Wednesday 3 December 2014

A Rainy Day, Yarn and Tea - Again!

Raining again here today. Actually thunder and lightning and heavy rain this time, not the lovely drizzle of last week.



I do love listening to the thunder rumbling, but driving in heavy rain is not much fun. I will be heading out to do the school pick up soon.  It is always a relief to be home, tucked up nice and warm and safe. 

It reminds me of two of my favourite childrens books. (I even love books about rain!)



You Can Do It, Sam was one of Miss Butterfly's favourites and is now one of Cuddlepie's. Oldest to youngest! So I have been reading this one aloud for about 10 years now.

I just love the imagery the sentence on this page evokes - 'and they wriggled their toes in fat socks, enjoying their cakes with cocoa.' I don't know what it is about the word 'fat' with 'socks'. It just gives the perfect feel.



In this book, they enjoy hot chocolate - same thing!




Gorgeous illustrations! I can always be tempted by a beautiful childrens book.

Knitting wise, I have been working on the school's Knitting Club project for this year, Knit The Nativity. I was assigned the three shepherds (I have completed two so far; I'm a bit behind!)





Kneeling shepherd

Standing shepherd who still needs his crook!
Here we are at Knitting Club




The stable in the book is made from cardboard, but I think you will agree that The Men's Shed here in Hamilton did a fabulous job of constructing a wooden stable for the Nativity.
And aren't those Wise Men amazing?
It was a wonderful project to work on, particularly as the children are so proud of their work. They have such ownership of the Nativity now and you hear them telling people which part they worked on.
I wonder what we will do next year?!

My own knitting is coming along slowly. I have finished the main piece of Puss and need to do the sleeves so I can join it all up and knit the yoke.



I am reading Teatime For The Firefly by Shona Patel. It is about the tea plantations in Assam during and after World War II. I have always had a fascination with India and so love books about India. I am enjoying this one so far. I am only about a quarter into it and it is moving quite slowly. But I never find that to be a fault as I'm a slow and steady person myself. 
One of my all time favourite books set in India is The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye.
And boy, do I love a Bollywood movie! They are just so much fun, so colourful - you can't help dancing along to that music! Pure escapism.

Joining today with Small Things for Yarn Along.

And just a photo of a visitor to a hole under our cubby house. I will miss all the wildlife here when we move.
Can you tell from the photo? You can see how well they can blend into the leaf litter around them when they bury their heads. Lovely little echidna - our dog has learnt the hard way to leave them alone!





4 comments:

  1. Jayne what a sweet project! And how lovely that the children have some joy in the project!
    That looks just exactly like a hedgehog! I have never even heard of Enchidna!! How big are they? I must go research this...

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    1. An echidna is the Australian version of a hedgehog. They are very elusive so rare to spot one. The Nativity project was great fun - I am looking forward to next year, where hopefully I can be a bit more organised and actually finish on time.

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  2. Hi Jayne, I think this all looks great and what a good idea to teach the children to knit. Jacinta had been telling me about that. My mother learnt to knit when she was 5 from her teacher at the one teacher school she attended and she knitted until just before she passed away. What a blessing it was to all of us. Thanks for sharing

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    1. It was lovely and the kids were so pleased with themselves! Even if they just knitted a few rows, they said that was what they made. I haven't seen Jacinta recently (well, we have crossed paths but always one of us rushing somewhere!), so not sure what is the plan for next year. It is a hard one to top!

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