Busy baby birds

A little wren built a nest in my greenhouse and I worried when I didn't see her for a while that maybe she'd underestimated the heat of her new home (a joke with our current weather!). Today however I was welcomed by the sound of her babies chirruping! Well actually it was more like a a series of tiny thumps as they panicked and flew into the windows!

No sign of any baby swallows as yet...

Keys!

Bought these lovely keys at the local car boot this morning: a bargain at five quid, though I had to spend nearly ten minutes persuading Jude to part with said sum before he'd allow me to get my mits on them. They've joined the collection of junk gorgeous old bits and pieces destined to become artwork one day...

and so the hoarding and procrastination continues...

Bobbles!

Bobbles!

This is my latest fixation; the first of 99 knitted squares to make an afghan as copied from Debbie Abraham's splendid 'Blankets and Throws to Knit'. Each square has a beach theme, this one is 'Pebbles', and it took me ages to get it right, but I ended up with this.

After many false starts I figured out why I was kept adding 5 extra stitches after each bobble row... such a feeling of achievement to work through a problem like that and not just give up. However, now I've finished it, I'm starting to think maybe I really do need to take the advice she gives in the book to use the right needle size for the yarn... I think the whole blanket will turn into a misshapen tent otherwise.

As you can see in the pic, my stitches are quite loose and floppy whereas in the book the knitting is firm and will hold it's shape better. Also it should be knitted in a Rowan DK cotton, but there's no hope of me justifying buying 55 balls so, as is the way with all my projects, the components have gathered themselves in a random fashion: the yarn I'm using is an acrylic/wool blend received a week or so ago from a kind local Freecycler who had originally bought it but not got round to making a second blanket for her daughter (which is what inspired me to start this project) and the knitting needles I acquired a while back in a bundle of stuff either from a charity shop or car boot. Although I have managed to gather quite a collection of knitting needles, the majority of them are nasty placky-clacky ones and these are lovely old wooden needles that are just the right length to be able to knit without disembowelling the baby on my lap. I don't know why I expected them to be right for each other but I couldn't wait to get going! So I guess I'll have to have a look on Ebay for some smaller needles.

The Jacob's Ladder is slowly coming along, but I'm taking a little break from it until I find some decent batting. The last square I pieced was starting to become a little shoddy with corners not matching up, so I figure I need a break from that and take a new approach to it, so I'd like to start the actual quilting. As I'm doing it a la 'Quilt-as-you-go' style, ie a lap-quilt, which is realistically the only way I'm going to manage to finish this project, I can quilt each block as it's finished.

Ideally I'd like to use a lovely bamboo batting which I've used before, but sadly the shop that stocks it has since closed down and the only stockist in Liskeard sells a cotton/polyester mix which it seems a bit illogical to use as everything else is (as far as I can judge) is cotton.

For some reason I'd convinced myself that I'd got the block wrong so I rather pleased to see that the pattern actually does work! I've also found a junk shop in town is selling cheap rolls of brushed cotton in a check pattern that would work well as a backing for the quilt so I'm buying as much as I can afford. I figure I could always make pj's for the girls with what's left.

This is a pile of fabric I've put together that I'd love to start another quilt with. (Like I have time). Originally I wanted a fabtacular multicolour creation, but I think these colours are great together.

The girls have been busy too, so I've finally got round to displaying all of their artwork, which is added to every day (and adjusted by Milly who likes to pick the sequins off the lower pictures!). It's so fantastic to have had a couple of days of sunshine at last so they've been able to run around outside a lot more, which means everyone's happier. Jude's done lots of work in the allotment, which is looking more cared-for at last plus I've finally got some veg into the ground at last! Broad beans, peas and courgettes so far, but hopefully some more veg and also flowers. Last year's Poached Eggs have self-seeded beautifully but little else, though I'm thrilled with a rather stunning Aquilegia which has flowered this year. Pics to follow!

Tula is doing well and putting on weight. It still freaks me out that she sleeps SOOO much, but I guess I should count my blessings: it certainly makes dealing with the other two much easier. It just seems a bit of a shame that she tires so easily and particularly feeding exhausts her as she chokes all the time, which is quite scary. The combination of my milk flow being quite fast and I suspect her small throat/airway makes it much harder for her, especially when she's really hungry. She's healthy though, and already showing a cheeky monkey streak, so that's all that matters!

Enjoy the sunshine! :-)

Sisters

Crafty Sunday

It might be wet n windy outside but there's a warm hive of industry indoors! Quite unprompted the girls have gathered paper, scissors, glue, glitter and coloured film and have made beautiful pictures.

Tula is getting fat, as you can see! We went to see the dermatologist during the week and she doesn't have ichthyosis after all. All that's left to examine now is her bone formation to see if she has any identifiable congenital condition at all.

As you can see time spent holding the baby is still productive! I can just about manage to continue patchworking at the same time. I've made good progress on the Jacob's Ladder, despite getting a bit carried away with preparing for the next quilt.

Garden-wise, the allotment is starting to pull me out of the house again, even though I'd kind of written this year off, I can't resist it when there's so much to do! As well as getting some veg on the go, I also want to sow the wildflower section which has been covered up since last spring in preparation. Have to wait for another gap in the rain for that.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend too whatever the weather's doing! :-)

Sunshine in Stroud

We drove to Stroud on Tuesday to meet up with Jess and bring her home at last! It was lovely to see Granny & Grandad and it's always nice to visit Stroud again: it always looks so picturesque when seen with fresh eyes.

We took the dogs for a walk by the canal in Saul. There has been a huge amount of work done to open up the canal network in the area after years of disuse and neglect: as a result Stroud is hosting a major boat festival on July to celebrate.

Fittingly I've been re-reading Laurie Lee's autobiography of a childhood growing up in Stroud in the days before cars dictated the pace of life. The book is beautifully written and so evocative of a lost way of life, when a family trip to the next village, four miles away, meant a day's travelling on foot.

And after all that gorgeous sunshine we're driving back now under grey skies and interminable drizzle. Foolishly I forgot to to take any sewing projects with me so I've been itching to get on with my quilting...

Tula Belle arrives, and Jessie Goes to France

Well here she is at last! Actually, she's already three weeks old...

It's been a funny few weeks. Tula was born at home on Saturday morning, after a fairly easy labour in which (as with Milly) everything was pretty slow and relaxed and then suddenly REALLY fast: one minute I was talking through contractions to the midwife, leaving messages on friend's phones; the next I was frantically panting to try to slow things down, yelling for the midwife to hurry the hell up and get here before Tula did!

Milly next to her day-old sister

Then, the worst happened: the next day the midwife decided we should go to the hospital and get her checked by a paediatrician as she was concerned about Tula's flaky skin and thought her upper arms and thighs were disproportionately small (they were in fact deemed small but normal after all). After a chest x-ray, the consultant told us that Tula's ribcage was malformed and therefore her lungs were constricted which means breathing is hard work for her and that she'd tire easily and that this, coupled with her very flaky skin, could indicate an underlying condition. She then said that she wanted to admit us both so that they could conduct further tests on her. So we were in hospital for three days - my idea of hell.

in hospital

Even though I was feeling much better in myself, after months of illness during pregnancy, the hospital ward was so hot and airless that I immediately felt crap again. Luckily I'd been given a private room, so I had the window open the whole time (even though the ward staff made a point of marching in and closing it) which helped a little. They were thoroughly upset with me for insisting on sleeping with Tula next to me and not in her trolley-cum-crib - in which I was ordered to keep her whenever I left the room: fear of litigation means that mothers are not allowed to carry their newborn infants "in case someone bumps into (them)". So much for the proven benefits of kangaroo care.

Tula having a chuckle over the dumbass health & safety regs

It was thoroughly stressful but the test results were all positive, so we know that her heart is fine, her lung capacity is not adversely affecting her body's oxygen levels and that her eyes are free of anomalies. The skin condition was identified as ichthyosis, but she has a very mild form of it and it should clear over the next few weeks.

My hospital visitors

The upshot of it all is that our little girl is going to need to be monitored regularly throughout her life and that she will always be prone to skin conditions. Whether she has an identifiable condition or not is yet to be ascertained by further appointments with dermatologists and geneticists at the hospital over the next few weeks.

All we're concerned about now is getting her weight up: she has breastfed really well from birth, but only feeds for a few minutes at a time before tiring. This meant that the last time she was weighed, she was pretty much static, so we are now supplementing breastfeeds with four-hourly bottles of formula. Again, not at all my choice, but the priority has to be Tula's (& my) well-being.

Feed chart

Jessie has been in France for a week now, on holiday with her Granny and cousin Bethany for Easter. We've spoken to her on the phone a few times, and she sounds amazingly grown-up! I can't believe she's only four! They're having a great time, and she very proudly told me that she's had dry nappies every night, which is brilliant to hear. Very odd her not being here, I do miss her.

We have started using our National Trust membership: last week we visited Lanhydrock, where we were accosted every few steps by cooing elderly maternal types wanting to look at the babby, to the point where they were virtually following us round the house in a plump gaggle. Yesterday we went to Antony house, home of the Carew family, where Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland was filmed. It was a pretty lousy day so we didn't look round the whole of the grounds, but the bits we did see were quite lovely.

And today the sun is out but we are in, awaiting health visitor and outreach nurses.... never mind, hopefully we'll have a trip to Stroud later on, as Jess is due back on Thurs and we'll have to pick her up from Granny and Grandad's.

Plant label at Antony

... Tula was weighed today, and after an abysmal measurement last week (she gained 30g over a week), the good news is that she has put on 300g - hippity hop indeed!!