Hello!

Tea party!

The shop is offline because I am taking it to a tea party! It will be back later this evening. n

What's Occurring?

Time to blow the cobwebs off this place and have a bit of a Spring Clean I think. Things have been rather busy chez YYHQ and the blog has been neglected. 

The book in the last post was indeed The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and I have to confess to being a bit of a LIW geek with all of the books very tattified from many readings and re-readings. Comfort Reading, I call it.

The next couple of weeks will be fairly hectic. 

First, it's tax-time in the UK, all figures must be submitted by January 31st so it's heads-down making sure it's all checked and double-checked.

Second, I have Club Yarn to dye this week, and Fibre, and a shop update to be ready for Friday. There is still a little yarn left from last week, but not much!

Third, I have a big wholesale order to dye (can't say more just now) which is being done in stages so a big wedge of dyeing time will be devoted to that.

Fourth, I have invested in a new camera which I know will improve the photos of the very saturated colours you all love so much. It's not here yet (and the accounts-checking comes first) but I have tried it out already, and it's really going to make a difference. The only problem is that I will need to learn to drive it! 

Fifth, there is a new blog on the way which will be hosted on the YY site, and it's looking really rather splendid. New sections, more photos, and much more fun to visit. And yes, I will need driving lessons for that too.

And lastly I am going to York for the last weekend in January to meet up with a wonderful group of people who hang out in the Garden Shed on ravelry. There will be knitting. There will be spinning. There will be pizza. There will be wine. And there will be p/hopping.

If you glance at the p/hop widget in the sidebar you'll see it has jumped from £7,800 to over £9,000 raised for Medecins sans Frontieres in the last five days. Thank you to everyone who has donated, whether via p/hop or to MSF directly. You are special people.

n

Sleuthing and sliding.

Like the rest of the UK we are still under a blanket of snow.

Our street hasn't been gritted or cleared, and actually, although it's a bit of a pain, I completely agree with the council's decision to keep main roads clear and safe rather then spreading it thinly over all the roads in the county. This is exceptional weather and we just have to accept that normal rules don't apply.  

I was thinking the other day about the books I have read which feature snowy weather.

  

 

Who wants to be a book detective?

n

 

Holiday Essay

You remember when you were at school and you went back after the Christmas holidays and found

"What I did on my holidays"

on the blackboard?

Well our activities have been very home-based because of this.

 

About a foot of snow. 

It's showing no signs of thawing either, and more heavy snow is forecast for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

We have been out a couple of times, and on one occasion needed four men to push the car to get us over the snow-hump between our parking spot and the road. But mostly we have stayed at home.

Gavin has written today about the things he has learned while on holiday. So in the same vein, I think I'll join him.

1. I learned that pancakes are not just sweet.

 

1 egg  (Thank you ladies for continuing to lay even though your bottoms are snowy.)

120g SR flour

milk - about 120ml but generally enough to make gloop rather than batter.

leftover spinach

leftover feta (a matchbox sized lump, grated)

mix gloopy ingredients, leave to get even more gloopy for an hour and for the gluten to come out to play, add more milk if necessary or a tad more flour if it's a bit runny.

add spinach and feta

put in dollops on baking sheet on aga simmering plate (or heavy non-stick frying pan)

eat

2. I learned that moving son's possessions onto landing, husband's office into son's room, Yarn Yard HQ into husband's office and then son into former YYHQ is possible in one day. It will probably take another week to make sense of new YYHQ and have it anything like ready for a photo-shoot. Maybe two weeks.

3. I learned several new garden bird species (as long as they stand still) but that when a large hawk flying a few inches past the windscreen - so close I think there were feather marks on the snow - and you are driving along a slippery road, all thoughts of trying to register what colour it's legs are and whether the greater coverts are black, brown or grey are secondary to trying not to hit it. I think it was a female Sparrowhawk, because they are twice as big as the males, but the main thing is that it didn't become road-kill.

4. I learned (or re-learned) to crochet.

More about this soon.

5. I (we) watched all the recorded episodes of Wallander on the digiboxthing, and I now have a yen to learn a bit of Swedish.

You've got to love a language where a snow flake is called a snöffinga, haven't you?

So, back to work tomorrow. What did you do on your holidays?

n

Happy Twenty Ten!

So, did you see the blue moon then?

We were standing - well dancing about, actually - in the garden at one o'clock this morning and it was like daylight. Amazing. 

 

 

The vegetable patch looks like an unmade bed (which I suppose it is), with a snowy duvet hurled on top in an attempt to tidy the place up a bit.

And that earthenware pot in the middle of the bed really does have about nine inches of snow on it, and the earth in the pot is another three inches below the rim so you can see how much snow we've had.

A simply breathtaking start to twenty-ten.

The only slight problem was that it was pretty chilly and I couldn't find my hat... so I grabbed the knitted tea-cosy which was lying on the aga, and it did the job magnificently!

Thank you for being with me through 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. 

Happy New Year. I hope it brings you everything you wish for, and more.
 

n