Bramblings

 There is a measles epidemic in the UK.  Particularly in South Wales, Swansea to be precise.  With S living in Cardiff I'm thankful I had him inoculated as a babe.  While measles may have once been classified as a 'childhood illness' it can cause blindness, deafness and death.  There has been one death recorded already this year.

  So, with inoculation available, what's prompted the epidemic?  Well, many years ago, at least 30, the NHS brought out the MMR, Measles/Mumps/Rubella, jab.  Which sounded like a Good Thing.  Get all three immunisations done in one go.  Except that around twenty years ago some research was published indicating a possible link between the MMR jab and autism.  Cue much heart searching among parents of tots.  Should they get them immunised and risk autism?  Or not have the jab and risk infection?

  Now the government/NHS could have sorted things by offering the three inoculations separately, but they didn't.  Ask them why, not me.  Something about policy?

  A lot of parents decided to not give their children the jab.  Autism is not a Good Thing.  Hence the epidemics now, among teenagers and younger.

  Eventually research showed that there was no link between autism & the MMR jab.  This was promulgated and more parents are having their babies vaccinated, but the government is doing a major catch-up programme with all those who weren't.

  Which just goes to show, being a parent is never easy.  Being pregnant and giving birth - they're a doddle compared with what comes later, for the rest of your life.  But it's Worth It.

  Y'all have a good day now!

   We have an Amaryllis (Hippeastrum) we've had several.  It grew, blossomed & went over a good few years back & the pot somehow gravitated to the kitchen windowsill.  Don't ask, & anyhow I don't remember.  More recently H started watering it & Lo, it put forth leaves, then a flower spike (unusual, generally they put forth the flower spike then only leaf up after flowering).  So now I turn the pot so that the spike grows up straight, the bud is beginning to colour a little, but still has a long way to go in swelling before we get blossoms.  I'll keep you posted.

  Y'all have a good day now!

  Both H & I wear spectacles (eye glasses) for myopia.  Being able to see clearly is a Very Good Thing.  My current limit of clear vision is about 16", ie: not as far as this computer screen!  This means that when we take our glasses off - for close work such as reading, writing, knitting, sewing, soldering, etc, we have to be careful where we put them.  Careful that they don't fall over/down/get damaged and careful that we don't put them somewhere and, wandering off, forget quite where we put them, because without glasses we can't see far enough to find them easily, if at all.  Some the joys of advancing middle age.  Memory?  What's that?

  Back in the day when we had children living with us (8 years ago at least, how time flies) this wasn't such a problem.  One would say to them, "I've lost my glasses, please would you have a quick look round for them?"  They would, finding would occur and we'd be able to see again.  As I said, this was at least eight years ago.  These days the Aged Parents have to find other coping mechanisms - usually making sure we put them in the same place(s) each time.  Fortunately we both have an additional pair of specs - got when our optician was doing a BOGOFF, so we aren't completely blinded . . . provided we can remember where we keep them!

  Yesterday H managed to misplace his glasses between arriving home from Church and mid-afternoon.  He got quite concerned and spent a lot of time looking around, under and behind things. Eventually he found his other pair, prescription sunglasses - not such a good idea for when it's getting dark, however . . .

  At a convenient ad break in "Endeavour", sometimes ad breaks are a Good Thing, though not often, I paused the TV (also a Good Thing cos sometimes ad breaks aren't long enough, also not often) and went and had a look round myself.  Finally found them, on a cupboard in the middle bedroom.  Don't ask, we don't often go in there these days.  H went off to work this morning able to see clearly & not in shades. Which was a great relief to him, actually to both of us.  It's not nice being unable to see clearly, specially when you have to venture out.  At home we can, generally, cope though TV watching is, more or less, out.

  Which is about it, y'all have a good day now!

  This weekend we got, among other things, some milk.  Half a gallon, four pints, £1.  25p per pint!  In a big plastic container.  The milkman delivers our milk in glass bottles, at around 70p per pint.  Which is one reason why milk delivery rounds are becoming a thing of the past.

  Now I don't know how much the supermarkets pay the farmers, but it is probably less than 25p per litre (1 3/4 pints).  Which is one reason why so many dairy farms are going out of business too.  Or they are diversifying into cheese, yoghurt &/or ice cream production.

  I suppose this will all come back to bite us one day, when there are no more milk rounds and the supermarkets have us held to ransom?

  I know Fair Trade has become popular recently.  What price Fairly Traded milk?

  Y'all have a good day now!

  What with the Spring a-springing and all, I went into the yard and had a good look at the garden - which is more than I've done in quite a while.  The honeysuckle has taken over that end of the yard, it's rooted into a crack in the concrete.  When I chop it back there'll be so much stuff I think I'll need to avail myself of the city Green Waste disposal service. Hmmmm.  There are also a few grape hyacinths and forget-me-nots as well as the daffodils and hyacinths.  Loads of dandelions too.  I picked off all the flowers & binned them.  More will really need to be done.  There's also a primrose rooted through a crack into the concrete at this end of the yard.  Nice.

  So that will be my work cut out - chop back the honeysuckle, deal with any discovered snails, & generally tidy up.  Y'all have a good day now!

 I shouldn't try visiting central London today, it's going to be busy and even more congested than usual.  Various opinions have been expressed about this, from "Quite right too" to "We're in a recession, for goodness sake, we don't have the money for all that!"  They may have a point there, but there we are.

  Big Ben and the Westminster Chimes will be turned off for the duration - so they won't be going 'Ding Dong' either.  That song got to no2 in the charts this weekend - much to the disgust of a lot of people.  Many of them wanted it at no1!

  Right, that's it for today.  Y'all have a good day now!

  For the moment at least.  This is pleasant cos it's been raining quite a bit recently, as it does when the wind veers sou'westerly & the temperature rises above 5°C.  Also it is April.

  So this weekend I finished one sock, turned the heel of another and reached the heel of a third.  I'm knitting that one, toe up of course, with a flap heel & gusset - what a faff!  When you get to four inches (10cm) before the end of the foot start increasing for the gussets, 30-odd rows later make a note of where you are in the pattern & start on the actual heel.  Ah well, not all socks work with short-row heels, & I want to mistress this flap & gusset construction thingy anyhow.  These socks are for my sis, so they've long feet.

  In the absence of any simple-ish sock patterns I've decided to knit blanket squares while watching TV.  That's fairly brainless knitting.  After all, I have a large box of yarn left over from when I knit H a blanket.  I quite like the idea of a rainbow coloured** blanket, but that would involve in investing in red, yellow & orange yarns & this is supposed to be a  'use up your oddments' exercise.  I shall have a blanket for when it gets cold again next autumn, though not next week (could be, the way the weather is at present).

  It was very warm last night - even here, the second coldest place in the house.  Or maybe the temperature was normal for mid-April & I'm just not accustomed to it?

  OK, I'm now wittering, so I shall stop.  Y'all have a good day!


*Hey, it's been a long time since I did French.  A very long time, & I wasn't all that hot with the spellings then!

**I am FED UP with having the spellcheck underline words which I have spelled correctly.  American is a variant on English, NOT the other way around!

I just clicked on my 'location', as in the 'location' designator.  Nope, not in any of those places.

  I finished another pair of socks yesterday evening, the plain pair though knit in Opal Hobbies Sock Yarn, colourway Hairdresser, they don't look that plain.  So now I'm looking for an easy-ish pattern, maybe with a bit of activity, for knitting while watching TV.  I tried starting something last night, & came to grief - not because I wasn't  paying attention to my knitting.  So that will be frogged.  Ah well.

  While on the fancy sock yarn, there are a lot of yarns around now which are space-dyed and, knit up to the correct gauge, will give you patterned socks - from stripes to mock fair-isle - for simple stocking stitch.  Real no-brainers.  I came across one yarn which, knitted to specs, yielded socks striped in the colours of the London Underground map (sorry, no link, you'll just have to imagine them.  They looked good.)  This kind of yarn is also ideal travel knitting, simple enough so you don't miss your stop, and you only have to carry one ball!

  Of course, just because you have fancy yarn you don't have to knit  stocking stitch.  I've a pair in a striped yarn I knit with panels of slanted stocking stitch & purl bits.  They turned out to give a slightly chevron shaped stripe, which is more interesting.  Yes, I know a picture is worth a thousand words, but see yesterday's blog for the faff with cameras.

  I shall continue looking for something suitable.  Y'all have a good day now.