January - part seven. Seven!

Taking the decorations down. Yes, I know it should have been yesterday (or even the day before according to who you listen to), but I can guarantee that if some piece of bad luck befalls me this year I won't be clutching my forehead and wailing 'Oh no, why did I leave those decorations up a day (or possibly two) too long!'

Everything looks a bit more spacious now. I love it when the tree is up but it takes up space and blocks access to a bookcase so a few weeks is enough really. And actually I love packing the baubles away, wrapping them up in kitchen paper and taping up the boxes to keep them safe until next year. The kids are back at school tomorrow and it's time to get settled into a routine again. Part of me thinks 'bleurgh' at the thought of it but the slightly more sensible part of me recognises that we need it!

January - part 6. Fresh air!

That's one thing about January, there's always fresh air, whether it's whizzing past you at gale force, or it's nipping at your nose. It was the latter this afternoon, when Miss M and I went out for a walk. I'd just been out in the garden wrapping plastic blankets around the more fragile plants (and one particularly fragile flower pot that doesn't care for frosts) as the forecast is for it to be pretty chilly tonight, and thought I'd drag Miss M out for a bit. We walked to the edge of town, admired the sunset, patted a favourite tree, took a 'matching bobble-hat' selfie, and generally had a lovely time. But we were both quite cold by the time we got home, so it was good to get in and defrost!

January - part 5. A tottering pile of books!

I'll just say that again - a tottering pile of books! Actually it's not really tottering, but is a satisfyingly substantial pile of books, most of which were Christmas presents. The Robert Macfarlane one was one I got for £1.50 in the sale at a discount bookshop, and the Susan Cooper one at the top is one I often re-read at this time of year as it's set at Christmas. I read Marsali Taylor's Death on a Longship on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and loved it - Shetland setting and boats and a mystery, pretty much ideal for me.

I started this post hours ago with the intention of writing a more substantial post than yesterday's, but got interrupted. It's been a very long day so I'm off to bed now. So much for a post of substance!

January - part four. Light!

Miss M and I went out for a bit today - first to the post office (mum and dad, your calendar is on its way) and then for a mooch around the shops as Miss M had a book token to spend. I was idly looking out for Christmas tree lights for next year as ours are old-style non-LED lights which are one-by-one ceasing to function. More or less by chance we spotted a set of half-price multi-coloured lights. And also the 'crackled sphere' with lights in the picture, also half-price.  I wouldn't even have glanced at it full price to be honest, but actually it's lovely, especially the way it lights up the wall behind. Thinking about it, this festive season has been all about light - candles in various sizes, fairy lights all over the place, and my light-up wreath hanging from a hook above the mirror on the landing:

I don't mind the thought of taking most of the decorations down in the next couple of days but I'll miss the lights. There will still be candles of course! 

January - part three. Oh yeah, calendars!

Three days into the year and I finally get around to putting my calendars up. I'm particularly pleased with my Ravilious one!

January - part two. Knitting!

I did cast on my hat on Hogmanay - well, started. I cast on 20 stitches at twenty to midnight, and then Cat1 started throwing up - on the windowsill. He wolfed his dry food too fast again, that part is obvious. Why he choose the windowsill as a suitable venue is less obvious. Oh well. In any case I spent the remaining minutes of 2017 cleaning up cat-sick. Oh, and posting on Facebook about it of course, because when you lead a life as glamorous as mine you like to spread the sparkle a bit. Or alternatively I know my friends will be mildly amused by it.

But yesterday I finished casting on and did the rib, and today I got onto the cable bit. Actually I'm well past the cable bit now, as the picture is from several hours ago when there was daylight. I love it. The yarn is so squishy (wool for texture, alpaca for softness) and the colour so rich and the pattern is fun and.. it's all good!

The pattern is Jesse's Christmas hat (by Elspeth Kursh) again, the one I made for my mother-in-law.

In other news, this morning we finally watched yesterday's Great Festive Bake Off and I laughed myself silly at their East 17 pastiche. Apparently it was also used as the trailer but as I watch very little actual television I hadn't seen it, so it was completely out of the blue. The kids of course didn't get it, 'Stay Another Day' being well before their time, but I laughed!

January - part one. Look up!

I was going to call this post 'Surviving January - part one' but then I thought it sounded too negative. Who knows, it could be a great month! But to stave off any potential Januaryness I'm trying to focus on the positive things. So today it's all about beautiful skies, such as the one this afternoon. It was taken across the supermarket carpark, which is not in itself the loveliest place, but has the advantage of being an open space, a little elevated, on the edge of town, so there's often a feeling of big skies and wide open spaces there (maybe not the steppes or the open sea, but not bad for an inland town).  And it was lovely.

In fact even the supermarket was a pleasant experience, as it was quiet and everybody was relaxed and happy, unrushed. Supermarkets are not usually open here on New Year's Day (or at least not as far as I've been aware on previous years) but I knew this one would be this year from a conversation with one of the trolley guys last week. And it was just as well because we were running short of spread, milk and cat litter, though the main reason I went out was just to get out really, just for a little while by myself. Bliss.

a better picture

1. a better picture of the wool, in daylight and all fluffed back up.

2. a picture of the moon, possibly the least fuzzy I've ever taken.

The anti-sickness tablets also turn out to be anti-sleep tablets* so after four days of insomnia** I've decided to stop them and just hope I don't throw up too much.  I've only three more days of the antibiotics left. I'm sure it'll be fine. FINE. When making 'January bearable' amounts to not being sick there's not really much you can illustrate it with...

*surprisingly - the first dose knocked me out.

** actually on adding it up it's been three nights of insomnia. Addled.

flat

 I got a package in the post today - it was flattish with odd lumps. When I opened it I realised it was some wool I'd ordered which had been packed in the most awesome and cool way - it had been vacuum-packed.  Yes, it looks like plasticene.

The best fun I had today was cutting a tiny hole in the packaging and watching it inflate (reflate? reinflate..?). Call me easily amused but it made me laugh. It also made Miss M laugh so it's not just me. That said, we've both been giggling at really bad cracker jokes this evening..

The pictures are dark and gloomy once again because once again I pretty much missed daylight. I had to go back to the doctor because the current antibiotics were making me very queasy. But as they do seem to be working on the chest infection, rather than stop them she's given me anti-nausea tablets to go with them. These are a kind of antihistamine, most of which make me sleepy, so I spent most of this afternoon sleeping or dozing. On the upside, no nausea, and it's only until I finish the antibiotics so just a few days. A few days of sleeping? Why thank you!

A coffee and a chocolate biscuit

That's a very dark picture.

So we're five days into January and I'm clutching at straws here but, dammit, I'm going to enjoy that coffee!

There are other things making January bearable but I keep forgetting to photograph them in daylight - daylight being in short supply at the moment. And anyway the antibiotics I'm taking have dire warnings on the packaging about avoiding daylight, even on overcast days - apparently they've turned me into a vampire. I'm not sure what'll happen if I do go into the sunlight but I'm imagining some Buffy-like crumbling into dust. Or perhaps not. So perhaps the dark, mysterious picture of my coffee is entirely appropriate!

Throw Another Log on the Fire

We don't have an open fire or a wood-burning stove. Or even one of those gas fake fires. But we have a Youtube video of a burning fireplace and a spare television. So our cats do get to curl up in front of the fire!

Our favourite video has just the right balance of crackling and burning sounds and the odd spitting log, and it's all very restful - and no ashes to clean out either. Alas, of course, no actual heat, but that's probably just as well given how close Boycat is to the 'flames'!

Without any real intention, this is turning into a series of 'things to make January bearable' posts. It's no secret (i.e. I whinge about this every year) that I always find January a bit of a slog, and at the moment I'm on a second course of antibiotics for a chest infection so obviously it's my least healthy time of the year as well (last year it was 'flu, the year before it was conjunctivitis and an ear infection..). The obvious answer to this is to make December less frenetic and look after myself better next year (and I'm typing this partly as reminder to the me of Autumn 2017), but for now I'm just aiming to enjoy what I can out of January.  Even if it's just the little things, like a pretend logfire.

Wool and books

We wound another ball of wool today - this is one of my home-dyed efforts (anthemis tinctoria).

And I'm reading The Tempest, which I haven't read for years.

Also I've pulled muscle and it hurts too much to type, so a short post it is!

January and Jigsaws

We have a jigsaw on the go for idle moments. Miss M got the current one for Christmas and was a bit confused about the Christmas tree in the water. It turns out that the painting is of Bourton on the Water in the Cotswolds, where they do in fact put a Christmas tree in the middle of the river. I don't know how - a crane perhaps? So we've learned something new, if completely useless. The jigsaw itself is surprisingly tough (for a 500-piece jigsaw) because there are so many similar patches of snow, patches of river and patches of sky. If it were a 1000-piece jigsaw I'd be crying into my coffee by now.

Before we did the Bourton at Christmas one we did the books one in the middle of the picture.  That was brilliant - so much colour, and interesting without being too frustrating. We'll probably do the top one next - that's a portion of Benozzo Gozzoli's Procession of the Magi, and is great because there's so much detail. Also because I have soft spot for Renaissance art. And then I'll dig out the 1000-piece jigsaws...

A New Year's Day walk

The wind finally dropped and the rain finally stopped (it feels as if it's been wet and windy for weeks), and although there was a frost this morning it had gone by lunchtime. So the Boychild and I went for a walk in the mid-afternoon. He's a good companion for a walk - not chatty, but quite happy to be wander peacefully and enjoy the scenery and weather. And patient when I stop to take pictures. These were all taken with my 'phone, so I didn't have much control over how they turned out, but they're okay I think.

I never did get any knitting done last night. We all sat around reading until midnight, at which point fireworks went off in various directions and bagpipes resounded (not kidding - the boy over the road plays the pipes and did a quick rendition of Scotland the Brave as midnight struck). Miss M and I wrapped ourselves in a blanket and watched the fireworks from her bedroom window. The gentlemen of the house are largely disinterested in fireworks but Miss M and I like sparkly stuff. And then we all went to sleep, even the cats.