Crochet lessons

I had thought of going up to London today but then realised I've got all winter to look in bookshops so didn't need to give up a gorgeous summer's day. My next door neighbours have had a bit of a problem with their bees; they seem to have become rather grumpy and territorial so I went and checked them but couldn't really find anything to explain the recent change of mood. It may be they are getting pestered by wasps who try to get in to the hives and rob honey. Knowing how irritating wasps are, I can sympathise.

I went out for lunch with Charles and we sat in the beer garden (with attendant wasps) with some delicious real ale and I ate an enormous portion of sausage and mash :-) We called in at the garden centre for compost and luckily they didn't have their '4 perennials for £10' offer so we didn't come back with a boot full of plants. Then on through Glynde to Middle Farm to get duck food and chick crumb and then we returned home for a much needed cup of tea. I let the hens out - they are very liberal in their interpretation of 'free range':

I blame Henry for not keeping his girls in check:

Peggy enjoys the delights of living next to a recently-harvested field of wheat:

I sat in the garden and finished off my Ice Age textbook as it is the final one for geology though I realised I haven't done all the activities, arghghhgh so I haven't really finished it. Kate was coming over later for a dog walk and crochet tutorial so I thought I'd better shut the hens in. I couldn't find Ida anywhere despite calling in the hedge and rattling the tin of corn but I did find her eventually - when I went in to the house:

I don't mind them coming in to the kitchen but I would rather they didn't go upstairs. Needless to say, in trying to steer her back from whence she came, she panicked, poohed and tried to fly out of the fanlight of the landing window. Luckily it wasn't open very far and I think she regretted her spur of the moment decision to tackle such a momentous flight so I was able to grab hold of her leg and subdue the flapping to get her off the window, downstairs, outside, and back in the run. Poultry!!

Kate and I went for a glorious walk across the stubble with the dogs chasing madly round us, and we headed off to the Cuckoo Trail before deciding to turn back due to thistles and nettles and other prickles, and it was starting to get dark. Once inside with a cup of tea, we took up our crochet hooks and the lesson began.

When Nicky showed me how to crochet I had a real problem communicating to my fingers which ones needed to grip and which ones needed to be holding the yarn and how to wrap wool round my hand. It is obviously some Crochet-Beginner-Paralysis as Kate was suffering a similar problem but on the third round of trebling for a granny square, the fingers seemed to have loosened up. We were both very proud of her first ever attempt at crochet:

Isn't that fab? :-)