Simple happy

A few things that have made me a jolly happy girl lately...

Shelves. They are appearing all over the house.  This is a good thing, especially these ones in the kitchen.  Everything on those shelves was previously in a heap on the floor.  It's nice to see it all neat and tidy.

Garden snacks.  I only have two strawberry plants (I'm not actually a big fan of strawberries.  I know. Shocking...) but they are currently in overdrive.  Even I can appreciate the joys of sun-warmed strawberries scoffed straight off the plant. Mmmm :)

And speaking of the garden, things are are all a-bloom.  The odd sweet pea survived The Move and I keep catching hints of their gorgeous perfume on the breeze.  Elsewhere, frothy clouds of lobelia are bursting forth in a beautiful blue that's almost the exact same colour of the sky.

Meanwhile, indoors, the Shelves of Yarny Temptation beckon every time I get to the top of the stairs.

Simple things. Happy things.

It ain't lupus...

Remember a while ago I told you about a super-secret project that was taking up ALL of my time? Well, having finished, framed and presented it to its new owner, I can finally share it with you.

Before I do, I should preface this by saying that it wasn't supposed to be such an undertaking.  What I wanted was this.  I saw it ages ago and thought it was ace. I also clocked that the seller sells patterns for her works (or most of them), so I made a small assumption and filed it away in the back of my mind for later. Only when I came to shop for a housewarming present for The Beloved did I find that, alas, the pattern isn't available to buy.

At this point, a normal person would go buy a toaster and give that instead.  Not I.  Suffice to say, my error dawned on me at about 1am when I was struggling to tell the difference between 6 shades of beige. Five - yes, FIVE - weeks later (on the very day we collected the keys and moved in) I dropped it off at the framer's.  This is what I collected this week...

It has a very different feel to the original one. Not so sampler-y, I don't think. And a little stern.  Oh well.  Want a closer look?

Actually, don't look too closely - not all of those stitches are in the same direction. Oops!

I'm pleased to report that The Beloved seems to like it. To be honest, I think he was more relieved than anything else.  When I told him it wasn't quite finished (he presented me with a coffee maker as a house warming gift when we moved in), he was picturing a pair of crocheted y-fronts which I found on Pinterest ages ago and have been threatening him with at every available present-giving occasion since.

So, thank you to Steotch for the idea and manifold apologies for copying it.  I hope you can forgive.

Relocated, relocated!

Well, hello there!

Today, a jolly nice man from the internet people came and connected our lovely new house to cyberspace. It feels like I have been away for the longest time, but in reality, it's only about a month. Still, it's been a pretty full month. We finally moved into the house and we have almost unpacked. Hurrah!

Perhaps the Bestest Besty Thing Ever about the house is that there's a little corner that's all mine. In fact, there's a little corner that's all The Beloved's too, but enough about The Man Cave, let me show you The Sewing Room!

It's just at the top of the stairs, and heavily guarded by Cat #1 (when she's not draped across my laptop...).

The desk is in and shelves have already gone up.

There's space for a 'thinking couch', or somewhere to crochet in comfort (although truth be told, I tend to sneak the crochet next door into the living room where the big sofas are...)

And some rather crowded bookcases.

To be honest, 'sewing room' might be a misnomer. There's clearly more crochet/yarn/hooks/etc. but I'm looking forward to having a proper space to spread across when I do crack open the sewing machine.

As you can see, there's a lot to organise still, so I'll bid you goodbye for now... x

Relocation, relocation

As you may know, we're in the middle of moving house. If you have a nose through my Twitter stream, you'll see it's been a bit fraught, not least because our mortgage provider can't spell 'Jonathan'. Anyway, the lease on my lovely cosy little cottage has now expired and as of this week, it has new tenants. Consequently, as of last weekend, we are now all in The Beloved's flat.

Cat #1: unmoved by The Move

It's a nice flat. Spacious, bright, airy. On the second floor. Yes, the second floor. Cat #2 hasn't complained yet, but it won't take him long.  Keep your fingers crossed for the house sale to be finalised soon!

Cat #2 found his favourite toy behind the sofa in The Move

We're braced for it all to happen very quickly when the paperwork is finally all present and correct.  It's odd not knowing when or whether we'll be here or there, and a little unsettling. But in the middle of all this confusion, some things continue with reassuring regularity.

My pot rose has begun to bloom :)

Mr Blackbird

We've had some funny old snow this weekend. It hasn't stuck to the roads or to my yard, but the hedgerows, trees and fields are laden with it and it's drifted in strange corrugated mounds all along the verges to give the roads a sort of frilly edge.  Pretty as it is, it means the birds have had to be more daring than usual in their search for a meal.

I have a window bird feeder which the birds take advantage of in the early mornings (when cat #2 is not allowed outside). It's usually pretty quiet during the day, with the exception of Christopher Robin and Jenny Wren who are fearless and think nothing of chirping insults at cat #2.  This weekend I had a new visitor.

He'd start off in the big snowy tree back there, checking that cat #2 wasn't around. Then nonchalantly hop along the fence, edging closer to the kitchen window.

One last check to make sure the coast was clear and...

...WUMPH!  Dart in to the feeder, gobble down a few suet pellets and snatch a mouthful to take back to the tree.

In other news, I spent a lot of time sitting on the kitchen floor this weekend, holding my camera as still as possible over the kitchen sink. At one point, both arms were rather numb.

How was your weekend?

Settling in

I said in my last post that the cats had coped very well with the move.  They are however, like me, still settling in.  While I'm still finding the best arrangement of things in my teeny-weeny kitchen and wondering whether I might invest in a small table and chairs for the yard, they are finding the best hidey holes, the best places to sprawl (currently at the top of the stairs), the best viewing points (also on the stairs) and the best sunbathing spots.  Happily, once the sun moves round to the back of the cottage, there are a few nice sun spots to sunbathe in.  They found and tried most of them this weekend.

There's a nice toasty  spot on the stairs.

I left both cat beds stacked by the back door (which is all glass).  Felix was quick to monopolise. Then we moved outside.

sprawl

Felix likes her creature comforts
 

slurp!

Hector is more rustic in his sunbathing preferences.  I think he likes being almost camoflaged against the concrete.

And I got on with a bit of crochet.  I started it one evening.  I didn't intend to make a granny square, it just sort of happened when I saw the colours next to each other in one of the yarn baskets.  I played around for a bit trying to get the ideal circle in a square, then remembered that Sucrette has a pattern on her blog.  Perfect!

Before I knew it, I had 18 squares and a use for one of the two cushion pads I keep moving from place to place. 

I spent a happy hour or so outside joining them all.  I just need to put a border round the each set of nine squares, crochet them together and add buttons.  I'll (hopefully) be back soon with pics of the finished article.

The Cottage

Well, after a hectic couple of weeks moving both home and office to new locations, I hereby declare things to be settled!  I have finally moved out of London and the joyous reality of this still hits me every moring when I wake up to the sounds of birdsong, my neighbour's chickens and a view of a hedge.  No cars, sirens, other human beings (although there a few round about), buses, schoolchildren or the general hustle and bustle and hurley-burley of a London morning.  'Tis bliss.

I now live in a cute little two up, two down cottage in a village with a few houses, a pub and a set of stocks (no, really). Outside the front door is an enormous hedge which is full of birds (I saw a bullfinch for the first time in years the other day) which forms the border to the farmland which surrounds  most of the village. 

The view from the front door

Inside, it's a very snug little cottage: knobbly walls, low ceilings, exposed beams and slightly wonky floors.  I have just about found a home for everything now, although tall things have had to be rehomed to The Beloved's. I have however, treated myself to a nice rocking chair with a toasty sheepskin cover from Ikea.  I found it in their bargain corner, so was very pleased :)

The living room, from the rocking chair

The cats have coped magnificently with the move.  As the cottage is so small, it only needs one Feliway diffuser to make the whole place seem friendly and unthreatening to cats.  The worst bit was the drive up.  One cat is wholly unbothered by car journeys, the other hates them.  He also hates roundabouts and I am, alas, rather close to Milton Keynes...  However, once we'd arrived, they very quickly settled in and Hector very quickly decided he would like to get to know Outside.  I very quickly caved in to his pitiful wailing but it was fine, he didn't get lost, he just wanted to sunbathe atop the shed.

A happy (slightly blurry), sun-warmed cat.

So there you go, The Hookery has relocated.  I'm sure there's plenty more to tell you all, but all in good time.

Turbulent times

It's been a shaky week here at The Hookery.  My landlord gave me notice last weekend and since then, I have alternated between fits of packing and organising, and sitting on the floor, head in hands, rocking slowly back and forth.  Even the cats look at me with a slight whiff of concern on their faces: 'Ooman is clearly coming apart at the seams like the last toy mouse she bought them from the vets.

Anyway, as the week has worn on, there's been a bit more packing and a bit less rocking and I think I'm coming to terms with the enormity of the task ahead.  It's just that things aren't quite going my way at the moment.  I went to view a property last night and as I was passing near to The Beloved's and a storage unit I already use, I thought I'd put my books and baking tins in storage and stop at The Beloved's for dinner.  Easy, yes?

No.

I hired a car to take stuff up to the storage unit.  Except when I got to the car hire, they didn't have the type of car I'd booked, so they offered me a bigger car.  Great.  An automatic.  Not great.  So they gave me a van.  All fine and dandy, but this took a bit of time to sort out.  

I got the van home then started to load it up.  It took me an hour.  By the time I'd got it all packed I was seriously behind.  Then I plugged the sat nav in.  It was in French.  I considered driving in French, then decided against it.  Finally worked out how to get it back into English and set off for Bletchley.  Immediately, sat nav told me to go down a wrong road.  I overrode satnav, but a bit later, in the horrors of Henly's Corner at just-after-rush hour, I decided to do as it said.  Error.  Sat nav took me down all the back roads.  It dawned on me that I wasn't going to get to the storage unit and on to the cottage in time for 8pm.  I decided to abort destination Bletchley and adopt destination Tilsworth.  

Arrived in Tilsworth at 19:57.  Met estate agent.  There are two one bed cottages to rent on the same road, estate agent had wrong set of keys.  I looked round the other cottage, decide it's miniature but adequate if the original cottage is not what I'm after.  Arranged to meet estate agent at 9am on Saturday to view original cottage.

Back in van, back to Bletchley.  Arrived after 8pm at storage unit.  Storage unit is 24hrs, but if you want access after 8pm, you have to tell them in advance.  This wasn't the deal when we first hired the unit and there has been no info to tell us of this change.  Can't get into storage unit.  Have 13 boxes of books and half a kitchen in a hire van and nowhere to put it.  Drove to The Beloved's.  Hauled everything up to second floor flat and collapsed.

Had dinner.  

Drove home.  Sat nav was clearly allergic to motorways as it kept telling me to do u-turns and take every exit on the M1 until I finally got fed up of it and turned it off.

I have clearly annoyed some malicious deity recently.  

Edit: in the midst of all this chaos, I have a number of crochet updates to share with you.  If only life would stop getting in the way...

Home

This week, I popped home for a few days.  Home is Harrogate and this time of year is my favourite time to visit.  The queue for Betty's is considerably shorter than in the summer and the Valley Gardens are beautiful in their autumn shades, as well as being far quieter than in the height of tourist season. This morning was foggy and cool and later turned crisp and bright.  The perfect morning to go for a walk with a camera...