June 2007 Archives

Thought it was about time I updated you on what I'm up to, on the knitting front it's a felted bag from Nicky Epsteins Fabulous Felted Bags - the Fuschia one. Here's how it is so far (lots more leaves to knit!)

On the gardening side we have a major problem - Vine Weevils!! evil little b*****ds they're everywhere so I have spent £30! on nematodes so fingers crossed they sort it out and it all recovers. The Cauliflowers and Broccoli are suffering the most, but here's a pic of the one cauliflower doing okay - it's lovely how the leaves wrap it up inside to protect it when it's little!

Some fab news, Max and Warren (not to mention Emily and Harrison) are coming to stay! Warren says he'd like the nice Chinese we had last time they came - I think he's still a salad dodger (like he was at uni when we flatshared) and is alarmed by the mention of us having an awful lot of lettuce to eat!!

Well here I am with what could be a long post about our trip to Venice, it was romantic, relaxing, very hot, sunny, occasionally a bit smelly, slightly hard on the feet and the hotel was lovely, 4 star!! Lovely helpful staff, delightful room, very air conditioned (thankfully) and had an excellent bar tender (cocktails last thing at night alongside the canal were heavenly!)

In a bit more detail though – our hotel was in the Jewish Ghetto area slightly off the tourist routes (best place I find) but only 30 minutes stroll to St Marks Square (probably could have done it quicker but there were so many lovely shops to peer into!) But no wool shop!! Mum said ‘oooh there’s a fab wool shop’ after hunting for some time she texted further directions – ‘halfway between St Marks and Academia, next to a bridge and a church’ – If you’ve been there you’ll know there are numerous routes to walk and ‘millions of bridges and churches! Needless to say Paul got a tad peed off walking up and down, back and forth for a wool shop – so no wool!

Must mention though I was most perturbed in one church amongst the treasures was a hand in a jar! Admittedly a Friars hand in the blessing position but how gross??? We went to Murano but have to admit a lot of the glass is really nasty tourist tat! Harry’s bar when we got back was heavenly – famous for inventing the Bellini cocktail we found it when we were very, very hot and tired of walking and it was a lovely oasis of air conditioned old fashioned bar with waiters in white tux’s, not cheap but thoroughly enjoyed!

Anyway here's some pics:

Here's our hotel on the right with the flags and the canal we sat next to for cocktails!

This is me at St Marks Basilica (just note the shoes that have started a trend at knitting group!)

The traffic jam Venice style - very funny with them all yelling at eachother and Gondolas stuck in the middle - glad we didn't fall for them!

Here's me (wearing a recently completed knitted top (in Linen mix as a bit hot) enjoying my Cosmopolitan outside the hotel!

Here's Paul at the top of the Rialto bridge - If I didn't know better I'd think that look was saying 'Oh bugger she found more shopping!'

I like this pic of the windows with either lots of flowers or elaborate ballustrade? and the romantic Gondolas!

And lastly here's the Rialto bridge from the number 1 water bus on the Grand canal - a combination of very romantic and a bit like a water motorway!

We've just been packing for our trip to Venice - we're only going for 4 days but I put such a ridiculous amount of effort in just because I like to make the most of the opportunity to get my summer things out with much less chance of being rained on! I've spent the last few evenings scrubbing, deep cleansing, painting my toenails pink and waxing!! (Just for myself as Paul does so not appreciate the effort!) Anyway we came to pack and much as I try to be sensible and plan outfits I then bung in lots of 'just in case' things - I mean for goodness sake, it's Italy in summer it's going to be hot, but I just can't help putting a nice cardi' in 'just in case'. Then Paul makes a big fuss over how to fold his shirts ( I point out that no matter how they're folded they not going to look just pressed - but he's very 'anal' at times) Then we discover that we'd forgotten that the 2 smaller suitcases had feet missing from previous airport encounters and had a lengthy discussion about which bag to use! For crying out loud we've not even set out yet, I do hope our holiday gets more relaxing than this!!

I finished knitting my latest beanie hat, it's lovely - I'll take a pic soon! Nicci, from next door's in charge of Bob and watering the greenhouse while we're away, hopefully it won't be like last time when a galeforce wind blew Bob's hutch door off and she spent ages searching the garden in the dark and rain for him before discovering he was hiding in the other part of the hutch!

The courgette fell off!! I spotted the culprit though - a little tiny slug, so I covered him in organic slug pellets! That'll teach him to sneak into the greenhouse! But no need to worry there's more growing well!

Going to Venice very soon! Very excited and charging the camera battery ready!

I just tried walking Paul around the garden showing him all the progress but he really doesn't share my enthusiasm, so I'll share it with all of you instead!

Every year this clematis performs fantastically, it never gets much bigger but couldn't possibly fit another flower on it!

And look how well the salad boxes are doing, complete with nasturtiums for a colourful salad, we've had quite a lot of salads in the last few days (I even had a lettuce only sandwich to try and get through some of it)

Here's some of my many, many pots I'm rather pleased with nicely collected around the old singer sewing machine base!

Lastly here's Bob enjoying the new border that is fast filling up but at the moment has lots of room to bounce about in and hide behind plants to jump out on Tiggy the cat!

Elsewhere I have the start of the tomatoes and peppers, an inch long courgette, flowers on the peas so they'll not be long and the rhubarb is still producing well! Unfortunately my day in the garden yesterday was cut short as the summer shower turned into a torrential downpour complete with thunder and lightning! Tiggy and I made a run for shelter only to have to run back out again to retrieve all the tools when we realised it wasn't going to stop (at least I went back out, Tiggy said 'sod that, I'm off to bed mum')

If only it would stop raining I'd get outside and take some pics of all the action in the garden - lots of flowers opening. The blue clematis is performing as well as ever, it's absolutely covered in huge blus flowers - really quite spectacular! and the first sign of a plum tomato is showing! I'll post again soon with pics but been a bit busy and I've had the in-laws stopping!!