For those not born within the sound of the bells of St. Mary – le – Bow, the complete phrase is: “Me old china plate – me mate.” It’s a Cockney phrase. When you refer to someone as “Your old china..” you are actually calling them your mate or friend – it loses a lot […]
We are starting to see the signs of Spring. 1. In January the raccoons come out of hibernation. Some believe they never really go into hibernation, but the naturalists who write their columns, swear that there is a month or so when they are not knocking over our garbage cans, exposing our secrets to the
January 25 is Robbie Burns (1759-1793) Day. It will be the 247 celebration of his birthday! This is the day we serve Haggis – or a more palatable substitute (read sausage and mash with neeps – turnip.) We read: To A Mouse, To A Louse (has nothing to do with dead beat husbands) and address
My daughter went camping last weekend. It was the 20th of a somewhat mild January but still the forcast was for -5 degrees C. She slept outside – under canvas with snow in the forecast. There are other ways to wait for Spring, then knitting. One could, simply, wear the garments knit for them and
Dylan Thomas is one of my favourite poets. He is another icon of male decadence, also Welsh – hmmm, must be something in the water – “shaken not stirred.” If I were to pick a knitting pattern that exemplifies this creative “force” – call it Spring in the seasons, call it life in nature, call
There are things that those who live in the North do to make believe that Spring is just a snow drift away. We plant Spring flowers – indoors, of course. We plant paperwhites in January. We marvel at the speed at which their roots appear and their green shoots sprout. We inhale the smell of
I know that the title of the film is Tea and Sympathy. It is one of the few films that I have seen. I have a weakness for films about schools. “Goodbye Mr. Chips” is one of my favourites. Actually one of my regrets in life (along with never having dated Robert Redford) is never
I just visited Wikipedia to-day. I know I should have done it ages ago and in deed I have been meaning to ever since I read about it in a business article. The article was actually a comparison between Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Wikipedia, it is a
Robyn Gallimore of Red Bird Knits sent me an e-mail with this picture. It is one of her sock of the month patterns – Scarborough Fair – with the comment, “Since you like fold(folk) songs, here’s one for you!” I replied, saying that she had been knitting and spinning too much – I liked “folk”
I have just sent an e-mail to Debbie New via Philosopher’s Wool. Over the years and several hard drive failures I have lost her e-mail address. I have talked about the strawberry hat and Debbie’s knitted teacups as a way of beginning or at least as how I began in knitting as a first love
