"Memory Lane" March

This month's photo was taken in the early nineties, on the island of Skyros, in Greece. I spent a very relaxing two weeks holiday there one summer, after a very stressful year. You could do different activities on this holiday, and there was a wide range, from physical to artistic to meditative activities to choose from. The first week, I remember that I chose to go swimming first thing in the morning,before breakfast. Now, getting up early is not really my thing, but the surroundings were so beautiful that I managed to stagger out of bed and get my swimming costume on each day in time to be at the water's edge by 6.00 am. We could dive or jump straight into the beautiful, clear water, and after half an hour's swimming I was refreshed and relaxed and ready to face the day. And ready to eat a hearty breakfast!

The second week I got up again at 6.00 am every day but this time it was to do an art workshop. The workshop leader explained that by starting so early, while we were still half asleep, we would be more in touch with our creative side. You can judge for yourselves if it was true! I made the magnificent mask you can see me holding, which I actually managed to get home safely in my suitcase. It lived on my living room wall for several years after that.

It was one of the nicest, most relaxing holidays I have ever had, and in one of the loveliest settings, too.

Speaking of holidays and lovely scenery, Mr Knitbert and I are currently packing, so the living room floor is covered with plastic bags and little piles of books, clothes and cosmetics, which I am trying to believe will presently form into fully packed and organised luggage. Here are the sock yarns I have decided to take with me. I haven't actually packed any clothes yet, or got all the knitting patterns ready, you understand.


In order to get these yarns, I have had to open the stash cupboard and take a lot of stuff out of it, which always seems to cover the entire landing, even though there is really only a tiny amount of yarn in a few bags. I tried to trap Mr Knitbert in the computer room, but unfortunately he insisted on coming to the door to see what was going on. "How much yarn have you got?!" he gasped.
To distract him, I got some colours of DK out to choose for making crochet squares. "Which colours look nice together?" I asked him.
"To make what?" he replied.

Now I ask you, dear reader, what does that matter? The colours either look nice together or they don't. Anyway, while Mr Knitbert was distracted choosing colours I was able to pack everything back into the cupboard so that when he looked again the landing was clear. Then I selected the colours I had already chosen, plus a couple of his that were not too ghastly and we were done.

I'm getting very excited about our trip now, so to finish here is a photo of Auckland taken on our last visit to New Zealand, by way of a taster. This was taken from St Helier, looking back across Auckland harbour to the city centre. The very tall building with the spike on it that you can see is the Sky Tower. There is an amusing story about Mr Knitbert's and my visit to the Sky Tower, but I will save that for another post.