Out and about

Back on the road (actually rails) again as I travel to meetings with teachers and colleagues.

On a trip to Sheffield on a sunny day I saw this water feature for the first time. We had arrived in the dark and travelled by taxi the previous evening, so seeing this the following afternoon was completely unexpected. It lines one side of a pleasant open space, Sheaf Square, in front of Sheffield Midland Station.
There is a cascade of water



















and a steel wall, appropriate for Sheffield, over which water runs. The wall reflects the Victorian station opposite.





















A few days later another trip to London and an early train gave me some time to kill on the way to my meetings. This building just off the Euston Road has an intriguing label over the door - "20th Middlesex Artists RV" Googling reveals they were a brigade of Rifle Volunteers for the Boer War.















Another building in the same area, dwarfed by its neighbours is Flaxman Lodge.




Tavistock Square includes a number of memorials to people including Virginia Woolf (well we are in Bloomsbury)

and Gandhi













And on to Bedford Square, which has a private garden at the centre, around the perimeter ar the ubiquitous plane trees, the lungs of London. The Post Office Tower, just visible is an important navigational aid on my wandering through this part of London.

The sculpture Driftwood is still in Bedford Square, and now slightly more weathered than back in July.












Eventually it is back to St Pancras and my heart always lifts when I see that great building, getting better on every visit as the scaffolding comes down.












Of course all this travelling means plenty of knitting time on the train. I have finished a lacy baktus, knitted in High Twist Haze from the Natural Dye Studio:











And I did finish my moebius cowl, but decided it was not long enough, so frogged the border to add some more depth. It really is a moebius loop and quite magic!

Still here

I hadn't realised quite how long it has been since I blogged.

Much has changed.

I am now working in York during the week and going back home at the weekends.
I have a new bike, which fits me much better than my old one and am comfortably cycling the mile or so to the gym for a swim. I am aiming to do that at least two or three mornings a week while in York - so far I have done 1, 1, 2 times. And increasing the number of lengths as I go.
I am living in a little microhouse - a living room with kitchen and a 'mezzanine' bedroom and small study area. And a small garden whenre I need ot do something about the weeds. Enough for me and my knitting. The house is only a mile from work so a brisk walk in the morning is so much better than the 40 minute drive in the last job.
The job is going well, working with lovely people, some I already knew and some I had heard of but didn't know.

I am still knitting.
I knitted 30 squares to go into a couple of large blankets which were raffled for medicin sans frontieres.
The top one on my pile is showing on the blanket at iKnit.













In the summer my Mum had a hip operation and spent a week or so keeping her company and helping her recuperate. I began to knit a blanket of my own, with scraps of sock yarn.
The first square was this one.
And now many more squares have been added. My new avatar at the top is a close-up.