A cuddle, more plants and a jamming incident

Time for a cuddle

The ends are all sewn in and the cuddle cocoon has been delivered to a very happy granny who was overwhelmed by how it turned out.

I'll have to wait for a photo of baby inside so in the meantime little Ted helped model it for me.  He doesn't look too impressed does he?!

With Ted

Empty cocoon

Time for more plants/garden photos

I love autumn mornings, all misty and with that beautiful low sunlight which seems to make everything glow.  

Esther appearing from out of the mist

Tinker and I are out in the garden first thing and there is always a lot to see.  After I've tended the horses, the first thing I do is check on my caterpillars.

Cocoon watch of a different kind

I've watched them from caterpillar to cocoon stage and I can't wait for them to emerge.  I shall have to write a whole separate post about them as I've got some great photos. Inside the cocoon a Large White butterfly is waiting for the right time to greet the world and as I've been watching for over a month now I shall be very annoyed if I miss that moment!

Then we wander round the garden, just looking and soaking up the atmosphere. Plants are spotlighted and I notice so many spiders webs everywhere.

Elymus Glaucus (this beautiful bluey-grey grass would take over the world if given free rein so I have to lift and divide it each year!)

Water droplets on alchemilla mollis

Pretty leaves of a red acaena in the gravel bed

A mixture of sempervivums with a tiny alchemilla mollis plant that's seeded into the pot

There are self-seeded plants everywhere - plants for free!

Beautiful seedhead of Nigella.  When they are completely dry they are like little pepperpots and I just shake them over the area I'd like them to grow next year

The poor Leontodron nibbled by the naughty bunnies earlier in the year has now recovered and is ready to be replanted, with protection this time

Spider's web on parsley flowerhead 

A web on a rhododendron - look at those lovely red buds just waiting to burst forth next Spring 

Silvery/blue-grey leaves contrasted against dark red leaves

Beautiful Ballota, tidied for Winter

A close-up of the lovely felty leaves

In the summer sun it takes on an almost golden glow.  The tiny and rather insignificant flowers are  a magnet to bees, hoverflies etc

Time for Jamming

I'm still at it.  Jamming away.  I made a wonderful batch of raspberry jam the other day but I didn't boil it for quite long enough.

You're kidding me, right? Silly moo!

Fraid not, you beautiful Charolais cow.  I did the plate test and the jam thermometer read the correct temperature but it didn't set enough and was just the wrong side of set the next morning.

No worries, I've been jamming for about 45 years so knew what to do to rectify the problem; I just emptied the jars back into the pan and boiled it up again for another 5 minutes. It's only a problem if you over-boil it because you can't do anything about that.

Raspberry jam, set perfectly this time

Phew, that's a relief

Next will be blackberry and rosehip syrups.  Oh my, they are wonderful syrups for in the depths of Winter.

Perfectly ripe rosehips

Something to look out for right now - knoppers.  You'll see them on the ground underneath Oak trees, in amongst the acorns.  The knopper galls are caused by a tiny wasp that lays it's eggs in the leaf buds. They are green and sticky at first and then they turn brown.

Catching up with crochet, running/asthma, gardening, life,..........

Where on earth do I begin? The days and weeks fly by don't they and then I realise that I haven't written anything for a couple of weeks! Shameful.

Crochet & other crafting (no knitting to show as I'm now well into secret Christmas knitting projects).

I started and finished the cuddle cocoon for Ann's new grand-daughter last week and it is so cute.  It's from this sweet book in the Annie's Attic series (I love the sweet little turquoise one with the tassle).  Ann chose the one with the teddybear ears on the top right on the back page.

I gave her 2 options for the tummy and outline bits - either a pale pink or a caramel, more bear-like colour which she chose.  The yarn is dmc Scachenmayr 'Molly' and it's all boucle and teddy bearish so I thought it would be perfect.  However, it was a bit of a stinker to crochet with as I couldn't see the stitches at all and it was a case of stick the hook in and hope for the best.

The first one I made to the pattern dimensions seemed too small so I re-did it with a bit more ease to make it a more comfy experience for baby as it's a very dense fabric.

This is what it looked like before the top trim and tummy were added.

Then I added the top edging and made the matching hat and ears.  Time to sew them all together.  The yarn band said to sew the ends in place and that was very wise as it's one of the yarns that unravels.

So here are all the bits waiting to be sewn together. 

Christmas, Christmas, so much to do. I've agreed to decorate another Christmas tree for the church to support their Xmas tree festival.  You may remember last year when I produced my crochet memories tree which was very well received. 

But what to do this year?  More crochet? Do I stick with the same theme or go for something new? Oh, I just can't make my mind up at the moment but I'm sure the solution will come to me eventually.

Running & Asthma

I've no more marathons this year now but I am training for a pb at the Brighton 10k in November.  I've been spurred on by my success on my birthday back in June when I ran a 10k in 53:41and I'd like to get closer to 50 minutes.

GULP!

In order to achieve this I am training really hard and doing lots of faster running.  Here's what I did this last week:

Monday:

Cross-training in the gym on the rower, exercise bike and mini trampoline with core strengthening exercises and some weights.

Tuesday:

Running on the treadmill. 2 miles warm-up then 10 x (.2 miles @ 8 minute miling with .1mile recoveries inbetween) then a cool-down. Total 6.5 miles.

Wednesday:

A very pleasant cross-country run of 7 miles.  No pressure on the pace.

Thursday:

A tempo run (which is like a speed sandwich with a couple of miles at a gentle pace then a faster section in the middle before another slower section to finish off) on the treadmill. I do most of my speedwork on the treadmill as it's rather undulating/hilly round our home and I can't maintain my chosen pace. 2 miles warm-up then 2.5 miles @ 8.5 minute milling then cool-down. Total 5.5 miles.

Friday:

As Monday.

Saturday:

A hilly 4.5 mile route.

Sunday:

9 miles at a slower pace.

Total mileage for the week 32.5.  My base mileage is around 25 - 30 miles a week and then when I'm doing my marathon training I increase it up to around 50 miles a week.

I've also been playing around with my asthma medication as I'm not happy taking such a high level and have found no difference in how I feel with the lower level.  I still struggle on the uphills sometimes and I still get gunky when I do faster running although I've found it isn't as bad if I do a longer warm-up section.

Gardening etc

I have so many wonderful photos to upload but I've run out for time and will have to put them into another post. For now, here are a few images that I love.

Giant spike of yukka flowers

Rain-drops on the leaves of Melianthus Major

Beautiful red tufts of Pennisetum setaceum

The ghostly white stems of Rubus Cockburnianus Goldenvale

Must dash!

Remember a Charity

This week is 'Remember a Charity in your Will' week and on Monday I joined up with Louise from Alzheimer's Research UK for a photo-shoot with veteran newsreader Angela Rippon to promote the event.

Of course, a trip into London meant lots of photos but the weather was so bad there aren't many outdoorsy ones.  The first few were taken from the train.

The obligatory shot of The Shard

A tower block of flats and offices affectionately known as The Lipstick

The London Eye

The inevitable delay waiting to get into Charing Cross station

First stop was St Martin in the Fields

The sculpture by Michael Chapman outside entitled 'In the Beginning'

Detail

The East Window 

Time for coffee and croissants in the crypt

Walking on the past

The new design of London bus

We had a look around the BP Portrait exhibition in the National Portrait gallery

Crochet!

Then it was time to head off along Tottenham Court Road for the photo shoot.  It was raining pretty hard by then.

A 'photo-shoot' sounds so glamourous doesn't it but the reality was somewhat different.  ARUK was 1 of 20 charities chosen for the event and so there were representatives from all the other charities there as well as us. We'd got absolutely soaked on the walk there as it had been raining really heavily for several hours. I'd been asked to bring my running gear and the scarf so the first thing I had to do was get changed (in a teeny-weeny toilet). Here's my 'selfie' to show what happens to curly hair in damp weather - it sticks out!!!  

The studio where the photos were taken was small and their offices were spread over 3 floors.  There wasn't a waiting room so everybody lined the 4 sets of stairs whilst we waited to go in. 

Daphne the trainee guide dog stole the show. She was so well behaved. Her trainer told us it costs over £30,000 to train one dog.

We went right to the top of the building and found an empty studio to sit in.

We waited and waited.  They told us they were running about 15 minutes late. 1 hour later the photos started. It was literally a case of in and out as they only took about 30 seconds each. We had been promised a chat with Angela at the end as her mother suffered from vascular dementia and so we hoped we could connect and get her support for ARUK. She was so pressed for time that we only managed a very quick chat and her involvement was perfunctory so we were a bit disappointed. Never mind, the photo turned out well and will be good for publicity.

When we left it was still pouring with rain so we got soaked again. Mike's back started to hurt from all the walking so we had to slow down, missed our train by a few minutes and had to wait another hour for the next one. Whilst we were waiting I tried to do my usual cryptic crosswords and sudoku but was struggling with them.  

When we arrived home I realised I'd left my jacket on the train (I'd hung it up to dry) so I tried to phone the station where the train terminated as I knew it wouldn't have arrived by then and I thought perhaps someone could have rescued my jacket for me. Oh no, I couldn't get a phone number for the station and had to go via the national enquiry service to get to the lost property department who informed me that it would take at least 10 days for my jacket to be returned to a depot 20 miles away (that is, if it hadn't been stolen).

At that point I decided that my absent-mindedness meant I was developing dementia and burst into tears. The perfect end to a perfect day!