Fabulous

First the fabulous stuff, as sadly there have to be things that aren't quite so fabulous; yin & yang and all that.

Fab 1

I won a prize!

It was on Sarah's blog and the prize was these 2 balls of the gorgeous Rowan 'Angora Haze', which is the softest and snuggliest yarn ever, together with a  book of lovely patterns. Thank you so much Sarah

The green shade is 'Hug' and the blue (which is more on the lavender tone than it appears here) is 'Embrace'

I reckon there's enough there to make Scrimshaw, a beautiful cap knitted in brioche stitch, or perhaps some mittens. I really mustn't start anything else just yet as I've still got some Christmas knitting and crochet to finish………..

Which brings me on to, ahem, a little project I started last weekend. I've been sewing-in ends on the latest scarf (a lovely little design by Marie Wallin) in stranded work and I just needed a break and so this is what happened:

A little bit of intarsia with even more ends to weave in!

I know, I know, I should have waited but I just needed a change and I've had the yarn and pattern for this cardigan for ages.

It's the beautiful 'Botticelli', again by Marie Wallin (I do love her designs), from Rowan 44.

As always, I photocopied the graph and attached bits of yarn to it with their respective symbol.

I've allowed myself just 5 rows a day so I don't get too distracted from Christmas stuff.

Fab 2

My 2 blogs have gone onto the G8 Dementia Summit website and I had some positive feedback which is always nice. Alzheimer's Research UK have asked if they can use them on their dementia blog and of course I was happy to oblige. I've also just completed another blog for ARUK but this time with a much more personal theme about Christmas. I won't put it on here just yet though.

Fab 3

There have been some glorious autumn colours this week so here's a small selection:

The green leaves, now yellow, of Rosa Rugosa 'Blanc de coubert' which is planted at the edge of our orchard. It has beautiful double white flowers with the most seductive perfume, followed by pretty red rosehips.

Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood' glowing crimson (planted in our front garden)

This stunning display stopped me in my tracks when I was out on a run

Glorious purple berries of Callicarpa, a young shrub growing in our front garden. As if the berries weren't enough, the newly emerging leaves are a beautiful coppery colour.

I loved the starkness of the ruby-red rosehips against the dark backdrop of our pond, complete with some reed mace (often mistakenly referred to as Bulrush).

The poisonous orange berries of our native Euonymous europaeous (aka Spindle) exploding from
 their bright pink seed cases. It grows in several of our field hedges.

Another glorious sunset taken across the horses' field.

The not so fabulous at all thank you very much!

Asthma again. I'm writing this because I've noticed a lot of people still view any posts I write about my struggles with the wheezing, breath-sucking, lung-busting and general pain in the chest that is asthma.

Running is so much a part of my life now that I can't imagine not being able to run any more. So when I have a set-back it can really upset me. Today was one of those days.

I set off with a spring in my step, feeling on top of the world and breathing relatively OK. My chest is somewhat gunky at the moment and I was aware that my breathing was a bit laboured too which I put down to the drop in temperature. The first mile was only slightly undulating but as soon as I hit the hills that was it; Darth Vader took over and I gasped and huffed and puffed my way to the top then had a massive coughing fit. 

Undeterred I ran down the other side and started up the next, steeper, incline. Well that certainly didn't go as planned as I only got halfway up it when my chest felt as if someone was holding it in a vice and I was gasping like a fish out of water. "Oh bother", I thought (no, that's a lie, it was something stronger!). I walked the next 400 metres to the top but really didn't feel as if I could carry on and so turned around and headed for home. The 5.5 miles I had planned turned into 4.5 miles. 

I've written this for those of you who struggle in your training because I know how frustrating and demoralising it feels. The best thing to do is just put it down to a bad day at the office and ignore it because if you keep going over and over it in your mind then it can have a very negative effect on you.

Tomorrow is another day and I will conquer those hills!