' it rather than saying it was our problem, and replaced the faulty pipe, then someone came and started filling it all up, so the barriered area was smaller, and finally on the Friday another gang came along and tarmac-ed over the top. 

All very Flanders and Swann. 

I have nearly finished the second of two blankets for the granddaughters. This is the first, but the second has a slightly different arrangement of motifs, and a completely different border. If it cools off a bit I will get the second one finished soon, and you might even get a new post to celebrate the fact!

New Year, New Post

- If only to get the 'Blogs I follow' list up the page a bit by hiding all of last year's posts!

Cold and sunshine today, so after half an hour trying to cut things back in the garden, about to sit with my crochet (see pic for current project) and watch the snooker final. Just a few more rows of the border to do, but waiting for another ball of one colour I have just run out of to be able to finish completely.

And Now we're past the Equinox

Autumn is upon us, and although I haven't done much blogging, I have been fairly busy. The 'Heirloom' blanket is finished, and another is being worked out.

Two more reprinted EJO books have been prepared for publication - one is already out and one currently at the printers, with more to do for next year, so no let-up on that front.

One of the summer highlights was a rail trip to Dartmouth. We joined the train at Romsey early one Saturday morning, and were diesel hauled to Taunton. Then 'Sir Nigel Gresley' took us to Kingswear via Exeter and Paignton, and our tickets included the ferry crossing to Dartmouth. We took a picnic lunch and were served fizz, unlimited coffees or teas, and a 'snack box' each both morning and afternoon. 

That was so generous that we almost could have managed without taking anything of our own, but Mr Bufo's quiches are well worth the carrying. We managed to park at Romsey station all day for just over £2, so when we were finally dropped off again at about 9.30 in the evening, it was just a quick drive home - and a lovely day!

We'll be doing our usual end of season trip to Cleeve Abbey soon, and the year will be over before we know it!

First Day of Spring?

Not a great deal to say - recovering from a rather spectacular fall on my face, which thankfully managed not to break my nose, or a tooth, or a wrist! but made a mess of my face for a while, though it has healed well. 

Was attracted to a new blanket, in hexagons, and have made a good start as can be seen above. There will be 8 of this design, and 8 or 9 each of several others, but so far I've nearly finished all of this type.

Trying to arrange the usual seasonal visits to Somerset and Sussex, but neither of us have been well enough for long enough to be confident about actually booking anything yet. The weather hasn't been great either, despite 'them' telling is it was the driest February in a long time. By contrast March has been quite wet.

Winter Draw(er)s On

 ...yes, I know that's an old chestnut but it still raises a smile. 

As often seems to be the case, it has been some months since the last post, and we've begun to get out a bit more; we've both had our 3rd 'booster' dose of Pfizer. We've been to the flat a couple of times, and we went to The Castleman again for Mr Bufo's birthday. 

This was the breakfast table 

And this was the lounge the night before.

We've also been to Eastbourne - hence the sunrise in the top picture. 

Now we're making plans for Christmas and the year will soon be over - we already have some appointments in on the new calendar for next year!

Still knitting and crocheting, too - a blanket (this is the centre section, there is more to come)...

...socks...

...and I've made a Christmas cake, which has now had 3 (of the 6) weekly feeds of brandy!

   

Signs of Spring

Waiting for news of 'the way out of Lockdown' - much of which seems to have already been briefed so as always will be an anticlimax.

In the meantime the blanket is finished, and the snowdrops are out.

February's delivery of flowers from Bloom & Wild was particularly good, and also included 3 tulips (not pictured) still attached to their bulbs, so lasting beautifully and will go into the garden when they have died back. 

The apple and pear trees (only one of each) need pruning, so I must garner the energy to do that soon, before the sap really starts rising. 

...oh, and we've both had the first dose of Pfizer now, and the dates for our 2nd appointments

What did you do in the Lockdown...?

...well in some respects, not a lot. I don't have an immaculately tidy house, a cleared loft, rows of homemade jams, jellies, etc. I haven't even made bread more than a couple of times! That was partly because I ran out of yeast, and partly because we found a baker that was delivering really good bread via our cheese man, who has also got together with a butcher, so we have been supplied with meat as well, when necessary, though our freezer was fairly full in March anyway. 

And I treated myself to a subscription of flowers every month for three months - from Bloom and Wild - this was the first month's selection - over a week after they were delivered, and still going strong, though by this time I'd had to get rid of a few. I have the second delivery now, but haven't taken a picture yet.

I do have a fairly well-weeded garden, but that's only because Mr Bufo went out for at least a few minutes every day, and dealt with anything obvious, as well as marching round to try and compensate for the fact that having the paper delivered means the daily walk to fetch it wasn't happening. And the strawberries have been magnificent!


But in January I started to follow a 'Crochet-Along' some of the early parts of which I showed in the April blog. And in early July, I finished it! Some of it was hard going - I thought I was never coming to the end of the 36 squares that were part 1; but then there were lots of triangles - not all the same, admittedly, but about 180 by the end, and finally 9 octagons. We were able to join up some of the triangles into larger shapes along the way, and then the squares were added to the octagons, together with 'wedges' made of three triangles each, so there were nine large roundels that then fitted to the odd shapes we'd made earlier. And finally a border round the whole lot. So I haven't been entirely idle, either...


Returning to add photos of this month's flowers - 2 vases-worth

Spring confined

And so we enter a strange time of beautiful weather but unable to go anywhere. We are lucky to have a garden and local shops who will deliver, so although Mr Bufo is in his mid-80s, and I am just into my 70s, we have been able to stay fairly isolated, with a couple of ventures to the over 70s slots - which were more crowded than normal shopping times, so reluctant to do that again.










We both had terrible coughs last autumn and many of the symptoms described as the current virus, so are wondering if it has been around longer than was realised, and that is what we had. It was pretty nasty, and I hope we did have it, as we certainly don't want that again, or anything worse.




Our planned breaks and holidays are of course on hold at the moment, postponed until the situation resolves itself - in the case of our French barge holiday, until May of 2021. 



So we potter about the garden, and I am keeping up with the latest Crochet-Along. Have done 36 squares (not shown) and at the time of this photo, 80 triangles, here joined in 4 large and 8 small sections 









- but as you see from the photo to the right, another 36 triangles done there, and since then 20 more, so just 52 more before another joining session, and then 9 octagons. All in all 233 individual pieces, joined with crochet, and a border to go round the whole...the last part will be released in July - and I hope by then we will all be released too!

Catch-up on the knitting

Time for another knitting post. I've been getting on with several things over the last few months, including finally finishing something that has been a bit of a millstone, and starting a fun blanket. Meanwhile there are always socks, and I've embarked on my first top-down cardigan.

The blanket is a Knit-Along (KAL) that started at the beginning of January, though I only got going at the end of Jan- but I've caught up now. Patterns are released every 1, 8, 15, and 22 of each month, leaving the extra days at the end of the month for sewing up the four squares produced into a larger square. At the end of each quarter we get the instructions for sewing the quarter's 3 larger squares into a strip. 







So far I have one strip




















plus one month's large square









and a couple of weeks' squares from this month 

The plan is to end up with 48 squares and 'weeks' 49 and 50 will be the final assembly and border.



The 'millstone' is a cardigan for Mr Bufo that I started two years ago. The pattern was not well-written - to start with, the opening of the pattern stated it was 'Small, Medium and Large' But the actual instructions were for 4 sizes. 
I had a long gap when I had put it away for the summer, as being too hot to do in the warmer months, and when I came back to it in the autumn of 2016 I couldn't find the bag of new balls of wool! So I did other things that winter, and it wasn't until sometime last year I found the bag with the extra in. 
Then when I thought I'd nearly finished I discovered that the cuffs on the sleeves I had knitted according to pattern would not go over Mr B's hands, so I ended up picking up the stitches from the armholes and knitting down.
But now it is done, it doesn't look too bad, and I think he's quite pleased with it!




And then we come to socks ...




I bought 2 balls of sock yarn in Lille at Christmas
















... and knitted up the red and blue for Mr B














Then I made a start on the purple and grey for me, but haven't got very far yet.

And I keep being tempted/distracted by other things, like this Sirdar Colourwheel














...with which I've started the top-down cardigan 







So that's most of it - I've done a few shawls and other bits and pieces along the way, of course! 

February falals

So as 2016 has well and truly begun, the 'Christmas card' post needs replacing...

Mum's bungalow is finally cleared, and we hope will soon be sold. The work on reprints continues, and so does the knitting and crochet - a recent trip to meet friends in Salisbury yielded a rather good value pack of different colours of yarn, so another blanket is in the offing:

Have done a test square - though not yet sure of the exact pattern I'll use - with some stash yarn...

Kaffghan Blues

I've spent January trying to finish the Kaffe Fassett/Rowan Knit-along. I was up-to-date all along with the actual knitting, but events conspired against me during the sewing-up.  Then TMOH went for some tests. Nothing we didn't already know about showed up, but his reaction to one of the procedures was horrifying and could have even been life-threatening. This was compounded by the fact that he reacted badly to the antibiotic they gave him 'in case' he got an infection. Ten days on, he is on the mend, with a different antibiotic - he's had to stop another of his regular meds while on this, as it is contra-indicated! - but with one thing and another I have missed the deadline for Rowan's competition. All the sewing-up was finished last night - and if 31 Jan had been the deadline, as originally indicated, I might just have made it, but they made the deadline 30th, so no chance. And I have still to do a trim, so I can't with all honesty say it is finished yet.

But here it is in its current state...I have sewn all the ends in - the rogue piece of yarn peeking out from under the edge of the blanket is actually from a spare ball of wool under the sofa! [and the length on the arm of the sofa leads to the ball I'm working the trim with...]

Ravelry project page link 

And here it is with crochet edging on the spare bed.