Supposed to be knitting

Today I took a whole load of pictures of the thing I am knitting, and they were all blurry! Guess the light wasn't as bright as it seemed.

So here's a picture from this morning.

Anyway, the thing I am knitting is a pouch for my compact camera. I do have a case for it but it's quite bulky with space for spare memory cards and stuff, and all I really need for day-to-day use is something to protect it from bumps, pointy things and leaking ballpoints in my handbag. And I wanted a small piece of fairly mindless knitting. So I'm using leftover bits of Drops Nepal in various colours - stripes, bit of Fair Isle, whatever I feel like really. It's looking quite nice so far, I think! But you'll have to take my word for it until I can take a decent picture.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Well, the snow did fall. And kept falling - showers, but heavy ones, so that when it was snowing it felt as if we were in the middle of a blizzard that had been raging for hours and would continue to rage for hours. And then it would just stop and there'd be a patch of blue sky for a bit before the next shower rolled in. It's been fun to watch.

I like this one, there's a Brueghelesque Hunters In The Snow kind of colour scheme about it. It's even more marked on the similar picture I put on Instagram - that was taken with my phone and came out a bit darker.

Still snowing and I'm wondering what tomorrow will be like. It's been dark for hours but with reflected light on snow and clouds it's undark too. Sort of peachy!

A Hogmanay Post

Boxing Day landscape

Hello, happy New Year, or whatever! Hogmanay is proceeding in its usual way - we're sitting in the house not doing much! Occasionally we hear the odd firework (it's only 9.13 pm as I type this so they're a bit early) but the cats are completely unconcerned thankfully. My brother came over for a bit earlier and when I dropped him off at the railway station a while back we saw crowds of young people all glammed up and ready to head into Glasgow for an epic night out. One girl had the most incredible dress of giant sequins, the kind of thing I wish I'd worn when I was twenty-ish, though I'd also have to wish I was outgoing enough when I was twenty-ish to wear that kind of thing  - I wasn't, but I still think it was a fab dress!

Christmas was quiet and nice, and we had snow on Boxing Day, just enough to brighten things up. I've been for loads of walks this week, and might actually go out for another in a bit as it's a mild night. The snow melted last night when it was windy and it feels much warmer today.

My only piece of Christmas knitting this year was a hat for my mother-in-law. The pattern is called Jesse's Christmas Hat and I found it on Ravelry - it's lovely and quick. The cables give it a bit of interest but there's only a few rows to the cable section so it doesn't take ages. I'm going to make another for myself, in two shades of green (olive green with a pistachio border and pompom) - in fact my plan for this evening is to cast it on. Miss M (now eleven) wants to stay up until 'the bells' so I'll need to do something to keep me going! The yarn is Drops Nepal, a wool/alpaca mix and it's very soft and lovely. I made the pompom the old-fashioned way with the two rings of cardboard, partly because I enjoy it and partly because the plastic pompom maker I had was rubbish, but funnily enough my mother-in-law then gave Miss M a set of rather better pompom makers so she's been making pompoms ever since! I've got to admit they're much quicker, though I think they look a bit sparser than the ones made with cardboard.

The final picture is from one of my evening walks because I didn't want all my pictures to be ones I'd already used on Instagram! That was a chilly night. Right I'm off to put the kettle on and then find my needles to cast on my green hat. All the best for 2018 everyone!

We're getting there

 Things keeping me going in January are:

A little bit of snow last week. I even have snowballing pictures but the kids wouldn't like it if I made them public. But it was great seeing them have fun in the snow!

The first daffodils in the shops

My new diary insert (by Morgan Le Fae's Trinkets - I love these; this particular layout suits me perfectly).  This took a random route from the Netherlands and I thought it had got irretrievably lost. Monique had posted it well before Christmas so goodness knows where it went on its travels!

Winding more wool.

And today I watched Rams (Hrútar) which I'd been meaning to watch for ages, and loved it. I even knitted while I watched, though it was only a sample to check how the variegated wool knitted up. I was meaning to make a hat with it but all my circular needles seem to have vanished. I must have put them somewhere particularly safe...

We're all more or less recovered from our various lurgies now, and although the first couple of weeks were pretty awful even by January standards, I think settling back into the normal routine has helped.

as if by magic

It stopped being dreich yesterday afternoon and decided to snow. And snow and snow. So today everything has changed, and everything that was grey and drab has been transformed into something a bit more magical. So I went for a short walk and took some pictures!

Yesterday these trees were sad, grey and bare and the ground was muddy. Add a bit of snow, and instant Christmas card scene!

 I loved the way the snow had made fluffy clouds on all the plants.

 I'm pretty sure this is the tree from my six-years-ago picture from yesterday. It's grown a bit I think, and I've taken it at a different angle - and of course the snow was very much deeper in the other picture!

I like this one, with the pale yellow of the cornus just showing through so it's not quite monochrome.

And the postbox just for a splash of colour!

The sky was looking very heavy and blank, and an hour or so later it started snowing again, though quite lightly. The forecast is for rain tomorrow so I'm glad I got out and enjoyed the snow however briefly. It does brighten things up a bit, even with the heavy sky.

And the boy cat was glad to get out and be actually camouflaged for once!

*sings* what a difference a day makes

Yesterday :

Today:

The sun came out and the snow melted, so in a brief break from writing yet another assignment (honestly, it's been a month since the last one but it feels like about a week) I went outside and got a few pictures. I hadn't realised there was so much actually flowering in the garden - I'd seen the snowdrops because you can see them from the back door but the irises were in a pot that I'd moved up against the fence when it was last windy and it isn't particularly visible from the house.  There are also crocuses in another pot but they didn't photograph so well.

I have a whole post about Pinterest in my head, but ooh, bit sleepy *yawn*. It'll have to wait, probably until after the essay is done. Night-night!

Things Fall Apart

Our microwave packed in the other day. My Beloved poked at it a bit and declared it beyond his help (as he was waving a rolling-pin at it, this perhaps wasn't surprising - however he is usually quite good at this sort of thing so I'll believe him). So today I went out a-hunting microwave ovens.

Apparently I've bought a conventional one. The opposite of conventional is not, alas, unconventional or even bohemian, but y'know, those-ones-with-the-grill-built-in, which I was mildly tempted by but you can't grill much on them and we have a George Foreman thing, and even, technically, a grill in the real oven (though it's rubbish and smokes a lot so is not often used) so it wasn't necessary.  I quite like the idea of bohemian microwave ovens, but cheap, small and not overly complicated was what I was looking for.  Mission accomplished.

The sun is shining, the sky is blue and the snow is mostly white, so it was quite nice being out and about today, even in retail parks.

Far from being gruntled

The cats are not entirely keen on the snow (neither are the kids for that matter - weird), but as long as the roads are clear, which they mostly are, I quite like it. It brightens things up no end, and there's that satisfying muted crunch when you walk in it and the cold smell, and  fascinating footprints and sparkly bits. I think it will thaw tonight so I'm enjoying it while I can!

Warm feet

Woohoo! I'm out the other side! The fuzzy ear turned out to be an ear infection and though I'm not completely better I'm feeling an awful lot better than I have the last few weeks. I had to get an extension for my OU assignment in the end because I was feeling so fuzzy, but the downside of that was I was still trying to get it done, feeling guilty because I was running over (even though my tutor was fine about it), getting frustrated because I was losing my train of thought mid-sentence, and ultimately just getting fed up with it. But I submitted it last week, whether it's gibberish or not, and it's time to move on - yay! Apart from all that I have also achieved the final weaving in of ends on my Elgin socks, with the help of the boy-cat.

Obviously when I sat down with the socks to finish them off, he came to see what I was doing and equally obviously sat on one of the socks. There was a thread on Ravelry a while back where somebody, apparently genuinely, wondered why so many people 'put' their cats on their knitting for their project pictures, to general amusement from cat people and some gentle explaining.

Also finished is the purple cabled headband of doom, as I finally anchored that random dropped stitch  and got to wear it. To be honest it looks ridiculous on me because it makes my hair stick up in funny ways, but it keeps my ears warm so I don't care. It does of course look gorgeous on Miss M who borrowed it the other night (well, afternoon, it was five-ish but dark) when she and her friend were attempting to build a snowman with much giggling and throwing of snow, but very little actual building.

There has been a bit of the white stuff and it's a bit on the chilly side so I'm particularly glad I got my Elgin socks finished now rather than, you know, in June or something, which is when I usually finish winter things. They're a bit big really but I wear them as slippers over another pair of socks

 This was also on the walk to school, near the top of the hill, hence the leaning trees - I'm not that bad a photographer! Though don't look to closely at the horizons on beach photos..

Totally gratuitous cute cat picture - she was sticking to the bit by the back door where it was sheltered and there was only a scattering of snow. Cold paws are not her thing. I don't blame her.

But clearer skies yesterday meant sunshine and the daffodils on my kitchen windowsill looked so happy. I'm so glad that something as cheap as a bunch of daffodils can cheer me up so much!

Daffodil-coloured snow? Just snow by the light of the streetlights.

Argh, no, time to get the kids from school - bye!

Cockbridge to Tomintoul

 Traffic Scotland ‏@trafficscotland 55m ago

#A939 btwn Tomintoul and Cock Bridge - Snow Gates are *closed* due to severe blizzards and drifting snow :( #StaySafe

There's something really vicious and personal about sleet - it wriggles into your shoes and down the back of your neck; it finds all your weaknesses. Snow falls, gently, heavily or in flurries, but sleet sidles in, looking a bit dodgy.

I got soaked taking the kids to school this morning. I imagine they got a bit wet too actually, though they only walked half as far. I felt guilty about doing my usual thing of parking at the local shops and walking along to the school  - it's only 100 metres or so, but the weather was vile this morning, and I'd have been better braving the school car-park and dropping them off just for once. Mummy Guilt - it's ever-present. Also I'd have got much less wet. Hmm, must remember that in the morning if it's still horrible.

I follow Traffic Scotland on Twitter and they've been hard at work today with updates (Skye Bridge closed, Skye Bridge open, Skye Bridge closed again - it's been a bit fresh apparently). And now the surest sign of winter is here - the A939 Cockbridge to Tomintoul road is closed, among others. There's also the A93 Spittal of Glenshee to Braemar, B974 Fettercairn to Banchory and the B9007 Carrbridge to Ferness, which I'm including to add an air of exoticism to the blog. I live in the comparatively tropical Central Belt, well to the south, where we're getting sleet, hail and highish winds rather than blizzards, and I haven't been over that road in years, and never in winter thankfully, but from my childhood I remember traffic reports on the radio in the winter talking about the Cockbridge to Tomintoul road - mostly Terry Wogan joking about it as I recall.

Should you be interested, my second sock is about to have its heel turned, I'm getting stressed about Christmas shopping and tomorrow night I'm helping at the school disco. The very thought of the disco is making me want to lie down in a darkened room but I'm sure it'll be fine. Fine. Fine! (to be said in the voice of the mother in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang).

Every night I think I should write a blog-post, and I honestly do have things to ramble on about, but every evening it all trickles out of my head and that's that.  Evenings over the last three weeks were rather taken up with my annual trashy telly fix, that being I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, which was fun but not startlingly so this year (possibly nothing will ever top the comedy gold that was Paul Burrell doing Hell Holes), and at the end quite mystifying - who exactly was voting for Foggy?  My Beloved said that his motorbike forum were equally perplexed.

Oh well.

Scarfy goodness

 Yesterday I finally remembered at the appropriate time of day to take some pictures of my Hitchhiker and as luck would have it it was a cold sunny day so the light was excellent. I did take some pictures of myself wearing it (knitting selfies are less frivolous than normal ones, eh?) but they were abysmal. I looked pale, cold and rather forbidding, and not in a cool Ice Queen kind of way, more of the sarcastic maths teacher with a headache genre.

I'm so chuffed with how well the Hitchhiker turned out. I was a little haphazard with my row counting so some of the points ended up a bit longer than others but I think it looks pretty good. I debated with myself for a while as to whether I should cast off at the 42nd point or whether the last point doesn't actually count as a point - and I couldn't find the pattern so I don't know if that's mentioned. In the end I decided the last point doesn't count as a proper point so depending on your point of view it may have 43 points. It's very long and very warm too which is good as this morning we woke up to a hard frost and the first light sprinkling of snow this winter.

Very sunny and beautiful clear blue skies though which makes up for an awful lot.  That photo was taken about midday actually. I like the contrast with the golden leaves just hanging on by the skin of their sap and the snow/frost. The amazing yellow maybe-maple leaves that have fallen off a tree near the school looked amazing with frost on them but I didn't have time to take pictures this morning.  Also I'd have felt a bit of an idiot, to be honest. Sometimes I'm uninhibited about taking photos of random things, but sometimes I'm not.

I've taken to comparing the various weather forecast websites, just for fun. It's Parents' Night at the school tonight so that may coincide with torrential rain, a light rain shower or hail, depending on which site you look at.  I'll just wait and see.  I imagine a plague of locusts is probably not likely. Freeze-dried locusts maybe. Or soaking-wet or merely-slightly-damp locusts possibly. Weather's such an adventure!

Yesterday

 Yesterday it snowed and snowed and snowed. And snowed. On and off all day, though being wettish snow it didn't add to the existing snow in vast amounts. Just enough. It was lovely watching it fall though. I was watching a programme about art and snow in the afternoon (hang on.. Tales of Winter: The Art of Snow and Ice available in BBC i-player) and it was quite peculiar to glance away from snow on the television to snow falling outside.

Then it was home-time for the Horrors:

For once Miss M didn't complain about walking home. In fact she loved it. 

And the advantage of all this white stuff falling was that there was finally enough snow to go sledging.

The Boy doesn't like sledging (to be more accurate, he doesn't like getting cold and wet) but Miss M was keen, so after a bit of poking a broom-handle at the upper regions of the garage I managed to retrieve a sledge and off we went.

We didn't really stay out all that long as it was still snowing and getting dark but it was worth it to see how much she enjoyed it!  Then it was home for pizza. Haggis may be consumed sometime this weekend, but Friday night is Pizza Night. Carved in stone and strictly enforced by Miss M.

Today has been a l-a-z-y day. There's been a gradual thaw and consequently a rawness about the wind, so aside from brief forays into the outside world (Miss M's gymnastics class, My Beloved going to the supermarket) we have stayed cosily inside. I have sewed things, Miss M has forced Barbie and Ken have adventures, and we've discovered that as Ken has proper feet he can stand while poor Barbie has been forced into ill-fitting plastic shoes all her life and can do nothing unaided, poor lass. My Beloved has made tacos and tortillas and fish-fingers. The Boy has rediscovered Club Penguin (now with added dinosaurs)  The cats have complained bitterly about being inside when they wish to be outside, and vice versa, and then fallen asleep. One's asleep on my feet right now. And I am feeling pleasantly dozy.  *yawn*

things and stuff

So where have my snow pics been then? Well, truth be told, we've only had a little snow here. It has however been quite chilly. I was going to say bitterly cold, but that's an exaggeration. It has been freezing for several days (lost count), and at times (e.g. when standing in the windswept school playground) it has felt bitterly cold, but bitterly cold is what it is in the Arctic tundra. Not the Central Belt of Scotland.  However the cold weather has meant clearer skies and that has meant sunshine - yay!

I actually quite like a very sparse covering of snow because it lightens up the landscape without making it monochrome. Deep snow can be lovely but a few years ago when we had heavy snow that stayed for a month it got very tedious and I was longing for colour. This January has had loads of colour. My 99p bunch of daffs are still brightening up the kitchen window:

my gorgeously bright stripey thing is progressing nicely:

and my ice-art in the garden is looking a little anaemic:

Still any colour in the garden  is better than none at the moment.   This was inspired by a picture that was doing the rounds on Facebook (and probably Pinterest) last week. The idea is you fill a balloon with water coloured with food colouring. Let it freeze, then cut the balloon off and you have colourful ice-globes in the garden. It turns out that making water-balloons is a messy process. I'd never done it before and had to refer to my mental back-catalogue of Calvin & Hobbes to figure it out. Similarly, adding the food colouring is.. entertaining. Well, my kids were entertained anyway.

It probably all works better in a properly cold country, but here it took days for two of the balloons to freeze to a pleasing egg shape, and the third one hasn't managed yet (a blue balloon, perhaps the colour made a difference). The two frozen balloons turned out not to have frozen quite the way through, so I got a broken eggshell effect which is quite pretty. I'd given up on mixing colours fairly early on so I have one clear ice-egg and one pale yellow one. Yes, the yellow one does make me think of the jokes about yellow snow. But it's still pretty, especially as I can guarantee there have been no huskies in the garden.

I have been cooking with colour too. I tried a new recipe yesterday. By 'tried a new recipe' I mean I found a recipe that looked interesting and actually followed it instead of making something up which is my usual method. It was Fruity Lamb Tagine and it was delish, and will be added to my repertoire. The only thing I omitted was the coriander leaves because they just taste of soap to me. But I did sprinkle the pomegranate seeds on top and very pretty and jewel-like they looked too. This was my first encounter with pomegranate seeds. Some week eh? First water balloon and first pomegranate! Well, I find excitement where I can..

There's no way to photograph food in a domestic setting and make it look truly appetising, but trust me it really did taste nice.

Hogmanay

 Invigorating!

I really should be wearing my slippers. We're at my parents' house and the floor downstairs is concrete under the carpet. The picture above is from yesterday when we were on our way here. It looks worse than it was actually - it rained most of the way and was only sleety snow at Drumochter, the most chilly and exposed bit of the journey. But on the way I saw deer, coming further downhill due to the snow, and lots of pheasants.

 Today. Chilly.

Christmas turned out quite frenetic in the end.  No matter how organised you are (not that I was) this can happen. No point worrying about it, though obviously I did, because I wouldn't be me if I didn't. We had an untraditional Christmas really. Although my Beloved and I like roasts, though not turkey, the kids don't really, and my mother-in-law (vegetarian) was coming over for Christmas Day, so we had homemade pizza instead. Everybody chose their favourite toppings, it was all quite quick and easy and there's minimal washing-up, so all in all it was ideal.  And delicious. Mmm pizza...

I made a mincemeat traybake from the Be-Ro cookbook, rather than than mince pies and it came out really well except that I baked it in a silicone 'tin' and I always forget that silicone doesn't conduct heat in the same way so the pastry didn't crisp up properly - oh noes, soggy bottom! Still tasted nice, but I must remember to use a tin next time.

And now it's Hogmanay. I spent some time this afternoon winding some Yarn Yard Clan into a ball. On a spurtle as I'd left my nostepinne at home. I couldn't have been more of a Scottish cliché if I'd been eating shortbread and drinking whisky, which I'm planning to do shortly of course.  The yellow Clan is for the next stage of Project Rainbow, though actually I've only finished half of 'orange' - a single lonely sock. I'll cast its mate on shortly but thought it'd be nice to have the gloriously sunny buttercup Clan ready to go in dreich January. I'm not really a fan of New Year as a celebration, never have been. It's all so arbitrary. And has the distinct disadvantage of ringing in January, my least favourite month, but when I'm feeling Januaryish I'll look at that yellow and forget it all!  I don't have very much (65g) so it's going to be the main colour in a thin stripy scarf, and I'll use up various leftovers from socks and other small projects, including 'red' and orange', as the contrasting stripes. In my head it looks fantastic!

Well, happy new January everybody - my Kiwi friends are already waking up with a hangover, my USian friends are probably eating lunch and I'm off for a glass of whisky with my parents and my Beloved!