Wet Morning.

It rained heavily all morning which was annoying as I had to walk into town. Then suddenly the sun appeared and we had a bright afternoon before the rain returned.

In town I had another bill to pay to the builder, a small one this time for the removal and disposal (burning) of a large amount of timber that had once been the kitchen island and an enormous but dilapidated wardrobe from Peter's study. I think all the workmen are giving themselves a Christmas holiday and work will not resume until the middle of January.

All these delays, while frustrating give time to sort out my heart issue. The hospital letter arrived today, hmm the date at the top of the letter was the 10th. It's full of long cardiology words which no doubt my doctor will explain when I see her in January. The only phrase that made any sense was that there was no evidence of sinister bradycardia which I take to be a good sign. I'm picking up some new tablets on Monday and will have a 24 hour BP monitor in January.

Walking back from town the sun shone brightly as I plodded up the hill. Once I'd unpacked my backpack and hidden away a couple of secret purchases I didn't feel like doing more than flopping in the armchair and making a start on the second mitten. 

A lone nasturtium surviving in the back garden.

Wet.

We have had heavy rain for most of the day. Generally grey and gloomy.

This morning I went up into the loft. Firstly to find some clothes, a particular fleece that Peter wanted and this cardigan. I knitted it at least 30 years ago in the days before fluffy fleece fabric. I'd seen it on display in the window of a knitting shop and fell in love with it straight away. This was in the days when you purchased a pattern and then had the wool 'put away' so that as you needed more balls they would be from the same dye batch. Being mohair the wool was quite expensive so I bought a few balls at a time.The body was knitted in one piece and the sleeves each had to be started from a new ball of wool so that the random colours matched.

Jobs done I carried on with knitting and I'm pleased to announce that mitten number four has finally made the grade. Today I knitted at my desk as I couldn't take any more tv and Classic FM which I listen to through the tv has taken to playing Christmas carols, a bit too early for my taste. Sitting at my desk I could listen to any radio programme from the last few weeks. Generally I stick with Radio 4 or Radio 4 extra. My usual routine, oh how I love routine, was turned topsy turvey today as I had an appointment for my flu jab at 5.00. The nurse was ultra quick and I was out in about a minute. That's me safe from the flu, hopefully. Peter still maintains that he doesn't need a jab as he had flu once years ago. However I think he might be weakening as he mumbled something about getting a jab for himself. On my way home I stopped at Lidl's and Tesco's for a few things. They were both almost empty though the road traffic was quite heavy. It was strange to be out in the dark as I'm turning into a house mouse. It was different when I went to Pilates and choir but the on/off move kept me from joining up after the summer. The Pilates has changed venue to the college on the other side of town so I might have gone to a closer class at one of the gyms. Plenty of time to sort that out once we're in Wales.

Grey.

Back to cold, grey and miserable weather today with a fair amount of rain. I got carried away with the cleaning this morning and having done the bathroom, as per the schedule which often goes awry, I carried on and washed the stairs' woodwork. There was a piece of the wooden flooring downstairs that was splintering so that was fixed with wood glue and some tiny nails. I remembered a tip I saw on FB to hold the pin with a pair of small pliers to save battering my fingers with the hammer. I'd had to go to the garage to find our smallest nails/pins and while doing so noticed that the white painted metal door had some green algae appearing. In my energetic mood I filled a bucket with water, soap and bleach before noticing that it had begun to rain. Rather than waste my enthusiasm I carried on regardless pulling my hood up to keep the rain off.

Once again I settled down for a knitting session in the afternoon. The first row or two look far too small to fit around a man's wrist but somehow it works. The even smaller needles give the correct sized mitten (at last) but I took a chance that I might have enough of the greyer wool not to have to use the browner wool around the cuff. Well now I know I don't so having got most of the mitten knitted it had to be undone and I'll start again tomorrow using the brown wool first. I'll admit that I am getting a bit fed up especially as there's a limit to how much tv I can watch.

When the post arrived I got excited to see an official letter from the surgery. It took a moment to realise that it wasn't a copy of the cardiologist's report, which would come from the hospital, but a general notice that all patients on regular painkillers would at some time be called for an annual blood test.

Cold.

A much brighter though colder day today.

It's been four weeks since I returned the 7-day heart monitor and having heard nothing I arranged a phone appointment with one of the doctors at my surgery. My usual GP wasn't available but the doctor I spoke to had full access to my records. It wasn't a fruitful chat as nothing had come through to the surgery from the cardiology department. The doctor said he'd write to the hospital to see where the report was. In the meantime I rang the hospital and spoke to the consultant's secretary. She began by saying that I would have to wait for the consultant to look at my case but suddenly stopped when I pointed out that it had been four weeks. After asking for my hospital number surprise, surprise the letter was there on her desk about to be posted. I translated that as 'Whoops! I forgot to post off those letters.' I should get my copy by the end of the week and I've made an appointment to see my GP after Christmas.

I spent a happy afternoon knitting and completed the next mitten. However .......... it's still too big. I've one last set of smaller double ended pins to try or I could make the smaller size. It's a good thing I've got plenty of time for knitting.

PS. I discovered this morning that trying to make a phone call on the Sky controller doesn't work. In my defence they are quite similar.

Colder.

The weather today was fairly nondescript, grey and wintry with no rain.

Once the routine jobs were done I settled down for an afternoon of knitting. I completed the first mitten and even used the more complicated 'elastic cast-off' specified in the pattern. It was as I neared the finish that I began to wonder if it wasn't too big. The pattern didn't have a tension square to knit as a size check so I went ahead using the size of knitting needle/pin given. However I always seem to knit 'larger' and usually end up with smaller needles after checking a test square. I have a feeling this might be to do with my method of knitting. I think I first learnt from my mother who used the continental method where the wool is held with the left hand and then adapted what I saw in a book. I hold the wool in my right hand and having had a look at Wiki do a reverse of combination Eastern and Western knitting. This might explain why my knitting doesn't come out square and following a knitting graph results in a squashed design. Maybe once I've done the mittens I'll see if I can adapt my weird style to one that gives a better result. 

While I waited for Peter to return after getting the car serviced, so that he could try on the mitten, I did some gardening. I'd been reluctant to cut back the rose bush while it was still producing flowers but the recent strong winds were breaking the long stems. I saved a few blooms to make a shabby chic bouquet and then gave the bush a good trim. Then I picked up the fallen rose leaves, not only do they look messy but they encourage diseases like black spot. Most of the nasturtiums had been destroyed by the frost so they went too but I left the few that were still looking good and producing flowers.

When Peter put the mitten on it was definitely too big so I've started another using a size smaller needles and will write a note on the pattern to remind me which needles to use in future.

Warmer.

A range of weather today but not too cold with the winds blowing from the south-west. I cracked open an eye when Peter told me there was a rainbow to be seen but wasn't awake enough to take a photo. Soon after that there was a loud clap of thunder and then ………… nothing. Some rain later in the day, a typical winter's day.

Most of my day has been spent knitting. I put on a tv programme that doesn't need too much attention and concentrated on managing four knitting needles. The basic stitch is only moss stitch (aka seed stitch) but there's the ever present danger of stitches falling off the back of a needle though I am getting better at hanging on to the needles and then adding in extra stitches for the thumb but only on alternate rows. It's harder to keep track of the rows when working in a circle and I find a card with 'increase this row' written on one side and 'stay in pattern' on the other helps me keep on track.

This evening we had our annual visit from Santa courtesy of the local Rotary club which raises funds for local needs. The dates and routes are publicised in the local press so we were prepared with some money waiting by the door. Looking out of our windows I could only see the helpers knocking on all the doors but I'm sure that any children who saw Santa would have been thrilled.

(Photo from the web.)

Windy.

The day began with heavy showers and hailstones that slid slowly down the window. These eventually blew over though the wind remained. With hindsight I wish I'd put the second blanket in the washing machine as the wind would have blown it dry but there you go. Can't always get it right.

My initial plan had been to walk into town with my parcels and send them from the Post Office in Smith's but instead I drove to the Post Office at the top of Sticklepath.  That gave me the chance to take my old office chair to the dump. It was so old and broken that it wasn't fit to be put on the Don't Bin It site. Coming out of the dump I was met by the sight of Santas on motorbikes taking a break at a lorry fuel stop. They do this charity run every year coming up from Tiverton and raising funds for the local Children's Hospice and very festive they looked with their bikes covered in tinsel. My attempts to zoom in the photo failed so when I got home I looked up how to. I'd tried that opening fingers move but had needed to tap the screen three times first. I also worked how to delete photos from the phone so that now I only have my Borth photos stored. And I came across the editing menu. 

From the dump I went to Lidl's and Tesco's. A Saturday is never the best time to go shopping and with Christmas so close the roads and shops were very crowded. In Tesco's it felt a bit like being at a Christmas party, maybe a works one that you didn't really want to go to. The staff and many customers were wearing Christmas jumpers and hats, Christmas party songs were blaring over the loudspeakers though I still like 'And so it is Christmas' and crowds of people were milling around. It was almost jolly. I didn't feel stressed as my shopping list was short and my visit not too long. I did cast my eye over the most expensive boxed cards picking out which ones I hoped would be in sale after Christmas. Then I called in at the Laura Ashley shop and looked longingly at their decorations already on sale. I was nearly tempted by the beautiful glass tree ornaments, if they reduce them further I may succumb.

Later in the day I began knitting the mittens. I've decided on which of my wool purchases I'll use for the cuffs along with the New Zealand wool which was used for making LOTR costumes. The pattern calls for 'knitting in the round'. The only other time I've done this was when making the first two pairs of mittens a few years back. I began by using three double ended knitting pins until I realised something wasn't working. Yep. I need to use four pins. Having sorted that out and dissuaded Speedy from attacking the wool or the pins I began. Several times I got to the second row and found extra stitches which were throwing out the pattern. I'll make a fresh start tomorrow. Our evening ended with the finals of Strictly. There was no point in waiting for our usual Sunday viewing as being a BBC programme they often mention the winner in the morning news.