Stanwell Moor

In the middle of August, Andy and I had a weekend together, minus Finn, who wasn't very happy with the arrangement.  I always have to try and pack without Finn noticing because he gets a bit moody!

Andy's birthday had coincided with Mum and Dad's birthday celebrations, and he was in Croatia while I had my birthday, so we decided to have a weekend together, shopping, sightseeing, eating out ..... in fact, doing all the things we can't do when we have Finn with us.  I feel like a really bad person when I leave Finn behind, but it pretty much is only once a year, so not too bad.  

However, Andy ended up working so we couldn't do too much anyway - because he was working Saturday night, Andy had to sleep on Saturday during the day and then again on Sunday when he got back from work.  It's a good job I take my knitting everywhere!   Still, on the Sunday, we headed off to the pub for an hour or so - The Anchor in Stanwell Moor, followed by the Five Bells at Poyle - before going for a curry. 

So, a lovely weekend in all and hopefully we'll get a chance to fulfil our plans another time!

Minions

This month's  KwA meeting moved to Amanda's house - Sid has been a bit poorly lately and had to have an operation and Amanda didn't want to leave him alone for the evening so soon afterwards.  So we moved the madness and mayhem to a different venue this time.

First off was a tour of the garden - although not much is happening out there at the moment, paving slabs have been delivered and I can confirm that work is in hand to sort out wood for the pergola.  So Amanda explained the grand plan for the garden to us and showed us where everything would be happening and what plants would be procured.   Shirley immediately said she'd also like a rampant vicar (the rose Amanda is getting is called a Rambling Rector) and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the evening.  Nicholas was so distressed that he even ran away for the evening!

We excelled ourselves at this meeting - only Amanda bothered to do any work at all, the rest of us ate, laughed, told questionable jokes and made no pretence of doing any knitting!   We did all do a show and tell with our work, but it all promptly went back in the bags so we could carry on with the more important task of eating cake.  

Shirley is making a puppy now.   To make things easier, she is using the English instructions, but we noticed that you could also make a chien and then possibly venture on to a Dachshund afterwards. 

Marti had kidnapped her friend's meerkats to show us her handiwork - I can't believe the detail in it, I just wouldn't have the patience.  They are very lovely though - considering they're meerkats! 

Mo was still working on the scarf - although we've had post-meeting confirmation that the scarf is finished - hurrah!  Mo has now started working on the hat which we will look forward to seeing.  As a lovely surprise for my birthday, Mo had made the most gorgeous cake - wool inspired obviously, with Gromit resting on the top.  Just gorgeous and so clever.

The other Ninnies promptly gave their birthday dates to Mo, and are fully expecting cakes too - cheeky lot!   Not sure of the context, but I think Amanda might be getting a Titanic cake - I can't for the life of me remember why? - and this then inspired a lot of inappropriate jokes about icy dead people.   (I really ought to write up the minutes in a more timely manner - although I'm still not sure they'd make any sense!)

Shannon has been very busy lately organising her move.   She is moving away from the delights of Carrow Road to the John Lewis car park apparently, and will be building a pergola on Level 5.  I've a feeling she might be living in some packaging, although, again, I can't remember why Marti wanted the dimensions of Shannon's box!! 

Amanda at one point declared that she was winning the lottery AND the euromillions later in the week - rather greedy I thought - and that she was going to open a wool shop/ book shop/ tea rooms and needed minions to run this enterprise for her.  We all thought it was a fab idea and, although we didn't discuss our specific roles and responsibilities, I would like to suggest the following:

Marti - Creative minion - organiser of madness and mayhem and decor
Mo - Baking minion - obviously!
Shannon - Operational minion - being in charge of day to day operations and generally organising and terrorising us into doing some work
Shirley - Decoration minion - Shirley can make the cake bands for all Mo's creations.   Provided of course, that Mo's creations are all mince pie sized!
Me - Strategic minion - in charge of shopping lists and excel spreadsheets

So, another brilliant evening - other topics discussed included crochet bikinis - again, this is becoming another agenda favourite, chiens under the table, food (another favourite), and the possibility of a weekend away.  We discounted this though because of logistical problems of packing - one bag of knitting and five bags of food each.   Not to mention the amount of rennies that would be needed - laughing and eating at the same time are not good for the digestive system.

Looking forward to the next episode.   I love this group - it's a real tonic to sit and talk nonsense with like-minded people.  I love it!  

Friends

I've only known Lori for two years now - we worked together at Colman Hospital and, in fact, we only worked together for six months.  But sometimes you meet someone with whom you share so much in common, that you very easily and naturally become friends.   We only stopped working together as Lori moved back to North Essex and went to work for an Essex NHS Trust - but we have kept in touch and meet occasionally to walk the dogs - Lori has three! - and have lunch and a catch up.  Our usual meeting spot is Dedham and we take the dogs for a run over Dedham Vale. 

This time, however, Lori invited me to her home and I must admit I was really keen to have a snoop!  I had seen some photos on Facebook and it just looked so inviting, that I couldn't resist.   Lori's back garden has a fence which opens out onto farm fields and there is a river running through it.  When you loop back round to the road, there is a ford to cross and then you walk up to the pub before heading up the main street to Lori's house again.  Just perfect.  

It was such a hot day that we had a good old paddle in the ford while the dogs played around and splashed us.  It was so refreshing - just what we needed in those temperatures.

After our walk, we headed back to Lori's back garden for tea and cake - how I managed it, I don't know, as we'd already had the most enormous barbecue lunch!   A really lovely day and I hope we didn't cause too much disruption - although Lori did lock the hens away before we got there because we didn't want Finn to eat any!

Bimbling

Usually my walks with Finn over the marshes are rather solitary affairs.  Because I'm so aware that he can be a bit boisterous and a bit annoying, I tend to time our walks when I know it might be a bit quieter.  So, on Saturdays and Sundays, we will go at lunchtime when most people are out and about doing other things.  On Mondays, we go any time between nine and three in the afternoon - so we don't meet people going to work or doing the school run.  And in the rest of the week, we will go over about seven in the evening when most dog walkers have done their doggy duty.  

But this walk was done mid Saturday morning with Andy, and with Auntie Ann and Richard who were up for Mum and Dad's birthday celebrations weekend.  Auntie Ann did question whether Finn ever "walked" anywhere, as most of the time he was charging about like a lunatic.  This is his normal speed! 

As we made our way back from the marshes, I usually cut through the car park of the Holiday Inn to get home.  This is the first summer that they have started to put chairs and tables out on the grassy knoll outside the hotel - I guess this summer has been exceptionally hot - so we stopped and had a beer before heading home.  Very civilised.  Perfect end to a lovely walk.