Midsummer's Eve

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

This morning at breakfast I cut myself some very, very tiny bits off matchsticks to prop open my eyes this afternoon. T got into school from athletics at 1.30am and my head hit the pillow at precisely 1.49am. The 7.00am alarm was very, very unpleasant. I've coped so far but am now starting to flag and my body is crying, "bed, bed - please". Needless to say, when I left the house this morning, no teenage boys were to be seen or heard.

Whilst T was travelling back from Bedford in a boiling coach with no air conditioning, we enjoyed a traditional Cornish mid-summer's eve celebration. Following a bbq at our neighbours we all trooped up the hill to the beacon bonfire:



























As you can see, the Cornish don't mess around with their bonfires - BIG is the key element.

Following the Celtic prayers in both Cornish and English the bunch of flowers and plants (both good and poisonous) were thrown into the fire to denote the flourishing of good and death of bad (or something like that):


















The fire burnt unbelievably fiercely and was still going at 1.30am when I came home:













FB kept trying to get me to get further away from him and closer to the fire for this pic - it was absolutely roasting - do you think he's trying to tell me something?!

A very dear and good friend of ours had a baby girl a couple of weeks ago and I can feel a baby blanket design coming on. I'm beginning to realise that I'm my own worst enemy - just as I get to near the end of my list of "things which must be knitted" and start to think about that stash-busting jacket or something else from the stash, my creative juices start to flow at the merest mention of a new baby and I find myself studying pattern books at 1am (OK, I was waiting for T, I wouldn't normally stay up quite that late looking at patterns) and tonight I just know I'll be knitting a swatch. And then I'll stress myself to finish it before we start the JOG-Land's End adventure. Worst enemy? Myself

PS: Talking of JOG-Land's End - FB and G cycled 62 miles yesterday - both slightly pink now and FB slightly knackered. Training is in full swing - boys still slightly concerned about their Father!

Unrelated Observations

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T had to be at School at 7.00 this morning as he's off playing team building soldier style at HMS Raleigh. For some reason that I can't fathom, FB set the alarm for 5.30 - an hour and a half before departure (even for T) seems a little excessive. (Turns out I got the time wrong and he didn't need to be at school until 7.30 - first time ever he's been the first!) We're all feeling a little weary already but not as weary as we'll be tomorrow when T is off to the Athletics finals in Bedford and has to leave school at 4am. Yes, you did read that right - 4am. Getting back home at c11.30pm. Bedford is a very, very long way from Penzance. Not sure how good his jumping will be after that hideous start! And not sure he'll be in school on Thursday.

FB is in full John O'Groats to Land's End route planning mode. We have maps, atlases and Google maps all over the office. Route is looking good so far - averaging 81 miles per day - yikes! Tina is hoping to get the jumper pattern to me tomorrow so I can start panicking then.

In the meantime I am in training with the second Cornish Organic sock nearly finished and a Samba summer top on the go in the shop - really pretty - am really liking it and hoping it'll be finished in time for our trip although, as we leave in just over 2 weeks, can't help thinking that's unlikely.

I'm also doing a little bit of work for a new knitting magazine coming out in September - very exciting and a little bit hush hush - watch this space.

End of Exam Parties

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

G finished his final GCSE on Thursday - to the entire family's huge relief - what a stressful time they are for all. In order to celebrate that and his 17th birthday three weeks ago, we allowed a party. Actually, we didn't have much choice - he'd had one for his 16th that was such a success that everyone totally assumed we'd have another this year. Maybe we should hold disastrous parties and then the pressure would be off.

So - last night he and 16 of his closest friends gathered in a field half a mile away from our house (I can recommend this as the minimum distance parents should be from their offspring's parties once they reach the age of 16+). We put a tent up, built a bonfire, set up a barbecue, tables, chairs etc and left them too it. (Actually, that's not strictly true - we fed them all 2 burgers before we left them to it which we felt would, at least, soak up some of the alcohol which had mysteriously appeared in the field.)

On the whole they're a sensible bunch and had a great time and very little sleep. I, too, had very little sleep as I lay there waiting for either the front door to open or the phone to ring. Neither event happened so I should have just gone to sleep but, you know, neurotic mothers and all that.

This evening, we have a friend's joint 50th/18th party to go to (Mother and son). I am exhausted and grumpy. My sons have spent most of the day sleeping so are ready and raring to go. I've been in the shop and just want to go to bed - somehow, I've got this whole thing wrong!

I may have just shouted at G who got his new white trainers covered in cow poo and wants them clean and dry for tonight. I put them in the washing machine and, apparently, they are cleaner but won't dry in time and can they go in the tumble dryer? I said "No". He argued the point. I may have shouted at him a little bit about wearing some other d**m pair of shoes and it being his fault for getting cow s**t over them in the first place. Sorry G - Mum's a little weary - when you've stayed awake for your eldest's 17th birthday party, you'll understand.

But I still don't think you should put them in the tumble dryer.

PS: WD40 would be my first recommendation if you get tar on your clothes. Odd but it worked.

Lard vs WD40

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Not totally convinced that the lard worked - smeared it all over and then rubbed it a bit and then soaked the shorts in some all-singing, all-dancing stain removal stuff and then bunged them in the washing machine. Am waiting for the results on dry shorts when I get home this evening.

The other recommended solution was, bizarrely, WD40 - so I sprayed another area with that and that does appear (in the damp state this morning) to have worked better than lard. Slightly concerned it might have changed the colour of the material as well though. In which case I may have to spray the entire garment with WD40 so the it all ends up the same colour, minus the tar.

This saga could run and run.

Cycled down the farmer's lane this morning in order to avoid all road re-surfacing machinery. Very pretty, very quiet and very, very bumpy - but no tar to be seen - hoorah.

RIP Jack

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

Sad news - Jack the baby jackdaw passed away in the night. We have no idea why - he was quite cheery yesterday evening and sat happily on T's arm and then, this morning, he had - quite literally - fallen off his perch. Such are the mysteries of nature.

Also during the night, Deidre deposited a dead rat in the back porch.

So we had an interesting start to the day.

G and I then cycled into town together (G's going to join the "I'm going to ride my bike during the world cup" group on Facebook, by the way - he thought that was pretty cool) and, where they're re-surfacing the road in our village, I thought we'd passed a truck spraying a gentle stream of water onto the road. Looks like it was a gentle stream of water with tar in it though as I have specks of black, immovable stuff on my shorts and legs. Have googled "how to remove tar from clothing" and, apparently, covering it with lard is the answer.

Bizarre phone call of the day, "FB - am I right in thinking we have a pack of lard in the back of the fridge". You can imagine the stunned silence.

I'll let you know if it works.

FB and Boating

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

When I got home yesterday, FB had read the Blog and was surprised I hadn't made more of the boating trip on Saturday. I'd assumed he wanted to save his embarrassment but, apparently, not. So - I now have carte blance to give you the full breakdown of my husband's and youngest son's marine ineptitude on Saturday:

They got down to the water early so the little sailing boats weren't around. (FB nearly mowed down a girl on a laser last week when he got his throttle and forward/backward levers confused, but that's another story.)

Launched the boat. Tied it up and T waited in it whilst FB moved the car and trailer, clamped the trailer (morons knick trailers, apparently) and wandered back to the boat.

T (in the boat): "Dad, the boat seems to be getting lower in the water. Did you put the bung in?"

FB (now running) - back to the car, get the clamp off the trailer, reverse the trailer back to the boat (never easy!), boat out of water, wait 20 minutes for the water to drain out, put the bung in.

Re-launched the boat, re-parked the car, re-clamped the trailer.

Went fishing. Slightly lumpy and bumpy water. Big wave crashed in and dislodged the front window. Water in the cabin.

Decided to call it a day. Returned to harbour to discover that the tide had gone out (funny thing that, it happens every day but caught them completely unawares). Couldn't get the boat back to the launch ramp or the pontoon as the engine doesn't work unless upright (remember that saga).

Very nice diver in full dry suit walked them round to the pontoon. (I would probably have paid money to watch that.)

FB & T sat in the boat on the pontoon for 2.5 hours until the tide came up and they could get the boat out of the water.

Came home. Spent 2 hours at home repairing the front window.

Another successful boating day and, yes, more sunburn.

Busy Weekend

Knitwits Yarns knitwitspenzance.co.uk

The fishing expedition was not a huge success but the weather was amazing:













The Scillonian went out on her daily trip to the Scillies:










and I was very pleased to see the personal service provided by HM Coastguard, which hung around all morning to rescue my boys in case they got into trouble:











The net result of all of this was one mackerel - possibly the most expensive mackerel in the world?

Saturday afternoon saw the arrival of Jack into our lives. This is Jack:


















Jack is an almost fledged jackdaw who fell out of his nest on Saturday afternoon and was recovered by G & T. He now thinks that T is his Mum and will sit on his hand quite happily. This morning we cleaned him out so I held him:













I am actually holding him looser than it may look! He is very sweet and now squawks when he wants food but, if I'm brutally honest, he does pong quite a bit. All being well, he'll be with us for a couple of weeks and will then fly off. When we put his cage outside, his Mum still comes to find him so we're hopeful it'll all work out OK.

Yesterday afternoon I knitted the Scottish flag (or Saltire as it's properly called - actually, if you want to be technical the white cross is called the Saltire but the name has now come to mean the entire flag). The flag is, obviously, part of the End to End Sweater so I was pleased to see the charting worked out fine:


















and it actually goes rather well with my t-shirt! I have now started the "wool box" for the End to End trip - so far it contains 1 x skein COW in St Ives (blue), 1 x skein COW in Cream, 1 x pair 4mm needles (bamboo) and a Saltire chart. Not sure that's enough to make a sweater but, hey, it's a start.

PS: I guess I have to mention the football. I succeeded in not seeing a single ball kicked but I have seen "that" goal repeated ad nauseam all yesterday. To be honest, if I was getting paid c£75,000 per week to get a very small ball into really quite a large net and I played that badly, I'd expect to be sacked.