Where to begin?

For the last week or so I've wanted to blog most days, but then something has prevented me so I do feel quite out of it with regards blogging. I am feeling exhausted at the moment and emotionally quite fragile. Be warned!

Firstly I need to thank two knitting friends. Thank you to Mara for the lovely book which she bought Granby. I have read it to him and he loves it. I love it as well. It's as if it were autobiographical because that cat of mine does love to hide in boxes too.

Secondly, thank you to Caroline who has helped me get my spinning mojo back. Last week I went to her house and we spent the day spinning. It was great and we used the drum carder to put different yarns together. The drum carder was fun! I love the colours here and I am producing a nice sock yarn from it.

I also had the great pleasure of meeting the adorable Pebble and I even got to take him for a walk.

Since last Wednesday's spinning it's been noticeably more hectic. On Thursday Ezzie's mum went into hospital so we ended up looking after her dog, Pippa. Pippa and Granby spent all the time eye-balling one another and playing psychological games. Granby is an incredibly affectionate cat, but he is also insanely jealous. If Ezzie and I are being affectionate he has to interfere. When Pippa's here, he's even worse and he colonises all of the house. Poor Pippa was evicted from her bed and kept having her food stolen.

On Saturday we went to visit my family and came back with Shona and Sienna. This was the first time Sienna had stayed with us and I was a bit worried about whether she'd be ok because she is only three, but she had a great time and was crying when I took her home on Tuesday. On Saturday night she didn't hardly sleep. It wasn't because she wanted her mum but because she was excited; it was like Christmas Eve for her. The next two nights she slept brilliantly. We made marmalade, baked cakes, walked greyhounds, went to the park, went around the charity shops, went to the library.

As nice as it was to have the girls, it probably wasn't the best time to have them because of the dog and Ezzie's mum being in hospital, but on the way to picking up the girls Ezzie received some very shocking and upsetting news. It would be completely inappropriate to go into it here, but it has been deeply distressing and it was tough having the girls here in the midst of all that. The intention had been for them to stay longer but in the end it was best for them to be back home.

Then Ezzie's grandad has not been well for some time. We went to visit him on Tuesday and we thought we'd see how he gets on.

Yesterday Ezzie took Pippa back to his mum's as she was now out of hospital. I decided I needed to go to work and do some bits. On the way home I saw a little terrier dog running across the dual carriageway rather aimlessly. It had no collar and looked doomed to get knocked down. I pulled over, managed to coax it into my car and decided I'd take it to the RSPCA. At this exact moment Ezzie phoned me and asked me to take Grandad to A & E because he really wasn't well. So, I went across town with the dog in my car. I needed a lead but had nothing so nipped into a pet shop. I had no money, just my card and the lady wouldn't help me at all. I explained that I needed to get to Grandad's and that I would give her the money the next day, but all she did was give me a lecture on how I shouldn't have picked up the dog because it would have found its own way home. I offered to give her my watch, my phone, possessions, but she wouldn't have it. I was quite angry about that.

Anyway, I went to Grandad's and kept the dog in the car. His neighbour was outside and helped me out with a collar and lead so I tied it up outside. Once at Grandad's he refused to let me take him to hospital so we had to wait until Ezzie turned up sometime later. He had to finish work and then sort out football because Wednesday is football night in our house and Ezzie sorts the money, bibs, ball so he had to go to one of the guys house to pass on everything. They went to the hospital and I went with the dog to the RSPCA. This is a photo of the dog. Not a great one, admittedly, but it was all rather chaotic. They reassured me it would not be put down and that as it was so cute and affectionate it would most likely be claimed or easily find a new home.

It was a really difficult situation yesterday and I do feel that certain nearest and dearest do not realise how busy we are and that everything cannot always fall to us. There are other people around. That's all I'm saying there.

I then joined them at the hospital and after lots of tests and stuff they gave Grandad some medication and we took him home. We were there hours and home just before twelve. At least I am not working at the moment and can recover but poor Ezzie is at work again early today.

I'm sorry that this is a miserable and moaning post, but I feel so drained. On a positive note I have finished Grandad's next socks. This is from the Regia Nation series and I still love this yarn. Jill told me that it has been discontinued so I bought some last week to make myself some socks in this. I think she is going to order more whilst she still can and I've asked her to squirrel some away for me. This is surely the best sock yarn ever. Why would you discontinue it? If it's not broke, don't fix it.

My highlight amongst all this chaos has been getting on national radio this week. Did you hear me?