Fun days out and not so fun days in!

I had the week leading up to Easter off. It was much anticipated as work has been very hectic recently. It gave me an opportunity to unwind, do some beading and generally take it easy. My OH and I went up to London on one day. We both love gardens and are interested in their history so we planned two visits - one to the Garden Museum and a second to the Chelsea Physic Garden. I would thoroughly recommend both.

The Garden Museum (formerly know as The Garden History Museum) has recently been given a face lift so I was looking forward to visiting it. The museum is based in a converted church in Lambeth, right next to Lambeth Palace, where the plant hunters John Tradescant Senior and his son, also called John, are buried. The garden itself is quite small but beautifully planted with box topiary and many fascinating plants. When we visited there was a exhibition about the gardener Beth Chatto which proved very interesting.

After a delicious vegetarian lunch at the Garden Museum we then went to the Chelsea Physic Garden. This is a beautiful walled garden situated right next to the Royal Chelsea Hospital. All of the plants are well labelled and regular guided tours enable you to get the most out of one of the oldest medicinal plant gardens in England. Then after tea and homemade cake it was time to head home.

This photo does not really do this beautiful garden justice.

The rest of my leave was very enjoyable and on Easter Saturday I went to a meeting of the Priory Beaders which meets in Christchurch once a month. We were working on a group entry for the 2009 Beadworkers' Guild Challenge. The theme is 'Celebration' as 2009 marks its 10th Anniversary. I can't give too much away about our entry but we were all given the task of making a beaded representation of ourselves to be incorporated into the piece. The instructions for doing this were devised by one of the organisers of the group, Jane Griffin. We will have to wait several months to find out if we have won. Even if we are not placed we have still enjoyed immensely working on this project together and have some great memories.

Me - represented in beads - blue and green are my favourite colours.


I was enjoying the remainder of my Easter break when, on Easter Sunday, disaster struck. I slipped getting out of the shower and twisted my knee. It soon became apparent that it was fairly serious so I took myself off to Accident & Emergency. Luckily my X-ray showed that I had not broken anything. However I have damaged the ligament on the inside of my knee. The result was one week at home followed by the past 10 days back at work hobbling around on crutches in a fair bit of pain. My physiotherapist is convinced that it will heal fairly quickly, I hope that he is right. I have always been ridiculously healthy and never hurt myself like this before. I can safely say that I never want to use crutches ever again after this and will be extra careful in future.

'Salvation Socks', so named as they saved my sanity during a period of enforced rest.


During the week that I was stuck at home, after being instructed to keep off my leg completely, I turned in desperation to knitting to keep me occupied. I read until my head ached and saw enough daytime TV to last me for a very long time. Sock knitting proved my salvation. I have been knitting a fairly complicated pattern called 'Mermaid Socks' by Lucy Neatby (later rechristened 'Salvation Socks'). I absolutely love them, and I think that they will be fun to wear. At least something positive will have come out of this experience!