Wednesday 30 December 2009

Blue Moon and Lunar Eclipse

Just to remind you that there is a blue moon tomorrow evening (second full moon in a calendar month) and a partial lunar eclipse at 19:23. Lets hope we have clear skies!

Thursday 24 December 2009

Sunrise at Stonehenge Shortest Day 2009

Stonehenge at Sunset Winter Solstice 2009

Images from our Winter Solstice Walk Amesbury - Stonehenge - Woodhenge

Winter Solstice 2009

Way back in the summer we booked a couple of nights in the Travelodge just north of Amesbury so that we could visit Stonehenge for the Winter Solstice. We drove up on Sunday afternoon and just got there in time to see the sun setting over the henge. That was the last we saw of the sun until we got home! I also bumped into an old friend that I hadn't seen in a while which was a lovely suprise.

Here are a few pictures - if you have x-ray vision you may be able to spot the sliver of a new moon above the henge!




The following morning, after a hearty breakfast in a Little Chef, we set out for a walk through Amesbury, across the fields to Stonehenge, along the Caucus, down to Woodhenge and back to Amesbury. It was supposed to be 8 miles but we actually walked a mile or so further as I misinterpreted the instructions in one place. It was a very cold, grey day and by the time we reached Woodhenge it was quite dark and snowing. We had thought that we would walk back to Stonehenge for the sunset but time was against us plus we didn't fancy trying to find our way back across the fields over frozen, icy fields in the dark. So we drove over and stood by the Heel Stone while, unseen, the sun set. It was still snowing and quite magical. Later that evening we walked through the snow into Amesbury for our solstice feast at a Chinese restaurant in the town. Very fetching we looked too in our thermal trousers and walking boots.

The following morning there was free access to the stones for the sunrise on the shortest day. There was freezing fog and it was very cold. You couldn't even see the stones from the car park! We had plenty of layers on and walking boots so we didn't notice the cold except for my toes. No sign of the sun so we had to rely on watches to know when the moment arrived. I had planned that we would go up to Avebury later in the day but as the weather was so atrocious we decided to come straight home after another good breakfast in the Little Chef.

I am putting the photos that we took on the walk, at sunset and sunrise as 3 slide shows in 3 separate posts as Blogger gets upset when text and an embedded slideshow get put in the same post so please remember to have a look at them. Mark's camera seemed to cope better with the freezing fog than mine. The first shots I took look like I was in a blizzard - quite atmospheric but the weather wasn't that bad - quite.

Monday 14 December 2009

Farewell to Borders

Yesterday morning we walked from Coy Pond through Bournemouth Gardens into the town for what will probably be our last visit to Borders. The bookstore is in Administration and there is a massive sale of all the stock. Mark bought some CDs and I bought three books, a couple by Osho (Maturity and Body Mind Balancing) and The Philosopher and the Wolf by Mark Rowlands which looks pretty unputdownable. We bumped into several friends in the store.


It will be sad to see the end of Borders. I feel sorry for the staff of the store and Starbucks which will also have to close. For me there will be no real reason to go to Bournemouth to shop any more. There is a Waterstones in the town but it's selection of books in topics that interest me is definitely inferior or non-existent.

Saturday 28 November 2009

Friday 6 November 2009

Mark's new website

For the last week or so I have been slaving over a hot computer creating a website for Mark. It went live today. The domain name is www.yogawithmark.co.uk Although I took my own website as a starting point it took a lot longer to develop than I thought that it would and I hit a few problems along the way. I have to say though that as a result I've learnt quite a bit! I use Publisher to create and maintain my website (yes, yes, I know it's ****, but it's what I've got and know and I'm not ready to bite the bullet and change) The most important thing that I've learnt to do is how to link to images rather than have them embedded in the document. This makes the website more efficient and quicker to load. I spent ages searching MS documentation trying to find out how to do this to no avail. Eventually I found this basic article which put me on the right track. From there I searched the web to find out more about the 'img' element. As they say "If a jobs worth doing, it's worth doing well" so I decided to define alternative text (alt attribute) and width and height as well for each image. Specifying the height and width makes the loading of the website more efficient. The alternative text is displayed if the browser cannot display the image for some reason.


Having finished the website I previewed it in Firefox, our default browser, and was very happy with the result. Feeling pleased with myself I loaded the site into Mark's webspace and checked it out with IE. Eeeek! My heart sank. No pictures. Or rather each picture was replaced by a thin line. There followed hours of frustrated tinkering trying to find out what was upsetting IE. Eventually I managed to right click on a line and read its properties. It turned out that IE was interpreting the width correctly but was setting the height to 1px! More trawling of the web followed. This time I was searching, unsuccessfully, for a solution. There are many requests on message boards for help with various problems to do with IE not displaying pictures correctly/at all and a lot of 'ill will' directed towards MS, IE and Publisher. Most replies to requests for help were to advise not to use Publisher. No help to me with my site already developed and looking great, though I say so myself, in Firefox! I was resigned to having to embed the images after all and took myself off for a bath before going to bed to sleep on it.


Eureka! As so often is the case inspiration came to me as I sank beneath the water. The banner to Amazon displays correctly in IE so maybe looking at the HTML fragment for that would give me a clue as to the way around the problem. I discovered that Amazon specifies the height and width in a style element. I tried it and it worked! If you should be having the same problem (and in case I forget) here is an example of the HTML fragment that you need to put in your Publisher document.


<img src = "domainname/directoryname/imagename" style="width:140px;height:105px;" alt = "Your alternative text" />


The imagename is case sensitive so make sure that you type it exactly as it is in the directory listing. Replace 140 and 105 with the dimensions you want.



Another couple of tips to ensure that you keep IE happy are
  1. put the element and attribute tags in lower case (img rather than IMG) and 
  2. ensure that there is a space followed by / before the closing >
as I have done above.


Having learnt how to link to images I now need to alter my own website. That's going to be a slow and laborious task which I don't relish. I think I will have to break it down into more manageable chunks!


Warning - developing a website can be addictive! I've not achieved much else this week.

Friday 23 October 2009

The World's Healthiest Foods Website

A quick word about a really useful website that I came across recently. It's called The World's Healthiest Foods and it is a database of healthy ingredients with nutritional information, cooking articles, recipes, and cooking methods. I came across it whilst looking for some advice on how to increase Omega 3 in our diet to help my husband's eczema. If you are interested in a healthy, nutritious diet I recommend that you have a look at this site. 10 million visitors a year can't be wrong! The site is written with enthusiasm and it encourages you rather than preaches at you. I found the Recipe Assistant particularly useful. This assistant helps you search the database for recipes based on your personal needs. You can select foods to include, foods to exclude and nutrients that you require. A nutritional profile is given for each recipe. I have tried several of the recipes so far. They have all been quick and easy to prepare and, most importantly, delicious! You will have to translate the recipies from American. They use cups for measurement and some ingredients are known by a different name than we use here.

Thursday 15 October 2009

Poole Harbour & Brownsea Island

Yesterday was another glorious autumn day. Mark, Mum and I went over to Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour. We took a ferry boat from Poole Quay, close by the statue of Baden-Powell, across to the island. When we set off it was still overcast and quite chilly on the water but as the day wore on the sun came out and it quickly warmed up.

We saw our first red squirrel shortly after leaving the quayside. It ran across our path as we made our way towards the church. The reds are easy to spot on warm days at this time of year as they are busy feeding on the beech mast and sweet chestnuts. One squirrel spent a long time scampering around in an large relatively open area and we spent quite some time watching it, absolutely spellbound. This squirrel was getting its darker winter coat but has a red band around its tail! I managed to get a couple photos and Mark, who has x40 magnification on his digital camera, managed to get a couple of video clips.

If you don't know Brownsea Island or anything about Red Squirrels then you can take a Red Squirrel guided walk (morning and afternoons until 25th October) which will take you to the best places for seeing the squirrels. For those less able visitors there is a free tractor-trailer trail which runs twice a day (again morning and afternoon).

I hope that you enjoyed the slideshow of our pictures in the previous post. For some reason Blogger has a fit when I try and put text in the same post as the slideshow so I've had to split the post into two! Blogger also doesn't allow video clips any more so I can't show Marks video of the red quirrel eating at present.

P.S.
I have put Mark's video clips of the squirrel eating on youtube. Here are the links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1EmHx5yz1M and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_DYDu7dws8 

Check out this clip that's been put on youtube of a Brownsea squirrel burying a nut - soooo cute! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8FNeUZXlwM

Brownsea Island & Poole Harbour Slideshow

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Moyles Court and Summerlug Hill Walk


Pond at Summerlug Hill

After a cold start this morning it turned into a glorious autumn day. Mark and I drove out to the New Forest for a walk. We started at Moyles Court and followed the Avon Valley Path to Mockbeggar. From there we climbed up Summerlug Hill, walked across the heath and then down to Rodents Bottom, returning to Moyles Court via Bigsburn Hill and Rockford.

This is a superb little walk. Fields, streams, fords, woods, heathland, paddocks, a pond, fantastic views, ancient oaks, ponies, donkeys... all in 3 miles! There are a couple of places that are muddy but we managed to cross them on logs etc pretty much unsullied. In wetter times wellies would be in order.


The leaves on the trees are changing colour and the bracken has turned the colour of my childhood canine companion, Chum. In another couple of weeks the colour will be magnificant. There are a lot of holly berries around. I have noticed that quite often in the forest there are oaks and holly growing together - seemingly from the same spot in the ground! I haven't managed to get a satisfactory picture yet because the oak is usually much taller than the holly but I did manage to get one picture today with both holly and oak leaves in it.


On Summerlug Hill there is a pond and we sat there watching the reflections of the clouds in the water as we ate our sarnies. As we made our way back to the car we met a couple of friendly donkeys who came over for a pet.







If you fancy taking this walk the route is in Jarrold Short Walks - the New Forest National Park.

Sunday 11 October 2009

Haiku

Long-tailed tits chirping
Nearly bare apple branches -
Below cat watches.

Monday 5 October 2009

Bee on chrysanth


I captured this bee gorging itself on the chrysanthemum in the garden. It was there for such a long time I had to check whether it was still alive!

Moorhen in tree






I spotted this moorhen sitting in the tree in Poole Park.

Wednesday 30 September 2009

Check the content of your loo rolls.

"Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age." Allen Hershkowitz

In the Fall 2009 issue of Yoga + Joyful Living there is an article about Allen Hershjowitz, a scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. The nonprofit  NRDC works with organisations and businesses in the US to reduce their environmental toll. The article is well worth reading article online. In case you don't have the time or inclination to read the whole article here are the pertinent points about toilet paper and how we can help deforestation by being discerning when we buy our loo rolls.

Old-growth forests, tropical and sub-tropical forests, boreal forests, and many others are being decimated by the manufacturers of toilet manufacturers. "Deforestation causes more global warming pollution than all the combined emissions of cars, trucks, buses, airplanes, and ships in the entire world" Allen Hershkowitz

Do your bit to prevent deforestatino by buying toilet rolls that do not contain virgin fibre Instead aim for products with a recycled content. If you cannot buy paper with a recycled content then make sure that any virgin fibres used are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Here's are startling statistic:

"If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with a 100% recycled roll, we could save 423,900 trees." Just imagine that extrapolated worldwide. So please do your bit and check the content of your loo rolls before you buy.

The Godfather of Greening |

The Godfather of Greening |

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Bee on Scabious



Bee on Scabious

Preening Swans



Poole Harbour swan family preening at the bottom of the slip way next to the old lifeboat station.

Friday 18 September 2009

Road Closure Latest

On Tuesday we had another letter from Southern Gas Network apologising for the confusion and clarifying the position regarding the road closure!

Between 21st September and 14th December Fernside Road will be closed to traffic travelling from The New Inn towards The Shah of Persia. Vehicles travelling in the opposite direction (Shah to New Inn) will be uanffected.

I'll check on Monday and if it's any different I will let you know!

Bournemouth Westcliff

Yesterday we went for a walk along the Westcliff. Although there was a cold wind it was a glorious day. The sun was shining and the sky was blue. The sea reflected the blue of the sky and the sunlight danced on the water. I was hopeful of seeing the northern bottlenose whale which is visiting Poole Bay but alas I am still waiting for my first sighting of a whale. We had gone up onto the cliffs because that is the best place to be able to spot Gilbert as the whale has been named. If you want to go and try a bit of whale spotting then go up onto the cliffs between Bournemouth pier and Branksome Chine. If you spot him from the cliffs and he is not too far out you can then run down to the beach for a closer look! Fortunately everyone has been sensible about not trying to go out with boats to see Gilbert which would cause the animal distress. Everyone is delighted that he's here and hope that he remains healthy and can find his way back to his pod in the Atlantic soon.


BBC news report on Gilbert

Wednesday 16 September 2009

 
Viburnum fragrance
Sunshine filtered by green boughs -
A fallen conker!

Saturday 12 September 2009

Fernside Road closure - Latest

Eastbound, going South,
Travelling to the North-west.
Which way's closed? Who knows!
First of all they said Fernside Road would be closed eastbound from 21st September. Then last week the notices were changed to say closed southbound - which made no sense. And yesterday we had a letter saying the road would be closed for travel in a northwesterly direction. If you're coming this way the week after next just keep your eyes open and your wits about you!

Thursday 10 September 2009

The bee and the spider

Behind the curtain -
condensation on the glass,
brilliant blue sky
This morning I stopped to watch bees visiting the scabious and lavender flowers in the garden. There was a beautiful spider's web suspended between a lavender plant and the acer. It's builder was waiting patiently at it's centre. As I looked at the web a bee flew into it. My heart jumped into my mouth. Instantly the thought arose to rescue it followed immediately by the command 'Don't!'. I watched as the spider sprang forward and ran to it's victim. Immediately it sensed danger and returned to the centre of it's web as swiftly as it had charged out.
Not much effort was required on the part of the bee to free itself. It's movements and weight combined were too much for the fine threads which broke. The bee tumbled down, laddering the web on it's decent until it fell free and flew away.
Exquisite death trap!
Ensnared bee, nimble spider
who'll be the victim?

Friday 28 August 2009

A Berry Good Year

While we've been out walking recently I've noticed that the trees are already showing signs of Autumn and are beginning to withdraw the nutrients from their leaves. It's strange that we think of August as still the summer because really it is the end of the summer and the start of autumn. In a little less than a month the days will be shorter than the nights.

The summer is fantastic of course but  I think that the autumn is a glorious time of year. From what I've seen this year is a great one for berries. Sloe, hawthorn, elder, rowan, blackberries, guelder rose and holly all seem to be laden with berries this year. Here are some berry nice photos for you!


Advance notification of Road closure

Fernside Road will be closed eastbound between Wimborne and Ringwood Roads from 21st September to 14th December for gas main repairs. If you are coming to us from the west you will need to find an alternative route to avoid the section between the New Inn and the Shah of Persia. If you are not sure (or forget!) continue along Wimborne Road as if going into the town centre then turn left at the Tatnum into Garland Road. Turn immediately left again into Jolliffe Road. Then either park at the far end of Jolliffe Road or turn right into Brailswood Road and park there.When you leave you will be able to turn left into Fernside Road to travel towards Fleetsbridge.

Wednesday 26 August 2009

A Spa with no water!

Every 3 or 4 months we treat ourselves to a visit to the Thermae Bath Spa. As we had been in Gloucester over the weekend we decided to stop off at the spa on the way home. When we arrived there was a notice saying that the lavender steam pod was closed for maintenance. As there are three other pods we weren't too concerned about the closure of one. I was disappointed that the waterfall shower didn't appear to be working either. As it is next to the lavender steam pod we thought that it must be out because of the work being done on the latter. We then realised that the whole complex was without water. Well, apart from that already in the pools that is. There was no water to the showers or foot baths or toilets or basins and no steam in the steam pods for a large chunk of our two hour session. We were very disappointed. Fortunately the water came back shortly before the end of our session so we got to go under the waterfall shower after all.

Monday 24 August 2009

Weekend in the Cotswolds

Mark and I have just spent a couple of nights in the Cotswolds. We travelled up on Saturday morning hoping for some dry weather so that we could do some walks from More Cotswold: Walks (Pathfinder Guide). We stayed at the Holiday Inn in Gloucester. Mark booked the room several months ago for the great rate of £29 a night. The rack rate is £105 for Saturday and £229 for Sunday (does anyone actually pay these rates?)! When we checked in we bought breakfast vouchers. Usually you can buy these for less than the menu price if you buy them when you check in but do remember to check first. The price for a breakfast voucher this weekend was £8.50. I find a Full English Breakfast sets me up for the day and I don't need much at lunchtime. Having checked in we drove over to Painswick for a late afternoon walk (walk 19 in the Pathfinder Guide).

I enjoyed this walk which went up to the Iron Age Hill Fort at Painswick Beacon. The guide gives an estimate of 3 hours for the walk. It took us three hours with a stop for tea at the Falcon Inn in Painswick. The Falcon Inn has one of the oldest bowling greens in Britain (it was around in 1554) in its grounds and we made a mental note that the Inn had a good menu and used local produce.

The walk itself took us along some lanes and tracks with fantastic old hedgerows which had scabious, wild thyme and wild clematis growing in them. We also spotted a Magpie moth resting on a leaf. Halfway up the beacon there was a seat in memory of 'Stumpy'. Two hanging baskets were suspended, one at each end of the seat, which I thought was a lovely idea. There was also a container of water tied to the leg of the seat so we stopped to give the baskets a drink. The walk took us through a golf course. There was a house on the edge of the course with two topiary golf balls on either side of it's entrance which made us smile. We spotted two golf balls in the grass so I took a photo. I would have like to have lined the balls up but even though no one was playing that part of the course I thought I'd better not! By the time we got back to Painswick at the end of the walk it was around 6.30pm so we decided to go back to the Falcon Inn for our meal. It was excellent. We both had the Thai style fishcakes, which were served with a side salad, followed by the chocolate experience. I certainly can recommend the food there.






On Sunday morning, after a hearty breakfast, we drove to Crickley Hill Country Park a few miles north of Gloucester. We followed the route given for Walk 20 Crickley Hill and Leckhampton Hill. This was a 7 mile long walk with fine views but I would have preferred less walking on tarmac. I was out of sorts a bit anyway because my walking boots were causing pain in my right metatarsals. I have short, wide feet and find buying shoes and boots a problem. Currently I have a pair of Meindl boots. I've had them a few years and they've not been too uncomfortable but I guess two long walks on consecutive days with hot feet were too much. Highlights of this walk were the views, 250 year old beech trees, wild cherry and masses of green holly berries. Along the walk there were several places with loaded blackberry bushes... and no one picking them! I would have been tempted to pick if I'd had a container even though we were away from home. We took a detour on Leckhampton Hill to see the Devil's Chimney which was created by quarrymen in the 19th century. Note that there is a hairy crossing of the A417 and A436 roads at the end of the walk.



After our walk we went into Cheltenham for coffee and a cake and to buy provisions for an evening picnic supper. Then we drove to the Cotswold Water Park where we, more or less, followed the route of Walk 4 Thames and Severn Canal and Cerney Wick. By now the sun had put in an appearance and it turned out to be a lovely afternoon. We reached the cafe at the visitor centre just before it closed and enjoyed a cuppa by one of the lakes. The walk followed a disused railway and the towpath of the disused Thames and Severn canal and was much more interesting than our mornings walk. Looking at the map we had expected a fairly open walk even though the guidebook mentioned woodland. In fact it turned out to be a very pleasant woody walk. The lakes themselves were created by gravel extraction and there are now several gated housing developments beside some of the lakes together with water sports facilities. The only downside was the noise from the nearby A416 which has one of those very noisy surfaces. I was particularly taken with the arches in the disused railway bridges which had beautiful oval openings in the supporting walls and by a new bridge with bull rush railings.

Friday 14 August 2009

Cake

The anticipated courgette glut has yet to materialise. I seem to be keeping up with all that the plants produce. As a result I had to save up a couple of days harvest to get the 1lb required to make the Chocolate Courgette Cake in the Five-a-day Fruit and Vegetable Cookbook . The cake is a tray bake and the recipe was easy to follow. It makes a very moist cake which went down very well with my afternoon decaf. I'm not sure how to describe the flavour. You can taste the chocolate and the allspice and you can also taste the courgette but it's flavour is not so obvious. I had to eat some courgette by itself tonight just to be sure I wasn't imagining it! The whole thing has a wholesome sort of taste and I will definitely make it again. Alarmingly the recipe states it serves four to six. Maybe six navvies or growing teenagers! I cut mine into 16 portions and find 1 is quite enough. By the way the recipe is virtually identical to that for Chocolate Zucchini Cake given in What Will I Do with All Those Courgettes?. The latter uses sour cream or yogurt in place of the milk.

If you would like to know a little more about the Five-a-day Fruit and Vegetable Cookbook then read on. The book, which runs to a little over 500 pages, begins by explaining the size of a portion and how many times you can count it a day. For example spuds don't count towards your five-a-day and no matter how much fruit juice you drink a day it only counts as 1 portion. The same goes for dried fruits. The fruits and veggies are then presented in groups (stone fruits, berries and currants, squashes etc). Each fruit (or veg.) in the group is described and information is given about its nutritional value and how to buy, store, prepare and cook it. This is followed by recipes incorporating the various fruits (or veggies!) from the group. It is sumptuously illustrated with photographs throughout.

Swans and Foxes

Around midday yesterday I took a break from my labours and went for a walk through the park, around Baiter and back through the park. The reed beds that were created a couple of years ago are beginning to look really good and hopefully will provide accommodation for lots of wildlife.

As I mentioned previously on Monday I had my first sighting of the harbour swan family. Yesterday I saw the Poole Park signet! Whereas the harbour swans are excellent parents the breeding pair in the park are not. They have failed to rear any young previously. The cob (male) is extremely aggressive and the pen (female) seems to loose interest. Last year they lost 3 signets very early on. The pen looked after the remaining youngster for a while and then deserted it. A regular visitor to the park noticed and contacted the ranger who managed to rescue it and take it to a sanctuary where, in spite of it being very small, it thrived and I hope that it still does to this day. So it was very pleasing to see that the mother still has one healthy looking signet this late in the summer. Fingers crossed that it survives to adulthood.

Further on around the lake I stopped and watched a pair of swans performing their courtship dance which involves slow, synchronised movements of the head and neck. It was very beautiful to watch. After a while I thought 'You chump, why aren't you filming this!', I got my camera out and of course by the time I had got myself sorted out the dance was over. So unfortunately you don't get to see it.

I walked the route anticlockwise which meant that I could see the foxes lair from some way off. As I approached I saw one fox climb up the bank, nose rub its mate and then disappear through the fence. As I got within shooting range the second fox, taking its time got to its feet and followed.

Here are a few photos for you.










Monday 10 August 2009

First sighting


There is a pair of swans in Poole Harbour that are really good parents. They regularly successfully rear 4 or 5 youngsters each year. In the summer I often see them and their signets at the quay swimming around the boats and pontoons. But this year I hadn't seen them and I was beginning to think that something must have happened to one or other of the pair. So I was delighted to see them this morning with three healthy looking signets.

Thursday 6 August 2009

Foxy sighting

It stopped raining for a while yesterday and so Mark and I took the opportunity to get out for a walk. When it warms up and the sun shows its face after a rainy start there is a good chance of seeing Whitecliff Fox. It's as though he comes out to warm up and dry off a bit! And sure enough there he was yesterday.

Monday 3 August 2009

Anticipating a bonanza of courgettes

Over the last couple of weeks the courgettes have been coming in a manageable one or two at a time. In anticipation of a bumper harvest I have been looking out some new recipes to add to my somewhat limited courgette repertoire.

I dug out my copy of the Five-a-day Fruit and Vegetable Cookbook.It's got three nice sounding recipes. Baked courgettes (with goat's cheese), Courgettes Italian-style (browned with onion and garlic then cooked in stock) and Chocolate Courgette Cake. As a chocoholic the later is going to be an early experiment!

Having heard good things about Elaine Borish's What Will I Do with All Those Courgettes?and read some good reviews about it I have acquired a copy. It's got more than 150 recipes featuring courgettes.. soups, salads, starters, snacks, side dishes, (that's a lot of words starting with s) mains and cakes and breads including another two cakes with chocolate! Phew! All those recipes to choose from. It's as overwhelming as... a glut of courgettes!

Tuesday 28 July 2009

Pond Clearing latest

Saturday saw us back up at Motcombe on pond clearing duties. Since our previous visit on Wednesday the wind and rain had broken up the duckweed in the inaccessible part of the pond and sent it out into the open part. Because it was much thinner than previous and the wind was not so strong it didn't come towards the bank as quickly as before so it was a one woman job. By the end of the day I had removed about as much as it is going to be possible to remove. It's not going to be possible to eradicate the weed altogether but by regularly scooping out a few net fulls it should be kept under control.

Mark meanwhile spent the day working to clear scrub and brambles around another pond so that we can get in to clear weed from it. This pond has marginal and floating plants which are being swamped by Fairy Moss rather than duckweed.

The weather forecast for this week was not promising but as Monday seemed to be one of the better days, at least early in the day, we decided to go back and get on with the second pond.

Mark spent some time finishing clearing scrub while I scooped a bit more duckweed off the first pond and then we set to on the Fairy Moss. This is a very different kettle of fish to remove. The duckweed is smaller, lighter and obligingly drops to the bottom of the net. The Fairy Moss on the other hand is larger and more bulky and hangs over the edge of the net. It does drift a bit but not so readily as the duckweed and this fact together with the presence of other vegetation growing in and on the pond is going to make it difficult to get under control.

I have to say though that the Fairy Moss looked beautiful. With the water glistening in between the thick succulent leaves it resembled the yoke of the top that I am knitting in moss stitch using a leaf green yarn with a silver thread running through it (Louise Harding Jasmine in Leaf Green). I think that whenever I wear the top it will remind me of this pond.

We called it a day earlier than usual because of the forecast for rain (we had stuck it out through a couple of heavy showers) and got packed up and on our way just before it started to rain. There was a torrential downpour and the roads very quickly became quite treacherous.

Friday 24 July 2009

Bad Things & Good Knitters II

When I wrote about When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters: An Emergency Survival Guide yesterday little did I know that I would have to turn to it for help so soon!

My WIP has a keyhole neck line and the instruction I came across last night stumped me. The pattern said to "knit 30, cast on 9". I looked at the knitting, thought about it for a while and came up blank but instead of panicking I turned to Edmonds and Moore and very soon found the answer. Turn the knitting, put RH needle between first two stitches, knit and put stitch back on LH needle. Simples!

I hadn't intended to talk about my new project so soon but since I'm on the subject.. I'm knitting the Thai Top featured in Issue Four of the Knitter. It has a keyhole neckline and moss stitch shoulders and cap sleeves. The original was in Sublime Soya Cotton DK but I'm using Louisa Harding Jasmine in Leaf Green which knits to the same tension. After using Sirdar Denim Sport Aran for my last project this yarn is divine to work with. It's composition is 48% cotton, 39% bamboo, 10% silk & 3% polyester. The garment is knitted on round needles - a first for me. I had to resort to Bad Things... to find out how to join the circle and then I had to frog a couple of times at the beginning. The first time because I put the knitting down after the first row and then picked up the needles the wrong way and the second time because when I changed to larger needles I turned the knitting into a mobius strip. Since I got a few rows on the needles it's been a breeze - well until last night anyway and with a little help from my friends that wasn't a big issue after all.

Thursday 23 July 2009

Bad Things and Good Knitters

Earlier this year I bought a copy of When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters: An Emergency Survival Guide. Written by two New Yorkers with over 100 years of knitting experience between them this little book is a real gem. It's packed with good advice and tips and not just for when things go wrong e.g. the way you insert your needle when decreasing determines the way the decrease will slant so no more struggling to remember whether to knit in the front or the back of a stitch to make it slant to the right or left. It's really helpful for decoding pattern instructions particularly where the pattern assumes you know what to do and you don't!

The chapter on finishing off is brilliant. I followed their instructions when joining up Mark's jumper. I was really pleased how the shoulder, side and sleeve seams turned out. From the public side it looks like a knitted stitch rather than the groove I normally get. I didn't get such a good finish with the sleeve insertion but that wasn't the fault of the authors. The stepped cast off at the top of the sleeve didn't fit well with the straight edge of the arm hole so I struggled to make if fit and therefore couldn't follow their instructions easily.

I keep this brilliant little book in my project bag and I thoroughly recommend it.

Wednesday 22 July 2009

I dream in duck weed

On Monday I resumed battle with the duck weed. After an exhausting 5 hours scooping it out I was shattered but clear water was beginning to appear. I took up my weed net again today. I approached the pond with bated breath - would there still be clear water? YES!

The wind decided to give a hand blowing the weed towards the bank. Mark stopped bramble clearing to help with the pond clearing so that we could make the most of the favourable conditions. With both of us scooping out weed we made good progress. By the time we downed tools there was about 80% clear water. Very satisfying!

As ever it seems that the last 20% is going to take a lot of effort to clear as the weed is in a part of the pond that it is difficult to reach. We need a good strong wind to blow in the non prevailing direction!

Finally... it's finished

The jumper I was knitting for Mark that is. It's certainly been a labour of love! I can understand now why Claire in Plan-Knit wool (my LYS) only knits for adults using chunky wool and big needles! I'm glad I only had to knit the smallest size although I did have to add an additional 3 inches onto each sleeve for old orang utan arms.

The pattern is Sirdar 8420 and the yarn I used is Sirdar Denim Sport Aran (60% acrylic, 25% cotton, 15% wool). I bought a pack of 10 balls, enough to knit two jumpers, in a special offer. Now I know why it was on offer! I didn't find the yarn pleasing to use at all. It doesn't feel nice in the hands and the strands separate. I have another 5 balls in my stash for the second jumper - groan. I will get around to knitting it but not for a little while. My next project is already growing on the needles but more about that another day. In the meantime here is a picture of a delighted (?) Mark modelling the finished article.

Tuesday 21 July 2009

Weather forecasting


I filmed Richard explaining how to forecast the weather using seaweed. Unfortunately what with the thundering of the waterfall, the roar of the sea and the howling of the wind he was completely drowned out! So here is what I remember.

If the seaweed is wet it's raining
If the seaweed is dry it's not raining
If you can't find the seaweed it's windy
If you can't see the seaweed it's misty
If the seaweed is white then it's snowing

Monday 20 July 2009

Weekend in Devon

Last weekend we went over to north Devon to visit our friend Richard. On our way over to the West Country on Friday night our headlights caught a hare in the road. It was a narrow country road with high banks so there was nowhere for the hare to run but down the road. It was an amazing experience to follow behind it as it tried to out run us. It must have been running at about 25 mph! Mark tried to encourage it to one side of the road so that we could pass the poor thing but it carried on straight down the middle. After a while there was a road off to the left and the hare turned down it and went haring off into the night!

Mark taught the 6 Jo Awase at an Aiki Jo workshop arranged by Richard in Bideford on Saturday afternoon. Prior to the workshop Richard took us to see Bucks Mills which is a few miles east of Clovelly. It's a very scenic spot and the boys decided that it would be a good venue to shoot some film of them doing aiki jo. So a plan was hatched to return the following morning around low tide with yours truly acting as camera woman.

While the workshop was on I spent an hour or so wandering around Bideford visiting the pannier market and some interesting little shops. I found Mark's birthday present in one. I had a very pleasant time in the shop and because of my interest the proprietor fetched something special from the back of the shop but I can't tell you what it was without spoiling the birthday surprise!

In the same shop I bought a book for Mum and her familiars called Feng Shui for You and Your Cat. I browsed through it in "Velvet and Vanilla" over a pot of tea and it looks really interesting so I will have to borrow it back sometime for a proper read. In the cafe I bought some rocky road cake to keep us going until supper. It was a bit gluttonous as we had had a pub lunch and were going out for a Chinese meal in the evening but Mark and I both felt it was one of the best rocky roads we have ever tasted.

Sunday morning dawned... wet! We went down to Bucks Mills hoping for a break in the rain long enough to do some filming. The boys had decided that it would be good to film the awase that Mark had taught and give copies to the students who attended the workshop to help them remember what they had seen. We managed to film the Jo awase and also the 31 partner practice in between heavy downpours.

Since then we have discovered that my camera records in AVI format and can be edited in Movie Maker while both Mark and Richard's cameras record in MOV format which can't. So I am going to have to get some different software to enable us to create a DVD of the recent filming and also that which we recorded when we visited Diane in Italy.