Food for the soul

Yesterday afternoon I popped over to Nicky's for a CCG meeting, which was extremely pleasant and productive. Our Go-Slow philosophy is taking shape as we are both trying to take on the world at an altogether slower, more contemplative pace, but it's changing the habit of a lifetime and I feel much better at tackling such an unknown but necessary objective with a friend. Knitting, of course, is the perfect accompaniment to this desire to shake off the relentlessness of life and I managed to finish the bauble:

It's a bit lumpy but I am very pleased. It's so great having Nicky to aspire to with my knitting projects as there is no way I'd tackle anything as complicated of my own accord, but seeing her breezily taking on these things with aplomb and a reassuring "Yes - course you can do it" from her and before you know I've knitted a spherical thing.

The children returned without incident last night but they are always very unsettled when they come back from their dad's, so Mondays are a bit of a write-off. However, I did do some maths with the girls:

And then they decided to build a marble run while I got on with some KS3 maths with T. Poor Tris, he is feeling rather unmotivated and lacking in direction so we went and sat outside for a bit of mother-and-son bonding. I think it is hard enough for us adults to find motivation for doing the things that have to be done, let alone those which we ought to do, and at 14 with no particular ambition to be an 'x', launching forth with vigour into something - anything - is quite tricky. I don't have a problem with the children being bored actually as I think it's better that they learn that life in fact is pretty ordinary a lot of the time but that doesn't mean it's pointless doing things. He said he wanted to cook something, so given that he only really likes bread and sausages, I suggested he tried making brioche as it's a bit more of a challenge than a regular stuff. He got stuck into it, and the dough got stuck to everything too. The quantity said it made one large loaf: well, he divided it in two but they were still whoppers:

[Hand over face due to embarrassment, not disaster]

[Head missing due to embarrassment not disaster]

I went outside for a while as Amber was driving me crackers with a circuitous discussion which, had I been remotely inclined to write it down, would have had a general direction similar to that of 'there's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza' and as a result, I had to unpick all the stitches I had done on the slouchy beanie, as anger does not make for very regular decreasing.

The garden, as always, calmed and quietened even though it was rather grey:

Llywelyn finds a worm

One of my gals

Sweet peas