mumblings

The lovely Sarah very kindly sent me some well-travelled Trekking XXL as the Trekking I’d ordered from Germany was very slow to arrive – that reminds me that I need to call them again as the colour that I was missing still isn’t here. It was the beautiful Murph’s birthday on Thursday so go over and visit Sarah and wish Murph a happy birthday – he really is the most gorgeous dog I’ve ever seen (and I’m a cat person) and you’ll get to see cute puppy photos.

I started these lovely Trek socks on Saturday afternoon after the shawl left the needles. I had hurried to get the shawl finished as a couple of the people who gave me the knitting vouchers are leaving and I wanted to show them what I’d made.

Tankerton was the perfect place to knit these as the blue was beautiful next to the sea.

As we were sitting outside the cafe, me knitting the lovely Trekking and pao reading, a vintage bus showed up with a driver and a proper conductor all in 1960s uniforms.

then another which I think was even older.

Sadly it was far too hot to stick around to see what else showed up so we went back to the flat for a bit of knitting (me) and listening to Grand Prix on the radio (pao) – well done, Jensen.

We did manage to take them out for a little trek later in the day and made it about a third of the way to Herne Bay before I admitted that I was really thirsty and hot and needed to go back.

They did come out later when we sat on the beach to watch the sun go down with a bottle of rose.

It wasn’t long before sock 1 was complete.

They progressed rather nicely throughout the week and I finished them this morning.

Sadly it was tipping down with rain so taking them out to pose by the sea was impossible so I leave you some photos that I took in the flat before we left.

Isn’t that the most perfect colour for being by the sea? Thank you so much Sarah for sending it to me

Frarochvia asked what the colourway was and I’ve now looked at the label and it is number 40.

It was sad to go as we’d had a good time all week but nice to be home again as we’d missed all the cat curls. I think they have missed us too but then again, they could just be hungry.

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Sarah’s Trekking SOS package arrived on Wednesday! Wow! What a gorgeous package and well worth the wait.

She decorated a gorgeous tin for me and here is a photo of it in all its loveliness! How fantastic! Phoebe was so anxious to have a look she leapt on the table (which, for Phoebe, is quite an achievement).

What you don’t see in this picture are these fabulous stitch markers which Sarah had made!

They are in my current sock project already! Thank you so much Sarah! It was really really kind of you – go and check out her blog to see the gorgeous Murph!

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….and the Trekking socks get to go out too…

Where to start?

Photos are good – here are some photos of our lunch and evening at the beach.

We’ve never been to Eastwell Manor when it hasn’t rained before.

It was amazing.

I showed the Trekking to a sheep.

And we looked cool in our shades!

From the Manor, we headed to Tenterden to do a little shopping so that Trekking could Trek in Tenterden.

We then headed out to Dungeness to see if we could find somewhere to have a BBQ on the beach.

The beach looked like a no-no as there is a nuclear power station close by and for some reason it was very windy.

With a lighthouse.

And another lighthouse really close by.

There were some amazing houses there though. This one looked like it should have been in the Nevada desert.

Not far from Dungeness we found a car park by the beach at Greatchurch and set up our camp on the beach.

It was windy but nothing would defeat pao in lighting the BBQ.

We had to have birthday cake first.

But it was great fun!

Tomorrow I’ll tell you about London.

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As I’ve been a trifle poorly over the last few weeks, the last thing I’ve wanted to do is much walking.  I have wanted to knit though so those Trekking socks progressed rather nicely.

The socks went to a private view of some of my neighbours artwork.

And happily limped round Tankerton beach for a BBQ with Foo and Rah.

Feeling fear with the sock eating monster.

Then limped to Wagamama for a spot of Japanese. It isn’t easy knitting when chefs are setting fire to things in the background.

And finally got flirty with the French Cafe Rouge.

All done now!  No photos yet but when I take those out for a tiny trek you can see them in their full glory!

Wimbledon socks here I come!

I wonder if we’ve managed to convert pao to knitting?

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pao came downstairs yesterday evening and said “How would you like to go out for some fresh air?”. Those being the best words I’d heard in the last two weeks, I immediately croaked yes and he took me and my Trekking sock to Tankerton for fish and chips and a very small bit of fresh air.

They may be heavy on grease but rock and chips was like ambrosia.

We saw a Bagpuss striped beach hut which Mrs SJT would like.

And a very pink hut.

And the Trekking sock has finally left the the building.

When we got back, Ariel sniffed my fingers and gave me the look of death.

How dare you eat fish without me!

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This is the most awake I’ve been today as I’ve been back to see the doctor again and he has certified me for another week. This time though, he took blood and pee samples and is going to carry out some “further investigations”. He decided to give me a course of antibiotics to try and shift the pain which has been emanating from my sinuses – these could qualify for a Project Spectrum entry on their own being big and yellow. After taking one of the monsters, I immediately started to feel extremely nauseous and promptly went off to zzz land. So hopefully the antibodies are actually running round doing pitched battle in my body or I want my money back.

Some of my Trekking from Germany has arrived – hooray!

Colour 77

Colour 109 which is what I am using for the Trek-along. (sorry it’s so blurry, I was half-way to zzz land when I took this)

I’m blown away by the kindness of bloggers. Sarah very kindly offered to send me a ball of Trekking last week when she read about my predicament. It hasn’t arrived yet but when it does, I’m planning on knitting a second Trekalong pair of socks in her honour. I don’t know which colour she is sending but I love a surprise. If you don’t know her, please go and along and wish her lovely dog Murph well as he is poorly at the moment. (He’s extremely cute, too)

We had a small disaster when pao got home from work this afternoon. I think I touched the cupboard slightly and the inner shelf fell down.

Bearing in mind that all the crockery we had received as wedding presents was in that cupboard, it was a bit scary. Especially scary when we know that Denby don’t actually make that particular colour (Boston) any more. But we only had one casualty. A rice bowl which for some reason one of my colleagues had put on my wedding list for me and then promptly bought four but didn’t have the other eight she’d had added removed. We ended up with eleven in the end – don’t ask. It wasn’t bad as the casualty only happened when we were removing crockery from the cupboard.

Thankfully pao and his glue and nails can fix it. I just think it was a slight freak accident since the cupboard has been happily holding all our crockery for the last five years and has been a store cupboard for three or four before that.

It was a bit scary moving crockery when you’re feeling shaky (ssh, I didn’t tell pao I was feeling like that at the time).

Here is a bit of a sneak preview of what I’m going to be doing during Wimbledon fortnight. Wimbledon really is the only tennis match I’d willingly watch and it is even more special as I used to live near and briefly used to work there. So this year, I’m making Wimbledon socks during the two weeks. It is also ideal for Project Spectrum as it is purple and black are my favourite colours!

Sending you a great big heart (yes, that is another trifle made by pao, yummy) for all your kind words and comments recently.

And a gratuitous cat photo:

Black cats are great fun, aren’t they? But Merlin looks ridiculous when he’s pretending to be a superhero.

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I blame Chris as I not only went and signed up for the Trek Along with Me and then *had* to go searching for some Trekking XXL which could arrive in time for the June 1st start date.

Luckily I found a German website which looked promising but had to order three balls as the postage would have been the same as one ball…. So I ordered 77, 78 and 109….. Actually Peeve also is partly to blame for this as she supplied me with my first ever ball of Trekking XXL!

Oh, the woolly goodness!

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