Take Me With You, I Can See Perfectly!

Whenever I spot a pin on the floor, I remember Donald Pleasence in The Great Escape, convincing James Garner that his eyesight is fine. [DP had actually been a POW in WW2]  I am aware that my eyesight is not what it once was. I've been wearing glasses for half my life. And they are not cheap! But I have recently had an eye test and acquired new ones. This time I have chosen slightly more colourful frames than usual - tortoiseshell at the front, bright peacock blue at the side.

Our Vision Express is situated at the back of Tesco. When they told me the glasses were ready, I nipped down to collect them, stopping only to buy some Alka Seltzer, and a meat and pastry snack as I left the supermarket. 
As Sue said last Friday, once you get to our age, life is just "Specs, Drugs and Sausage Rolls"!

If you are in the UK, enjoy the Bank Holiday, and do avoid getting dehydrated or sunburnt

Free Parking?

Are you sitting comfortably? I am going to have a rant. 
First a relatively minor one...

This sign means the space is for disabled people, blue badge holders. Bob is so grateful for his permit, it means the walking distance from the car park to the door of the shop/church/theatre is reduced. My neighbour knows the hatched areas around the space means there will be room to manoeuvre her daughters wheelchair. 

These spaces are not for Joe Public, who is in a hurry and doesn't want to walk from the other side of the carpark. And people who park in such spaces should display their blue badge. 

So the other day, when we returned to our car outside a busy Sainsburys, and a couple pulled into the adjacent space and both jumped out, and set off speedily towards the InPost lockers, Bob called out in a cheerful tone "Hey! You've forgotten to display your blue badge!"
The man said "We'll only be two minutes, we are going to the InPost Locker" and the woman said "oh, I'm waiting for my blue badge"  I know not all disabilities are visible, and maybe she was 'waiting for her blue badge' to arrive...but as we drove away, I was pretty certain they did not return to the car after depositing their parcel, but walked towards the supermarket. Bad behaviour if you ask me.
But that is nothing compared to the utterly selfish people on the Norfolk coast this weekend,.

On Sunday morning, seven people, including four children were trapped on a sandbank with an incoming tide at Wells Next the Sea. This is not uncommon at this time of year, visitors do not heed the warnings

The siren sounded and the volunteer lifeboat crew scrambled to get to the station so they could launch a rescue craft - only to discover that holidaymakers had taken up all the crew's designated parking spaces by the lifeboat station. Which obviously delayed the rescue - where every minute counts as lives are at risk.

This is unbelievable thoughtlessness - I am grateful that this time, all the stranded people were rescued safely. Operations manager Chris Hardy said “Today, our crew experienced difficulties parking when responding to this shout.The restricted parking near the lifeboat station is clearly marked for RNLI crew and emergency access, and it is vital that these spaces are kept clear." He asked visitors to respect the restrictions staff, who try to enforce them. Parking issues persisted throughout the bank holiday weekend The crew pleaded again with people not to park in their spaces after more issues on Monday morning. "We are asking everyone, respectfully but very clearly: please do not park in or block RNLI access areas, emergency service spaces, slipways, gates or turning areas," 

Personally I feel that people who park in the RNLI Crew spaces should have their cars towed away and impounded, and be fined for reckless endangerment of life. I don't think people would park their cars in ambulance bays, or across the front of the fire station. Why do they think it is ok to regard these spaces at Wells as "Free Parking"? 

Another Family Birthday

The other day my phone offered me the chance to look at "Pictures of Liz down the years" This selection represents the last 21 years - from our trip to Budapest in 2005 to new spectacles this spring. 

So grateful for this wonderful daughter - the mother of my grand-daughters, and such a thoughtful, intelligent, caring witty woman. We have had so much fun together recently - both here in Norfolk, and when we were in Manchester last month looking after the boys during the Marathon.

Thank you for all the joy and laughter you bring to our family, have a wonderful birthday, Liz! 

Here We Go Again!

Drum roll please! Just to announce the next great Kirsten&Ang collaborative craft project is underway. K had the brainwave for it. 

We were both wanting to do different individual stitching stuff, and we took a bit of a break after our Two-by-Two patches, to consider what we might work on together.

K read this book, and wondered if this time round we should knit rather than sew. Jan Eaton's book has dozens of 6" squares to inspire you 

I got my own copy of the book 2nd hand, online, and started looking through it. Some squares she does in 4 colourways, so strictly speaking there are less than 150 different stitch patterns
I was really excited about the idea - as K said, it would be a good stash buster, not much yarn needed for each square. Like 2by2, we'd each prepare two squares every time, one to keep, and one to swap.
What will we do with them? I asked. Neither of us needs another throw, especially in this hot weather! 🔥🥵🔥🥵🔥

18, or maybe 32 squares would make a patchwork cushion cover. I have gone right off this idea, ever since someone at the craft group brought in her new book, showing how to combine squares not in a quilt but in a pillow [the term our US friends use for cushion] and the author called these items quillows. No!!! I do not want a quillow , thank you. Ugly word imho.
Bob suggested a waistcoat/gilet type garment. We plan to wait till we'd finished to decide what to make.

I just could not choose which square to start with. So as Heather and I sat in Costa, I said "Go through this book and quickly point out 4 that you like" So she did, and I said I would do one of them as my first square. Then I asked Rosie to pick two balls of wool for me to knit the square. That was a little difficult, she kept suggesting alternative patterns! I am grateful to my supporters, when I get stuck with a decision

I used the white and random-dye balls Rosie had chosen to start knitting the pattern. 

But I really did not like the resulting stripes. I swapped out the white for a rusty shade - but that sort of disappeared.  
Now I have started again with completely different shades, and I am much happier with the outcome. 
We are going to swap as and when we've both finished our 2 samples. And the accompanying notes will be written on 6" squares of paper or card.

So that will be two women

    each knitting two squares

        on yarn that is thinner than aran and thicker than four ply

thus our next collaboration has the working title

DOUBLE KNITTING

More will be revealed in coming weeks...

Ice, But No Water

Thank you all for your kind words. Bob has continued to get stronger, and preached a great sermon this morning. 

It has been a good weekend. 

Saturday afternoon it was lovely to have the girls at Cornerstones. Jess did Spirograph, while Rosie sorted all the pens for me. 

Then the Ice Cream van stopped right outside. Treats all round! 

I had a friend who told her son that unless the van stopped outside and the driver rang their doorbell and asked if John Smith wanted an ice cream he couldn't have one. And I knew another Mum who said when the van played a tune it meant "I've run out of ices, returning to depot" [And it was not because they could not afford it - I felt it was not kind to mislead children like that] 

The girls heard the chimes, but did not ask for ices - so I was really delighted to treat the family. We had fun choosing, and they were delicious and creamy. 

Sunday we got home from church to find no water in the taps - a water main had burst in the heat and hundreds of homes locally were cut off for over 8 hours. I checked our neighbours were OK, especially the older ones and those with pets. It was SO hot! Then we went over to the family at their cottage, where the taps all worked! We returned in the

evening with a large bottle of tap water, just in case. The water was back, but pressure still low.

It was an inconvenience, but only a minor one. And a reminder that 99.9% of the time we have fresh, clean water on tap. Some people will have to walk miles today in  blazing heat to get a bucket of dirty water to meet the needs of their family. 

Lord make us truly grateful.

10.30am Woke to find water off again, no details about when it will be back. Used bucket of water from garden water butt for loo flushing. Now off to Liz to refill bottles! 

Pentecost Sunday

Today is Pentecost Sunday, when Christian celebrate God's gift of the Holy Spirit to his Church [Acts Chapter 2] He has many names - the old fashioned and outdated term Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Jesus, the Comforter, the Paraclete [a Greek word meaning comforter, not to be confused with colourful tropical birds] For some, today will be marked with lively enthusiastic worship, and that is great - but lately I have been reflecting on the ways in which the Spirit of Jesus guides and empowers us in a gentle way, comforting us when we are distressed, encouraging when we feel weary, guiding us when we do not know which way to turn. This hymn, set to the beautiful, traditional Scottish Skye Boat Song sums this up 

PS , if you are the praying type, please thank God that Bob is so much better than he was a week ago - and ask for God's strength for him as he preaches at Church this morning. Thank you.

In Loving Memory

 

Peter's service went well. I allowed plenty of time because of all the roadworks along the A47 and arrived 20 minutes early. I stood under the trees chatting with Roger [aka Spronk], who had known Pete since Primary School. Like me, he did not really know anyone else there apart from the immediate family. The Yarmouth Crem is relatively modern, light and bright, with comfortable seating!
Daphne had written a piece about her brother's life - growing up, his love of motorbikes, [shared with his best friend Spronk], his work on the ambulance crews, his love of dogs, and in retirement his unwavering support for LIB Dog Rescue. His great nephew gave a lovely tribute to the man himself - how everyone had loved Uncle Pete. 
Roger and I sat together in the chapel and again at the Wake - mostly discussing motorbikes. Well, he talked about all the bikes he and Peter had owned, and I added relevant comments where I could. I never did pluck up the nerve to ask him why he was nicknamed Spronk  though.
One older relation was looking at me with that "I ought to know you..." expression. I smiled and said "I'm Angela, Hilda and Stan's daughter" "Of course!" he replied. Then his daughter said "I was at your wedding, it was brilliant, Uncle Stan conducted it, and the balcony upstairs was full. Everyone was happy and the music was good" She can only have been about 10 at the time. But I fully agreed with her description. 
Lots of Pete's LIB friends were there - and said they should have brought the dogs to form a guard of honour outside the Crem [possibly not....] They'd printed out lots of lovely photos of Pete-with-rescue-dogs which had been on their Facebook page in recent days.
Happy memories