I'm making good progress on my socks already - this was first thing yesterday morning and I've done another couple of hours since then. I do love knitting, but when I haven't got a project on the go, I forget that and it feels like another chore. Socks are great, because progress is quick, they don't take up much time or space, and you only need one ball of wool. 

I'm not entirely convinced I've got the pattern right (my 'make 1' stitches don't make the shape they do in the picture in the book!) but I've settled into a rhythm now and the waves are turning out just fine, so I'm going to leave it as it is. 

I actually knitted a tension square for the first time ever for this project. I bought double knitting wool when the pattern called for something else, and I have no idea what size my needles are, so it seemed sensible. I suppose I could have just given the socks to someone with bigger or smaller feet if they didn't fit, but I selfishly wanted them all for myself. 

It's a good job I did the tension square - it should have been four inches and ended up measuring six. So I'm knitting the largest children's size and hoping it works out. 

We also took a car full of garden waste to the tip yesterday, so I might pop to the garden centre later for plants to brighten the place up and make it look nice to sell. 

And I spent a glorious half hour swimming in an almost empty pool, which was so much fun I might go back and do it again tomorrow (and stay a bit longer, and go in the sauna too). When I came out there were two ducks sitting on the roof of the building opposite. 

Is that odd? Ducks don't usually sit on the roof, do they? It seemed unusual for me. There's a small lake nearby, so they've obviously just flown up to get a better look at the view. 

In honour of them, today's 'animal of the day' is the duck. We often declare 'animal of the day' in this house, and then try to be inspired by that animal's characteristics as we go about our business (don't laugh). So today we take inspiration from the duck - serene but taking no nonsense, and willing to quack voraciously if not impressed. Hanging out with lots of duck friends in the sunshine. Knowing when it wants a snack, and not being afraid to try something new. 

And on that note, I'm off out in the sunshine myself for a bike ride. Not sure you'd catch a duck on a bike, but I bet it would have a go if its feet could reach the pedals.

I woke up tired yesterday, and after a couple of hours of unproductive moping around the house (before writing yesterday's blog post), I was encouraged to go out for lunch with a friend. 

This particular friend lives a couple of miles away across town, and my walk took me through the Botanical Gardens. They're lovely at this time of year, all crocuses and sunshine and daffodils. I made a mental note to pop in more often. 

My walk also took me through an old Victorian cemetery. This is a peaceful place, and though a lot of the headstones are falling down, there's a volunteer trust which works to restore the cemetery. 

My friend and I went to The Rude Shipyard, one of my favourite Sheffield cafes, which I don't go in nearly often enough. Gentle live music was drifting up the stairs as we ate, and I was pleased to hear one of the songs was about having a nice cup of tea.  

After a restorative lunch and a good old natter, I popped in for a quick cup of tea with another friend who lives nearby, and then wandered into town - supposedly to go swimming, but I got mildly distracted by this. 

This has got to be my favourite ever fairground ride. I loved these little swinging chairs as a child, and have only ever seen an adult sized one once, in Vienna. Of course, I went on that one, even though none of my friends would come with me. I adored it - yes, a bit scary getting up that high, and positively alarming as you start to swing outwards sat in only a flimsy chair with a tiny bar across your lap. 

But once you get your head around that, it feels like you're flying. 

I didn't go on it yesterday, just stood watching for a while. Sadly it's not here permanently, just until June, but that's plenty of time to go on it a few times. Ours isn't quite as high as the one in Vienna, but at 200 feet it's still pretty impressive. 

After that, all thoughts of swimming drifted from my mind, and I found myself in the library instead. 

I love libraries, and this one is so spacious, with the light streaming through high windows, that it feels peaceful even when it's not silent. I spent an hour wandering around the shelves, looking at whatever took my fancy, and came home with a pile of books to idly flick through over the next few days. 

One of my books is about sock knitting, and I also picked up some wool while I was in town. After yesterday's ramblings about self reliance, I realised I'd been putting off knitting until we moved house, having packed away all my wool and patterns and needles. 

However, that's no fun, so last night I made a start on a pair of colourful socks. Sock knitting doesn't take up much room, and is a nice way to relax at the end of the day, and also results in a new pair of socks. What's not to love? 

I confess I've been a bit grumpy of late. The little voices in my head have been moaning rather a lot, you see. 'I can't be bothered with all this decorating' they say, 'can't we just abandon it?' 'I can't be bothered to cook tea, can't we just get a pizza?' 

Can't, can't, can't. Moan, moan, moan. 

Things came to a head yesterday when I was faced with this as my job for the afternoon. 

What a mess! What a stuck-to-the-wall, awkwardly-over-the-stairs, wish-I'd-never-started-this mess! 

I battled on for a while, complaining all the time, even my new wallpaper scraper not really helping. Eventually I got to the point where I'd done all I could reach, and needed to break out the ladders. 

Now, I don't know about you, but standing on ladders, however sturdy and secure, over a staircase, isn't really my idea of fun. Couple it with using a steam wallpaper stripper and, well, you might just have found my least favourite job ever. 

Moan, moan, moan. 

Eventually Peter suggested I might want to do something different for a while, and I reluctantly conceded (little inside-head voices saying 'but this will NEVER be finished if I abandon it now!') and went out into the garden to gather stuff for the tip. 

While in the garden I pondered. I've always enjoyed doing things for myself. I like feeling strong and capable. I like saving money, and being able to say 'I mended that!'

But somewhere in the last few months I'd forgotten about all that, and started seeing the work we're doing on the house as endless, imagining it stretching on for the next forty years and us never being able to move. 

I took a bit of a break, and went back to the Down to Earth blog, which I've read for a long time, and which I enjoy very much. Rhonda encouraged me when I first started blogging, and I've been an avid follower ever since. But somewhere along the way I stopped listening. I've been so caught up in work-and-decorating-and-fitting-things-in that I'd forgotten about the whole 'simple living' thing. ​

Or rather, I hadn't forgotten - I'd been thinking 'I can't wait to move house, then I'll be able to make the bed every day/ keep chickens/ make jam. Right now I'm too busy'. Well, clearly there are priorities, and the time I spend making jam is time I could be spending stripping wallpaper, but that doesn't mean I have to abandon the whole idea of simple living altogether. ​

For me, simple living isn't just a tick list of make your own bread, make jam, knit socks, sew cushions, although I've done all of those things and enjoyed them very much. For me, it's more about general things of being thrifty, not living above your means, not being wasteful, learning new skills, being self reliant. 

And while I'm not prioritising making jam right now, I am doing those other things. 

We're doing most of the work on the house ourselves, and Peter is great at sourcing free or very cheap materials (doors from Freegle, floorboards from a neighbour having a loft conversion, wood from a skip). We have no mortgage here, and so the longer we stay, the more we save. We're learning new skills, and when we do eventually find our new home, we'll be confident that we'll be able to fix most things that go wrong with it ourselves. 

I went back outside and scraped off the masking tape that cemented itself to the windows when I painted the frames last summer (or was it the summer before?). I cleaned the windows while I was out there, so that's another job ticked off. This week we're having three large windows replaced because the double glazing has misted over, so that'll be yet another thing off the list. 

Last night I sat down with our budget, and after a lot of pondering and a bit of tweaking, found a couple of ways we could save some more, and set myself a challenge for next month (and it is a challenge for me - Peter is far more thrifty and barely spends anything). 

We are getting closer. Sometimes it's just a matter of changing your attitude. 

Yesterday I drove to visit family. I always mean to stop and take pictures of the journey, which takes me through some spectacular scenery (you can see some of it here), but somehow I'm always running late and never quite manage it. 

It was a jolly day, with my three nephews each seeming to split themselves into at least three separate boys, meaning there were at least nine or ten children running around (I'm reliably informed that there are, in fact, only three of them, despite appearances). There was much silliness (not all of it from the children).  

I'm enjoying documenting my days here while I'm off work. It gives a nice rhythm to the morning, and it means I notice more throughout the day as I try to keep track of what I'm doing and take photographs. 

​Today I'm at home, playing with my new wallpaper scraper, and I might spend some time thinking about how I can carry this on when I'm back at work. 

We're back to grey and gloomy weather today, but my spirit is still brightened by yesterday's sunshine. Today I managed to drag myself out of bed early enough for the local Parkrun. It's taken me over four years, but I've done 48 of these now - when you get to 50 you get a free t shirt. I'm most excited. I could have got to 50 within a year or two, of course, but, well, Parkruns start at 9am on a Saturday... 

Today we've been wandering around looking at places to live again. Over to the east this time, and we saw more that we liked than when we went south on Tuesday. We're not going to make a specific decision about areas, and the final choice will mostly depend on the house I think. 

We ate lunch while walking around Retford (cheerful, but a tad too far away), but we did manage to squeeze in a quick cafe trip later (of course). 

It does feel like we're getting closer to working out what we want, which feels, psychologically at least, like we're getting closer to moving. 

I didn't actually get anything practical done today, mind you - although I did buy a new wallpaper scraper. 

Tomorrow I'm off to visit family, so I won't even be able to use my new scraper any time soon. Still, there's a whole week left before I go back to work so fingers crossed... 

Finally I got my wish - a whole day of sunshine! 

Out for a run first, I think. 

This route takes me past some rather well-tended allotments, which makes me long to grow my own food again. Soon...

Across the fields and up to one of my favourite views. 

I love the way this view changes with the seasons - one day I'll dig out all of my photos at different times of year to compare. 

Through the woods, with occasional glimpses of slightly-less-well-tended allotments through the trees. 

Up through the stables, over the field and home. 

After a quick shower and second breakfast, the sun was still shining, so I headed out into the garden. It was the first day I've been out there this year, and it was looking a bit scruffy and bare, as it often does at this time of year. 

Still, there were some flowers starting to peek through. 

When I'd had enough of working, I sat with a nice cup of tea and took in the sunshine. It's been a long time since I've done that, and it felt good. 

When the sun had gone in, I came inside and made chocolate nests to take on a family visit tomorrow. Although I confess, the rate we're getting through them, I'm going to have to make some more before we set off. They're just so cheerful, I can't help myself. 

And then the final job of the day - scraping wallpaper. What joy! What fun! Deep raptures! 

Actually, it's not that bad - now I'm using the spray water bottle rather than the steamer it's a lot more pleasant. 

Care to guess the name of Charles and Diana's first baby, anyone? Shouldn't be too difficult - he, like me, is rapidly approaching his 36th birthday... 

This was my view for most of yesterday. In the car in a layby, looking at the map, drinking tea, pondering where to go next. 

We've been planning our house move for over a year now. It's starting to feel slightly like it will never happen (I'm pretty sure that's what most of our friends and family believe). But we've been here ever such a long time that we don't want to move to just anywhere - we want it to be right. 

We look at houses on the internet each day, discarding this and that, creating a folder of ones we like the look of. We even went to see a few in the early days - before we realised how much we wanted to do to this house first. Now we're not going to look round any until we're actually ready to sell.

But it doesn't hurt to wander around potential areas to see what they're like. We did this last summer, spending a day in small villages to the east of Sheffield, and decided that yes, we could in fact live in those places, although they might be a little far away. 

Yesterday (possibly in an unlikely bid to find sunshine) we headed south. 

Our first stop was Kirkby-in-Ashfield, a little market town in Nottinghamshire. We knew nothing about it, but had seen several houses we liked around that area. Sadly, it took over an hour to get there on the motorway - a commute I'm not willing to put up with. The town itself seemed tired and a bit sad, although we did have lunch in a rather jolly little cafe. 

The rest of the day was spent driving (in the rain) from one area to another, trying to get a feel for the places, and occasionally spotting a house for sale and finding pictures of it on the internet. 

It's a funny thing, this house moving business. We are in the fortunate position of already having a cheerful house, in an area we like, that is fully paid off. We don't need to move, and I suppose that's why we're in no particular rush. There are things we'd like (a detached house, separate music room, a big table to sit round in the kitchen, space for chickens), but we don't need those things, and so we can afford to wait. 

I now have a job I can walk to, so we're not about to move miles away for a house that's just ok. Either we want something both cheerful and conveniently close to work, or we want some kind of rural paradise so fabulous that I won't mind spending an hour travelling on the days I have to go to work (I'm lucky enough to be able to work from home quite often). 

And so we keep looking. It's unlikely we'll end up in any of the areas we looked at yesterday - none of them were quite exciting enough to tempt us that distance, and we can get similar houses and areas in our current city that are a lot closer to work and friends. But it was good to wander and see new places, and it will make it a lot easier to cross potential houses off our list now we've seen the surrounding areas. 

One day we'll move, really. 

Today though, I've got my wish, and the sun is shining! I'm given to believe it's only temporary, so I have my running kit on and I'm off out of the door as soon as I've finished my tea. I might even spend an hour in the garden when I get back. 

​See you tomorrow! 

Back out to the Peak District for me yesterday, to meet a friend for tea and cake and lunch and a good old chat. We went to Caudwell's Mill, a favourite haunt of ours. It has a good selection of cakes, and a nice view of the ducks from the cafe. 

After our first round of tea, we wandered up a nearby hill to look at the view. 

The weather is still grey and gloomy, but the scenery was good and, as always, it was good to get some fresh air and look at something other than city streets. 

​After lunch, my friend left, and I took my folding bike and went for a ride. 

The High Peak Trail is one of the old railway lines, now turned into cycle paths, that criss cross the peak district. I'd not been down this end of this one before, and since it was a weekday, and further from the city than some of the others, and so it was quiet, and I barely saw another soul. 

The peak district isn't wild, untamed nature, like you might expect from a national park. It's very much a working landscape, with farming, yes, but also wind turbines, quarries, and mining operations. I imagine this railway once served some of the quarries and mines, because the trail runs very close to some of the works, and it's always fascinating to peer from up high onto the machinery and giant holes. 

This was a 'functional' bike ride - to get a few miles in before the triathlon. I've not been on a bike since last year, and I did thirteen miles yesterday, and I confess at times it was a bit of a trudge. 

I kept wishing and wishing for a bit of blue sky but nope, not that day. Still, it was good to be outside, and getting some exercise, and it's always interesting to look at the architectural-ness of the trail itself. 

Eventually I reached the next car park, where I planned to turn round. Oddly, despite feeling all uphill on the way there, it didn't feel all downhill on the way back. Strange how that happens sometimes. 

Today we're going on a house-hunting adventure. Not looking at actual houses, more exploring different areas that we might end up moving to. We did this a few months ago in a different area, and it was rather fun, and made us feel a bit more cheerful about moving (rather than just thinking of the endless DIY). This is a slightly less picturesque place, but also a bit closer, and I'm hoping it'll feel nice when we get there. Back tomorrow! 

I do wish the sun would shine. I know it's perfectly possible to have a nice time when the sky is grey, but I'm very ready for a bit of sunshine. It would be a shame to go back to work after two weeks of grey. 

In all the grey and brown, these brightly coloured flowers almost startled me as I was walking to the swimming pool yesterday. In keeping with my 'do more than my sister' training plan, I swam 600 metres, and was rather pleased with myself, until I rang her and she'd just done 750! Hmm. Still, my local swimming pool has a sauna, and while I don't normally bother with it, yesterday I just wanted to be properly warm and the sauna did the trick nicely. 

Swimming wears me out in a way that other exercise doesn't. I think the fear of drowning makes me work hard, and my technique is pretty bad, which culminates in a lot of effort and not much movement, which is exhausting. Since I'm on holiday, Peter suggested I have a nap. 

I like naps, really I do, but I'm not very good at making myself have them. I strop and stomp like a grumpy toddler - 'but I don't want to go to bed!' until finally I go just to stop Peter from telling me what a good idea it is. 

Inevitably I'm asleep within minutes, snooze for an hour, and then don't want to get out of bed. 

This time I had to get out of bed, as a friend came round for a cup of tea. 'Friends and tea' is fast becoming an extremely pleasing part of this holiday, possibly my favourite part. 

My more fun than this, which is what I was faced with when she left. 

Hmm. Well, fortunately that's not my job, so I stepped quickly over it and onto this, which is my job. 

Part of me loves that bizarre flowery wallpaper, but as it's patchy and missing in places, it's got to come off. The newspaper underneath is from 1980 - the year I was born. That bizarre system of strings and pins? There were large holes in the plasterboard, and in order to repair it, I had to put in a plasterboard backing to attach the new plasterboard front to. The string let me pull the pieces into place, and the pins held them in place until the glue dried. Clever, hey? They're properly stuck now, so as soon as I've got the paper off (that's a job for this afternoon, and probably the next several days too), I'll repair the plasterboard. 

We finished yesterday with food, just the two of us. 

It's been a while since I've properly cooked - Peter usually cooks while I'm at work, or we forage ourselves something from the fridge, but last night I stood and made a meal from scratch, and most enjoyable it was too. 

​I could get used to this being on holiday malarkey. 

I'm doing another triathlon in eight weeks, and a half marathon the week after that. My sister is also doing both races, and at the minute her training log is rather more populated than mine. 

​I'm planning to use this time off work to catch up. 

Yesterday I took myself to the park for an hour or so. 

This park heads up a gentle incline from the city out to the peak district. There's a small river, with a footpath one side and a bridleway the other. It's away from the traffic, but with plenty of dog walkers and children riding bikes. It gets quieter the further away from the city you get. 

The weather's not much to speak of this week, and things looked rather bare and brown. But there were crocuses, and daffodils, and a very faint whiff of wild garlic in the air. 

I ran slowly, stopping to take photographs and look at the view. 

After two and a half miles, I turned and ran back, all downhill, a fair bit faster than the way up. I remembered how much I like running, especially gently downhill - it makes me feel like a small child again. 

The day started with a cup of tea with a friend, and ended with a meal with other friends, and it felt good to be sociable, to be outside, and to be running again. 

By the time I got back to the car, there was even a hint of blue sky. 

It didn't last long, and there's no sign of it today, but it did feel like spring.

Today is quieter. This morning I'll go swimming, and then a friend is bringing round some ladders so I'll have an afternoon of plastering (or, more likely, of preparing to plaster...). It feels good to document my days like this, they slip through my fingers so quickly otherwise...