'Santa Forgot' from Alzheimer’s Research UK

Today is the launch of the first major Christmas campaign from Alzheimer's Research UK.

For those of you in the UK, it will be aired this evening, Wednesday 16th November 2016 between 9:10pm and 9:20pm during the first ad break in 'I'm a Celebrity' on Channel 4. Thereafter it will be shown on various channels throughout the next 7 days.

Narrated by Steven Fry, this short video poses the question "What if Santa Forgot?". 

Dementia can affect anyone, even those most special in our lives, but I believe that research has the power to change the future. 

Big News

On Monday, new figures were released by the Office of National Statistics which showed that, for the first time, Alzheimer's and other dementias are the leading cause of death in England and Wales. Of the 529,655 deaths registered during 2015, dementia accounted for 61,686 ie 11.6%.

The report states that since 2010 mortality rates for dementia have increased in contrast to the other top 4 causes of death in 2015 (ishchaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular disease, chronic lower respiratory diseases and lung cancer)  which have all seen falling mortality rates in the last 15 years.

Before I read any further the first things that came to mind were that diagnosis of dementia is more accurate nowadays, people are living longer, the other conditions have improved treatments available and also that dementia is now recorded more on death certificates whereas when my mum died it was not mentioned. There's a short interview I did with a reporter from the BBC here.

Hilary Evans, Chief Executive of Alzheimer's Research UK, said:

“These figures once again call attention to the uncomfortable reality that currently, no-one survives a diagnosis of dementia. Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Christmas awareness campaign, launching on Wednesday, recognises this truth, that dementia is affecting increasing numbers of people and turning lives upside down.  Today’s report shows the potential for medical research and public policy to make a positive impact on the health of our nation. Thanks to better treatments and prevention programmes, deaths from many other serious conditions have been steadily dropping: now we must do the same for dementia. Dementia is not an inevitable part of ageing, it’s caused by diseases that can be fought through research, and we must bring all our efforts to bear on what is now our greatest medical challenge.”

You may have noticed that Hilary mentions ARUK's Christmas awareness campaign which launches tomorrow. This is a major step forward for the charity and I'll be sharing the details on here as soon as I'm allowed................

Ally Pally

Yep, still catching up. As I had to miss several marathons, I was treated to a little trip to Alexandra Palace for the annual Knitting and Stitching Show which was fab from start to finish. I'm still supposed to be crafting from my stash (hahahaha) but I'm sure you won't be in the least bit surprised to know that I came home with a few bits and bobs - I am weak!!!

It felt like a proper adventure as we take a packed lunch and a friend and I drive to a village nearby whereupon we meet up with like-minded souls and are transported on a coach to our destination. Sometimes I've taken a project with me but everything I'm working on at the moment requires my undivided attention so we just chatted all the way there and back.

Look at that beautiful blue sky

It was quite hazy over London though

I've included this out of focus shot as it reminds me of an Impressionist painting!

The atrium in the entrance hall complete with exotic palms

The cash machines are a great idea as not all sellers take card payments and it's amazing how much cash you can get through!

I don't know why I buy a guide as I rarely look at it and just like to wander round unless I'm looking for a specific retailer 

As always, it was a feast for the eyes and an absolute delight. There were 4 of us in our little group and we split up at the start, went our separate ways and then reconvened for lunch where we compared what we'd each bought.

There was so much to inspire and admire quite apart from the retail side of it. Some of the exhibits were delightful and I'll let the photos do the talking:

Oh the colours!

One of my favourites - the depth she'd achieved with the different layers was very effective

I loved the folded fabric in these 2 pieces and then the contrast with the embroidery.

This wall-hanging was hard to capture as it was so ethereal. The images are embroidered onto net (which can't have been easy) and the muted palette was really striking

It was the concept of this one which attracted me - a map printed onto the fabric with quilting added

Some of the larger wall-hangings displayed a wide variety of techniques, all of them inspirational:

Smaller, framed pieces with repetitive motifs explore colour combinations

Some of the images from this book are shown below. They are often a record/memory of a place seen in a certain light, time of day or season

These colours made me think of a kingfisher!

Machine lace lichen

The top piece is entitled 'Sunflowers' from the book 'Stitch Rhythms and Patterns' and the one below is named 'Red'

I took this photo of a shawl designed by Stephen West just to remind myself to go and check it out on Ravelry (it's called The Doodler and I really liked its construction

So what did I buy? Well, I started out with the intention of just buying a ball of this shade of dark grey wool for another shawl in The Book of Haps named Happenstance which I've been looking forward to starting ever since I took a photo at Samphire Hoe (see below).

I have a variegated grey yarn in my stash for the main body and so I wanted a vivid yellow ochre and some white to finish it off and the dark grey was for the rows inbetween the yellow. That was until I found a store to which I kept returning until I finally gave in and came away with these beauties from Debonnaire Yarns:

Oh my goodness they are scrumptious. I could not make my mind up between several colours - did I want the shawl body to be blue to represent the sky or grey for the seawall? So of course I bought both, as you do! The yellow ochre is even more interesting than the photo shows as it has sparkles running through it - oooooooh!!! That yellow against the grey is swoonworthy and there would be enough yarn left for another project. The white, for the edging would represent the sea foam. Resistance was futile and that Jamieson and Smith will be used in Fair Isle mittens so won't go to waste.

On the same stall I found lots of shades of Mille Colori from Lang Yarns which I'd been searching for. I wanted 1 ball for a specific secret project but was bowled over by the colours and finally settled on this beauty:

This pattern for a pretty wrap caught my eye too but I resisted the cashmere yarn to knit it as I have plenty of Kidsilk Haze to use up

As you can see, I'm having a bit of a shawl phase as I really enjoyed that last one.

Then I came across Verity's stall which was full of gorgeous hand-dyed yarns in some very funky colours. So what did I come away with? A single skein of her luscious 'Sparkle Sock' as an alternative option for the shawl border.

Again, the sparkles don't show up but they are lovely!

Of course, all that changed when I realised my next project is Uncia and I haven't got enough of the yarn I intended to use and suddenly felt the need to make it Christmassy by using a snowy white yarn - so I decided to use this yarn but that meant I needed another skein.

Thankfully a quick internet search tracked down Verity's Etsy shop (she has some very funky colour-combos and is well worth a look if you want something a bit different) and after an email conversation an extra skein is winging its way to me as I type. Hoorah!

After all that excitement I was starting to feel ready for a sit down and was lucky to bump into Gill so we headed off for coffee and cake. On the way to the cafe area we were walking past a stall with lots of beautiful blue indigo-dyed fabrics and I spotted a gorgeous Chinese apron which had just been reduced to half price as it was the last one. Yep, that came home too - well, it did have bunnies on it so it would have been rude not to buy it!

I was instructed to wash it before wearing it as the dye might run otherwise

Which reminds me of the lovely card featuring a bunny that I found for Mike's birthday. I bought it on a trip to Hampton Court Palace with the Garden Society a couple of months ago where we also visited the Royal School of Needlework Shop - so that's another post I've still got to write..............then there's Village in Bloom and goodness knows what else I've forgotten.........

'Igor' by Jane Francis using advanced silk shading

All Kinds of Everything

There is soooooo much to catch up with and some things will have to go by the wayside or I'll be spending all my time blogging rather than doing things. This will most likely be a bit of a mishmash!

A bit of light knitting

Yes, there has actually been some crafting going on but this has not been a straightforward project even though the pattern is simple as can be. It's the Houlland shawl pattern from Kate's Book of Haps and it certainly won't be the last shawl I knit from that book.

It started with a simple edging strip which I worked up really quickly. Then you just pick up the stitches for the body of the shawl through the back of the long edge.

The sections look rounded but they're pointy after blocking

It's a nice geometric pattern and I enjoyed watching it grow. Well, I enjoyed it until we had a bit of a blip in our lives which involved many visits to the doctor and lots of waiting around in hospital corridors during which I chose to knit. But although it served to distract me from what was happening it showed the extent of my stress as I had to undo the first 15 or so rows many, many times and I thought I would never ever get through it - I should emphasise that it was not that the pattern was complicated it was just that I wasn't concentrating. The yarn was not the easiest to undo either as it's an alpaca/wool mix (SMC Select Highland Alpaca fino) so rather sticky and hairy!

I also had to pull out of 2 marathons which meant a bit more stress trying to reorganise my 100th.

But we got through it and everything's OK now, thank goodness, including the shawl. After I'd calmed down I finished it off really quickly.

The construction was interesting. It was worked from the outside edge inwards, decreasing a couple of stitches on alternate rows, with a central column of yarn-overs and knit 2 together.

Someone asked me about the stitch markers - they are actually rings that come with the replacement heads for my electric toothbrush but they make excellent and free stitch markers! 

Blocking

Horsey guests

A couple of months ago one of our neighbours popped round to ask if she could put 4 of her brood mares onto one of our fields for a few weeks whilst their foals were weaned. She breeds race horses and apparently if the mares and foals are separated but can see oneanother then they try to jump the fence or get very agitated but if they can neither hear nor see eachother then they get used to the new situation very quickly. As we are far enough along the lane for them not to hear a neigh it was perfect.

Our sheepy visitors had just left us so it was perfect timing. I knew they'd arrived when I saw Esther and Kizzy galloping across their field to the gate!

Saying hello for the first time

Quayle Landing and Tarneem were first to visit but Kizzy and Esther were not used to having horsey neighbours and turned tail!

It was fascinating watching the dynamics of the new herd and although they were separated and Tarneem was in charge of her 3, Kizzy was definitely the matriarch of the whole group and was very vocal about it!

Kizzy saying "I am in charge here and I do not recognise your authority!"

Beautiful Tarneem (who has bred 5 champion foals) with Quayle Landing and Garabelle just in view

Little did we know were were going to see a re-enactment of Love Story though. Whilst 2 of the group had recently given birth and the other one was in-foal (with a massive tummy!), My Pretty Girl (MPG) had not produced a foal this time and was just coming into season.

MPG looking wistfully across the field at Esther

That set the scene for the next 8 weeks with Esther and MPG having love-ins either at the gate or down by the stile at the bottom of the field. Every so often Kizzy would get cross and charge over to separate them but we literally had to prise Esther away each evening to put her in the shelter - things are complicated now as Kizzy has no viable teeth and so has to have a bucket full of chopped and soaked feed at night and as she hates being shut away we have to shut Esther in so she doesn't pinch any of the food.

The lovers galloping to greet oneanother

The 4 visitors have gone back home now and although Esther didn't fret, she does keep grazing down by the stile just on the off-chance that MPG is there, bless her.

Meanwhile, the ducklings have grown. I chuckled as I watched the relationship between Tilly and Mrs Duck as there seems to be an unspoken rule that cats and ducks don't mix. 

Shortly after this was taken, we lost one of them. I saw a buzzard flying low near the pond and heard Mrs Duck making a commotion so went running down there but was too late to save the duckling. I thought they were safe as they were nearly fully grown, but sadly they were not.

Then we had the orchards and lower paddock topped. We used to scythe it all ourselves but I have neither the time nor the inclination at the moment so we got the tractor in to hasten the work.

We did, however, have to rake, gather and turn it as we use it for bedding. That burned off a few calories I can tell you!

Whilst I was raking I discovered this little fellow who had been disturbed but thankfully was safe and sound. He's a Natterjack Toad and I was fascinated to see that his colour had changed to better match his surroundings. 

It was fascinating seeing the variety of wildlife underneath the sward - there were vole tunnels everywhere and once they had been uncovered there was lots of interest from all quarters:

Mr Pheasant spent ages turning over the grass in search of goodies and I saw a hen pheasant catch a vole and run off with it.

At this time of year we always get flocks of Woodpigeons.

There so much to do in Autumn as we get ready for the bad weather. I had to give the barn a good clear-out ahead of the hay delivery and dismantle the polytunnel (I have a cheap and cheerful one which I take down each year as it would get blown away otherwise).

Inevitably I discovered some guests who needed to be helped with their house move - I love the different markings on their shells. They were relocated to the bramble/tile patch where the dormice and newts live.

I was fascinated by the beautiful markings on this spider. Those on his back resemble eyes or a face  which must be to confuse any predators.

The last remaining vegetables were turned into a very satisfying roasted ratatouille using a recipe from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg Every Day which is my favourite recipe for ratatouille. There are still plenty of chillies but they've come indoors to finish ripening.

We've also had some amazing sunsets recently and this was my favourite:

As I found myself marathonless for a couple of weeks I made good use of the fine weather and headed out across the fields into the valley several times and I was delighted to be treated to some amazing colours across the fields, just before the trees started to turn colour (see how far behind I am - the leaves are nearly all gone now!) and I spotted a young fox practising his stalking and a pretty duck hiding amongst the reedmace along the river. I've missed my long runs around where we live.

The Celebrations Continue 

Mike and I decided to celebrate my 100th marathon with a visit to a wonderful restaurant near home. On the day itself all I wanted to do afterwards was get home, have a bath, then drink champagne so a few days later we headed off for a treat.

There was something else to celebrate too - I won a prize a few weeks earlier in a competition draw from Hobbs London. It was one of those random number type draws where you say why you want the prize and you think no-one ever wins so I was flabbergasted when I got an email telling me I'd won the Albany dress! 

I have a couple of Hobbs dresses which are reserved for special occasions and this one is a beauty and even better it isn't my usual colour choice so took me away from what I would choose myself as I steer clear of neutrals:

I know I'm a saddo but I took my medal with me and Mike sneaked in a couple of photos at the restaurant!

Look, no lycra!

I have actually completed 2 more marathons in the last week but as this post is getting rather long I'll save my reports for next time. 

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