Around here

There’s never a dull moment.

The weekend was full of technological challenges, because we replaced our ageing TV set (now there’s a phrase from the past!) with a super duper new SMART TV which I fear is smarter than any average bear around here.

Oh yes, it fits nicely into the corner, though we’d better not go any bigger, and having ummed, aaahed and finally bought the thing in John Lewis on Saturday morning with dear James Martin coming at us from the fifty seven TV sets in the store, guess who accompanied the set up process on Sunday morning too? 

I made a little splurge as well, so had my own independent technological challenge to conquer.  I’m not quite there yet, I must say and will be happy when I can say that I can find my way around it without being surprised by a demonstration of another nifty little trick, however clever. It’s my intention to use it for a bit of travel journalling and for doing things which my ipad won’t or can’t, probably because I’ve stuffed it full of magazines and newspapers and other memory grabbing apps which itunes won’t let me move around easily.  Being able to save to a little SD card will make all the difference, I think.

I’m keeping an eye on it though, because Jordi tells me that her Galaxy tablet talks to her phone when she’s not looking, and mine keeps wanting to talk to all kinds of machines in the house, the new TV included. Who knows what mischief the machines in the house could get up to?

I escaped the tech to go to WI the other evening, though, where Richard Box was our speaker, leading a workshop he calls “Drawing for the Terrified”.  I’m not sure any of us were really terrified, though, so it was a bit of fun.

 

In the low tech world of the Memorial Hall, however, it was the hostas taking over, including by my own bag.  After all, we’ve all got space for another hosta, haven’t we?

Wherever I looked, there was another one, perched in all kinds of strange places.  Someone had fun dividing their plants up this month and how we appreciated her decision to share them with her WI friends.

Of course, our other responsibilities are ongoing and I spent the day at a meeting in a favourite place yesterday.

Where the green beans at lunchtime were served with a kiss!

Where the coots and the little grebes are on the lake and the yellow buckeyes are in flower.

Our American friends have returned home now, but the flowers they sent us are a lovely reminder of happy days and are lasting remarkably well. Our Aussie friends will arrive tomorrow for a few days and we expect Edward home at the weekend, too.

In other news around here, I have been slotted into the new, reorganised work team which may or may not operate from the same office as we’ve had for several years.  So I read this recent article from McSweeney’s with a wry smile.

Oh yes, there’s never a dull moment.

In the audience

Isn’t it strange how, after many months of having no reason to visit Birmingham at all, we find ourselves there again, just over a week since our last visit?  Though we used to be here frequently to enjoy symphony concerts with the CBSO, we found the programmes were getting samey and no longer offered the same thrill as we’d come to enjoy.  We decided to give it a rest for a while but when a flyer arrived advertising tonight’s programme, my hero couldn’t resist and snagged two of the few remaining tickets for Friday night.

We love the Silent Heroes series, accompanied by live orchestra playing Carl Davis’ score and conducted by the man himself.  Tonight, it was the turn of Buster Keaton with The Playhouse on first, followed by The General.

The General

Though the Playhouse was undoubtedly clever with Buster Keaton playing all eight roles at once, it was The General which really made our evening.  The stunts were amazing, the plot was so clever and this particular film deserves its reputation as an all time classic, not only keeping us on the edge of our seats throughout but inducing gasps from the audience at frequent intervals!

Clearly, we’re not alone in enjoying these performances, for the body of Symphony Hall was full by the time the programme began, with only the balcony seats with restricted view empty.  We’ll look forward to the next one – another Charlie Chaplin classic next year.

We joined a different audience last night.  Well, in fact, we joined several audiences around the world including the folks in the picture above, who were at the Met in New York to see Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Florez sing La Cerenentola.

We were in Cheltenham and once again, the “live from the Met” performance was a stunner.  Though we knew bits of the opera, we’d never seen it live before and to watch Angelina (Joyce DiDonato) sing her final aria with as much energy as she sang her first was truly remarkable.

One of the aspects of these performances we particularly enjoy is the sneaky peeks behind the scenes.  We didn’t see anything from this angle though, and although I’d noticed the black box in the centre front of stage, I didn’t give it a great deal of thought.   But today, whilst looking for a link to the production, I came across this interesting article which sheds new light on that box.

After two late nights in a row, we’re at home today, resolving a few technical challenges.  More about that to come

The knitting mojo

During a conversation with our friends last week, one of whom is an expert knitter, I heard my hero wax lyrical about his hand knitted socks.  I knew that a couple of pairs had gone to the great sock graveyard in the sky recently and thought to myself that it is time that I replaced them.  So, yesterday, on a quiet afternoon here, I got out the knitting bag to gather the ingredients.

The knitting bag is an altogether different thing from the crochet bag, though I could see a sneaky knitting needle had found its way into the wrong place and retrieved it whilst I was on the case.

Oh my goodness.  Jordi, I might need your knowledge here, since these two scraps of weird knitting were amongst the first bits to be pulled from the knitting bag.  I have no idea…

Next came the “so far” of a long cowl in an interesting stitch, together with another eight balls of the same lovely yarn.  I really must have wanted to knit this if I bought so many balls of what must have been quite pricy Debbie Bliss yarn but you know, I can’t remember what it is or where it came from and unusually for me, there’s no pattern in the bag. 

I put it into the bag and decided to leave it for another day.  Yes, in a few years time it could feature in an exhibition like the one I visited in Cirencester recently!

Oooh, look, another of those funny shapes!  (I think they were knitted roses which were supposed to be stitched onto a scarf I knitted years ago, but I thought better of it and took them off)

I found three crochet motifs in the wrong bag. Clearly, my filing system isn’t what it used to be.

There was a part finished mini sock.  why?

Another part finished mini sock – but I know why this one was done, because it’s one of the weirdly shaped designs by Cat Bordhi and I needed to work it out before knitting the full sized version.

Getting nearer to the bottom, I found a part finished piece of lace knitting in a magenta linen yarn which I recognised to be Swedish because it’s on the needles I bought in Umea.

It’s not lace any more.

All that remained at the bottom of the bag were a few odds and ends of yarn, a pot of beads and a few stitch markers which had escaped their box.

One extremely large button, and…

what I’d been looking for all along!  Though I work from a basic sock pattern I have made some changes to perfect the fit for my hero’s foot and I knew these notes had to be somewhere.

Phew.

The knitting mojo is back in the building.

Checking the details

We hadn’t a clue what to look for when picking a possible winner.  All of those beautiful horses were groomed and in tip top shape so perusing the race card statistics was our only way to evaluate the runners and riders at the Cheltenham Hunter Chase meeting the other evening.

Thankfully, we had a great view of the whole course and the large screens, because way out there in the distance, our chosen ones were doing their best over three or four miles.

Though sometimes, it all ended in a sulky walk back, long before the race ended.

Perhaps the best part was the people watching.  Not really our tribe, we decided, but it was fun to be part of it all for a few hours, that’s for sure.

Our friends had never seen so much tweed!

It was a lovely evening and thankfully, the rain held off, so our Barbours (and umbrellas) weren’t needed!

Sadly, the fine weather didn’t last but happy days don’t depend on sunshine and Blenheim was dry and warm inside!

A little inspiration for new interiors, perhaps?

 

Not to mention a few hedge clipping ideas.

We couldn’t drive straight past Bicester Village without a quick run around, though the idea of sitting on a wet cushion wasn’t exactly appealing.

So we took refuge in the best possible place in the circumstances!