Holiday Post! Warning-lots of pictures..(and a Hemlock!)

Hello all, I am home!

We had an amazing time in France. I am glad to report that, thanks to the help of a bored 16 year old, all the holiday washing is washed and ironed and put away even!!

I took Hemlock Ring blankie with me and cast on on about day 2. It grows really fast and is a real joy to knit. Rob and Lily soon realised I had rows where I couldn't talk (every 5th for those of you who have knit it!) and rows where I could. I knit it on magic loop on 2 circs and as it grew I had to restrain it with elastic bands! The only thing with it, I found, was that, as my needles were a little short, I could never see what is was going to look like. I knitted the whole thing to row 121 and am nearly finished the bind off row, which is taking forever. Some pics of me in knitting progress!




Now, I know that second picture looks like I am NAKED KNITTING, but please be assured, I am wearing a bikini!!! I never thought, pre weight watchers, that something I was knitting would be bigger than me!

You'll have to wait until the end of the post to check out the blankie!

We had a really lazy time, reading books

just a few! My absolute favourite was one my sister Rozi bought e for my birthday

Such a good book, it made me want to open a yarn shop on the coast!!! I would definitely recommend reading it. It is, at the moment, winging its way to the Cotswolds to Mary, who is back in hospital with an infection. Get better soon, Mary x

I bought some yarn
from the tiniest little shop, which also sold Triumph bras. Yes, work that one out!!!
And some buttons from the market

which turned out to be a bit expensive but I didn't realise until I came to pay. I'm too much of a wimp to barter, so I'm just glad Rob wasn't standing within earshot!!!

The first place we stayed in was near Montpellier, and was a rambling old place in the middle of nowhere and down a track that caught the underneath of the car every time we went down or up it. It was good for me, as I couldn't bear it and so would walk to the proper road with Floss and meet the car there. A small amount of exercise being better than none, you understand!!!






As you can see, it is a truly amazing place, with vaulted ceilings and stone floors and a real rustic French feel to it. It was open plan downstairs, with French doors all around the kitchen and dining area, and outside, really bohemian with hammocks and chairs and so on. Beautiful.

The second place we stayed was near Beziers, and much more modern and smaller. But a proper flat road to it. It was in a hamlet in the hills near a small town which served the best Camembert Au Four. That's baked camembert with a load of cream, tomatoes and bread to you and me and obviously very slimming.Especially when followed by a dessert you can hardly see over the top of due to the whipped cream and sauce chocolat. Deeeelish!

Look where the doors from our bedroom opened onto...

Sigh...I could cope with that view from my bed every day. Rob of course, had to spring from the bed into the pool to wake up! It's the fastest I've seen him move within 30 minutes of waking up!!



Flossie had a great time too..


Beziers, where Lily bought a great bag and I resisted extortionately priced shoes..


And this is Olargues, one of the prettiest towns in France (apparently) but not a shoe shop in sight, which lessened its attraction for me. Although nice ice cream!!



There was a great river there too, which Flossie thought was amazing. We all had a paddle...well, some of us had a swim!



And now the grande finale!! My hemlock ring blankie so far...




I have about 120 left of the 600 sts to bind off and then it will need a really good blocking. I am hoping to do that tomorrow.

Other news, we are off to the Secret Garden Party Festival this weekend. Grace Jones and Morcheeba are playing, amongst others, so we're really looking forward to that. I am off out tonight for a leaving do as a friend of mine is off to work in Saudi for 2 years. Me and a few other pigs are going for a chinese meal so my holiday eating is going out with a bang tonight!! Speaking of diets, I had my second and formal interview yesterday for the Weight Watchers leaders programme and they called me this afternoon to say they want me to come and work with them!!!! I even had to do a psychometric test, but even that didn't put them off!!!!!! I am booked to go to a swanky hotel in August for 3 days for the training workshops, so it is looking like I will be doing it!! Help!! Well, with Lily getting older, and probably being able to drive early next year, I will be in less demand as a taxi and so I get a bit of freedom back in terms of not having to be so flexible. So it will be nice to be back in the job market again, but this time on my own terms and as my own boss.

Plus, I'm thinking I will have to keep a load of Weight Watchers sweets and biscuits as stock so I'll never run out again!!!!