If you are wondering where the knitting content has gone..........

.........I've been a bit distracted.

Firstly by reading. Since I joined GoodReads I have renewed my interest in reading - not that I ever lost it, I always have a book on the go, but I am more enthusiastic about getting through books quicker. Just the fact that you read a book and write a review for other people to read, seems to make it more urgent that you get a book finished. There is also a "progress update" bar where you put in which page you are currently on, so you can see how far into the book you are. I have also joined a couple of groups, one of which has a reading group where you can nominate a category and then when the category is decided you nominate a book and then everyone votes and that is the "book of the month". I suggested crime/thriller - well I would wouldn't I? - but the category voted winner was "a book with the name of a flower in the title". I suggested The Red Dahlia - a crime/thriller (2 birds with one stone and all that) but the winner was "The Rose of Sebastopol". Now I wouldn't touch this book with a bargepole normally but I am going to be open minded and give it a go. I've ordered a copy from GreenMetropolis because I had a bit of credit from when I sold a book through them. This is a great site for secondhand books, all books are £3.75, and postage is generally free on normal sized paperbacks.

My other distraction has been my new iPhone! Colin has a contract with O2 and was due for an upgrade so he decided to go for an iPhone. The minute it was in the house (last Thursday) I wanted one. I have been very happy on Pay as you Go with Orange for donkeys years, and probably would have stayed with them, but the iPhone is only on O2 so I have had to go over to them. And go on a contract which I've never had either. So on Saturday I got my lovely shiny iPhone. I've been surfing the web, and downloading apps and generally just staring at it a lot!

It was a bit naughty of me to get it on Saturday because it was actually Colin's birthday that day, not mine! We had a pub lunch and then in the evening we asked Paul & Kate and their girls round and we ordered Domino's pizzas. And I made a cheescake - no photos, it was eaten too quickly - which was delicious. I'll be making that again.

Tonight we are probably going to have something with mushrooms in it!


I have TWO fully grown mushrooms now. There are loads of tiny ones too but I'm wondering if they will come on better once these two aren't sucking up all the goodness in the soil.

As for knitting, I am plodding on with my Monkey socks, just passed the second heel last night so they should be finished off fairly quickly, and then I am going to go back to the Tweedy Waistcoat which went in the naughty corner. It shouldn't take too much to get it sorted out and finished, and it is just the right time of year now to be wearing it.

Finally, Colin is very excited because his 365challenge has been featured on the JustGiving website's blog. You can read it here.

Getting bigger

These are growing really fast now, just the two - all the others are there but still really tiny - but they seem to double in size every 24 hours. They are probably about 2cm tall now and about 1.5cm wide. I reckon we'll be eating them very soon.

What a difference a day makes.......

.....24 little hours. Look how much my mushies have grown in exactly 24 hours, they must have really needed that drink!


And here is a little drowned blackbird on the roof of our garage, taken with my sooper dooper zoom lens. If you click to make it larger you can see the water drops on his feathers.

Can you tell what it is yet - clue 2

Any ideas? It's a tricky one isn't it?

Can you tell what it is yet?

I felt like growing something, but not just any old thing. Flowers are lovely but they are lovely for a short period of time and then they are over. I wanted something a bit different, so this is it. I have just started it off, and apparently I should start to see something within 6 days. That's if I've managed to get the conditions right, I'm not sure about the temperature fluctuations in the back bedroom.

So have a guess if you want, I shall post progress pics, as and when, for the next clue.

Ear update: So I'd been to the GP on Monday and got the extra antibiotics but nothing was improving, in fact it was all getting worse as far as I was concerned. I have never known pain like it, and on Tuesday Colin came home from work to find me in tears. It was too late to get a GP appointment so we went over to A&E. Amazingly the wait wasn't too long before I was seen by an Australian soap star masquerading as a doctor. Basically there was nothing he could do for me except give me some lovely strong painkillers. Hoo-wee, were they good! Knocked me out a bit but they didn't half do the job. I am now more or less painkiller free (except I had to take some during the night last night) and I am now waiting patiently for my ear to "pop" so I can hear again. The swelling has reduced but it is all very blocked up.

This is going to be very icky but I haven't washed my hair since last Saturday because I was told not to get my ear wet. This has been okay because I haven't had to go out anywhere yet, but today is the day I have to leave the house. We have no milk and I can't have a cup of tea!!! Horror of horrors!