For everything there is a season .....

...and this is the season to do some knitting. It is not so cold that we sit huddled up in blankets of an evening, and not so warm that the wool squeaks as it struggles to move along my needles. It does get chilly here in the evenings so it makes sense for us to put the heater on and sit together in the main room after tea. Inevitably this means that the television is on, and there are so few programmes that really hold my interest that I usually end up asleep. So I thought it would be a good idea to do some knitting, and that keeps me awake until bed-time, ensuring the good chance of a decent night's sleep! The wool we can buy in the local shops here is rather harsh, and patterns are almost non-existent, so we tend to use an English lady who lives up in Arboleas, for our supplies. She imports a wide range of wool, patterns, needles, buttons etc, and sells them from her home. Last week she had a spring sale, so seven us piled into our friend Yvonne's people carrier and off we went. It was a lovely morning and while I was waiting for my lift, I took this photo of the line of trees that runs along the lower edge of the village. I think they look so lovely against the blue sky.

When we got to Elaine's, the high winds that had been forecast, started to blow, so reluctantly she moved her sale into the house. Usually we sit around on her patio surrounded by boxes of wool samples while we browse her folders of patterns and choose our colours. It wasn't so easy indoors but she managed to put plenty of things out on display, from wools in every colour imaginable, as well as styles ranging from chunky knits down to four ply, and the odd 'hairy' one as well. There was a coffee table covered in pattern folders, and a rail of knitted garments so we could see how the various yarns would look made up. We each selected a couple of pattterns, and found suitable yarns. I was quite excited as I had the news last weekend that in August I am going to be a Great-grandma! Yes, Emma is expecting a baby, and as it will be much too hot to knit for it in August, I thought I had better get started straight away. It will be lovely to make little tiny garment again. So I bought some lemon and cream 4 ply for first size jackets, and some turquoise double knit for the Autumn. Emma is only sixteen weeks gone but she had a scan this week and saw her baby sucking its thumb. At twenty weeks she will have another scan and then she will know whether it is a girl or boy. So maybe I will be visiting Elaine for some pink or blue wool after that!

When we had done our shopping, we all piled into the car again and drove to a nearby restaurant called Irene's where we had an excellent meal. Driving home we could really feel the wind buffeting the car, and we were glad that there were seven of us in there to help weigh it down! The sky was quite amazing during that journey. The mountains ahead of us were bathed in the sunshine, while the ones behind us were as black as thunder. And all the way along side us there was a complete rainbow with really bright colours. It was beautiful.