A Birthday, Some Hens and All.

Golly, it's so dark here again today. In fact we have had a mix of beautiful sunshine and such gloom over the past few days that I will scatter a few pictures of bright autumnal leaves glowing like jewels to stop the rest of my light-deprived pictures tipping you all into a state of deepest depression.



It's been such a good half term holiday so far with the start consisting of Dave's birthday weekend. Thank you, by the by, for all those birthday wishes which were much appreciated. A birthday lunch with children, girlfriends, boyfriends and friends for ten on Saturday meant that our huge table came into play - a piece of specially cut MDF which is placed on top of our usual table means that we have seated up to fifteen at Christmas and other events whereas we can usually only stretch to ten and that more on the cosier side of comfy. We scoffed a huge vat of beef in red wine, a parsnip roulade (one of my most very favourite veggie meals), cauliflower cheese, roasties, oh you get the gist with a pile of chocolate brownies for Dave's birthday cake, all crispy on top and gooey in the centre...yum.



Our lovely friend Lou gave Dave just the best present in the shape of these two beautiful copper laced maran hens. Now we are known for giving our animals a strange melee of names - I cite Mustang the drake and Fatty Arbuckle the cat to prove my point with past choices including the likes of Discovery, Fitty, J-Lo and The Bishop. I, of course, usually go for the prettier side of things: Marigold, Tansy, Madeleine, etc but Dave and the children definitely err on the side of bizarre. No surprises then that these two dears are now known to us as Oss and Feffer!!!



A quick picture of the acer to lift the spirits. This glows right outside our kitchen window and makes washing up dishes quite a pleasant thing to do.



And as for me, look what I (finally) finished! Woohoo! Awful photographs as the light is so poor and has turned everything somewhat orangey. A frantic knitting session on friday saw the last rounds knit, the last stitches of the Kitchener toe finished. I am most pleased and so thank heavens is Dave who insists they fit and feel like you can't imagine, telling us it's like the sock is cupping your heel.



Ok, fortunately I am used to his ways (!) and can also report that finshing a pair of socks is akin to giving birth in that I am now ready to knit another pair, the pain, sweat and tears of this last pair already consigned to the outer reaches of my incredibly short memory. Anyhow, I have little feet so surely this won't be so bad?



In the meantime I am back to knitting fingerless mitts as Christmas presents; so much faster with this one almost being finished in an evening.



I find something so appealing in photographs of wool. Whether it is a close up of crochet or knitting is of no matter as it is the weaving of fibres which I love, the varying textures making me want to reach out and touch them. So many wonderful and enticing images of such things out there in blogland aren't there?



An image of berries glistening in the front garden for you.



The darker weather which seems to have come in here has made us head off in search of a some light and air. Yesterday we headed over to the north coast to a beach called portreath where the surf crashed in and the wind blew away any cobwebs.



Caves were explored and soft sands



and a cuddle kept me and Lucy warm



until we got home for a cup of tea and a slice of passion cake.



well, a slice or two that is!



And that's the holiday so far. A clean of my sewing room in a while, a walk this afternoon and some knitting tonight are my plans for the rest of today.



What are yours I wonder? x