The finished article...

Well I finished Niall's hot water bottle cover, with a bit of adapting.

Although the picture in the book looked like it was on a full sized bottle, when I came to the end of the instructions ... it was tiny and a perfect fit for his old 'baby' bottle. Admittedly I hadn't tried out the tension instructions before I started (do I ever?), but did check them when I realised how small it was and they were almost perfect, so it wasn't that - so I kept on going to make it longer then added a couple of extra rows around the edges to widen it a bit, and was quite pleased with the end result, and I had really enjoyed making it.

My Grandma (my Dad's mum) taught me how to crochet, she was brilliant at knitting and made us loads of things when we were growing up, so I feel she would be looking down now, pleased that I had picked up a crochet hook again! My other Grandma was excellent at sewing and I used to make loads of clothes and always went to her if I was stuck on something because she could always work out how to put right my mistakes - usually made because I was too impatient - I haven't changed, one of the reasons why I like crochet is because it grows quickly!!

Niall was chuffed and asked if I could make him a bottle straight away so he could try it out, so that's the main thing! They way it's going to be milder this week!! Typical!

Crocheting - again

I bought Niall a new hot water bottle a couple of weeks ago to replace his tiny ‘baby’ one that he still has and he asked me if I could get him a cover for it as he likes it made with really warm water so that it stays hot for some time, but is too hot to begin with.

Mum and Dad have recently given me a couple of bags from their loft containing loads of wool that I amassed when I lived at home when I used to do quite a lot of knitting and crochet, with Mum’s usual comment of ‘have a look through and see if you want to keep it, if not it can to go the charity shop’ - and it usually ends up in our loft!

I have had a real hankering to do some knitting or crochet lately and got some of my books out that I've got in the last year or so and found a pattern that looked ideal. He wanted shades of blues preferably so I found some blue/greeny shades left over from a jumper I crocheted a frightening amount of years ago, luckily in the same bag was the correct size crochet hook I needed, and off I went - I'll let you know how I get on later.

This is it in production ......

Pleasant Sunday

On Sunday Morning, Janet and I ran the David Lloyd 5K race. We did it with Christina last year, but she didn’t feel fit enough to run it this time, although Janet and I took off a couple of minutes from last year’s times and we felt Christina is probably fitter than she realises, although I did feel that my lungs were going to burst out of my chest on the hill up to the finish!!

Niall had arranged to meet his friends in the afternoon, so after going home and getting changed Ian and I went to Hilliers Arboretum http://www.hillier.co.uk/as there was a Photographic Exhibition on that we wanted to see and we had also decided to get a year's joint membership as Mum and Dad have given us money for our anniversary which is next week. You can use it to get into Kew Gardens too and as we have always wanted to go there but never been yet, have decided to go there next Friday in half-term (weather permitting of course).

We had a nice lunch there – I can recommend the smoked haddock and prawn fishcakes – delicious – we looked round the exhibition, there were some really fantastic ones there, and it was quite interesting to see what we thought had been ‘Photoshopped’ or not, although some did actually say that they had been. When we finally went out for a look around the gardens it was just starting to rain, but we carried on anyway and I’ve included a few pictures that we took, although obviously it was not at it’s best in the rain.

It was a good day, apart from the rain... must get some housework done soon .....

Half a Snow Day!

Woke up to the biggest flakes of snow I have ever seen this morning. I was surprised how much more snow had laid overnight. As Ian had contacted his boss last night to see if the college would be open today and had been told that it would be open for any staff that wanted to come in, I felt I should make the effort as the college is only at the end of the road. I made my way through fairly blizzardous conditions (I'm not exaggerating, honestly) expecting the college gates to be shut firm, but although there was a sign out saying 'College Closed' in no uncertain terms, as the gates were open I thought I had better go and see if anyone was in.

I spoke to Ian's boss, the head of Premises whose house is next door to the college, so definitely no excuse for him getting in, who said the Principal and one of the Vice Principals were going to try and get in a bit later, so for two hours I sat in my side of the building on my own doing a very mundane job that didn't need too much thought - but I did bring the camera in and as I was only one of about half a dozen people that had come in, felt justified in taking a few pictures of the college quad which only took a couple of minutes anyway. The quad is a really pretty space at any season and the pictures don't really do it justice.

I hadn't brought any lunch with me as I really thought the college wouldn't have been open, so spoke to the Principal's PA who had made it in later in the morning and said I had finished the job that I was doing and was it okay if I didn't come back in again after I went home for lunch and she said that was fine and they wouldn't expect me back this afternoon.

I admit, I didn't do a lot this afternoon apart from catching up with a couple of ER's and Grey's Anatomy's that I hadn't got around to seeing yet - but I did go on my trampette and jogged and jumped for half an hour before tea - it is definitely getting easier than it was and I horrified Niall by saying that I would be so toned by the summer that I would be getting into a pair of very small hot pants!! For some reason, he was not amused!!!

A Snow Day - at last!

Woke up this morning to Niall calling - "Mum we've got snow" - and snow we certainly had, I haven't seen the like for years and Niall has never seen it like this. These views were taken from his bedroom window.

I made him go to school as we hadn't heard that it was actually closed at the time (not so mean as it is only about quarter of a mile away) and I walked to work which is literally at the end of our road but he phoned me and said they had heard that school was closed so he went straight over to one of his friend's house for most of the day.

It had been decided that the college (where I work) should officially close for the day, but Cindy and I went on the switchboard for an hour letting callers know that it was closed whilst a message was sorted out to put on the answerphone, and a couple of the ladies from the canteen that had managed to get it in had made some delicious bacon butties that they were handing round, so it was worth going in just for that!

We were allowed to go at 10 am and I later walked across the nearby park to put my Dad's, Ian's and my entries in for the B&Q 10K race at the Civic Offices. I have never walked (and jumped) through so much beautiful virgin snow and I took great pleasure in zig-zagging across the grass on the way back, looking behind me to see where I had walked - I loved it! The sun came through a break in the heavy grey cloud and I had to stop and actually gasped in pleasure at the snow literally glistening in front of me!! I don't think the expression 'getting in touch with your inner child' had so much meaning to me as when I was stepping into all the new white snow feeling like a five year old!

Niall had a great day with his friends and said they made a massive snowball that in the end the four of them couldn't roll it anymore as it was so big.

Ian only had to go into work for a couple of hours as he was on the late shift but as there were no Evening classes on he had an easy day too, so we were all happy!