Four things I've done in the last fortnight

Four things I've done in the past fortnight:
 
 1. Watched far too much bike racing on TV.

 2. Taken the little guys to make some 'Neolithic pots' at their local museum. No photos, I'm afraid, because I forgot my camera, but I'm sure you can imagine some coiled pots made by a seven year old and a three year old. I wasn't sure they'd enjoy it, but they did: Babybel, who 'doesn't like trails', also loved doing the Stone Age worksheet provided by the museum, and looked far harder at their selection of Neolithic tools than she would have done otherwise. The VHC made a much better job of constructing his pots than I expected, and spent the next half hour asking what all sorts of things are made of. ('What's water made of?') We all enjoyed trying out an antler pick (those things are heavy!) and stroking the deer skins. Next week is a Roman mosaic coaster, and I think we'll be going back.

3. Worked on my latest unwearable, apparently unending glove. These things are not instant gratification, and this one is extra slow because it is colour work. Lumpy colour work.

   

4. Sewn the 70+ buttons on the first unwearable glove. I think I mentioned that I had discovered that the buttons I thought would do wouldn't, because they wouldn't  go through the button holes, so I went back to my first idea of using mother of pearl ones. I ordered some very cheap ones from eBay - or maybe Amazon - and then realised that they were going to take weeks to get here because they were coming from China. They arrived this week, and are a little smaller than I'd hoped, but they look OK, so I've sewn them on. It was boring, and I could only face it while listening to the aforementioned bike racing. Until it got exciting, of course, when I had to stop sewing and watch. (Sorry about the image quality, my phone really really didn't like this!)

Four things I haven't done in the last fortnight: 

 1. Blogging. As you may have noticed.

2. Decluttering. We've done some, but the pace has definitely slowed. This may have something to do with number 1 above.

 3. Uni work. Again, this may be related to the amount of daytime TV we've been watching.

 4. This month's Advent decorations. (I did do June's, although I don't think I posted about them.) However, this morning I cut out some felt stars which I have been working on while listening to/watching  this afternoon's excitements.

Now the racing is over, but the school holidays have started, so our time will be spent entertaining the little guys. The VHC has asked for a trip to the 'little trains' and the 'science place'. Babybel has not yet expressed an opinion, but I have no doubt we will be told before long. Granny rather fancies the Charlie and Lola trail at Mottisfont, but as mentioned, Babybel 'doesn't like trails', and regards herself as too grown up for Charlie and Lola, so granny's persuasive powers may be called into action... Perhaps a promise of fish feeding, icecream and a visit to the chicken wire horse will help?    

Sorry that the layout of this is a mess, Blogger is being a bugger. Again.    

Recovering

from six days grandparenting on the trot has taken four 'normal' days (which included another1.5 grandparenting days). If you are the parent of young children you will be saying ’Only 6 days? I do it all the time!' - and I would have said the same 30 years ago - but that was 30 years ago, and somehow it seems much harder now! 

Still, we all survived: ducks were fed, school sports days were attended, the Race for Life was completed (and £250 raised for Cancer Research) by 2 of the fitter members of the family, and prizes were won by the carnival float, to which the little guys and their parents contributed time and effort, and granny contributed two mermaid tails and a red bandana. 

Decluttering also continued on days when we had the energy, and there is a little more room in half the kitchen cupboards. And of course, the Tour de France has also been watched. We didn't manage much of the live TV, but we have managed the highlights, and the right people have won - on a few occasions. (Go Cav!)

In between all that, there has been time for some knitting (but not blogging, and not much housework, as may be evident from this photo. One can be done sitting down, the other can't.)

The oft-started, top-down glove has been finished (and washed, which was a bit of a mistake, as it shrank a bit, and not evenly), and a new one, also top-down, started. I should perhaps point out that the mistakes in these are, if not intentional, intentionally uncorrected. A theme of imperfection/deterioration/ageing seems to be developing here - and knitting till the yarn runs out as a metaphor for life and death. Perhaps a rather morbid theme, but it's been one of those years!