In memory of Alice

This post is a sad one. I never met Alice, but Miss22 was good friends with her at Uni. They were on the fencing team together. She was a beautiful young girl with her whole life ahead of her.
Girl meets boy, as they do
Boy turns out to be a total monster.

Her name has been all over the news this past fortnight as the trial has revealed chilling details and the horrific truth of her last moments. How her family have managed to get through this shows how amazing the human being really is.
I've been checking up on my daughter, making sure she's ok and it was lovely to see her last weekend as we spent the day with her.

After the verdict - which, to be honest had me REALLY wondering how defence lawyers do the job they do when he MUST have known he was lying. I could not do it for all the money in the world and I cried when the jury came back and declared him guilty. I also am a strong believer in bringing back the death penalty for these non humans. I don't give a flying dig about his human rights. He deserves none.

Sadly, Alice will not be the last girl to die at the hands of a jealous, controlling, coercive monster. There are already charities like the Suzy Lampugh Trust that exist to help others.

Alice's mum has set up a fundraising page to raise money to work alongside those out there already in the hope it helps someone out there. I personally think the police should not ask if the woman who has called wants to press charges, I think they should arrest them anyway.
Alice's mum is running The Great North Run this year and here is the link to her page should you feel able to help.

https://womensaidgreatnorthrun2017.everydayhero.com/uk/remembering-alice

RIP Alice xxx 

Week one gone

So the first week of the Easter break has gone and I've no idea where!
I finally finished the mitts to send to Miss 22 that match her hat she got in December.

I love knitting in Fishermen's Rib. I'm going to write what I'm writing then add in the photos later because on the iPad, once you add photos it gets really jumpy and difficult to manage on the dashboard. BRING BACK THE APP BLOGGER, it's one reason I don't blog as much.

I've seen friends, I've caught up with TV - Walking Dead's season finale was very disappointing. I've faffed about in the craft room.

I'm quite pleased with the zigzags here. It's not perfect and while I'm not blaming my tools per se, the three fabrics are different weights, but they were just scraps that I'd been given and the shiny blue one  frays like a right swine. I'm just quilting it with parallel stitching. I've made mistakes and learned from them. But it will be turned into a cushion cover I think. I was going to be a big but it's a bit big, but then it could just be a craft bag for myself. Who knows?

I dug out another unfinished WIP and am thinking now I'm going to have to pull it out because I won't have enough wool left to finish it. I've done one sleeve and there's not enough for the other one
and the finishing. To be honest I did just pull it from my stash and knit it with a wish. It was a scarf knit kit thingy. No matter. It'll make a sparkly hat for my friend's little girl.

Yesterday was glorious outside. It was freezing in my house and as I sat unpicking old jeans for various projects I had to hunt out my fluffy slippers! Outside, I sat barefoot with a brew soaking up the sun after doing a bit of weeding and sorting of pots. Needs more tidying but an hour or two a day is fine by me. I made Mr 19 now the lawn and I think that it's like when you do nothing in the house except vacuum , cutting the grass makes the garden look 100% better.

 These jeans are going to become baby dungarees.

How cute is this braiding I bought...

It might embellish the dungarees. 

Do any of my readers speak Russian? I saw this on Facebook and I'd love to knit it.

This next week looks fun. The HG is off. We are going out somewhere today. Not decided where but then we are escaping to Shropshire for a cheeky mid week mini break. I am beyond excited to go to Ironbridge! It's been on my to do list for yonks! Expect loads of pictures next time! And I'll probably put the 3lbs I lost this week back on! We are going to a Wedding in five weeks. I've been dieting for this wedding for the last 12 months!! Every one failed hahah. I'm just not in the right frame of mind.

Finally a lovely photo of Freddie for you!

Photo taken by Miss 22. I think it's great! Countryfile calendar standard! 

Going now to get a shower to get ready for today - it might involve a Hobbycraft visit.......


Lots of love from

Rachel *chilled out Radiostar xxx

School Holidays

as of today I have two glorious weeks ( and a day ) stretching in front of me. I'm in a current insomnia cycle which is why I'm blogging g at 4am. The HG is off for week 2 so there'll be days out and maybe a cheeky stopover somewhere as yet undecided. The garden needs my attention. The housework needs my attention. My TV planner needs my attention. I've sewing and knitting craving my attention and a good deal of lazing to do.
This half term seemed to zoom by in a flash.
Or
'As quick as a chimpanzee'
As a cherub wrote in a story recently, desperate to flex their new simile muscles!!! Ive loved being in the class I've been in, despite my qualms about dual role, but after the holidays a new pastoral role will see me once more out of class full time. I'm really looking forward to it but it's going to be challenging!
Our school is 'safe' budget wise for people's jobs this next academic year, but after that is anyone's guess. Our school is set to see £48000 slashed from its budget year 2019. The high school my two went to will lose £925000
It's crazy.
I just saw a story on fb where a school held a mufti day, but asked its parents for a donation of loo rolls and glee sticks in order to help the school.
How on earth can we meet the ridiculous standards imposed by ofsted when there is no money for resources and staff?? All the services are being cut too. One being 'Safenet' which provides much needed expert support and programmes for children from homes where they've witnessed Domestic Violence. No more after Easter. Will DV stop too then???

A bit ranty, probably due to being tired and cranky and passed off at being awake. I've already been trying to get back to sleep since 3.02am.

My garden is springing back to life and thanks to the warm rainy season, everything is lush and green. Good rhubarb growth. Lots of new rose activity on the cuttings I took in October. My purple osteospurnamthingies are flowering. My beautiful but oh so stinky deep true blue hyacinths are at it and my red Japanese maple just woke up too. We need a new fence but can't decide on which one to get. Bloody weeds everywhere too. Sorry, my native wild flower collection is growing!! The peonies are growing at a rate of 5cm a day it seems. My bird feeders are being visited a lot.

TV shows I'm loving are the new Quiz '5 gold rings' with Mr Silver Fox Philip Schofield. Broadchurch is stacked up in my planner for next week's knitting. I'm a complete Walking Dead and Talking Dead addict and that's about it. We don't really watch much else. Lately it's been Emmerdale ( poor Ashley ) and then we've been romping through Dexter box sets- almost at the last series! More often than not though the TV is off.  I've a stack of books to read and really fancy the Game of Thrones books. My friend has leant them all to me. So I'm going to make a conscious effort to read at least once a day.

Right it's 4.37am. I feel sleepy now. So am going to try and snoooooooze.
Oh before I do

This is a new loo product I bought. I'll try anything new if it's on offer! 

You 'pipe' it straight onto the loo bowl.

This second effort is far superior to my first. But it does look like I stuck two hating sweets in my loo!! Smells nice. 

Here I'm having a go at making Flying Geese out of foxes! Got carried away and got cocky. 

Sewed some in back to front! 

But look! How clever - zig zags out of triangles. A bit mind blowing!! It will eventually become a little shopping bag. But it makes me laugh as I'm cutting up various bits of material, to see together to make....material!!! 

Right I'm done 

Lots of love from 

Rachel *pray for sleep and ignore any typing errors* Radiostar xxx