Rain, rain, go away

Well, I've finished my first baby sweater. A friend in the US told me she was pregnant back in Feb/March, and I immediately got cracking on the sweater. The wool is SO soft - I loved working with it. It's in a box and will be winging its way across the ocean after I mail it on Monday. It's blue, but that's only because I really liked the blue wool and wanted to get started before I knew the gender of the baby. I've since found out that it's a girl..she'll just have to wear it with pink trousers or a bow in her hair or something. Or just happily wear the blue sweater.

I've now had a college buddy tell me that HIS wife is pregnant (and I already know it's a girl), so I have two rows of the front right section started, in light purple. It was a really fun sweater to knit, and everyone says the second time through is easier.

The weather has been horrible here - rain every day for what seems like months. Our basil plant on the windowsill had been getting a little out-of-control, so I made some pesto-cubes this morning. They're in the ice-cube tray in the freezer and will be put into a ziploc bag for future speedy dinners. It was so easy - the most taxing part was washing the blender. I used: a large pile of basil, 2 big handfuls of pine nuts, 4 cloves of garlic, and enough olive oil to make it all stick together. V. scientific recipe. Despite the bourbon bottle in the background of the picture below, there's none in the pesto.

Here's the post-pesto basil plant. Much improved.

Freda and Travis have come back from their holiday in France because of the rain - they were cooped up in the caravan for 3 weeks and couldn't face another 2. We went over to catch up with them this afternoon, and returned with some home-grown rhubarb. Apparently Travis' secret is lots of manure...the rhubarb loves it and grows like crazy. It was super-sweet rhubarb - with all the sugar and the crumble on top it was like candy. YUM. For dinner we had local sausages, local new spuds, and some 'bent and open' asparagus from the farm shop. Give me 'bent and open' over 'flown in and tasteless' any day. AND it was 1/2 price. It was eaten too fast for pictures - sorry!

Somehow I'm now the official webmaster of the newly created (I made it last night) Stowmarket Ringers website. It's in super-beta at the moment, but any comments would be appreciated. Web design is NOT my forte...oh well.

We watched the second of a two-part Dr. Who tonight - it was one of my favourites so far. The plot echoed The Time Traveller's Wife, and I felt like we saw a side of the Doctor that we don't normally see. He's usually so 'above it all', with constant reminders that he's not a human, but this episode fleshed him out a bit. It also left the door wide open for at least 10 more seasons, as far as I can see. Not a problem for me, especially if David Tennant stays on as the Doctor. ::sigh::