Apes, food, sheep & socks

Happy Easter!!!

First of all I have an appeal to make. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching OrangUtan diary this week on BBC1. They have been my absolute favourite animals for years, the expressions on their faces........ Anyway, if you have also enjoyed it, the sad news is that since they filmed the series the centre has run out of funding and they desperately need money to keep the place open. So please make a donation to save these beautiful animals.

Thank you.

Onto other things............

This weekend is turning out to be pretty busy.

On Friday afternoon we went to visit baby Robert and his proud mum and dad. It was a lovely day so we went for a short walk to the nearby mere to see the ducks and geese, not that he was aware of any of it, but it was nice for us!! Sheldon was duly delivered to his new owner.

On Saturday morning we went to the Chester Food & Drink Festival. This is an annual event and we have been for the last 3 years. It is held in a marquee at Chester Castle and lots of local producers come and have a stall to show off their wares. And there are lots of tasting opportunities!! Yum. The cookery demonstration was by Simon Rimmer from Something for the Weekend so we watched him making cheese and potato cakes, salmon with chorizo and new potatoes, and a cheesecake which was basically a heart attack on a plate. It was made with 600g mascarponi cheese, 600g soft cheese, 6 eggs, who knows how much sugar - all to make ONE cheesecake!!

One of the stands sells pork products and at lunchtime they sell rolls with either bacon or saugage fillings, or the speciality is the Hog Roast. They set up a whole pig on a spit roast at 4am and it is ready for 12.30. Then they carve it and stuff it into baps with apple sauce and stuffing. Absolutely delicious!!!

Today I have been making sheep. But because I had put off making some for a lady in the USA, I have done hers and only have 16 extra for the shop so far. But the good thing is, once I stop procrastinating and get on with them I am getting quicker, and if I do a small number at a time it isn't so bad. Little and often is obviously the key. It is also difficult to know how many to make for the shop as we don't know what the demand will be. Depending which magazine it is going in, the publication date is either 19th April or 29th April, so at least a couple of weeks to build up the stocks. In total I have made 40 this weekend.

And I couldn't resisit having a go at these while I was at it.......

The mouths are a bit odd, I drew them on in pen before they were cooked and it may have been better to do it afterwards. Ah well, they are only for my amusement!!

And then earlier on our neighbour phoned and asked us round for tea tomorrow afternoon. It is Paul's birthday tomorrow and then Colin's 9 days later so we are getting together to celebrate both. She mentioned steak and chips which sounds fab!

On the knitting front, I am still on the Fab Lace cardi - the back and one front are finished but I am going to wait for my Addis before I carry on as they may be lighter on my hands, and I have been having problems with my left thumb. In the meantime I got this from garnstudio

and have started making a pair of toe-up socks for a mystery recepient with the Karisma. I am doing them toe-up because I'm not sure how far the yarn will go. It is fiddly though cos I'm trying to work from 3 methods at once because I have a different number of stitches to any of them. Huh, just to make life difficult!