Happy Birthday - Blog

I was flabbergasted to see that my blog is 3 years old, I haven't been quite as successful at keeping a record of my life, as I would have liked, I would only hope I can get better ...

Other things that happened 3 years ago:

A group of friends from the Crafty Threads n Yarns Forum meeting up at Get Knitted in Bristol and then enjoying lunch together at the pub.

Windows being put into the building where I work, we had done without windows for 2 years. The pleasure of natural day light and fresh air. Vistors still comment today about the fantastic view we have and how horrible it was before 'windows'!

A cardigan started, but yet to be finished, a little bit like this blog, perhaps?

Wishing everybody a Happy Birthday, who also may be celebrating today, especially to my dear friend Linda xx

Foto Friday

A hint of an evening to tell ...

Flowers by Micheal Bowyer.

£15,000

I visited Hillier’s Arboretum, Braishfield, Hampshire last Saturday, with my very dear friend Linda.

We have been members for quite a few years. For us this is a great place to meet. Linda and I are not shoppers, we only shop for a purpose.

We love to chat. We enjoy our 21 year friendship, having met when our boys were just 5 years old.

Linda loves to drink coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon.

Visiting Hillier’s allows us to do all the things we enjoy ... we start by having coffee (Linda) and a glass of milk (me). I so wished they would put toasted tea cakes on the menu, so that I could also have breakfast at the cafe.

Next, we go for a walk round the winter garden and beyond.

Returning to the cafe for lunch, we normally have a baked potato each and then in the afternoon we walk the other half of the arboretum, which takes us through the bog garden, the Ghurkha’s memorial and up to centenary walk.

This Saturday there was a wedding.

The swanky wedding car parked in front of Jermyn's House.

During the summer months, there is always a display of Art.

Every summer we pick up the price list and as we walk around the garden we try to guess the price of each of the pieces of art.

Normally we are way off, however Linda did extremely well, but we didn’t guess this one; a pregnant lady made of Portland stone.

She was smooth and warm to touch, her arms carved into the back of the stone.

Price: £15,000 for the garden

Swaps

I have been in two swaps recently and both surprises arrived this week. The first swap was a Tea Towel swap organised on Creative Living Forum. I needed to find a tea towel to depict the area I lived in. I came up with a tea towel from Steam Museum, showing pictures of steam trains and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

However I could not find a picture of the tea towel I sent but while searching on the internet, I found this tea towel (third picture down) and I wish I had known about it before, because it would have summed up my area!

The Magic Roundabout is a very well known roundabout, for a roundabout it is exciting, scary and gives you that naughty feeling, due to being able to drive the wrong way round!

While looking for a photo of the magic roundabout, I found this blog, I have no idea what he is writing however I think it gives a good 'feeling' of the roundabout! I hope he doesn’t mind me linking, "just let me know if you do and I will apologise".

The first time and for several times afterwards, I am told I held my breath, while driving through / round it! I hated to drive near it on a rainy dark night as the white lines disappear. Everybody else seemed to know what they were doing. However having now lived in the Swindon area for over 7 years, I have learnt that Swindonian’s actually have very little roundabout skills, surprising as the town is littered with roundabouts, lots of them everywhere. The local residents hesitate; I can be the last of three drivers at a roundabout and still be the first to move! Even worse these people when they do go will then tail gate. Therefore my first impressions of the Magic Roundabout were wrong; very few people know what they are doing, I no longer hold my breath!

I received a lovely Tea Towel from Gilly, Co. Mayo.

My FIL is from County Lough, however my in-laws now live in Florida – lovely. I have only visited Ireland once, as a family we visited about 6 years ago. We all had a very relaxing enjoyable short stay. Which included Hannah our then 6 month old puppy and our African Grey Parrot called Halo! We want to return, such a shame that a return ferry crossing is £350.00, I wonder if the ferry company remember the 'Smith family' for the entertainment they gave to a whole car park full of waiting cars with families, due to a force 10 gale that had been blowing for over 24 hours and give us discount *smiles*.

My second parcel was from Auntie Noo:

I have had the pleasure of meeting Noo a few times, she is a Moderator on another forum I frequent called Crafty Threads ‘n’ Yarns. This is very friendly, honest forum, no ‘funny business’ what-so-ever.

Noo and I have similarities in our job, we both deal with accounts and pay wages, which can be stressful at times. An HMRC Employers bulletin was my clue.

She sent me a heart felt box of goodies:

The presents wrapped in lovely paper with a little shower cream, apricot scrub, antibacterial hand gel and hand therapy popping up through the gaps.

The presents unwrapped; 5 x lovely stitch markers, a 150g ball of Kauni 8/2 EY, just the most beautiful purple and pinks AND a nearly knitted pair of socks for me all I have to do is knit 10 rows of 2x2 and they are finished, the yarn is Rico Superba Mexico, in pinks and blues - fantastic

This is Noo's comments about that unfinished sock in the picture: "The 9/10 knitted socks were a bit of a joke as I have been known to take the mickey out of GS* for taking so long to knit a pair, and I believe her fastest record is 5 months....... so I thought with just a bit on the ribbing to go, she would have a bit of a head start! *winks*"

The perfectly fitting finsihed sock - oh just brilliant and I haven't stopped smiling.

I was at a County Exec. meeting (Guides) last night, so no socking knitting done!

However just the thought of all the hard work and thought that went into my swap and socks, I found it to be ... well, quite simply over whelming, I just can not convey how much this parcel has meant to me especially the letter that Noo wrote to me, thank you so much xx

GS = GrannySmith - my forum name.

Make hay while the sun shines

And that is just what all the farmers are doing, the weather here in England has been glorious for weeks, enabling the farmers to move their sheep around and make fields of hay, ready for the winter.

We have had hardly any rain now for weeks, the grass is dying all around, the water butts are empty, as yet there isn’t a hose pipe ban, but to be honest most people I know are so much more responsible with hose pipes these days.

A question, is there any quicker way to produce a blog post than how I do it : I take photographs, save them to my computer, then choose the ones I like and upload them to Photobucket, edit them (which seems to take ages), then write my post, sl*t in the photos and/or any links, I think will be useful?

Everyday I still write informative interesting posts but never get round to uploading them to this blog, I feel lazy, I want to blog but the whole process seems to take over an hour of fiddling, why?

I’ve been very busy; I have joined and been promoted in a local (but national) club, reappointed and promoted in Guiding. Work has been really busy and then not ... and stressful, really stressful. I have got myself another part time job so that all my eggs are not in one basket.

I hope to bring you back up to date, I have decided that writing the blog is more important than being a member of several forums, I am going to try it out and see if I really can keep this blog going. I always wanted to write a diary, I never really succeeded and it seems blogging is in the same box.

A new annoyance, the word sl-ot, I did no link what so ever, but published the post, this word got underlined in green and a hyperlink to a games place attached it's self to MY post, why? There was nothing in the html, it just did it, now I am cross. It must be a key word that blogger picks up and a small programme running in the back ground automatically puts a link to certain words - grumble.

A scarf or three

In the last few weeks I have been doing some simple knitting, with quite different yarns.

First up, having seen Anne M at our knitting circle with a ball of Rico Pompon yarn, I just knew that Poppy would love the scarf design. I suggested that the next time Noel and Poppy were in town together, that they have a look in Sewcraft, so that she could choose the colour she liked best.

I cast on as stated, but found it to tight when I had completed a few more rows, so I started again and did one cast on loop per cord/gap, and then the rest of the scarf, I knitted two stitches per cord/gap and cast off, one loop at a time, similar to the cast on.

Poppy loves this scarf and already wears it a lot.

As a treat for me, Noel went to Pack Lane Wool Shop in Basingstoke, very near to his new job, which he started in August. Just before Noel started at his new post, the company needed some urgent paper work, so Poppy and I volunteered to make the journey for him, it takes approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes. Slightly different to the 10-15 minute journey he was making. However, for him this is a dream job, he feels he is earning the correct amount for his skills (not many people can say that) and not only the money is right but it is also back in the field of work that he enjoys the most.

I have to say I was very concerned about the amount of travelling he had to do on the M4 however so far the journeys have been uneventful (touch wood). On the plus side, just 5 minutes drive from his office, is Pack Lane Wool Shop*, it is very well stocked with lots of lovely yarn. Picture Poppy, inwardly groaning that she just knew Mum would take a look, but being on the receiving side of this ‘yarny’ habit of Mum’s, she came in with me and gave it a good look around. I just happened to buy some Noro Yarn, but more about that in a minute.

Luckily for me, Noel is very well trained in the art of yarn shopping for his wife ;o) and as he knew, he was getting a scarf** and Poppy had got a new scarf, he wanted me to have one to and so went and choose Sirdar Snowball.

The technique is quite different from the Rico Pompon and for me it took 3 attempts to get the needle size correct. I also tried to get the snugness of the Pompon yarn, but due to the size of each of the Snowballs, it just wouldn’t work, so the finished product is this lose loopy look. On the positive side, I love the colour and the softness of this yarn but for me, I am not that keen on the open effect.

The most expensive scarf of all, as mentioned above* and having bought the Noro Silk Garden, to make a scarf for me, yes that’s right, ME ... I took ages choosing which colours I wanted to put together, I eventually decided on colours; 1 x 8, 1 x 84 and 2 x 236. For me, this was quite an expensive purchase and I was excited about knitting this scarf. You see, I don’t really do trends, but I had seen this scarf by Brooklyn Tweed about on the internet and then I read all about Yarn Harlot’s journey. I decided there and then I would knit this scarf and then it hit me, I hadn’t seen anybody else with this scarf at all, not at all, so even though there are thousands of knitters out there in the big wide world which have knitted this lovely scarf, in my little world, I am the first, the very first.

However while knitting this scarf, (please note that I started with the colours 236 and 84), while sitting on the sofa, my husband, you know that man called Noel** kept touching MY scarf and kept saying how nice the colours were, every time we were sat in the same room and I started knitting My scarf, I would hear the same comments. Eventually like a good wife I am, I said “would you wear this scarf, if I gave it to you”, “yes” was the reply, me; “but it has pink bits in!” “I know” said Noel “but I would still wear it, it is lovely.” I slowly gave in and decided that I would love him to have ‘my’ scarf; he loves and raves about the socks that I have knitted him, so Mr Smith you may have the scarf (that I was knitting for 'me'), with lots of love. (As I see it, it is a good excuse to go back to the shop and buy some more lovely colours for me!) In between the conversation on who’s scarf it was going to be, when I came to change to the 3rd colour, colour number 8, it just didn’t work, I didn’t like it and Noel wasn’t so keen either, so I suggested that he went back to Pack Lane, with the number 84 ball band and see if he could get another ball. He did, and I continued, assured that my husband really did like this scarf.

I finished sewing in the ends last night and Noel promptly tried it on (sorry to dark for modelled photo’s).

(Flash lighting has made the colours even more pink, true colours are far more red!)

My only issue with my knitting, is; I believe the cast on is a bit lose which means it slightly flares at the beginning, so me being me; I matched the cast off to the cast on!

My next project is a hat for a Christmas present; just need some 5.5mm circular needles ... Noelllll, would you mind just going ? ....

Bonus

My very first Christmas at my job, I got a bonus, we all did. I got the impression it was done every year as a ‘thank you’. The following year the company moved premises and money has been short ever since. So I have not received any more bonuses. However, all employees and their partners are taken out to dinner on the last working day of the year. The three course dinner and wine on the table is all paid for. I now organise this dinner every year and everybody goes unless they have already left to go on holiday. This year; Gilberto and his family are returning home to Brazil for 6 weeks, Salvatore and his girlfriend will be returning to their home island of Sardinia for the festive season and Courtney, who is Jamaican but whose family mostly live in Canada, is going to see them.

Not sure Jon will be there either, as any day now his other half will be giving birth to their first child and I know they will be going to his partners, home town of Manchester, at Christmas time to show everybody the baby.

I love the cosmopolitan feel at work; language is never a problem when you have lots of skilled men working with their tools on wood. Woodwork /carpentry / joinery / cabinet making are the same where you come from / go to. My father and his father were both boat builders, so I have grown up with the smell of fresh timber or wood in the boat shed and surrounded by the most beautiful tools.

In those days, you would buy the metal part of the tool and hand work the handles, so everybody’s tools were unique to them. As part of your apprenticeship you would make your tool box. Here at work, everybody who is my age or older has a proper tool box but like everything about apprenticeships, it all changed in my generation (late 1970’s early 80’s) because parents wanted all their children to go to college. It didn’t work and now 30 years on there is a shortage of tradesmen. However, the guys who put up with the ridicule of doing a apprenticeship back then, are now doing well and tend to earn a more than decent wage.

I wanted to follow my Grandfather’s foot steps and become a boat builder ... but I was before my time and was not taken seriously, not by my family but by the boat building manufacturers. A GIRL wanting to be a boat builder, don’t be silly, we don’t take on girls!

However, I have practically always worked in the Marine Industry one way or another, I don’t now, Wiltshire being some way from the sea ... but I do work in a building, with lots of timber and just sometimes, when I leave my desk and go on the workshop floor, I help out with small jobs, which I love. To touch the rough or smoothness of timber and see it being worked into a beautiful 3-D object is still breathe taking for me.

Probably why I do the same thing with fabric, my bosses use to be at a loss with my skills at understanding, cutting lists, how to know all the requirements before setting a job. Until I explained that the only difference between woodwork and dressmaking, is the material i.e. wood or fabric and the tools to make ‘said item’.

– But I digress.

When I arrived at work this morning, this was waiting for me on the front door.

Not every secretary comes to work, and waiting for her are a brace of pheasants hanging on the door handle.

One of my bosses went to Scotland last week, shooting and as he had done very well, with enough birds to spare, he brought me two in, to take home for the family.

They are now wrapped up and in the boot of my car, ready to take home pluck, clean and freeze; I think they will be kept for Christmas time, what a treat.

And finally;

Please may I ask the person that has inadvertently borrowed my husband’s very special, extra large NASA mug. Which he has owned for 13 years, and left on the kitchen draining board at work, while he nipped to the ‘Gents’, that they put it back, where they found it because he is extremely upset and hacked off. I know; he rang me, to ‘moan’ at me, (we know this is not personal but just sometimes needs to be done in a safe environment) as soon as I got to my desk at work. I suggested that he wrote a group email, saying that who ever has taken it, must be a very brave person because this mug has never been washed properly in the 13 years of ownership and the wife now bands the mug from home!