Drifting Along

I wanted to do so much more today than I managed. Still, I've got some things to post. Perhaps the biggest event from last week was my washing up bowl developing a split in the base. I haven't got a dishwasher, and I don't have a second bowl to the sink, so I like to have a washing up bowl so I can dump the slops down the side of the sink as I'm washing up. DH leaves a surprising amount of coffee in his cup. If I was organised and sensible, it wouldn't matter, but I'm not organised and rarely sensible.

I ordered a fresh one online. I mentioned that I wasn't sensible. My sink is quite small, so I can't just get any bowl. However, I got a couple of sheets of kitchen roll, roughly measured it against the old bowl and folded it to size. Then I brought it upstairs where my knitting tape measure was and measured the kitchen roll. This was not a good plan. The bowl that arrived is amazing, waterproof, and fits easily into the bowl. Sadly, it's too small to hold one of our dinner plates.

This, to me, is two shopping opportunities. One is obviously to get a bigger bowl. The other is the possibility of replacing my plates. I broke a cereal bowl a couple of weeks ago, the pasta dishes are looking the worse for wear and at least one has a major chip - very visible when it's white pottery under a black glaze. The plates are also showing signs of scratches. And a smaller dinner plate is supposed to help with portion control, which I absolutely need. I ordered another washing up bowl, but I've held back on the table ware. The plates and stuff weren't expensive and we've had them a few years, but it seems a waste to buy new if we don't need to. But on the other hand... That was the drama of our weekend. 

Writing adjacent - I got a chance at an advertising slot for a very reasonable amount on a YouTube Channel called AshLG. They run a sewing channel, and yes, I am not much to do with sewing but they are entertaining, pragmatic and cover a lot of historical and fantasy costumes. And the adverts, including my slot, are at 15:45 on this video. 

And I found it fascinating. I loved seeing the hand sewing stitches laid out, though what they called a catching stitch I know as herringbone stitch. So those who like sewing may like to have a look over there, and I get a chance to do a little giddy dance at my first advert.

Writing stuff - I'm way behind everything, but the latest instalment of The Guest is here.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Thank You!

I had no pics, but was determined to post, so I went out and spent a few minutes in the garden. It started like this.

It ended like this.

And I got nettled as I went, but while you can barely see the difference, I did more than nothing. If all I manage is five minutes at a time, it's better than no time at all. I wouldn't even have done that if it wasn't for this blog.

Besides, the lilac is gorgeous

The yellow rose is flourishing.

And Gladys is doing better than ever. This time last year, she was mainly bare sticks. Now there's plenty of leaves and even the hint of a few flowers despite it being colder than average.

There is still this problem. 

The tyre is from when I had the honeysuckle planted against the fence, years ago, back in 2015. They looked lovely when they were first done.

But time took it's toll, and most were evicted. Here's a pic from a few years later which is too cute not to share.

The tyre is the last left. Bear evicted it when he cleared out the honeysuckle. It will find it's way to the tip, but it's the pot that's the problem. 

Many, many, many years ago, I planted a rosemary in there. I neglected it, and it became too entrenched in the pot, straggly and woody. I've been trying to dig the dratted thing out for ages, now I'm reduced to turning it upside down and hoping that gravity will kick in. I want to get the plant out, refill with decent growing medium and plant something new there. If I can't get the soil out, I can see me resorting to a hammer to crack open the pot and get rid of it that way!

Here's hoping for more pics tomorrow. Thank you.

A Normal Thursday

Well, it was a normal Wednesday followed by a normal Thursday.

Yesterday I started to pot up the two eau de cologne mint plants that I bought.

I want them outside the kitchen window to keep away the flies. I dug out two large planters, because they're mint and I know how it can get, and then dragged over a bag of compost that must have been sitting there for years. Or tried to. The dratted thing had already split and there were miscellaneous roots going through it. I still heaved it out, cut it open, flinched at the creepy crawlies, and split it between the two planters. They were maybe a third full, which is completely insufficient. Then it started to rain heavily so I gave in. 

Today I found a coir brick in the walk in cupboard. It's one of those where you add water and the brick magically becomes soil. 

That was this morning, it isn't soil but solidly brick like despite the water, and I nearly broke my neck slipping on the water I spilled trying to rehydrate the dratted thing - see, normal Thursday.

I'm full of the sniffles and fed up. I've got some other coir bricks, and if they fail, there's soil in the garden I can use. I'll have another go tomorrow.

I've done a little more on the emotional support shawl, and I'm feeling better for it. I've done about two inches, which is a lot for that many stitches, and hopefully I'll post a pic tomorrow. 

Writing stuff - the reason why I've been a little distracted is I've been planning out some writing, and you can see my provisional plans here - Provisional Plans or What Might be Going On. But I'm guaranteeing nothing. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Is It Tuesday

I've not done enough on the emotional support shawl (superb name, Kirsten) to make it worth taking a pic, but I'm keeping on. Instead I took this picture.

It's at least ten years since I bought the greetings card, but I was sorting through things and it turned up. I dug out a frame and DH kindly put the pic in the frame and hung it up. It is so like evil cat. She could have posed for it, except normally she looked either angelic or evil. But the colouring is hers, and I can imagine stroking that incredible, silky soft fur. 

Otherwise, it's been a quiet day with loads of writing stuff. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Nearly an Incident

My emotional support shawl (thank you, Kirsten, for that perfect description) has only grown a couple of inches over the weekend, but I've finished one ball and started the next. I plan for it to be extremely large!

It's gone from this:

To this:

I'll probably get another row or two knitted tonight as I'm hoping to catch up on some of last season's Welcome to Wrexham, as the new series is about to start and I can knit to the documentary. It increases one stitch every row, and there's around 200 stitches on the needles at the moment, so it's not likely to grow as quickly, though it's still relaxing. 

As I may have mentioned, it's the yearly 'make gluten-free food almost affordable' time, and both Tesco and Morrisons have deals going. Today I booked Tesco, because I wanted to get an early order in and I booked it for between 9am-10am. Then Morrisons were supposed to come between 11.30am-12.30pm. Both were laden with stuff to stash away and I'm not sure that I can find room for all of it. It's piled all over in cupboards, and I don't want to miss anything.

Regardless, Tesco were late. They were significantly late. The driver said that there was a mix up in the depot and sounded incredibly fed up. I commiserated as these things happen. I managed to get the chilled and frozen stuff away, frantically aware that Morrisons were notoriously early on Mondays. And I was just in time because, yes, they were. The vans of the two supermarkets missed each other by fifteen minutes. I had a vision of a comic duel between the vans, though they would probably have just laughed and grumbled about their jobs. 

Normally Morrisons come on Mondays, because DH likes their salad, and Tesco come on Fridays, because he likes their cooked ham. I should have just booked Tesco in for Wednesday or something for the extra gluten free stuff. Mind you, I've got a Tesco delivery booked for Friday, with the ham and bargain gluten free stuff, and I'm not sure where I'm going to put it all. It's pennies on each item, but I'll be saving at least enough to cover the water bill for the month, and I'm happy with that. 

Speaking of supermarkets, I saw that Lidl had revamped their reward scheme, and I really need to call in to have a look. They seem to have some great deals. Besides, I love their latest advert. Does anyone remember Liberty X?

For once, it's an advert that genuinely made me chuckle. If you watch, put on subtitles. The original, back in the day, is here if you're interested. 

Supermarkets seem to branch out into all sorts of social media. Tesco have recipes on YouTube here, non of which I've tried. I considered the dal that they posted, but it called for a lot of ingredients that I don't normally use, so I wasn't sure if it was worth it. I don't want to have a load of stuff left over. 

Writing stuff - I've missed out this week's chapter of The Guest and I've apologised here. It should be back to normal service next week, but I swear that sorting out the White Hart stuff is driving me nuts!

Hugs and good health to all. 

Oil's Well that Ends Well

The lovely man at the garage explained things to me. Despite what various garages said, we have a wet belt, which apparently doesn't need changing, and instead I needed oil. Lots and lots of oil as there was practically none in the car. I suspect that Red has an unfortunate oil drinking habit, which set me back £85, which was a lot better than the £1,000 that I would have to pay for a new wet belt. 

I think that we're going to have to look for a new car. I don't want to, as Red has been a wonderful car, and she's very economical when it comes to petrol. But the wet belt on our car usually only lasts for 90k miles, and we're on 95k, and £1,000 is a decent percentage of a cost of a new-to-us car. She also needs to get out more, so I'll have to bite the bullet of expensive petrol and go on some runs. It won't kill me to go into shops. Having said that, I had a delivery today. It had the first chunk of the stock up. The promotion runs to 19 May, so I'll space out the purchases. 

I didn't do much to get pics, so here is the progress on the shawl. Yesterday it looked like this.

And today it looks like this.

I've added another six inches in length, and there's around 150 stitches on the needles. I've almost finished that skein of yarn but I want to add at least another one. I would guess that the shawl is currently around 20 inches long, and I want it much longer than that. I suppose it depends on how many stitches I can fit on the needle. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Hanging on to Knitting

Knitting keeps me calm. Well, unless I drop stitches or something, and even then I can usually find some peace as I sort things out. Today, it's been useful. It's the only pic I took today, showing the progress of the shawl. Yesterday it looked like this.

And right now it looks like this.

DH managed to get off work a little early so I spent a little longer than normal, hanging out with him and knitting. I was glad of the calm.

There was a little external excitement today. The police were banging on the door of next door but one. I stuck my head out of the door to see what was going on, as they officers were being emphatic, but apparently they didn't catch anyone home. The officers knocked on my door later, and I had to tell them that I hadn't seen anyone living there since the woman with the untrained dogs moved out. When I told DH about the minor excitement, he said that he had seen some signs of life, but it hadn't affected us, so we couldn't help the police much at all. I'm absolutely agog to know what's going on, but I doubt that I'll ever find out. I shall have to do better as a nosy neighbour.

Writing stuff - I've had to unpublish Further Tales from the White Hart as issues with the cover, Amazon's rules, the previous edition, and the amount of content have caused problems. I may need to write another 30,000 words for it. This is why I need knitting. 

Hugs and good health to all.