Honeycomb hats...

I might as well be calling these cricket hats. Most of the work was done on arrival at two day long matches recently. One in Stoke on Trent and the other at Cleethorpes, both County under 15s although Jake seems far too tall for this age group now, at 6'3.

Red is a devil of a colour to photograph. It took a bit of shuffling my little table around to get the light right so that it wouldn't merge into one big lump of red with no definition. Limitations of an iPad camera too I guess.

Naturally I started the little red hat half way through the slog of the oatmeal one. I was curious to know how much quicker or less fiddly it would work up in a chunky yarn. The answer is, not much. The secret is too keep the slip stitches nice and loose. So, this is not a fast fabric to work up but well worth it for a hat because it provides a nice amount of stretch for a good moulded fit, not to mention a look that might not be obviously crochet to the untrained eye! In fact the knitted honeycomb stitch looks pretty similar.

I think there may well be more of these in my crocheting future. I'm now curious to play around with stitch counts between changes and some kind of honeycomb yellow yarn is just crying out to be made as a baby or toddler hat with a small crochet bumble bee attached!

My next step is to crochet another adult hat so that I can write down and share the pattern. Coincidentally this kind of stitch was also the pattern for the last Scheepjes CAL square, at least I think it's pretty much the same, I haven't started those yet. It seems I finally succumbed to the boredom of repetition even though each week is entirely different. Psychologically it's just more squares. I really need to work on my concentration span.

I used to wait until we took the caravan away for a long weekend or longer to get projects like that done and dusted. The trick was not having a yarn stash, crochet magazines and the Internet as distractions. Not to mention leisurely summer evenings (are we ever going to have those again?)

We've barely taken the caravan anywhere in the last two years which is something I'm trying to rectify. As the children have lost interest as they've grown up I'm in the process of emptying out all their 'junk'. Things like body boards, buckets and spades, balls of every type, kites, board games, plastic cricket sets, pop up goals, comedy films on DVD, books, boules, scooters, skateboards and probably much more once I get as far as the main under bed storage bunk. It's a wonder we ever had any room for the four of us with all that on board! I'm looking forward to creating a more minimalist interior which I will find a more relaxing 'get away' opportunity.

It's a crochet life...

Are you fed up with Springer Spaniel photo's? Riley is such a good subject. Always happy to pose. When we first took him home he bounded into our living room, knocked all the cushions into a mound, climbed up on top of them and let out a deep sigh. Cushions are his thing. He still does this. Though lately I've assigned him just the one place he's allowed to trash my cushions and I've donated an old bed spread of Ella's to add to his comfort. He seems happy.

There are always fewer photo's of Harvey because he likes to be on a high state of alert with anything that might be thrown for him to retrieve. You have only to walk past a stick or ball and he's up and ready just in case. If you approach him with a camera he darts off to find something you might like to throw. Quite possibly the best time to get a photo of him is when he's been for a six mile hike, swum twenty lengths of the lake and fetched a hundred sticks. He might sit still for a while then. Maybe.

I'm on my fourth square for week six of the Last Dance CAL. It's the same technique used in Ella's Cedar River Blanket, corner to corner, so it's fairly straight forward. Twenty three squares are now blocked and beginning to look like the makings of a blanket.

I've wound my bargain recycled cotton skeins into balls using my wool winder and I'm keeping them in a bowl nearby until inspiration strikes. I'm already thinking that it would be handy to have some simple camping/picnic accessories like a pot holder for our Kelly Kettle. It has a wooden handle but the metal either side gets extremely hot. Cutlery rolls would be handy to throw into the crate with the kettle and plates, and maybe a sizeable napkin each to use as a lap cloth.

I can see Jake getting slightly concerned about all this crochet. He eyed my baggy crochet jumper with suspicion the other day and said, 'making your own clothes now are we?' (Typical male lack of observation, I've been wearing that charcoal grey creation for months!). A vision of me watching his cricket matches wearing that jumper, keeping warm under one of my crochet blankets whilst eating a picnic from a crochet lap cloth and pouring the Kelly Kettle with a crochet pot holder, heck, he has no idea how far I can go with this!

P.S. I behaved myself at his cricket match today, just the one crochet blanket. Nothing more.

Footprints in the sand...

Another random, slightly disjointed and rambling post. It's how things are at the moment. There's no sign of the cat and everything feels kind of 'in limbo'. Someone shared their own cat story with us today, a wanderer who returned after four months. Tilly hadn't shown any signs of being a wanderer.

I did not stage the photo of Riley at all, rather just snapped him quickly after he'd gathered as many toys as he could carry and took them away from Harvey. He was a hoarder when we acquired him. The first time we left him alone in the kitchen with Harvey for company it wasn't hard to work out who had stolen a whole pack of oats, a half pack of sugar and a squeezy bottle of chocolate sauce and stashed them in his basket. All of these were intact by the way, it was clear he just hadn't actually got round to making up the chocolate oat cookies before we got home.

It's a good job Harvey is the passive sort because there's nothing he likes more than a good old fashioned tennis ball. Rope toys he can take or leave but tennis balls are like all his Birthdays at once. I swear he squirrels them away somewhere in the fields because they really don't hang around the house for very long.

It was lovely and warm and sunny today while we did boring tasks like buy two new tyres and wait for them to be fitted. Made only lightly less dull by the entertaining husband and wife team who were like a comedy double act. The wife wouldn't stop going on about how long their MOT was taking and the husband sadly agreed with everything she said. After retirement age you have to wonder what their big hurry was. Our parting words to the chap who did our tyres were, 'gosh that was quick, I guess that's why you're called KwikFit'. She didn't see the funny side.

We really could have done with some of today's sunshine last night when Ella had a cricket match. They managed to play a soggy 18 overs of the first half but rain finally stopped play half way through the second. E couldn't feel her hands so it was just as well she hadn't got round to bowling.

I managed to do a spot of crochet whilst watching the first half in the car. The details of this fifth week square are a bit inconsistent if you read several blogs but from what I can gather it is supposed to be seagulls one way up or seagull footprints in the sand the other way up. I'm choosing the latter on account of them looking more like webbed footprints than flying gulls, especially on this sandy beige colour.

The squares are stacking up nicely, nearly twenty squares. It's been barely any effort at all keeping up with four squares per week. Call me lazy but the fact that these are one colour squares with no colour changes is a huge bonus. I'm not a fan of overly complicated colour patterns in textiles anyway so I don't feel the need to produce that in crochet. I've noticed that one blogger is making the entire CAL in one colour only so that the emphasis is on texture. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out.

Mud and limitations...

If it's not dog hair it's dog mud and if it's not dog mud it's cricket mud! Yes those are cricket whites! J played at a rather soggy pitch this week. We had a job to find a spot on the boundary that wasn't boggy. None of the boys were phased at all with the mud accumulating on their bright white kit but I bet I wasn't the only Mum wondering whether it was going to wash out. It did. Nothing short of a miracle!

Week four of the CAL 'Last Dance in the Rain' is a lovely wavy design which uses triple trebles amongst other stitches. It's been a while since I needed a triple treble. This was the first square that didn't quite come out perfectly square but that was easily put right with an extra row of htr's at the end. In fact I prefer this because it makes the dimension above and below the 'waves' roughly the same. I've substituted the colour because I didn't have the charcoal grey shade in DK.

This picture of Tilly was take a just a few days before she went missing. She's been gone three nights. Harvey keeps poking his head through the cat flap and wandering round sniffing her favourite sleeping places. I know he's wondering where she's got to.

I've been impatient today and attempted to walk the dogs. I can manage a small amount of driving, in fact driving is a lot easier on my knee than walking. I parked up at my favourite dog walking spot, struggled the very short distance down to the bridge and let the dogs have a good run about and a swim. I would have liked to dangle my legs over the river but the chances of getting back up were slim and it's a very remote spot so I didn't chance it. It must have been all of thirty metres walking without crutches and it's thirty metres I've been regretting ever since. M rolls his eyeballs skyward and calls me stupid but in my logic you can't possibly know your limitations until you test them!

Off the hook...cedar river blanket

Boy am I glad to see the back of this one! I'm going to think long and hard before I ever do such a colourful project again. I absolutely loathed having to change colours so many times. Each square has all five colours and there were 24 squares. It wasn't so much the changing as dealing with all those ends. Boring!

Ella chose the colours and we also chose the 'large throw' size because it's about what we call 'tv blanket' size. It doesn't feel like a large throw, it feels as though it would make a good toddler blanket. At least E is pleased with it. It is surprisingly thick despite being worked up in DK weight. I added several more rounds of border to try and make it a bit bigger. There was enough grey yarn for an extra round of trebles and a dc round and there was plenty of green left.

I've yet to press it but in the meantime I've dug out a blanket that I started in 2014 (thanks blog for reminding me how old that wip was). Yes it is a multi coloured affair but the two row repeat is fairly long and I'm weaving ends in every now and then. It's a lot wider than the cedar river blanket so it'll be a good tv blanket when it's done. I think I started it with cricket matches in mind. A simple pattern that doesn't need too much concentration and fits entirely into one basket. Not to mention the bonus of keeping warm as it grows. I've already attended one cricket match this year but thankfully watched the whole thing from the warmth and comfort of the car.

Crochet and cricket...

Alas the cricket season isn't quite over yet. More matches have been viewed from the car. More wickets have been taken. More cricket teas consumed (they tease Jake for the amount he can put away and for being quick off the mark when there's fruit salad on offer!). More whites drenched in Vanish Gold. More sleeping boys on the way home. Oh and more crochet!

I bought this pattern in Oakham. It's by King Cole (no. 3052). I bought the yarn at the same time. It's also by King Cole and it's Baby DK, colour is 'Silver Twist'. It might look a bit flat in the photo but it has a twist of white running through the pale grey. It's soft, it has behaved even with a fiddly 3mm hook (just for the sleeves and neckband) but I may need to add a tiny pink something somewhere just to save confusion. It looks boxy at the moment but with cute short sleeves and once it's on, I think it might look ok.

Those little teddy buttons have come all the way from Italy! I bought them at a coastal market stall at the same time as buying leather flip flops! Definitely a random purchase but I knew they'd come in handy one day!

I'm all over the shop with baby sizing! All that talk of how small 5lb was and I somehow managed to crochet the yellow waistcoat far far too small. The rice pudding coloured waistcoat might fit better but I'm taking no chances with future makes. This little top is 3-6 months and I think it's a generous fit at that. I've got two short sleeves to finish out of that little ball; I have to say, it's looking unlikely that there will be enough yarn even though the pattern clearly says one ball for that item in that size with that make of yarn.

It's not very clear but in the dashboard photo you can see my new crochet hook. I decided to try out the Clover Amour range after reading that they were easy on the hands. I can confirm that they are! I must have crocheted for hours on that particular cold and windy day, without any discomfort at all.

If you're ever in Oakham (Rutland) and you knit or crochet, the tiny tiny wool shop which is packed to the rafters is well worth a visit. Lovely staff and beautifully organised pattern binders.

Those summer days...

This summer has whizzed by. It's been a largely solo affair with M tied up with a case for six intense weeks. I've done hundreds and hundreds of miles to and from week day cricket matches and between us we must have done thousands.

J has played so much cricket that he's on his third pair of cricket shoes! You can see how he's getting into the 'touring' habit with his home comforts. He plugs some music in and he's asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow, both going to a match and coming home. I wish I could do the same, but I guess playing 45 over matches entitles you to a little nap.

It wouldn't be British not to mention the weather. You can see from the photo that this was one match viewed from inside the car. It's not uncomfortable. M tends to spend matches inside the scoring hut so I place my lunch on the drivers seat, my flask in between, my book in that little cubby hole you can see top right, and my crochet, or knitting is usually in progress. I'm as happy as a pig in clover. I don't have to worry about cool breezes, spitting rain, bugs, people talking to me without me realising... I do sometimes have to worry about leather balls flying towards the windscreen but, touch wood, so far so good. I crochet while the match is on and I read my book when they are warming up, warming down or having tea. It's a routine that works very well. If it's not too miserable I also walk round the boundary.

My one complaint is when a clubhouse has just one toilet for two entire teams, coaches, managers, assorted spectators, groundsmen and people running the food and drink side of things. This is particularly problematic when it's boys cricket, and out of the 24 boys present it's often the way that 23 of them will pee on the floor near, but not quite in, the toilet. I'm usually quite a modest person but on this occasion, let me tell you, I taught both of my children not to pee on the floor!

One of the nicest parts of the day is driving home, after the match analysis has been done (talking about dropped catches, misfields, good wickets, cheeky runs, whether the tea was good or not etc) is daydreaming out of the car window. I often wonder what I'd be doing if I wasn't trekking around the country watching my children play cricket, and most of the time I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing, except maybe doing it in style with a nifty little campervan!

A little time away...

We've been away for most of this week. It was a bit of a last minute dot com type of arrangement with the accommodation despite having the cricket week on the calendar for quite some time. For the first time we didn't take the caravan and instead stayed in a nice hotel. It was definitely a more sophisticated way of doing things! Now of course, I don't really want to go home; to housework and laundry!

It was a good week for Jake. He bowled really well, especially the last day, taking four wickets, three of which were in his opening overs. We had a disaster the day before we were due to leave when his cricket shoes came apart during a match. We quickly checked out the local sports shops for size twelve cricket spikes with no luck. Contact adhesive was applied and the dodgy shoe bound overnight with string. It lasted one over and split again so J borrowed his coach's spikes (one size smaller but wearable). Then due to unforeseen circumstances the coach and his shoes had to depart one day early! Thank goodness for google is all I can say. We drove out to an industrial estate in the middle of nowhere this morning and picked up the only size twelve cricket shoes for miles. J reckons they will have to be his lucky boots now that he's taken four wickets wearing them!

It's been a tight schedule of cricket, eating and sleeping so there hasn't been much time for making use of the hotel pool, reading or anything creative. I packed knitting rather than crochet on this occasion. I've had this Erika Knight pattern and yarn for a little while but saved it for a rainy day. I finally cast on last night and phew, I can remember how to do cables!

I've blogged about these Erika Knight for John Lewis patterns before; they are perfect for beginners or anyone who just wants a quick, easy project with a useful outcome. The other one I've purchased is the Slouchy Hats pattern which has two designs. I've made the ribbed hat for myself, the kids and even M who rarely wears hats. So we will all soon have matching cable and rib mitts to go with the hats!

Today I wished I was nearing the end of the project with just the side seams to sew up; it's supposed to be summer but it was rather chilly and unpleasant today. It was just as well we bowled the opposition out quickly and got the required runs just as quickly. The match was over three hours early just in time for the heavens to open. So British; cricket and rainy summers!

Off the hook...summer pouches

I keep meaning to put together a notebook of 'go to' crochet patterns. I've got a few reliable ones jotted down but a few more bookmarked electronically that need adding. I don't quite trust technology to keep these patterns safe!

This clutch pattern is what I'd call a 'go to' pattern purely because it's easy, reliable and has many uses and ways to adapt. I made the grey one first, whilst watching 90 overs of cricket. I paid more attention to the eight overs that J bowled of course and a nail biting few overs when he went in to bat late and needed to get vital runs to win the game. It eventually came down to five runs needed off two balls and my boy hit a crafty four and single to much applause from the men's team he was playing for. Inside I was doing star jumps, on the outside I clapped in a very restrained British way! I always remind J that although he could have lost the match by being out or not getting the runs, it is in fact a team game.

The crochet clutch was intended to be a quick, simple, small project that would fit into my small cricket match watching basket. Something inconspicuous! J once blushed fifty shades of red when I got some crochet out on a train journey but I think he might be slightly over that now because he did come and sit with me when his team were batting despite the fact it was on my lap at the time.

The cotton is aran weight eco recycled something or other and the hook was 6mm. The first pouch was slightly tricky and I did have to rip a few rows back when my shell rows turned and I was leaving something of a gap. I seem to have remedied that in the second one by paying slightly more attention. The jade green pouch came out slightly smaller because I may have inadvertently added rows to the grey one or left some out on the green one. Either way, a happy accident. It looks intentional to have a pair like this! Another accident was the fact that the first one is a perfect fit for my Kindle. Although I have Kindle on my iPad now I find it a bit cumbersome and the matt screen is easier to read in sunshine on the Kindle. Not that I really like my Kindle much. I prefer good old fashioned paperbacks.

I could add buttons or ties at this point but I doubt either would be necessary. They will just keep a few loose bits and bobs together for my cricket match survival kit basket! I think they'd also make nice gifts with something already inside... note cards, soap and face cloth, a sewing kit, chocolate...

The pattern is listed on Tangled Happy under 'purses'.

Chuck it together day...

It's a mini heat wave here in the uk. I say mini because it's really not that much of a heat wave and probably won't last all that long either, but we like to be dramatic and call it a heat wave nonetheless. It's 97 degrees apparently. Woohoo!

The dogs are lying under the apple tree in the long grass. I have water bowls everywhere.

It's slightly cooler indoors so I'm doing the sensible thing and staying out of the midday sun.

I'm still a bit uncomfortable with post op wounds so I decided to whip up a couple of skirts on the sewing machine, elasticated waists that I can sit just where I want them to. The first one won't be worn outside these four walls for the simple reason that I wouldn't be seen dead in florals! I just happened to have a large piece of cotton perfect for a skirt. I used it as my practice piece...

I cut a long rectangle which was the length of the skirt plus a bit for hemming and waist and then cut it double the length of the waist measurement so that I'd have a bit of gather. A bit like the curtain rule which is one and a half times isn't it? I didn't iron it or pin it, shock horror! but it turned out just fine. It taught me that the measurements were just about right and to make the tube for the elastic a bit more snug.

Skirt number two was made using the fabric in the photo above. I don't really do bold patterns either but this one is more my taste colour wise, there's dark indigo and grey in those circles and the fabric has a linen feel though I've no idea what it's actually made of. I bought it years ago and I've forgotten what the original intended use was. I did all the ironing and pinning and proper hemming on this one and it has turned out ok. It would be nice to know how to do fancier waistbands but I think that's one hobby I can resist.

So, two chuck it together skirts, which is a bit like my philosophy with lunches lately. No thought as to whether anything goes together, just chuck it all on a plate and go!

Tomorrow I'll be chucking it all in a cool bag to go. Another county cricket match. Local for a change. Sun hat at the ready! Watching cricket in the sun is a rare thing!

All things cricket..

Another year of county cricket comes to an end. J has had a good season. He's enjoyed himself and I think the pressure he put on himself in previous years is a little less now. He still gives it 100% but at thirteen years old he should be enjoying it too. He got a good number of wickets overall this year but didn't see much action with the bat. I don't think he minded much, he batted at club level and retired pretty much every game (they have to retire at 25 for under 13 club cricket).

He's also played one heck of a lot of men's cricket this year; most weekends for the firsts and seconds. He's got quite a haul of wickets for them and a few runs too. He's most probably learnt a few other things whilst playing for the men's teams too, I dread to think. He played for the Saturday seconds today and got three wickets and he's playing again tomorrow. Is the end of this cricket season in sight? I hope so. I love it but boy does everything else get neglected!

The team photo above is blurred intentionally. It was taken at Culford School, the venue for this year's cricket festival. I have to say that M and I much preferred Holbrook by comparison. Culford School were not very helpful with directions to toilets for the spectators, and for Lincolnshire that is parents and grandparents, siblings and friends. From pitch one the walk was considerable so we ended up having to drive! The only on site refreshments were vending machines, which was poor compared to how hard Holbrook worked to provide tea and coffee all week long. Luckily I received a tip off that I'd need to take extra flasks (thanks J!) and so we were well equipped.

We stayed at a lovely caravan site which was about a fifteen minute drive from the school. E joined Mum and Dad at a cottage for the week, which meant M and I had a lovely peaceful week! Well almost peaceful, we still had to get up and walk the dogs of course and they were rubbish at settling down on a picnic blanket while the cricket was going on. They ended up sleeping in my boot and having lots of frisbee sessions when the breaks were on. Harvey is obsessed, be it frisbee, ball, stick. He would fetch all day long. Riley has a short concentration span and soon gets sidetracked, and this meant trotting casually off to see if anyone had left any picnic food behind. Little devil.

Embarrassingly J had to wear his green training tracksuit trousers on one day because it was a little chilly. I had no idea they were so ridiculously short! He really should have worn his new training shorts and shoved the trousers back in his bag. He has grown yet again and we need to get new school trousers, his current ones are suddenly well above his ankle, how did that happen? I got him to try on his jacket and that looks a little silly too, why they don't invent stretchable uniform that grows with you I don't know!

Crafting with cotton...

I definitely recommend having a good old rummage in your wool cupboard/ baskets/ bags/ drawers/ under the stairs cupboards/ vintage suitcases...ok I think I've covered a few bases there. Where do you keep your 'stash'?

My stash is stored in one of those wood and canvas wardrobe affairs which was Ella's until she grew up. Inside I have boxes labelled according to wool type ie. DK, chunky, superchunky, etc. A lot of it was acquired when I used to knit. I know I've said this before but I started out with brightly coloured DK wools and a handful of Jean Greenhowe booklets. Those knitting patterns are expertly written and ideal for all levels of knitter. Indeed I did impress my Nan by knitting up some Grandad and Grandma characters and I hadn't been knitting long. If only there was a Jean Greenhowe in the crochet world. There's a lot of amigurumi patterns out there but none have the consistency, range, charm and simplicity of a JG pattern, in my humble opinion.

So, as I unstacked the boxes and came to a box titled 'misc' (it's like the man drawer of the crochet world!) I had the most fun discovering mostly unusable yarns - have you ever tried crocheting chenile or eyelash yarn? Don't. They have been added to the charity bag. Right at the bottom was an untouched ball of 'craft cotton' which is probably just a fancy name for string, it is exactly the same as the white string of my childhood, and I know this for a fact because I threaded my conkers onto it!

Every now and then I browse through the crochet magazines and the patterns in the latest issue of Inside Crochet were the first to catch my eye for a while. The stool pictured looks very similar to one that we have that currently has a tatty knitted cover. I took the string, a hook and the magazine to a cricket match today and made a start.

Half way through the match E was bored and asked me to teach her to crochet. This was probably the third time, and the third fail. I think you probably have to want to learn, rather than just pass the time!

Today was one of those typically British cricket matches. Sunshine, freezing wind, rain. The last two overs were played in a heavy downpour, I think the umpire was keen to get home.

Cricket and crochet...

OK, this wasn't my most successful spherical shaped crochet object. (Try saying that after a large Gin and Tonic!). However, it does vaguely resemble a cricket ball and J was delighted to have a suitable ball to go with his mini bat for indoor games. It's already been whacked around the sunlounge and miraculously kept it's shape.

It started off wet and windy here in Lincolnshire and with no word of today's match being cancelled the men set off for the venue. I've got a bit of a cold (yes again!) and with the weather looking dubious I decided to give it a miss.

I've been ransacking my wool cupboard (it's a rainy day and I have at least hoovered) and I've come across some works in progress that really shouldn't have been abandoned for so long. One, a summer vest top that turned out a bit too big, I've unravelled and I've found a new pattern for the quantity of aran weight cotton. The other, is being 'reinvented' (it's amazing how many crochet disasters can be transformed into useful bags!)

It wasn't me!

Riley is a rubbish liar. When he's stolen something this is what he does. Tries to hide his face! Meanwhile, 'Angel-boy' sleeps peacefully and innocently. You've got to wonder who really is to blame?

I guess the ultimate clue is in who pukes first? Half a tube of IKEA chocolate disks says one of them will!

My money is on Riley. Harvey has never been a thief and Riley's first week with us involved me emptying his basket of various items, Nutella, a packet of bagels, squirty golden syrup, oats, rice cakes... none of which he chewed or ate. Strange dog.

It's raining cats and dogs here. Ha! Greedy cats and thieving dogs! No really, it's been several days of torrential rain with short breaks in between downpours. It's a miracle that we managed to play a County cricket match this week, though the pitch wasn't in good condition due to the rain.

Today I'm about to pack up yet another picnic for yet another cricket match. The weather forecast isn't too bad but I'm packing thick hoodies and rain coats just in case.

I've barely done any or blogged about crochet for what seems like a long time. The desire to crochet is creeping up on me again. The rain might be responsible for this! I'm looking for inspiration and I'm also mentally trotting up what needs to be finished first, preferably of the portable type so I can while away the hour and a half at the beginning of matches while the team do drills and warm up.

Walking back to happiness...

It's all dog walking and cricket here in sunny Lincolnshire. Since I got brave and started to be able to leave the house alone I've gone to the other extreme. I'm now tramping miles and miles every day.

I must admit I did have a slight raising of the heartbeat yesterday. I got to the remote part of one of my routes. It has a farm track that doesn't look like it gets used much. A car was parked there with a man in it. I swear he looked like an escaped prisoner (there have been a few of those in the news lately so no wonder I was suspicious). The car door was open and he was just sitting there. He didn't have a dog so I wondered what he could be doing so far off the beaten track. Riley went up wagging his tail to say hello which dashed my chances of pretending my dogs were ferocious. I walked at a pretty fast pace after that trying not to look behind and straining for sounds of footsteps behind me (I wouldn't hear a herd of elephants charging at me!) It was my lucky day, he wasn't up to no good.

Today I changed my route and thought about carrying an alarm, but what use would an alarm be miles from anywhere? By the way, that photo of Riley running through a meadow of yellow fields; they are all buttercups. The photo doesn't do it justice at all. It's stunning. This is a small reserve of trees and wild flowers donated to the community by three old ladies who planted as many different types of trees and shrubs they could. What a fantastic thing to leave behind.

Apart from being healthy for the body I'm finding it also healthy for the mind. It takes me right back to when I was ten or so and had a very good friend who used to be quite obsessed with nature. He and I would meet up in the village woodland and go looking for birds nests and butterflies. We were talented tree climbers and quite frankly I was probably more interested in climbing trees than peeping in birds nests. P used to scribble down notes in a pad and I used to draw colour pictures of what we'd found and identified that day.

I saw another unusual butterfly today, well I assumed it was a butterfly until I googled it. Life would have been amazing if we'd had google when I was ten! It turned out to be a very pretty moth called the Cinnabar Moth. The picture makes it look red but I'm pretty sure it was a deep shocking pink. It was also quite small, maybe an inch across.

J has played a second county match. He bowled well and got an opening batsman out and another who regularly gets over fifty runs. We were lucky it was a sunny day because the day after it rained all day. In fact now that the weather has gone back to 'unreliable' we've got a whole weekend off; no cricket! Time to get ahead with the laundry and stock the cupboard with more picnic food!

Bunbury Cup...

It was M's birthday yesterday and if he could dream up the perfect day he would have dreamt up the kind of day we had. Blue skies and sunshine, a road trip to Warwick, good food and cricket (and preferably a win).

J travelled with the school yesterday which meant we could set off with our cricket picnic, flasks and chairs and stop off on the way. We ended up stopping in Warwick itself and had a cream tea in a cafe that went back to 1571. I would normally watch M eat his cream tea but they had gluten free scones!

When we arrived at Warwick School we had to work out which of the six cricket pitches they were playing on. It was certainly a contrast to the badly mown pitch at J's school. Since it was the Bunbury Cup, a national competition, they played on the main pitch which has a huge clubhouse with glass railed balcony. This is where M and I pitched for the day. A proper table and chairs and for the most part we had it to ourselves. Only one other parent had travelled to see the match.

It was all rather civilised with uniformed boys travelling from lesson to lesson and dawdling around the cricket boundary to see what was happening. The electronic scoreboard could probably be seen miles away. I wish I had taken more photographs. It was as much as we could do to take it all in, and once the match started I didn't want to miss anything.

Jake opened the bowling and also bowled two overs at the end. He bowled six overs altogether and got two wickets for only 9 runs. He was a bit disappointed to be batting at five, especially as his track record for batting this year at club level has been first class. He has retired in most matches and for the rest he's got runs and been 'not out'. Unfortunately the school masters don't always have this information. So he went in with only 3 and a half overs left but still managed to hit 18 runs off 8 balls. Some of the huge hits he did over everyone's heads really deserved to be fours but the boundary was huge. The main thing was that he enjoyed himself.

It got really close at the end. They had 136 runs to chase, and after a disastrous over which gave away 18 runs they were catching up. The last ball needed to be a six to win but by then we had clearly bowled all the good batsmen out and although he had a huge swipe he didn't make contact with the ball. Phew! The next round is the quarter finals, which apparently is the furthest we've ever got.

It was a scorching hot day and there was no shade, I really wish I'd packed my sun hat. We got a little sunburnt. J has an under 17s match tonight so I imagine he will look a little lanky up against them. At 13 he hasn't really muscled out yet. On Saturday we have another men's match. He's got a wicket for them every match so far so they love him. On Sunday we have the first county match of the season. See what I mean about needing a tour bus?

Chaos...

Ella is now looking at me with what looks like pity. I'm finding the odd ten minutes in the day when the little rubber bands are calling my name. I probably need to move them away from the kitchen island where my iPad also lives during the day. The combination is fatal. YouTube, a plastic loom and a bowl full of tiny rubber bands. I recommend it, it's therapeutic in the midst of chaos, really.

The chaos involves a bath full of cricket whites, club kits, county kits, my kit, Ella's kit. Beside the sink is Vanish, stain removing soap, Ariel stain remover. Nothing seems to get the grass/mud stains off.

The fridge is chaotic. We've been eating out of picnic baskets for the last few weeks. Eating far too many fish and chips late at night on the way home from a match. I swear I NEED a campervan for this lifestyle. I could just rustle up some nice soup, beans on toast, pasta... Actually that's my entire repertoire. Anything more complicated and I leave it to M.

I am both nervous and excited about playing my first match of the season tonight. I washed my kit. It didn't smell too good having been folded up in my bag next to Jake's hand me down cricket shoes. It's quite handy having a son with big feet. His spikes fit me nicely and so do last year's all weather surface cricket shoes.

So, let's talk about what's important right now. Yes, the Triple Chain Cuff, the Raised Triple Rope and the Starburst have all been mastered by yours truly. I am pretty chuffed. The Starburst is my favourite not least of all because I subconsciously chose colours that remind me of the formerly named 'opal fruits'. Whatever was wrong with that? I think senility is creeping in because I called a Snickers bar by its former name the other day too, anyone fancy a Marathon? Stupid name, but then so is Snickers.

I'm now using a size 3mm crochet hook for this new hobby of mine. Each tutorial on YouTube represents a sort of mind bending type puzzle to me and I like to keep my brain alive if I can. Crochet is a lot like that. Motifs for example. Once I've cracked the pattern I'm sometimes not so fussed about doing anything with them. I suppose that's why I enjoyed Maths and went on to do it at A Level. The Pure and Applied side of things was like a series of little puzzles to solve. Not that I'm a natural Mathematician, I just like a challenge. M likes crosswords. He does all the ones he knows and then he gets me to finish it.

Which leads me to another puzzle in life. How does Jake get through so many pairs of shoes? It doesn't seem to matter whether we buy £60 shoes from Clark's or £30 pairs from elsewhere. He swears he doesn't play football in them but how on earth can they get wrecked just by walking? This latest pair is barely two months old.

Naturally M doesn't blink twice about paying large sums of money for cricket related kit but he's having a hissy fit over the shoes. He's on a school trip today so not for the first time we will have to buy a pair he hasn't even tried on and hope for the best. Boys. Grrrrr. E has had the same pair for at least two years! I wouldn't mind so much if he just grew out of them.