My weekend went a little something like this ...

Stayed with Dad & Stepmother - ate lots of (organic) veg from Stepmother's allotment , drank no wine and had very little caffeine, so a detox of sorts!

We went on a Bat Walk, where we were given Bat Detectors (yes, really!) which can pick up the high frequency sounds the bats make so you can hear them. Our guide was really really good at pointing his torch beam in just the right place at the right time so we saw the little bats fluttering around and we could hear their little noises at the same time. So cool! We also heard a tawny owl as the light faded and at the beginning of the walk the guide kept getting interrupted by a kingfisher - I don't think I've ever heard one of them before. 

Then on Saturday we went to Nuffield Place, which wasn't as inspiring as I thought it'd be but lots of pictures of roses to keep me quiet! The only things I thought photo-worthy before my fone inevitably ran out of battery were these rosettes on a chest which is apparently a replica of a very old chest:

Like I said, not very inspiring. We also went for a walk (march) down the river at a nature reserve and we saw a kingfisher!! I don't think I'd ever seen one for real before. Well, Dad & I were looking the right way at the right time & saw it, Stepmother wasn't & didn't, although we waited A Long Time to see if it came back.

On Sunday I 'helped' them take pictures of things-that-aren't-bees-or-wasps-but-look-like-them, by standing well out of the way! Then we found this rose in the garden and we all took pictures of it! these are my pictures :)

My camera's not very good at reds but the rose really is pretty much those colours, isn't it lovely and unusual? :)

I did hardly any crochet or knitting, but I read quite a lot.

I had A Moment and got all, like, motivated and stuff and decided to start the Fast Diet TODAY! (see other post).

I started crocheting the shawlini, in my trusty bamboo DK, as I've got a real hankering for a soft little triangular shawl to keep my throat warm as Autumn approacheth. But it was really complicated to follow AND what I was producing just looked a mess so last night I frogged it and eventually found this pattern for a crochet baktus, which I started and, after changing hook size from 8mm to 5.5mm, have produced something that looks OK and hasn't given me a headache. It's just rows of treble crochets after all, although I did have a spot of bother keeping track of which row to increase in. Watched Ratatouille while I was doing it :) 

I suspect that 'baktus' means something ...

-x-