I have mirrors!

Last week Hire a Hubby (who actually turned out to be "Hire a Son" and "Hire Son's Friend") came round to sort out things in my house. So I now have mirrors up (and coat hooks, pictures, shelves, clear guttering, a water butt attached to the downpipe and curtain tie backs at all windows). So, finally I can show some very bad photos of Eloise. This is in on my upstairs landing, with the curtains open the light was just all wrong, at least this way you can sort of see Eloise and the camera flash hides my zits.

And the bathroom mirror (this is a recycled mirror, no less! I scavenged it when my parents were having a new bathroom put in a couple of years ago). The mirror also covers up the holes I made (see here and scroll down a bit) when I was attempting to put it up myself...

Eloise seems to have been on the go for ages. I started her on holiday back in June but then house moving, hot weather and a sprained wrist all got in the way. I also didn't have enough yarn (despite buying the no. of balls specified) but luckily Joy from Knit Lincs had some left over from her Eloise in the same colour.
Specifications:
Pattern: Eloise from Noro Knits
Size: XS (but it took 7.5 balls rather than the 7 balls specified in the pattern!)
Yarn: Noro Blossom. Colour no. 13. Bought at Yarn on the Knit Lincs trip back in May.
Needles: 4.5mm Surina wooden straights. The pattern states 5mm, but I needed to go down to get gauge (which perhaps explains why I needed extra yarn?).

Did anyone else watch the new BBC version of Robin Hood last night? I thought it was quite good, although Robin Hood appeared to be aged 10 (see, I really am turning into an old fart) and I had no idea that mascara and lipstick were so big in twelfth century England...
What was even more bizarre were the constant references to where I live. The series was actually shot in Hungary, but of course Robin Hood was in Sherwood Forest. Where I live. (well OK, the district of Newark and Sherwood, but it's the same thing).

Yesterday I found a lake only 10 minutes walk from my house. I'm not really totally unobservant as it is tucked away behind a housing estate. I'd ordered an Ordnance Survey map centred on my postcode (Newark is annoying on the edge of 4 map sheets) and had it framed. It got hung on my wall during the Hire a Hubby spree last week and close inspection revealed a very large puddle not far away. So I went off on a little explore yesterday, and found this:









Isn't it fab? And I could have lived here for years and never found it! It seems to be owned by the Parish Council and is for everyone to use. There were lots of dog walkers out and about, but I'm pleased to say that most seemed to be very well-behaved as I only sighted one pile of dog poo on my walk. I get SOOOOOO annoyed with people who don't clear up after their dogs. Grrrrr. Anyway, the lake is beautiful, and bounded on one side by one of the national cycle routes. I shall be visiting here again, hopefully often!

Latest book review: Imperium by Robert Harris follows the early years of Cicero's political career in Rome. The Guardian digest of it is quite harsh (although it still made me reserve it at the library!) and I did find the book a little ponderous to start with. It didn't help that I didn't expect the library to get it for me quite so fast and with somebody else wanting it after me I had a deadline to meet reading it! I thought Harris made a good job of getting across the intrigues and politics of Ancient Rome, the personalities involved and the life and death nature of what was going on. It was certainly an improvement on reading Cicero himself in Latin, and made me wish the novel had been around when I was doing A Level Latin... That probably makes it sound a little studious, but it isn't as Harris manages to get across what is a lot of detail in an entertaining way.