WAISTCOATS FINISHED

I am really pleased with both of these waistcoats, now finished. I crochetered the little ties and was amazed how quickly crochet came back to me. Charlotte & Jessica have their birthdays soon so I think I'll give them to them then.

I took this picture yesterday as it rained - again! The new garden furniture has hardly seen the light of day since it arrived. Tomorrow, I'm collecting the base for the new umbrella which is hidden in the garage - just to keep it dry!

On a brighter note last Sunday Michael and I went out for a cycle ride along the seawall to test out our new tyres, new comfy seats and in Michael's case, new pedals. Our son in law in waiting does seem to have the ability of snapping at least one of these off when he's borrowed the bike in the past.
Pleased to report all working well, no having to stop on the way home due to  excessive pain in the posterior.
The tide was out, so the muddy shores were at their best. I believe this wreck to be the motor torpedo boat Platonia and we've watched it slowly deteriorate over the last 14 years since we've lived in the area. In the early days I did wonder if someone would try to restore it but alas no.
Hoping to get out and cycle quite a lot from now on, now we're better prepared, I'm quite keen.
Watch this space!!

THE BOAT IN OUR GARAGE - AN EVERSON KINGFISHER RACING DINGHY

My husband has really put some hours into restoring his boat recently. If you have read any of my past posts you will know that this project/hobby of his has been ongoing for quite a while now.

It was about 4 years ago that we towed this back on a trailer from Caister having bought it from the Caister sea scouts. Then, it was in a very sorry state.

Michael has been working on it ever since. Unfortunately no progress was made last summer due to Michael snapping his achilles tendon but this year it is definitely coming together.

The boat originates from Eversons at Woodbridge and was built in 1943, there were just 29 built and this one in our garage is No 2.

They have been very helpful with advice and information and though not finished, the boat is looking really good.

Michael loves finding out about the boats he works on as well as putting them back together. He has even joined the Classic and Vintage Racing Dinghy Association. If anyone has any information about this boat, he would love to hear from you.

After hours and hours and hours of work can we dare to plan when it will actually go in the water.

Will the garage ever get to be used as a garage?
Probably not!
When this is finished some new project will come a long and I know that it will involve a boat plan and some wood.

JUBILEE WEEKEND!

Our family was away on holiday last weekend, so we felt quite, "home alone!"

Even though we live alone anyway, it was strange not getting the odd phone call or having one of them or all of them dropping by. Despite the most dreadful weather, we still managed to enjoy the jubilee weekend. 

                                       

Whilst watching some of the royal festivities on the tv I completed knitting Jessica's waistcoat and nearly finished Charlotte's. Once they're done, I've just got to crochet the ties for both of them.

The yarn for the waistcoats and the new yarn here was purchased from Yarn Therapy in Chelmsford, discovered by Diane. I bought this yarn to crochet some granny squares, I also treated myself to a new crochet hook as well. Haven't started yet but will be very very soon!

I managed to dash out in the garden for a short time to prop up my drooping plants. Drooping not because of lack of water but because they'd been battered by it along with the help of gusting winds. I took the picture of this clematis because I didn't think it would last. Amazingly it did and has, still looking stunning today.

We spent a lovely evening with Miriam and Dave. Miriam cooked korean lamb on the bbq, which was really nice and for dessert I rolled out yet another chocolate swiss roll with raspberries.

And we also managed, when the weather did try to brighten up, to take an evening stroll along the seawall to Mill Beach.

A very relaxing weekend!

MAY SKY SCARF PROGRESS!

Guess where I am?

Yes, for the first time since starting the sky scarf I've knitted today's two rows of sky while sitting in the garden.

Could it get any better?

Well yes I think it could. Beautiful weather for the past few days we may well be experiencing but though I think I'm probably chancing my arm to ask for a few more weeks at least, can we have just a few more days of this glorious sunshine.

And my request is not just because I have an abundance of blue wool in my knitting bag either!

So yesterday, I did some potting on!!

(Chilli's, cucumbers, tomatoes and courgettes)

Later in the afternoon Jo, Rob and the children came round for a BBQ and despite Rob telling us that he was on a diet, they still managed with our help to devour this chocolate swiss roll I made filled with double cream, raspberries and strawberries!

Yummy!!

Then for the rest of the evening my grown up son played with the lego that I had retrieved from the loft last weekend. Some of it mine, so probably about 45 years old and his own which we must have had for at least 20 years, if not more.

So, the soon to be 29 year old played while Charlotte not quite 6 arranged the finished projects on a dark background and put her photographical skills to good use!

Strange world!!

IS SUMMER ON ITS WAY AT LAST?

I'm sitting here this morning with the window open to hazy sunshine, the birds are singing and at long last, it is WARM!

Could it really mean that summer is on the doorstep, I really hope so. I'm sick and tired of still succumbing to turning the heating on in the evenings. It was lovely last night, we didn't close our patio door until gone 9pm and Michael even had to go out and water our vegetable garden as it dawned on us that we hadn't had any rain for a few days.

These are some pictures taken when we were out and about at the weekend.

Saturday evening at Wivenhoe, Essex

Sunday in Whitstable, Kent

Sunday in Herne Bay, Kent

AND this little book,

I have had for absolute years [as you can tell from the price!] but, thought I'd lost it!
On Saturday morning, while Michael was out helping our son build his garage/shed I had a choice of two jobs to keep me occupied, garden or loft. I chose the loft!
It is fairly organised up there, since I took it over as part of my domain and organised it! We do however seem to hang on to things that we really have no further use for, so up I went to have a rummage.
In a suitcase that contains some oddments of wool, a half finished jumper from the 1990"s, some odd knitting needles, a few postcards from America that my parents sent in the 1980"s, I found, right at the bottom my crochet stitches book. I have been looking for this everywhere, so I was really pleased! Now, I have everything in place to get back into crotchet.
I also managed to collect a black sack of rubbish for the dustman and a few items that may well find themselves on ebay in the coming few days.
After my descent, feeling pretty grubby and with a veil of cobwebs, I was still able to get out in the fresh air and do some gardening as well. Two great achievements for one Saturday morning, result!

THE BLANKET CONTINUES TO GROW

I've seemed to have put on a bit of a spurt with my blanket this week. I must say I'm not very good with my time management when I've got more than one knitting project on the go and knitting a waistcoat for Jessica, plus having the yarn ready to knit one for Charlotte has pushed the blanket to the end of the list. But when I went to the wardrobe in the spare room last week and saw the large bag containing the large amount of yarn that cost me a considerable sum of money, I thought I really must get on with this before I find I haven't quite got enough yarn and in view of the time its taken for me to knit it up, it's been discontinued. 

I've now completed 3 out of the 7 panels and have plenty of sewing planned for this afternoon.

As promised, here is a photo of the little chilli plants that I grew from a tin, a christmas present from my god daughter Rachel. One seems to be struggling a little but I'm ever hopeful and the others are doing so well in my little greenhouse. With some sunshine and TLC they should grow quite quickly now.

We have in fact experienced some sunshine today and indeed yesterday. Are things brightening up at long last? This clematis is bursting out in flower in our garden. I just hope the rain and wind doesn't come along and give it a battering!

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend too!

A BIT OF A PAVLOVA!

It was Kate's birthday on Wednesday and I prepared dinner for us all to celebrate. A quick and easy lasagne for main course, or so I thought. I have an old and trusted friend when it comes to making white sauces, my old and battered Tefal Saucier, it never falters!!!!

Until yesterday!

Would the sauce thicken, no it wouldn't. I added extra cornflour, flour, it made no difference. I decided that perhaps the Saucier had come to the end of it's life so I wrapped my hands round it to see if there was any heat in the poor old girl and found very quickly that it was indeed very hot. Ouch!!

Out came a saucepan and as soon as I'd put it on the gas the sauce became thicker and thicker and thicker so I added more milk and even more milk. You guessed it, it didn't manage to thin the sauce.

So my quick and easy lasagne ended up with lots of blobs of sauce over the top, covered by a heavy disguise/garnish of grated mozzarella.

It cooked nicely though and tasted lovely!

Thankfully the dessert wasn't as stressful and was gorgeous!

I'm also very pleased to have received this award from Miriam this week.

The Liebster Award is a blog award, which apparently originated in Germany, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers.  Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note, which is a wonderful way of introducing bloggers to your own favourite blogs.

The Liebster Convention says you must:-

1. Thank your award presenter on your blog and link back to him/her;

2. Copy and paste the award to your blog;

3. Present the Liebster Award to 5 blogs (with less than 200 followers) that you love;

4. Leave a comment on their blog to let them know;

5. Have faith that those award winners will spread the blog love.

I now get to pass this award onto five other blogs that I read and enjoy, easy I thought, but I discovered it's not as easy as you might think. The problems I found are not all bloggers publish their followers and a rule of this award is the blog has to have under 200 followers. I wish I could give all the blogs I read an award you all deserve one but here are my five;


Diane Dianehobbit
Katie M Katie yarngarden
Hawthorn 11am
Snoopydog Snoopydogknits


And 1 to follow!