Long time no blog

It's a bit of a shock to discover that I haven't made an entry since early April. Perhaps it's symptomatic of the horribly dull wet summer we've had. Took time off end of April/start of May and had a wonderful break. Spent it at home but had a really good mix of doing things in the house and garden during the mornings, then having long leisurely lunches and relaxing reading, knitting etc in the afternoon. The weather was glorious and the time can be summed up by this pic The knitting is the Swallowtail shawl knit up in Posh Yarn Eva 2ply yarn in Apple. This is a pattern I was keen to try and needed to use up theis yarn so a KAL held by the Posh Yarn group acted as an incentive. Once I got started it was in fact a very quick knit and completed it in under 2 weeks.

The early warmth and rain meant that initially the garden was looking glorious and some flowers were their best ever. This Aquilega was bought from the nursery at Botanical Garden Wales many years ago. Although a single plant it has spread and provides a wonderful show. When we visited Derwen nursery early summer saw a lovely range of Aquilega and bought several to provide future colour and cover for the back border.
Did have the odd nice evening

Not the most flattering of pics but at least I'm looking happy because we'd just seen these
First sighting of cygnets for this year.

A largely non eventful summer but extremely busy at work therefore really good to have a break this last couple of weeks. Again spent some time at home gardening/doing home stuff/ haircut/ hospital appointments etc then went down to Cornwall for a week.

Fortunately the weather was wonderful and I'm always gobsmacked by the colour of the sea.

Returning from a rather long and hot walk and yes the dog was this muddy.

Unfortunately poor old Tess has really aged a bit lately but to be fair she has had to undergo a hystrectomy and removal of a cyst. She's a bit arthritic and had managed to strain her leg just before we went on holiday so was a bit limited in terms of what she and therefore us could do.

Have found that spend far more time on Ravelry than I'd anticipated and have joined a couple of groups including Sock Knitters Anonymous and took part in Sockdown September. Knit Pomatomus in Pagewood Farm Alyeska sock yarn colour Orange Spice.
There's no way I would have ever knit orange socks apart from the fact that this was one of the month's challenges. another was to knit a Cookie A pattern. I had knit Pomatomus previously but made a mistake and just ended up frogging them so this was another challenge. However got to grips with the pattern and really enjoyed knitting them and loved the orange yarn but for me they will be known as my Goldfish Socks. However do have a huge problem in that I've run out of wool 14 rows from the end of the second sock!!
Just hoping that I'm going to be able to find someone who has a small amount left.