Knit...walk...knit...walk...

Having a child turn eighteen seems to be one of those occasions that throws up all kinds of conflicting thoughts. Although I joke that we are long suffering and how lovely the freedom will be once my chooks have flown the nest, it doesn't stop me trying to create some lasting memories whilst we are all  still under one roof.

We attempted to go bowling this weekend. It's been a while since we last went and clearly, trying to bowl at 5pm on a Saturday is highly ambitious. So that turned into a nice meal out and the promise of a booked lane next week.

Yesterday evening however, was much more successful if a little surreal. E is a dab hand at concerts, festivals etc. J has only ever been to one, and that was under the supervision of M. So I was a tad nervous about dropping J and E at a concert in a city and leaving them for four and a half hours. Eek. M and I went all of a few hundred yards down the road and found ourselves a Carribean Bar and Cafe. I was feeling distinctly less anxious after two Carribean Pimms cocktails! I felt quite nervous walking it off round the city but it was a new experience seeing how many couples our age were out on the town on a week day evening. We have vowed to head for the city, oo, at least once a year! The rest of the time I'm quite happy in our humble village thanks. Thankfully all went well with the concert and we were grateful for 24/7 McDonald's coffee on the way home.

In the meantime my days have hit a comforting rhythm. Walking the dogs nice and early means a lot less mud comes home with us because the ground is frozen. I see a fair few trussed up dogs on our walks and sometimes wonder if H and R would like a padded jacket each but I wouldn't really enjoy being seen in public with dressed up dogs. According to some study someone somewhere did, involving a tracking device, dogs walk twice as far as we do on an average walk. I'm really surprised about that, it seems to me that Harvey covers at least ten times the distance I do.

I'm knitting the stitch stripe snood that I bought the pattern and supplies for back in October as a birthday treat. I'm loving this pattern and yarn, both by Erika Knight for John Lewis. It's so simple and yet creates a lovely textured fabric. Not only that but when you move the fabric it changes from an emphasis on one colour to the other rather like one of those optical illusions. I'm looking forward to wearing it. That might be a little while because knitting is rather annoyingly uncomfortable, but it is definitely growing daily.