Cheeky boy.

Sitting in the garden, wearing chunky boots and many layers. Welcome to a Yorkshire Spring!

Long time no see - everyone ok?
I have been zapped of all energy, full of pain, sick of hospital trips, but am determined to pick up. Blogging is a good visual diary for me, so I am going to make more of an effort to post, even if nobody reads it!

Sooooo.... we have had that strange, glowing sky thing here. A few simply glorious days - then bitterly cold, now grey and pouring down, and snow - yes SNOW forecast for next week. So a typical English Spring then.

I love it - I would have always said that Summer is my very favourite, but the last few years of enforced home and garden indolence has made me a massive Spring fan. Assorted 'stuff' peeping through all the pots, something new (literally) appearing every day - I LOVE IT!
Look!

Lots of the tulips are budding, there is a lone purple crocus about to open, and one primula survived the winter.
I got a bit carried away with sunstroke and planted seeds, but they will probably die next week.

PSidney loves being in the sun, he sings to himself then stretches riiiiiight out on my knee with his little back feet turned up, he's so lovely.

But the Cheeky boy in the title? Yes Sid is cheeky - but he has competition.
Meet Charlie:

Hello!
Pleased to meet you!
Do you have food?
Every single day, Charlie hop- hop- hops down the tree when I go out to feed the birds. He started by watching, so I started chatting to him. He does that side to side head cocking thing which is fab!
The more I chatted, the more he watched.
Then he came closer ....

and closer ......

..... still watching .....

..... until greed and curiosity won out and he sat on the food tub, ON MY KNEE!

How utterly magical is that!

On.
My.
Knee.

I am determined to get him feeding from my hand. Over the last few weeks he has followed me round the garden, sat on the other end of the bench, explored all the pots, hopped under the table - every day he appears. Closer and bolder he gets.

But no, it didn't stop there.

Hop hop hop.
What's this?
A really REALLY big tree?
Let me hop inside and explore.

Yes, he hopped inside the house!
I ended up following him in and asking 'What are you doing cheeky??!'

He has given me so many smiles and so much pleasure. Lovely.

I do have other things to report, but for now I will leave you with The Daily Robin, from yesterday:

Outside.

It exists! Yesterday I was stir crazy, I needed some air and to stretch my (stumpy) legs. I managed the short walk to the corner shop as a test run (well, pootle rather than run) with my fab Yaktrax on (HIGHLY recommend these, what a difference!). That was do-able, so I kept going and headed to the park over the road and oop the hill. Slooooooow - I sat on every bench on the way, made a couple of family phone calls, texted friends and my sis. Slow slow slow. But the snow was beautiful - crisp, dry, fresh. With my stick and my boots, and my snug as a bug coat and hat, it was all do-able.

The park is lovely, considering it is in a pretty deprived area. Down the steep right hand side lie the railway line, the canal and then the River Aire, with views right across the west of the city (I think, I really must try and work out what the views are of).This is the west side of Leeds so the view must be what, East? Anyway, there is a view. Of things. I particularly like the views (across Kirkstall and Burley areas) with all the rows of neat little back to back terraces with the church spires standing tall. There are also many chimney stacks from the old mills, mixed with the rather grotty tower blocks. I like it, despite not being a city girl at all. I used to wander along the canal walkways a lot in that former life when this little bod worked properly, but blimey it was good to get out!

I have no idea whatorder these photos will come out in, so bear with me - I am posting this in HTML so cannot see them until I press 'publish'. Part way into my wander I came across a fab half-igloo, made with two sweet tubs. Ingenios! Perfect blocks - I really hope that 1) nobody knicked the tubs and 2) nobody kicked down the igloo. It's lovely that even in a fairly rough area children still play in the snow and make things.

I was EXHAUSTED when I got home - a walk that would take me what, ten minutes if I was well, took me ages with plenty of rests. I slept like a log when I went up for a kip, didn't sleep last night and by hell my calves ache today! (I am pleased that they do, I haven't had aching muscles since I used to go to the gym, so at least I know that my legs have had a bit of a workout). Worth every ache and yawn to have had a walk in the fresh air. Loved it. Stay warm and stay upright!

Bed.

Bed is fab. Good job, because I had a shocker of a night and have spent the day in bed, and have minimal plans for getting up. Throwing up and a 'splody botty with really nasty stomach pains, I suspect due to the slowly increased dosage of the Leflunomide. Yuk yuk yuk.

But never mind. The worst thing was I had a visitor lined up today, one of my beloved knitty friends and had to cancel in case this is a bug, I would hate to pass it on to her. Pah.

 Monday was my burpday, 21 yet again. The sun was out - by hell was it ever, it was the hottest day so far, over 28C, and we went to a lovely park for a rather splendid piccynic.

My bootiful baby girl came round, we got a taxi to Morrisons and bought the place out. The days of making lovely tasty treats for a picnic are on hold at the moment because of health - I was going to say they are long gone but that's so negative I prefer 'on hold'. I do NOT intend to be this ill for ever, you hear me little old bod?

Anway - something nicely liberating about just giving in and buying the lot!
We had more salady goodness, sides, nibbles, cheeses etc than one could shake a stick at. Or a stickleback at. Or even a sticklebrick.

We had planned to go to Kirkstall Abbey as it is very nearby - and stunning, Thankfully I checked online and the blimmin place is closed on Mondays. How rude of them on my burpday!
So a last minute panic to find somewhere pretty, clean and ideally new to us, and we found Pudsey Park. I have only lived here what, 11 years ..... tis a couple of miles away, a fiver in a taxi, and absolutely lovely.
I know they have won a Green Flag award every year and are very proud of it, justly so. Spotless, safe, beautiful. Large play areas for sproglets, bowling green and building for the oldies, plenty of places to picnic and slob and wander.

We didn't realise we were under a laden pine tree until this fell out:

It landed about a foot away and almost made me move. I thought it was a squiggle jumping out.
Blurry pics, the joys of LCD screens in the blazing sun - point, shoot, hope for the best!

Obviously the kids had to come too.
It just wouldn't be a real Out without Keef and Daphne.
Might be more sophisticated though but what the heck.

Obviously we do do sophisticated, just take a look at our Pimms cocktails for proof.

Pimms, lemonade, sweetie banana stirrers, strawberries, more sweets and - er - more sweets. I chucked a crouton into Kerri's when she wasn't looking. Posh. Very.

It became so hot that the cheeses became LIQUID. Rank! Everything that wasn't eaten went straight in the bin, waaaay too hot to risk it.

Daffers went to sleep in my handbag but Keef was on top form despite leaving a little trail of melting snowman behind him.

The wabbits were Totally Unimpressed.
We made a Big Mistake and went to explore one large building - a fekking greenhouse! On the hottest day! Dearie me, it was one big waft of heat - I was a tad worried it was going to be a long walk round like Tropical World at Roundhay tropical-world but thankfully this was a veh short trip.
Again, Keef went exploring - we found him stuck up a tree laughing at us.

I could hear Daffers tutting from inside my bag.

We forgot to take the now obligatory feet shot - somehow we seem to have one of these from everywhere we go - mostly because I loathe having my photo taken. This was from last week so will have to do. Obviously the chunky white leggypegs are mine.

But I do have a photo of the lesser spotted sulkycattuus minimus, brace yerself.

Very pleased that this one is blurry!

We both admitted defeat after a couple of hours and got a taxi home - both a bit headachey and pink. And in my case freckly. Veh freckly.
Eeeeeeee look at the size of my quiff! Makes me over 5ft.

Sleep beckons again, I am so tired.

Well that's about it for now - piccies of gifts to come, I have been incredibly spoiled and have a load of lovely cards and very thoughtful, generous pressies. My lovely knitty friends are just wonderful people and they matter enormously to me - thank you to all of them for helping make my birthday a truly lovely day.

And a mahoosive HUG to my lovely beautiful girl for such a lovely trip out.

Ten on Tuesday

The Ten on Tuesday topic for 7/13 is 10 Things You Like About Where You Live
So here goes.

I don't like living here, never have liked Leeds and never will - so trying to find 10 positives is a good thing for me to do. I could find 100 negatives probably ...

1) transport - being able to get around the city pretty easily by bus (yes they are expensive, sometimes grubby, often late but they do make travel without a car very easy), being able to get pretty much anywhere by train (Leeds has a big mainline station)

2) following on from the above, being able to get out and about - which is something I haven't done in age and really want to do - I am in dire need of a day out and some fresh air and new scenery. So a trip to the bus station soon methinks

3) food. I personally think Leeds is a bit iffy for meals out - there's plenty of choice, but if all you want is a good pub lunch then it's hard to find. I don't like many Leeds pubs, they are dirty (maybe I am just getting too old for that now, I don't know) and haven't found many I want to eat in. BUT the market, and supermarkets - but particularly the market - is excellent for food. A handful of fresh chilli, garlic and some mushrooms cost me 96p last week. Huge choice because of the cultural diversity of this huge city, all very affordable.
More and more of the inside market is shutting down - wake up people of Leeds, make the time to use your market before it vanishes.

4) my gym - not because I am some mad sporty type, far far from it - but because it has a lovely pool, and swimming is my very favourite thing.
Where I used to loive, a small country market town, the only pool is the public one and although fairly new, it's not very nice - definitely not private. The one I use here is lovely, plus it has a sauna, spa pool, steam room etc. Yes, definitely one of the things I love about living here.

(yes that is the actual pool).

5) oh it's so shallow - but SHOPPING! If Leeds doesn't have it, then do without. Unless you are looking for crafts, a wide range of material, or good wool - none of those in the city centre. There;s Hobbycraft a bus ride away, and a couple of wool shops outside the city, but very lim ited otherwise.

But for clothes, shoes, bags, perfume, makeup, coats, menswear, all that sort of thing - spoilt for choice! From Harvey Nichols (go on, treat yourself to at least a wander round - snigger at the prices of the clothes, spoil yourself in the small food hall, and the makeup counters are excellent - MAC, my favourite) to the smaller shops tucked in side streets, there's pretty much every high street name (no John Lewis as yet).

This is the Victoria Quarter, home of many designer shops (Viv Westwood for example) and home of my very favourite shop of all, Rose&Co.

6) ok, this is getting tough now! I don't have any interest in the night life, or in many of the out of town places. Nor is there enough open land to interest me. The canal - I like the canal, and the part that runs near me (very near me) is pretty, but it isn't really the safest of places for a woman to walk alone. So a bit of a quandry - there are green spaces in and around Leeds, but Roundhay Park leaves me cold, and many others just don't feel safe.

7) cinemas - not exactly thrilling, but again this is something that I didn't have access to where I used to live. Museums too - I don't go very often to any of them, but they are around and are pretty damned good. Aha! The art gallery, I love that - we have an excellent gallery (I am biased - the first time I walked in I came face to face with an enormous John Waterhouse painting, bliss). I love the sculpture gallery the most, haven't been in a while but there used to be several gorgeous Barbara Hepworth exhibits.

Under the gallery is the craft centre, where most things are for sale, jewellery etc by independent artists, well worth a look.

8) OK, I am really struggling now. I think I might have to come back to this, as I am stuck.

If nothing else writing this has underlined just how little I go out, which is a mixture of work and health issues, and how little I have got out of this big city.

Give me the countryside, or ideally the coast anyday!

A bit of all sorts ...

How and when did you begin knitting/crocheting? Was it a skill passed down through generations of your family, or something you learned from Knitting For Dummies? What or who made you pick up the needles/hook for the first time? Was it the celebrity knitting ‘trend’ or your great aunt Hilda?
 TAGGING CODE: knitcroblo1

This is not really the sort of thing I like doing - I tend to shy away from the madding crowd. But I hoped it would give me the kick up the derriere I need to post more regularly so here goes, in brief.

My much loved and much missed nan, and my lovely mum both taught me to knit, when I was too young to remmeber! They were both creative: sewing, knitting and crochet (although I don't think my mum ever did any crochet), and I remember being fascinated by my mum doing that twisty wool ties using the door handle, for my baby sister's loopy hat (so I must have been 4).
My little chubby hands (both adjectives still apply) would get all hot and bothered, and my knitting would get tighter and more and more squeaky, until mum would take it from me and knit a few rows at the speed of light to loosen it up again. I suspect she did this to save her sanity when the nails-down-blackboard irritation of the squeak became too much ...

I doubt this picture is anywhere near a true representation of me. Someone throwing it and having a paddy is probably more like it. Nothing much has changed.

God only knows what I must have knit - I suspect misshapen, grubby 'things' to cover assorted dolls and teddies.

I can't remember not knitting really - I certainly knit when I was at college, insanely large mohair things that shed everywhere at college (I was an art student mohicaned punk, York in the 80s), and I remember a rather 'special' loosely knit monstrosity / jumper / dress / tent that we used to burn holes in and reknot in the pub.

In my defence we were drunk a lot.

I idolised Toyah when I was young, so imagine this armed with needles and wool. I was the only polite punk in York - I simply could not for the life of me burp.

I knit a lot for my daughter, so that's going back 23 years, and have my nan's and my mum's needles. And now I get to knit mostly for me, although my daughter absolutely loves getting anything hand made, as do my friends.

And on a completely different note, and a bit late.
It was St George's day on Friday, the patron saint of England. He of dragon defeating wit and wisdom.

So Leeds was full of these:
My favourite was the drunken one, with his drunken friends, trying to pick a fight with an equally drunken fally down man. Lots of squaring up and puffing out of chests (I was over the road at the bus stop, doing that 'I am not really watching your faux fight' thing), but my favourite thing was the knight's fake chainmail leggings kept drooping right down to the floor and he kept trying to pull them up without falling over. Tough work being a knight.
There was a group of them sitting in the window of Akbars Indian restaurant, scoffing their tea - now that definitely made me grin when I went past on the bus.

It's true some days, you just couldn't make it up ...