Revenge of Mothra

Hello Dear Readers,
Well I had a pretty nice reverse staycation (went to work, but stayed in a different place) at my friend's place in Ealing. It's quite a bit different than Putney, more of a little town feeling in some ways. There is a lovely park with an old house that used to be Sir John Sloane's country house. It also has a nice mall and a good little organic grocery store. We also discovered a Cypriot restaurant with a lot of, shall we call it character? Big portions and bigger personalities on the owners/staff. It is certainly a place I'd visit again on a nice Saturday or Sunday for shopping and general wandering about. The kitties were good too, but a bit insistent in the mornings with their meowing. I really enjoyed having my own space for two weeks, listening to BBC radio 4 in the mornings with breakfast, enjoying Lucy's vast collection of teapots and catching up on knitting and tv watching. Yesterday we had an amazing event at the Natural History Museum, it was a "Science Uncovered" Friday night, with bars, jars, and life on mars at the theme.

There were scientists on soap boxes talking about controversial subjects, a science bar where you could have a drink and a chat with a "real scientist", and plenty of tables set up by different departments to talk to the public about what they do. There were also a bunch of tours, and I gave 3 of the area where I work, the Cryptogamic herbairum. It was so much fun, I was hyped up all night with excitement, though I crashed and burned when I finally got home (to Putney for the first time in two weeks).

Here are some photos of me taken by Chris who came on the last tour. I had a good time, and people were asking a lot of questions which is usually a sign they were engaged and enjoyed it. Hopefully I'm around next year to do the same thing!

I spent the rest of the weekend working on various projects that were percolating in my brain while I was away. One was to do more spinning, mix it up a bit, but unfortunately I found this little guy in a stash of fiber. AHHHHH, MOTH!! Certainly that's a four letter word in this house. I popped the offending wool in the freezer, and I think it's just isolated to this one section of un-spun wool since it was open, in my room and probably smelled irresistible to the moths since it still has some lanolin. Oh well, at least it's still spin-able, though I'm going to start organizing my other stash into zip lock bags.... I did tons of other knitting, and got some amazing yarn from my friend who I was cat sitting for, but I'll save that for next weekend's post as it's already Monday.

Cheerio!

Same old Same old

Hello Dear Readers,

Not too much going on here across the pond, we had a "Bank Holiday" weekend last weekend (Monday off) and due to some pain in my arm caused by working on the computer in an anxious fashion, I spent most of the weekend working my way through Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 5...... I was so sore I didn't even knit all weekend (except for about 30 min with my toes, I just needed a little fix) and I didn't do any typing or computer work (hence no blog). I'm all better this week, I think I just needed severe rest and a few yoga classes to work it out.

I had finished a lot of knitting projects a few weeks ago, but didn't get a chance to photograph them until today.
I've also been helping my sister out with some wedding stuff (like which M&M's I liked best for the favors), and whipped up this little bolero to go over my smoking hot bridesmaid's dress should it turn chilly. I also have a more substantial sweater if the weather is really bad, or it may be balmy and hot, who knows?
Yesterday morning Patsquash and some friends cycled down to Brighton (55 miles, or 75 if you can't read a map). I got up at 6am to make them some banana muffins, used up the last of my imported from the USA Bisquick to make pancakes, fresh squeezed orange juice, the works. It's so nice to cook for a bunch of athletes who will eat just about anything, and lots of it! Here they are trying to figure out how to use the new bike pump.......who needs an instruction manual?

I also went to a Crafternoon with some friends from my Tuesday knitting group in Hammersmith. They are an amazing and diverse group of ladies, I'm so lucky to have found them, and so soon after I got here! Before some of you get too excited, the guys aren't knitters, they are just SO's along for the good conversation and to hold on to yarn hanks for winding. Tom and Lucy are in the back, winding some yarn, they are headed to China next week and Chris and I are cat sitting for them. I told Lucy, "You had me at one bedroom apartment!" It will be a nice stay-cation for Chris and I and give us a chance to explore a slightly different part of London, as well as pretend that we have our own place for a while. I plan on listening to loud music and leaving dishes in the sink overnight, heaven!!