Poor blog

Dear Blog,
I'm very sorry for neglecting you but the sun has been shining and I've been playing out!
Lots of love,
Susie
x

I know, I know, this is what happens all the time in my world. I'll do a flurry of posts and then disappear off the planet for an age. It's always the same even though I try hard to be consistent in my posting. Hey ho.

This if course results in a mishmash of a post in which I try to cram in everything I should have written about but haven't and inevitably miss out some things. I have taken 547 photos in the last couple of weeks and choosing which to show is always really difficult.

Here I go then, in no particular order.

First I'd better catch up with the Sophie blanket which is now nearing completion. Here I am at work on the butterfly border with a Tilly cat accoutrement:

"I am going to climb onto your shoulder no matter what, so you'll just have to get on with it!"

When the butterflies are nearly completed they are a bit askew so just need pulling into shape

There's also a hump inbetween them but this disappears after the next round

On the next round I used Htr (Hdc in US) rather than Dc (SC in US) as stated, then Tr (DC in US) for the one after as I felt that positioned the butterfly better within the border, especially as I'd done Back Post stitches to mark the start and finish

Here it is before I started the last few rounds. The butterflies don't show up very well in the photo as the colour is too similar to the carpet!

In other crochet news I've been making something for my friend Terry to decorate what's known as the Navigator's Hat:

Terry is a member of the Hardley Runners club and last year he was awarded the hat because he got lost on his way to a training session! It is a tradition that the person receiving the hat adds a decoration to it and Terry asked me if I'd make him something. What fun I thought, I'll knit him a runner, which I did using a pattern from Knitlympics which my friend bought me. Then I wondered why on earth I'd done that as there's already a runner on the top of the hat - DOH! I gave it to a friend for her grandson. Then I started to think about how Terry is an excellent training partner for many people at the club as his pacing is excellent. I crocheted a clock face but didn't like it. 

Then someone suggested I make a metronome and that's when the solution came to me - he deserved a medal in his honour. I wanted to make it big and bold so I attacked a biscuit tin with my giant cutters and cut out an oblong shape, folded it in half and bashed it together.

I wanted it to be square rather than round so I could make a granny square to cover the back of it plus a lot of race medals are round and I wanted it to be special. Choosing the colours was frought with difficulty as I was trying to get as close to his club colours as possible which often look quite different in real life so I'm hoping these are OK.

For the back of the medal - with some holes so the silver medal shows through

A ribbon to hang it - before blocking

After a quick burst of steam to flatten it out

Then I wracked my brain to think of what to put on the front of it. Terry's name/initials/the date? Then it came to me - 'Your pace or mine?' with his initials. All I had to do was decide the best way to write it. Mike suggested punching holes, which I've done before, but the tin was rather thick and it might not have been very neat so I decided to print it on coloured paper - until Mike came up with an even better idea of prinitng it onto photo paper which allowed me to make the background blue and the lettering yellow (although it doesn't show up in the photo). Clever Mike!

I stuck it on the front of the medal and proceeded to crochet around the front to enclose it. Then I stitched on the ribbon and adorned the bottom edge with some dangly grannies.

I have no idea how he'll attach it to the hat but I'm sending him some of the purpley blue yarn in case he can tie it to something!

In wildlife news we had a visit from Mrs New Duck and her 7 ducklings, the first we've had this year which is very late. 

They were really tiny and can't have been hatched very long. The trek from the pond is about 200 metres each way and she brought them to see us twice that day - 800 metres is a long way for such little legs! 7 ducklings marched up to see us and 7 ducklings made it back to the pond.

On their second visit Mike took a short video using the camera and I've tried unsuccessfully to load on here (you can hear their little chirpings which are very sweet) but it just won't work no matter how much I've trimmed it down below the maximum file size.

After their second visit I followed them down to the pond again check they got back safely and watched them scooting around in the water.

I expected them to come trotting up the next morning but they didn't appear first thing. I wasn't worried as I thought Mrs New Duck might be waiting until the other ducks were out of the way. But then, as I was sitting crocheting with my morning coffee, there was a frantic tapping on the patio doors and there she was but with no ducklings. She was very agitated and I quickly threw her some bread which she gobbled down and then flew, rather than walked, back to the pond.

Oh dear, I thought something bad must have happened so I went to investigate. I couldn't spot her at first but eventually found her hiding in the reeds and the only reason I spotted her was that Mr New Duck was hovering around (which is unusual as they usually disappear when the ducklings are born). I watched for a while and eventually she came out with the 2 remaining ducklings. 5 little lives had been lost overnight. It could have been one of many predators or a combination of several - foxes, Magpies or other carrion, badgers. So sad.

For the last few days Mike and I have been taking some bread down to the pond and feeding them as she obviously doesn't feel it's safe to bring them up until they are a bit bigger.

Now, which photos shall I share next?………...

All square (nearly)

I've managed a bit of crochet this weekend as my neck and shoulder don't hurt quite as much. Here's where I've got to on the Sophie blanket:

One more row until it's square again…..

….having its first blocking to get it square before starting on the next section (which has butterflies in it; very pretty).

Whilst I was doing this Tilly was playing out and I only had the old camera nearby but managed to snap her through the window having fun:

Having a roll just a few feet away from Mrs Duck who seemed completely unperturbed by her presence!

Dashing off on an important mission

Something needed to be investigated behind the herb bed

A more sedate return journey.

An important job staking out the enemy…..

……….a new Mrs Rat has a fresh brood! There's a brand new tunnel underneath the hedge and it's really hard to get at it to place the bait box. I can't leave it anywhere near the bird feeders as the pheasants push it around and spread the baited grain everywhere.

I hate having to control them but I know I must :-(

On the running front I'm just pootling along now until my next batch of marathons. Much more sedate this time as I'm doing 3 marathons in 2 weeks. What a lightweight! I've got a massage booked with Mary Massage Lady in about 10 days so she'll sort out any residual stiffness in my neck and shoulders.

I had a nice surprise in the post a few weeks ago but I forgot to show it. It's a medal from the Road Runners Club, of which I am a member. I joined a few years ago because members get a discount on race entry fees. It's a 'virtual' club in the sense that we don't meet up as members are spread far and wide but there's a newsletter and a championship each year which is how I got this medal for runner-up in the marathon category for my age group, 50 - 59. The winning lady's time was 3:35:25 and my time was 4:55:03 so I was a bit behind her! It made me chuckle that the winner of the 60 - 69 category was faster than me too with a time of 4:21:41.

I've had a certificate before for my 10k time in 2013 when I came 4th in the Championship but never a shiny medal so I was very pleased. 

Pity it's got the image of a male runner though. It made me think about Kathy Switzer (see here too for photos and a write-up of the event and here for more background info) who was the first female to run with a number on to complete the Boston marathon back in 1967. This lead to an all-out ban on women taking part in competitions with male runners - yes really! It wasn't until 1972 that women were finally allowed to run the Boston marathon.

Thankfully we ladies are now allowed to take part in marathons along with the boys and I am very glad that we can.

The Goldfish Bowl

It's a new type of group discussion/presentation format I took part in the other day. Sounds a bit fishy doesn't it (pun intended!).

First I've just got a few photos from the London Expo last week:

Preparing to go on-stage

Talking about what I had to do for the GWR. It was such a big stage in a massive space!

Explaining why I chose  to use crochet to explain how dementia affects the brain

Doing a sales pitch for Join dementia research to explain why it's so important

Disentangling the headset for the next interview!

So I'm all up to date with the London marathon so back to the fishy tale. Before I start I must announce that we've got a new camera and guess what? The old one started working again. That's Sod's Law in action for sure. I knew that would happen as it's been misbehaving for quite some time now but it's so unreliable that I'm glad we splurged on a new one.

As always, my journey begins at the small railway station  a few miles from home. Being a creature of habit my first port of call, after I'd bought my ticket, was the Bistro@the station for a coffee. It's lovely to have this little cafe at the station and it's become an important part of the village (which is expanding rapidly with a development of new houses). I managed to resist the pain au chocolat and the brownies. It was so nice and bright that I took my coffee outside to take some shots with the new camera.

There's a Tulip Festival going on in a local garden at Pashley Manor and they'd planted all the boxes with tulips to advertise their event.

I was struck by all the different coloured lines heading off to the vanishing point.

I was taking a photo of the tarmac (no comments please!) when I noticed my shadow - hair up

Hair down

Playing with the zoom feature which is much more powerful than the old camera

Mrs Rook with her beautiful twiggy nest

Cityscape skyline approaching London Bridge

The top of the Walkie Talkie building showing the lightning poles

This time the train journey was uneventful and I arrived in plenty of time for a leisurely walk through some old haunts. I was heading to UCL which is a 25 minute walk. I could have caught the Tube but as everyone knows, I hate the Tube and would rather walk for 25 minutes than spend 5 minutes travelling on it.

I always stop and look at this statue of Edith Cavell whose selfless acts saved so many lives in World War One.

Her words resonate today.

I was saddened to see this beautiful garden was only open to residents. It reminded me of that scene in Notting Hill where Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts climb over the fence to look inside. Open spaces such as that are the lungs of the city and provide a quiet place for contemplation and I wondered how many local residents actually use it.

I managed to zoom in on the bark of one of the beautiful London Plane trees.

This ornate verandah looks as if it's hanging on the building like the cradles used by window cleaners on skyscrapers!

So many different patterns over this doorway

The blues and greens in this display were so intense - I haven't enhanced the colours at all.

Of course I arrived far too early but that wasn't a problem as there's a rather good Waterstones bookshop right opposite the entrance so I went and lost myself in there for a while. Eventually I dragged myself away and headed into the University to meet up with everyone.

When it was our turn to speak we found the right plaice (couldn't resist the opportunity for another pun!). The 'Goldfish bowl' was a concept new to all of us and Piers wanted to see if it would work within the context of the  NIHR PPI initiative which encourages people to get involved in matters of health and social care.

There were 2 parts to it; a focus group sitting in the centre and other participants from the Academic Health Science Network (AHSN) sitting around us on the outside (see below).

The 5 of us in the focus group were; Piers Kotting (Programme Director National Institute of Health Research), Andrew Rutherford (Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Network), Shirley Nurock & Wendy Mitchell (both Ambassadors for the Alzheimer's Society) and me.

Piers heading for the buffet

Andrew holding court with the ladies

Wendy and I had done the buffet and moved onto coffee!

Now for the Goldfish Bowl! 

In the photo below you can see the chairs being set out. The pink chairs, for the 5 of us in the focus group, are positioned in a small circle and the blue chairs, for the other particpants, are placed in a circle around the outside (I said it was like cowboys and Indians!).

That's Shirley, 2nd from the right watching the inner circle being set up.

To start with, Piers and Andrew joined us in the inner circle. Piers started by saying a bit about what was going to happen which was basically me, Wendy and Shirley having a conversation about our involvement in research, more specifically Join dementia research. Whilst we chatted, if anyone had a question then they could come and sit within the group and either Andrew, Piers or both of them would leave and join the outer circle.

We three all became involved in JDR at different stages and so Piers asked us each to explain briefly how and why we got involved:

• Shirley's late husband had early-onset Alzheimer's 25 years ago in his 50s and she joined the Alzheimer's Society and has been involved in setting up their Research Network. She was involved in the early stages of JDR.
• Me. I was involved in JDR right from the start until the launch and am a Lay Champion for them.
• Wendy, who has made several appearances on my blog, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's last July and has turned into a fantastic ambassador for research.

Then we literally just started chatting about anything to do with research, obstacles to getting involved, why it's so important, lack of information etc etc. It was almost like when Wendy and I chatted about things before the JDR launch - no script, just a natural flow of thoughts, bouncing off each other's input. We had no idea exactly where the conversation would go or if anyone would come and join the group, but they did!

I saw someone approach the group and Andrew got up and went to sit in the outer circle and it just progressed from there with people coming and joining us to ask a question and then leaving when it had been answered. Several people came to join us before we ran out of time and I suspect more people would have become involved if time had allowed.

Afterwards, before we left, everyone said how much they'd enjoyed it and that they'd got a lot out of it. The organiser said they all raved about it later which is encouraging. 

Piers felt that we achieved our objectives and got across a decent amount about how PPI has impacted on JDR. What we hope to achieve from this experiment is that the AHSNs work together with the Lay Champions to make JDR a part of NHS practice (apologies for the acronyms!).

It was certainly good fun from our point of view and it was great to hear that it was well received by the particpants. 

I had a couple of comments and Shirley raised another:

1. I found it strange to have my back to people sitting in the outer circle behind me. Piers said he felt that too but the idea was not to be addressing the outer circle, it was about focusing on the inner dialogue, which made sense.
2. People seemed to like the idea of physically joining the group when they wanted to speak. perhaps it felt less intimidating to come and be 'inside' the conversation rather than putting their hand up with a question? Whatever the reason, it seemed to work.
3. Shirley said she was unsure whether we should stop talking when someone came to join the group as it can be hard to get a word in edgeways when we are all in full flow! I felt that people did manage to break in  but they just had to wait for the right moment. Piers thought the only way round it would be to have a facilitator stay in the group but I think that would have affected the dynamic as they might stifle the natural flow of things?

All exciting stuff anyway and Piers said he'll definitely use the technique again.