Things we will get used to

This is our local playground. They don't seem to go in for a lot of swings, but this climber makes up for it, I think! It is a big web of ropes, and they are quite far apart so even long-legged 8-year-olds have a lot of work to get up to the top. And it can accomodate several climbers at once. I'm sure we'll get blase about it in time, but for now it is always great fun. In the rest of the playground there are places where you have to balance on chains and logs, and there's a slide, and a little kids' area with a wooden climber and a train to play in. The whole shebang is right on the river, so we can have a nice walk there along the towpath.

And speaking of the towpath, this is "our" bridge, which connects our little neighbourhood with the Common and the river and the way to town and to the store and all that. I have no idea how one gets to our house in a car! One day we did go out the street and turn right instead of left, and found a bunch of small streets, eventually leading to a biggish street, but I think we will most often just walk and bike over our bridge. The kids are already totally accustomed to this and don't think it odd, but isn't it wonderful to come and go over a bridge! And this is one of our neighbours! This is one of the narrowboats that moor along the river. They aren't all as colourful as this one, but many of them have flowerpots, and beautiful paint jobs and they come and go. I think some of them are holiday rentals, but some obviously are lived in full-time. This Sunday they are having a sort Open House of some of the boats, so we will check that out.

There are lots of amazing things all over! We put a letter in a mailbox (sorry, pillarbox) with the cipher of Queen Victoria on it. We cut through a cemetery yesterday and walked past broken and ancient graves. We bought our secondhand bikes in the old market square.

Some things I sure hope we get used to quickly. I really would like to be able to lock the doors of the house with ease... There has been a certain amount of "human error" on this issue, like mixing up the back and front door keys, and also a big bit of ignorance. The doors can't be unlocked from inside without keys, so we figured we should keep a key in the lock, so that if we really have to leave in a hurry, we don't have to first fish through a purse to get a key. But, we have now learned that you can't use a key in the outside of the door if there is a key in the lock on the inside! So, that accounts for much of our frustration. I think colour coding and little hooks in the wall near the door and stuff like that is in order.

And for the knitting content: I was passing a yarn shop and saw some Twilleys denim yarn on sale. Some people love this stuff: it shrinks a bit and it fades with age. First I restrained myself, since I figure I can't really just buy yarn every week, but overnight I envisioned a project, so I just had to go back and get it the next day. It'll be a blanket. I thought I would do cables, but the first square I made is lacy. Pictures to come, and of course, I am still working on the pink sweater. I'm making the body all in one piece, which means on 3 mm needles I have 207 stitches, so each row takes an age.