Stuck

Hi there! I know everyone is very busy with it being only 1 day to Christmas eve tomorrow, but i just wondered if there were any clever knitters out there that might know how to recreate this diamond pattern as I've forgotten how I did it. As you can see I sketched it out to see how many stitches there were to a diamond and how they work together, but that's as far as I've got.

I'm off to watch The Young Victoria now as my brain needs a rest.

Escaping

Having got very bored with being at home by Sunday having been holed due to this:





followed by a 24 hour bug that tuned into a 5 day stay:

We decided to go down to the South coast to a wild life reserve Pagham Harbour . It was bitterly cold but sunny so we took a walk along the estuary trail and while my DH was photographing this little chap,



I was busy photographing this,



you can see why we get on can't you, opposites attract, so they say :-)

But I think we both liked this,



And now to a happy ending. We thought we didn't need a Christmas tree this year as we're in a flat and probably won't be around a lot, but when it came to the festive season proper we realised that it would the first time ever since we've been together that we haven't had one. So I voiced our thoughts to our girls the other weekend and lo and behold our lovely DD3 produced this perfect 6' fibre optic tree, which fits our flat perfectly. Aren't children wonderful, thank you :-) I had to post a video because the lights don't show in the photo.

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to all the lovely bloggers who've been visiting both my blogs over the past year.
And a big thank you to DD 3 for hosting a brilliant creative weekend.

Pyjama top made yesterday by DD2 for her DD

Something a little more scenic

The other weekend we took a trip to Cardiff for a visit to our DS and DIL, and as usual we were treated to a wonderful relaxing time. For once we had some lovely weather and took a walk from the Mumbles to the next town along the coastal path. It was superb, especially as we were treated to a lovely lunch when we got there.



Looking back towards the Mumbles.





Half way there, getting hungry all this lovely fresh air.



And a final walk along the beach for lunch.

I did take a lovely shot of our hosts, but managed to delete all my pics off the camera instead of just one, so these are courtesy of my DH.



Just found this one from the DH collection, our hosts are striding across the beach eagerly anticipating lunch, they must be even hungrier than me!

We were all excited over the weekend as we're expecting another grandchild in March, so it was good to catch up with our DIL in person and know that mum and baby are doing fine. We know he's a boy and he's very active now :-). He will be number 13 for us. So we now have enough for a football team plus reserves LOL.

Thank you both for a great weekend.

And now a creative link for all textile enthusiasts Chelsea degree show
I was so excited when I found their web site, I haven't been this enthusiastic about an exhibition for years, I just wish I'd seen it early enough to go in person.

And finally, how about this for a winter warmer, my DH's corned beef hash...... yummy !

Home again

Well Dungie worked her magic and we're back home feeling refreshed, it's such a shame we have to come home via the M25, all those lorries and so much traffic, after spending a few days in 'the land that time forgot' it's a bit of a shock!



This is what they do best there, we had a wonderful fish supper on Monday, I had pan fried whole plaice at the Pilot pub, amazing!



And this is the relaxing way to do it.



And this is where you could live if you have a spare £250,000, I wish!



And this is what gives light to an otherwise black piece of land once it gets dark.

I don't know why we love it, but it always brings us peace and quiet in a sometimes mad world.

But as with everything else these days, nothing is sacred. There are proposals to remove huge amounts of shingle from the beach to protect the power station, there will be up to 50 lorries a day from October to March for 12 years on this wonderful peaceful place, if the powers that be have their way.

Chilling out

Dungeness, an unlikely place for R&R I suppose but we love it and come here often when in need of a wind down.

Just a few pics while on quick internet connection.





Bit cold and scary up there.



Alas poor fish.

Good to be back

Flamingos and dinner dates

We've not long returned from a nice little 2 centre break in Gloucestershire and South Wales.

We went for a few days to Slimbridge Wetlands Centre. The weather wasn't exactly kind but we made the best of it and had a couple of nice walks round the site. One of my favourite sights were these beautiful colourful flamingos, sich a strange site at a British Wetlands centre.

On one of of walks I persuaded my DH to pose on these stepping stones, well i wasn't going to risk wet feet!



A really lovely surprise was this outside enclosure almost teaming with these tiny Harvest mice, barely 2" long. I've never seen them in the wild so this was a very unexpected treat.



After a few more excisions we made our way to Cardiff to visit our DS and his wife. We had such a lovely relaxing weekend, despite the weather. As we live in the country it's always a very different experience for us to spend time in the city, and Cardiff is a great place, very vibrant with a population that really know how to enjoy life.
I had a very pleasant time in John Lewis, wishing as always that I had a spare couple of grand to spend.

As usual we were spoilt with several great meals both at home and in the city, trying out alternative restaurants like Milgis, with it's DIY art on the walls, a Yurt in the back yard, and great veggie food.

Cardiff Arts Institute was pretty cool too, with its retro sofas and a great rubber glove installation!

I just wish I hadn't forgotten my camera, I could have shown you the window display at All Saints Fashion shop, it was full of old hand sewing machine all lined up on shelves taking up the whole window display.



Of course a visit to Cardiff is never complete without a visit to Craft in the Bay for morning coffee and cake, plus a look in the gallery of course, to give the men suggestions for Christmas presents.

It was so cold that the water round the fountain was frozen.



And having forgotten my camera on Saturday I thought I'd make up for it with this rare unpopulated shot of the Millennium Centre.



We had a great weekend and a big thank you to our thoughtful hosts.

We were pretty glad to get past this stuff though, once we left Wlaes, but if followed us home, and now we're snowed in!