A very late May update

So the switched on of you will notice that May has in fact passed us by and it is now June. Well done you. Yes I’m late with this one. I was hoping to get this post finished before I left for holidays. Always overambitious me. Surprise, surprise, it didn’t get done. Packing, washing and general work things took over, and while writing is always high on the list, things came up which were more of a priority. Packing pants for example. So I’ll write this post as if I’d actually finished it in May. It might be better than lumping May, holiday and June altogether. Digestible chunks eh?

Who knew that May would be so busy. General life busyness has resulted in not a lot of blogging. Again, huge apologies. Sometimes it’s far too easy to get swept away with it all. I’ll try for better this month. Promise.

May saw the start of our health kick. It started so well. I’m even eating vegetables now! I know! Who’d have thought? The Parents nearly fell off their seats. Mostly it included lots of lovely walks to accompany the delicious spring weather.

We’re very lucky to have so many mountains here. I miss them when we’re away. Rather than living in a valley, we live in a basin – a very important definition here – so there’ll be a mountain in every direction you look. While this gives difficult weather sometimes, it’s amazingly pretty. See Himself pointing at the prettiness.

Everything looks so small from up here. We of course played the obligatory Can We See Our House game, which of course turned into the What Else Can We See game. Every time we head up there we tend to be chased by ominous looking clouds. Last time we got absolutely drenched, so we made a quick descent down. I did however get told off for stopping to take some pictures of some pretty flowers. Standard operating mode then..

Later on that week I had cause to wander along our castle path where the daisies had recently exploded. It reminded me of the scene from Wizard of Oz.

See what I mean about mountains in every direction?

I also had some more bird sightings in the form of these gorgeous goslings!

So fluffy and new. So lovely to see them all wandering about in a family unit. I’ve had too many heartbroken days seeing chicks being picked off one by one at the hands (or wings?) of seagulls. Good to see them looked after. It’s strange how different kinds of birds look after their little ones. Geese must be quite good, but I know ducks have no such worries.

In fact, I think ducks just like to wander most of the time. I found these two outside work on a busy pedestrianised street, a far distance from where I think they should have been. They were very friendly though and seemed to follow me about for a bit. Maybe they just like to go window shopping just like the rest of us?

I also saw the elusive Muscovy Ducks! Not so elusive that night I can tell you.

About 5 minutes into this particular walk I spotted the milling about by the bridge. They very obligingly let me get quite close and take some pictures, although they did look at me in a ‘What is this woman doing?’ manner. Anyway, pictures done, time to carry on with the walk.

I love this time of the day. Where things aren’t too hot, the light is so pretty and the air smells delicious. Everyone just seems in a better mood at this time of the night. And there were still some pretty flowers clinging on to the sun.

But I was slightly alarmed that when I got back to the bridge the ducks were still there! Obviously nesting down for the night, but practically on the path. They must be either very friendly, very foolish or a strange combination of both. I have to admit, I was worried.

As I was planning to head out the next morning I decided to wander their way to see if they’d slept well and safely.

And there they were! The other side of the path and absolutely fine. Proof if ever I needed it that I worry too much and over nothing. It did mean that I could get this interesting action shot though.

I wonder if I should give them nicknames?

Right at the start of the month we saw another election day roll around. (Yes I know we’ve had another one since then, I’ll get to that later.) I may have mentioned before that I have poll clerk duties in a school in central Cardiff. While it’s a long day, I absolutely love it. Obviously the money is a key factor, but it’s so nice to be involved in it. Sometimes I think it’s so easy to feel desensitized about elections, especially when you’ve been force fed political material for weeks on end. This is a way of being part of the process, but without having to make speeches or argue views. (Because lets face it, ‘All of the people can’t be all right all of the time’ Bob Dylan.) It’s our job to uphold the democratic process and I’m proud to do so.

I also think that I got really lucky with my station. While we only have a small area, its densely populated by active voters so we have a huge register with a good turnout. And with a few exceptions, they’re all really lovely. It feels wonderful to be accepted into a community that isn’t my own for one or two (three or four last year!) days a year. We’ve seen little bumps, turn into big bumps that turn into babies and toddlers, and sadly the decline in others. Everyone seems to accept that I’ll be doing some sort of craft, but one lady in particular always comes and shows me her projects too. We get the official stuff out of the way, then get down to a chat about what we’ve been working on. She’s one of the highlights of my day and I always make sure I’ve got my best projects to show her. As a good poll clerk I know that I’m unable to take photographs in a polling station, otherwise I’d have taken some pictures of her projects. We may have to have a chat outside next time so I can show you!

Probably the most important event in May (apart from the holiday of course), was the big birthday of Himself.

Doesn’t he look joyous?!?

Despite the gibb, he was pretty happy with his haul and special day. This was at about six in the morning, so you can forgive the face. Excited Mother-in-Law called round before work with birthday hat, balloons and of course presents. We are now a Nintendo Switch household! Although I probably shouldn’t shout that over the internet. Security etc. Anyway, back to bed so he could play and I could get some more sleep. I do love sleepy in bed days.

I wholeheartedly believe that you should always have a fancy breakfast on your birthday. This was the remnants of ours.

I’ve said before that one of the best things about living with someone is being able to make up your own traditions. It’s a fairly new one, but we have cream tea breakfast in bed on birthdays. This will divide some of you I know. But it’s so lovely to be so indulgent so early in the morning. We usually get some pastries – as if the scones weren’t enough! – and some of our favourite fruit juice, sometimes some fruit and go for it. I love it. I have to admit that it wasn’t my idea. Himself surprised me with it last year and I thought I’d carry it on.

The day continued in a dopey fashion which lots of playing with new toys. Topped off with dinner at The Parents-in-Law with cake and candles. Top notch.

We also had another smaller, low key birthday to celebrate.

The monsters have turned two! They’ll still always be kittens to me! No party hats or cake, though I wish I’d organised something. I always mean to make a fuss and then realise that they wouldn’t understand or care if I did. They got extra cuddles and we didn’t moan so much when they were having a shout. They seemed happy enough.

Where’s the craft I hear you asking. Lets crack on with it then.

No update post would from me would be complete without a craft update, but I’m sorry to say May was a quiet one. Yes life has been happening as it sometimes does, but I’ve also been furiously working away on the ATR project which is imminent. Not to freak you out Mrs ATR if you’re reading but it’s imminent! Everything else has been put on a slight back burner, but I have managed to make some progress.

Let’s talk about the sock first. Last time I spoke to you about the socks I was only about 6 rows into the cuff but very much hooked already. It was working up surprisingly quickly. Cuff was quickly done and onto the leg. I was steaming away! But there was something wrong and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Can anyone tell what happened?

Yup. I was knitting it inside out. What a fool! For the longest time I couldn’t work out what I was doing wrong. It looked right, but somehow not.

I got to this point and decided I couldn’t stand it anymore. I had to find out what i was doing wrong. I spent one very late night refusing to go to sleep until I could figure out what the problem was. And eventually I found it. Backwards. Sigh. Having never worked on circulars before I guess it was an easy thing to do, but I felt like a huge idiot. I was knitting with the needles facing away from me at the back, rather than towards me at the front. Please tell me someone else has made this mistake?

I could have just continued to knit it backwards and account for it, but no, I ripped it out. I keep telling myself it was good practice. I spent the majority of election day trying to get back to where I was, but, and this is very important, THE RIGHT WAY AROUND! Double sigh. So here we are. My sock progress for May up until we flew away.

I also got very excited last time about how up-to-date I was with the temp blanket. Yup, you’ve guessed it, this very quickly went out of the window. I managed to get to the end of April and then changed my focus to ATR stuff. Not much further than the last picture I’m afraid.

Despite the lack of progress, I can really see this coming on. It’s crazy to think that a huge chunk of the year has passed already. While none of May is on there, I can confirm that it starts to get a lot more interesting colour wise. Watch this space!

I’ll leave this here for now. I’m trying to restrain myself for the other posts that will hopefully be coming your way very soon!

 

Much love x