Sunday, February 24, 2008

Here we are back, tired. It was a good week. I did a bit in my vegetable plot, on the days when it wasn’t frozen solid or waterlogged. I humped two barrow-loads of manure home over the field (and they’re heavy). I sawed some wood. I left feeling confident that I am strong enough to grow a vegetable or two this one more year. This morning, I’m not so sure.

I had been feeling rather jealous of Helen's freedom (Feb 18), now that the beautiful Mavis is nearly finished. My knitting future seems to be mortgaged as far as the eye can see. When Theo’s gansey is done – and that is beginning to seem like something that might one day happen – I must take on the swallow-tail coat, and behind that lies the Princess, stretching out to the horizon.

But in K*rkmichael, I realised last week, freedom indeed has nearly arrived. This is where I am with the Araucania sweater – one more trip north should see it done. What next? I shall have a delicious time thinking about that question over the next few days.


Comments

Mel, Helen is right: you must wear kilt hose with your kilt. And nothing shows off a gent’s well-shaped calf (such as I am sure you possess) so well, except perhaps a bishop’s gaiters.

Kate, you’re right: Cardiff is just down the road. Let’s hope it happens!

A week of not-blogging has left my head full of stray sentences and even paragraphs, but with no sense of where to begin. Perhaps I’d better re-group and start again tomorrow. Here are some snowdrops:

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:21 AM

    Missed you, Jean. Glad you had a good time despite the weather.

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  2. Anonymous1:14 PM

    Your pictures of the North are beautiful. I always think snowdrops promise us wonderful things to follow.
    Ron in Mexico

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  3. glad you are back! Hmmm .... what SHOULD you knit next? Or what would be ... fun? (sooo many choices) Actually, I've missed your political updates, too!

    What is your opinion of cotton stuff? I keep thinking I should try something "spring" -- have you knit with it before? I see dishcloths .... and sweaters that stretch! There must be some successes out there! Maryjo

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  4. Interesting to hear that your ground is fit to till in the far North. Here in Essex we're just getting under way with the allotment. I'd be interested in your account of some more of the new scarves.

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  5. I keep trying to do project monogamy but I just can't commit to it! There's so many things I want to do and now that I don't have a regular 2x2hr stints on public transport every week I just don't get as much done. I think I'm going to have to be a bit more disciplined about evening knitting when my hands are better.

    Of course you can keep managing to live part time at TCOTU. If you're anything like me, it's the journey that's so energy sapping - it takes such organising to figure out what goes with you. The vege garden is fun but the hard labour would probably be another thing. Is it possible to employ someone to break up the soil for you at the beginning of each season? Then you could manage the planting and weed control with some judicious hoeing without feeling like you've been jumped on by a sack of potatoes the next day.

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  6. Anonymous12:25 AM

    Okay, I give up. What are "bishop's gaiters"?

    Mel has lovely calves. Kilt hose will do wonderful things for them.

    I can't believe that you can break soil over there in February. We have so much snow on the ground you can't figure out where the soil is.

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