Weekend WIP

I am still struggling to get on with my knitting. I am about halfway through the gorgeous blue angora jumper I started way back in March, which I am enjoying, but for some reason am not desperate to finish. I think the thought of the sleeves is putting me off. Sleeves always take longer than I think they're going to, and these are long, belled affairs, so ... meh. On the plus side, I tried it on this week and it isn't too small, which is my perennial bottom-up garment fear.

This weekend I turned back to the trusty pinwheels, trotting out three in quick succession and starting a fourth.

This is the May 3013 LE. It's like a paler, duskier version of Sookie's Last Stand.

Out of interest, I pulled out all the hexagons and scattered them randomly across our filthy, soon-to-be-replaced dining room floor.

Already big enough for a lap blanket after blocking, but I do have 90-odd more to go. Although I scattered these at random and felt a bit overwhelmed by the big differences in colour, I can see two different palettes in this now, so it will either make two blankets or one with some carefully colour spacing.

Of course, the rest are yet to come - and, tbf, they're all a lot more blue than this little lot.

Selfie Sunday

Looking back through old pictures I was not really surprised to find quite a lot of selfies in there, most of which have never been shared with the world. I have always been partial to a selfie - I have plenty of actual film versions kicking around from my youth - and it's even easier now that front-facing cameras are up to scratch.

Here's a fave from way back in 2013, that I managed to catch with an image burst on the rear facing camera.

Truthfully, I prefer the front-facing one, which is soft focus and therefore a bit more forgiving, though since this was nearly five years ago I shouldn't need to be forgiving about how I looked.

This was when I went skiing in Switzerland by myself, did one run, snapped my borrowed poles on the lift, went home and slept for 6 hours, woke up ill and didn't ski again. The 'one run' ski trip. I did read a whole book though so that was OK. 

Blue Monday

Pining for Tahoe.

I know I've had an epic summer of holidays, again.

Doesn't mean I can't still pine for Tahoe. I mean, who wouldn't?

Tuesday Ten part 2

Peruvian flag flying over the main square in Cusco, on Independence Day (July 28th)

Two from the fountains-with-lights-and-music park in Lima (this place was a tourist trap but utterly enthralling)

Flashing sign outside the Mario Testino museum in Lima.

Pool toes in Siena.

Tuesday Ten part 1

I am a bit obsessed with the Boomerang app and recorded quite a lot of them during my various trips. Here are ten of my faves from the summer. I had to do it in two parts because Blogger wasn't keen on having 10 video clips in one post.

Sea lion in the Galapagos, waving hello.

And this one is having a scratch.

My new Canadian friends, Diana and Kristina, pulling on wetsuits to go snorkelling again, on our boat in the Galapagos.

This boat was pretty windy.

Machu Picchu! It was so amazing.

Scenes from the Classroom #31

I think all teachers will be familiar with the back-to-school nightmares that start to crop up at some point in the summer holidays. Mine have been of varied vividity; the two from years past that have stayed with me are arriving to find I hadn't ordered any exercise books, and the classic from 2014, of going in on the first day to find the wall between my classroom and the one next door had been removed - this was literally the case when I went into my new classroom in 2016. Luckily it is a folding wall.

Last night, however, I think I hit bingo on the back-to-school dreams. All the negative bits were in there, all rolled into one. I was significantly late. I was inappropriately dressed, and had to change in the head's office, while he was in there, and I'd forgotten to bring any undergarments. I hadn't prepared anything for my teaching day. I had forgotten my laptop. I had forgotten I had an extra hour of form time. The colleagues that usually help me out were away. When I got to my form room, I found my form was now around 50 students. Three members of the senior team were there to observe, and some of the students had brought their parents.

I woke up, heaved a sight of relief, took the hint, packed my school bag and went to work for the day. Well, I have now been off for six weeks, so it's not surprising my subconscious is confused about why I'm still in bed at 8am on a weekday.

Blue Monday

A little something I came across from early May, a few years ago. I think it must be Castle Park. In fact, if I think about it enough, I think I was walking across it on my way to buy ribbon for a knitting project, after knitting group. I still have that ribbon and the project still isn't finished, but I did buy some other ribbon that inspired a different project that IS finished.

Funny how the mind works. Having the date attached to the photo is, of course, very helpful.