It’s been a while now since I posted – doesn’t time fly!

Last night we went to a wedding do – I have been friends with the bride’s mother for 45 years, since we met at secondary school in the first year. Deb also hand knits, machine knits, and sews, and our daughters are much the same age (and were also friends at school!). It was a lovely do, the bride looked beautiful, and so did the bridesmaids, one of whom was her sister. The food was excellent, and the music good too. The venue was the Abbey Hotel in Malvern – lovely, just lovely.

This morning we’ve popped to YD’s house to see their new sofa, in situ, in the decorated lounge, with the skirting boards attached. It looks absolutely wonderful, and they are clearly very happy. Also, it’s Father’s Day here in the UK, and although it’s my first husband who is my daughters’ dad, they clearly feel quite filial towards hubby No 2, and so always do a little something for Father’s Day. A joint card, one of Edward Monkton’s (love his stuff), and it’s all very sweet.

Had a little look round their garden, dead-headed the roses and staked some up for them. It’s beautiful.

Still haven’t caught sight of Hedgehog, but she’s clearly there, as I put out a saucer of water every day, and every day it’s completely empty. Despite the rain. One day I’ll see her, and maybe I’ll get to take a photo of her.

Hubby’s car service cost half what we were expecting. Excellent. That means hubby is going to upgrade his Linn Radikal for the LP12 with a Dynamik or something, and I’ve been able to finally treat myself to an accessory for my electronic knitting machine.

The  Silver Reed EC1 controller is a little machine which you need to read the special Mylar pattern sheets and it transfers the instructions directly to the knitting machine carriage.  The pre-printed set you get are all in the software, Design a Knit, but I have lots and lots of hand-drawn Mylar sheets, so that’s why I need the EC1. Also, as I have a lace carriage and the lace Mylar sheets, I can now do lace knitting on the Silver Reed, which is easier than doing lace on the Brother. On the Brother machine, you have to do so many carriage passes with the ordinary carriage, then so many with the lace carriage. On the Silver Reed, you just use the one carriage and do one pass which knits some stitches and transfers others all in one go.  A lot less work. So the EC1 will mean I can do lace and the hand drawn Mylar sheets. Excellent.

I’m very tired today, and a bit fed up really. Saw the podiatrist last week, and he sent me for an x-ray of both feet. There is pain in the joints as well as the bursitis and neuromae, so he wants to see what’s going on altogether in there before he does anything. Appointment tomorrow for the results and I’ll know what he intends to do, surgery, injections, whatever.

Also the pain in my wrists and hands is absolutely awful. Am still waiting to hear from the consultant after the nerve conduction test. What I’d like to hear is that it is definitely carpal tunnel syndrome, and that they’ll do an operation on one wrist at a time, and that’ll fix it. If it’s not carpal tunnel, then what is it? why is it so painful? and what will they do about it? if I haven’t heard by late next week I’ll phone his secretary.

Heard from my lovely French friend this week – a long letter and also, in the post, a stack of souvenirs of her daughter. The funeral songs, poems and so on, photos, and the newspaper articles. I have read through them once, and will read them again. Sad, moving, but beautiful. She was just a lovely lovely person, and a great loss to the world at large, as well as to her immediate family.