Wipe off the cobwebs....cough, cough, splutter, splutter....

Hello!

If it's possible for a blog to have accumulated dust and cobwebs then this little blog of mine certainly has! It's been nearly 2 months since my last post and although I thought I would hit 2015 running, the days have slipped by like the stream in our new garden and here we are on the 17th Jan.... Hey ho....

So, what's been happening in my world? First up....WE MOVED HOUSE!!!! I'm not going to go into the gory details of the actual move (let's just quietly push that to one side and say that without the greatest husband and mother in the world, I wouldn't have gotten thru it) but here are some pics of our new home....

This is taken from the front gate but the house extends at the back quite a bit so is bigger than it looks here. The most wonderful thing about the house is the park-like garden. We have huge expanses of lawn (great for playing cricket!) and a stream and lots of lovely shady trees (very handy for SA summers - temps here have been +35C)....

Here's the stream complete with Pooh-Bear bridge (please tell me that you've also played Pooh Sticks off a bridge....)

There are zillions of plants but most of the flowers have died back now as it's been so hot. However, I did manage to snap a few before they finished.

A beautiful Buddleja - one of the first plants J and I bought in our first garden. Almost impossible to kill!

A Chilean Potato Vine - we had one of these in our garden in the UK and they are stunning when flowering. If you don't have one in your garden, GET ONE!

And this rather lovely little number which I think is an Orchid but I can't be sure. If any of you know, please leave me a comment....

The garden is full of nooks and crannies like this little water feature with higgledy-piggledy steps behind it going up to yet another lawned area. The birds love the water but my labs are a little put out that they can't sit in it to cool down!

So we've moved in, settled down and are very happy. It'll take us a while to get used to being back in a suburb again with all the hustle, bustle and noise that comes with town life, but in general it feels like we've been here for ages and it's only been a month! As you can see below our front door is always open so if you're in the area, feel free to pop in for a chat!

On the "needles" front, remember this from November?

Well, it got frogged (for those non-knitters among you, this means "unpicked") and became this

The cables just weren't happening for me and I'm much happier with this. Here's my Ravelry link. I really like the moss stitch sleeves and the "arrow" pattern on the front (very slimming)!

I also made a scarf for a good friend who has a birthday soon. She loves scarves and has to get up very early in the winter to get to work so really appreciates as many as possible! This one is red (her favourite colour), chunky, fluffy and has a little sparkle too, just for fun! I tried to make a heart shape with the scarf but now I think it looks like a really weird pair of lips!!!

And finally, I was given some yarn a while ago by a friend which is discontinued. She had no use for it and it's been in my stash for some time so I decided to make this. Here's progress so far....

Although the yarn is 4 ply which is usually quite soft, this particular 4 ply has 60% wool so is a bit "scratchy". I'm hoping it will soften up after a wash but to it's credit, it's lovely to work with and is the most beautiful teal blue. The pic really doesn't do the colour justice so I'll try and take better pics when it's finished.

So, that's me. Old year gone, new year up and running. School starts next week and mania will become my new best friend so for now I'm just enjoying these last few days of lazing around at home, knitting, watching TV and generally being a slob!

I hope your Christmas season was good and that your New Year has started full of good things.

Til soon.

xxx