The Journey: Another week gone. Really?

The snow has built up over the week

So where has this week gone? Time is slipping by. The days are getting longer and Ian is coming home later, little by little. Over the dark winter days, we've enjoyed stopping for coffee when he comes home but today will be the last time we enjoy a coffee together until spring, as it is now too late in the day. Instead we are now ready to eat when he gets back. Spring is still a long way off and so we cannot even begin to think about heading back to the caravan yet. Cooking, washing up and water are all the issues over winter, especially as the temperatures at the weekend are forecast to dip back down to around -18C.

Yumm! Ice cream

More ice-cream

That's better says Brencis

There's a wood pile

So winter activities continue. The snow apocalypse didn't quite materialise last week. When Ian woke up on the Tuesday morning we'd had about 10cm of snow. A lot to some people perhaps but for us is not really much at all. The snow has accumulated though over the week and we now have about 40cm with more forecast overnight. That should be it for accumulations for at least a week, but it won't be going anywhere fast as it will be too cold for that. At least the sun has made a welcome appearance, which is always good for everybody's mood.

Silla just likes to sit out in the snow. She just likes
to sit outside, no matter what the weather.

We've had frosty scenes

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I've started standing up to work on my computer. I had a change of scenery this week as I found out that the window ledge in the front room is also the right height to work at. It is much more interesting than looking at a tiled kitchen wall. Some of my neighbours even gave me a cheery wave as I was working. I also half watched two of the kids that live around here build two snowmen, one enormous one and one smaller one with a spruce branch hair do. They looked like they had a lot of fun, as did the couple who stopped to take a picture of the finished snowmen. I am now regretting not nipping out to take my own picture as they are now covered in a layer of snow.

The pond is frozen

Tracks in the snow

On Saturday there was more fresh snow and so I went out to make a contribution to the snow clearing around the back of our apartment. One of our neighbours joined in and we had a short conversation. Nothing particularly noteworthy normally but in these times it is. Here people tend to hibernate anyway and so it is rare to spend more than a few seconds uttering a greeting before scurrying back inside. The morning was glorious though with the sun glinting on the snow and the job so easy as it was like shovelling icing sugar it was so fine and powdery. Not as much of a workout as I was expecting.

Mari looking wistful

Some days it's more black and white and
sometimes the colours glow

After the snow clearing I started hunting through my accumulated dressmaking patterns. I found the perfect style, only to find that the paper pattern was missing. Not to worry, I did find a pattern for some posh bib overalls where I could just use the trouser section. I had dyed some fabric that would make a nice pair of trousers the week before, but wanted to use any excess fabric to make more patches for the patchwork dresses I am making for my granddaughters. So I needed to know how much fabric that would take. I cut the fabric out and tacked it together - perfect! Only there wasn't that much fabric left over to make many patches as the fabric piece was only just big enough for the trousers. Oh well!

The colours in this makes me smile

Someone else likes the snow

The next step was to continue working out which patches to use and where on the dresses. I had to lay the patches out on the kitchen floor as we don't have a lot of space - good job we are not in the caravan then! The first row takes 9-10 10cm patches, so that's easy. The next row 1.5x as many. By the time I was down to the 5th row, the rows were right across the floor in two rows. One dress is a rainbow coloured one, one is mainly blue and one is mainly purple. That is a lot of blue and purple patches. I will still have to dye some more fabric to finish off the purple one. Even adding a few splashes of colour didn't work. Not that I'm complaining. I just love dyeing fabrics.

Toe nail cutting will be needed soon

Hellooooo.....

Ian continues on with his winter spinning. He has carded all of Silla's fleece and it is stacked in a fluffy pile in the living room. He's done a lot more spinning this year, but there still won't be that much for sale as it is already spoken for. Our living room looks more like a workshop than a living room, with the carded fleece, spinning wheels, boxes of uncarded fleece and the patches that I've sewn together draped over an ironing board. Keeps us busy anyway.

Ginger Tom just glows

So not much has changed and for that we are grateful. No accidents, no sad departures, and most of the computer issues have settled down. Maybe a bit boring, but much more peaceful.