Gardens of delight

Hello again. Hope you're having a good week. I certainly am! Mr JK and I are having a truly fabulous holiday here in Cornwall. We decided to head to the Eden Project yesterday, as the weather wasn't great. We set off early to try and beat the crowds, and spent a most enjoyable time wandering through the biomes. There is so much to see, both inside and out, and luckily, by the time we came out of the biomes, the sun was out!

We then headed up onto the North coast, to Padstow. Every other shop claimed to be selling the best pasties in Cornwall! There were lots of fish and chip shops too, from the upmarket Rick Stein's ........

..... to the more down to earth!!!

I just had to try the local ice cream. The main difficulty was deciding what flavour to have. Eventually, I settled for chunky chocolate, with clotted cream on the top! It was rather yummy!

I ate my ice cream overlooking the harbour. The whole place was buzzing with activity. A bit too busy for me, if I'm honest.

Later in the evening, we went to an old childhood favourite - Daymer Bay. It was my family's favourite beach, and seeing it again brought back many happy memories.

Afterwards we walked to St Enodoc's church, nestled in the dunes behind the beach, and saw the gravestone of John Betjeman.

You can look out across the bay and watch the sunset. A perfect end to a perfect day!

A breath of fresh air!

Hello again. It's raining here at the moment, so I thought that I'd take the opportunity to have a little chat. We had a lovely day yesterday, out and about on the North Cornwall coast. Although it wasn't particularly sunny, more importantly, it didn't rain! We started off visiting Boscastle. It's hard to imagine that in 2004, the village was devastated by a flash flood. All the damage has been repaired, and the harbour is as lovely as before.

We then called in at Tintagel, reputed to be the birthplace of King Arthur, before ending the day at Port Isaac. Port Isaac is a really lovely fishing village, with winding lanes leading down to the working harbour. It's where TV's Doc Martin was filmed, and is also the home of the SeaShanty singers, Fisherman's Friends. We're hoping to return there on Friday evening to hear them singing. I also had my (first!) cream tea in Port Isaac, and it was deeeeeeeeelicious! Going, going, scone!

I finished my pink girly socks, and they almost match. There was a join in the yarn, and I had to wind on to get to the correct colour section. Still, nobody's going to be looking that closely at my feet!

At the Old Post Office in Tintagel, there was a basket of locally made ceramic buttons. I couldn't resist! I just need to find a perfect project for each of them now!

We are off to The Eden Project today, and maybe we'll call in at Padstow later. The rain is moving east, so it should be clear mid morning. And the sun is due to shine, shine shine for the rest of the week. Yippee!

Going back down memory lane

Hello there! I hope you're having a lovely bank holiday weekend! This is my home for the next week.......

Mr JK and I are spending the week in Cornwall, in a lovely little cottage in Wadebridge. When I was a child, we holidayed in Cornwall every year, and I have lots of very happy memories of the county. This is the first time I've been back, and I'm looking forward to re-visiting some of the places I remember. We walked in to Wadebridge this morning, and I have spotted several shops that are going to need a Closer Investigation! And, I even found a yarn shop! I feel it my duty to take a further look and then report back to you all! There is an old bridge in the town that is know as the 'bridge of wool'. Legend has it that the bridge was founded in 1468 on sacks of wool!!!!!

The girly socks are progressing well, thanks to a rather long journey down here yesterday. I'm just decreasing the toe, so they will soon be done. Photos next time. In the meantime, I'm planning lots of clotted cream teas, fudge and ice creams! I'll share my first with you and say bye for now! Yum yum!

In the pink!

Hello there! I'm back, more or less in one piece! I had a great (if exhausting!) week away with the kids. Not much knitting time, as it's pretty much full-on all the time when you're the person in charge. Infact, the only knitting time I had was at night, sitting outside the kids' dormitories, making sure that they stayed in their rooms and (eventually) got to sleep! I've finished the first of my pink (in)sanity socks, and I have to say that I am loving the way the colours are working out. Mr JK says that they look very 'girly'!

I do love these self-patterning yarns. It's a real incentive to keep on knitting 'just one more round', to see what's coming next.

This yarn is a Lana Grossa one, and is lovely to knit with. There will no doubt be a little bit left to add to my ever increasing sock yarn blankie stash! Talking of which, I received these two little balls from Zyle over at Phoenix Knitting Forums this week. I'm hoping to have a real blitz on the blankie over half term. Mr JK and I are off to Cornwall for the week, so I thought that it would be some easy, portable knitting.

Just a couple of flowery photos to finish with today - the aquilegia has started to bloom this week. It's one of my favourite flowers. I don't think this is the colour we actually planted, but from what I remember, they seem to change colour gradually over the years.

I spotted a flower on the oxalis plant today too! This came from a clump dug up when we sold my Mum and Dad's house a couple of years ago. It always grew outside the back door, so it's a real reminder of my childhood.

It's a beautiful sunny day here in Norfolk, so I think I'm going to make myself a cuppa, grab some knitting and go and make the most of the rest of the day in the garden. Have a good week!

Getting ready for a week of insanity!

Good afternoon. Hope you're well. I have been savouring the peace and quiet for the last couple of days, and with good reason! Tomorrow I am taking my class away on a residential visit for the week. It's going to be action packed - canoeing, archery, pottery and orienteering to name but a few of the activities we'll be doing. But I've done the maths! Thirty one children shared between 4 dormitories equals not much sleep, at least for the first night! So I've packed some knitting. Nothing complicated, because I'm just going to need to knit to stay sane! I've chosen socks (what else?!) and here they are all ready for the off! I bought the yarn on a visit to Dublin, and it's been sat in my stash waiting for the perfect time! I've called them my Pink (In)sanity socks! I'll show you how far I've got next weekend.

I've finished all the crocheting of my stripy cotton bag. I decided to do two rows of double crochet to edge the bag and strap, and I also did Lucy at Attic24's Bobble-Shell edging along the front flap. I'm liking it a little more than last week (although it does make me think of a stripy hospital dressing gown!). Here's a close up of the strap. The colours remind me a little of sugared almonds. I always used to get a box from my Mum and Dad at Christmas!

I love the Bobble-Shell edging - it gives a really pretty finish. Lucy explains it all so clearly over at Attic24.

I even followed Lucy's instructions on how to crochet Granny squares together, to join the bag up. So simple when you know how! This is how the bag looks at the moment.

I've just bought a magnetic clasp fastener from eBay, and am thinking of using that, covered by a crochet flower. I can't make up my mind if it needs any more prettifying after that. What do you think?

I'm going to line it using the leftovers from my other crochet bag. There's probably a law somewhere that forbids you to put spots and stripes together, but never mind!

Well, I shall bid you farewell for the week. I need to go and pack the rest of my things - I'm not going to get very far with just my knitting bag! See you on Sunday, and have a good week!

Handbags, shoes and ..................veggies!

Hello there! Hope you've had a good week. It's been a busy one in the JK household, and I was glad when the weekend arrrived! Yesterday was horrid - wet and cold. It was the perfect day to sit in front of the woodburner and do something yarny! Which I duly did. Now I know that last week I told you that I wasn't going to start anything else until I'd finished some of my rather long-standing projects. Well............. things didn't go exactly to plan! I've had this little summer bag for several years. I think it came from Tesco, and it's starting to look a little bit tatty.

When we were in Poland earlier in the year, I bought some cotton yarn, with a summery bag in mind. Over at Attic24, Lucy blogged about a bag that she'd started, and I'm basing my bag on her design. I wasn't too sure about the size, and by the time I decided that I'd made it too big, I'd got quite a lot of cut ends, so instead of my stripes going horizontally, they go vertically. I still have the handle to make, edging to do, and then I'm going to line it and prettify it! At the moment I'm not quite loving it - I think that horizontal stripes would probably have been better, but I'll stick with it! Take a look.

The strap will go right the way round the bag, giving it some depth, and will fasten with a button and loop. I'll try and get it all finished to show you next week.
I was sooooooooo excited this week, I can't tell you! I got some new shoes! And they fit! I have big, wide feet, and shoe shopping has always been a nightmare. I can remember only too well the visits to the shoe shop as a child, only to be offered one style of flat lace-up shoe. I hated it! I've had the same size feet (UK 9, European 43) since I was 11 years old, and have for the last few years, lived in Birkenstocks in the summer, and slip-on suede trainers (mens) in the winter! So imagine my delight when I discovered the Tall Girls website. I don't do heels (I can't walk in them, and as I'm already just over 6 ft tall, I don't especially want to add to my inches!) so was thrilled to find a huge choice of flatties! These are what I chose (I painted my toenails especially in celebration!)

I can even get a pair of hand-knitted socks on with the shoes! Yippee!

Despite the somewhat chilly weather, the garden and greenhouse are looking great. The bluebells are flowering along the fence in the front garden.

The bleeding heart has gone completely mad, and is taking over the entire border! I love the flowers on this plant. It always amazes me just how suddenly it appears. Four weeks ago, it was barely peeping through the soil, and look at it now!

Here's a close-up of those beautiful flowers.

The forget-me-nots are blooming too. I especially love these as they come from my parents' garden, so I always think of my dear Mum and Dad when I look at them.

Mr Josiekitten has been really busy in the greenhouse, and it looks fantastic! There are flowers on the tomato plants already! We need some hot sun now to really get things going. I've lost count of the number of veggies that he is growing, but here's a list of those I can remember - peas, French beans, mangetout, courgettes, peppers, red cabbage, green cabbage, cauliflower, swede, carrots, leeks, onions, garlic, potatoes, red and white onions, shallots, aubergines, celery, pak choi, cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots and rocket..........here's hoping for a self-sufficient summer!

Fingers crossed for some sunshine this week. Hope you have a good one!

Tiptoeing

Hello there. I hope you've had a good weekend. Mr JK and I had a lovely, albeit somewhat damp, long weekend in Amsterdam. We flew over after work on Friday, and arrived at the tail end of Queen's Day. It's a public holiday in The Netherlands to celebrate the Queen's birthday, and we were swept along in a sea of orange! Inflatable crowns, caps, garlands, clogs, balloons - great fun seemed to be had by all! We did a variety of touristy things during the course of the weekend. We visited the Hermitage museum to see an exhibition of modern art. It was amazing to be able to see some really incredible works by Matisse, Picasso and Kandinsky, to name but a few. We wandered through markets, listened to a really beautiful performance of a Mozart piano concerto at the Concertgebouw by an extremely talented young Ukrainian performer, Anna Fedorova, visited the Anne Frank House and were just spellbound by the sheer number of tulips at the Keukenhof Gardens. It's hard to describe the experience - colour everywhere. Simply stunning! Here's a little taste.

The theme of Keukenhof this year was 'From Russia with Love', and there was a tulip mosaic of St Basil's Basilica in Red Square. In honour of all things Russian, I treated myself to a little Russian Doll pin. Very cute, I thought!

On the hooky front, I finally finished my Ripple scarf and am pretty pleased with how it turned out. I do like the combination of colours and I'm sure that it will get lots of wear this spring.

I also finished my Monkey socks. I love them! They are so bright, they almost need to come with a healthy warning, or a pair of sunglasses at the very least! I hope you've got yours ready!

I'm going to try to resist the temptation to start any new projects for the moment and get existing ones finished! Yes, I know you've heard that one before! I just hope that I've got something small enough to fit into my bag as my travelling project! Come back next week and see if I've managed it! Have a good week. Byeeeeeeeeee!