Fifteen more finishes

 I belong a "Knit and Natter" group but we have been meeting via zoom for a while.  At first it was the pandemic which stopped us meeting face-to-face,  but now it's the cost of petrol!  

Yesterday though we met up for real!  About a dozen of us went for tea and cakes at Sylvia's home.  And a noisy time was had by all. 

Sadly one of our members has had to go and live in a residential care home but she had said we could share out her wool stash and she had certainly known how to stash!  Most of us knit for various charities and we have a special concern for homeless people so any cash we have gets spent on thermal socks, gloves etc. for them and we knit hats and scarves.

(I've shown you one of these before)

So this was my contribution for the year.  Four scarves, each about six feet long, and eleven hats.  

Enjoyment and Grief

 Hi Everyone!

It’s time I did another post.  I hope you are all fit and well as can be. 

The world’s a funny place at the moment.  Global warming is giving us a few problems as is the conflict in Ukraine.  Everything is going up: petrol, energy, food, but let’s not dwell on that.  I’ll do my best to make you all feel better in yourselves1

OK, the enjoyment.  This came about because at long last I took my good friend the vicar for a day out.  We went somewhere I hadn’t been for about forty years – our county show in Lincolnshire.  I drove to the vicar’s so she could take her car along with her mobility scooter.  We arrived at the showground by 7.40am which enabled us to park right by the entrance.  Already a queue was forming but we were allowed in thanks to the other very good friend who gave me free entry tickets.  The first thing the vicar wanted was a bacon buttie (she always gets her priorities right).  As she may tell you, I never refuse food!  Then we decided to split for a couple of hours.  She wanted to go shopping and to look around the many, many stalls and exhibitions.  I went to look at the animals.  With it being a red-hot day we both had water with us.  While we went our separate ways, I met another good friend who had arranged two members badges for me and the vicar so we could get free food and drink in a posh part of the showground.  The vicar had a glass of water, I had a coffee but it was such a nice thought and we could mingle with the gentry!

After six hours in the blistering heat, I knew the vicar must have had enough so we made tracks for home.  I do hope the vicar enjoyed her day out with me as much as I enjoyed her company.  Oh dear. There I go again, being nice to her!

Now to the grief.  Well, she has now stopped saying things about my hair or lack of it and now she’s on her high horse about my eating habits.  Can you tell me what’s wrong with porridge with a nice slice of corned beef on it to give it some oomph?  Or may porridge with (yummy, yummy) barbecue sauce on? 

My cooking skills came to the fore last week when I got out my biggest pan and put a pack of low-fat mince in and seared it.  (Can you see my culinary terminology is improving?)  I added water and a Stock Pot plus an Oxo, three onions, two shallots, (both chopped of course) broad beans, peas, mange tout peas, swede, leeks, thirty-nine small new spuds, a tin of sweetcorn, a vegetable Cuppasoup, onion gravy granules, runner beans, an apple, and three glugs of Jamieson’s whisky and then simmered it thirty minutes.  When it was ready 1 got two slices of seeded bread and poured the mixture over.  Oh, what a delight for the taste buds!  And the best part was I had enough for five more servings.  If any of you would like to pop in to sample my culinary efforts it’s in boxes in the freezer.  Sorry to tell you, the vicar doesn’t think much of my cooking.  I think it’s unique!  (Note from the vicar: I hope it is unique!)

Now when I visit my friend, she gives me a menu of three or four items to choose from.  What a kind person she is.  I’ve been nice to her again – that’s twice in one post!).  I’ll have to be careful.  She always has the upper hand anyway but in being nice, I am digging myself a big hole which I might not be able to get out of.  We still chat every morning, mainly to check we’re both still breathing.

Well, I hope I’ve made you all smile: happiness is a cure for most things but if that doesn’t work the next things are all FREE – fresh air, exercise and God’s wine (water).  Get plenty of these and it will help you to have a long and fruitful life.  Take care, look after your neighbours.  And, Vicar, enjoy my niceness while it lasts.

God bless you all.  That’s you as well, Vicar

 

Jack

Finish

 Thanks for being here!  It's a long time since I posted.  I've had a bit of a tricky time struggling with depression and I really couldn't get my mind around posting.  I think I stopped using my SAD lamp too early, (i.e. when the clocks went forward) and I should have used it for at least an extra month.  The depression wasn't severe but everything seemed a huge effort.

One thing I was able to do was to knit!  I knitted various things - scarves, hats, twiddlemuffs.  What I didn't do was finish them.  

Ali at Less is more has set herself the challenge of finishing.  She wants to finish cardigan she started while ill with covid, finish a domestic rearranging project, finish some decorating, finish sorting her allotment.

So, inspired by her, I too have started finishing,  Here's my first finish.  A scarf for a homeless person.  I finished the knitting months ago and this afternoon I have made the fringe.  I have three more of these to finish!

Liz Rules, OK

 Jubilee Day here in the UK when the nation celebrates the seventy years of Elizabeth II's reign.  The celebrations will last four days.  Today I watched Trooping the Colour for the Queen's (Official) Birthday.  She's had one hundred and sixty six birthdays!!

We went outside for our weekly neighbourhood nattering and sorted the details for a small street party on Sunday after Caistor's Picnic in the Park, part of The Big Jubilee Lunch.

This afternoon I went to our Market Square to hear The Jubilee Proclamation read by our Town Crier and his assistant.  He stood next to the pump installed in honour Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.  (Victoria reigned only sixty three years.) The Proclamation was met with a shout of "God Save The Queen" from the crowd.

Tonight beacons will be lit all across the country.   I'm not sure I can make it to Caistor's beacon but I have hung my own tribute on the garden fence.  

Thank you for all you have done for us, Ma'am