Yesterday, we drove about 5 hours from north Chester to Kingsteignton, a little town joined to Newton Abbot in Devon, just south of Exeter. Our lodgings here are at a place called Passage House, and it sits on a beautiful estuary (is there any other kind?). Our balcony faces the estuary, without the obstruction of other buildings, and it provides many delightful views as the tide goes in and out. There's a sail boat on the property that's dry-docked when the tide is out, looking ready to take off toward the English Channel when the tide is in. Yesterday, we watched some adolescent boys playing in the low tide, running, jumping, and sliding in the mud; and then later, we watched a couple canoeing inland as far as the tides would let them, toward our place.
Passage House is a historic place, although our condo isn't, where laborers who worked the marine transport market stayed. The area is rich in clay, and the workers hauled it to and from the boats.
This condo is only a one-bedroom two-story unit, but it's light and modern and clean, and it suits our needs very well. Exchanging or renting lodgings like this is always a roll of the dice because you generally have little choice, but we luck out more than often and have rarely gotten something that we didn't like.
Our routine is generally to settle in, walk around the area, find the nearest grocery store, and get our bearings. Last evening, we found the local Tesco, a huge store, and did most of our shopping for the week. These big Tescos have a lot of aisles, shelves, and products, but they are almost too big for me to enjoy for the kind of shopping we do. We prefer the smaller stores, the Spars, co-operatives (co-operative (all lower case) is a form of a major chain in England and it has good assortment of products), and the local produce and butcher shops. We have found our standard fare there - the kinds of cereals, fruit, vegetables, meats, etc., there without any problems at all.
We don't like to eat out often, mostly because it costs a lot of money for something we can do healthier and less expensive for ourselves. We can't control the ingredients when someone else is doing our cooking, and we're sure that eating out often isn't awfully good for us. Our standard fare, whether at home or when traveling, is whole grain cereals and fruit for breakfast; half a ham, salami, cheese, and mustard sandwich, with fruit, for lunch; meat, rice, vegetables, salad, and maybe fruit for supper. We like thin crust pizza, too, and have it half the time at home, topped with a good sausage, along with our salad; and yesterday we found a thin-crust pizza at Tesco along with some chili-flavored sausage, and that was our supper last night. It was really good.
When we went in search of the Tesco yesterday afternoon, we drove randomly around a little bit, ending up on a series of one-lane roads on the hill near the Dartmoor Forest, a National Park. We'll definitely want to see what we can tour there. According to our map, there are some roads through it, but except for one that begins north of us and runs in a southwest of us, most of the roads look like very small tiny and may not be well maintained. There are a series of small towns there that we'll want to explore.
We spent some time last evening looking at the literature we picked up about the area, trying to figure out the best way to tour it. It's always a challenge to "debug" a new place, but we generally manage. Maybe the tourist information office is open this morning. We have often used their services to find good maps and driving tours. I found a map with the local bus and train stations, and maybe there will be information there, too.
This pair of towns - Kingsteignton and Newton Abbot, form the most populated area of the three main places we've stayed during this trip, so it will take a little more work to figure them out. There will be little or no walking to town from here, although there are many great walking paths that go from place to place. Walking paths are characteristic of England and of other places in Europe we've visited, and we've enjoyed them tremendously.
Just below our condo is a series of paths through the marshlands, but we're not sure where they all go. We took a short walk last night, and it's wonderfully picturesque. We'll check them out a bit more today.
It's from Exeter that my Hawkins ancestor (William and his soon-to-be wife, Margaret) sailed - first to Barbados and then to Rhode Island, in the early 1600s. I want to see the Exeter port just to get that in my memory. I also want to see Cornwall and the north shores of this peninsula, near Exmoor Forest and the coast there, but I'm not sure just how much traveling around we'll be able to do. From home, such a great distance away, it seems like we can do everything when we get "there," but we know that's never the reality and we're in the midst of the place itself. When you're in a place, getting around takes some work and always a great deal more time than it does in the imagination. Lauren may have some other ideas, and he's not only the driver, but his ideas are good, too - so we'll see just what we come up with as the week goes on.
Lauren greeted me with "Happy Mother's Day" this morning. I had forgotten. Coming toward the end of our birthdays-anniversary week, it has gotten lost in the shuffle over the years, and it always comes as a surprise to me. Yep - my most important and precious job over my lifetime - mothering. Happy Mother's day to me. Happiness is being a mother, for sure. I am blessed.
I think it's about time I changed my position on clean clothes, and I'll at least change my shirt when I shower today! It's getting warmer, and, well .... I think I'll give myself a little hair cut today, too, and hair sticking down your shirt isn't fun. That gives me justification to change my decision. These slacks, though - the pockets are so great for carrying just about anything and everything in them, including a knitted cap and even one with a brim for those days it's really sunny. I think we're going to have some really sunny days here. The knitted cap will probably go in the laundry bag and the brimmed one on my head to stay for the duration.
Speaking of caps, I finished my fourth one yesterday. It's my favorite, and I'm going to make another using the same pattern. For those who are interested, the pattern is this:
Start:
Using dk yarn (just a little heavier than sport weight, I think, but less than knitting worsted) and two 4mm circular needles, cast on 104 stitches (cable cast on) and join.
K2, P2 ribbing for 1-1/2 to 2 inches.
Increase evenly to 140 stitches for body of cap.
Border:
Knit 3 rounds.
(This begins a 10-stitch pattern. It's good at this point if you put markers after every 10th stitch because you will eventuallly decrease at the markers. You will have 14 10-stitch patterns throughout.)
Rnd 4: (YO, K2tog) 4 times, K2.
Rnd 5: Knit around.
Repeat Rnd 4 & 5 3 times.
Crown:
Rnd 1: (K1, S1) 4 times, K2 - around. (10-stitch pattern)
Rnd 2: K around.
Repeat until hat measures about 7-1/2 to 8 inches (depending on how loose you want the crown to fit)
Decreases:
During the decreases, move to 4mm dpns (set of four is good) when the circulars are too long to work with.
Rnd 1: Follow 10-stitch pattern, and K2tog on stitches 9 and 10); repeat around
Rnd 2: Knit around.
Rnd 3: Same as Rnd 1, but K2tog on stitches 8 and 9); repeat around
Rnd 4: Knit around.
etc. until you have 14 stitches remaining (1 for each of the 10-stitch patterns).
Arrange so that the first 7 stitches on one needle and the other 7 on another.
Passage House is a historic place, although our condo isn't, where laborers who worked the marine transport market stayed. The area is rich in clay, and the workers hauled it to and from the boats.
This condo is only a one-bedroom two-story unit, but it's light and modern and clean, and it suits our needs very well. Exchanging or renting lodgings like this is always a roll of the dice because you generally have little choice, but we luck out more than often and have rarely gotten something that we didn't like.
Our routine is generally to settle in, walk around the area, find the nearest grocery store, and get our bearings. Last evening, we found the local Tesco, a huge store, and did most of our shopping for the week. These big Tescos have a lot of aisles, shelves, and products, but they are almost too big for me to enjoy for the kind of shopping we do. We prefer the smaller stores, the Spars, co-operatives (co-operative (all lower case) is a form of a major chain in England and it has good assortment of products), and the local produce and butcher shops. We have found our standard fare there - the kinds of cereals, fruit, vegetables, meats, etc., there without any problems at all.
We don't like to eat out often, mostly because it costs a lot of money for something we can do healthier and less expensive for ourselves. We can't control the ingredients when someone else is doing our cooking, and we're sure that eating out often isn't awfully good for us. Our standard fare, whether at home or when traveling, is whole grain cereals and fruit for breakfast; half a ham, salami, cheese, and mustard sandwich, with fruit, for lunch; meat, rice, vegetables, salad, and maybe fruit for supper. We like thin crust pizza, too, and have it half the time at home, topped with a good sausage, along with our salad; and yesterday we found a thin-crust pizza at Tesco along with some chili-flavored sausage, and that was our supper last night. It was really good.
When we went in search of the Tesco yesterday afternoon, we drove randomly around a little bit, ending up on a series of one-lane roads on the hill near the Dartmoor Forest, a National Park. We'll definitely want to see what we can tour there. According to our map, there are some roads through it, but except for one that begins north of us and runs in a southwest of us, most of the roads look like very small tiny and may not be well maintained. There are a series of small towns there that we'll want to explore.
We spent some time last evening looking at the literature we picked up about the area, trying to figure out the best way to tour it. It's always a challenge to "debug" a new place, but we generally manage. Maybe the tourist information office is open this morning. We have often used their services to find good maps and driving tours. I found a map with the local bus and train stations, and maybe there will be information there, too.
This pair of towns - Kingsteignton and Newton Abbot, form the most populated area of the three main places we've stayed during this trip, so it will take a little more work to figure them out. There will be little or no walking to town from here, although there are many great walking paths that go from place to place. Walking paths are characteristic of England and of other places in Europe we've visited, and we've enjoyed them tremendously.
Just below our condo is a series of paths through the marshlands, but we're not sure where they all go. We took a short walk last night, and it's wonderfully picturesque. We'll check them out a bit more today.
It's from Exeter that my Hawkins ancestor (William and his soon-to-be wife, Margaret) sailed - first to Barbados and then to Rhode Island, in the early 1600s. I want to see the Exeter port just to get that in my memory. I also want to see Cornwall and the north shores of this peninsula, near Exmoor Forest and the coast there, but I'm not sure just how much traveling around we'll be able to do. From home, such a great distance away, it seems like we can do everything when we get "there," but we know that's never the reality and we're in the midst of the place itself. When you're in a place, getting around takes some work and always a great deal more time than it does in the imagination. Lauren may have some other ideas, and he's not only the driver, but his ideas are good, too - so we'll see just what we come up with as the week goes on.
Lauren greeted me with "Happy Mother's Day" this morning. I had forgotten. Coming toward the end of our birthdays-anniversary week, it has gotten lost in the shuffle over the years, and it always comes as a surprise to me. Yep - my most important and precious job over my lifetime - mothering. Happy Mother's day to me. Happiness is being a mother, for sure. I am blessed.
I think it's about time I changed my position on clean clothes, and I'll at least change my shirt when I shower today! It's getting warmer, and, well .... I think I'll give myself a little hair cut today, too, and hair sticking down your shirt isn't fun. That gives me justification to change my decision. These slacks, though - the pockets are so great for carrying just about anything and everything in them, including a knitted cap and even one with a brim for those days it's really sunny. I think we're going to have some really sunny days here. The knitted cap will probably go in the laundry bag and the brimmed one on my head to stay for the duration.
Speaking of caps, I finished my fourth one yesterday. It's my favorite, and I'm going to make another using the same pattern. For those who are interested, the pattern is this:Start:
Using dk yarn (just a little heavier than sport weight, I think, but less than knitting worsted) and two 4mm circular needles, cast on 104 stitches (cable cast on) and join.
K2, P2 ribbing for 1-1/2 to 2 inches.
Increase evenly to 140 stitches for body of cap.
Border:
Knit 3 rounds.
(This begins a 10-stitch pattern. It's good at this point if you put markers after every 10th stitch because you will eventuallly decrease at the markers. You will have 14 10-stitch patterns throughout.)
Rnd 4: (YO, K2tog) 4 times, K2.
Rnd 5: Knit around.
Repeat Rnd 4 & 5 3 times.
Crown:
Rnd 1: (K1, S1) 4 times, K2 - around. (10-stitch pattern)
Rnd 2: K around.
Repeat until hat measures about 7-1/2 to 8 inches (depending on how loose you want the crown to fit)
Decreases:
During the decreases, move to 4mm dpns (set of four is good) when the circulars are too long to work with.
Rnd 1: Follow 10-stitch pattern, and K2tog on stitches 9 and 10); repeat around
Rnd 2: Knit around.
Rnd 3: Same as Rnd 1, but K2tog on stitches 8 and 9); repeat around
Rnd 4: Knit around.
etc. until you have 14 stitches remaining (1 for each of the 10-stitch patterns).
Arrange so that the first 7 stitches on one needle and the other 7 on another.
K1 from the needle closest to you. K2tog, one from the needle closest to you and the other from the needle farthest away. Repeat until one stitch remains, and K that stitch.
You should have 8 stitches now.
Slip stitches to other end of needle like an I-cord.
Working as for I-cord, K1, K2tog 3 times, K1, and slip to other end of needle. Should be 5 stitches now.
Work I-cord for a few rows and bind off, leaving tail long enough to tack down I-cord to make a button top and then to weave in.
Weave in all ends, and wear!
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