Born on the 4th of July. Not.

Well, that WAS the due date, but this baby has a mind of it's own. Perhaps it ought to be called Indie, nooooo nothing to do with Indiana Jones more to do with Independence.

That was a bit clumsy  but I hope that you get my drift.

I spent a wonderful couple of hours with Jess and Ivy yesterday. I had a couple of baby gifts and had made a basket of goodies up for Ivy. We played for a while, once she had woken up properly from her nap, and I even got to read to her for a bit.

I am looking forward to meeting the new little person when he/she arrives. I can envisage how enchanting the new baby will be as Ivy has such a presence. I have watched her grow and develop over the past year and a bit and she has amazed me.
I know that all babies have their own personalities that grow as they grow physically. I have younger siblings and I watched my own son grow and turn into himself. 
But it is still a wondrous thing and I feel privileged to have witnessed some of it with Ivy.

I came away feeling relaxed and as happy as Larry (whoever he is) and carrying 2 jars of homemade piccalilli. Oh Yum. 

Dinner became a simple vegetable and chickpea dish in a tomato sauce, I had an extra fat courgette so sliced it into ribbons and layered the dish like lasagne. I used fresh herbs from the garden in the sauce and put fresh Basil leaves in between the layers. I made a topping of bread cut into tiny cubes mixed with chopped nuts and more herbs and baked it in the oven for around 35 minutes. It was really good and I had a greedy serving. Followed, a bit later, with a slice of Black Banana cake. Stuffed to the gills I could not even manage a cup of tea for a while.

I nearly always cube the bread for toppings rather than make breadcrumbs, for one thing it is quicker than getting the processor out, and then it is easier to wash a bread knife up than said processor. Plus the bread becomes lovely and crunchy in the oven. I use my own bread which has lots of seeds in and that gives another layer of flavour.

This morning is pleasantly cool and fingers crossed it will stay that way. It was cloudy here for most of yesterday and at one point we had a little drizzle with a few real raindrops. It was a fleeting visit though and not enough to lay the dust. 

I was finally able to pick my knitting up in the evening and finished the toe increases and knitted quite a bit of the foot on a new pair of socks. It also enabled me to frog out several rounds on the long stripy socks. I got carried away while watching something on the TV and forgot to stop and measure. Consequently I had 15 rounds to frog back. It was not so bad, I just put a lifeline in and bingo it was done.

Now I am ready to shape the toes, my friend will have her socks tomorrow. 

There is still sewing to be finished but knitting will have priority while it remains cool.
There has been a whisper that we may get rain soon, very soon. Bring it on.
Just not so hard that it flattens everything.

Now it is time for me to get a wiggle on, it may be cool but the dogs are waiting by their leads.

                              TTFN                                      Pam