chain reaction..

I came across Mark Steel when we moved to the UK the first time in 2003.  He was on the radio with a series called The Mark Steel Lectures where he argued for the importance of particular historical figures, fascinating AND funny. I loved it.

I would have posted a video of one of the  lectures  from the t.v. version off You Tube but it won’t let me embed for some reason, so you will have to check them out for yourself.

Today we tuned in to listen to Chain Reaction on BBC Radio Four and were pleased to discover that Mark Steel was being interviewed by the equally brilliant Kevin Eldon – if you are in need of a laugh you can find it here for the next 6 days.

Oh and a photo of me wearing my latest creation

My neighbour who obligingly took the photo had just said "Nice tits"

welcome home toastie..

The visitors really are gone now and although I have lost points in Habit Judo for not blogging during their stay I don’t care.  Really visitors take up all the rest of the time I have spare from essentials and I aint going to push myself too hard just to ramble on here – I doubt you lot noticed too much anyway!

A phone call from my GP on Wednesday informing me that my blood test showed high TSH levels has given me the reason for my increasing tiredness, problems with memory and concentration etc.  Basically that means that the well meaning doctor who lowered my dose of Thyroxine last November was an idiot and I am suffering for it.  At least I know that I will be better again soon…

And now for my big news.. TA-DAR!

Toastie and me

This is Toastie.  She is a rescue dog and comes to us courtesy of a wonderful woman called Glenys Bufton a one woman dog rescue Queen.  We had put our name down with Glenys about a month ago looking for a small friendly dog and last Friday we got the call. Glenys was over run with dogs needing help and had run out of foster carers, would we like to foster a small x breed terrier and if we liked her we could keep her?  Oh Yes..  So, Friday afternoon we found ourselves arriving in a Lidl’s carpark ready for the handover – sort of like a drug deal, only instead of cocaine Glenys was cradling in a blanket a very small pink pig that had been found in the middle of the road somewhere.  Fortunately she did also have a Toastie in the back of her car and the deal was done.

We think she is the greatest as do our friends and visitors-  although she does have a few challenging personal habits including rolling in poo – causing our friend’s son to create this work of art..

Then she had her first bath in her new home..

i love my town..

I am a crocheting fool this evening and then later T and I  are off out to the Open Mic Night at Kilvert’s to meet our friend Leslie.  Hope it will be a good night – doesn’t really matter, it will just be nice to be out and have a lovely pint and great company.

I have been crocheting these..

It’s a African Flower/Granny pot holder – pattern taken from the Crochet With Raymond blog.  There is a great tutorial if you feel like trying your hand. I gave this blue beauty to my mother -in- law Coral and now am over half way through my second one (purple).  Lots of fun.

Just before I go I have to show you this lovely face cloth that my friend M gave me – she is very clever and I am a lucky girl

Cotton owl dish cloth - cable knit

By the way – I have just got hold of the programme for the philosophy and music festival called How The Light Gets In that runs during the Hay Book Festival but is based at The Globe on the other side of town – OhMyGod!!!!  It sounds amazing…  If you ever get the chance to come to Hay – come at this time of year, it’s going to be brilliant.  If you’ve got time click on my link and check it out.

crochet post alert – look away if allergic to hookers..

So most of you out there will not have heard of the Japanese flower motif, and there is absolutely no reason why you should have.  Except that this crocheter has been amazed by the way word has spread in the hooky internet world in the last couple of months.

I saw my first Japanese flower courtesy of Lucy at Attic 24.  She had been looking for some time for a suitable motif to make a shawl with – and being picky it was taking some time.  Finally she came across two French blogs this one  and this one from which she downloaded the (french) PDF file and then she blogged about it.  Lucy’s blog is extremely popular and I and about a thousand other readers of Attic 24 also downloaded it – the pattern had gone viral.

It then occurred to the French woman who had put the PDF file up for download that maybe there might be a small copyright problem with doing that.  Being that she had originally taken the pattern directly from a Japanese crochet book – Pattern Book Vol 4.   She had the pattern on her blog for the last two years but hardly anyone had paid much attention to it so it all seemed ok – now every person and their hook was visiting and it all seemed to be getting out of hand – so she took it off.

But it was way to late, way, way ,way too late.

And now it is everywhere – like some weird weed that keeps popping up month after month.  And what a beautiful weed..

One would have thought that now the only way to get the pattern would be to buy the original in the Japanese crochet book (expensive) or to know someone who had got in on time and downloaded the PDF,  BUT  the wonderful Elizabeth Cat stepped in and posted a tutorial on her blog – slightly different from the original but it looks pretty much the same.

Since then I have seen references to this motif on many  blogs including Crochet with Raymond, one of my absolute favourite crochet blogs whose author hails from Wellington, New Zealand – my home town.  Also  I have found a Ravelry group who have been making this shawl for the last couple of years. If you are after inspiration check them out.

I am not going to comment on the copyright issue except to say that hopefully once all those thousands of crocheters get exposed to the incredible lovely crochet (and other craft books) that come out of Japan, support for the designers will go up hugely.

One of my favourites - this one is by Adelaide and can be seen on Ravelry

The motif was originally created by Mayuko Hashimoto （橋本　真由子） and pretty damned cool it is too.

stir the stumps..

It’s late.

Late for me anyway, it’s usually pumpkin time around ten – ten thirty.

But I’ve been an eBay listing fool for the greater part of the evening as well as cooking a chicken dinner for His Nibs when he got in.

So what with one thing or another, blogging got pushed to up to the time where my eyes are sand paper  and I keep making mistakes… CONCENTRATE!  Ah – that’s better..  I’ve just been handed a mug of tea.. enough to keep me going at least till I have finished this.

Now I have the eBay listing out of the way I have only one day of work tomorrow and then my time is my own until next Wednesday.    I have a possibly mad hope that I will get all the flower motifs of my shawl sewn together some time soon.  It really is a pain in the bum to have to do and next time I make something like it I swear I will join  them as I go along.  The thing is I suspect that it is going to look fricking fabulous when it is all put together and also – once you have actually crocheted 34 motifs it would be a crying shame  not to finish it.   Sooo..  I need to stir my stumps..

Two photos for you before I hit the hay..

Thirteen joined up so far

Mother Clanger

I have a small obsession for Wombles, Moomins and others of that ilk, including The Banana Bunch.  From another age when I was A LOT less cynical about television.  Anyway, I found this fair maiden at Past Times in Hereford the other week and just had to have her.  She even whistles when you squeeze her tummy – how cool is that!

A Fine Start to a Year..

Question

What has three bedrooms, one of which is the entire attic area with velux window, which will make a mighty fine studio.  A large bathroom (well large compared to the closet which we have at the moment).  And A BATH!  And a wood burner. And a dog door. And a garden, with a glass house and an apple tree and a walnut tree. And it backs on to fields and Mouse Castle woods.  And it has its own car park. And it is furnished so we will have proper  double beds in all the rooms, And has walls so thick you can’t hear the neighbours hoick.  And costs exactly the same as the one we are in now ???

Answer – Our new house, of course!

Yes we are moving yet again, only this time it is just about as close as can be to where we are now -  five minutes walk away in Cusop Dingle.

This is the New Years Good Things post, and about time too.

I feel bullet points coming on

• I am really loving our Stitch and Bitch group.  Just getting together with a lovely bunch of people purely for the sake of sitting and crocheting and talking and laughing.

• A British winter – well, what a winter!  It’s still grey and manky outside BUT the signs of spring are already here, snowdrops, lambs, budding plants.  And I can smell it in the air.  Our town has got ridiculously quiet, almost empty pubs and streets.  It is amazing to think that this is the same town that just six months ago you had to walk off the pavement to get around all the people.  And soon it will be like that again – perhaps I will just enjoy the quiet for the moment.

• A week after we move we are to be visited by our friends Julian and Kath.  This will be their first visit to us in Hay and I am just so happy that it will be at our new house.  Not only will we have a spare bedroom to put them up in BUT also we will have a proper bed for them to sleep in.  Hurrah!

• Books – oh the books.  I try not to go into the book shops here to often, just because it is torturous to the financially embarrassed person but – sometimes you just have to.  On one of my trips I came across Paper Cutting Techniques by Sharyn Sowell which I just had to have as I have been wanting to have a go at the craft for some time now.   Then I found Shoot the Damn Dog by Sally Brampton, an account of the writers journey through and out of severe depression.  This book is well up there on my list of best depression books and reading it has helped me hugely.

Paper cut by Julene Harrison. Just imagine cutting this! There are some amazing people out there

• Carol Shields’s Unless, is another book I just had to own.  I think Shields was one of the best novelists in THE ENTIRE WORLD – sorry about yelling but golly.  If you haven’t read this or the sublime The Stone Diaries, well then – you should

• After she threw the baby in, nobody believed me for the longest time. But I kept hearing that splash...     These sentences  come from my best read of the new year so far -  The Well and The Mine by Gin Phillips.  This doozy flew across the sea to me at the behest of an American friend Robin who I met last year at my local pub Kilvert’s, just up the road.  She was on her first solo trip around the UK and being a book seller, had to pay a visit to Hay-on-Wye.  The lovely Robin along with my friend Jenny and I spent a fabulous evening bonding over real ale and in the process I found out that not only was she from the southern states where I would just love to visit, but she was also a huge fan of Fanny Flagg, author of Fried Green Tomatoes as well as some of my other favourite books.  Robin, sadly, had to leave the next day but we have been in email contact since she got home and just after Christmas a package arrived from her.  Not only did it contain the latest Fanny Flagg hardback I Still Dream About You but a copy of The Well and the Mine which is the authors first novel – I can’t wait till the next.

• Just before Christmas I had received another package in the post – this time from Amazon.  I hadn’t ordered anything and so I gave it to T who promptly put it away.  It turned out to be a rather wonderful, and strange book entitled The Complete Book of Retro Crafts which I suspect was sent to me by blog buddie Katyboo.   Full of the most wonderful, crazy stuff that humans can make it includes how tos on every kitsch craft you can think of – including glitter encrusted pine cone elves, Bottlecap man, Pantyhose Poodle and festive Reinbeer.

• On Saturday afternoon I was in my kitchen making a Spiced Apple cake, the first baking I have done since we came to this country, and listening to Graham Norton and then Tony Blackburn on Radio Two, grooving away to 70′s funkiness when I suddenly realised just how happy I was feeling, one of life’s golden moments had just enveloped me and given me a big kiss.  I believe you must have had depression or been through some other terrible stress to understand how incredible it felt.  I am getting better…

The best cake I have ever made

We are moving on the 11th Feb and I have packing to do.  You have no idea how much I am looking forward to having a garden again.  I have to try to not get too over excited about it all otherwise I will have to go and sit in the corner, cover my head with a towel (remember you should always carry a towel – check your Douglas Adams)  and squeak.

Awesome..

Heavens to Murgatroid, I love this blog – take a visit and it’s more than likely that at least some of the thousand will make you smile   Thank you so much Sue for finding it.

100 Awesome Things

How Not to Have a Sex Life and Other Stories..

I have had a long day but thought to blog about some of the things I missed out yesterday.  No photos this time though.. (well, maybe one).

Firstly , and astoundingly,  I am mentally well for the first time in ages – this is wonderful and I am trying to enjoy every moment.  I had been having a go with a new antidepressant called Sertraline (a SSRI also called Zoloft), which seemed to work well for me.  After a while however I ran into a wee problem that is apparently common for many of us poor bastards on SSRIs, and is also responsible for large amounts of people not completing their course of treatment. Which is what has happened to me, except I have stayed well – long may it last!!

I had been meaning to  write about this problem for some time but could never get my head around exactly what I was going to say without giving too much information.  Then when I was paying a visit to one of my favourite bloggers  I came across her post on the same subject – and here it is. .  Why reinvent the wheel huh? And she says it so much better than I could.  It is really interesting reading some of the post comments as well.

I first came across Dooce’s (Heather Armstrong’s) blog when I became aware after four years, that the mystery illness I was suffering from was actually depression.  She had been through the hell of post-partum depression and was so badly affected that she had ended up in a psych unit.

I love her blog for many reasons, not the least being that she shows it is possible to be on  depression meds and still have a lovely life.   Also because she and her husband John strongly remind me that not all Americans are bonkers – Oh and because she takes photos of her dog Chuck with objects balanced on his head.. well maybe she is bonkers, but in a nice way..

Chuck

One of the most helpful things that I came across in my research about depression was information about mindfulness, which is why I go on about it so much.  The book I probably found the most helpful is called The Mindful Way Through Depression,  another is called The Noonday Demon – An Anatomy of Depression by Andrew Solomon.    This weekends Guardian bought an article by Tim Parks who has just had a book published called Teach Us To Sit Still, A Sceptic’s Guide to Health and Healing, which I found really interesting for his discovery of how mindfulness/meditation helped him with his illness.  It is on my Amazon Wish List.

Sunday’s Observer bought a wonderful interview with Christophoer Hitchens which can be read here, for anyone who is a fan of the man..

And last but nowhere near least, is the podcast which features Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Wilson in conversation on the subject of folklore.  So if you are after a little insight into the writing of the Discworld Novels  and/or just plain fascinated as I am, in how humans seem to really need to invent and tell ourselves stories, go and have a listen.

be here now..

Enough

by Jeffrey Harrison

It’s a gift, this cloudless November morning
warm enough for you to walk without a jacket
along your favorite path. The rhythmic shushing
of your feet through fallen leaves should be
enough to quiet the mind, so it surprises you
when you catch yourself telling off your boss
for a decade of accumulated injustices,
all the things you’ve never said circling inside you.

It’s the rising wind that pulls you out of it,
and you look up to see a cloud of leaves
swirling in sunlight, flickering against the blue
and rising above the treetops, as if the whole day
were sighing, Let it go, let it go,
for this moment at least, let it all go.

Autumn - Hay Castle

This ancient building is at the heart of our small town and believe it or not there is a enormous book shop in the other, not so ruined, end of the castle.  For more information about it go here

Autumn - Hay Castle

Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce..

Most people I know have particular music that really does it for them.  Usually the attachment is related to something important that happened  and the music they were listening too at the time is linked to the memory and adds to the story.  For instance, and I have written about this before, Neil Young’s Harvest Moon will be forever linked in my memory with the suicide of my friend David because that is what I was listening to when I heard the news.  Not only does it bring back David to me but it brings back the people and places we both knew.

I can remember where I was the first time I listened to Led Zeppelin (in the lunch break at college) and the first time I heard Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon (at my cousins house).  But the album that was to stand out for me and still means a great deal to me now I first heard when I was seventeen and living a ragamuffin life in a flat in Wellington.  Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town made the hair stand up on the back of my neck.  I had no idea what he was singing about, had to sit down with the cover and read the lyrics, but the moan, the slide, the  sheer dirty dark urgency and also poignancy of the songs rocked my young heart.

Still rocks my still tender, middle aged heart as well..

What brings on this rootling around in my musical past you might ask?

Just that this is going to be out in time for Christmas, and although it’s well expensive – I want…

Do you know how much I would give to time travel back and be at this concert?