That was the weekend

This weekend, I

:: visited the Estuary exhibition at the Museum of London Docklands with the Prof and two of my friends from the WI. It consists of paintings, photographs and films made by twelve artists, inspired by the outer limits of the Thames where the river becomes the sea. In particular I was fascinated by the work of  Stephen Turner, a slideshow with photos and diary entries from the 36 days that he spent living alone in the derelict searchlight tower of the Shivering Sands Seafort, a series of military platforms several miles off the coast, which were used during the Second World War.  

:: spent a happy hour or two with the Prof driving around in the Essex countryside. I really do find it so relaxing.  Not feeling so well lately, my two favourite comforting and relaxing places seem to be my bed and the passenger seat of our car. 

:: felt very fed up when the washing machine inexplicably stopped working and none of the lights would come on. 

:: felt very happy when two days later the Prof switched it on and all the lights came on and it appeared to have spontaneously fixed itself! Keeping a wary eye on that one...  

:: had a lovely lunch on Sunday. The Prof had meat pie and all the trimmings, while I opted for a delicious homemade carrot soup.   

:: spent a happy hour with tea, cake, and my lovely man, doing the Telegraph general knowledge crossword. Doing that on the weekend used to be a much more frequent occurrence in the past, and we don't find the time so often these days. Mind you, I live in hope of us one day having enough general knowledge between us to actually finish it, but we don't do too badly.  

:: delighted to realise that the '£2013 in 2013' saving challenge I set myself is doing so well! I am approaching £1000, which considering I've only been doing it a couple of months and it is just 'extra' money I have managed to make by selling things and doing a very small amount of part time work here and there, I am very pleased with. I think it might be a bit of a stretch to get to £2013 by the end of the year, but I'm hopeful, especially if I can manage some ebay selling or a boot sale. 

:: loving the last of the morning glory, flowering by our street door. 

Yarn Along

I started reading The Horse Boy by Rupert Isaacson this morning and I am finding it very interesting. I've been reading a lot lately and wish I had made a list of the books I've read as I did last year, because I forget things. People ask for a book recommendation and I can't remember the name of anything I've read! I definitely will implement the list again next year, I might even do the odd review here.    

I'm on my sixth baby washcloth for my two friends who are expecting babies next month. One friend knows that she is having a little girl, so that's where the lilac and lemon cloths with flowers on are going. The other couple prefer to be surprised, so the white and yellow are for their baby - I will add flowers at the last minute if it is a girl. I am going to buy some nice baby soap and a little bath toy for each baby to go with them. 

I met Curly Girl for lunch today and took a picture of her jar cover, as I forgot before I gave it it to her a week or two ago. She's off to University again this weekend, and she says she will use it on her desk for her pens and pencils. 

I've also been working on the poncho again, just borders at the neck and bottom edge to do and then some fringing. It would be good to be able to wear it this autumn, it's been hanging around unfinished for too long. Hopefully I will have the finished object to show you in a Yarn Along post soon. 



Joining in with Ginny

right now

Everywhere online it seems people are talking about autumn, I can tell you it does NOT feel like autumn to me. The weather is still hot, hot, hot and I am feeling it. I am spending my days mostly hiding in the house, except at weekends when the Prof and his air conditioned car are at my disposal! 

I have a few current knitting projects. I'm currently making some baby wash cloths for two friends who are expecting in October. I thought it would be cute to package them up with some nice organic baby soap. I am so over knitting these things! (I am on the fourth). The yarn is so splitty it is taking twice as long to knit with as it should. I also have still not finished the dreaded poncho. I have to finish sewing it up, then add a border and fringing. When I have finished the wash cloths, the poncho is next, it's been hanging around too long and I am determined to be wearing it this autumn. I've put the other things aside the last day or two to work on a jar cover for Curly Girl, she requested blue with clouds, so I've knitted it, attached clouds from white sparkly felt with wundaweb and now I want to sew around the edges of them, I think I have some blue embroidery thread that will suit. Oh and while we were in Canterbury I made a little mini version of my Dad for his retirement! I used this pattern and customised it. Here he is, in his work uniform, and complete with little glasses that the Prof fashioned from some wire. 

I have other projects in mind - a Christmas present or two, another wurm hat for me and maybe some more head wraps (I've officially coloured my hair for the last time so there will be much covering up of the badger stripe to be done soon!) 

In other news, the Prof has a new job! He has to give two months notice, so won't be starting until the end of October. It might be a longer journey, we're not sure yet, but it's a higher salary so we are very pleased about that. 

Another thing I am thrilled about is that the Young Philosopher is starting college next week! It certainly is all change around here. Since he came home from university two years ago after deciding it wasn't for him, he has been working part time in a local cinema, but he has decided to go to college and study for a Level Three Extended Diploma in Music Technology. I am really proud of him.

As for me, I am on a mission to find some vegetarian recipes I like. When I was vegetarian for several years a long time ago, I still used to eat fish which I am not going to this time and I think I used to eat quite a lot of Quorn and fake-meat type things, and I mostly don't like those these days, with one or two exceptions. I've been almost-vegetarian for a few months now and I want to stop eating meat and fish altogether but I am lacking in inspiration. What I'd particularly like are dishes I can make for all of us, and just cook a chop or something for the menfolk. It's further complicated by the Prof not eating carbs at the moment, so any carb for me and the Young Philosopher needs to be cooked separately. I don't want to be preparing two totally different meals every night. At the moment I seem to be cooking for them and grabbing whatever for myself. One night this week I just ate a bowl of mashed potato and another a Pot Noodle. This is Not Good. All ideas gratefully received!