A New Toy

Hello Folks!

Look!  I've got a new toy.

As Tesco currently have Double Clubcard deals on cameras I doubled up my vouchers and effectively got a £318 camera for free.  
 Yes, free.

I've been after a 'nice' camera for a while, I was thinking I'd smash my Terramundi  pot which has been on the go with £2 coins since 2011.  No need.   Woop, woop.  Excited?  

Yes I am.

I'm very much stuck in automatic mode at the moment and it's a bit weird getting used to looking through the view finder pretending to be a 'proper' photographer. Hehe.  I have no idea how many pixels I'm taking photos in at the moment and am clueless with all the different settings but hopefully with time and the manual, I'll get better.

So is there any difference?

Remember those tulips Mr Clicky got me?

Taken with my Sony Cybershot.

With the new Nikon.

Can you see a difference?  Better depth of colour I think.

So, off to snap some more with the better weather we're going to get.  It's been raining all week and sooo cold.

Hurumph.

Have fun.............Clicky Needles.

Half Term

Hello folks.

Yes, Half Term is upon us.  We were ready for a break at school, tiredness was showing ~ and that was just the teachers.   Our Year 6 children came through SATs unscathed helped along by croissants, brioche, syrup pancakes and copious amounts of mints.  Amazing what a bit of food can do.  

We've had some sunshine over the weekend, but today is wet and miserable.   I've been having some hooky time in the sunshine on my baby blanket.  I added the bubblegum pink into the mix from the colours I showed you a few weeks ago.

I'm really pleased with these colours much more brighter than the original start.  The blue, teal and damson we ok but not doing it for me.

The sunshine has brought the apple blossom out....

 ...and the ferns are unfurling.

The Horse Chestnut in a pot is a beautiful green.  The kids planted a conker a few years ago, what we're going to with a Horse Chestnut tree I have no idea, but there we are.

 Perennial Wallflower.

 I even treated myself to a mint choc chip with a flake from the ice-cream van which visits every Sunday come rain or shine. 

 It seems that Tipper is also a sun worshiper like me, he loves   stretching out in the sun.  If he is indoors he drags his bed to any patch of sunlight he can find, looking very pleased with himself.

 That's it for today, I'll have some FOs to show soon!

Have fun...................Clicky Needles.

Scavenger Hunt April

Scavenger Hunt for April

Pink.  My lovely felting yarn.

6.  I bet DS wishes he hits lots of sixes with his cricket bat.

My town, Stroud. Taken last summer when Pete Reed, gold medal winning Olympian was being greeted home. 

 Sport.  DS bowling.

 Night Light.  In our garden, not had the chance to sit out on a warm evening but you never know.......

Something I collect.  Yarn(sometimes I even use it.)

Big.  Our contorted willow.  Big enough.

Dinner.  A scrumptious plate of asparagus from neighbouring county Herefordshire. Yum.

 Texture.  Silver birch bark in my parent's garden.

 Curl.  Some of mine.  Turns out it's hard to take a picture of your own hair.

Take off.  It'll have taken off at some point :-).

 Plastic.  My lovely new clock.

So there we are. Late again.

Have a look at the rest here. 

April Mosaic

April Mosaic, better late than never I suppose.

Clicky Needles.

Flowers

Hello there.

It was birthday weekend in Clicky Needles' Towers last week.

DD was 18 and a day later DS was 14.  Where my two little blonde curly headed children went I'm not sure.  DD is now an adult (!) that makes me feel old,  and DS is growing taller by the day.  He's 5'10" at the moment, I'm 5'3".  I think they must be 7 and 3 in this picture.

  Time has passed.  

Quickly.

Mr Clicky went shopping the other day and came home with not one, but two bunches of flowers.

Some lovely fresh tulips, yellow and red.  I gave these a prick with a pin behind the flower and they are still standing poker straight.

And some red lilies, which I have ~ very decadently I think  ~ put in our bedroom.

On the knitting front, I'm sewing up my Sock Grey Top, so you never know there might be pictures soon.

Bye for now.........Clicky Needles.

Busyness

Hello there.

More general busyness has been happening, nothing major, just things that need doing.   Sunday night comes around and I'm too tired/can't be bothered/DS is doing his homework (yes, he should have done it earlier) and hogging the Mac.  I might try a different day.  We'll see.

 The sunshine has hit the UK at last.  It seems to have put a spring into everyone's step.  The garden has at last started to turn green and our cherry tree has burst into 

flower.

The cowslips are seeding everywhere, lots are coming up in the lawn so I had to avoid them when the grass had it's first cut.

The primroses are looking fabulous.  

There's also some really pretty cowslip/primula crosses.

Last Saturday was Wonderwool Wales and I had a fabby day out with my pal Romain.  As always the range of fluff, wool, buttons and knitwear was huge.  I didn't buy much, not really having the need to buy any yarn ;-) but I did find a few gems.

Firstly 3 balls of felting wool in a stunning cerise pink from Knitting4Fun to make a felted bag.  

A lovely pattern from Cotton and Cloud for a top-down seamless cardi.  We saw this in the flesh and it really was a gorgeous pattern made in Fyberspates Scrumptious Aran a squishy blend of 55% Merino and 45% Silk.  Yummy.

I also bought another pattern called Isis Tailcoat from Purl Alpaca Designs.  This has an unusual construction which gives it the lovely shape; short rows across the bottom back to make a curve and then pick up and knit upwards.

This was great too, and I really liked the crochet necklace as well.

And that was it, 2 patterns, 3 balls of yarn and loads of inspiration.  All the fluff made me think of spinning again but I put the thought firmly to the back of my mind.  We had a super day out and it was slightly warmer than last year which saw us shivering as we walked.

My S-I-L is off to Ethiopia with Midwives@ethiopia in the next few days with more hats and uterus.  Thanks to my Mum for this lot.

And to finish, a plane and vapour trail taken a few minutes ago; the planes are on their way to The States as they come over us and I love taking photos of them.

DS's parting words to me as he left for school "I suppose you'll be sunbathing all day Mum."  

I do other things too......washing, cleaning, cooking.............although maybe I'll get in a bit of hooky time on my baby blanket in the sun.........

Bye for now, let's hope the sunshine stays all weekend and Bank Holiday Monday..................Clicky Needles.