Sad Day

Thank you all for the positive thoughts you sent for my friend Nick. After a few glimmers of hope the doctors concluded from tests that brain damage was too extensive for recovery. Life support was stopped yesterday and he died peacefully without regaining consciousness at 7am this morning.

I hope Lorena wont mind me borrowing her words because I can't say it better.

Let the people that you love know how much they mean to you. If there’s something you want to do, don’t wait; do it. If there’s a dream you’ve been having, reach for it. If you have children, hold them tightly and let them know that you will always love them even if or when you’re not around.

Make the most of today. Make the most of everyday.

Back Soon

I have lots to blog about soon but have been proccupied.
A good friend collapsed on Saturday night with a brain haemorrhage. He is currently on life support in a coma. We are all sending out positive thoughts for his recovery. While you are reading this send out your good thoughts for him.

The End of the Rainbow

Well August saw the end of Project Spectrum. August was the for black, whites, browns and neutrals. Although I cut it fine I managed to get my package off in the nick of time but it does take an awfully long time to get to the States. This is the yarn I received from Zarah at Beauty School Dropout.



Not strictly neutral but as she says very natural, I really love the foresty look of it and was wondering if it was a good candidate for Pomatomas socks, but not quite yet as they look a bit difficult.

Hooray for Secret Pals

Sorry that it has taken me so long to blog about the final parcel from my wonderful, wonderful Secret Pal Lorena at Snarkland (hope your sore throat is better, Lorena). I had the foresight to take photos as I opened it just minutes before we went off camping for the weekend.



And first out the box we have - chocolate! Since Lorena has been sending me Reeses Peanut Butter Cups they have become my all time favorite. I am so glad you can't get them here or I would be even fatter than I already am, and it is such a treat when I do get some. Funnily enough I didn't take these camping with me but put them in the fridge for my return. (Am I wicked? Since we were camping with 2 other families the thought crossed my mind that there were an awful lot of people to share with! Oh I feel bad now I have said it out loud)



Investigating further, there is a postcard from Florida (where Lorena lives) and a notecard with a photo of one of the Green Men in Lorena's Garden (we also have a Green Man). There are socks which Lorena knitted for me, I was so touched this is my first pair of handknitted socks and only my second handknitted present ever.



See the lovely handknitted red drawstring bag? That was full of goodies too. Inside was Kool Aid (of which more later).




And some sweet stitch markers in lovely green and purple, some heavenly lavender heavy duty moisturiser. It is organic and smells wonderful. A scented candle in a travel tin ( I should have taken that camping!). And there's more.



Cherry Tree Hill Sock Yarn, 100% merino superwash in Wild Cherry colourway. It looks more like raspberry to me and good enough to eat. Even though I am getting into sock knitting I think I may well make some long fingerless gloves with this, it needs to be on show. More lavender goodies, some lavender-vanilla handwash. I do love lavender. There in the background do you see that hessian tote bag? Here is a closer look.



It has a moon goddess printed on both sides. This is so me. How did you know Lorena? This will get so much use.

I have so enjoyed this Secret Pal 8 that I am encouraged to sign up for the next round, but I couldn't hope to get such a wonderful partner next time. It isn't just the wonderful parcels but the obvious thought and, well, love that has gone into it ( that sounds soppy but I don't mean it like that, if there was more of this kind of love in the world we wouldn't be in such a mess). Yarn Harlot says (in the book Lorena sent me) that knitting socks for people is about warmth and love so when I wear them I feel the love (very sixties).



And they fit divinely.

Lorena also got me (finally) into sock knitting, by sending me irresistable yarn and here is the proof that I have actually done it.



Well yeah, I know they look kinda short and chunky, and although I do have sort of short, chunky feet, they're not quite that chunky. They do fit lengthwise but are rather loose, I obviously still have guage issues (I really, really did do a guage swatch and I double checked my measuring and I have a degree in Math so I should be able to crack this). However, I love them, and they are the first pair of socks I have knit and I absolutely am not going to frog them. They will make great over socks and this winter might be so cold I will need two pairs at once and then I will really appreciate that they are baggy.

In the first parcel Lorena sent there was fibre to spin. I normally spin quite chunky but this was so soft I just wanted to try something finer. Here it is.



And a close up.



I had to use a flash so it has kind of washed out all the many hues and colour changes. I love it but shall I just fondle it or make it into something?

There were also the wonderfully chosen patterns that I will make good use of soon, soon.

Perhaps though the best thing that Lorena gave me was the blue print of how to be a great Pal. She was certainly the role model for me when I thought about who I was sending to.

My spoilee was Maria at Myra's Knitting Basket and she lives in Sweden.

Cute Overload

This is Alex and John.



They live just outside the nearby village of St Simeon. We went there for supper last night (yummy Queen of Puddings for dessert), and spent the entire evening going ahh at one cute animal after another.

First there were the tiny kittens they found abandoned in their barn when their eyes had barely opened. Alex has been sleeping on the sofa so that she can feed them with a syringe at 2 hour intervals.






There are so many unwanted and abandoned cats round here (mainly because the farms all have undomesticated cats and nobody neuters them). It was lovely to see these two have landed on their paws. John had resisted having a cat before but I think these two are there to stay.

Alex has 10 alpacas and the herd seems to increase every time I see them.



This is the latest addition Alfie with his mum.



And this is Bertie, the blue eyed boy.



Alex bought him for breeding and went all the way to Poitiers to collect him. Because of his colouring she queried whether he was deaf and was assured he wasn't but he is indeed deaf. By the time this was confirmed though he had ingratiated himself into the herd and everyones hearts. But just look what the generous Alex gave me:-

Bertie's grade 1 fleece from this year!!! It is so amazingly soft and lots of it can be spun without even carding. She also gave me some brown alpaca fleece.



How lucky am I?

Well I couldn't finish this post without a photo of Herbie.



The new baby donkey. When he is old enough he will be going with my neighbour Erica to join her other donkey Ted. I blogged about them on May 15th. I think Alex is single-handedly tying to repopulate Normandy with donkeys since so many people we know have had donkeys from them.

It was a lovely evening and so nice to be in the company of people with such a caring but practical attitude to animals.