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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Tim Freke & David Hamilton

When we got home from battling the pond weed I sat down with a mug of tea and listened to Tim Freke's radio show for Hay House Radio from last week. His guest was David Hamilton whose expertise is in how the mind can heal the body. David had been a chemist working in the pharmaceutical industry testing heart drugs when his interest in the effect of the mind on the body was stimulated by the very strong placebo effect seen with heart drugs.

I was particularly interested to learn that research at Harvard in the nineties revealed that it makes no difference to the brain whether you actually do a thing or imagine yourself to do it!

In last night's show Tim's guest was Peter Gandy. I have enjoyed reading a number of the books that they have co-authored so I am really looking forward to catching up with that show when it appears on the archive.

War on Duck Weed

Mark and I have been working to recover a couple of ponds in North Dorset. Today I have been removing duck weed from the largest pond using a large net on a long pole. No sooner than I had scooped some out than the gap was immediately refilled. It was as if the remaiing weed breathed a sigh of relief, said 'good, more room for me' and spread out to fill the vacant space!

After several hours of hard graft it was somewhat demoralising that there was still no clear water. But is was satisfying to see the mounds of weed on the banks and to realise that I wasn't going mad I actually had removed a lot of weed. By the time we called it a day I think that I could see some chinks of clear water appearing. I hope that it doesn't completely grow back before battle resumes next week.

Along with the weed I also scooped up some beautiful duck feathers which were floating on top of the weed. There were a number of them which made me suspect that the owner didn't give them up willingly.

Discovering Poole: an artists' haven 1850 - 1950

We had a lorra, lorra rain overnight and everything was very soggy this morning. The weather picked up as the day went on and afterlunch I walked 'my usual' circuit - down to park gates, through the park to Whitecliff, round Baiter to the quay and back home via the High Street. Today I made a stop at Poole Museum at the quay end of the High Street to view the exhibition "Discovering Poole: an artists' haven 1850 - 1950".

I had been intending to go since it opened but hadn't gotten around to it until now. The exhibition is in two rooms over two floors. It starts in the exhibition room on the second floor and continues in the room below (so you needn't go back to the main staircase you can pop down the stairs in the corner of the room). It includes pictures owned by the town and others which are on loan.

As a local I found it interesting to see how Poole looked not so long ago and to see how it has changed. Most notably the development along the coast and the decline of the working harbour. Some of the buildings that have now gone I can remember from my childhood days but there are still places that are instantly recognisable today.

The museum is housed in an 18th century harbour warehouse and the building itself features in a number of the pictures on display.

There is work by Steer, John Everett, Augustus John, Henry Lamb, Gibble, Leslie Ward, Arthur Bell and others. It's a nice touch that one of Henry Lamb's paintings is placed on a wall the other side of which is the view depicted! Another of his well know paintings "The Doler" is a reminder of the 1920's when many of Poole's townsfolk were unemployed and on the dole. May the current recession not turn out so badly for our town.

The exhibition is well worth an hour or so of your time. It's on until 28th February 2010. Visit the Council's website for opening hours etc.

By the time I came out of the museum it was a glorious sunny afternoon but it being after 4pm it was too late to visit Scaplens Court Garden across the road.

I don't know whether it was because I had been viewing pictures of a bygone age, or because it was a glorious summer's afternoon but I hankered after afternoon tea with scones and cream. It being Sunday the shops were closed but I did find some scones in our local Tesco Express. They didn't have clotted cream (but they do have goose fat?!) so had to make do with thick double cream. With Raspberry conserve and tea drunk from a china mug it hit the spot even so!

Whitecliff Foxy

I was enjoying a nice afternoon nap when those damn parapazzi showed up again.






This time one of them had a camera with an even more powerful zoom than usual.








I wish that the new bush the landlords have planted would hurry up and grow to give me some protection from prying eyes.








I guess I'll just have to take myself off...







and hide behind this mound.

Back to the Rings

Yesterday we took Charles and Rose to Badbury Rings. They weren't up for the 7 mile trek that we did earlier in the week so we did a much shorter walk taking in our favourite bits.

We parked near Blandford Lodge and after crossing the Blandford Road walked passed Lodge Farm to the butterfly fields. If you walk this way look back and to the left just after the gate to catch a glimpse of the farmhouse, a 14th century hunting lodge, over the hedge. Having reminded myself of how to shoot video on my camera I managed to get several seconds of half decent video of the butterflies this time. Click below to view it.

After spending some time watching the butterflies we walked upto Badbury Rings and walked around the innermost ring. Note that if you come this way the monument itself is a dog free area. The weather forecast had got it wrong and it was a lovely afternoon. There was a refreshing breeze and the sheep were happier to do their work of keeping the weeds down. We had good views all around and took some delight in watching a boy with his father flying a kite. The kite had a long blue tail and their chocolate labrador was having great fun trying to catch it.

From the Rings we retraced our steps to the Blandford Road.

Bournemouth Upper Gardens July 2009

This morning it was one of those days when
the weather couldn't make up it's mind what it was going to do. By lunchtime it had decided to cheer up so in the afternoon we took Mark's parents to Coy Pond and walked through Bournemouth Pleasure Gardens to the sea.

The Upper Gardens (that part of the gardens closest to Coy Pond) are a special place - a haven of tranquility and always with some seasonal delight. Today we saw Purple Loosestrife, yellow trefoil, dragonflies and bullrushes.












By the time we reached the town centre it was a glorious summer afternoon and the Lower Gardens and beach were packed. There was a large screen set up in the Lower Gardens and some folks were watching the Wimbledon Ladies Final while enjoying the sunshine.

Canada Goslings

Canada Geese are pests in Poole Park. In spite of their large numbers I had never seen any goslings... until now. I snapped this family by the edge of Poole Harbour at Baiter.

Related articles:

POOLE CALLS IN THE GOOSEBUSTERS

New Weapon in the Fight Against Goose Droppings

Call for cull of Poole Park's Canada geese

Ruby & Sam's Outing

Our friends Ruby and Sam reside with my Mum in Wallisdown. Today it was time for their annual inoculations so we gave them a ride to the vets.

They get very stressed out by the whole experience. Today we put them in their boxes 15 minutes of so before we left and that seemed to help a bit. When put in his box Sam goes very quiet and hunkers down (at the vet's the box has to be tipped on end to get him out!). Ruby who normally doesn't speak, apart from purring very loudly, complains bitterly the whole time.

Ruby was pronounced obese while the vet enquired whether Sam was eating properly. They really are like Jack Sprat and his wife! I had to renege on the promise of a treat when they got home. Ruby was most upset!

Badbury Rings & Kingston Lacy

After breakfast we drove to Badbuy Rings for a walk around the Kingston Lacy Estate. We followed the route given in the Pathfinder guide for Dorset. It was hot even at 9.30am and it got hotter and stickier as the morning wore on.

The Bridleway has been diverted around The Oaks but it's easy enough to get back on the route. After The Oaks the walk is along long, straight gravel or tarmac lanes with high hedges. But every now and then there are sweeping views of the Dorset countryside to relieve the monotony. The highlight for us in this section of the walk was seeing a deer in a field of linseed as we followed the Stour Valley Way. After crossing the Blandford Road the walking was on grass tracks along the side of fields. Here there were hundreds of butterlies in the hedgerows and along side the field margins. Most numerous were Marbled Whites. I also captured a Ringlet on camera. At times it appeared as though the hedges themselves were moving!

The walk ended by passing through Badbury Rings themselves. We didn't see any orchids as the National Trust are grazing sheep on the rings to control weeds (14 species of orchids have been recorded here). The sheep seemed more interested in keeping cool than working.

Tim Freke's new radio show

Tim Freke has a new radio show. It is on www.hayhouseradio.com and goes out at 5pm BST. The first show is tonight and his guest is John Parkin, author of the book F**k It.