Another Sunday

Well hello, I hope this finds you well on a Sunday evening!  I do know that it’s Sunday because the calendar tells me so, but other than that it’s all a bit vague 🙂

There’s talk of change to the current lockdown situation but it’s still going to be a long road ahead to our new way of living.  I don’t know that I’m all that keen to go back to our world how it was – traffic congestion, understaffed hospitals with overworked NHS staff, climate chaos, homelessness, poverty … it would be wonderful if this experience really did give us a new way to live, but let’s get through this bit first.

How are you doing?  It’s lovely to hear from you through the blog comments, and I am glad that you seem to be coping with it all.  One thing I have done more over the last few weeks is rested – I don’t know about you but I’ve been exhausted most days and I feel like I haven’t even done very much!  I do know that talking to people via video link is one reason for this, though.  Apparently, un-structured group chats can be worse than business meetings when everyone takes it in turn to talk, according to this article, and I’ve been told that it’s also because our brains recognise that there is a discrepancy in our situation – we can see and hear the person we are speaking to but our brain knows they are not really there and tries hard to reconcile the two (I’ve been told it’s called cognitive dissonance but I’m sure you’ll correct me if I’m wrong!), leaving us drained from the effort.  In addition, there’s the low-level anxiety that we’ve been living with for the last few weeks, a constant background worry like the hum of a refrigerator … it’s perhaps no wonder that I’m asleep pretty much as soon as my head hits the pillow!

I’ve also found that it’s very easy to get sucked into the downward spiral of gloomy thoughts and get caught up in the emotion of it all even whilst knowing that it is not rational.  My husband, who is a very wise man, says this is because our nature is to look out for danger and to deal with it but in this situation, we can’t see any immediate danger whilst we are safe at home, so our minds try to pin the danger onto other things.  It might be the way a family member spoke to you, or a friend who hasn’t returned a text or a call, or it might be some event that happened even years ago, but it’s all an illusion created by our minds to try to give us something to focus our attention on, perceive as danger and neutralise.  Unfortunately, these things are not like a sabre-toothed tiger trying to get into your cave and so instead of being able to stab it with a spear and be done with it, we churn it over and over, never quite getting to the bottom of what the danger actually is.  It’s not a good place to be.

Once we recognise what we’re doing, though, it gives us the opportunity to try to do something about it.  For many of us, fortunately, this is a temporary state and doing something positive and preferably outdoors always makes me feel better.  The dog is always happy to come outside with me, and making a conscious effort to look for something lovely whilst we’re out on our walks is a far better use of my time than worrying.

We walked a different way today, over the fields to Hermitage Green which took us towards Newton-le-Willows.  Usually, we don’t see anybody but the “traffic” on the footpath today was definitely busier!  Once we got away from the fields and back onto the road towards Winwick, it was much quieter and I had time to snap a few photos of the hedgerows.  Oh, the greens of these new ivy leaves!  I’ve not edited this photo at all, the young leaves really are this colour and I love them!  (Not in my garden, though.  I pulled up another few miles of this stuff from the borders the other day – grr!)

The wild garlic is out in the small wooded area that you pass by.  You can smell it before you see it, and when you finally do spot it, it stretches out past the trees and out of sight.

Some has escaped into the verge … oh, it smells fabulous!

Bluebells were dotted here and there in the greenery …

and the cow parsley is out, stretching as far as you can see along the road.  This is the same road as in the top picture; there were hardly any cars out today but instead the road was occupied by cyclists and joggers.  I was happy to stay next to the flowery verge, and the dog was happy to sniff every single blade of grass until I had to tell him to hurry up or it would be dark before we got home!

This is Rowan blossom.  We’ve got a Rowan tree in our garden but I think that I had looked at the flowers so often that I had stopped noticing them.  When we got home, I made a point of stopping to look at our tree, smothered with creamy white blooms, and I was glad that we had gone out.

There’s finally been some progress with my husband’s sock and I’m up to the heel now.  Oh, I must show you this … I’ve got a new stitch marker!  What do you think of that bit of bling, eh?

No, it really isn’t what it looks like.  I haven’t won the lottery or raided a jewellery shop, but I did spot a bargain at the Tesco supermarket clothing sales last year …

and thought it would make a rather fabulous stitch marker.  One split ring later, and ta-dah!  I’ve no idea what it’s made of – plastic of some sort, perhaps? – but it catches the light beautifully and it has amused me no end to have a such “rock” on my knitting.  Small things … but it does give me my very own Audrey Hepburn moment and just imagine if Tiffany made stitch markers! 😀

Before I go, I’ve got a couple of exciting things to tell you about coming up this week.  First of all – it’s the Winwick Mum Sockalong’s 5th birthday on Tuesday (5 May)!  Wow!  I never imagined that the Sockalong would become what it is, or that I’d be celebrating it’s 5th birthday!

I’ve had a giveaway on the blog every year on the Sockalong’s birthday and this year will be no different.  I’ll be posting about that on Tuesday, whilst wearing my party hat and my hand knitted socks of course, and I hope you’ll come and take part in the just-for-fun yearly sock count.

The other thing is that I’ve got another pattern coming out on Friday (8 May).  Now, usually my patterns are all free on my blog unless they are a commission for someone else, but this one is different.  This one is going to be a paid-for pattern because it’s for a fundraising event – it’s actually the first of a few fundraising patterns that I’ve got planned for this year, but I’ll tell you more about it on Friday.  I can show you a sneak peek of the socks if you’d like to see them now, though …?

I’ll tell you all about them, the story behind them and where you can get a copy of the pattern if you’d like to on Friday.

So that’s my busy week sorted – birthdays and pattern launches – not bad to look forward to at all!  I hope you have a good week whatever you are doing – and don’t forget to come back on Tuesday for the Sockalong birthday! xx

 

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5 Responses

  1. Lenore says:

    Loved the walk and seeing the flowers the stitch marker is cute. I’m looking forward to your new sock pattern on Friday. It will be my next sock knit. I hope I’m brave enough to knit both socks at the same time. I need to check out your video ago. Take care. X x🌺

  2. happy hooker says:

    Thanks for taking us on your walk. I have 3 rowan trees, I must have a closer look at the blossom. That blingy stitch marker is lovely. I've used bits of necklaces too, to make stitch markers. I've also made a combined stitch marker/row counter from one of those plastic row counters that you put on the end of your needle. WOW! 5 years of sockalong. That's amazing. Looking forward to the pattern reveal. Stay safe. xx

  3. Susan Rayner says:

    A lovely walk and great photos of course!! I love the colour of the new socks!! Something so happy about yellow! I know exactly what your husband means about seeking something to worry about or dwell on! I used to call it Wallpapering sydrome – because it was so mind numbingly boring to do my mind used to start imagining all sorts of bleak and horrid things!! On a happier note – very happy 5th birthday Sockalong!! Yippee!

  4. Geraldine says:

    Christine, thank you for such a good blog, and so true about ??electronic?? contact and the little things getting us down at this time. I loved the pics, very uplifting and am also planning to make a marker (where do I get such a small split ring from?). I also hope when lockdown ends, that we return to a less frenetic pace of life!��

  5. Julie says:

    Lots of lovely things to inspire and delight on your walk.
    I'm enjoying the slower pace and the added quite time.

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