No snazzy title, sorry.

Firstly, thank you for the lovely comments last week - it is reassuring to know others understand the slow life, and don't see it as being lazy etc.
Thank you.

The last few days have been ok really - the sun has shone, it is very frustrating not to have the energy to go round the park or somewhere for a walk when it is so pretty, but I can't do a damned thing about that so no use dwelling on it. My daughter says anytime, just give her a shout and she will come round and go pottering with me - I want to go and gather some fir cones, and look at the trees and their Autumn leaves.

But despite not being able to pootle about as I would like, things have been mellow - rather suitable for this time of year I think.

It is hard to be miserable with this little fatty on your knee:

He really is the most adorable little piggy I have had (and I have had several over the years). He sat on my knee for an hour or more last night, singing away to himself and nodding off. Every time I stopped stroking him he licked my hand and nudged me until I started again.

He seems to think he is a cat, he curls right round in a ball on my knee.

He LOATHES my glasses and tries to kill them - I don't know if he can see his refelction or something in them, but he tries to rive them off with his teeth, make my daughter laugh everytime he does it - good job they are just my manky 'at home' specs!
PSidney, you are a lovely little piggy.

This hydrangea has been the star of the summer, and continues to look beautiful - it is the most gorgeous shade of pink (many pinks) and has started to do that delicate skeleton leaf thing, which I think is simply beautiful.

This small plant has given me so much pleasure.
I am amazed so many things are still blooming - the pinks are onto what must be their fourth flowering. Must be the sunshine, and although there is a definite change to the air (and we have had a few downright cold nights) it's been - mostly - relatively mild.

Slow roasted tomatoes to go into a cheese and tomato flan, delicious. (My gluten free pastry was bloody awful tonight, not sure what went wrong there as it's usually edible if not tasty - thankfully the contents were much nicer!).
If you haven't bothered slow roasting a load of toms it really is worthwhile - slice them thickly, drizzle in olive oil and ideally basil  and leave them in the oven for a few hours, on a verrrry low temperature.

I don't seem to have much interest in food at the moment - by rights with that and the constant stomach upsets I should be a size 6 - but I had some very tasty new potatoes with the flan and was glad I had made the effort.

Knitting is happening - I am plodding through a cardi - well not plodding as that sounds negative and I am really enjoying this, but it is slow going. It is a Louisa Harding one I started - and almost finished - a couple of years ago, but when I wet blocked it all the black dye ran into the pink wool and I was fuming, chucked the whole thing in the bin.
It's this pattern:

Pocket Watch from the Queen of Hearts book. Mine is in black, pinks and greys (just for a change).
Piccies to come - that waist band ribbing seemed to take forever!

I am also knitting 'things' - some are pressies so piccies when they have been received, some are for what I am hoping to be a woodlandy themed Christmas (yes I said the C word, sorry) tree and decorations. I have some silly plan that we can go and steal a branch from the woods and make it look EXACLY like the expensive John Lewis ones .... hmmmmm.

OOOOOH - before I forget, I DID come up with a rather marvellous and - thought I say it myself - very impressive invention. One can tell one went to art college. Brace yerself -

Sulky's Patented Bra Dryer

Dragons' Den here I come.

That's your lot for now (I suspect the sight of my bras has finished you all off completely, sorry_ - but before I go, how utterly wondrous are these little blighters:

A better day.

Today has been pretty good. By anyone 'normal's standards it has probably been dull as ditch water, but to me, yep, pretty good.

I have seemed to slip into a lazy persons routine - I am sleeping later (or at least lying in bed later) on a morning - when I first left work I was trying to get up at 7ish every day to try and maintain some sense of normality.

Lately my body simply hasn't coped with that and I am now surfacing around 8ish 9ish - the other day I got up at 11am, had a bath, made a nest on the settee with a pile of throws (before I fell down) and slept all day, literally. I suspect that was an ME crash rather than the RA. The routine at the moment involves eating toast or something around midday, taking tramadol etc, pottering, putting away the washing up, catching up online and doing the washing if needed.
Then - back to a warm bed.

This little knackered body is really liking the warmth of the electric blanket, especially my kneesies, and I think this snooze time is helping me to have a few half-decent hours for the rest of the afternoon. If I don't actually sleep it is just as beneficial to simply lie in the warmth.

(Told you it was dull!). On a really good day I even - wait for it - walk to the corner shop and back. I know, tis a wild and wicked life I lead.....

For the last two years my Dr has told me to listen to my body, but the guilt of doing so little has over-ridden this sound advice until recently, when my body has given me little choice in the matter. Having an ME / RA crash is the most bizarre thing - it literally feels like someone has pulled the plug on what energy was there, it is like that feeling when you are about to faint. I can't fight it and have to just go with it, hence a nest on the settee as getting upstairs is impossible when it's that bad - these are the times I am very glad I live alone because I can just close my eyes and ignore everything.

I am also getting better at not planning 'crafty things' - eg the knickers I plan to make, the two dresses, the bags, the crows .... I have the ideas, the materials but not often the energy. That's OK - I am allowed to NOT do them until I am up to it. So at the moment I am (verrrrry slowly) clearing away the things I know I won't be tackling anytime soon, to make some nice space for when I DO feel up to it, if that makes any sense. Which it probably doesn't. The idea is to try and lessen the feeling of guilt and uselessness because I have not achieved (by achieved I think I often mean 'made / created') something that particular day, because the day/hour/5 minutes will come when I do make things and that will be fab.

I dunno, does this make any sense at all? Making things is such a big part of 'me' - to not make much anymore is a bugger, for wont of a better word.

Knitting happens quite a lot (hands willing), mainly because it is something I do sitting down in my cosy corner. Couch potato knitting. And of course knitting is (usually) soothing. Unless it's that time when I am pondering what to cast on next and what with and why can't I find A SINGLE BLOODY PATTERN I LIKE from the mountain that I have AND WHERE IS THE WOOL etc etc etc.

Today - today has been OK, maybe because the sun has been shining. The washing almost dried on the line, my body has co-operated quite well apart from the fibro in my neck, I haven't had to have any of my anti-nausea tablets, I am enjoying my knitting and I have thrown out some clutter from upstairs. That will do.

I hope today has been a good day for you, too.

High as a - well, even higher than that.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MrIxH6DToXQ#!

I am absolutely hooked on this, I think it is incredible.

Hope to goodness nothing goes wrong - the feedback film is gobsmackingly clear, he looks so calm in his little pod.

I also love the photos of Endeavour being taken across the country to its resting place:

Mad.
Wonderfully mad.

Beautiful.
My favourite piccy has to be this one, for the sheer surreal aspect to it:

I wish I could copy some of the shots from inside the Stratos capsule, it's just - well, you get the idea.
Have a look, go on.


There, now you know one of my secret loves. Rockets, the shuttle, flight. Fab!

Chunky. Knickers.

In which some knitting actually gets finished.

health:
same old, same old. Had my scans done this Tuesday, nothing new to report. oh - the nodule on my right elbow needs looking at apparently, it is becoming more pronounced in the scans and is a sod when I am trying to get comfy in bed. I am back at hospital towards the end of the month, presumably to see if I am going to be part of the RoActemra trial.

Usual aches and pains, plus absolute exhaustion thrown in for good measure - I think being more tired than normal is the result of the Norovirus. I am doing a lot of snuggling in bed with my leccy blanket on, usually for a couple of hours early afternoon - even if I don't sleep my knees in particular are very grateful for the warmth and comfort.

But until I hear about this trial it's just a case of plodding on.

What's that you say - you want to hear about theFinished Knitting? Oh go on then.

 I am so so happy with this - tis a Christmas pressie for my daughter, she tried it on last week and I needed to redo the sleeves as she likes them really long. She rang my mum later on to say how fab the jumper is, so I am really happy.

Highly recommend this pattern, it is extremely quick and very easy, yet I think it looks much more complex than it is.
It is a James Brett pattern, in mega chunky wool. I would love one but I am too chunky as it is ....

Have also amlmost finished Christmas knitting gift #2, piccies to come asap.

Am typing with one eye on the window as it is blowing a gale and I have washing out - my knees don't want to do a sprint start to grab anything that flies off!

I am slowly but surely turning the living room into a REAL living room as opposed to a junk shop. Furniture has been moved (slowly, carefully, and with price paid the following day). Inside one cupboard I found a depressing sight:

Books, lots of books
How can books be depressing, I hear you think - easy. The majority of these are simply too heavy for my hands to hold. Bugger. And I know a Kindle would be a huge help, but I like BOOKS! REAL BOOKS! Pah.

Anyone fancy tidying my sewing table for me please? I have the urge to make myself some knickers.

Truly.

I love this pattern:

Love the vintage styling but even as a lover of larger pants, I suspect the pattern as it is would have the bow somewhere near my chin!
I plan to cut them down a tad - and if anyone thinks I am in danger of getting old before my time with granny pants, I am making them from skull fabric. So there.

I don't have an overlocker sadly, but am hoping I can still manage - I have knicker elastic aplenty, an assortment of fabric and a black teeshirt to chop up for - ahem - gussets.

PS the word 'panties' should be banned.

Never thought I would get the word 'gussets' into my blog. My life is now complete.

So watch this space for my knickers.... you have been warned.

Two things.

1) Norovirus is evil. Am still ill but nothing like it has been.

2) I really hope people are watching the Jimmy Savile documentary with open minds. To those who say it is disgusting and why didn't they say something when he was alive, there are several answers to that.
Fear. Self disgust. Successful grooming by a powerful man with very high up friends. Shame. A completely different social awareness. People are finding it extemely difficult to believe now - imagine how hard it would have been when he was at the peak of his popularity and fame?

Yes it is disgusting - but it is NOT the victims who are disgusting. I was about to type 'only one person is disgusting' but that isn't true. Too many people have lied for years about this, it is absolutely common knowledge not just here in Leeds. The 'stories' - reports, anecdotes, whatever you want to call them, so very many of them.

I won't go into more detail except to say this - these allegations are just the tip of a very big, deeply unpleasant iceberg.

I know who I believe, do you?