Winter is Coming.

First thing this morning we had 2 brief thunderstorms which dropped a lot of hail  making everything seem quite wintry. As I didn't have to go to work (still rejoicing over that) all we had to do was turn on the heating, unplug the internet, feed Squeaky and let the other 2 cats in before returning to bed with some coffee for a lie-in. For the rest of the day we've had intermittent hail and rain but no more thunder and lightning. In fact with very little wind at ground or tree level it hasn't been that cold so off went the heating once more as the rayburn keeps the place warm enough.

Seeing all that white outside put in in the mood to write out my Christmas cards. Out came the cards bought last January and my very old address book. Having written out all my cards I then went through the whole address book to check I hadn't missed anyone out. Looking through the book is a real trip down memory lane as I've used it as an address book since my school days. It brought to mind; school friends, committee members from the city farm, church members, friends right across the years, local farmers, the now retired piano tuner and even the farmer who would come and pump out the old septic tank. I've not been too good at keeping in touch with people but we still have friends whom we haven't seen for 20 years that we keep in touch with at least at Christmas. Good old Facebook makes keeping in touch so much easier these days.

Last night I made an attempt to start work on a crochet pattern that I had bought from etsy. In the past I've crocheted blankets and even soft toys but that's always been freestyle, never from a pattern. Armed with my Guide to Crochet, a comprehensive book with wonderfully dated illustrations from 1974 I attempted the tension square, no problem there until I realised I'd done double instead of single stitches, but I couldn't work out some of the terms for the fancy stitches. I looked on line today which was a good thing as the US terms (it's a US pattern) are not the same as the UK terms eg UK double stitch is US single stitch. Looking a bit further I found diagrams of the fancy stitch so hopefully once I've bought the wool I need I can get started on some Christmas presents.