October 2025

The highlight of October for me was most definitely my trip to Copenhagen which you can read about in my Wonderful Wonderful Copenhagen post. I would wholeheartedly recommend this city for any short break, or even longer break, we both loved it. The chest infection I ended September with thankfully abated for our trip but unfortunately returned with a vengeance once we returned home and the aftermath left me with a hacking cough. I'm feeling much better but the cough is still ever present.

I also wrote a post about our visit to Fountains Abbey to see Helios, and we've had some other wonderful days out this month too. We've visited the market town of Helmsley many times but we've never been in the castle before so that was something we did this month. The ruins aren't quite as impressive as Fountains Abbey but it's an interesting place with good information and more to see than I expected. We also visited Nunnington Hall, one of our favourite National Trust properties.

I've read three books this month.

No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara is about two little girls who jump on the tube ahead of their mum, the doors close and they head off to the next station. By the time their mum catches up with them there's only one child waiting for her, no one saw the second child, she seems to have vanished into thin air. This storyline sounds right up my street but I found the characters unlikeable and one dimensional, the writing wasn't up to par, it felt as though the author was trying to create tension but the cliffhangers were most definitely lacking, and I'd guessed the outcome at the start. Not a book I'd recommend.

I'd seen Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout when looking around Waterstones, I nearly picked it up there and then but decided to order it from the library instead. It was only once I started reading that I discovered the book is part of a series. It was an okay standalone story, not quite what I was expecting really from the blurb, but I think you'd probably get more out of it if you'd read the other books in the series first.

The eleventh book in the Dr Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths is The Lantern Men. I can get through these books quickly, I enjoy them so much. This book finds Ruth with a new job, a new home and a new man, but it isn't long before she's back with Nelson, in more ways than one. Another great read.

Do you watch The Traitors? I've never watched it before but I saw that a celebrity version was being made. I happened to turn the TV on when it had just started, I hadn't planned on watching it, but I noticed some celebrities I knew as opposed to most other celebrity versions of TV shows when you haven't a clue who any of the, so called, celebrities are. There's Jonathan Ross, Stephen Fry, Charlotte Church, Claire Balding, to name just a few. Of course, there's others who I don't know, but I started watching. Half way through I told Mick that I didn't know if it was for me, but I continued to watch and I really got into it. I've enjoyed this so much that I thought I'd give the very first series a go but it just wasn't the same and I won't continue to watch. I am looking forward to the final of this celebrity version though which is being shown next week.

I've managed to get a couple of woollies finished for Jack, a jumper and a cardigan. I actually knit both in larger sizes so that they'll last him throughout winter, they're a little big on him at the moment but he'll grow into them. I've used both patterns before, the Baby Aosta Cardigan by The Knit Purl Girl is my go to pattern now for babies and this one is the eighth I've knit for various babies. This is the second Marienlyst Sweater by Guri Pedersen that I've knit, the first was in a size 3-6 month for Jack and he's worn it and worn it so I hope this one gets as much use. I love this sage green colour.

I had a lovely surprise when I watched the Franny Do Makes podcast, I'd won a prize in the Spring Shawlathon. I'd cast on the Vertices Unite by Stephen West, and though I still haven't finished the shawl, I will do eventually. It's such a lovely pattern. Fran who hosts the podcast lives very close to where I live, walking distance in fact, so we decided to meet up so that she could give me my prize. We went for a coffee (tea for me) earlier this month and we enjoyed a nice chat. The prize was a gorgeous sock set from Bellica Yarns, such a pretty colour. There was a project bag from Hannah's Happy Space, a yarn carrier and also some project cards which Fran sells in her Ko-fi shop. A wonderful prize.

Today is Halloween so I thought I'd show you my own little Halloween pumpkin. Eleanor and Jacob had taken him pumpkin picking and he had a whale of a time pushing the wheelbarrow, climbing on the tractor and generally running amok! I knit one of these hats for him last year, it's the Sweet Pumpkin by Drops Design. Obviously, he'd grown out of that one so I knit him another to wear this year, the same pattern. While they were there, the mum of a baby of a similar age to Jack asked Eleanor where she'd got the hat from, when she told her that I'd made it she said it was the best pumpkin hat she'd seen. That made my day!

You can see the hat a little better in this photo. Jack had just fallen in the mud!

It's hard to believe that there's only two months left of the year, time is passing by so quickly. The clocks have gone back now and the evenings are so much darker. I usually hold off putting the heating on for as long as I can but having Jack here at 7am some days means it's been put on earlier than usual this year. Winter is definitely not my favourite time of year but we've got Christmas to look forward to yet so that's keeping me going for the time being.