It's been a hectic few days. I can barely keep up with my own, and Hagos's, schedule.
Today I got up at 7am, washed, cleaned the car, had breakfast, drove to Stansted, then sat for a few delicious moments at International Arrivals with some easy knitting and a MOCHA, waiting for Hagos and Roger to appear.
After dropping Roger in Norwich, we drove home via Halfords and picked up a proper TomTom :) and a BICYCLE BASKET!
This is me taking my basket for a test drive early this evening. I picked up the first things that came to hand to put in it: two love heart ice cube trays and my winter hat and scarf.
The next week and a half will be even more hectic for me. I'm hoping to drive to Scotland from Thursday to Sunday, and to London Monday to Tuesday, and then life should hopefully return to a more peaceful pace after that.
There are certain things I look forward to every year. In May the bush outside our kitchen window is taken over with gorgeous bees for the whole month. They hum and buzz all day long and I love watching them through the window as they go from tiny flower to tiny flower, wiggling their bums, covered in pollen.
And then there are the hollyhocks, which are giant flowers and take over the whole town. I love the range of colours, particularly one smoky tobacco clump that grows in the centre of town.
We mainly have varying shades of pink, but we have this one clump of yellow too.
I'm feeling much more energetic again. I think I had a bug last weekend. I slept for six hours on the couch on both Saturday and Sunday.
When I got home from work last night (after dropping Hagos at the airport) I heavily pruned the bee bush in front of the kitchen window (I always wait until the bees are finished with it for the year, of course) as the bush was beginning to come inside the house every time we opened the door. And when it had been raining you would be showered with raindrops, leaves and spiders. So, that is finally tidy and we can see out of the windows again. And I also, after speaking with my sister about electrical goods that go faulty (washing machines, fridge freezers etc) managed to take out and CLEAN the drawer in my washing machine where the liquids go. It was totally bunged up and took a good fifteen minutes to clean, but now it's working beautifully.
Today I watched the women's Wimbledon final - all a bit disappointing after Murray was knocked out last night. I SO wanted him to be in the final tomorrow. I really thought he would have a chance against Federer. Anyway, the Williams sisters playing each other doesn't hold any suspense for me at all. Now I'm planning to continue putting the house to rights, go for a bike ride and then settle down to watch a bit of telly later on tonight.
Meg has been a bit more sociable today. She has been almost entirely living in my shed for the past week. I open the door for her in the morning and she either sleeps on my swivel chair, or on a blanket on my desk. It makes working in there a wee bit difficult because if I make a noise or move around too much she lifts her head and LOOKS at me. And I get the full meaning of the look. Wee gorgeous.
The almost-finished tank top I knitted for my nephew's baby. It's a Debbie Bliss pattern and wool. Very nice to work with. I had to re-do the neck cast off and one armhole cast off but apart from that it was very simple. I thought I'd have enough wool to knit matching socks so I began knitting and this happened:
I ran out of wool about 12 rows from the end. I'm sure I knitted a cardigan for Nate a few years ago with the same wool but I've trawled my wool stash and can't find it. So I'll probably buy another ball! It really is very annoying. Or I could possibly unknit the toe on the first sock and re-knit both toes in a different colour. For most people I'd do that and I know they wouldn't mind, but my nephew's fiance is very fussy and that's the kind of thing that would put her off using them.
My energy has been very strange recently. I've been feeling wiped out, which isn't too surprising as I've been exercising a lot and limiting my calorie intake. Anyway, I took Friday off work this week as Hagos was going away again at the weekend and I wanted to help him to get ready, and I'm so glad I did because I felt as though I couldn't process any more information or demands. Even very small requests from friends felt like an added weight on my shoulders.
So Friday was a nice day at home with Hagos, getting his stuff ready, going for a bike ride, having dinner and watching All About Eve, which was great. I love those types of films. And yesterday I went into town early, after Hagos left for Europe, and got some new clothes and food for the weekend, then I came home and SLEPT all afternoon. I had to sleep on the couch as Meg's favourite place to hang out all day is my shed, and my bike was in there so I couldn't leave the shed open and go to bed. Then I woke up around tea time, read my book, knitted a few rows of sock, and watched Wimbledon.
This was me in my shed on Friday. The classic Wimbledon match features in something I'm writing just now.
Today I have super-energy, so I'm planning to do quite a lot, most of it to do with cleaning and sorting the house. I expect I'll suddenly keel over and have to sit down with a cup of tea mid-afternoon.
This is my new song! I was very excited when I picked it up. So far I have the intro :) but even though it sounds quite simple when Lou plays it, the song actually has three key changes (I'm reliably informed) and is smattered with flats and double flat symbols!
I've played most of it through very slowly, and it does sound lovely. I'm looking forward to being able to play and sing at the same time!
I loved Perfect Day when I was teenager. Slight shame the BBC used it a few years ago to advertise something. And I love Lou Reed.
I haven't done much in the way of knitting or sewing recently. And I've also gone off blogging (temporarily, I expect). Anyway, I did buy a couple of balls of Debbie Bliss cashmerino at the weekend to make this little pullover for my nephew's baby, which is due some time in July. 
It's only taken a couple of days during TV watching to knit the back and the front. And I expect it will only take one or two more nights of TV time to finish it altogether. I just have the neck and arm ribs to do. If I have much wool left over I might knit some matching socks.
Of course, what often happens when I'm brave enough to put my bum on the couch is I get sat on by this gorgeous cat.
That's her actually lying on my belly. She doesn't give me much warning she's about to land, and often ends up trying to settle down on my knitting book and needles and knitting!
In the meantime, away from knitting, sewing and blogging, I've been cycling, playing piano, reading, and other healthy pursuits.
Bye for now.
We went to Scotland this weekend for a long weekend. First of all we visited Hagos's mum in Ayrshire, then we made our way through to Edinburgh.
A day at Yellow Craigs beach. A hole was dug and a child was eager to get into it. We took about four huge bags' worth of picnic food, and a barbecue tray and had hot dogs on buns on the beach, finished off with ice cream in the car park, then to Pizza Express to meet more friends. In the evening it pared down to me, Hagos, Rik and Pete chatting till midnight in the pub. A thoroughly good day.
After dinner on Saturday night. The boys love having their photo taken, and particularly like making short films in which they enact a story. This weekend it was all about one boy swimming on the floor, then the other one appearing close-up to the camera. The only dialogue was, "Exterminate. Exterminate," said by the one swimming.
Me, JJ and Hagos. JJ loves playing with hair and sat beside me most of the weekend being my 'hairdresser'.
It's nice to be home again and to see Meg. If only we could transplant the whole of our village to the outskirts of Edinburgh it would be absolutely perfect.
It's been a hectic few days. I can barely keep up with my own, and Hagos's, schedule.
This is me taking my basket for a test drive early this evening. I picked up the first things that came to hand to put in it: two love heart ice cube trays and my winter hat and scarf.
