Another Birthday

Tristan turned 14 today, and this evening returned home and opened his presents from me and my family, having been with his father for the weekend. One of his presents, of course, was his Blitzen hat!

Ahh! He loves it! Well, he didn't actually say that, he sort of smirked and said it was ok, and hasn't taken it off so I'm translating that as him loving it :-)

Charles and I went in to town to purchase a couple of new items for the rabbit hutch - photos to follow when Rosie has seen her suprise. We then had lunch at the Merrie Harriers and sat outside in the sun. Who'd believe it, sitting outside in the warmth in November? I popped over to see Nicky this afternoon and tried on the poncho that she's just finished knitting. It's absolutely amazing! I am a bit mid-project at the moment with all my things, but I am back crocheting and loving it. I have much more of a feel for crochet than knitting and can do it far more quickly and easily. I'm working in rows rather than rounds for this latest item, having practised last night with some mitts when Kate came over. And Nicky gave me some cream wool for me to finish my bauble, so I might get that done tomorrow.

Maud couldn't put any weight on her foot this morning. I checked it for cuts and sprayed it with antiseptic but couldn't see anything obvious. She looked a bit miserable though so I'm hoping it's not an infection :-/ shame the vet doesn't do some sort of discount scheme for frequent clients...

Quick ta-dah

Just a quick post to show Tristan's completed slouchy beanie:

I'm really pleased and I'm absolutely sure he'll be thrilled to bits. What 14 year old boy wouldn't be??

Nicky come round for a CCG evening of gentle crafting and discussing of new things to put on our needles and hooks and in our freezers and store cupboards. I finished another hat during Strictly which required 15mm needles so was like knitting with fenceposts which was not very sociable. Nicky has made some socks (I'm so pleased to have such a mentor! - I mean they are proper socks!) and I am wanting to have a go at some of those so Scruff has some expensive hand-knitted ones to take and hide in one of his many doggy nests rather than his usual motley collection of hole-ridden remnants that the children call socks.

I have also done the first 2 chain stitches in some creamy white wool on my 3.5mm hook...

Green caramel

Yesterday morning I woke up at about 3am with the wind and rain lashing the windows, resulting in a dash to the landing window to see if my plastic greenhouse had been blown into the next county. It was fine, as were the ducks and bunnies as I shone my torch down to them. I then realised the power was off, and it remained so until about 10am. Nothing like the prospect of no morning tea to make one appreciate electricity!

Today was bright and cold, and I decided to let the ducks out for a leg and wing stretch, and some water play in the big tub. I've finished administering antibiotics to Jean but her husband has not forgiven me for such flagrant disregard for duck protocol and now shows me who's boss by waddling up and tugging at my boot or trouser leg; quite brave of him given he is only slightly larger than my boot.

The plastic sacks are an attempt to protect my grass! Needless to say, although they have the run of the garden, they prefer to gloat to the other ducks that are shut in:

We went swimming this morning and then this afternoon was spent at home. Tristan did his Latin homework and the girls made a cake. It was meant to be a graffiti cake which has squiggles of caramel around the edge but my ability to make anything to do with burnt sugar is still coming in at a big fat zero, and the fact we only had green food colouring didn't help:

Exactly. It didn't taste any better than it looked I'm afraid so we ended up with something remarkably like a Victoria sponge:

The rain we had the previous day has really helped the crop in the field - there's now a green haze in the parts that were drilled first:

Rose joined me in the garden and brought her favourite hen, Peggy, out for a cuddle:

Luckily Peggy is very accommodating although the cuddle bit didn't last long.

Tristan's Blitzen hat is coming along well:

So I'm hoping to get it finished in the next few days. My new OU course officially starts in a few weeks so I'd like to finish some of the more urgent projects before it does. Although I am about to put in a yarn order with Stash! :-)