Busily Doing Nothing

I really don't know where the time goes. I would never be able to fit work in again...

A few busy days in the garden followed by an enforced rest due to gale force winds. It is now very clear that I have lost a lot of shrubs due to the severely cold winter. The long bank has suffered badly - most of the hebes, both mahonias, the photinia as well as the previously mentioned brooms. And in the herb patch all the lavenders and both rosemaries.

However, I decided to continue on my plan for the high bank rather than attack the long bank at this time. I fully removed the previously hacked back spiraea - a good physical work out with fork, secateurs and loppers but eventually I prevailed. Paul volunteered for more slash and burn duty. The honeysuckle that I guess was meant to climb up the telegraph pole but actually layered more and more growth on top and forwards had to go - every year I tried to control it and dismally failed. And then the spiraea behind it that had been neglected due to previous lack of access. Once Paul had finished I made an attempt at removing the root but even after a good hour of digging around it it remained solid as a rock. I satisfied myself with just digging over and removing as much root as I could find in front of it.

The second acer that was living in a pot has now been relocated into the cleared space.

The work done has completely changed the view of the left side, now allowing me to see the previously hidden top of the high bank, which necessitated one more trip up there for bramble control. I plan to split and transplant primroses/primulas and a lot of foxglove seedlings that I have found in the LBE up the top to supplement the daffodils and bluebells that are already up there. A trip to Lamberton/Edrom nurseries is also on the cards as the area is well suited to some woodland plants - damp shade...

I am really loving looking at the LBE - almost every day I see something new flowering or bursting through the ground - and not just weeds :)

On the knitting front I finished the Kaffe Fassett inspired jacket and now have to decide whether to change the buttons. I didn't win the buttons I originally wanted on Ebay so bought some others. And just after I had sewn them on I got a second chance offer on the first ones! I decided to get them and they do look a lot more suitable...

I then embarked on my first pair of socks. The first sock is done and I have got to the toe of the second. I have found knitting on two circulars is a lot easier for me than a set of DPNs.

Another reorganisation of my wool stash and ebay buying strategy into colours. Not quite a rainbow - red, orange, yellow, green, blue and mauves/purples and black, white, pink and brown... I have been busily buying different shades of yellows and oranges in different fibres ready for my next couple of KF projects.

The bridge season is coming to an end. A topsy-turvy season for Berwick A, but great relief on Monday when a winning draw in our penultimate league match meant we were safe from relegation. Great relief for our opponents too, who like us needed a single point for safety. It is going to make my captain's report at the AGM a lot easier...

Ongoing scrabble study and I hit the 30000 mark on 8s a while back. Now keeping cardbox under control, going back through 7s and revising 4s again. BEST match is organised for the 13th April and then off to Malta in May.

Win Some, Win Some More

Where to start?

Berwick A played and won their third match of the season, leaping from the bottom of the second division league into fifth place with games in hand.

Ebay... Well, I have now bought :

400g grey aran (£4.40) that turned out to be fawn. I didn't mind but seller seemed a little upset when I down marked her on lot description in the feedback!

1230g assorted yarns (£10.11) - a good mix of colours, plies and textures

570g chunky/aran (£11.20) - five different colours

350g 4ply/dk mixed greens (£5.55) - included some chenille and a fancy silky yarn

300g+ mohair mix (£7.25) - pale green and a pretty pink

500g+ eyelash/feather fancy yarns (£7.20) - pinks, mauves, blues and blacks

610g small balls (£9.50) - 60 different colours

500g grey 30% wool aran (£17.55) - this was the colour on the photo!

I have started using some of it - doing one of the patterns from the Odd-Ball knitting book.

11 piece set of 60cm stainless steel circular needles (£7.00)

15 piece set of 80cm bamboo circular needles (£6.50)

I am particularly pleased with the bamboo needles having not won the previous 3 sets I bid on which were going for £8.00+. Patience paid off.

I am having great fun on ebay. The cut-and-thrust of competetive knitters. Watching the last few minutes of what you have bid on counting down. Watching the last few minutes of what you are 'watching' when there is a bidding war going on. One batch of wool leapt from £10 to £26.00 in the last two minutes...

Also I am quite interested in the fact that people overbid, obviously not researching what they are bidding on. There was one lot that I was watching that you can buy on Amazon for under £27.00 but has just sold at £31.00! I have two more lots I am currently winning on that end this afternoon and I have done my homework. Maximum bids at cheapest price found - n%, n varying depending upon how much I want it. Fingers crossed...

Finally, scrabble.

I had never done well in the Scottish Masters despite being the top seed every time I have played in it. Well, this year I lived up to my seeding. 9 wins out of 12. 12 blanks out of 24. The three games I lost were all blank-less, against Neil, Simon and finally Allan in the king-of-the-hill round when I was a game ahead and he needed to beat me by about 500 to overtake me. I had beaten Allan in the round-robin earlier in the day when he also had both the blanks.

Some nice bonuses played:

ORIGaMI, PINWEED and NONBaS(I)C against Ross

sHOWTI(M)E and PANDITS against Ricky

IN(U)NDATE and ELONGAT(E) against Stu

PALELIN(G) against Neil

POTIONs, INUNDAT(E) (again) and SCURVIES against Kate

(R)EASONER and SHERbE(R)T against Ray

PAIGLEs and OGREISM against Alan

ZENITHA(L), W(I)NTRiER, PERTAIN, TOURACO and DUELIST against Marion

INHERIT against Allan

zilch against Simon

CROZIER, BADGERS and TOLUENE against Amy

Two more against Allan but can't remember what...

And another stupendous sperm count of +1221...

Win Some, Lose Some

I had a very pleasant long weekend at the Chester scrabble tourney. I didn't quite manage to win the required 14 games to maintain my rating but 13 was good damage limitation, and as the Phenomenon would say (but I can't, being a woman) had a massive sperm count amassing a spread of +1543. I lost my third game to Beverley when I emptied the bag taking off a spot for a 7 and she spotted a great outplay of (T)ONGSTER making 4 two-letter parallel words. I also lost to David Shenkin, giving him extra spread when I made a last-ditch attempt to win and he bonused out. My third loss was to Robert Richland - I had been keeping up with him as he played off all the goodies except the Q which he kindly let me have at the end when I had just opened a second bingo line keeping a bonus-friendly rack. My final loss was to Wayne Kelly by 2 points when I couldn't play out in 2 and score enough holding ACELNNV.

I did play some very nice bonus words over the weekend including GRYPHON(S) and picking INVADE? straight after playing MELTONS opening up a 9-x with S in sixth to finish the tourney with a 200+ win against Phil Robertshaw.

We finished playing at around 10 p.m. in the evenings which allowed some very enjoyable socialising, playing other board games and a few drinks...

I thoroughly recommend this tournament - 17 games, enough time to relax, very well run and the food at the hotel was excellent. Many thanks to Kathy and Dave for making my first outing here so much fun.

Now on to some things I have won!

Paul and I played in the Bobby Allan simultaneous pairs a week ago. We knew we had done well at the Berwick bridge club, scoring 73.7%. We then had a very nervous wait whilst all the scores from the other clubs came in. Our score came down slightly as the other results came in but the result was finalised yesterday and with 71.6% we finished well ahead of second place. I did notice that the pair in sixth place appear to be impostors, Stuart and Dave, as this was a mixed pairs event!

Having got back in to knitting and chatting to Mike O'Rourke over the weekend, who I was permanently sat next to other than the one game when I played him, he mentioned a friend of his who dyes and sells her own wool. On Monday he gave me a link to her website and I went and had a look. Glorious looking wool, but then I wandered off looking at other wool. And got drawn in to ebay...

After failing on a few bids I won my first auction this morning, 400 grammes of grey aran. My next deadline is in about another hour and a half. And I have bids in on another 8 lots and watching another 13! My mountain is in danger of becoming a range. However, I did see 'The Odd-Ball Knitting Book' on there and found I could get a second hand copy with free postage from Amazon at about the same price as just the ebay postage. It arrived today and is full of great ideas, with patterns for hats, gloves, scarves, socks, cushion covers through to a rather glorious looking entralac jacket.

The A Team

Not that A Team but Berwick Bridge club A Team pulled off a shock victory against Linlithgow last night.

I cannot envisage Brian and George as all-action heroes but last night they did a stalwart job at the bridge table. Steady performances by the rest of the team gave us the full 3-0 result.

I was playing with Reg at table 4. This was only our second time of playing together other than a couple of practice sessions and a few bidding practice sessions on BBO. This was very brave of Reg, having to learn my system. Not only that but Paul had also amended it over the summer to include transfers, Michael's cue bids and Unusual No Trump so I think we were both a little wary of getting things wrong. As it was little new came up, only one Michael's cue bid from Reg which I remembered to alert.

The next match is in just over a month's time when Jean will be replacing me as Reg's regular partner.

A good start to the season but still a long way to go.

Izzy Wizzy

It has been a very busy week. And that without any gardening being done...

Last weekend was the NSC semis. The Scottish gang (Allan, Simon, Stu and myself) travelled down to Leeds together. Philips never turned up - nobody knew that he wasn't going...

I started well, winning the first four games and then crashed and burned for the rest of day 1. However, I thought 11 wins should still be enough to get to the final. I was right, but unfortunately it wasn't me but Mark Nyman who swept the board on day 2. We actually played each other in game 9, but the tile gods were definitely smiling on Mark in that game. I ended up 8-6, some damage to my rating but not too much. That is it for the domestic scene for me this year. Next stop JB at the start of December for the Causeway Challenge where I will be playing for the UK team.

The dogs had been put into kennels as Paul was also away that weekend playing bridge in Solihull. I retrieved them on Monday morning much to their delight. I am not sure how much Jen ate whilst away as I had never see her eat her dinner so fast. I then had to retrieve Paul from Berwick station in the afternoon.

On Tuesday evening it was the East District team secretaries meeting to arrange the fixtures for the coming bridge season. I met up with Reg and he drove us on an hour early as there was another meeting he was attending prior to mine. All I can say is that I was not prepared for the chaos. However, all the matches are now in the diary subject to cancellations/rearrangements with only one minor disaster which has now been resolved.

Wednesday and I started working on which of my team members I want to play for which matches. I just needed a couple of confirmations of availability/willingness to play (which I got last night). I now have provisional team line-ups for all the matches, hopefully keeping everyone as happy as possible with the number of 'caps' they will get - both where they want to play almost every match and where they only want to play a couple. Time will tell :)

Wednesday was also the first of the major veggie picking sessions. Given almost a week left to its own purposes with rain and sunshine the veggie patch had gone mad. Luckily I had thought ahead and stocked up on freezer bags and sent away for a blanching basket when Youngman's did not stock such an item.

So, three and a quarter pounds of dwarf purple beans picked. Some donated to Penny and the rest were washed, topped, tailed, chopped, blanched, bagged and put in the freezer.

Reg had given me a bag full of plums, apples and cooking apples on Tuesday evening. So yesterday was baking day. A quick search on the web and I decided on an apple pie (I had a couple of blocks of pastry in the freezer) and a plum cobbler. I had just over two and a half pounds of plums and that seemed perfect for Delia's recipe. I got Paul to help with removing the stones. With the left over pastry from the apple pie I made marmite rolls, which I ate hot from the oven.

In the evening I played bridge with Reg at the club . Our first ever partnership but I will be playing with him in a couple of the league fixtures so we need to get some practice in. No disasters, but none of the system changes that Paul has made for me over the summer (transfers, Michaels, unusual NT) came up. I was pleased to remember that Reg's overcall of 2C over a 1NT opener was for the majors and respond correctly. It must have exhausted me as I slept in this morning until 11.40!!!

This afternoon was the first session of runner bean processing. I had also sent away for a runner bean slicer on the recommendation of both Jean and Penny. I picked four pounds from just one of my wigwams - must have at least as many again ready on wigwam number 2 and still loads more coming. Paul was in charge of the bean slicing and me on the blanching/bagging. Two (prepared) pounds now in the freezer, some put aside for us/Margaret - those that were too fat for the gadget.

Bridge again tonight in the Borders v Edinburgh match. I am playing with Paul...

The Election

Well, maybe not THE election but an election...

Ever since the Berwick A team failed to get promoted back into division 1 there were mumblings and rumblings about disbanding the team. So questions were asked and a meeting arranged prior to last night's club competition.

It turns out that actually everyone was happy to carry on, with varying degrees of 'I'll play if your stuck' up to 'there has been a Berwick A team for thirty four (?) years and it should never be disbanded'. The only real issue was who would be captain, with Ros stepping down.

Many of the team have been captain in the past and didn't want to be it again. The main problem outlined being that we are on the borderline of division 1 and 2, half the team think we should be striving to get into and stay in division 1 and therefore should try to put out our strongest team for each match and the other half being more concerned at actually getting a fair crack of the whip.

So when Paul had told Reg that I may be persuaded to be captain and this was mooted I was elected unopposed with nodding of heads.

Now I have a delicate line to walk living up to my election manifesto promise of offering each player the chance to play in at least a third of the matches...

Spreadsheets will be required.

Another Action Packed Week

A week has gone by and most of the snow has departed from the lawn. But we still have thick ice on the drive - my narrow path has been well used.

Saturday watched Williams beat Henin. What a difference in physique...

Sunday saw Murray return to being Scottish.

Monday Paul came back via fixing Colin's computer.

Tuesday nipped into Duns to get and post birthday cards. My Aunty Margaret reached the ripe old age of 90 this week.

On Wednesday it was the first round of the Border Clubs knock-out (bridge). This is a handicap event with aggregate scoring played in people's homes. We (Reg, Malcolm, Paul and I) were defending the title. Reg picked us up about 12.30 and we drove on to near Melrose. We had a difficult task, giving away 2750 points over a 24 board match. The first 12 boards were pretty flat, and we only managed to pull pack about 1400 on the last 12. Oh well, that's that over with for the year but they did provide a nice tea.

Ros has asked Penny and me to play in the league for Berwick next Wednesday. A practice bidding session has been organised for tonight. I found an email from Paul this morning sent to us both asking us what certain bids meant...

Yesterday morning a man from Servico came to fix the drawer of the coffee table. It looks absolutely fine now. I also pointed out a small crack in the wood and a mark on the top of the table which he has also fixed. I am now a happy bunny.

Was very pleased to see two deer on the dog walk after moaning to Paul that I hadn't seen any yet this year. Even more pleased that the dogs didn't.

I have almost got Chip's Challenge out of my system. I have skipped a few levels - don't like the ones where you have to bounce around on ice mazes where it all looks the same. Even following a solution took almost all the time allowance. Level 141 though kept me failing for over a day before I gave up - I may yet go back to it. There should have been a warning for it - my left arrow key button came off with excessive use!

Almost 2 weeks now with no studying. It is the Scottish Masters in just over a week's time...