“I've been thinking with my guts since I was fourteen years old, and frankly speaking, between you and me..."

 "... I have come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains.”

I love High Fidelity. I read the book as a teenager and at some point my Mum must have rented the tape (tape!) from the video man who used to call in to people at home and rent a film for a couple of quid. They were obviously bootleg, you had to know someone else on his ‘route’ to get him to visit, and if you’d been a customer for a while you could request films and he’d ‘see what he could do’. Such an innocent time.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I saw the movie version of High Fidelity. And I loved it. I was pretty into music as a teenager (I would have been….12 when the film came out, a high impressionable age). I wanted to own every album ever. I owned stuff I thought I should even though I wasn’t that keen (I know I’m committing suicide here, but Nirvana’s Nevermind would come under this category). I knew Rob Fleming/Gordon (book/film) was a loser, and horrible really, but he was still a sort of icon to me.

I still watch the film reasonably often, maybe once a year? Which doesn’t sound like much, but think honestly, think about it. What movie do you watch every year other than Christmas films and Lord of the Rings??

Anyway, I've watched the film countless times but I hadn’t reread the book….until now.

And my goodness, Rob Fleming is an absolute arsehole! He admits it himself of course, but I just didn’t remember how bad he was! He’s horrible. Really awful. Sexist, self-absorbed, ignorant, prejudiced… And yet you can’t help but relate to him. Everyone has the same thoughts he does, he just has more, and worse ones, and he believes them and acts on them. But his fears are universal, of stalling, of committing and missing out, not wanting something but not wanting its absence.

Which just makes his progression even more compelling. It happens fairly quickly ostensibly after Laura takes him back, but there are moments peppered throughout. He has minor breakthroughs for himself when he’s chasing down past lovers but the reader can see the big ones – realising Charlie is a pretentious twit, struggling to get anything going for his birthday, confronting his fear of loss when Laura’s Dad passes away.

These prime him, tenderise him, slough off the hard shell he’s been building. So when Laura takes him back you can see that he has changed. He’s still the same person of course - he’s probably still an arsehole! - but there’s potential again. Wiggle room for him to not be such an acerbic critic but to embrace a bit more, fill his life a bit more.

You see this when he meets Laura’s friends who he really likes, despite their ‘awful’ record collection (a moment which made my 12 year old self cringe, as her 30 year old equivalent quite likes a lot of what Rob considers naff), and you see this after Marie’s gig at Championship Vinyl where he wants his life to be more and sees himself as the driver for this rather than railing at the world for not giving it to him on a plate.

This book teaches the Robs of the world that people can surprise you. Laura isn’t sitting around waiting for you, she’s got problems of her own. Barry can actually sing; he can read the room and play for the crowd rather than just for himself. Dick can meet a woman and have a relationship. People can be fantastic even if they different hobbies or musical choices to you. Your parents can have a social life.

Others are not side-characters in your life, we are not what you have assumed we are. Or if we are, that’s not our totality. We are all multi-faceted, well-developed main characters. You just don’t get to hear our inner narrator or see the backstory.

Because, essentially, it’s not what you like. It’s what you are like.

*Quote from Nick Hornby

"Nothing is more real..."

"...than nothing."

I am lacking motivation.

Mainly the motivation to knit, but also to write this blog so forgive this nothing of a post.

I wasn't happy with the way the sleeve of Ranger (Ravelry link here) was turning out so I've ripped it back, but I can't seem to motivate myself to start it again. Maybe I should just cast on another project that I'm a bit more excited about, but I've felt like that for over a week now and I still haven't. I even had some days of work and still didn't knit!

Didn't knit, didn't bake, didn't exercise. I cleaned and I read (which is like saying I breathed and blinked) but it doesn't feel the same. In my defence I have been preoccupied with house stuff.... That is very stressful. Maybe I just need to cast on something very very simple and boring to unwind.

Sigh.

Hopefully by next week I'll be in better spirits.

*Quote from Samuel Beckett.

“Sir…”

“…do we get to win this time?”

So I thought I was finished with Navigate, but after a few wears CB and I really aren’t happy with it. The neckline is just too low down.

It would be fairly straightforward to undo the cast off and increase the amount of ribbing, but I’m not sure that would result in the kind of look we’re going for. That would have more of a…Elizabethan Ruff kinda vibe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruff_(clothing)

Maybe I can knit an inch or two of stockingette and then move into ribbing? Thing is, that might still look silly and I can’t think of a way to find out until I actually do it.

Ideally I’d rip right back down to where the pattern repeats stopped, and just carry on knitting in pattern for a few more inches. I don’t know if I’ll be able to work out where I was in the pattern though. I did keep my charts (not sure why I did, perhaps I sensed I might have to re-knit it?) so maybe I can fudge it from them. The front of a complicated knitted jumper isn’t really the kind of thing I want to fudge but needs must as the devil drives.

Also not sure how a couple of inches of unblocked jumper will look like plonked on the top of the blocked pieces, but I guess we’re already out of my comfort zone, might as well dance around a little while I’m there.

*Quote from John Rambo.

“Ares hates those…”

“…who hesitate.”

I’ve finished knitting my usual “welcome to the world tiny baby” outfit of a cardigan and hat for my nephew due in April. I’m worried his parents will think it’s a little girly, but hopefully they won’t. It’s one of those things that should matter, but it does to some people and it’s difficult to tell who.

The jumper is Hundreds, by Kelly van Niekerk (Ravelry link here), and the hat is Child’s Ear Hat, by Good Knit (Ravelry link here). Both patterns were free (we love free patterns) and used up a good ol’ chunk of stash wool. The green is Hayfield DK and is surprising soft for a cheap acrylic. Would buy again.

Both patterns were well written and I like the end result. Would definitely knit both again.

Not much else to say. Badda bing badda boom.

*Quote from Euripides.

“End, begin, all the same…”

“…Big change. Sometimes good, sometimes bad.”

Okay. I’ve finished. I have completed CB’s Navigate jumper.

In summary? 

I would not knit this again. Not without a lot of deviations from the pattern.

The low down? 

I hate a lot of the finishes.

I hate the stupid cast on and how it’s made the cuffs look all stretched out. I hate that I didn’t use the fancy bind off (because I hated the cast on) and that now looks a bit severe.

I hate that the neckline is too wide, even though I knitted it narrower than the pattern specified.

I hate that it’s a bit see-through (though that’s down to my choice of wool and desire for a thin jumper for a warm-blooded man).

I hate that I’m convinced on the first day he tries to wear it, it’ll snag on something or a seam will unravel.

BUT I love some things about it too though.

I love that it fits him like a glove.

I love that the sleeves are the perfect length.

I love the cable detailing on the front and back.

I love how soft it is.

I love how much CB loves it.

I love that I knitted a man-sized jumper in fingering-weight wool as a testament to how much I love this man.

*Quote from The Dark Crystal.

“Shabby indeed, and small and poorly furnished, and yet his…”

“…the home he had made for himself, the home he had been so happy to get back to after his day's work.”

House-hunting is stressful. I thought it would be fun – and at times it is – but it’s mostly stressful.

The more you look the more you realise how picky you are. And how little your budget can buy you (even though it’s all the money you’ll ever have in the world). And how little you know about how much renovations cost. And how little confidence in your ability to barter and secure a bargain.

I know you’re supposed to just know when you walk into a house that you want to buy it. You’re supposed to get a magical feeling that flutters up and down you, filling you with warmth and a happy glowing warm-happy-glow. I imagine you feel like Harry Potter does when grasping his wand in Ollivander’s wand shop. Oh err. “Grasping his wand” doesn’t sound quite right….Moving on!

I have looked round a good handful of houses so far and have yet to get anything like that. The only strong feelings I get are “this place is so gross”.

I get caught up with all the bollocks you shouldn’t – the décor, the cleanliness, the nicks and marks and loose floorboards and all that jazz. I want to look and see the space, the lines of sight, the potential a house might have.

We have set ourselves the goal to buy a house sometime this year. We have decided to look thoroughly where we currently live. We like it there. It’s quiet. You can also get more house for your money owing to the proximity to a thing which people don’t like to live near but we think we can live with (forgive the vagueness, I just don’t want to advertise where I live).

But we are picky little pandas. Although our current two-doubles-and-a-box-room rental is way too big for us, we are only looking at houses with a bigger footprint. We want to buy a forever home (because we hate searching and looking round houses) so we want to make sure it has the room to host us, any potential little ones, and have a guest sleep over (preferably in a real bed). Plus a decent garden. And not feeling too overlooked or crammed in.

Like I said, picky, picky, little pandas.

The fun bit is when you see a house online you like the look of. Imagining what you’d do with each room, where you’d put bits of your own furniture (essentially, where the kettle will go). But that in itself is dangerous – falling in love with a house purely based on online photos. I know houses can’t catfish, but they can do something not far off. Rooms that look spacious turn out to be boxes. Gardens that look rolling and lush run parallel with main roads. And did I mention I’m not good at looking past what’s in front of me to see the potential?

I know we have the next 10 months to achieve our goal – and there are no consequences if we don’t – but I can’t help but long for my own home. Somewhere I can make changes without having to ask a landlord for permission. Somewhere I can give out my address without warning people that it’ll probably be out of date in a year or two.

Not to mention not paying rent. That one won’t be so bad either, I imagine!


*Quote from Kenneth Grahame

“And that was when it hit me. Like an anvil falling out of the sky…”

“… directly on my skull.”

Wow this jumper is big! I’m used to seaming me-sized jumpers before blocking them, but as I want this one to be perfect I decided to block the pieces separately before seaming them together. Luckily I started with only doing the back and one sleeve because, wow this jumper is big!

I originally decided to only block half as I was worried I wouldn’t have enough blocking pins (a theory in which I was 100% correct by the way!) but I barely had enough space for these pieces let alone double.

Sleeve didn’t need much stretching, which worries me, and I’m nervous about overstretching the cuffs and waistband as these seem quite loose in some of the project pictures in Ravelry. I wonder if it’s  because of the horrible and needlessly complicated cast on. On my penultimate cast-on with it I think I finally got it right as I didn’t have unwelcome loops I had to gather up afterwards, but I wonder if that’s reduced the elasticity of the ribbing edge. If that is the case I can always feed some elastic in later, if CB wants.

The cabling has blocked out nicely. I worry it is too flat now, but you can still see all the movement so I think I’m worrying over nothing.

Seaming is next!

*Quote from Ernest Cline

"It was the best of times..."

"...it was the worst of times."

I wanted to be able to write this week with a finished object but unfortunately I can’t.

I am very close to finishing CB’s Navigate jumper. I’m knitting the second sleeve and then I have to sew up and block (not necessarily in that order). I have run into a couple of difficulties with the pattern (and my own idiocy) but I’ll save those for when I can show off the whole thing.

In other knitting news, I took advantage of an online sale and purchased the wool for another two big projects.

Lots and lots of Cascade 220! It is squishy and lovely and I can’t wait to cast on.

I’m planning on using the Red Wine Heather:

to knit CB Ranger by Jared Flood (Ravelry link here)

© Brooklyn Tweed

And the Shire:

to knit myself Tinder, also by Jared Flood (Ravelry link here)

© Brooklyn Tweed/Jared Flood

I don’t think I’ll cast them on straight away as I’m aware that the birth of my nephew is fast approaching, so I’ll probably knit some baby clothes first.

I like the look of Hundreds by Kelly van Niekerk (Ravelry link here)

© sallyravels

But there’s always the possibility of something simple and colourful like Fuss Free Baby Cardigan by Louise Tilbrook (Ravelry link here)

© LouiseTilbrookDesigns

Despite an early focus on jumpers, I still think my aim of completing 12 projects this year is achievable. I’m still not sure how to use up some of my stash – and I really do want to use up some of my stash – but hopefully completing some baby stuff will help at least!

*Quote from Charles Dickens.

“Always something happening…”

“…And nothing going on.”

Something that knitters on Ravelry seem to do is “Flash their Stash”, I’m not sure why exactly but I really enjoy seeing everyone’s yarn hoards.

And boy howdy are some of them big! I mean, taking up the whole floor of a room kinda big. I wish I had the time to knit all of that, or the money to buy it! But I know that even if I did, knowing I had such a huge quantity of unused yarn would make me anxious. I like using things up, I like keeping my possessions down at a sensible amount (based on storage space and need).

As I already feel my stash is a little high, I thought I would “flash” it here once a year so I can keep tracks on whether it seems to be growing and to see whether I have any repeat offenders (yarn that is in the stash year after year without ever getting used) that I can donate/repurpose/throw away.

So here it is:

(Not pictured: half a ball of sock yarn)

Which then gets bagged up:

Which all fits into stored in a medium sized box.

It looks like quite a lot there…Compared with some other knitters, it’s really not, but to me it looks like an unreasonable amount.

I worry about the six on the top left in the first picture (bottom right in second) as they are horrid acrylic and should probably be burnt, but they are usful in a pinch or to use a string, so I always shy away from the bin.

I am currently knitting a jumper with the dark blue skeins on the right in picture one (left in picture two) and have some rough plans for a few other balls…

Not much else to say, I guess we’ll see where we are in a year’s time!

*Quote from John Lennon

“A wizard is never late, Frodo Baggins. Nor is he early…”

“…He arrives precisely when he means to.”

I have to be honest, the main reason I decided to knit these mitten is the pattern name.

I mean. Wizard Warmers. Is there anything better than that?

The pattern is by Maire Martin who has generously made it available for free on Ravelry (link here)

I blogged previously about my disastrous first attempt where the needles snapped, so although I had to wait for new needles to arrive, I think it was worth it. CB certainly thinks so!

You can also wear them to cover your fingers in cold weather:

They can also be worn on either hand and (thanks to some only marginally messed up finishing) can be worn either side out as well!

I still struggle to knit with DPNs without creating ladders – only small ones, it’s true, but ladders nonetheless. I do not understand how other people do it. Or how I’ve done it in the past. I pull my stiches really tight when I move from one needle to another but I’m still left with an extra few mms of wool each time. SIGH.

*Quote from Peter Jackson

"Okay, campers, rise and shine and don't forget your booties..."

"...'cause it's cold out there today!"

Oh we are moving now!

As you know I’ve stated Navigate again (Ravelry link here), but this time I’m taking no chances. I’m reading the pattern a few times before knitting, I’ve reprinted the chart so it covers the entire jumper front, and I’ve colour-coded the cable instructions. It’s a large-scale operation now:

But (touch wood) it seems to be paying off. The knit makes sense to me. I can read my stiches quite well, and I seem to be staying in the right place on the chart.

And it’s looking fab:

I have concerns about the drape of the resulting fabric; I think the final jumper might be too thin and maybe too holey. But I’ll make my mind up on that once I finish the front. It might work in CB’s favour if it’s thin as he runs so hot usually and I know he’ll want to wear this as much as possible.
I think I’m going to knit the collar up an inch or two more, in the pattern photos the neckline seems to be a bit far down the shoulders which, although lovely, isn’t the look I’m going for.

I won’t lie, I’m not finding it easy. I have to concentrate quite hard and I worry about how to fix things if I do mess up. I worry my stitches are too loose or they’re inconsistent. This is a high profile and high pressure knit, and I really want to get it right.

Originally I thought I might be able to get this finished in a month or two, but I’m thinking it will be a long-term thing. I just don’t want to rush and make mistakes. I think I was right to keep it as a separate New Year Resolution!

I just hope it will be done in time to be worn come winter!

*Quote from Groundhog Day.

“And I've made up my mind…”

“…I ain't wasting no more time.”

Here we go again – welcome to 2019!

Let's look back on the resolutions I set myself in 2018

1. Read 26 books (one every fortnight).

Smashed it.

2. Knit myself a jumper.

Smashed it.

3. Knit CB a jumper.

Started it in August but found it too stressful and gave up. Have cast on again now so hoping to get this done early in the New Year (read: before April....maybe?).

4. Knit myself a pair of socks. 

Smashed it

5. Knit CB a pair of socks. 

URGGHH! This was infuriatingly difficult, I just had no motivation to pick them up. I did however have a day or so of dedicated knitting just before Christmas and so I can confirm I smashed this.

6. Remain the right size to fit into my wedding dress.

I should probably check this….I’m roughly the same size so I’m calling this a smasher.

7. Moisturise after showering.

Most times. Counting this as a smash.

Overall:

• I read 58 books 
• I watched 74 films 
• I knitted 16 items

Very happy I’ve trounced the book score – I do take a lot of enjoyment from reading, but it’s one of those things that I find surprisingly easy to fall out of habit doing. I’m keeping it as a resolution this year because of that reason.

Films are much of a muchness. I’d like to go to the cinema more regularly I think. It’s not the cheapest, but I really enjoy the experience.

Knitting is yet to find a state of equilibrium. I like to keep up with it, but my finger really needs a break! The skin is pretty hard and kind of swollen…

So, now we’re well and truly finished with 2018, let's have a think about what we want to achieve this year:

RESOLUTIONS

1. Read 52 books (one every week).
2. Bake the American Wedding Cake from Mary Berry’s Baking Bible.
3. Knit 12 items (incuding finishing CB’s jumper).
4. Go to the cinema 12 times (once a month). 
5. Generally take care of my skin and hair. 

*Quote from Whitesnake

"Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves..."

"...and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them."

Finally finished my Viktoria cardigan!

This pattern (Ravelry Link here) is by MillaMia Sweden and it was a really quick and fun project.
I particularly liked that you knit the borders of the front while you knit the main panels, so it reduces the number of stiches you have to go back and pick up. The neck band was a little tricky, but if you read it carefully and think about it, it does make sense.

I did run out of the cream wool I was using though. I could have bought more, but as the whoel point of doing this was to use up stash wool I really didn't want to ultimately be in the same position I was when I started.

Instead I used another ball of creamy wool I had lying around. MISTAKE.

The new wool is horrid. Very plasticky feeling and an odd drape. I also had a clear delineation between the two. Now, for the record, I know I should have just ripped it out, bought more of the original wool, and re-knit. But I didn't. Instead, I knitted a little pocket to disguise the mis-match. I mean...it's a jumper for a newborn.It will be outgrown in the blink of an eye.

The pocket looks quite sweet I think. It takes attention away from the yarn change, which is what I wanted it to do. It was more work than just buying new wool though and if I could do it all again, I'd probably just buy more wool. But at the same time I have no regrets.

Anyway... to go along with this bad boy I swiftly crafted a little hat to go with it:

This pattern is called Sea Monkey Baby Hat (Ravelry link here) by Kelly McClure and I think it's adorable. I knitted it flat, then grafted the top so it would be seamless, though I seamed the back (it lays pretty flat though).

I think I gave it too much height, or maybe I didn't make the ears big enough? Either way, again I remind myself that baby will outgrow this faster than the time it took to knit it. And it was a very quick knit!

*Quote from Antoine de Saint Exupéry

"Them heavy people hit me in a soft spot..."

"...Them heavy people help me."

A terrible thing happened.

I was a happy little thing knitting some mittens for CB, when I open my bag one morning and see that my project has gone from this:

to this:

My needles have snapped and half the stitches fallen off. Not even gonna bother watermarking that one. Luckily I still have these guys to get along with!

Happy Knitmas everyone!

*Quote from Kate Bush

"I would rather dance as a ballerina, though faultily..."

"...than as a flawless clown."

They’re done. They’re finally finished. They need to be blocked, but I’m counting them as done.
And they’re beautiful. There is a slight hole where the neckline joins the neckband, but I think blocking will smooth that, and it’s really not noticeable unless you’re me.

I feel such relief getting these done. It was quite a stressful build up. I have other things to finish/start and finish before Christmas comes, but I feel as though the lion’s share is done now. My mountain has been climbed. My fingers can regrow the skin around the knuckle without fear of being immediately rubbed away again.

I love how the cables meet at the joins, and although you’d never notice it, I love how the increases on the sleeves look running along the bottom of the arms.

I take my hat off to knitting designers. A lot of time and effort go into designing these little details and you wonder if half of them go without being noticed. Plus it would be very easy for me to go wrong and mess it up, either in the knitting or in the joining.

I really enjoyed making these (other than the deadline stress). I like the pattern and I like the wool. The pattern is interesting enough to keep you going, but simple enough that you can commit it to memory and knit away happily. The finished jumpers are lovely and soft, but they have some heft and mass to them. Lovely cuddly squidgy things.

I would definitely knit more of these in the future – depending on how these two wear. I’ve heard that they can stretch quite a lot sideways so we’ll see.

*Quote from Margaret Atwood.

“Examine for a moment an ordinary mind…”

“…on an ordinary day.”

I’m currently writing this with four projects still on the needles. I am hoping to get them all finished by the 
middle of December (the only trouble I think I will have is summoning the willpower to continue those socks for CB) and I can’t help but think of my next lot of projects.

Obviously I still owe CB a jumper. I have a lovely pattern for it (Navigate - Ravelry link here) and some lovely wool (Cascade Yarns Heritage in navy). This will be the next thing I cast on.

It would also be a snip to knit up a couple of baby hats. That will allow me to give the most recent new mothers in my life a little gift, but not mean I am once again putting off Navigate. I should also be able to use up some of my stash on them, which is always a nice feeling. 

But then what?

My queue will then be empty. A bizarre occurrence. Obviously I have plenty of patterns in my favourites, but I have to actually decide what to make. And buy some wool.

The only reason I feel I should make this decision now is because I can buy the wool for the next few projects at a reduced cost in Black Friday sales…but it seems a little premature. It feels disrespectful to the projects I need to finish (and start!) first. 

So what’s on the long-list at the moment? Too many similar things!

Not including Navigate or two baby hats, I have 39 faves:

• 17 jumpers
• 6 cowls/scarves
• 2 things for CB
• 6 knitspo
• 4 baby things
• 3 tops
• 1 hat

From those numbers I’m think I should knit a jumper and a cowl. 

And always something for CB. Even if it never gets made...

*Quote from Virginia Woolf

"You can catch more flies with a drop of honey..."

"...than with a barrel of vinegar."

I don't think I ever posted about the Honey Cowl I was knitting for CB (blogged about here).

Well I did finish on time, casting off literally minutes before going to meet him from the station after work, before we flew to America the next day.

As you can see, it turned out really well. I have messed up a few lines so the pattern sort of flips on itself, but honestly you don't notice it unless you really look up close and hunt for it you can see it in the picture below actually). And even then it doesn't look bad, just a design feature.

The texture is really nice too:

As is the drape of the resulting fabric. I did run out of the Rowan Summerlite DK I was using (colour is Ocean if you're interested) when I was casting off, so we do have a darker wool right at the very end. This is hidden, however, as the edges curl in on themselves. Can you tell how smug I am for getting away with this?

It was a nice little pattern and the wool is lovely to work with. And as CB has worn it every day to work since flying back from the States, I call this a success!

*Quote from an old proverb.

“Don't ever become a pessimist … a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist...”

“...but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.”

Well we talked about panic last week, and don’t you know it’s a hell of a motivator!?

Knowing the absolute minimum I need to accomplish is to finish the jumpers for my niece and nephew for the beginning of December I decided to focus on that. And work out how many days I had. Or how many pattern repeats I had to finish each day. The conclusion was that I could just about do it, but only if I knitted on my commutes to and from work as well as every evening I didn’t have a social or work engagement already booked in.

As a result, I have been good as gold, knitting whenever I could, and have these beauties to show for it:

I still have a lot to do, but at least I feel I’m making headway into the cabled mountain I have embarked upon!

Gratuitous pictures of cables now follow...

*Quote from Robert A. Heinlein

"Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie..."

"O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

The Christmas Panic Begins...

Although still a long(ish) time out from Christmas, the announcement of an early Christmas party has meant that all my Christmas present-buying and knitting deadlines have been moved forward by about two weeks. This shouldn’t be too bad except as the children I knit for grow ever bigger, the jumpers also get bigger and therefore take longer to finish. I also have two friends with babies due by the end of the year and I would love to give their newborns little jumpers.

I have one baby jumper completed, the Green Wonder (blogger about here):

But…I don’t like it very much! And I therefore don’t really want to give it as a present to anyone…
I am most of the way through another baby jumper, Viktoria:

And I have cast on one of the Christmas jumpers, Gabrielle:

CB’s socks have yet again taken a backseat, as has his jumper. I feel really guilty, but I’m just worried I won’t be finished with Christmas knitting in time! To think it was a New Year’s Resolution of mine to knit both of those before the end of the year…that makes me feel very guilty. I wonder if I can have a few weeks of furious knitting come December!


*Quote from Robert Burns

"Without love in the dream..."

"...it will never come true."

22. Friday 28th September - LA (West Hollywood)
First lie-in for a while!
As I found LA a bit too stressful to go for our usual drive/walk about, we decided to go to Venice Beach.

It wasn't the best day weather-wise, so no muscley men I'm afraid...

But it was the perfect day for a walk on the beach, even if I got a load of beach tar stuck to my foot!

23. Saturday 29th September - Drive to Sequoia National Park
We stopped off at CALM (California Living Museum) on the way, a brilliant nature reserve specialising in animals native to California (all too injured to be in the wild). It was fantastic, way better than I was expecting. Big faves were the touch-aquarium, beaver and porcupine.

Anemone

Beaver

Porcupine

Also liked the birds - condors, falcons, bald eagles, vultures, a road runner... Absolutely brilliant.

Peregrine Falcon

Vulture

Roadrunner

24. Sunday 30th September - Sequoia National Park
I don't know if it's the altitude or what, but we struggled with our energy levels today, and yet got really silly mid-afternoon.

We did a few walks in the park, saw shorter but bigger trees than previously (if that makes sense), ending with the biggest of the them all: General Sherman.

I think my favourite thing was Tharp's Log, which was a cabin made out of a huge fallen log!

So cool.

25. Monday 1st October - Hearst Castle
Oh wow. Oh wow oh wow.
Had we known it would be so good we would have booked more tours. We went on the main rooms tour which seemed to fly by in seconds despite being an hour long.

Also saw wild zebras roaming with the cattle, before visiting the huge male elephant seals lounging on the beach!

26. Tuesday 2nd October - Pacific Coast Highway
First off we stopped by the elephant seals again, which are so interesting and mesmerising. I don't know what it is but I could watch them forever.

We then carried up the highway, seeing some beautiful views and some which should have been beautiful but were obscured by the fog!

We had lunch in a remote little beach cove, all very secluded and romantic. Tricky to climb into but very worth it. We did leave pretty sharpish once we realised the tide was coming in though!

We also stopped at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park but, as the hike we wanted to do was closed, we took the ranger's advice and walked another. It was boring, too steep, and it didn't even have a good view! Though my vision was obscured slightly by CB spraying bug repellent in my eyes...

27. Wednesday 3rd October - Monterey
We took a whale watching tour all morning, which I thought was going to be very very dull but turned out to be absolutely wonderful.

We saw a group of humpback whales lunge feeding:

And we saw them breach:

We saw a pod of orcas who were just going nuts having a laugh and showing off for us!

It was so good the drivers stayed out for extra time and actually called their orca-mad boss to come out and see!

Absolutely fascinating and so much fun. Great day.

28. Thursday 4th October - San Francisco
Final night!

On our drive from Monterey to SF we stopped at the Winchester Mystery House.

SO GOOD. We did both tours, so saw pretty much every room. It is mad. Less creepy than I thought it would be, but more historic and interesting and rambling.

A particular fave was the witch's cap room which, when you stood in the very centre made it sound like you were speaking into a microphone whilst underwater, but only to you - no one else in the room heard your voice any different!

Physics is fun.

29. Friday 5th October - Flight home (and CB's birthday!)
To be honest I felt like the holiday was ending as soon as we dropped Drive Boy (our rental car) off  the day before.

I felt sad the holiday was over, but I felt so much more relaxed than I did when still in Sheffield.

It was such an amazing holiday, really difficult to pic out favourite things or even favourite days or places. And it's corny and I've said it before, but honestly the holiday wouldn't have been nearly as good without being there with CB. He's my best friend and I never grow sick or tired of spending time with him. Every day is an adventure - but this month was more so than most!


*Quote from the Grateful Dead.