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One of the wonderful things about the lovely Ravelry (for the are a few) is that you can find amazing patterns that just beg to be knitted. The Horst Schultz African Explorer quilt is one such pattern. Seeing examples of the quilt finished by other people only served to egg me on until I finally decided to give it a go. The fact that it will (or at least should) help clear some of the yarn mountain was an added bonus.
So the quilt is made up of pieces knitted together like patchwork. I’ve completed the first big square, which has nine pieces joined, and am pretty pleased with how its worked out. The instructions become a little vague after a certain point, beyond that it’s a case of keep knitting and hope.
I’ve done a fair bit of walking in various parts of the country but never been to any of the big moors in Devon or Cornwall so suggested we have a little break on Dartmoor over Easter. Dartmoor is my kind of walking, I love wild moorland and craggy rocks, with a few standing stones and a bit of history thrown in for good measure. It is good walking for the little chap too, who must have managed almost a km on his own.
2009 does sound such a long way away from where I feel in my head, that place where 1994 still feels quite close by and celebrating the millennium was just a few New Year’s ago, but here we are, almost a decade into the new century. I’m quite looking forward to next year though, when we can escape this hinterland of not knowing what to call the year, and therefore opting for the longest possible option, and hopefully return to the old system and call the year twenty ten.
Well, the cooking happened, almost all was eaten (we’re still trudging through the Christmas cake, which is rather nice with vanilla soya ice-cream). Christmas was lovely, and hectic, full of family and food and just a little bit of booze. We’ve had a fabulously cold, frosty snap that made everything quite festive, but those memories are being washed and blown away by the soggy January weather.
I’m now the proud new owner of a rather nifty pair of binoculars. In recent years I’ve tried to make more of an effort to identify birds. It seems so ignorant to see them flying around and just label them all birds. Now we’re in quite a good spot for watching birds the binoculars are really handy. Since we’re been here I’ve seen buzzards, woodpeckers, redwings, thrush, blackbirds, wagtails, damn magpies, a small bird of prey that I’m struggling to identify (it’s never around long enough), the barn owl, robins, wrens and lots more little birds still to be identified.
My knitting projects aren’t progressing too well, apart from some fingerless mittens which are easy to churn out. The grey tank top just doesn’t look right so that will probably be unwound and the tiger tank top isn’t shaping up well and would require more wool to finish (not good when the object of the exercise was to use up wool in my stash) so that will probably be undone too. Darn it.
I’ve finally managed to do something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, which is to import my old blog into this one. I was having a bit of trouble getting things to work properly but seem to have managed it now. So anything before August 2006 was originally written on Abraxas. I’m a bit surprised to see that this means I’m coming up for 7 years of blogging, crikey, that’s a lot of waffle.
It’s taken me all day to write this post, but that is quite a good thing. When I started this morning it was just going to be one long moan but the day turned out quite well as it happened. I’m sat here now with a glass of wine, nicely relaxed, but might as well start at the beginning;
9.10am – This is going to be a bit of a moan…
For a start, it’s raining again, (not quite as bad a last Monday when lots of roads round here flooded and up the lane someone had to be rescued from their car when it got stuck in 18 inches of water, (but another dismal Monday all the same.
Secondly, cartographically speaking, we are living in a really silly place. We are in the top right hand corner of an OS Explorer map, which is great if we want to go south west of here, but if we want to go more than 3 miles in any other direction we need one of the three adjoining maps. And maps ain’t cheap.
3.25pm – Thirdly. Yesterday we went of for a lovely afternoon stroll on White Sheet Hill. It was a bit damp but beautiful and peaceful. We’d been walking around the hill forts, kids were flying kites on the top of the hill. It was lovely until the calm was shattered by quadbikes, a motorbike and a 4×4 churning up the track. Grrr. There’s a lot of strong debate that goes on about people using vehicles on tracks, bridleways and green lanes. Never mind the noise, after having seen the damage these vehicles can do to tracks around the country I think vehicles should be kept off them.
(interlude – I love the song on the new barclaycard advert – it’s so happy – Let your love flow, by the Bellamy Brothers)
4.30pm (the silver lining) – I’d just put some washing on and something caught my eye out of the back window, hang on, oh crikey it’s a barn owl. I spent the next 20 or so minutes watching the owl fly around the garden and hunt in the field next to the house. It was an incredibly beautiful bird – I’ve never seen one in the wild, hence the excitement. Despite being bullied by a crow and a magpie the owl caught a little mammal in the field and flew off, returning a bit later.
(Whilst I’m on birds the last post was meant to mention that we’d seen – and correctly identified later – a Nuthatch whilst we were up at Stourhead. )
The world is a more hopeful place this morning.
Mushrooms in Duncliffe Wood.
I’m no more a Londoner. We’ve moved to Dorset for a new life in the country; more fresh air, less stress, more fun, less traffic, etc etc. It’s a big move, we’d been in London for 10 years, and made a life, home, careers, baby there. Life is quite strange at the moment, having gone from dense city living to no one within spitting distance and everything on our doorstep to everything a car journey to. It still doesn’t feel quite real at the moment, like we’re in a nether world, not quite landed at the other side. More from Dorset soon.
