Thursday, 16 September 2021

Astrid's Photo SAcavenger Hunt for the week ending - 17/09/2021




The word chosen this week is 'Fall' which to us here in the UK means fall over but as this has been set by Astrid in the USA,  I presume it means Autumn. 

Autumn  makes me think of my late mother who always used to quote John Keats poem To Autumn, well at least the first line of it - I don't know if she knew more.  I have only recently read the poem in its entirety.  She would call it a 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'. A very apt description.  


So far this year here in Lancashire there is not much sign of Autumn yet, a slight yellowing of some of the leaves and the green fields perhaps a little less green.  Maybe it is a sign of the times, or just that we have had a late Indian Summer - well a few odd days here and there.  So my pictures have to come out of my archives but as luck would have it, that whole file is empty, part of the mishap of moving to a new computer and losing most of my pictures back as far as 2005.   I have managed to retrieve 3 from another file so here are my autumn/fall pictures.  They were taken in 2007 in Bolton Abbey which is breathtakingly beautiful at this time of the year as the leaves turn to their autumnal colours.



Taken from the higher path overlooking the River Wharf. 



 Both these pictures are taken a little further down, towards The Strid. 




I have had rather a spectacular fall myself recently but fortunately nobody had the usual iphone out taking pictures of me.  Thankfully B was there to help me up.  Long and complicated story.  So my only contribution to Fall is the story below which I used many years ago on Kate's blog, so forgive me for repeating it.  


 I have a very old knitting machine, an Empisal No 2, almost the most basic of all.  I was gifted it nearly 50 years ago when we lived in Bulawayo, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).  It is so basic that I would knit the ribbing by hand, hook it on, then to make it work the knitting needed to be pushed back behind the needles, the wool laid across the now open needles then the work pulled forward to close  them.  The saddle is then moved across to knit one row.  Very basic but effective.  I could do simple cable by moving the stitches across each other, or lines in the work by pushing every 5th stitch back and it was terrific for stripes. I made our children's and our own jerseys for years including a cable cricket jersey with the appropriate stripes around the bottom and neck band.   


I had used it more recently for making long strips for  one of Hawthorne's yarn bombing projects.   It was for this that we got it down from the attic.  It has 2 pull out rods at the back, side by side . One slides out to enable me to push back the unwanted needles out of the way or the one behind that which holds in the needles and I could carefully slide out to replace damaged needles.  I don't know what I thought I was doing but I pulled out the rear rod which released all the needles which came crashing out.  As always, when I do something stupid like that I call for help from poor patient B who not only carefully replaced the fallen needles but first cleaned out years and years of dirt lodging underneath.  It really was a disastrous fall. 
 
















Sorry, not very imaginative this week, will try and do better with Ball.   Now off to see what others have done with their word.  Thanks again Astrid for hosting this.


7 comments:

  1. I'd forgotten that this has happened when you knitted that long strip for the Yarnival sign. It was the longest mini Dr Who scarf in the world!

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    1. Yes it was, went on forever. That seems a long time ago. Yarnbombing was fun!! xx ๐Ÿงก

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  2. Bolton Abbey does look beautiful … it’s been so long since I’ve visited. We keep visiting the area but just haven’t got to the Abbey. Interesting that we’ve both had a fall of the other kind this week and like you … whenever I break anything I just hand it over to the other half for fixing ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚

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    1. Yes, thank goodness for the men in our lives!! Lovely Lady fell too, so that's three of us!
      Bolton Abbey is beautiful any time of the year. Even when busy you can usually walk without seeing too many people. ๐Ÿ˜ƒ

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  3. Looks like we've all had a fall recently! I do remember your story about the knitting machine; what a hoot and just as well B can sort stuff like this. Your autumn pictures from Bolton Abbey are lovely. Not a boring post at all! Have a ball until next week..... xx

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  4. What do we all have in common other than this blog - falling!! I find you feel such an idiot when you fall as an adult. Yes we are lucky having practical men to help when necessary. xx

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  5. Beautiful fall colours, even in the reflection!
    That must have been quite a fall with all those needles, good thing you had help. At least all the dirt was cleaned out too!

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