A very woolly week
So far there is no news on the cat adoption front 😥but I am keeping my hopes high that the perfect kitty (or two) is out there waiting for us. I was sorely tempted this week by a little one at the rehoming place - a tiny fur ball with a big name - Baelfire.
Seriously, who calls a kitten Baelfire. He was adorable but sadly had a few issues that meant he wasn’t suitable for sharing a home with another cat.
So, no cat news but lots of woolly news. Some sheep have been moved into a field near where we live. For some, I grant you this is nowhere near big news but for where we live - lots of rural arable fields and wide open (read - flat) East Anglian spaces sheep are a very rare sight indeed. I know a lot of people are fans of this part of the world and praise it for it’s big skies. But for me that just emphasises the lack of any other large landscape feature.
The reason there are big skies is because there are no bloody hills 🤣
Having grown up surrounded by hills it turns out that it is a far more intrinsic part of my character than I ever realised - until I inadvertently moved to the flattest part of the country.
Anyway - sheep!
I cannot express how much joy it has brought this week having sheep for neighbours. My morning drive has been enlivened and I have been wholly entertained by their woolly antics. They truly are the best of creatures and far, far smarter than people commonly give them credit for.
Greeting the sheep every morning has been such a lovely addition to my morning routine and I’ll be very sorry when they are moved on. (Fact snippet for the day: they are there to help ‘clear up’ after the sugar beet crop has been harvested and to add some nutrient rich fertiliser before the field is replanted).
Making me smile this week
🌿 More woolly goodness with this amazing sock yarn from Dragon Hill Studios. It just so happens to have some colours in common with my eldest son’s sports team at Uni so these will make the perfect striped socks for him. I can’t wait to get them underway - and it’s always so tempting to cast on straight away when the yarn comes so beautifully wound.
🌿 If you are in the market for some woolly goodness - and if you aren’t, are you feeling OK? - you can snag some of your own at this weekend’s Unravel in Farnham, where I believe Dragon Hill Studios will be present, along with lots more fabulous vendors. Are you going? I was hoping to. But a serious of boring but essential life events have conspired against me and this weekend is now occupied by tedious life admin that I would rather avoid. Still, I will definitely be going to the East Anglia Yarn Fest in Norwich next month, so I’ll save my pennies for that.
🌿 Digital Kindness - I have been reading this book by
who also has an amazing Substack called Digital Hope. I really enjoyed reading her thoughts on better ways to navigate the online world, especially now with all of the anxiety and anger in the world. Her recent post here brought it home to me with the wordsThere are more of us
And there really are. There are far more kind, empathic, caring humans than you might think. Casual social media browsing by default tends to focus on the negative - but in our day to day lives, our encounters with fellow humans - those around us who really matter - tend to be unfailingly positive.
And I don’t know about you but I found that thought to be unbelievably comforting. You can read her piece here:
🌿 Finding out that IKEA sell a flat-pack chocolate bunny for Easter really tickled me. My flat-pack assembling genius of a younger son will absolutely love this so I am taking a drive to the dreaded yellow and blue warehouse to try and pick a couple up.
🌿 Easy overnight bread - full disclaimer - I haven’t tried this yet. But home bread making is something that has always eluded me. This recipe though looks suitably fool proof (and easy) so I am excited to give it a go.
So, that’s my weekend planned. Stripy socks, IKEA and bread making.
What has made you smile this week?
Hello Louise,
What a nice post. I am with you with regard to big sky, it leaves me feeling alone, please give me some mountains and trees to breakup all that blue.
You asked what my plans are for this weekend. Well mostly knitting and watching it snow outside. I live in the states, New Hampshire to be exact, and a whopper of a storm is headed our way.
Before I moved to Glasgow, I think I lived in a very similar part of the UK to you based on how you describe it, although I was in North Essex, near Clacton. The few times I've been back, I was very struck by the huge skies. I occasionally had sheep visiting the field next to my garden and it was always lots of fun, especially at lambing time! I had bats visiting too which was so very special. Late summer evenings watching them swoop over my pond was a favourite memory - moments of calm in what was otherwise a very turbulent time. Bizarrely I never saw any hedgehogs, but in my first garden in Glasgow I had loads!
This week, I am smiling because we got a new boiler in our new-to-us old house. We have had 2 weeks with no heating, which is not something to smile about in Scotland in February!
Last night was my first solo warm night on the sofa and I finally unpacked my knitting needles which made me very happy. I refreshed my memory of M1L and M1R and re-started a stripey shawl/scarf I am making (Escargot Bleu by L'Espace Tricot), and it looks much better on this (4th!) attempt.
Keeping everything crossed for a compatible kitty!