Busy Busy Busy !!!!

The past few days have been rather manic. The weekend was spent doing last minute things before we go away. The car and caravan have been duly washed and waxed . The garden has had a last minute tidy and the house was duly cleaned from top to bottom on Monday and the windows washed. Why I do all this cleaning before I go away I'll never know because when we get back and unload everything it will be like a bombs hit it and I'll have to do it all over again.

Monday evening DH took me out for a meal for our 38th wedding anniversary. It isn't our anniversary till Sunday but as we will be at a fair we celebrated early .

Monday midnight No 1 son arrived for a visit with his two sons soyesterday we all got together at DD's . This is the whole tribe , eleven of us plus two dogs , out for a walk in the park . A good thirty eight years worth.

No 2 son aged 36

No 1 son aged 37 yrs.

It was a lovely day as we don't all get together very often . It's a year and a half since the last time. I love having a big family especially when we are all together. Everyone has left now so I have just to tidy up and have a bath and relax . We are off early in the morning . Posts will be infrequent as I will have to find an Internet cafe or library where i can log on and keep you all up to speed with the World Tour of Cumbria . TTFN

St Swithin and the Royal Lancashire Show

I think St Swithin is sulking or something it's hardly stopped raining since the 15th . I think I'm going to have to haul the plans out I got from Noah last year if it carries on .This is the Royal Lancashire Show in a nutshell . Mud , mud ,and even more mud. We went to set up yesterday morning and arrived to utter chaos . Nobody knew where we had to go and if they did they didn't know which way to send us . We ended up in a tailback of vehicles for nearly and hour . The P**S UP and Brewery sprang readily to mind. Eventually we got on to the field an found the Craft Marquee to find it was still being marked out. I should have turned round there and then and come home but we didn't , we got all set up.

This morning we got up bright and early and set off only to be confronted with a sign ,saying the show was cancelled for today ,as we came off the motorway. We decided to carry on to the showground where we immediately decided to cut our losses and retrieve our stuff . It was awful and with the weather forecast giving more rain it could only get worse and I wasn't prepared to wait for their decision at 3 o'clock as to whether the rest of the show went ahead . If it went against ,that place would be like Bedlam with everybody wanting to get there stuff off the field . It would have been very stressful and I don't do stress anymore . So we managed to load all the stuff without it getting wet or muddy , came home and now plan to spend the rest of the day and weekend chilling :-)))))))

Feeling quite smug .

Further to the above post . I have just been watching the lunchtime news and the Royal Lancs

has been completely cancelled so I feel quite smug that we decided to pull out this morning . God help all those who still have to get their stuff of that showground . Back to my chillin and maybe a bit of knittin and spinnin . He He !!!!

St Swithins and all that

It's St Swithin's Day today and according to legend

St Swithins Day if thou doust rain

For forty days it shall remain ,

St Swithin's Day if thoust be fair ,

For forty days twill rain nae mair.

Well it didn't it's been gorgeous all day so hopefully the legend will be true .Look what I got today . A singer treadle sewing machine . It belonged to DH's Grandma .

His Aunt died last year and it was up in the attic neither of her two daughters wanted it and it was going to go in the skip , so I rescued it . They've only just managed to get it down and bring it over . It is now safely in my spare bedroom till I get back from my travels . It seems in good condition and I think it will just need a good clean . Can't wait to have a sew on it . I think it's about 75 years old.
All the transfers on it are like new.
Well ,all the caravan is packed and ready . I've just a few bits and pieces to put in and we're ready for off. Just a matter of doing the Royal Lancashire Show this weekend and off we jolly well go :-)))))

Long Time No Blog

I can't believe it's a week since my last blog. Unfortunately the blogs will be very sporadic for the next couple of months cos we're into the busy season. From now till mid September we have a LOT of shows. It started this weekend with the Lakeland Rose Show and to be honest I hope the rest of the shows will be better. It was a dead loss. Organisers reportedly said on Radio Cumbria that they expected in excess of 8000 visitors . It was more like 800 and they weren't interested in buying . It was a complete waste of a weekend . I could have spent it getting ready for the big trip to Cumbria. Ah ! well we live and learn. There's a few nice pics below of exhibits .Roses
Beautiful Bouquet

Gorgeous Sweet Peas . Next to pinks these are my favourites.

I spent all morning sorting stock and repacking the car ready for the Royal Lancs Show this coming weekend . Then the afternoon getting the caravan ready to leave home next Thursday .

I'm getting quite excited now . Six weeks in Cumbria. Ok I have to work but the time in between shows i'll be able to spin and knit and go for long walks . All in the peace and quiet.

Ah! well back to the sorting . It's clothes this time .

Tea Parties , Shawls and Wimbledon

I had intended doing my blog last night but i was rather tired.It was a long day. I got up early to do all the baking for my Tea Party.

Lots of cakes , which nearly didn't get baked as my useless electric oven went on the blink AGAIN and switched itself off . After much fiddling and not being able to get it back on I decided to decamp to the caravan and use the oven in there . DH had just got to the van to switch the gas on when , guess what , it swiched it's bl***y self on again . I think it knows it's being replaced by a super duper gas model when we return from Cumbria.

Everyone had arrived by twoish so we sat out in the garden as the promised rain did not materialise .
We'd been out about an hour when a huge black cloud came over and it pored down , so the party went indoors. Everyone enjoyed it especially my Grandson who took an immediate shine to my Nutty Flapjacks . When he was going he asked if he could take some home for his school buttie box. How could i refuse . In fact they all went home with goodie bags . As usual I'd made to much . The rest went to my cousin the Mechanic when I went to get an oil change for the car this morning.

I have finished the "Wicked " shawl and doesn't it look wicked. It's so warm and soft. I finished it last night as me and DH watched the marathon Men's Singles from Wimbledon .
What a match !!! I was exhausted by the time it had finished . But it was brill . One of the best matches i've seen in years .

Last Saturday off.

This is my last Saturday off now till September. As you can see by the list of shows on the left I'm going to be busy. Let's just hope for some good weather.

I've been indulging myself this week . Dyeing and Spinning .These are Blue Faced Leicester tops which I plan to spin whilst I am up in Cumbria .
All rolled up ready for putting in my basket.
A bit of Spinning. I've been getting used to spinning on my Ashford Traveller. I've tried several times to get it going and couldn't . So the other day I thought I had better master it as I wanted to take it with me. It was bought for use in the caravan as it is compact . Anyway master it I have . Everything just suddenly clicked and I was off. I've spun this Merino and it's so soft and has a nice loft to it. I think the Traveller is going to be better at giving a woollen spun whilst mt Traditional is better for worsted and fine sock yarn . Out of 100grms of roving I got 200yards so it's DK / Aran weight .

This it close up .

I'm so pleased with the plying and just look at the sheen . I'm planning to do a bit more this afternoon as the weather forecast isn't good.
Tomorrow we are having a Tea Party . The family are coming round, as we won't be seeing them again till we get back . So I'm getting up early in the morning and baking all their favourite cakes . It's nice having them all together , it's just a pity the eldest won't be here but he's coming up just before we set off on our travels.

Dog Blog.

Looking back on my blogs I've realised there hasn't been much mention of Meg , our Border Collie ,the third member of our travelling band . Today I will put things right.

But I can't write about Meg without first mentioning our two previous dogs who have gone to the big kennel in the sky .Unfortunately I haven't got many digital photos of them as I only got the camera shortly before they died. But I've picked two good ones that show their natures.This is my dog ,Skipper . She was a Healer/ Border Collie cross and cost £15 from a farm . It was the best £15 I've ever spent . At the time when I got her I was suffering from very Anxiety and was in the big black hole of depression and she dragged me out . I always say she saved my life. She was always there when I was feeling low and cheered me up . In the pic she is curled on with her "baby " she was prone to phantom pregnancy's and she would drag this doll into her bed every time it happened. Sadly I had to have her put to sleep 3 years ago , age 14 yrs2 months ,as she developed a tumour up her nose. I still miss her.
This DH's dog ,Fleet ,curled up at his feet. A pure bred Border Collie . She was bought three weeks after Skipper as a surprise birthday present from me. She was a sweet dog and idolised DH. So much so she was able to pick up on when he was going to have a seizure. Once when he had, had one, whilst in the garage ,she climbed the ladder up to my work room ( something she had never been able to master , unlike Skipper ) to let me know something was wrong. She missed Skipper after she had gone and survived six months before she too passed away after a series of stokes .
We vowed we wouldn't have another dog . Buuuut
The house was so empty without them and coming home and no one to greet you was hard .
So 12 days later we travelled to North Wales and purchased Meg .She was just 10 weeks old when we got her and is now nearly 3 years old.

She is an absolute sweetie and filled the gaping hole Skipper and Fleet had left behind.
She's a pure bred Welsh Border Collie . She is so laid back it's unreal . We have not had any bother with her at all . Never barks , very obedient , easy to train , brilliant with children and other dogs and most of all very affectionate. She doesn't favour either of us , though she does like curling up with me when I'm knitting. She can be any ware but if I get my needles out it's her cue to get up on the settee with me. Recently she has started to pick up on DH seizures perhaps we have another Fleet .
Meg adores being in the caravan and whilst we are away we don't even have to fasten her up . She seems to set up a small territory round the van and stays within it's boundarys .
I will try not to omit her from blogs in future as she is very much part of our lives.

I should be knitting Christmas stuff

Good Morning World . It was so warm and sunny this morning that me and DH had breakfast outside by the pond . It was nice sitting there having a brew listening to the waterfalls and the air was heavy with the perfume of Honeysuckle and my new Waterloo Sunset Pinks. I couldn't have done this a couple of years ago I would have been diving round eating breakfast on the hoof and getting up in my workroom working all day in the heat. I'm liking this quieter pace of life.I've been knitting this and I should be knitting Christmas stuff , hence the title of the blog .

Well the yarn just sat there begging to knit and I just sort of thought if I just cast on and do a few rows to see how it looked and then weeeeell like "Topsy " it just growed. I'ts a shawl ( yes Amber you dragged me over to the dark side ) and I've decided to call it my "Wicked Shawl " cos the colours are wicked and I'm wicked for knitting it instead of Christmas knitting :-))))))
I saved this pic for today because I didn't want it getting lost in all the Woolfest ones. This was a gift from my Ravelry friend , Ambermoggie ,thank you Amber , who makes these dolls .
She is an Elemental Doll representing Spirit , in this case a Water Spirit , which is quite apt as I am a Piscean . At the moment Spirit is resting on my spinning wheel but soon she will take up residence in the caravan for the Summer so she can guard us and the van.