It made a lot of noise.

I know this is pretty impressionistic, but if you screw up your eyes you can see what it is.

I became aware of a lot of bird noise in the garden, and when I looked I saw three woodpeckers on the peanut feeders. By the time I had reached the window that I can poke the camera out of, Mum and Dad had flown, and there was just Junior Woodpecker left behind feeding. When I first looked, Mum was on the same feeder, and Junior was making a lot of noise, asking to be fed, and getting the occasional gesture with Mum's beak, as much as to say, feed yourself, you are a big boy now!

Yes I know this is right on the limits of what my little camera can accomplish, but it is still worth it, just to have a record!

Wip and Wildlife

First a photo to show where I had to drop a stitch and pick it back up again - I discovered that I had split the yarn and left a loop right down at the beginning. Ok so it was on the inside so only I would know that it was there, but this is such Perfect Yarn that it is making me raise my standards. And being such wonderful stuff, I have got away with the fix as you can see when you run your eye down from the marker.


The yarn is Jaegar Extrafine Merino and it is wonderful. The colour is fairly close to accurate on my monitor, and I am using the same old pattern as I used for the Matchmaker - something simple since this yarn doesn't want anything too complex, but that bit of texture makes the colour look even richer.

As for the wildlife - that little brown bird on the peanut feeder is moving oddly. That would be because the little brown bird is a little brown mouse. The peanut feeders hang from the little twigs of the apple tree, so the fact that the mouse was there was pretty impressive - it must have climbed the tree, and navigated it's way out to the end of the right twig, and then down. It deserved every bit of nourishment that it got! When it had finished, it jumped, and ran for cover into the long grass by the shed.

I should have seen that one coming.

My daughter Vivienne tagged me for a meme, so here goes (we Mothers know our duty)

1. What was I doing ten years ago?

I was trying very hard to recover from the worst year of my life. 1997 was BAD. I started that year with a coronary artery by-pass op, after having two heart attacks. The year ended with me needing one of the grafts to be re-done because it hadn't worked the first time.

The heart recovered remarkably well, but I was still struggling, and it took me until early 2000 to wonder if the pain and weakness were somehow connected with the statins that I was told were necessary to life. It is not good to have to go up the stairs on all fours. It is not good to be unable to knit due to the pain in one's hands and arms. It took another three years from stopping the drug to lose most of the symptoms, and it was a long time before I realised that the mental problems ( memory difficulties, and "losing" words) had been due to the statins. I had thought that it might be brain damage after the surgery, but, if it had been, it would not have resolved itself the way it did.

So it was a hard year, and frustrating, but in general I was heading in the right direction - back to life.

2. What are five things on my to-do list for today?

This.

Take a trip with my good friend from the (closed) Post Office. Lakeland here I come for some more anti-moth stuff.

Knit some. I am working on some of the Jaegar Superfine Merino (discontinued). I find it hard to express what a delicious piece of work this is. QUALITY YARN!!

Read some. I am reading "The Domestic Manners of Americans" by Fanny Trollope. She doesn't hold back from an honestly held opinion.

Watch birds. Our feeders are rarely deserted.

3. What snacks do I enjoy?

Parsnip crisps. Parsnip chips. Roast parsnips. Hell, just parsnips.
Kettle chips.
Nuts -today I prefer cashews and macadamias. This will surely change.
Chocolate. Today it would be Green and Black's Butterscotch. This too will assuredly change.

4. Where are some of the places I have lived?

St Just, in West Cornwall -born and raised there.
Reading, when I left home to train as a nurse. They still had trolley buses then. Did you hear the one about the driver who transferred from the buses - he forgot that he was attached to overhead cables, and pulled out to overtake . . . I believe he lost his job.
The nursing didn't work out, so I moved to Dorking, and worked as a lab technician. That was the year I took part in the Leith Hill Music Festival.
In the 70's we lived in Plymouth for five years. If it has to be a city, Plymouth is a very pleasant one to live in - or certainly was then.

5. If I were a billionaire, what things would I do?

I would have my home near the sea, where I could establish it's surroundings as some kind of nature reserve.

I would have dogs and horses (I would need some help with the looking after, so that would be a good excuse to overpay somebody for doing what they enjoyed.)

I would love to be able to set up something akin to "El Sistema" - because I believe that music can always make a difference.

There are bound to be masses of things I will think of as soon as I post this - ah well.

I genuinely can't think of anyone to tag for this - Vivienne has pinched all the names I would have thought of!

Something special

This is where we sat - under the lantern in Ely cathedral.

There she goes - the reason why. Vivienne said she has always wanted to walk among ancient buildings wearing full academic rig.


Her husband and younger sister were there as well. The degree is Master of Arts in Classical Studies, and the university is the Open University, which is what made it so special.

Ok so the youngsters do well, and deserve the applause they get when they graduate, but the people who graduated here were such a varied crew and represent such dedication and massive hours of self discipline in study that the honours are deserved in a whole other way.

Old people who have obviously had to wait until retirement to find time to study the thing that fascinated them.

Middle-aged people who have just realised that if they get the qualifications they can do the thing that they really wanted to do.

People with physical problems that now have it on record that the wonky body houses a fine mind.

Mums and Dads who had to give a wave to the small children watching them - what an excellent example to set to their children.

One little Miss had her moment - five minutes before the procession she got away. She ran to the dais, and looked back - Granny was coming. So she put one foot on the steps - Granny was getting nearer. Up she went onto the dais and ran across just fast enough to keep beyond Granny's reach, and smiled at her audience all the way. You could feel the draught as the whole audience sighed "Aaaah". For the record, there was no sound of her voice for the rest of the proceedings, so she must have behaved impeccably from then on.

Oh, and I finished a pair of socks.