Home Again in Sunny France - Meet My Cat - Latest Spinning

Here we are home again for a brief spell.  Eric's brother Alan and his wife Jane are holding the fort up in Scotland so we've managed to escape and have a bit of time here.  We're waiting for Eric's Mum to go into a nursing home and have just heard that there are two places available in the town where we would like her to be.  Hopefully she should be moving there by the end of February.  We're off back to Scotland again next Wednesday and have booked the ferry back for 3 weeks after that, but we're hoping we'll be back before then.  Once she gets into the nursing home they'll want to get her settled and into a routine and probably won't welcome visitors coming in all the time upsetting her.



Thought it was time you met my cat.  His name's Jak and he's nearly 8 years old.  We adopted him when we first arrived in France and were staying at a campsite in Marciac.  Jak and his sister had been abandoned as kittens and were wandering around hoping the campers would feed them.  Our friends, Rod and Brian, took the female, and we got Jak.

He loves to help me knit, jumping on my knee for a cuddle every time I pick up my needles, and have you ever tried spinning with a half ton cat sitting on your lap?  Today he decided to help with the carding of some camel.  He loves to snuggle up in the wool and then have a good suck.  This must have been particularly tasty as it hasn't been washed!!

Oops, obviously didn't like the flash . . . he's off to terrorise the local mouse population, snack on a nice warm lizard, or catch a snake in the long grass by the field.

This is the latest wool I've spun.  It was very easy spinning as it was all pre-carded Merino.  When I bought my new spinning wheel it came with a £15 voucher for yarn, so I bought a large bag of mixed colours.  This was five different colours, all spun in rotation, one after the other, and then Navajo plied which means only one bobbin is used to make a 3-ply yarn.  That way I could control the colours and not have them overlapping each other too much.

This ball is going to be knit into a pair of socks.  It was spun very finely so that it was still quite fine after plying.  I'm using 2.5mm needles and it's knitting up well so far - a little handy project to take back to Scotland next week.

Whilst walking around the garden the other day, I came across this lump of oak, destined for our log-burner, covered with fungi.  I wonder if there'll be any colour to extract from these - must consult my latest dye book "The Rainbow Beneath My Feet", a mushroom dyer's field guide.  If they're still here when we get back, I'll maybe cut some off to experiment.

OK, first post in quite a while but hopefully I'll be more in touch soon.  Eric has just donated his mobile phone to me - this has quite a good camera so I'll be taking more photos if I have it in my sticky grasp instead of in his!

Piglet

A little story that I read quite a while ago in a magazine :-

A young couple had been offered a piglet by a neighbouring farmer.  The couple were really pleased but said they were going on holiday the following month.  Not to worry, said the farmer, just bring piggy back here and you can collect it when you get home.

Off they went on holiday, leaving piglet at the farm.  On their return they went, eagerly, to collect their pet, only to be confronted with a barnful of piglets, all exactly the same.  They hadn't a clue which was theirs.  Suddenly, hubby had an idea (they'd been trying to teach little pig a few tricks before they left home).  "SIT!" he shouted . . . and one little pig sat down!!

Long Time No Speak

We're now entering the second week of our stay in sunny Scotland and Eric's Mum is still in hospital.  The doctor has now told us that there's no way she can go home again, so we are trying to make arrangements for a nursing home.  Not good news, but we know she'll be looked after a lot better there.

The good news is that my spinning wheel came with us this time - didn't have to hide it in the boot as Eric suggested I bring it.  I managed to put quite a bit of stuff through my drum carder before we left home, but have brought the old hand carders just in case I run out.  I'm currently spinning Brewster Bob (he's the cutest alpaca at La Maison des Chameaux, in fact, he's the only alpaca at La Maison! - sorry Brewster, but you are cute anyway!!)  Also brought a bag of llama (from Tallulah), a bag of camel, and some red and blue merino which I need to spin to finish my sweater dress.

Spinning activities happen in the morning, hospital visits in the afternoon (we don't go in the evenings any more as she just gets too tired) and cooking and knitting in the evening.  What an exciting life we have here!

Tomorrow night we're going to the local village pub where some friends are putting on a traditional music night.  Pete, our friend who has a traditional music shop in Stonehaven, has promised to bring a guitar for Eric so he can play a tune or two.  That might come as a bit of a shock to the audience though as he's a rock and blues man!  Should be an interesting night.

Back Home

Hello All,

Back home again in sunny (? - well it was yesterday) France for a short time.  Eric's Mum was eventually moved to a hospital nearer to her home for ongoing therapy and assessment.  We were able to set off back home when Eric's brother and his wife came over from Switzerland to relieve us, so here we are.

The news isn't brilliant, as the stroke seems to have accelerated the dementia we believed she had the first signs of.  It also seems to have affected the left hand side of her vision and she can't see as well as before.   Although it's still early days, the doctors think we may have to consider placing her in a nursing home - at 88 they don't think she'll be able to manage by herself anymore.

We are now making plans to go back around the 18th January for another 3 week stint.  Hopefully during that time decisions will have been made and we can start arranging for her to be settled somewhere.  We did look at a few nursing homes whilst we were there (just in case) and found one that was particularly nice.  Fingers crossed we can get her in.

In the meantime, not much spinning being done!  If we drive back again this time, may consider hiding my new spinning wheel in the boot!!  Just haven't mentioned it to Eric yet.

Still Here . . .

Yes, we're still here in snowy Aberdeen and it's freezing. 

We were looking forward to getting home to the (slightly) warmer weather and preparing for Christmas.  In fact, we had actually set off on our journey back to Hull to catch the ferry, but luckily had only got as far as Edinburgh.  That evening we received a phone call to say Eric's Mum had fallen in her flat and she was being taken to hospital.

The next morning we drove back up to Aberdeen in ridiculous conditions (at one point we couldn't see the road and nearly had to abandon the car) but managed to arrive eventually.  It turns out she has had a stroke which has affected her left hand side, not badly, but she doesn't have full use of her arm and leg.  The doctor is fairly confident they can regain some, if not all, of that by therapy, so we're just keeping our fingers crossed.

Obviously we had to cancel the ferry back to France, but hope we can get back by new year if all is well.  Once she leaves the main hospital to go for convalescence and ongoing therapy, we may be able to think about it.

In the meantime, hope everyone has a good Christmas and New Year.

Frozen North

Well, here we are in the frozen north-east of Scotland for our annual visit, and the weather's certainly excelled itself this time.  No photos I'm afraid, because the computer we brought with us doesn't have the software to transfer them from the camera.

We stayed the first 4 nights in Cumbria visiting family and friends and, although it was pretty white there too, the roads were fairly clear.  We then drove north to Edinburgh to stay with Eric's son Nic and his girlfriend Vika for a night, but got stuck there for an extra night - the snow was absolutely atrocious.  It snowed and snowed and snowed on the day we were supposed to leave, and the Forth Road Bridge was closed for some time too.  We watched the webcam of the bridge for a while and all we saw were stationary cars, and then people walking off the bridge abandoning them.

Finally, on the 10th day of our visit to the UK (we're staying with Eric's Mum in sunny Fettercairn, about 30 miles south of Aberdeen), the snow is starting to melt, so tomorrow we hit the shops!!

Ashford Traveller Spinning Wheel

. . . and here it is!

When it arrived, I decided to treat the wood with clear varnish to help keep it clean and applied one coat.  Luckily, the varnish I used was quite thin and soaked completely into the wood.  I say "luckily", because by that time I'd decided that, actually, I'd prefer it waxed!  I then spent the next few days coating it with home-made beeswax polish, and I'm really pleased with the result.  It's come out a lovely warm colour.  Hopefully I won't have to do it too often, because it did take quite a bit of time.