Books read 2015 #4

#16 James Rebanks The shepherd's life: a tale of the Lake District
This was a birthday present, and one I'd particularly asked for. James Rebanks is @HerdyShepherd1 on Twitter, and someone whose twitter feed I have enjoyed following for a while, with his lovely pictures of Herdwick sheep. Amusingly, the staff in Waterstones had trouble locating the one copy they'd apparently had in stock - eventually tracking it down to the Travel - Lake District section, when Autobiography would be more accurate! It's a great read, covering a lot I didn't know about sheep farming, particularly in that area, but also a lot more besides about education, and attitudes to incomers and perceptions of the Lake District.

#17 Elizabeth Jane Howard All change
Oh no, now I've finished the last one in her Cazalet chronicles series! :-( I have loved rediscovering these books (the previous four I read as a teenager) and then having the chance to finish it off with this final one. Set in 1956-1958 the book covers the declining fortunes of the Cazalet family in a much changed world. I love the glimpses of social history visible in these novels, and this one is no exception. Howard has a great talent for showing the different sides to all the characters.


#18 Pamela Druckerman French parents don't give in: 100 parenting tips from Paris
Follow up to her French children don't throw food, if you're interested in different cultural attitudes to parenting this is an hilarious read! No idea if it works, but it's very funny!

#19 Julian Fellowes Snobs
This is a portrayal of the modern class system, as Edith Lavery marries into the upper class and then quickly realises her mistake. Or was it a mistake. It took a bit to get into (this may have been because I started it in hospital during labour though so my mind wasn't totally on it) but I enjoyed the dry humour and insights immensely.

I've decided to stop writing book reviews for the time being, as I'm not getting as much reading time with LO here (Snobs took me six weeks to read!). I will be recording what I've read on LibraryThing though, although without reviews. I am quite pleased that I got through nearly 19 books in 2015 despite spending the majority of the year pregnant!

Garden at the beginning of March 2016

A bit of a different view for garden at the beginning of the month this time. We're having building work done, so the things that normally live on the patio are currently on the lawn!

This is what the patio and garage look like at the moment. The garage roof is being replaced (it's very leaky and made of asbestos), the garage widened so that we can get LO into the car whilst it's in the garage, and unload shopping etc in there, as the garage was built for a 1950s car and they tend to be wider these days! The patio is being replaced with something that isn't pink concrete.

Amidst all this chaos, things are growing. The rhubarb is sprouting!

Daffodils are appearing in the containers - I'm pleased about this as I planted them 18 months ago and didn't replace them last Autumn as I didn't feel like lugging compost around whilst pregnant.

Hyacinths (also planted last year) are appearing in the other containers.

The Camellia is beginning to flower

And loads more flowers have appeared on the Hellebores! I thought the Daphne was going to flower too, but nothing's happened yet, and it's getting a bit late now?

That's it for this month. The building work is supposed to take 4-5 weeks, so maybe I'll have a nearly completed garage and patio to show off at the beginning of April.

Honey, I shrunk the kid's knitting

Remember that tank top I knitted for the baby last year? Well, she's worn it a few times, but then I put it in the washing machine on the wrong cycle and look what happened! It's now rather small and felted. I initially felt quite sad as it still had plenty of growing room for her left in it, plus it was the first thing I knitted for her when I was pregnant (I actually ordered the yarn in the first trimester but didn't dare start knitting until after that)

It turned out to be just the right size for her bear though, so now he's wearing it. Actually, this probably means it's achieved more longevity than would otherwise have been the case, as I'm not sure what I'd have done with it once she grew out of it?

My knitting productivity has increased recently as LO now goes to sleep earlier in the evening in her Moses basket, instead of on me in front of the TV. I finished the second one of this pair of socks. I cast on for the second one when I went into hospital to have her, and knitted about a third of the leg during labour and our subsequent few days in hospital. The rest followed more slowly as the only knitting I got done for a while was at knitting group whilst other people held LO! The pattern is Samwise Gamgee, knitted on 2.25mm needles using Katia Olé Socks Comfort yarn, which initially seemed a bit splitty until I got used to knitting with it. I used almost entirely two balls of the yarn as I made the legs quite long.

I've cast on another pair of socks. This time another pair of garter rib socks from Sensational Knitted Socks, as I wanted an interesting but basic pattern to keep me going for a while. The yarn is from stash and is Baby og Hosegarn by Løve Garn, a Danish brand I received in a swop. It's nice to knit with and I like the stripes, as I don't have the brain power to knit a complicated pattern at the moment.

So, how do you get on with crafting with a small person around? And how has that changed as your small person/people have grown up?

Garden at the beginning of February 2016

Haven't really had much cold weather, although it has been quite wet, so the lawn is looking very green!

The mild weather has meant the bulbs are putting in an early appearance, and everything is sprouting leaves really early.

Even the strawberry plants are flowering (they might get a shock when it turns cold!)

Crocuses peeping through the strawberries

And more crocuses growing amongst the heucheras

I'm really pleased with this hellebore. The flowers are beautiful. It's one of the ones I grew from seed collected from a plant given to us by a neighbour.