Wow!

My goodness, if I thought I was excited and overwhelmed by the Olympic opening ceremony 11 days ago, it’s nothing to how I’ve felt watching and listening to the coverage since. 

Every time a Team GB athlete wins, a lump comes to my throat and tears to my eyes.  As I’ve sat here typing this, Laura Trott has won the women’s Omnium (a cycling event I don’t pretend to understand), Victoria Pendleton has got silver in the Women’s sprint cycling and Sir Chris Hoy has won gold in the men’s Keirin (another cycling event I don’t fully understand).  And I’ve got tears in my eyes again! 

I believe Sir Chris Hoy is the GB athlete with the most Olympic gold medals now, overtaking Sir Steve Redgrave and his marvellous achievement in the rowing in past Olympics. 

I’ve been totally surprised by the sports I’ve loved watching too.  Things I would never watch normally, such as archery and double trap shooting (I was glued to that the other afternoon when our competitor won gold).   I’ve always loved the gymnastics, particularly the men on the rings – how do they do that?!, rowing, cycling and the equestrian events.  Our Dressage team won gold today too, how smart do they look?

Strangely the track and field events of the athletics are some of those I am less interested in, although Saturday evening was wonderful in terms of athletics for Team GB.  Jessica Ennis won the heptathlon; Mo Farah got gold in the 10,000 metres and a gold for Greg Rutherford in the long jump.  Hubby and I were down in Swanage for the weekend and I missed the action as it happened, but caught up on the highlights when we got back to our hotel. 

Swanage was lovely, a really nice relaxing break.  Exactly what I needed after a busy week at work that had involved a lot of driving and an overnight stay in a hotel in Worcester. 

We stayed in a lovely little B&B just on the edge of the town, close enough to walk to the pubs and restaurants on the seafront of an evening, but away from the noise.  On Saturday the sun shone (which was quite unexpected) so we took the opportunity to visit Lulworth Cove and from there walk along the cliff top to Durdle Door, a natural arched rock formation.   

Lulworth Cove - we walked along the path at the top left, across to Durdle Door.

Durdle Door

The walk was quite steep and my legs were definitely feeling it by the time we got back to our starting point.  The honey and ginger ice cream I treated myself too was well deserved in my opinion, and very delicious.

I also treated myself to a new stitching book, appropriately called “Stitch” by Cath Kidston. 

It contains some lovely needlepoint and cross stitch projects based in Cath’s trademark designs.  I can’t wait to get started on one or two, in particular the Union Jack Purse and the Electric Flower Specs case. 

But first, I have a crochet top to finish by Sunday for the Ravellenic Games on Ravelry (I don’t think that’s going to happen) and a top and skirt to sew for a week on Saturday – which should happen. 

I’ll be posting about my progress on both those projects later in the week.  I've also got another "Made by Me" item to share with you.