Oh Dear

I had such plans for the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week and then, WHAM!
Work smacked me upside the head so hard that by the time I remembered to blog, it was three weeks after the event.

Oh dear.

No use crying over spilt milk, though. What's done is done, and can't be undone, as someone's granny used to say.

It's probably a sad indication of my work/life balance that the funny things and observations I used to blog about here don't get recorded anymore, not even on Twitter. I don't know if that's because they don't happen to me anymore, or because I'm just rushing around with my head down so much that I don't notice them.

William Henry Davies knew what he was talking about, though:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

That's what I feel life has become increasingly like over the last few years. No time to stand, no time to stare, no time to breathe, no time to just be, even.

So, a little late perhaps, but here's my New Year's Resolution.

I resolve that I will take time out of what I know will be a busy year and stand and stare, to breathe, to be and I invite you to join me.

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week is back!

Ok, so last year's involvement didn't quite work in totally revitalising the blog, but God loves a trier, right?

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2013: A Reflection

Well, I did it! I blogged every day of Knitting & Crochet Week, and even though it was a really busy week at work (let's be honest, when isn't it?), the schedule function was my friend. And although I may not be able to keep up this kind of intensity, I do feel tha it has rejuvenated the blog somewhat. Thanks Eskimimi, and I'm looking forward to next year's already!

Knitting and Crochet Blog Week

So, 22nd April sees the fourth Knitting and Crochet Blog week, where bloggers post on specific topics everyday for a week. I think I have worked out how to post to a schedule, which would allow me to write posts in advance and then have them go up on the correct day, so I'm going to give it a go! More details can be found at Eskimimi's blog.

Bloggus Interruptus

We apologise for the lack of service on this blog. Partly this is due to problems with Blogger on an old PC, partly to do with a large workload but predominantly to do with the fact that the author is a lazy git.

Sorry.

Must. Try. Harder.

Hello... anyone there?

It's been a bit quiet around here, hasn't it?

Sorry about that. If here is anyone out there still reading, be reassured that I'm not actually dead, just terminally boring. (Or at least this blog is, according to Jo. Thanks, mate!)

Actually, I was even boring myself, which is one of the reasons that I've taken a little bit of an unplanned break from this blogging lark. When I started I still had the time and energy to do things like go out in public and watch what was going on around me, but since I have committed myself to the foolish mission of trying to be do absolutely everything within my job spec and a bit more (and falling short on many counts) I do feel like I've got nothing interesting to say. I don't even bother showing you my knitting now, because I've got Ravelry - by the time I've uploaded pictures to Flickr and then into Ravelry I really can't be bothered to fight with Blogger - so I've just shut up.

Some would say that was a good thing.

But a couple of events this week have made me reflect a bit and I thought maybe it was time to put my toe in the water again. That and the fact that Maniac Mum tagged me for a meme and I so seldom get tagged I got very excited. How sad is that? The meme will wait for a couple more day as I am reflecting on it.

But I will leave you with this.

As I was driving to work, I think I heard that Boris Johnson wants children to learn Latin and Greek as it will reduce street crime. I nearly crashed the car, because all I could see in my head was this...

I am such a slacker...

About a month ago, Hansu awarded me this:



How nice is that?

The blurb that accompanies it states:

"Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration, and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."

Of course, being me, I decided I needed to think hard about who I would award it to... and then didn't do anything about it!

So, here are the people I will be awarding it to:

Right back to Hansu, because I love seeing what she knits living in a climate that removes the option of wearing a hat and mittens;

Puikottelua, another Finnish knitter, who has the most inquisitive cat I've seen in a long time;

Krafty1, who always has somthing interesting on the needles;

AJ at iKnit.iPurl, who knits in a completely different climate;

The Lazyblog at Lazy Kate, who posts gorgeous pictures of fibre;

My friend L who blogs about her gorgeous daughter;

Snuffy at To Miss With Love, who is always thought-provoking;

Stomper Girl, who blogs about life (one day I might have one...);

ManiacMum, who always has a story to tell;

and the stalwart Mrs T, because crabby old bitches are indeed the bedrock of the nation and should be duly recognised.

After thinking I'd have problems finding 10, the problem is actually stopping... there are others I could have mentioned too...

Curses!

The Blogger gremlins have been at it again - crawling into my computer and making it not communicate with the outside world at all!

Suffice to say, I would love to show you a variety of pictures, but can't at the moment.

What I would like to do though, is take the opportunity to thank my SP10 partner Hanna in Helsinki, who sent me a lovely Christmas postcard that contains a spice mix bag and a recipe for ginger thins. I can't actually remember whether I mentioned it or not on the blog, but I love gingerbread, ginger cake and pretty much anything associated with ginger (although not so keen on crystallised ginger, it makes my eyes water!)

Thank you, thnak you!

Where in the World?

It's been a while since I put a Visitor Map on the bottom of this blog. The map only updates every 24 hours, so it doesn't always match up with the list of visitor locations, which updates more frequently. Obviously, the location is only of the IP host, but it gives a fair indication of where my readers are. Some are probably only passing through, but others are regular visitors, people I know in both the virtual and real world. I get a fair few UK visitors, a smattering of visitors from North America, a couple in Oz and NZ, but I've been intrigued by the less frequent ones - Brazil, another in South America (Argentina or Uruguay, couldn't tell from the map location), a couple of locations in Turkey, Germany, Vienna, Paris, Romania ...

Maybe it's time to say something interesting instead of wittering on about knitting and camels?



Nah....

Wow!

Stomper Girl has left the 100th comment on my blog! I'm blown away that I've had that many comments...

No prizes, but big thanks!

Happy 1st Birthday!

Well, it's been a year since I first dipped my toe in, so to speak. Hasn't it gone quick? Looking back, I didn't start with a "Why am I doing this?" type of post - I just jumped straight in with a very muddy walk. "Sound familiars...", I hear my friends mutter, "always in feet first...".

So, why did I start this? The honest answer is, I'm not really sure. I wasn't knitting then, so I didn't need anywhere to show off my socks - in fact a year ago, if someone told me that within the year I would have knitted 10 hats, 2 pairs of socks, 2 and a half scarves and one and three quarter baby blankets, I would have laughed outright. It's not like I post exclusively about education like Primary Teacher UK - after all, why try and make a poor imitation of what is a very good blog? Unlike Neil and Claire or Lou, I don't have a bundle of joy to blog about, and even I'm not sappy enough to think that the world revolves around my cats - I mean, I love them, but since one spends most of the time under the bed and the other, whilst in full view, spends most of the time asleep, it's not exactly... scintillating.

But I did enjoy reading my friends' blogs and, because I am such a dingbat at times and stupid things do happen to me on a sometimes frightening frequent basis, I thought it might be interesting to jot these things down - even if all they did was provide A with a way of keeping up with my disasters whilst he was abroad. So far this has been a good way to inform him of outrageous spending, conversations with nutters, cat abuse, my attempts at grand larceny and fessing up to fancying Hugh Grant. Bless him, he's taken it all in his stride...

But then something lovely happened. You started to read it too. Then some of you left comments and now... well, it's really nice to feel that someone's reading it somewhere. I'm no writer or poet (I'll leave that to those with the talent, like Jane and the Mad Muthas) but I do enjoy burbling away to myself, and you, Dear Reader.

So... happy blogiversary to me, thank you for reading and raise your glasses to Neil and Claire, because if I hadn't read theirs, I wouldn't have got started. (See Lou, Claire's an inspiration to us all!!)