Back Home

We're back home, safe and sound, and the house is in one piece. It seems that the Evilpixie has taken her responsibilities very seriously in our absence and has taken good care of both Bubba and the house. We are relieved and very pleased.

I have a major book update to do as I've not mentioned any of the books I read while on holiday so that will follow later today hopefully.

Meantime I am suffering with jetlag which always affects me more when I come home so it will be a quiet day today, though I must get some shopping in - the cupboards look like a horde of locusts swept through while we were away. Luckily I'm not back at work until Wednesday so there is a chance that my brain will be back in service by then - currently it is a bit on the woolly side.

In politics we find ourselves plunged straight from the razzamatazz and excitement of the US Elections into the unremitting beige-ness of the Labour Party Conference. Yawn.

Back later with my book update

Last Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, we've come, sadly, to our last day here in the Sunshine State.

I'm sorry to be going home, though I've missed the Evilpixie and Bubba and shall be glad to see them.

We've had a great time exploring some parts of Florida we'd not seen before and re-visiting some old favourites.

My top bits of the holiday were (in no particular order) - the baseball (even if the Rays got trounced that night), the bookstores, catching my first fish, the yarn crawl, and all the great knitting friends I made. I've eaten a lot of great seafood too.

Our apartment has been wonderful - most of the time there's been almost no-one in the complex apart from us and apart from the last few days we've had the pool entirely to ourselves. The beach here is beautiful as always, especially early in the morning when it's practically deserted. We've watched dolphins swimming and seen rays in the shallows. Yesterday at Fort de Soto we saw huge (2 foot) fish swimming just inches from our toes!

I'm still puzzling over the reason why anyone would vote for John McCain and his running mate - a woman so far to the right she makes Margaret Thatcher look like Karl Marx. I've seen McCain reverse his position at least twice this week on two different topics. Not to mention the downright lies. If you're reading this and can shed light please let me know.

As it's our last day I have the final results in my highly-unscientific and totally random Lawn Flag Poll. Every day as we've been out and about I've counted the Obama and McCain lawn flags we've seen. I've done this honestly and fairly and have not tried to skew the result in any way, merely recorded the flags we've seen. We've been through all kinds of neighbourhoods on our travels - the affluent and the not so well off, touristy areas and those well off the beaten track.

Here are the results of my poll -

Obama - 57%

McCain - 31%

Ron Paul - 12% (bonus points if you even knew he was running!)

If the results of the election go the same way as my poll the world will be a better place.

I have to say that the lawn flag poll was harder than you'd think - it was sometimes difficult to spot the Presidential election flags among the many, many more signs advertising houses for sale (often foreclosure sales), and the absolute blizzard of signs supporting candidates for other offices from Sheriff to school board, from state legislator to property appraiser. Dudes - do you think maybe you're taking this democracy thing a bit too far?

Wednesday Update

A quieter day yesterday, starting with a stroll through Gulfport. We'd never visited Gulfport before, despite all the many times we've been to St Pete. The main reason for going was to visit Small Adventures Bookstore, which was a little delight with a very friendly, helpful owner. However, words cannot describe how much I loved Gulfport - this is where I want to live when we finally get our act together and move here. Quiet little streets, lined with quaint little houses, a great beach along the front (with a fishing pier) and a real feeling of community. I can't believe we'd never been there before. The only minus point - the little coffee shop is closed on Wednesdays - driving us to Starbucks yet again (their profits are going to plummet when we leave!)

A few diversions and wild goose chases later we found Wilson's Book World. A wonderful shop, crammed with great books on all subjects, and a whole room at the back filled with comics. We spent a considerable amount of time there, and may go back before we leave. Another place discovered that we'd not known about before.

Wednesday night is knitting night of course so I went to my final meeting with the St Petersburg Fiber Fanatics. The lovely Natalie and Cheryl had got me a present too! Some lovely fibre that they had hand-dyed. What a bunch of sweeties they are. I had a really great time meeting them all and will definitely be back sometime.

Interestingly they could not answer my burning question of the week - Why would anyone vote for John McCain? I'm still working on this one. Results of the Lawn Flag Survey on Friday when all the flags have been counted and verified.

Fishing, Home Runs and Fish Fry Tuesday

We've had a busy couple of days.

Yesterday we went fishing, from the pier at Fort de Soto. I actually caught my first fish.

Yes, that's me and no, it wasn't the biggest fish in the world. Pete, who knows a whole lot more about fishing than me caught about 5 or 6. Mostly about the same size - but it wasn't about how big the fish were, it was just for fun.
Fort de Soto is one of my favourite places in the whole world. It has 2 fishing piers, a dog beach and the most beautiful, unspoilt beach with the clearest water. This is the view from the carpark towards the fishing pier where we were yesterday.

What's not to love?

Also yesterday we went to the Tropicana Stadium to see the Tampa Bay Rays play the Boston Red Sox. That's baseball, for the uninitiated. The Rays got trounced. It was 13-5. Not good.

Today we've been up north into the sticks. We ventured up to Pasco County, to Hudson and New Port Richey in search of comics and books and other stuff. It was like another world. Everywhere we've been so far in Florida the people have been lovely and helpful, delighted to meet folks from England and eager to help. Today we met another side of Florida, where the people with a few exceptions, were unhelpful, ignorant and insular. Now I know that a lot of Brits visit New Port Richey as part of a two-part villa package after staying in Kissimmee. I wonder how many Brits think all of Florida is like either Kissimmee or New Port Richey? Maybe we were just unlucky with the people we met today, or maybe the number of ignorant people correlates directly with the number of pawn shops, gun shops and McCain lawn flags we passed.

More later on my totally unscientific survey of Obama v McCain lawn flags and predicting the outcome of the US Election.

Tonight, being Tuesday was dinner at the Wharf for Fish Fry Tuesday. Awesome seafood in a great, totally unpretentious location, right on the water.

Next up the second episode of the new TV programme Fringe, not a sit-com set during the Edinburgh Festival but a kind of cross between CSI and the X-Files. Not available in the UK yet, if at all, but so far it's really cool.

And finally the view from our balcony just after sunset tonight.

Yarn Crawl!!!!!!!

What a fantastic day out we had yesterday. The lovely St Petersburg Fiber Fanatics had arranged a great yarn store crawl AND a visit to an Alpaca farm.

First off we met at Needles and Knobs a fine yarn store, just up the road from our apartment. This shop is owned by Audrey who was very welcoming and didn't seem to mind us invading her shop all at once. I bought the new issue of Interweave Felts and a book I'd been looking for, The Eclectic Sole by Janel Laidman.

Then, before the day got too hot we went to the alpaca farm. Shi'loh' Alpacas, run by Jamie and Bob. It really is, as she says, "an oasis in a concrete jungle." I couldn't imagine where about in crowded Pinellas County there was room to keep alpacas. We turned off a main street, lined with car dealerships and strip malls and the usual stuff, down a twisty little road, though a lovely quiet little neighbourhood until we came to their little sign, out front of their lovely house. And I'm still thinking, but surely the alpacas don't live here. Oh yes they do. Just out the back in the yard (it's a big yard, meant for horses, with a barn at one end), were her eight alpaca males. Beautiful animals. We spent a good couple of hours with Jamie and Bob and learned all about alpacas and how they look after then, and a good deal about the economics of alpaca breeding which was fascinating.

The sweet little black guy is called Darth Vader and the grey one at the back is Lancet.

This little guy is Topher and he was a real sweetie, the baby of the group. We had a great time. Unfortunately, froma spinner's point of view they didn't have any fiber for sale, this years shearing was off being processed and not due back for a few weeks yet.

Next up was Knits and Krafts on SEminole Blvd, where I'd been earlier in the week, just a quick stop as it was on our way.

Off we went for lunch after that to the Lucky Dill Deli in Palm Harbor - a little slice of New York in the Florida sunshine. It's a real NY Deli serving the most fantastic sandwiches, lunches and desserts - the cheesecake is legendary!

Hunger sated we carried on to Uncommon Threads where they sell yarn and fibre for spinning. I was in my element here and bought some great fibres.
They are, from left to right, Hapy Hippie hand-dyed soysilk in colorway "Age of Aquarius" from Conjoined Creations, handpainted bamboo in Regal Blue from Fiberlady.com and finally some merino silk blend in lovely shades of purples and lilacs and blues.

The last place we went to was Fiber Arts (I'm sure they have a website but I can't find it right now) in Tampa. What a lovely shop! Thay have a whole room full of Noro, and another with a whole wall dedicated to sockyarn. It's one of those shops that just seems to go on for ever with little rooms stuffed full of the most delightful (and expensive) yarns. This was a shop, we decided, for "ladies who knit". Beautiful stuff, but mostly not for your everyday knitter. They did, however have the first 2 volumes of the Norah Gaughan patterns I had been searching for so I was very pleased. I didn't buy any yarn there - mostly because I thought if I started to buy things I might not be able to stop. I don't think Mr Visa would have been very pleased with me - or Pete for that matter. No, we can't pay the mortgage, but look.... I have cashmere/silk/alpaca yarn.

That concluded our tour of yarn stores of the area and I had a great time as, I think, did the others. It was a really great day out.

Today we're off (Pete and I today, no knitters) to the fleamarket in Oldsmar and then in quest of a comic shop that's over that way somewhere.

More later.

Friday Update

We spent Thursday rummaging around St Petersburg and Largo, visiting comic shops and the odd yarn store and a book store or two, including the wonderful Haslam's - a legend of a bookstore.

Then we went to the IMAX to see The Dark Knight which we both really enjoyed. Heath Ledger was superb as the Joker.

Today we've been down to Bradenton where we visited A Yarn Outlet and I met the lovely Jim, DH of the owner, who was very helpful and obliging, and discussed politics with me. We meandered through Bradenton and ended up on Anna Maria Island at the pier.

At the beginning of the week, when we first got here the sea off the beach here was clear and blue and sparkly but gradually through the week it changed to a dark olive green colour and the surf got higher and the waves got rougher. There's been some flooding in the streets round here as the tide has been 2-3 feet higher than normal. This is the influence of Hurricane Ike, even though he's about 300 miles away, about to make the lives of the good people of Texas very unpleasant. Meanwhile, here in St Pete the surfers are very happy and are out in their droves.

I'm thinking about the people of Galveston and Houston tonight. Let's hope they get through this OK.

Knitters Galore

Just a quick post to say thank you to the St Petersburg Fiber Fanatics for welcoming me to their meeting last night, and for being lovely people. Well, they are knitters, so you'd expect then to be nice, but they were all really friendly.

They've organised a fantastic yarn crawl for Saturday including a visit to an alpaca farm. Who even knew they farmed alpacas in Florida?

It should be a great day out.

More to follow, probably tomorrow.

Stormy Weather

Yesterday was a quieter day - not so much rushing around.

A walk along the beach in the first light to see all the local wildlife. The beach was almost deserted and there were rays feeding in the shallows and thousands of birds of all varieties - terns and gulls and wading birds of many different kinds.

Then back to the apartment for a leisurely morning until contractors working somewhere else in the building drove us out. One of the problems with Florida during off-season - it's when everyone renovates their condos.

Up the coast a bit to Madeira Beach for a visit to Books to the Ceiling, another of our must see used book stores. Then off to John's Pass, a bit of a tourist trap - a boardwalk along the water with restaurants and shops selling tshirts and souvenirs. Our main purpose for being there was lunch at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. When we were out on Sunday we saw a huge advert saying We Love Bubba. How could we not go and check it out. They're a chain of restaurants themed around the film Forrest Gump and it's as cheesy as anything. But the food was excellent if a tad on the pricy side - well, someone has to pay for all the memorabilia on the walls! We had a selection of different seafood and shared a Mudpie for dessert - it was the biggest mudpie you ever saw in your life - it could have fed 10 people!

Groaning from too much fried shrimp and chocolate icecream we made our way back to the apartment and lay by the pool for a bit until the wind got up and the rain started. This was the northestern edge of Hurricane Ike as he crossed far to the south of us on his was towards Texas. The storm lasted about twenty minutes before the skies cleared again.

This morning it is windy again and the sea is quite rough. The wind woke me and I could hear the waves crashing onto the beach. Once it's light I'll go out and see what's going on.

We're off to Tampa today, again trawling the book and comic stores, plus there are a couple of quilting shops and at least one yarn store. I'll report back later.

Sunshine State

Well, we got here with remarkably little disturbance from storms or hurricanes and spent the first day mostly just chilling out. Got up early (it's the time difference - always gets me) and mooched around the fleamarkets for a few hours, came back and swam in the pool for a bit then went out to The Wharf and ate lots of lovely seafood.

Here is the view from our balcony

That morning there were dolphins swimming just off the beach.

Yesterday we felt all rested, so after a hearty breakfast at Beverly's we went to Sarasota on a book hunt. Unfortunately we were disappointed in our first destination. The totally wonderful Main Books is no more it seems. Apparently they had a sprinkler accident and then a fire - neither of these are things that you want in a bookshop. I was especially sad as if I was ever to own a second-hand bookshop I'd want it to be like Main Books - four floors covering every subject you could think of and a few you'd never have thought of in a million years. Polished wooden floors, friendly staff and a cat that slept on the counter. Great atmosphere - I'm sorry it's gone.

A quick trip to Helen's comics just down the road lead to a copy of Feathered Star Quilts.

We pressed on, visiting Alma Mae's Quilt Shop, which was lovely, with lovely fabrics, but I didn't buy anything, via a few paperback exchanges and a Borders, where I scored a hardback copy of Laurie R King's The Art of Detection from the bargain table (cheaper than the paperback!), to Brant's Books.

Brant's is housed in an old army barracks and is possibly the most dilapidated bookstore you ever saw in your life. The floor sags and moans when you walk on it, making browsing an interesting experience.

They were having a closing down sale though - and don't seem to have any new premises as yet. I hope they find them soon - bookstores like this are getting fewer and fewer as rent increases and redevelopments force them out.

Brant's win my store of the day award though for having the book I had been searching for it in all the bookstores and fleamarket bookstalls I've been in since I got here - trust me , there have been a few.

Cypress Grove by James Sallis. This is the first in a trilogy, the last part being published later this year in the UK I think. There was a review in the Bookseller and I thought it looked interesting. Apparently he's a bit like James Lee Burke - lyrical and clever. We shall see. I had thought he would be easy to find here but it seems not. The bloke in Borders told me there was no such writer! Anyway I was lucky enough to find a copy at Brant's and for a very reasonable price (even in the sale).

Then we hit a very good branch of Barnes and Noble where I didn't buy anything but was sorely tempted by their vast range of crafty books.

No time to waste, we sallied on to Books a Million which was great - I got a copy of The Beekeeper's Apprentice (sadly out of print in the UK and I'd never read it), the Yarn Harlot's 2009 page a day calender and Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush.

Lastly, and I was beginning to flag by this point, I visited The Spinning Wheel, good local yarn store of Sarasota. They had the Norah Gaughan Vol 3 book, but sadly not the first two volumes. I was a bit overwhelmed by the multitude of strange and new yarns and didn't buy any. Still, there are several other yarn stores on my list - still plenty of chances to buy some yarn.

A very good day indeed, rounded off with dinner at PJ's Seafood Restaurant, just around the corner from the apartment. Heaven.

Almost there...

As you can see from the countdown to the right it is almost time to leave for our well-earned holiday. This is the first holiday we've had in four years, and the first "grown-up" holiday (ie without the Evilpixie) since our honeymoon to New York sixteen years ago.

Of course this new, grown-up holiday can only by accomplished by leaving the house in the hands of the Evilpixie and a couple of her friends who will house and dog sit while we are away. Number one rule - no Facebook parties. Number two rule - no parties of any kind.

I am resolved not to worry about what might be happening while I'm not there - if anyone lives near me though - how about doing a quick drive-by every now and then, just to check!

We're flying from Manchester, straight into the path of tropical storm Hanna who will be washing up the east coast of the US as we are flying down. Must remember to take the travel sickness tablets - it might be a bumpy ride.

I'm all set, with my books chosen - Redemption Falls by Joseph O'Connor, set just after the American Civil War and featuring the descendents of the people who travelled on the ill-fated Star of the Sea; a proof of the new Jim Kelly - Death Wore White - a departure from his usual Philip Dryden series, this one being about two policemen; What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn, winner of several awards and a local lass too; and finally the first in David Peace's Red Riding Quartet, 1974, something I'd been meaning to get to for a while. That should keep me going until I hit a branch of Barnes & Noble, or one of the several great second-hand bookstores we'll be visiting.

I've got a brand new pair of socks ready to be started with my bamboo dpn's and the first 50g of sock wool in my hand baggage. So long as I get them through security OK I shall be knitting all the way across the Atlantic. All that uninterrupted kntting time - wonderful.

I'm hoping to hook up with the St Pete Fiber Fanatics while I'm there - someone mentioned a yarn store crawl. You can imagine I am up for that.

I'm hoping to be able to blog while we're away. Wi-fi, or netcafe willing I will be reporting on all the yarn and fibre stores, the bookstore and fleamarket finds plus tell you all what we've been up to. Hopefully with photographs.

Speak to you all soon, from the other side of the pond.

Hurricane Watch

Less than a week before our holiday and we're on Hurricane Watch.





Hurricane Gustav is barrelling across the Gulf of Mexico as we speak, heading straight for New Orleans.

(pic courtesy of weather.com)

I hope it doesn't hit the city, or it weakens significantly before it gets there. Not that we will be anywhere near New Orleans on Monday when it's expected to hit, but I think the people of Louisiana and the other Gulf states have had enough to deal with.

Hurricane Hanna is east of the Bahamas, heading for Florida. This one is the one we are currently a little concerned about - it doesn't look like it will impact the Gulf Coast region where we're headed, but will probably skip up the east coast of the States - giving us a bumpy ride as we fly in, and if we're very unlucky, could strand us in Atlanta where we change planes.



Just to keep us on our toes, there' s a tropical depression forming out in the Azores which looks a bit dodgy and which, if it becomes a tropical storm / hurricane, will be called Ike.



That'll teach us to go to Florida in the Hurricane Season.

The Doctor Who Memorial Chicken Coop

Presenting the Dr Who Memorial Chicken Coop -

so named as it was paid for with the sale of some Dr Who memorabilia on eBay.

Just about big enough for 6 chooks, but we'll only have 4 (to start with). They'll get out of the run when we're around and have free range of the garden. We won't actually get the chickens until we get home from Florida though. We can't wait.

Help!

Here's the thing...it may be two weeks until we go on holiday but the realisation has just hit me that I actually only have 2 more days off before we go (not counting Sundays which seem to disappear in a flurry of family stuff).

Now, I am an uber-organised sort of person when it comes to holidays (this is through necessity, not a natural leaning) and I like to have everything ready well in advance. I'm the sort of person who has a list of the lists I've made. So today has been a major rush to get some stuff completed that's been lurking around the workbasket for a while.

I finally sewed the hem on the blue fishy skirt, so that's finished now. I sewed the seams and the waistband of another skirt in some gorgeous Amy Butler fabric called Coriander. This had been cut out but was waiting for me to get the sewing machine out and start sewing. Just got to thread the elastic into the casing, make a cord for the waistband and stitch the hem.

For most of the week I have been frantically knitting this top in Sirdar Luxury Soft Cotton. I've only had the yarn for few days after giving up waiting for Angel Yarns to deliver it, cancelling my order and buying it from Get Knitted instead. I can't imagine what I was thinking when I didn't use them in the first place - it was delivered within 2 days with none of the excuses and delays that were forthcoming from Angel Yarns. The Amy Butler fabric came from Get Knitted too. It's quite a slow knit as it's 4ply - just yards and yards of plain stocking stitch and the yarn is very splitty so you have to watch what you're doing. I'm almost finished the back so I should be finished the front in good time and then there's just a little edging to the neck. I'm not panicking about this yet. Yet.

Chicken News!

We finally bought our chicken coop and will be collecting it on Sunday, so we can get it all set up and sorted ready for the chickens which we'll get when we come back from Florida.

I have been reading as well. I finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is a wonderful book, beautifully written and very thought provoking. I'm not at all surprised that it won a Pulitzer. I progressed to a proof of the new Ian Rankin, called Doors Open, which is published on September 16th. It's set in Edinburgh (of course) and is about an art heist perpetrated by some amateurs. It was an enjoyable read with an interesting plot and good characters but it felt a bit lightweight. I think I was expecting something a bit meatier, something with a bit more profundity for Rankin's first Post-Rebus novel. Worth a read, but don't expect a great deal of depth.

Now I'm on Volk's Shadow by Brent Ghelfi, another proof. This is the second in the Volk series, and I did enjoy the first one. This one is, so far, proving to be just as good. It's really so not the type of book I would normally pick up - a tad on the violent side and rather too many guns, but like Lee Child, this series is turning into a guilty pleasure. Think Jack Reacher without the scruples and you've pretty much got Alexei Volkovoy. This one's not published here until November, though it's out in HB in the US now.

Lastly I am having a dilemma (as usual) about my holiday reading. How many books to take? Which books to take? What if I run out of books? What if every bookstore in Florida suddenly spontaneously combusts and I have nothing to read? More on this next time!

Ferry Cross the Mersey....

I had a great day out yesterday with my spinning group.


We headed for Liverpool to the National Exhibition of the Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. The quality of the exhibits was just amazing. Some of the craft work was just incredible. Unfortunately I have no photos to show you, so you'll have to take my word for it. However I recommend that if you are at all local then you go and have a look. My one irritation with the exhibition was that while there was a handout telling you who's work each piece was and what Guild they belonged to, there was nothing with the work to indicate how it was made, or what materials were used. If you wanted to know that - and of course we did - then you had to go and look it up in a folder by the reception. Wouldn't it have been more helpful and informative to put a little card by each piece with that information, or to have that info in the handout?


Also, a little note here to the people of Liverpool, or at least the people organising the Capital of Culture thingy - how about a few signs to the venues? Trying to find the Cornerstone Gallery at Hope University was a tad challenging to say the least. I have to ask exactly how people can find a gallery if the only sign is above the door, which is concealed round a corner, behind a closed gate?


Anyway the exhibition is full of wonderful and inspiring work - weaving, handspun, knitting, embroidery, quilting - you name it, it was there. I feel very inspired and wish I had half of the talent these people have.


From there we moved on and spent an hour or so mooching around the Albert Dock. I was rather disappointed in this. When I was last there (must be more than 20 years ago!), it was full of lots of arty crafty little shops selling lovely jewellery etc. Now it seems to be just a tourist trap. But we wandered through the Museum of Slavery which was interesting, and had a cup of coffee and watched the people.


Then we moved on to what for me was the highlight of the day. We went to Crosby to Anthony Gormley's amazing art installation, Another Place. That's the one with the 100 iron men standing on the beach looking out to sea. It is totally wonderful. I really, really wished I had taken my camera. I took a couple of shots with my cellphone but I have no idea how to download them onto the computer so I have pinched a photo from Sefton Council's website. I'm sure they won't mind.

I really want to go back when there's no-one else around. I love big deserted beaches anyway, and this is a great beach, but I'd love to see the figures all disappearing off into the distance, all staring seaward, without the many, many people, children and dogs that were there on a sunny, but terribly windy Sunday afternoon.

It's well worth the trip.

Oooh, pretty colours

Last Saturday the lovely ladies from my spinning group got together for a dyeing day.

It started off with the intention that we would do natural dyeing, and to begin with we did do a little of that.

Th orangey ones are all done with a solution of dahlia flowers.

But soon the lure of all the pretty colours from the synthetic dyes proved too much and we went wild.

It was great fun experimenting with all the different colours and some different fibres - that bright pink is some beautiful silk. We couldn't have picked a better day as the sun shone and it was really hot - if anything it was a bit too hot to be standing over a pan of steaming wool!

I don't believe I updated you on Bubba's progress after his visit to the vet. He's doing well, the vet is pleased with him. There's some loss to the muscle tone on that leg but that's only to be expected and we've stepped up the intensity of the hydrotherapy to build that back up for him. Fingers crossed there should be no need for him to go back to the vet.

This week I've been reading The Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor. It's a historical novel set during the potato famine in Ireland and is about the journey of a boat across the Atlantic with a cargo of people heading for a new life. The intertwining stories of the various people are fascinating and it's well-written. I actually picked it up beacuse I have a copy of Redemption Falls, O'Connor's latest book and I thought I'd better read the other one first. I'm not sure there's such a great degree of link that you would need to read both, but I'm sad and obsessive about these things! I like to read books in the right order. Redemption Falls is set at the end of the American Civil War and I shall probably save it to take on holiday with me.

It's been a little light relief (if death and disease can be light relief) from The Road by Cormac McCarthy which although beautifully written is not an easy read. I'm enjoying it immensely but every now and then I need to get away from the unremitting despair of it and read something more cheerful (you know, something with serial killers and psychopaths).

Most importantly I've got hold of a proof of the new Ian Rankin novel (due in September). Called Doors Open, this is his first book since he pensioned off Rebus and I'm keen to see what he'll do. The premise sounds good - an art heist from the National Gallery of Scotland. I'll let you know what I make of it when I'm finished.

Unexpected Pleasures

I just had a most unexpected phone call from my Aunt, who lives in Aberdeen. We had kind of lost touch with that branch of the family since my father died, but my Aunt found a bit of paper with a phone number while clearing an old handbag and rang it on the off chance. It was lovely to hear from her and to know that they are all doing well. It must be seven years since we last met, which would have been at my father's funeral. It was quite out of the blue but a nice surprise.

I've been making the most of my days off. Yesterday I went to the fantastic Fabric of Myth exhibition at Compton Verney. Some of the exhibits were truly stunning. My favourite was a weaving of Three Fates, commissioned by Henry Moore and woven by Pat Taylor and Fiona Abercrombie. The quality of the workmanship was amazing. I would have to admit to being a little baffled by some of the contemporary exhibits, but the early ones were amazing.


Today I have been sewing. I made a skirt for my holiday from this fabric -

As soon as I saw it I knew it had to be a sarong-type skirt to wear on the beach. Just looking at it makes me think of dabbling my toes in the ocean. Proper picture of this tomorrow when there's someone around to photograph it. (Everyone has been out today, hence the progress with sewing etc.)

Also done today - Block 2 for the traditional quilt

See, I have been busy. Also the washing machine is fixed now so I'm tackling the backlog, though the weather is not proving to be as nice as I hoped. Where's all the sunshine???

Days Off........

I'm at the beginning of a long-awaited week off - it actually runs to 9 days in total, but I have a lot of things to pack into those days.

Today has started with a marathon of housework, beginning at the top of the house and working downwards. At least that's the plan. So far I am at the stage where it all looks much worse than it did before I started. Time for a quick cup of coffee and a break to blog before I go back and make it all tidy. Or at least tidyish which is as close as this house ever really gets. We are generally not tidy people. Too much stuff to ever be really neat. We're probably never going to be minimalist, and much as I love the look of these simple streamlined interiors you see in Grand Designs I'm enough of a realist to know I could never live like that. The next house we buy will have to have the biggest cupboards and closets known to man. Those of you who are American will know the sort of thing I'm talking about - huge walk-in closets lined with shelving and rails and all manner of storage gizmos. For some reason when the British build houses they don't build closets.

Foiling part of the plan for a reasonably spick and span house is the slight problem that the washing machine isn't working. We finally have great drying weather and I can't get the towels and sheets etc washed. Hopefully when the repair man comes tomorrow he will be able to sort it (and cheaply too please) and we won't have to go and buy another one.

Over the weekend I finally got the Evilpixie to model Icarus for you....

As you can see it's quite large. Blocking it was a tad tricky as there is nowhere I could pin it out on the floor (see too much stuff above) and it was wider than the bed. You can't really see in this photo but I have beaded the lower part of the lacy pattern (about the bottom 5-6 inches) with a variety of different coloured seed beads. I have tried to take a picture that shows both the beads and the lace pattern and it seems the two ideas are incompatible - You can only see the pattern with a dark background and you can only see the beads with a light background.

It's not exactly to the pattern as I started to run out of yarn. I had to fudge the last few pattern rows and could only manage 2 rows of edging before I had to stop. I have about 15 feet of yarn left - a close call. For the anally-retentive among you this is Icarus, from The Best of Interweave Knits, knitted on circular needles (about 4mm I think, can't remember), with Fibrespates hand-dyed mohair (hence the panic about running out - don't think I'd ever be able to get any more). Anyway it has turned out better than I expected and is just right for our forthcoming holiday - I am picturing evenings on our balcony, gin and tonic in hand, draped in my lovely light shawl against the evening sea breezes, watching the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico. I may have a little knitting to hand. I am so looking forward to exploring the yarn stores for some little gems that I just can't get here. Oh, and did I mention that there's a fibre store just a few miles up the road. Six weeks on Saturday till we leave............

I read the new John Connolly at the weekend. It's called The Reapers and it's about Louis and Angel, though Charlie Parker does make a couple of brief appearances. Do you know what? People who know my reading tastes will be astounded. I didn't like it. I love John Connolly, I like him as a writer, I've liked all his previous work, but this one just didn't do it for me. I'm a bit hard-pressed to put my finger on exactly why that is. It's a bit wordy, a bit heavy on the introspection, and I found that when it came down to it, much as I like the character of Louis, and find him interesting in the Parker books as a secondary character, I just didn't really need to know all that much about him. I'm chalking this one up as a bit of self-indulgence on JC's part, forgiving him and moving on, hoping the next book will be back on track.

I finished Dark Flight by Lin Anderson and really enjoyed it. I had read Driftnet (her first) when it came out several years ago and thought it was good, but I hadn't read any of her's since. This one is set in Glagow as usual but features several members of the Nigerian community. It's about a missing boy, whose mother and Grandmother have been murdered. It also links to the real-life story from several years ago of the torso of a young boy found in the River Thames. I was interested by this as I once wrote the start of a novel using that very story, as an exercise while on an Arvon course. It was intriguing to see how she had built the novel out of that, using her already established characters. Of course, I never had to develop my beginning into a full novel, just write a start that would hook the reader in, but I was interested to see what she had done with it. A full review of this book will appear on Eurocrime when I get it written.

Normal Service Has Been Resumed

I'm back.

What do you mean, you didn't notice I was gone?

We had a slight interruption of our broadband service for a short time - only 5 days, nothing major. Thanks a bunch to Virgin Media who were so helpful during this time. Not.

I don't think I'd realised before just how reliant on the web we have all become. I couldn't read all my favourite blogs. Check if a LYS has the yarn I want - no. Look for a local supplier of chicken coops - no. Find a recipe - no. Look for a pattern on Ravelry - no. Find some fibre on eBay - no. Reply to an email I got just before it went off - no. Look up the name of that actor on Wikipedia because I know I've seen him in something else and I can't remember what - no. Update the blog - not a chance. Not to mention the damage to the Evilpixie's social life caused by not having constant access to MSN or Myspace or whatever.

Now, I realise that all these things are trivial. Nothing life-threatening here, but it was seriously odd. Strangely, now that it's back, apart from an afternoon spent catching up on the news from the blogs and a quick browse on eBay, the desperate need to be online has disappeared.

And I have pictures to show you too. Here's Bubba working hard -

He seems to be doing well, especially with the help of the lovely Gayle from K9 Hydro in Aston. Back to the specialist tomorrow for the crucial x-rays to see if the bone is mending properly. Fingers crossed.

All the time offline meant I got a lot of knitting done. Icarus is almost finished. I've had to cut short the lacy edging as I was running out of wool - about 8 rows shorter than it should be. I'm hoping it will look alright once the edging is done - otherwise I shall have to frog the last 40 or so rows and re-do them. I am so hoping not to have to do that. Anyway there are 4 rows of edging so I shall do them and see what it looks like when I block it. I rather suspect there are some hideous mistakes in the knitting but I'm hoping they won't be too noticeable in such a large expanse of shawl - it has turned out quite large - even before it's blocked. Bear with me while I do the last few rows then I'll photograph it for you.

Obsessive lace knitting means I've not been reading too much though I did read The Overlook by Michael Connolly which was quite a short book. It's one of the Harry Bosch series and while I enjoyed it I didn't think it was one of his best. It wasn't a bad book, just seemed to be lacking a little of the depth of plot and character I expect from Connelly.

Then I read The Nicholas Feast by Pat McIntosh. This is the second in a historical crime series set in Glasgow. I did really enjoy the first one (The Harper's Quine) though I thought this one was possibly not quite as good. That may just have been the subject matter as the murder was set in Gil's old university and the book was filled with some old and dusty theologians and the victim was not a particularly pleasant fellow - it was hard to feel much sympathy with him. However the main characters of Gil, Pierre and Alys are developing nicely and I shall certainly read the next one. This book was for my crime reading group. I'd been unable to attend the group this past 9 months or so because it clashed with my spinning class, but that's finished now so I'm back to the reading group. I had really missed it. I just love to hear everyone's different opinions on the books we've been reading - especially as we are a diverse group with a wide range of tastes. So glad to be back.

Now I'm off to knit a row or maybe two of Icarus in the garden before I go to work, now that we finally have a sunny day.

Tuesday Round-Up

This was the second of two days off in a row, after six days at work. I've spent most of the last two days knitting as I have rediscovered the love I was feeling for Icarus. I'm on the third chart now and am just loving the way the beads nestle into the fluffiness of the mohair. I want to knit it forever. But I won't because I also want to finish it so I can wear it on my holiday - nine weeks and counting.

I've found a lovely strappy top to knit as well, but I'm having a little trouble sourcing the yarn locally - it's only Sirdar, so it's not exactly rare - except in this part of the West Midlands apparently. I shall have to order it on the web, unless the little wool / haberdashery shop in Walsall stocks it (highly unlikely).

Bubba is doing well in his recovery - he's had two hydrotherapy sessions now with no ill effects and no limping. He has another 2-3 sessions before he goes back to the vet for the hideously expensive x-rays to tell if the bone is knitting properly. Thank goodness for pet insurance. I planned to take a photo of him basking in the sunshine, as that's what he's been doing all day, but the rain has arrived a bit earlier than predicted so we're sheltering inside now.

Because I've been knitting I've also been indulging in films. Today I watched Rob Roy which boasts some of the worst Scottish accents ever - Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange - shame on you. Yesterday's film "treat" was a truly terrible made-for-TV disaster Movie called NYC: Tornado or something similar. (Sorry, no link. Too aweful for DVD release apparently). Bad disaster movies are a secret guilty pleasure of mine - I just love them - especially those with a cast you've never heard of - no clues as to which of the actors will die a nasty death. NYC: Tornado was a classic of the genre. Mega storm system threatens the Big Apple - can the plucky meteorologist save the day? Heaven!

I've been reading too. I read Blood Lines by Grace Monroe. Words cannot express how much I hated this book. Several times I put it down and walked away vowing not to read another word. But I was supposed to be reviewing it for Eurocrime so I persevered and got through to the end eventually. I've not written my review yet, but I'm struggling for something / anything positive to say about it at the moment.

To cheer myself up after that I have started The Overlook by Michael Connelly. Just what I needed - a little time with Harry Bosch to restore my faith.

I am missing Euro 2008 already. Just when you get into a routine of football every night (and the associated knitting), Spain go and win and it's all over. I blame that Fernando Torres - surely he's not old enough to be out without his mum....

Knitting and Books Update (as promised)

So here is the promised update on book and knitting activity.

I went to check on the list to the right of this post to see what I'd been reading last time I posted and of the five books listed I am not actively reading any of them. They all reside in various states of incompleteness down the side of the bed (except Atonement, which is I fear hope lost forever, eaten perhaps by the dust buffalo that roam under the bed.) I feel therefore that a new start is perhaps required so next time I post I will erase the offending list and start again with books I am actually reading. Perhaps I need a new list at the bottom of books that I started but never finished. I should say that some of this is not the fault of the books themselves, or at least not the fault of the writing - I was really enjoying The Book Thief, but I have it in hardback and it's such a large heavy book that I find it impossible to read in bed and it's way too heavy to carry around. Consequently I am forever starting other books in its place. Atonement has no such excuse.



So, if I'm not reading those, what have I been reading. Well, I started An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson, which is set in 1930s London theatreland and features Josephine Tey. Alas, I have abandoned this also. I'm not quite sure why, and it's possible that I may yet go back to it. It was quite enjoyable in a cosy sort of way, but it just wasn't gripping me. I think that while it was well-written, and as far as I could tell fairly well-plotted (though I hadn't got to the denoument of course) it just wasn't my sort of book. I'm feeling bad now for not finishing it. Perhaps I'll give it another go.


I did finish The Awakening by Kate Chopin. This was a classic that had eluded me. I have to confess that I'd never heard of Kate Chopin, but I picked up a couple of OU English Lit textbooks at a carboot sale the other week and when I flicked through them, this was one of the books that was studied. It's available in a lovely Dover Thrift Edition so I splashed out and bought myself a copy - a new one - not even secondhand! It was interesting, but I guess I just don't read enough of that sort of literature to be able to critique it properly. I can see that it could have caused quite a sensation when it was first published - a woman leaving her husband and setting up in her own house - how shocking!


Back on familiar ground I tackled The Watchman by Robert Crais. It's one of the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike novels, which I much prefer to any of the stand-alone thriller's he's written. This one is mostly about Joe Pike, and a woman he is trying to keep safe so she can give evidence. Great stuff.



Then from 21st Century California I hitched a ride on the Tardis to 12th Century Cambridge for The Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin. This is a first novel about a woman doctor (rare in itself in the 12th C.) who specialises in "reading" the dead. She is sent to Cambridge to solve a series of brutal child murders, with her companions - a Jew and a Saracen. These three travelling together cause a stir even before they start to uncover evil deeds in the heart of Cambridge. I really, really liked this. The main character, Amelia, is wonderful as she finds herself in an unfamilar situation and with unfamiliar feelings arising. Watching her grow throughout the book and discover herself is just great. It's a fascinating setting with good characters and I'm looking forward to the next one in the series, which is called The Death Maze.


Somewhere in the middle of all that I also read the new Kate Morton, The Forgotten Garden. I liked her first novel, The House at Riverton (quite the best of last year's Richard and Judy books) and I liked this one almost as much. A light read, but a good tale, well told and with an intriguing narrator.


While I'm on the subject of R&J, their summer booklist is usually light on crime but this year has two, one of which I have read - No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay. I think this may have slipped through the blogging net somehow as I don't recall writing about it at the time, but it was OK. Quite an interesting proposition - a girl wakes up one moring to discover that all of her family have disappeared in the night. There is no trace of them and she is left not knowing whether they were abducted and killed, or if they just up and left her. In either case she still wonders why she was left behind. Now she's grown-up and married with a daughter and the past is starting to catch up with her. As I recall it was quite well-written and the plot didn't go the way I expected it to. This is normally a good thing, but I seem to remember thinking that it would have been better if he (she?) had written it the way I wanted it to go! Anyway it's worth a read if you like American thrillers.

I'm now reading Blood Lines by Grace Monroe. This is the second in a series, the first of which I reviewed for Eurocrime last year sometime. I've just started it, so it's a bit early to tell, but I think it may be a very irritating book. More later in the week.


I think that's it for book news. Now knitting. There is hardly any knitting news. If you have been patiently wading through all the book twaddle in hope of a knitting disaster I apologise. Icarus progresses along slowly. I am almost at the end of the plain bit, I'm on the second skein of yarn and have threaded all the beads (and quite a few extras) onto the yarn ready to knit them into place. This has slowed progress considerably as I have to keep shuffling them down the yarn at the end of each row. I have finished the Power of Three socks, but I haven't sewn in the ends yet, so I haven't photographed them. They're not very exciting anyway - just another pair of Plain Jane socks.


I do have big spinning news - the surprise payment of a little bonus at work has enabled me to buy this -

Isn't it lovely. It's a Lendrum wheel and comes with no less than 4 different flyers. (That means I can spin all kinds of yarns from big chunky ones to very fine laceweight stuff - in case any non-spinners were wondering). I bought it from a member of my spinning group and I love it. Here's a little close up of all the beautiful maple leaves running around the wheel -

I spun my first yarn on her over the weekend and here it is still on the bobbin -

Finally, I feel I must convey my sincere apologies to the people of Spain. You see I have tipped them to beat Italy in the quarter-final of Euro 2008 tonight. My record so far in the tournament is not good. Way back in the qualifying rounds I was supporting England and Scotland, neither of whom even qualified. Once the tournament started I plumped for Romania, who went out at the first stage. Croatia were my next victim, and they went out in their quarter final. Last night I was knitting my orange jumper in support of the mighty Holland, to no avail. I'm afraid that I am the kiss of death to any team. If Spain lose tonight I'm expecting the German manager to be on the phone begging me not to support them.