All Fingers and Thumbs

Oh the crispness in the air, the ripening of berries, the reddening of apples. Autumn is just around the corner and I am looking forward to the cooler days and cosy evenings. By the end of any season I am a little tired of the old one and ready to welcome all the special elements of the next. The transitional days between the seasons make me so particularly happy. The surprise of what you might get, the echoes of the season on the way out and the messengers of the one creeping in. The nostalgia, the gathering up of memories of what has passed and will never be again and then, ahead, excitement at what is around the next bend. The sense of here and now, balanced betwixt and between. Summer 2014 has been a a real summer and while I welcomed the blue skies, long days and being able to be outside so much I've also struggled health wise, and particularly with the energy to get things done, to get to work, to get home with any thought of doing anything and the heat has not made getti...

Sweet memories of a quiet, mellow, rich week lost in the Welsh Borders. Cuddling creatures, cooking in a fabulous kitchen, eating breakfasts pondside with the most phenomenal view.

Feeling very deep in summer here today. Soft and relaxed. In theory I am shining my house to look new pinnish so when we return from holidays it will wow me with its unexpected tidiness. Instead I am drifting and lolling and gleefully gathering evidence of the benefits of indolence. The bright pelargoniums planted last year have been telling me for months now that trying too hard is often destined to back fire. I managed to get around to replanting one of their companions to overwinter indoors, it of course rotted and died. Those I mercilessly left to that fate survived our very mild winter to flourish as the stars of my haphazard garden this season. Time in the chair has revealed a secret treasure I would undoubtedly have missed if I had been more endeavoursome. Tucked in the crook of two branches with about half a dozen twigs is a nesting collar dove. It looks impossibly vulnerable from my seat and yet its very slight nature is the perfect camouflage and it is all b...

The last month feels as if it has passed in a haze of heat, though in truth it's only the second half of the month that has really reached high temperatures. So much summer for the first time in years. I watch half the people I see flourish while the other half wilt. I'm a wilter. Things happen almost as in a dream at the moment, one foot in front of another. The love affair with wool is suffering mightily though a new attempt at Aestlight gets a row every so often when a breeze makes the concept of a wool shawl seem something this side of insanity. My main pre-occupation is maximising the amount of time that can be spent reading in my awesome new garden chair in my shady back garden. My own personal Adirondack chair custom fit by my very clever Pa. Other members of the family are also fond of it.

Gorgeous days. We went on a camping trip in glorious sunshine and made the most of the longest day. Actual summer weather continues!

Deciding to learn to knit involved remarkably little thought. I'd seen a friend knitting and it looked so fun. A few months went past, winter was setting in, I wasn't very well at all and I was spending a whole lot of time on the sofa watching tv and feeling that I wanted to make something to show for that time. So I ordered a kit from Amazon. Just what they had. Zero research. Little ambition to be able to make anything more than a scarf. And then reader I married knitting. My whole world changed in ways I could never imagine - and truly that is no exaggeration. Somewhere in the last few years I've managed to get so far from that impulsive, just make something instinct that it drives me more than a little crazy. Now I spend so much time thinking about making things I often don't ever get started on them. I've either convinced myself they won't look as good as I want them to or I've taken the fizz of excitement out of a project or I've t...

Well no surprise here - my first Squam at the Lake was such fun! Days simply playing like kids at a camp. I haven't been this excited by knitting since I sat under some olive trees , and I didn't even take any knitting classes at this Squam! Just spending time with my lovely cabin mates and taking in all the knitting conversations have me feeling the way I used to about the special stitches. Oh wool, just in time for summer, it's a date! Trying a little video of some of my pictures - with a cheeky little soundtrack courtesy of my old favourites Air. Despite the evidence of these images there were many other people there with me after the first couple of days. Too busy making stuff, crying with laughter and feeding my face to take many photos after my first walks in the woods apparently! Squam - June 2014 from Sarah on Vimeo . It seems a given that it will be a wonderful time staying at the lake and participating in the workshops with so many fellow creative crea...