Wool stats and Finished Projects for June

 Well the good news is that for the first time in several months I managed to finish more than one project this time June, although two of them were, inevitably socks. 

For Son no 2, from stash 

and for me, the self striping yarn club for May. 

and then I finally finished my So Faded sweater 

the colour representation isn't the best on that picture. The pinks look rather more 'candy' pink than they are IRL.

So, how did I feel about finally making myself a garment after many years of being too scared to try? Upside, it fits so all the measuring and swatching and arithmetic was worth it.  There is a bit too much fullness under the arms and I wonder if I could have gone down a size at that point. I also had to fill in the neck because the neckline was too low and wide for me, but it was just a case of a few extra stocking stitch rounds and a few  finagled decreases at the front. It's a bit too clingy for my liking, but I've realised that what I don't like is not that it clings, but what it clings to! I'll certainly be wearing it, so that's good. I did not in fact need five skeins , which is good ( look I'm not humungous! smiley face) but bad (not so smiley face) in that I have an extra skein that I didn't need. however I can use it for something else, so we'll chalk that one up to experience. 

Numbers In 1390, out 621, net increase for month 769, net decrease for year now only 1539.Possibly I need to finish something heavy! 

Holiday Haul - the mainly yarn one!

 It is no excuse I know to say that I bought less yarn than most people who were on the Dyeing Retreat, but it is still true. 

Anyway let's start with the fruits of our own labours - this is the skein I died together with the mini bouquet; 10g of the colours dyed by everyone else which you get as part of the package.  I was very worried before my yarn went into the oven as it looked like  a dog's dinner, but as we kept saying to one another 'Trust the Process' and I was very pleased with what I ended up with. And everyone else was pleased with what they did too. 

This year for the first time they offered a Goody Bag which you could order beforehand. So I did, because I knew that if I didn't and then saw everyone's else's I would suffer 'non-buyers remorse'.

The bag contained a specially dyed skein of yarn, a mug and a set of stitch markers, all marked 'Woollay Retreat 2026'. In addition to that several people had made a little something for everyone else  attending; hence the bag charm, the lavender bag and the Knitters Essentials Kit of notebook, pen, little scissors  and pack of biscuits. 

And then there were the purchases. I bought two palette packs of the current Speckle and Fade yarn club; February and May

and three skeins of 4 ply to make myself  a short sleeved summer top, which will be lovely when it eventually gets knitted!! 

And naturally, I have booked to go again next year.

Holiday Haul - the Non Yarn One

And yes, there will be a yarn version coming and the numbers will be ugly, although the yarn itself is lovely  but meanwhile...

I don't think we generally buy a lot of stuff. The occasional jigsaw puzzle, or book, or cat related accessory but we're not out there every day spending money like it's going out of fashion. That said we do ease up a bit on holiday and buy things we probably wouldn't buy if we  weren't away from home. Here's last weeks

First up are some pin badges, the new fridge magnet substitute to remind us of where we've been

more details of the steam train trip and our visit to Conwy to come soon. 

And here's the miscellany

If you're reading this and you live in the UK you will need no explanation for the fan;  if you're outwith the UK, suffice it to say that last week was very very very hot. My brother in law bought me the fan in a lovely woodcraft shop in Beddgelert while I was desperately trying to work out the best way to cool down my face and hands in the nearest loo. It's very effective; no wonder they use them so widely in Spain. At the front there is a pair of ear-rings that I treated myself to at the MAWS Craft centre where Lay Family Yarn are based. I bought a pair last year, different ones of course, but I always had a little niggle that said I might have preferred the ones I bought this time around. Actually to be truthful I'd have preferred the style of the ones I bought this time around but in green, and in fact that was what I went looking for. However I had a brief  a chat with the owner of the business and apparently she's currently unable to source green pearls. So I bought the blue ones instead, which will probably be more useful given that I wear a lot more blue than green.

On our way from the cottage in Wales to the place we were staying for the retreat the OH suddenly said, 'Do you know, I think we're near that great cross stitch place we went to last year'. How he knew I had no idea since we'd been driving for miles past interminable green fields with green hedge edging which all looked the same , and neither of us remembered what it was called so he can't have looked it up in advance. (The Nimble Thimble if anyone needs to know the name of a fabulous cross stitch supplies shop with good prices on DMC threads and the best selection of american cross stitch charts you will see outside the US.) That partly explains the cross stitch kit; it's not actually cross stitch but a counted thread band sampler. I have two others in the same series, one is even finished, framed and hanging on a wall in the house ( wonders, never, cease etc) and as I felt a bit obliged to buy something this was a good choice. Or will be if my eyesight is spared long enough for me to get round to stitching it. 

Finally there's a basic weaving kit. This was bought in a wool shop in Conwy which had been recommended by a friend . I'd had a look at their website and thought well, I could treat myself  to some Lykke needles since they are stockists, and also get one of these little weaving kits and give it a try. Fortunately or otherwise, they did not have Lykke needles in the sizes and length I wanted so that saved me a bit. And despite the owners best efforts at 'if you buy one of those weaving kits you can have another at half price' I restricted myself to one. To be honest, it wasn't hard. 

Lest you be wondering where the OH was in this orgy of self indulgence he bought himself some boring track stuff for his railway and  a set of lovely little trucks for it too. 

Oops, I dropped a clanger!

 Yes we're back and I'll be chronicling our adventures (and shopping - mainly mine but not quite all) over the course of the next few days. But first I must own up to a mistake in my post about the  May books which was pointed out to me by an eagle eyed reader ( thanks, real and not sarcastic, C!)

As she pointed out I had put a photo of Curtain Up at the top of the post and then referred to the book as Ballet Shoes. Sorry for any  confusion my wool gathering may have caused; it was definitely Curtain Up that I read in May. Not nearly as good as I remember Ballet Shoes to have been tbh.

Anyway I'm madly catching up with post-holiday chores this morning so that I can watch Wimbledon guilt free this afternoon, but just wanted to set the record straight before starting on more interesting posts over the next few days. 

(Sort of ) Happy Mail

 

This arrived today. It's the self striping sock club yarn for June and it's very nice. A bit on the bright side for me, but we all know I have close relatives who love  a bright sock. 

Its arrival was timely, as we are off tomorrow for ten days and as it is here  I will be able to take it away with me and work on it while I'm gone. 

We are going to North Wales for a week, which will be lovely if the weather is good and slightly problematic if it isn't; after that I am repeating the Lay Family Yarn weekend dyeing retreat that I did last year. Still very undecided about the  inspiration image for colours but I'm sure I'll make my mind up before I get there. Possibly. 

June has been a lousy ( or good depending on your point of view) month for stash enhancement already and the retreat will only make things worse ( or better, again depending on POV) as I will come away with a 100g skein that I dye myself plus a bunch of 10g minis; numbers dependent on how many participants there are as we each get a mini of everyone else's effort, plus of course  whatever I let myself be beguiled into buying from their shop. Ah well.

Onhte bright side I'll be taking several straightforward projects away with me to knit on at the retreat as we don't spend two full days slaving over hot dye pans so the hope is to get a few grams worked up while I sit and chat. And there will still be one or two June days left when we get back to use up a bit more. 

Hey, it is what it is. Obviously no blog posts while I'm away but there should be lots to blog about when I get back. Readers concerned about The Cat Cosimo will be pleased to hear that Son No 2 is taking up residence to look after him and keep him company while we are away.

A bientot! 

May Books

 

Not quite sure how I only managed eight books in May, but there it is. I would say My List Cannot Lie, except that it can if I forget to record things, but that said, it doesn't apply here, I just didn't read very much. 

I was going to say, let's get the dross out of the way first but a lot of what I read in May wasn't all that good. I did drag myself through the final two Norfolk books by J M Dalglish that I had on my Audible bundle. As before, competent plots, no characterisation and flat writing. For completion's sake, the titles were Hear No Evil and The Dead Call. I retain very little memory of either. To be fair that could be down to my age. Equally it could just be boredom with the books.

Surprisingly they were not the worst books I read this month as the U3A crime fiction book was When the Needle Drops by Colin McIntyre. This was universally reviled by the group with no-one having a good word to say about it, and several members giving up part way through. Mr McIntyre is apparently descended from the great Gaelic poet, Duncan ban McIntyre so the vague rumbling noise I heard all the while I was reading was doubtless Duncan ban turning in his grave. Normally when I don't like a book I am meticulous about saying 'don't necessarily believe me, if you think you might like it, give it a go and make up your own mind' but in this instance I'm going to come right out and say reading or trying to read this would be a waste of your precious time. 

It wouldn't be  a reading month if I didn't have some J D Kirk on the list, in this instance I read two; In Service of Death and A Snowball's Chance in Hell. To complete the crime roster there was Caro Ramsay's The Red Red Snow, which was a great listen, full of characters you wanted to either cheer or slap and an excellent plot twist that tied up two seemingly unconnected murders. Caro Ramsay is appearing at Bloody Scotland this year so that's one talk I'll be booking for. 

I picked up a book at the library called A Party in San Niccolo, purely because it was set in Florence and not realising it was a thriller type thing. It was very readable , lots of detail about life in Florence - the bits where real people live rather than the touristy places; lots of credible characters, some sympathetic and some not. If I have a criticism, and obviously I do, it was too long. A bit of judicious editing wouldn't have gone amiss. I did love one tiny detail; the heroine, who is staying with a friend in Florence recovering from a 'minor nervous breakdown' talking on the phone to her husband who has been left in charge of their three children while she is away. 'Everything is fine' he assures her, 'I get  the children to school on time every morning , I do their packed lunches, the only thing is, there'll be quite  a lot of washing for you to do when you get back as I don't have the time to figure out how the washing machine works'. Bless! I was rooting for her to stay in Florence with a rather nice man she met there. Spoiler - she didn't.  

And finally as an antidote to all things criminal there was Noel Streatfield's Ballet Shoes. This was just a tad too 'children's book' sadly; I loved Streatfield's books when I was young but reading this as an adult doesn't have quite the same magic. Also I saw too late that it had been 'edited' which presumably explained the rather abrupt ending and some of the more surprising 'swerves' in the narrative. 

I am trying to get away from a diet of unrelieved crime, but it's proving a struggle! 

Falkland

 I'm still catching up with a few of our recent outings on here and one of them was a trip to Falkland. We'd been to Falkland Palace years ago on a very dreich day but even so we'd enjoyed it and have frequently said, we should go back to Falkland one day. And lo! on 26th May the one  day finally dawned.

I didn't remember a great deal about our previous visit, except for the weather and the fact that we had had lunch in a very nice cafe which was on the first floor of an old building. I didn't expect the cafe still to be there tbh but it was! and we even had lunch there again. And it was every bit as good as last time, as far as I can remember. It's  called The Hayloft should you find yourself in Falkland and in need of a light lunch or coffee and cake. 

The weather on this occasion was much much nicer than when we were there before; I would go so far as to say it was hot. I wore a hat and sunglasses. Because of this, rather than staying in the palace, which we did previously to keep out of the rain, this time we stayed outside in the grounds. They're beautiful, and very photogenic. Difficult to decide which photos to put up here really. The problem with the mantra 'to get a good photo, you have to take lots of photos' is that sometimes what you end up with is lots of good ones. Here are a few  

General view of ruined portion of the palace ( look! landscape format!)

Orchard ...

...and apple blossom 

'The Willow Queen', representing Mary Queen of Scots

Gate, reflecting Falkland's origins as a hunting lodge for the monarch

church tower from the orchard

palace tower from the garden

It was another lovely day - if a bit hot. I shouldn't  have moaned about it being hot because it feels like it's been cold ever since. 

Possibly not for the purists....

 

So we went up to Edinburgh today to see the BIG Live ballet production, Dracula. I had not previously heard of BIGLive which seems a relatively young company which started in Australia and is currently touring to various places in Asia and Europe with their version of Dracula ( they also have productions of The Nutcracker, and The Great Gatsby.) Their mission is to open up ballet to audiences who might have previously felt excluded; presumably they are doing this by developing more relevant repertoire rather than  by keeping ticket prices low, because we paid a lot of money for our tickets for this. I mean, not out of the way prices per se, but ballet and opera are not cheap things to attend. (I'm not moaning, nobody makes us go, we choose to do it).

I am not convinced that the financial model of BIG Live is sustainable in the long term as it seems to rely on ticket sales and sponsorship from large companies; the current tour is supported by United Airlines. They cut costs by not having a live orchestra but recording their music which must help, ( one of the reasons that I say this is not one for the purists) but the former accountant in me is thinking 'this will not last'. I hope it does though, because they're young and innovative and full of energy and new ideas, and the performance was - well, I can't say it was a joy, given the subject matter, but it was very enjoyable . 

The story isn't Dracula as it was written by Bram Stoker, nor how it has been adapted over a myriad of films but there'e enough of the original Stoker storyline there. And there's Dracula, and Johnathan Harker and Minna, and ghosts/previous victims and irate villagers brandishing torches. So, you know, recognisable. 

And now I'm going to nit-pick because that's the atmosphere in which I was raised and it's incredibly difficult to slough off so bear with me. In this ballet, Johnathan is bitten by the vampire and takes refuge in a nearby forest to the Transylvanian castle that Dracula calls home. I do not think there is any need, simply because he has run away, for him to lose his shoes and socks. He is not, so far as we know, running away to a forest through a bog. He also has a shirt that is ripped to pieces but I'm giving that a bye , because brambles, low hanging branches etc. After the forest, the program tells us that Johnathan  takes Mina's body back to the English village where we first saw the happy couple; so quite a way from Transylvania then. Far enough, you would have thought to buy a new pair of shoes and a shirt . But no, he is still shoeless, sockless and wearing a shirt in tatters. Once he has worked the villagers up into a frenzy, the program further tells us that they go to attack the castle. In Transylvania. They take their torches with them although to be fait they are not lit before they set out from whatever part of England they live in,  on their long journey to Eastern Europe.  Upon their arrival at the castle in Transylvania I was distressed to note that Mr Harker had still not seen fit to get himself properly shod. It must have been a shockingly painful round trip without anything on his feet. Not to mention cold, what with the tattered shirt and all.

But that is nitpicking (although I do think two minutes thought would have meant they could change the story in the program to make it all more credible. ) Why not have Harker rouse the local village to rise up against Dracula,  rather than say he went all the way back to England - where it also says he presents Mina's body to the villagers during a celebration - not a man who can read a room then, this Johnathan Harker?

But all that aside, I loved the music, I loved the dancing, the costumes were fantastic,  I would go and see it again in a couple of years and I would definitely go and see their Nutcracker were it to land in Scotland. If you enjoy dance this one is 100% recommended by me. 

 

A Very Nice Day

 I went to Edinburgh today to see the BIBA exhibition at  Dovecote Tapestry Studio. I'd had an option on this earlier with two friends but we'd gone to see the Edwardian Elegance Exhibition at the King's Gallery instead ( I really should get around to blogging about that sometime too, before I forget I even went) as to be honest I'm a bit young to appreciate BIBA. But another friend suggested it might be fun to go and see it so we did. 

I really enjoyed it. We both remembered bits about it; mostly when someone mentions BIBA  to me I think of feather boas and eyeshadow palettes and my friend had had a BIBA diary. We neither of us knew how far the branding had been spread - BIBA baked beans and Birds Nest soup anyone? (not in the same tin thankfully!) Some of the clothes were fabulous and some of them were gimmicky and as a notice in the exhibition pointed out they were really only suitable for women with flat chests and no hips, but I did like the line of a lot of them and if I could wear them I would. Equally some of them I wouldn't. I could however imaging Diana Rigg in almost all of them. 

Because I'm a bit of a pedant I couldn't resist taking a photograph of this which  is a quotation from one of the BIBA catalogues

Here's one of the dresses I liked

And here's a photograph of several BIBA outfits in landscape format! 

As well as the exhibition we had a good time catching up with one another's news as well as partaking of various refreshments throughout the day, and I got home about 6 o' clock, tired but with the sense of an enjoyable day behind me. 

Topped off by spotting this new visitor on our bird feeder! Not a good photo as I knew if I stood up he would take wing, so leaning forward on a low sofa and through a window,  this is the best  I could do. Exciting though. We're hoping  he'll come back. 

Sorry, I'm having  a lot of trouble uploading photographs today; not sure what the problem is, but after many abortive attempts to do this last one I'm juts going to leave it for another day.  

Wrapping Up Rome

 although as this is all about a trip out to Tivoli it's not strictly Rome at all. 

Did I say we'd had a choice of Hadrian's Villa (what's left)  or the Villa d'Este? We opted for the Villa d'Este, partly because of the name, as I have a vague interest in the d'Este family and still harbour  hopes of a return to Ferrara one day with the OH in tow. Also because it has beautiful gardens. The few people who opted for Hadrian's Villa said it was fantastic, but then so were the gardens so I don't think we lost by our choice. 

As always in a lovely garden I go mad with the phone camera and I'll let the pictures largely speak for themselves. I have to say it was a very hot day and we spent some of the afternoon happily sitting on a terrace with a coffee, and enjoying what we could see of the gardens from there. They also go a long way down the hill, which would have been fine as a walk but the prospect of then having to walk back up put us off. That said we were still enticed rather further downwards than we had planned.  

Upper Courtyard

Tulips in a tub. I feel someone should make this into a cross stitch chart

Arch and wisteria ( there was lots of wisteria, flowering like a weed )

Lower courtyard

the OH improving the view. (That's the sort of comment he puts on photos of me that he uploads to Facebook) 

There are lots and lots of waterfalls, cascades, fountains and water dribbling down slopes all around the garden which is lovely; it cools the air and makes a gentle background noise, so obviously I had to put in at least one photo of a cascade

And here's a fountain with the hills in the background. The OH is always grumbling at me for doing so many photographs in portrait rather than landscape format, and checking back through this post he possibly has a point. That said,  when I look at things I tend to see strong vertical lines, so when I compose a photograph they look better in portrait view. I suppose I could start training my eye this summer  to see horizontal lines and see where that takes me. 

Giving Moral Support, or

grasping opportunities for stash enhancement? You Be The Judge, as the weekly Guardian column about domestic disputes has it.

Last Friday we went to Aberfeldy to visit Karelia House, somewhere I'm sure I must have posted about on here before. We've only been a couple of times, but it's well worth it; possibly more for sewers than knitters, but don't get me wrong it's a great place for knitters too. They were hosting what they call a Garden Fayre, which basically meant some gazebos in the grounds for craft people of all sorts to fill with their goods and sell them.  It's an annual event and I suspect that on a nice day the place is heaving. Last Friday however was not a nice day and there were  not a lot of people there when we arrived.

We had not gone on the off chance of finding something that we liked, although in passing I note it was a nice long run over varying sorts of road for the new car. No, we had gone because one of the gazebos was being used by Claire of Cookston Crafts and I have been wanting to buy some yarn from  her to knit a particular sweater  for a long time, but it wasn't until I seemed to be being successful with my So Faded sweater that I thought I was justified in spending the money because I had more confidence in my ability to end up with a garment  that fitted. The sweater concerned is the Lace and Fade Boxy which, in a slightly less voluminous form than pictured there, I thought would slip on nicely over a shirt when you need something with a bit of warmth but not too much weight to it. Also I have seen Claire's sample knit numerous times and it is gorgeous. 

We had a nice chat with Claire and it took me a while to decide on the yarn but I ended up with this

I'm hoping it will turn out well.  After buying that, we popped into the shop proper and had a good wander around; we would have had lunch but you'd had to pre-book a table and although there were a lot of empty tables we didn't want to risk the embarrassment of sitting down and then being told to 'clear orf' because we had no booking. Although I'm sure they would have been a lot more polite than that. I did make one small purchase in the shop; a new set of dpns in the size I use for socks. I'm currently using a mishmash of two sets, a metal one and a wood one; some of the wooden ones got lost along the way and a couple of the metal ones got bent, probably by me sitting on them. So I picked up a set in Lykke Driftwood which will also be prone to snapping if I sit on them so I hope very much I can avoid doing so! They're beautiful. If I were thirty years younger I might embark on a project to replace all my needles with Driftwood ones, but I'm not, so I won't. 

We didn't starve, despite not having booked a lunch table at Karelia House  as we knew there was a very nice place to eat called The Watermill in Aberfeldy, which has the advantage of being attached to a book shop. They had no inside tables, a common occurrence there, so we sat outside and crossed our fingers it wouldn't rain. It didn't. 

My sandwich was mild cheddar with apple chutney and poached pear plus a side salad and of course the ever present Elderflower and the OH treated himself to a vegetable curry with flatbread which he tells me was delicious. As was my sandwich. We had a quick browse around the bookshop, a brief foray into the normally excellent second hand bookshop that is just a short stroll away, but which this time threw up nothing I felt compelled to buy, and then came home. 

On Saturday we went up to a place called County Fabrics; where again a friend, coincidentally another Clare, was having a pop-up shop. There were a few others, including a coffee stall raising funds for CHAS  so we had a cup of coffee and a piece of very delicious millionaire's shortbread there. County Fabrics itself was having a sale and so I was interested to see what William Morris Fabrics they had as I am thinking of a bit of a Morris decoration in our bedroom when we get around to it. (Not imminent) In the event they didn't have the one I would want, and which I know you can get from John Lewis already made into curtains so we didn't succumb there but we did buy a couple of tings from Clare's pop up.

I'd decided before we went to get the fox kit because I thought it would be fun knit and not too expensive. We then saw the pattern for the Orkney Hat. Regular readers may well have seen my previous Clare Hats; Stirling and Glasgow skylines and the Forth Bridges. I have lost the latter, I can't remember whether I've posted that sad news on the blog before. I really ought to knit it again because it was lovely to knit,  and my favourite , but not yet....meanwhile I knew Clare had been working on an Orkney hat pattern and I knew the OH would want one, so this seemed a good opportunity to buy the pattern and for him the choose the colours that he wanted, Obviously there was a bit of a green theme going on over the two days. 

So you be the judge; altruistic support for yarn-y friends, or just an excuse to buy more wool? 

Bloody Scotland Launch Event

 

This took place last Thursday and I don't know that I would normally have bothered to go, except that this year the speaker was J D Kirk, so that was a bit of a no-brainer. 

The OH was off to Glasgow to see the new Star Wars with Son No 2 so we parked the car in town and I caught the bus to Stirling (it would have been the train but as we were walking past the bus station the Stirling bus was in, and although my Senior Railcard gets me cheap rail travel, my age gets me free travel on the bus. Also it was still five minutes walk to the rail station and it was chucking it down with rain, so the decision to get on the bus was also a no-brainer. (Coming back something similar happened, I had to walk through the bus station to get to the train station in Stirling and the bus for Alloa was in and due to leave in five minutes as opposed to twenty five for the train, so again, not  a hard decision. Hooray for buses1) 

I spent several happy hours mooching about Stirling visiting the sort of shop where I like to browse and the OH stands stock still and gives off. why are you looking at that? vibes. He says this is unconscious and I daresay it is, but it doesn't make for comfortable browsing, so it was nice to be able to go into whatever shops I fancied and spend as long as I wanted in there without feeling guilty. Despite this I didn't make it into my all time favourite shop in the city which is Made in Stirling and is a delightful place, but I just didn't have the time. This was partly because it took an unconscionable amount of time trying to find somewhere with a spare table where I could have lunch. Stirling sees its fair share of tourists and so it isn't shore of cafes/restaurants/pubs but even by 11.45 they were mostly rammed. To be fair I can't speak to the pubs because I'm of a generation which brought girls up not to go in pubs on their own so I don't. 

I was fortunate enough to find someone from he U3A Crime Fiction reading group also at the event, and with a spare seat beside him so we had a good chat before proceedings began. Once it started JD was very good value; rather more so than his interviewer Nicola Meighen, previously encountered at the Rebus event at last year's Bloody Scotland, and who has an irritating habit of interjecting when her subject is in full flow, usually to try and show off how clever/thoughtful/well read she is. To be clear, I'm not saying she isn't all of those things and more; what I am saying is that if your interviewee is holding the audience all on his/her own you don't need to chirp up every few minutes for the sake of it. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed the event. 

We were given a physical copy of the brochure for this years festival which was great because previously, as in  before we moved, I struggled to make sense of the on-line one. So that was a good thing. All the more disappointing then that I struggled to find anything very much to get excited about. I marked up eight possibles, and reduced those down because of timing issues to three and I'll sort out some tickets at a later date. I have a couple of friends who might be keen to go to some of the other events and I'll happily tag along; I suppose part of thre fun of these events iss getting introduced to authors you don't already know and who might be great to listen to in person and whose books might become firm favourites. 

More to come on this, but probably not until September, which is festival time. 

Stashdown - The Jigsaw Edition (2)

 

I'm not sure whether I have ever managed to complete that Jack Vettriano puzzle above before but whether it was the first or second time,  I'm very proud of myself for finishing it a couple of weeks ago. There's not much  detail in it and a lot of the colours are very similar. 

Anyway it and six others went off to the charity shop this morning, This would have brought my total number of puzzles down to 52 had it not been for the fact that I bought one while I was in the shop. So the total is now 53. Given that my overall aim is to get down to 50 by the end of the year I think I'm well on track - there are several others in the cupboard marked down for a final 'do' before they too get given to the charity shop, although I have to admit the one I bought this morning will be a keeper. 

Another Garden Visit

 I suspect garden visits will be a recurring theme throughout the summer blog posts: considering we are definitely not gardeners we're very keen on visiting other people's. 

When we were wondering a couple of weeks ago where to go to see lots of flowering azaleas and rhododendrons ( hence the abortive visit I wrote about to Gargunnock!) I can't imagine why we didn't immediately think of Branklyn,  where we went last August and said 'we must come back in the spring to look at the azaleas'. Somehow we didn't. 

However we did go there towards the end of April and it was beautiful. Naturally I took lots of photographs, but I've confined myself to  five. They grow so many of our favourites plants there.

acer canopy

deutzia

rhododendron

their famous blue poppies

and of course a magnolia.

We topped off our visit by having a light lunch in their excellent cafe and a quick visit to the small shop. The staff in both places were fabulous, which was true the last time we visited as well. Definitely a Good Day Out. 

Socks, Stripes and Stats

So I made  a pair of socks for the OH in the first instalment of the madrigal yarns self striping sock club. The colour was 'The Colours of Spring'. 

This was sadly the only project I finished in May as I spent most of my knitting time on my So Faded sweater which isn't finished. I'm hopeful that it will be finished in June; the body is done, one sleeve is about 2/3rd done and I've finished the first colour on the other one. So basically two sleeves to finish and then the neckband to do. I've tried it on a couple of times as best as I could and I'm happy to say that the fit is looking good and the neckline is not looking too low or wide. So fingers crossed. 

A few days before I finished these socks the second instalment of the club arrived. It's called Darling Buds and here it is

I'm itching to cast this on but forcing myself not to, as I have the sweater and another pair of just over half done socks to complete first. 

And so to the stats. Not as good as they would have been had I managed to finish my seater, obvs! but it was still an overall decrease. Wool in was 150g, out was 305g, net decrease for the month therefore  155,  and the running decrease total for the year is 2308. For a couple of reasons which will become clear as the month goes on, the numbers for June will not look nearly as good. Hey-ho!

Reading Round Up April

 

There's still lots to catch up on here and I'm very aware that come Wednesday life gets very busy indeed for a while so I need to get some subjects ticked off the list! That said, a reading round up wouldn't have been my number one choice today, but as it's almost time to draw the line under the books I read in May I thought I should really get April's done. 

I only managed nine books that month, probably because we were away. J D Kirk makes only one appearance with The Big Man Upstairs ( this one was very good). I listened to two more books by J M Dalglish and I still didn't like the passive aggressive girlfriend or the voice of the narrator who incidentally cannot pronounce Hunstanton correctly. This seems to upset some (presumably Norfolk dwelling ) Audible reviewers very much indeed - and I don't blame them. Anyway the two I listened to in April were Kill Our Sins and Tell No Tales. As before competent, but somehow very very dull. 

No Friend to This House wasn't exactly a re-read but I had already listened to it on Audible. I'm finding it quite interesting to compare the two experiences of listening and reading. I think I marginally preferred reading this one, but that's no reflection on Natalie's ability to read her own work. It just felt more cohesive to me reading it. Anyway it's very good. Up there with Stone Blind and a little way behind A Thousand Ships.

I listened to a couple of novellas while we were away, again re listens; Standing by the Wall by Mick Herron and When did you last see your father? by Jodi Taylor; short pieces adjacent to Slough House and St Mary's respectively. 

Next up is a bit of a curiosity. Becoming Mrs Darcy Volume 1 by Julie B Grantham. This was a gift, as it's not the sort of thing I would buy for myself, being a Pride and Prejudice sequel. It was an easy read although I am yet to get around to Vol 2 which came with it. Basically I think Julie B just wanted to write a book about being presented at court and Elizabeth Darcy was a hook to hang it on. Although it looms large, I note that at the end of Vol 1 said presentation is yet to take place, although I've learned a lot about the rules for presentation dresses. 

Also while I was away I re-read on my Kindle a book called Absolution by Caro Ramsay. It was the first in a detective series set in Glasgow and I had bought it because it was  a Saturday Slaughters pick back in Orkney ages ago and there weren't enough physical copies in the library to go around.   I have to  say I enjoyed it much more the second time around, and had a lot more sympathy with the main character - as in, I wasn't quite so devastatingly disappointed when he failed to kill himself by swimming out to sea or when he missed being killed in a car crash a bit later on. I think the change is a reflection of the fact that deep down I'm a lot happier these days and have a correspondingly larger capacity for empathy. 

Finally there was Madame Matisse by Sophie Haydock. I've no idea why I downloaded this on Borrowbox but I'm very glad I did. I loved it. It's the intertwined stories of three women who could be all be addressed at different times as Madame Matisse; the artist's wife, his  daughter and Lydia Delectorskaya, a Russian emigree ( well refugee really) who became his muse, assistant and eventually caregiver. Showing how  the lives of these three women unfolded was a great way to tell a story about some of the huge changes in Europe in the first half of the C20. Lydia's story really resonated with me as she originally came from Siberia and when she fled the Soviets she went initially  to Harbin in China. I had a lecturer at University who had followed this exact same path so it gave me an insight into what part of her early life had been like. No Fun, would sum it up ( accurate if a little glib). I already knew that Matisse's daughter had been arrested imprisoned and tortured by the Gestapo for her involvement in the Resistance, but hadn't known that his estranged wife was also active in the movement. Well researched, readable and, although a book like this must always be partly speculation, it read as credible  and was very well written. Definitely recommended. 

It looks like May's reads will only total eight, winch is good news or bad news depending on how much you like book posts I suppose! 

Rome

 So our last stop on the Italian holiday was Rome and I think I've probably already said that we Did Not Take to Rome. It's just too overwhelming; too much history, too much stuff to look at, too many places to visit ...

We were given a combined driving and walking tour on our first morning and saw the major sites either from a coach window or the middle of  mob of tourists. Forum, Pantheon , Colosseum, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain...The last was truly hideous. *

*I know, it's  a matter of opinion, and for many years, after being pulled up by a member of my family I have trained myself to say things are 'not to my taste', rather than 'it's horrible'. I cannot bring myself to be so mealy mouthed in the matter of the Trevi Fountain. I have rarely seen anything so OTT ugly in my life.  

A couple of  photos from the walking bit of the tour - 

skyscape 

the Spanish steps

Obviously I was so traumatised by the Trevi Fountain that I didn't even take a photograph of it! 

and then from our own limited explorations the following day - 

we always feel better about a city once we've tracked down the Opera House

 

a view of the Forum, or one of them, there were several over the years. I didn't know that until I went to Rome. 

The outside of Santa Maria Maggiore - one of the four major basilicas of Rome. Also happily very close to our hotel. I say happily advisedly because a friend had told me it housed some very fine mosaics, so that was the one we wanted to visit. And it did have many many mosaics, mainly so high up you couldn't make out a thing. 

And here's the inside. You remember me saying that thing about Rome all being too much ....

We did have a half day excursion outside Rome when we went to Tivoli, where we had the choice of visiting either Hadrian's Villa or the Villa D'Este. We chose the Villa D'Este because I knew it had some spectacular gardens. We really enjoyed our visit there, but that's a (photo heavy) post for another day.