Cardigan, Flu, Fairies and Remembering Waterloo
I really am not at all sure about this cardigan - the one I knit in chunky yellow/peach/jade/purple acrylic/wool. Darn! I don't remember what chunky yarn I knit it in. I do know that to get the correct tension I had to knit it on 8mm needles rather than the more usual 6.5mm needles used for chunky yarn. Whether this has had any effect on the way the knitted yarn behaves I don't know. What I do know is that the knitted fabric 'smeared' all too soon and pills. It's too late now to return the garment to the yarn supplier with a letter of complaint, so I shall wear it for the rest of this winter/spring and then probably remove the buttons and keep them for a cardigan in a better yarn. Define 'better yarn'? Hmmm, how about one which knits up to the correct tension on 6.5mm needles, which has a high wool content and which, when knitted up, doesn't 'smear' or pill! Is that too much to ask? Dear Reader, do you know of a good yarn? Preferably a good yarn available in the UK, postage is bad enough here, from elsewhere it's getting prohibitive.
There now, apparently adults catch real flu (note REAL flu, not 'man flu') about once every five years. Which, given the generally unpleasant nature of flu, is more than sufficiently frequent. Children, apparently, get flu on average every other year, but they've growing immune systems to produce so that's hardly surprising. Of course, if you're Very Young, or Particularly Old, flu can be a whole other infection and you can end up seriously ill, possibly dead, so 'at risk' groups of people are advised to get flu vaccinations every year. This can be a bit of a lottery though. There are several strains of flu virus and each virus mutates rapidly. Thus to produce a vaccine guesses have to be made about which strain of virus and which will be the most likely mutations. Not every year will this be guessed correctly, hence this year the flu jab protected only three people in every hundred vaccinated! A 3% protection rate is Not Good, although the jab may have helped minimize symptoms in those infected, which is not to be sneezed at.
So far this winter we've avoided flu. We've had colds, but that's hardly surprising. H's employers take a very dim view of anyone in their employ taking time off as sick leave. Thus colleages struggle into work regardless and thus the infections go round. Add primary school aged children into the mix and you've a perfect recipe for winter infections! There are advantages to growing older, your children grow older and become more immune, so they bring home fewer infections. Ah well, 'tis March now, the spring is a-coming, the daffodils are beginning to show buds in our yard. Meanwhile the Winter Jasmine still has blossoms, after nearly five months, the snowdrops are going over and the crocuses are up and blooming. Hmmm, time to thin out the clump of snowdrops methinks. Maybe then we'll get more than two flowers next year!
Would you believe it - Wayford Woods, Crewkerne in Somerset has a problem - with fairies. Early this millennium a 'fairy front door' appeared among the roots of a tree in the woods. It had a handle, it opened, inside was a bed. The people responsible for the wood thought, 'How charming' and left it. This, on reflection, may not have been such a good idea. The 'fairy front doors' have proliferated, one tree had ten doors. Last year there were more than 200 little doors screwed to tree roots, many of which were brightly coloured, with glitter, and, frankly, tacky. So those responsible for the woodland had a cull. There are still fairy front doors to be found throughout the woodland, just not quite as many, nor quite so obvious. After all, the fairy folk have traditionally be shy and secretive. Why would they want to advertise their presence with any front doors, let alone garish, glittery doors? Right then, clap hands if . . .
And Finally - people dressed as soldiers of Napoleon I are being seen in southeastern France (seventh photo down*) as part of a reenactment of the emperor's One Hundred Days, when he escaped exile on the Isle of Elba. The One Hundred Days came to a bloody end at the battle of Waterloo and L'Empreur was subsequently exiled to the much more distant Isle of Sainte Helena. There now, I was wondering, what with it being the 200th anniversary and all, and what with Trafalgar 200 being celebrated ten years ago, was Waterloo going to be commemorated too? Or would Political Correctness allow it to pass unrecorded? Seems as if some French people have worked out something to salvage and to celebrate from the general debacle!
Writing of Waterloo reminds me. A woman was telling her friend of how she'd researched her ancestors and discovered that one of her several times great-Barcaruncles had died at Waterloo.
"Oh," said her friend. "Which platform?"
The woman later told another friend of this.
"Good grief!" Said her other friend. "As if it mattered which platform!"
Y'all have a healthy day now!
*Perhaps the positioning of this photo, and the lack of detail elsewhere, is indicative of how Waterloo may be 'remembered'!
There now, apparently adults catch real flu (note REAL flu, not 'man flu') about once every five years. Which, given the generally unpleasant nature of flu, is more than sufficiently frequent. Children, apparently, get flu on average every other year, but they've growing immune systems to produce so that's hardly surprising. Of course, if you're Very Young, or Particularly Old, flu can be a whole other infection and you can end up seriously ill, possibly dead, so 'at risk' groups of people are advised to get flu vaccinations every year. This can be a bit of a lottery though. There are several strains of flu virus and each virus mutates rapidly. Thus to produce a vaccine guesses have to be made about which strain of virus and which will be the most likely mutations. Not every year will this be guessed correctly, hence this year the flu jab protected only three people in every hundred vaccinated! A 3% protection rate is Not Good, although the jab may have helped minimize symptoms in those infected, which is not to be sneezed at.
So far this winter we've avoided flu. We've had colds, but that's hardly surprising. H's employers take a very dim view of anyone in their employ taking time off as sick leave. Thus colleages struggle into work regardless and thus the infections go round. Add primary school aged children into the mix and you've a perfect recipe for winter infections! There are advantages to growing older, your children grow older and become more immune, so they bring home fewer infections. Ah well, 'tis March now, the spring is a-coming, the daffodils are beginning to show buds in our yard. Meanwhile the Winter Jasmine still has blossoms, after nearly five months, the snowdrops are going over and the crocuses are up and blooming. Hmmm, time to thin out the clump of snowdrops methinks. Maybe then we'll get more than two flowers next year!
Would you believe it - Wayford Woods, Crewkerne in Somerset has a problem - with fairies. Early this millennium a 'fairy front door' appeared among the roots of a tree in the woods. It had a handle, it opened, inside was a bed. The people responsible for the wood thought, 'How charming' and left it. This, on reflection, may not have been such a good idea. The 'fairy front doors' have proliferated, one tree had ten doors. Last year there were more than 200 little doors screwed to tree roots, many of which were brightly coloured, with glitter, and, frankly, tacky. So those responsible for the woodland had a cull. There are still fairy front doors to be found throughout the woodland, just not quite as many, nor quite so obvious. After all, the fairy folk have traditionally be shy and secretive. Why would they want to advertise their presence with any front doors, let alone garish, glittery doors? Right then, clap hands if . . .
And Finally - people dressed as soldiers of Napoleon I are being seen in southeastern France (seventh photo down*) as part of a reenactment of the emperor's One Hundred Days, when he escaped exile on the Isle of Elba. The One Hundred Days came to a bloody end at the battle of Waterloo and L'Empreur was subsequently exiled to the much more distant Isle of Sainte Helena. There now, I was wondering, what with it being the 200th anniversary and all, and what with Trafalgar 200 being celebrated ten years ago, was Waterloo going to be commemorated too? Or would Political Correctness allow it to pass unrecorded? Seems as if some French people have worked out something to salvage and to celebrate from the general debacle!
Writing of Waterloo reminds me. A woman was telling her friend of how she'd researched her ancestors and discovered that one of her several times great-Barcaruncles had died at Waterloo.
"Oh," said her friend. "Which platform?"
The woman later told another friend of this.
"Good grief!" Said her other friend. "As if it mattered which platform!"
Y'all have a healthy day now!
*Perhaps the positioning of this photo, and the lack of detail elsewhere, is indicative of how Waterloo may be 'remembered'!