Feeling the heat

Like me, Yarnstorm has been struggling with the unseasonal heat and its effect on her garden. Our tulips are already over, and I'm sure last year they were still on the go in May. We're having to water every night at the moment, which you just don't expect to do in April! It's got up to about 25° several days this week, which is just about over the limit where I feel comfortable (I get sunstroke pretty easily so can't really stay out in it for very long) and way past the point when the OH feels comfortable. So instead of a nice long spring full of fun visits to places, it looks like we're going to be stuck indoors forever.

I had a lovely weekend last weekend though, as I went up to Lincolnshire to visit Mum for a couple of nights. Once we'd got past the nightmare train journey on the way up (the return trip was fine, and I was 30 minutes early getting home again!), I had a great time, doing a lot of catching up with Mum and various other people on the Sunday. On the Saturday we went to a friend's wedding, of someone I was at school with, back in the mists of time (it feels like a VERY long time ago being back at school!).

She looked absolutely amazing and the service was wonderful. I was rather impressed that they both stood for the entire service too - we sat down for the readings and the sermon. I don't think my knees would have held me up otherwise! It had extra resonance as it was the first wedding I'd been to since ours last summer so I kept remembering that the last time I'd heard those words it was me/the OH saying them! (soppy, me?!). I had wondered in advance whether it might be a bit upsetting - this is the church where we used to go for school carol services, which my Dad used to come to, and there's always the "she's got her Dad to take her down the aisle" thing too, but when it came to it, it was such a joyful occasion I didn't really think about it.

Bizarrely the church was a lot smaller than I remembered (I was 18 when I last went in it) and also a lot lighter and brighter, but I suppose that's the contrast between chilly December and sunny April. I'm also mystified about how on earth we squashed the school orchestra into the small space at the front. The space looks tiny now, but I can recall both playing my 'cello and being able to breathe so it can't have been that bad.

It was also a chance to catch up with a lot of my old school friends, some of whom I hadn't seen for over a decade! We were all still recognisable, and I think I even managed to remember everyone's children's and partner's names...

Oh, and I got to hold a baby belonging to one friend whilst she sorted her bag out, and the baby promptly snuggled up and went to sleep on me - so cute!

Even more amazingly, our old form teacher was there, whom I hadn't seen for about 20 years. She must be in her 80s now, but still looked just the same (!). It was so nice to see everyone, as these are people who really helped me out when I was a small, terrified 11 year old, just arrived at secondary school and feeling very lost and bewildered. And then a bigger , marginally more confident, 18 year old heading off into the big wide world...

It was a pretty exhausting weekend, but fortunately last week was a four day week with the bank holiday for Good Friday, so it wasn't too bad going back to work. I have had a few dilemmas in the garden - does anyone know what these plants are? I'm a bit mystified.

Honeymoon purchases

And to round off the series of wedding/honeymoon posts, only getting-on-for-two-months-since-we-got-married, here are my honeymoon purchases!
First of all from the Yarn Gathering in Coventry. 7 balls of Grignasco Merino Gold in burgundy (and one in grey which isn't pictured). This is  really good value, machine washable 100% merino wool. Hopefully to make the Essential Cardigan, from Interweave Knits Summer 2010.

Then from Warwick Wools 8 balls of Sirdar Supersoft Aran to make jumpers for the nephews for Christmas. Although it's 100% acrylic it doesn't feel like it. And a ball of Regia Hand-Dye Effect sock yarn, 'cos it looked fun.

And this pattern for the Supersoft Aran jumpers for the nephews.

Warwick was also good for bookshops, I bought one of these from the secondhand bookshop, and the other one in Warwick Books!

The final purchase, from Web of Wool in Leamington Spa has already found its way across the Atlantic as part of Tabitha's thank you present for the wedding shawl she made me!

Totally overwhelmed

Last Tuesday I had one of the more overwhelming evenings of my life. I already knew I'd got a special parcel on its way to me (it got as far as our front door on Monday and was retrieved from Staines post office on Saturday. No pics or further details yet as it is Something For Wearing At The Wedding and therefore cannot be revealed as the OH reads this blog). The others at knitting group had requested that I brought the OH along to last week's meeting, which I duly did, thinking that maybe they had a wedding card for us or something.

The "something" was right - look at this. A whole knitted wedding cake!! Isn't it cool?! The detail is absolutely amazing, right down to my hairdo and our wedding rings. And the flowers are in our wedding colour scheme. An enormous amount of work has gone into it as there are loads of little bits that had to be sewn together. So the OH makes his debut appearance on my blog in knitted format!

The pattern is apparently the Alan Dart wedding cake, but heavily adapted - look, ours has two tiers!

Then, just when I was getting totally overwhelmed and little over-emotional Wannaknit handed us a parcel passed on from Greensideknits in London.

Some members of the Archers Listeners group on Ravelry, had got in touch with each other and decided to form the "Ambridge Knitting Circle" (complete with its own secret Ravelry group!) and make us a wedding blanket! Each of the squares is something to do with the Archers, or related to us, and they have come from all over the place, been assembled by Greensideknits, who also knitted the borders using her own hand-dyed yarn (which, it turns out, is in the same colour as the bridesmaids dresses!), everyone supplied a postcard from where they live and there's also a little book with all the postcards in and an explanation of all the squares! Isn't it cool?!

So, again, totally overwhelming. I am planning to blog about all the squares properly and explain what they are, but I think that's going to have to wait until after the wedding now...

Thank you to everyone for the amazing gifts!

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, the Archers is a totally addictive soap on radio 4. I've only been listening to it for five or so years, but it quickly became addictive.