Sunday 24 February 2013

muted and very unmuted

Thank you for the lovely comments on my week of colour - I'm glad it was enjoyed. I enjoyed doing it!

I don't know why I haven't blogged since then, that was a longer than usual break. Partly I suppose because we went up north for a few days the weekend before last - the kids had a long weekend and My Beloved managed to wangle some time off work. It was a mite chilly, though nothing to what it could well be in the Highlands in February.  We had a lovely time doing not very much really. We went out one day to Revack Estate for lunch in the rather nice cafe/restaurant where you can watch red squiggles running around looking cute outside the windows. It also has an excellent playground where the younger members of the party..

 ..and the not-so-young..
.. had a blast!


It was baltic in the play area though - the snow was falling the whole time, though it wasn't lying, and we headed back in for coffee before long. 

While we were up north I managed to lose my purse which, not to put to fine a point on it, is a complete bugger of a nuisance. You don't realise how many cards and things end up in your purse until you have to replace them all - credit/debit cards, points cards for various shops, library cards and gym cards for the kids and me.  Oddly enough it was the library cards that were the most fuss to replace because I had to fill in all the forms again. And then there are the things you can't replace like the cash (because for once in my life I actually had more than about £3.20 in random loose change in my purse - not a huge amount but more than I care to lose), an M&S gift-card I hadn't spent yet, stamps, and pictures of the kids. Very frustrating.


It's always very calming visiting my parents though, their house is a tranquil place. Even with my kids in it.

When I look through the pictures of the chilly outdoors at this time of year I enjoy the muted colours. But it's been a surprisingly colourful time of year too:



 The Stripey Thing is getting longer and longer. Really I'm supposed to finish it by the end of the month, it being my yellow (Jan/Feb) item for Project Rainbow, but I don't think I'll get it done in four days, not if I keep doing stupid things like pulling the needle out completely and having to pick all the stitches up again.

 I'm not sure how that happened actually. I'm inclined to blame the boy-cat as he's a bit of needle-chewer, but he's doing the big innocent eyes at me so it can't be him...

One of the nice things about this time of year is the availability of chocolate mini-eggs in bright foil. I bought some last week (plain ones from Lidl, spotty ones from Sainsburys) and decanted them into an empty coffee jar because they were just to cheery to hide away in a packet in a cupboard.

Also providing colour was a little package of Yarn Yard wool - the blue and yellow I needed for the Stripey Thing, and the (Ian)Lavender* was this month's Small Skein Society surprise yarn, a little treat to myself. I don't know what I'll do with it but I love it. Maybe I'll just take it out now and then and gaze at it adoringly.



* When she sends out the wool, Natalie includes clues to her inspiration for the surprise yarn - this time the clue was 'Dad's Army' :-D. 

1 comment:

Mrs. Micawber said...

Those three yarns at the bottom look very Easter-ish together.

(I like the speckled malted-milk-ball eggs myself. But they never seem to stay in the jar.)

That swoopy tire-zipline thing looks like great fun. I'd have been on it too.