Bank Holiday Weekend

Thank you so much for your nice comments on my shawl, I am glad you liked it. Sadly I haven't worn it yet, as it's felt too cold and I've chosen thicker scarves. Thicker scarves needed in May, honestly! It's not been the best of bank holiday weekends, all things considered. John has been at work the last three days, Angus has been unwell with an ear infection (which is now thankfully clearing up), so neither he or I have had much sleep, and there is that lingering anxiety that falls over the house when a child is unwell, making going anywhere or doing anything difficult, especially when one parent is working. The days felt long. While dry, it's still unseasonably cold and I'm kind of fed up with it now. I almost felt like I wanted a hat on when we were at the beach at on Saturday. 

But I don't want to whinge at you, because actually everything is fine really and we did do some nice stuff over the weekend, in amongst the appointments and chores and administration of painkillers. May is a good month, with two bank holidays and everything starting to bloom around you and the trees in full leaf in the brightest green.

I pottered in the garden a bit, pulling up the daffodils and tulips I should have dealt with last month and planting some sweet peas. I do love a sweet pea.

It was, if you sat in the sun and wore a coat, just warm enough for a coffee outside too. Just.

I pottered indoors too, moving around pictures and making changes here and there.

This little barometer, which belonged to my late Grandfather, has been hiding in Angus's  bedroom for the last year. 

I decided it was wasted up there and have moved it to the hall where we can all look at it every day and see if it's correct, which it is.

I made cheese scones for the first time and they rose. I feel like this alone deserves a mention here. I used this recipe.

The best thing about cheese scones is when they are still warm and the butter melts in. 

We had a really nice walk on the beach on Saturday afternoon. So much seemed to be in bloom, there were wild flowers everywhere you looked. 

The weather was all over the place, sunny then cloudy and windy too. We still got ice creams from the kiosk even though it was cold and the wind blew my hair into my Mr Whippy, and a chocolate cone proved more effective than Calpol in improving Angus's mood. 

We seemed to watch a band of rain move around us while we walked (I do love a dramatic sky) but amazingly didn't get rained on.

Today we visited Portsmouth Historic Dockyard which was a really nice day out with family, even if I did get a bit lost on HMS Victory, and bang my head a few times on the low ceilings. And now I am looking forward to collapsing on the sofa and watching the final episode of Line of Duty, which aired last night, so I've been avoiding all radio and TV today because I don't want to find out who, or what, the mysterious "H" is too soon, and I'm really hoping it's not a big let down.

I hope you had a nice bank holiday weekend, whatever you were doing. We've got another one to look forward to at the end of the month too, how lovely is that? 

Ombre Swirl Shawl

Hello there! I am very excited to have a finished crochet shawl to show you tonight. I often find I binge on a TV programme while working on a particular crochet project, especially if it's one that demands a lot of time. So I feel like this is my "Line of Duty" shawl, as I now totally associate it with the excellent BBC TV drama of the same name, since John and I watched the first four seasons back to back throughout April, and I can honestly say it's some of the best crime TV I've ever watched with such excellent writing, characterisation and acting  - just excellent, and if you get a chance to watch any of it on iplayer, do. We haven't started watching Season 5 yet because we can't cope with waiting a full week between each episode, so we'll binge on it in a few weeks. I have had to unravel quite a few rows of this shawl, not because the pattern's difficult (it really isn't) but because I was too engrossed in the drama on TV.

Anyway, the shawl. It's the Ombre Shawl by Sarah Shrimpton of Annaboo's House, using a 5 mm hook and one ball/cake of Scheepjes Whril in Raspberry Rocky Road. 

I found it really hard to choose a colour way for this project. I really struggled to see how the colour changes would look worked up into a finished garment, and still don't really like the hot pink in this choice. 

Luckily, the hot pink section, which is at the centre of the triangle, the start of the project, can be hidden around the neck with a bit of rearranging.

But I like it best when the pink is a little softer, like below. With hindsight, I probably would have preferred the Watermelon Hellraiser colourway.

But I do like it very much. It's large, drapes beautifully and required very little blocking. I especially like the way the simplicity of the pattern shows of the colour gradients, without being too dull.

I haven't worn it yet, but I think it's going to be the perfect spring to summer scarf, something that I can easily wear with a white t-shirt and jeans. It's quite feminine I think, so I will wear it with something plain or striped, and I think it will work really well with denim. 

Every last drop

The bank holiday weekend feels like longer than three days ago. A few days back at work and school, back into the rush of after school activities, combined with a sudden drop in temperature, and it's like I imagined that gorgeous, sunny, relaxed few days we had last weekend. It's always the way when you jump straight into summer temperatures - it's a horrible shock when the wind and rain remind you that yes, it is still April.

It's unusual for John to have the full four days off work so we were determined to make the most of the Easter long weekend by doing absolutely nothing useful or productive. No decorating, no DIY, no sorting out cupboards - who even are we?!

Food always features heavily in our Easter celebrations. Bella and Angus aren't as interested in making Easter nests as they used to be, which is fine with me as they aren't my number one choice. New traditions are being formed in the making of chocolate bark: white and dark chocolate melted, swirled together and sprinkled with bashed up mini eggs and some mini marshmallows.

I would have liked to have made a Simnel cake, but it's only me that likes it so that seemed a bit of a waste. Instead I made a chocolate malt cake from this book, something I knew everyone would like. We cut into it on Monday after a barbecue and there's only one piece left now so I think we can assume it was popular.

We had a big family meal at my parents' house on Sunday with an egg hunt for the kids (with cryptic clues to solve - they aren't toddlers pottering around the flower beds with their baskets anymore...) and since my mum cooked the roast lamb, we all brought dessert, and my contribution was lemon meringue roulade.

I used this recipe which I've made before and it works really well, except that last time I was disappointed by the lack of lemon flavour, so this time I upped the amount of lemon curd from two tablespoons to almost a full jar, and it was much improved for it. 

There was also a lovely cream tea on Saturday afternoon, a late Mother's Day gift for my mum from my sisters and I, and also a fabulous brunch on Bank Holiday Monday. It was just the four of us and I was feeling virtuous and hungry after a morning run and, after two weeks of eight hours unbroken sleep each night, full of a strange feeling of both energy and calm which I think is what it's like to be rested. It's a unfamiliar feeling and I liked it. I ordered toasted sourdough topped with pesto, avocado and poached eggs, served with roasted tomatoes on the vine and a side of bubble and squeak. I could eat food like that all day every day.

I enjoyed having an Easter tree this year. Rather than hunt for tree branches I found some old sprigs of pussy willow I had knocking around and used stones to weight them into place in the bottom of the vase. 

We made time on Easter Sunday afternoon to go for a walk in the woods to one of my favourite places for spotting bluebells. 

I try to go every spring because I think it's worth the effort. This patch of woodland is hidden from the path and it's only when you turn into the wood and scramble up the path that you suddenly see all this spread out in front of you. 

It makes me glad to be alive.

I think this one was enjoyed it too, even if he was a bit hot.

I spent a pleasant hour in the garden on Monday creating a little succulent garden for our outdoor table which was looking a little bare.

I found a large bowl that I bought in IKEA a while ago, but which I never use as it's huge and doesn't fit in any of my cupboards in the kitchen. I store it in the garage where of course I forget all about it. I filled the bottom with pieces of broken pottery for drainage then a half sand/half compost mix, before adding four succulents I bought for £10 in B&Q.

My track record with succulents in the house is not good (I am certain I have been over watering) but I'm told they thrive on neglect and sunshine, so I'm hoping this little collection does okay over the summer months.

I'm glad we made the most of doing nothing productive, it's a very good plan.