Making Good Use

Not Exactly Seasonal

I was really lucky today and managed to find this Jo Sharp 'Village' knitting pattern book for 59p.  I'm always intrigued by books on shelves that don't have any title on their spine, and was delighted when, having spied a plain grey spine, I pulled this out.

The patterns are described as 'Jo Sharp's collection of comfortable weekend wear', and there are indeed some very nice patterns for jumpers and cardigans which look uber comfortable.  However, I knew I wouldn't have the patience to knit anything that time-consuming (nor would they be big enough for me I fear), but I was very taken by the numerous patterns for scarves, hats and mitts.

I like the look of this scarf in particular as I've been wanting to try out some cable knitting for a while now.

These ones are very pretty.

And I like the look of this little hat too.

I know the patterns are not exactly seasonal - what with spring being on the way 'n' all - but this is the sort of knitting book that has such lovely photography it's a pleasure just to flick through it now and again.

First and Last

This afternoon I decided to tackle the first grass cutting session of the season.  I'm not overly keen on grass cutting at the best of times, and find the first cut definitely the hardest so I'm glad to have got that particular task out of the way.  The lawn mowers have been buzzing in a lot of our neighbours' gardens lately so I really felt the time had come for me to get on with it.

It went from this,

to this in about 20 minutes.  (No, I can't see much of a difference either!)  I'm not sure, now I'm looking out of the window at the back lawn, whether it actually looks better or not - shorter, granted - but still rather a mess.  Never mind, its done.  One thing to definitely cheer about is it was the last grass cut I'll ever have to do when I've then got to empty the contents of the grass box into a plastic garden waste bag which is not much bigger than a conventional carrier bag.  I don't know which joker thought of that concept, but it was plainly someone who had never had to force bits of cut grass into a slippery plastic bag!!

Farewell garden waste bags, and a very fond hello to a garden waste wheelie bin which will be delivered any time soon.  Goodness knows why Basildon District Council have been so tardy in introducing wheelie bins as we had them in Bristol approx. 15 years ago, still - better late than never, even if we are only getting one for the garden waste and still have to use evil black plastic sacks for our household waste.  The timing couldn't have been better as this was our last garden waste sack too and I sure as hell wasn't going to be paying for any more.  I personally think the council should have been paying me for the darned inconvenience of using the bl**dy useless things.

A Candlelit Supper a Deux

Yes, thanks to the vagaries of EDF Energy, our ordinary Monday evening meal was turned into a candlelit supper.

We were just sinking our teeth into the first few mouthfuls of the evening meal when, PING, all the lights went out.  Fearing that Maurice had finally chewed through an electric cable my initial thought was that it was only us who had been plunged into darkness.  Fumbling my way to the front door showed us that the street light in our garden (yes, we do have a street light planted at the corner of our front lawn) had also gone out, as had all the other street lights and every other light in the road.  Breathing a sigh of relief that we had not succumbed to rodent sabotage, I set about finding a torch and then the tealights and a box of matches so that we could continue our meal.

For some odd reason we have a lot of power cuts here in south Essex - at least three or four per year.  Again, oddly enough, they usually happen during the day, often when I'm out, and it's only when I get in and find the answerphone is off and there is no light on the oven that I even realise we've got no power again.  One particularly annoying occasion I'd put the bread maker on before I went out and came back to find no electricity.  As I had no idea how long the bread maker had been off I couldn't even start it up again when the power came back on and had to ditch all the ingredients and start again from scratch.

Luckily, yesterday evening the power was restored after about an hour and twenty minutes - just as the house was getting rather glacial because the gas central heating had also switched off when the power was cut to the electric pump it uses.  For someone who vividly remembers the power cuts of the early 1970's when the miners were on strike, this was merely a small blip.  But it did bring it home to me how much we all rely on an uninterrupted power supply to enjoy our modern comforts.  Never mind, how many Monday evenings are livened up with a candle lit supper for two!

Only A Day Late

I finished knitting P's birthday hat on the actual day (albeit at 11.30 pm), but didn't manage to sew it up until this afternoon.

P is very pleased with it and has been wearing it about the house this afternoon.  I'm hoping as it is 100 per cent wool it will be more comfortable for him than the acrylic one he has been wearing up 'til now.  The forecast for the morning is icy so I'm pretty certain this will get its first airing on the way to the station tomorrow.

This hat is not only 100 per cent wool, it is also 100 per cent thrifted.  The wool was thrifted (a rather nice Jaeger wool), the pattern was thrifted, and the knitting needles were thrifted - the bamboo knitting needles I got recently had their first outing with the hat (not sure how I felt about them, I think I'll reserve judgement for the time being).  The only 'new' item used in the whole venture was the needle for sewing it all together.  That was new at the time but I've probably had it for 20 years plus!

Cards

Just a very short post today as am I absolutely pooped - having spent the morning in Basildon touring the charity shops and checking out the church 'bargain box' sale which, I have just discovered, is held every Friday morning.  The church sale was very good and I think there will be a lot more trips to Basildon on Fridays in the future.  I carried a HUGE bag of books back with me only to find that most of them were of no use whatsoever for resale!  B*gger!!  And now my arm is hurting where the bag was so flippin' heavy.  I should really have taken my shopping trolley but they are a bit of a pain on the bus.  Anyway, I'll know better next time.

On to what the topic of the post is really about - cards.  Sunday is P's birthday and I've made his card using die-cut pieces which I bought cheaply on ebay.  I've never used these sort of things before and wasn't sure how I was going to attach them to the card when I suddenly remembered a 'make your own card' kit I bought cheap last year in the sales had those tiny stick-on bits with it that gives things a bit of a 3-D effect.  They worked a treat and I'm quite pleased with how the card turned out.

P is always very appreciative of my home-made card efforts, and as he is uber-keen on chess I thought these were just the thing for his birthday card.  I'm not sure I attached the horse-shaped piece (is it the knight?) the right way round, but I'm sure P will soon tell me if I've committed some cardinal chess sin. The little gift tag is to go on one of his presents which is a set of new cufflinks (shaped like chess pieces naturellement).  It was just as well I'd decided on getting him another set of cufflinks as we've had a really good run of finding lovely M&S shirts for him in charity shops lately, but every single shirt required cufflinks.  At the moment P only has two pairs of cufflinks so I'm sure the chess-shaped ones will be a welcome change for him.

I've also been having a bit of a try-out with an embroidered Easter egg card.  The egg shape was a bit tricky and I'm not sure I've got it exactly right yet, but all in all it's turned out quite well.

I'd also made a Mother's Day card for my Mum but posted it off without taking a picture - idiot!! - so can't show you that one.  Although I'm not a Mum myself I did have a lovely Mother's Day / Auntie card from DN which he'd signed himself.  I was very impressed as he is still only four and the writing was excellent! 

Message for DN: Thank you for the card sweetheart, I'm very much looking forward to seeing you next weekend, and I'm blowing you a big raspberry to be going on with!!

A Random Act of Kindness

I had the most lovely surprise this morning when, out of the blue, a parcel arrived from Heather.

 

I had already ripped open the padded envelope and the first layer of wrapping when I managed to pause long enough to take a photo of the beautiful way the contents were wrapped.  (The lovely little red satin roses have already been squirreled away for use at a later date!)

Inside were all sorts of lovely bits and pieces, including this fantastically vibrant ball of mohair wool, some excellent rose-pink and gold braid, and a gorgeous collection of red buttons - including a couple of brilliant tartan ones.

A piece of cat-print fabric featuring an amazingly Lily-like cat (Mum, can you spot which one I mean?)

Two pieces of Toy Story material - definitely destined to be something for my nephew at some point as he really loves Buzz Lightyear.

And last, but by no means least, this fabulous Scottie dog card.  Heather, thank you so very much for all these lovely things, it was such a nice surprise and really made my day.

Coincidentally, Claire at Pinky and Boo awarded me a 'Random Acts of Kindness' award at the weekend.  Thank you for that Claire, that was another very nice surprise.

The Singing Ringing Tree

I don't know if it was yesterday's post which brought back memories of childhood television, or the conversation P and I had the other evening about cartoons we used to love as children, or the comment from Heather the other day mentioning Top Cat, but this morning I've been thinking about all those programmes I used to watch as a child on TV.

Apparently BBC childrens' television was very short of funding in the 1960's and had to rely heavily on bought-in programmes from the continent, hence people of my generation have great memories of some amazingly culturally diverse programmes.  There was 'Belle and Sebastian' - a French (I think it was French, maybe it was French/Swiss) series about a little boy and his dog who lived in the mountains and had lots of adventures.  The German version of 'Robinson Crusoe' who's evocative theme tune can immediately transport me back to winter teatimes sitting in front of a roaring fire, watching the old black and white telly.  'On White Horses' which was (again I think) a Yugoslavian series about the Lipizaner horses, also with a great theme tune (oddly enough, sung in English).  This particular story used to really amuse me as the characters lips would be moving frantically for 30 seconds or so and all you would get from the English voiceover was something short and pithy like "Yes, said Uncle Dimitri."  Clearly Uncle Dimitri was saying an awful lot more in Yugoslavian but presumably the translator didn't think what he had to say was suitable for English childrens' ears. 

But the one story that has stuck with me all these years was 'The Singing Ringing Tree'.  I think it was part of a series of continental fairy stories - although I don't remember a thing about any of the others. I was terrified by this story although I only remember an evil dwarf, a large puppet-type fish in a pool and the tinkling bells of the tree itself.  A quick Google search shows that it was originally from East Germany and is now available on DVD.  I don't think I'd want to watch it again as I'd be afraid it wouldn't be as I remember it, seeing the photos from it in colour was odd enough as my memories are of seeing it in black and white.

Naturally, we also had American imports - 'Casey Jones', 'Champion the Wonder Horse', and an extremely ancient (possibly from the late 1930's) version of 'Flash Gordon'.  Slightly more up-to-date (then) was the 'Banana Splits' - although I never really 'got' those puppets and the canned American laughter used to drive me mad.  From Australia we had 'Skippy, The Bush Kangaroo' - now often the butt of comedians jokes.  Can't think why they'd find a 'talking' kangaroo funny!

On the cartoon front there was 'Deputy Dawg', 'Scooby Doo', 'Roadrunner', 'The Pink Panther' and 'Top Cat'.  But my all time favourites were 'Tom and Jerry' - not the Hanna Barbera modern ones, but the original 1940's ones, directed by Fred Quimby - brilliantly funny and beautifully drawn.

As for home grown childrens' telly there was, of course, the perennial 'Blue Peter', and it's not quite so upmarket ITV version - 'Magpie'.  The 'Magpie' presenters were all very trendy and good-looking while the 'Blue Peter' presenters were very middle-class and sensible.  And there were those lovely little five-minute cartoon series that were on just before the evening news - 'The Wombles', 'Paddington', and 'Captain Pugwash.'  Not forgetting the 'Watch with Mother' characters (I'm so old I can even remember 'Listen with Mother' on the radio with the story being read by Daphne Oxenford - gulp!) 'Andy Pandy', 'The Woodentops', 'The Flowerpot Men', 'Trumpton', 'Camberwick Green', 'Mary, Mungo and Midge', 'Noggin the Nog' (my favourite), 'The Herbs', and 'Pogle's Wood.' 

I haven't forgotten 'Jackanory' which also sometimes scared me (I was an easily scared child) with the stories of 'Green Knowe' and 'The Wolves of Willoughby Chase', and 'Dr Who' which only scared me when the Cybermen were involved.  I'm sure there are many more I've forgotten - what are the programmes you remember?

Update.  Apparently I was not the only child who found The Singing Ringing Tree frightening, check out this chap's opinion.

When All At Once I Saw A Crowd ....

I can't claim to have a 'host of daffodils' in the garden, but we have got a couple of little patches of them.  This particular patch is just outside the shed door (home to myriad mice), and has been in bud for what seems like weeks and weeks until finally, yesterday, they burst open, bringing with them the promise of sunny days and lighter evenings ahead.

Today has been one of those very gusty early Spring days where you can see the cloud shadows scudding along the ground.  These sorts of days always remind me of when I was at junior school and often used to come home for lunch.  The way home was across a very large and open playing field which has the most stupendous views of the start of the Cotswold hills.  This playing field can be arctic in the winter, and desert-like in the summer as because it is so high it always has extremes of weather.  But at this time of year it is wonderful as you can watch the clouds' shadows chasing one another across the grass.  My sister and I used to take ages crossing the playing field on the way home as we would run about with our anoraks on back to front and the hoods over our faces (why?).  It was the perfect environment to do this in as there was no traffic, few other people about, and the only hazard was possibly crashing into the fenced-off cricket pitch.  Miraculously, I don't think we ever did collide with any of the rather vicious metal posts that used to mark out the wicket area.

Speaking of anoraks (not the nerdy types but the actual garment), whatever happend to them? When I was about ten or eleven every child seemed to wear a navy blue quilted nylon anorak with a zip up the front and toggles around the hem and the hood.  Each sleeve would be adorned with sew-on patches from places you had been, and the more patches you acquired the 'cooler' your anorak was.  Sadly, I think my only patch was from Weston-super-Mare!

S*dding Rodents

Those thieving, pesky little rodents have been chowing down on my store of apples in the shed.  I knew there were mice about in the shed as Jester (next door's killing machine cat) has been known to show an enormous amount of interest in that area, and has actually been seen with a 'kill' from behind the shed too.  When I stored the apples away I fully expected at some point in the winter to find the odd tooth-mark or two, or even a few nibbles out of the apples, what I didn't expect was that they were chomping away with such gusto that the whole apple would disappear, just the apple-shaped newspaper being left (and a ton of mouse poo!)

I hope you can see the evidence in the photo above.

I find it all somewhat disturbing as this was by no means the only apple to have totally vanished - I should think the little swines have got through at least a dozen, maybe more - God knows how many mice are actually calling our shed home.  And, more worryingly, how long will it be before they look for pastures new and follow Maurice into the house!!

Eclectic Tastes

I've had one line of a song going round in my head for weeks, although I had no idea what the song or the singer was.  The line was 'I can be brown, I can be blue, I can be violet sky'.  I'm sure everyone but me knew that the song was Grace Kelly by Mika.  A quick google search soon told me what the name of the song that had been bugging me for so long was, and an even quicker ebay search revealed a new copy for sale at 99p.

It arrived this lunchtime, and I can foresee me playing this time and time again (and singing along loudly but somewhat squeakily - how can a man reach such amazingly high notes!)  As I added it to the pile of CDs which sit beside my rather ancient CD player I was struck by what an odd combination of music is amongst the CDs I play frequently (as opposed to the shelf-full in the living room which hardly ever get played.)

There's the fabulous Amy Winehouse CD Back to Black - she has such an amazing talent and thoroughly deserves every award she wins.  I do hope she can sort herself out for good, it would be tragic if she let the drink and drugs kill her.

A three-CD box set of the Best of Ska.  I just love Ska music, it has such a fantastic feel-good, summery sound, and there are some real classic tunes on this set.

Gloddiggas, Headbangers and Pholk Songs by The Beautiful South.  I adore pretty much anything The Beautiful South do, although this CD is a bit different from their normal fare as they do cover versions of classic songs in their own inimitable way.

Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor.  Love, love, love this CD, especially the single Hung Up, and track 10 - Isaac.  Madonna's two years older than me but my goodness she wears well - if only I could look half as good as she does.

Shania Twain - Up.  Another great female singer / songwriter, and another fantastic feel-good CD.  My favourite track here is Kerching - says it all about the spend, spend, spend culture with a great tune too.

For just a smidgeon of 'Kulture' there is The Best of Carl Orff.  This includes highlights from Carmina Burana (better known these days as the music to the Old Spice advert) which is a truly wonderful opera.  Dad really loved this opera too and we played part of it at his funeral - I wouldn't mind it played at mine either.

Fat Boy Slim - The Greatest Hits.  Fabulous make-you-want-to-dance tracks.  Fatboy Slim used to be in The Housemartins, which eventually morphed into The Beautiful South - so a bit of a theme going here.

The CD single Crystal Frontier by Calexico.  I happened to come across this once on TOTP 2 and thought it was fabulous, at that point never having heard of Calexico, and just had to go out and buy it immediately (not like me at all.)

Finally, The Very Best of Steeleye Span.  I just loooove Steeleye Span, and have done since the days of Gaudette being a top ten hit (I think I was 13.)  Does anyone else still enjoy their music?  I've got loads of their albums on tapes but they're boxed away in the loft for the time being.  I can never get enough of Maddy Prior's wonderful vocals and the  English folk music meets electric guitar sound of this group.  There's the oddest thing on this CD though - a hidden track.  I discovered it by accident when I left the second CD playing after it had finished, after about 15 minutes of silence there is suddenly another track.  It's not listed on the cover and you can't jump tracks to get to it - you just have to be patient and all of a sudden you're rewarded with this bonus song.  Very odd, I've never come across this on any other CD.

What CDs do you listen to time and time again?