Trying to be patient

Just a quick gallop through to say thank you for snail mail, texts, carefully-orchestrated mobile conversations in unheated icy bedrooms (mine!) and for your kind thoughts.  As an Aries, patience is a virtue which does not come easily to me.  In fact, I don't really possess an iota of it, to be truthful.  You can then imagine how difficult it is for me to wait for BT to finally resurrect our line.  The 8th February can't come soon enough, as far as I'm concerned.  They have told my MP that they have diverted any incoming calls to my mobile, so they obviously think they have done their duty.  Since we have house walls three feet thick and live in an area of very poor mobile reception, this is not a lot of use to us!

I do hope that the "circle of three" - as in things going wrong  - isn't starting all over again, as we have just had to have the plumber out to replace a length of ancient copper pipe in the kitchen which had been worn very thin from years of contact with acidic water flowing through it, and had started hissing and leaking.  These things are sent to try us.

I have now created a new bedspread from the large piece of factory pre-quilted material I got at the weekend, and have enough for pillow sham FRONTS, so I shall cheat and just have a plain white pillowcase behind them I think.  Leftovers have so far made a very thrown-together bed for little Banshee, who thinks it is Christmas all over again as she likes to be warm.

MANY many thanks to Thelma for the loan of the McFarlane book (though just a brief glimpse at it has underlined the fact I shall have to buy my own copy).  I shall look after it carefully and cannot WAIT to get back this afternoon and start reading it properly.  As for the Blue-Face Border Leicester wool, I just can't wait to spin it and was amazed at how soft it was.  I feel thoroughly spoilt today.

I spent the morning at our local horse sale.  Not many horses forward, but one pen of wee Shetlands who were packed in like sardines.  Some of the other horses had obviously been left there overnight, judging by the mire underfoot in their pens, but at least hay had been provided (though no sign of any water . . .)  I spent my time at the tack auction though, so I can't report what sort of prices the ponies made - very low ones, if recent prices were anything to go by.

I had sunshine for my journey, and it was lovely being on top of Llanllwni Mountain (think big hills really), though it was too misty to see as far as the Cambrian Mountains or back across to the Brecon Beacons.  The sun shining on the soft grey-gold of the mountain grass was so pretty.  I admit to parking up in the little layby by the Laburnums, just to sit and relax.  The Laburnum trees beside me started off as fencing poles when wood was in great demand (WW1) and had put out roots and grown well.  Not the best thing to have around a field for stock though, as their seeds are poisonous.

I will be back tomorrow afternoon, if all goes to plan.

Back to rain

I am very relieved, in a way, that the cold spell has passed and whilst we were barely affected by the snow - just a smidgen on the fields around us and more on the surrounding hills - the house temperature dropped to about 11 degrees away from the fire, and that is chilly. Now we are back to rain.

Anyway, I have some indoor craft jobs to do which will more than keep me busy this coming week.  I am still restoring the 1930s rocking chair (£1 at the boot sale recently!) - have repainted it in ivory, made a new cushion and now need to do the rest of the reupholstery using the last of a bolt of upholstery material a neighbour gave us.

Then yesterday I got a really good bargain - a huge suitcase and contents.  Contents were a huge piece of pre-quilted material - big enough to make a throw for a king sized bed; single piece ditto; some wool and a 3/4 finished crochet cushion cover, and cylinder type cushion cover to go inside it.  All for £5.  I am currently doing the first edging on the king size piece - trimming, pinning and then I will slip-stitch it.  The only problem is I lay it out over the kitchen table and across the chair backs and Theo then makes a bed in the middle.  I have told him if he is patient I will make cat beds from the offcuts but he doesn't believe me!  When I remove him, he then goes into the hall and uses the long Medieval style table my husband made as a playground, knocking off everything that was carefully put on the top . . .

Anyway, I have been in the internet cafe for about an hour now, so I shall return home and do some work.  Hopefully I shall be able to pop in tomorrow.  Many thanks to those of you who are keeping in touch with me by snail mail - it is wonderful to hear from you, and great when the posty leaves me letters in the old bread bin by the front door.

S.M.S. (Save My Sanity!)

Well, as per the title, in the interests of saving my sanity, I have decided to use the internet cafe daily.  I need to keep in touch with my friends - family I can just about contact if I hang out of the attic window, phone them two rings, cancel and then they phone me back.

Anyway, we have finally been given a date for the telephone pole to be replaced (8th February) but I'm not holding my breath.  There was no assurance that the line would be restored at the same time but it had jolly well better be - I shall be down there to make sure it does!  This has seemingly come about because I contacted our MP (Jonathon Edwards) by e-mail from the internet cafe last week, and a friend of mine, who BT seem to be dealing with in preference to me after she has been trying to get them to deal with my case, mentioned that I had contacted our MP.  Within half an hour, we had a voicemail and a date.

Anyway, watch this space.  I will be coming here daily, but don't like to appropriate the one computer here all day long, so it is just a short visit.  Right now, I would like nothing more than a complete morning's indulgence, catching up on everyone's news.  I shall try and go to a different couple of blogs each day, and keep up with your news that way.

Meanwhile, this won't do.  I need to research something about Edward Thomas - though I suspect the only chance I get of seeing the manuscripts I need is to have a vacation in Vancouver, B.C. where they are held . . .

Back tomorrow.  Keep warm all of you in the snow (we are green, but hills around us have a sprinkling of snow still).

NO PHONE LINE STILL!

Just dashing through quickly.  Some of you know we have been without a phone line since 22/12/2012 - a month now.

Although we are now a priority case with BT, and are being "escalated" daily, we are no nearer getting the line fixed and can only communicate with the outside world by letter, or by hanging out of the attic window to try and get a mobile signal.  I have now learned how to text . . .

I have just emailed our MP, from desperation, so let us hope something will start moving soon.

Missing everyone and I would love to share recent photos with you.  We had our 25th wedding anniversary last week and went into England for the day and visited Lacock Abbey.  We had beautiful weather and thoroughly enjoyed our day out.

Now there is snow on the ground, but we were fortunate in being on the edge of the weather front and just have a smidgin.  Elsewhere in Wales folk are badly affected and snowed in.  Our cupboards are full, fortunately - we just stocked up on cat food.

Back when I can - this is sent from an internet cafe . . .

Making Christmas

I will get the other pictures from my weekend away Ooop North posted soon, but at the moment I am busy in the kitchen, mainly, and doing the necessary housework to have everything tidy before our offspring arrive home.  We just have a quiet family Christmas here, as we live so far away from friends and relations.  Hopefully when we move that will change.  When we move . . .

I managed to catch The Wartime Farm Christmas programme the other evening, and recorded it so I can watch it again (probably whilst I am doing the ironing).  One thing that Ruth said really rang true - "You can't BUY Christmas - it's up to you to MAKE it."  How true this was  in war time when there simply WEREN'T any toys on sale for working class pockets (and those that could be found were often shoddy).  So it had, of necessity, to be a home-made Christmas. 

Now we are again in a time of austerity, many people have had to cut their expenditure and we are no exception.  I have made a number of presents again, and I have to say, it is SO satisfying to do so, even when one knitting pattern drove me nearly cross-eyed with concentration and has been much-unpicked. 

Now I have a busy weekend of baking ahead of me, and the usual Christmas traditions for food are being adhered to.  When I suggested to my son that I rang the changes on the usual Chocolate Roulade with raspberry coulis and perhaps did a Lemon Meringue type roulade, he said no!  Chocolate and raspberry it had to be . . .  I make it on Christmas Day and the cook's reward is to have a big slice of it for breakfast on Boxing Day morning : )

I have to say, I have tried to keep away from the shops during the run up to Christmas - especially grocery shopping as it irks me to see instant this and that going in shopping trolleys.  One of my pet hates is seeing people happily spending several pounds on a thick foil tray (throwaway) to cook the turkey in rather than spend a couple of pounds more and have a decent baking tray they can use every year . . . Then there are the jars of  pickled onions which are SO incredibly easy to make, jars of chutney, pickles, sauces etc.  But I dare say there is such a huge gap in the cooking ability between a grandmother in her 70s and a grand-daughter in her 20s and social differences which require people to be in full-time work. A childhood spent in  war-time austerity (when cooking skills were still handed down), then met in the 1960s and 1970s the beginnings of instant this and that and then the "ready meal".   Who would have thought that fish fingers and sliced bread were the thin end of a wedge that would ultimately make such a difference in the kitchen?

But this is starting to sound like a lecture and that wasn't my intention.  Have fun in your kitchen over the next few days and remember that old adage, whatever alcohol you put in your cooking, "one for the cook" is much-recommended too!

Photos of York - I hope!

Right, many thanks to Mac n' Janet for suggesting Flickr to store my photos on.  I see I have limited storage on there each month too, so I may load some on Flickr and some on Photobucket, and see if I can manage that way!

Anyway, here is one of the Fairground rides at York recently - the Gallopers.

York Minster from the front - the best I could do without getting run over!

And in slightly more close-up.  Sorry they aren't very sharp, but that's because I have enlarged them.

The ruins of St Mary's Abbey in the York Castle Museum gardens (the Museum we couldn't afford to go in . . .)

The 14th C Lendal Tower by the River Ouse is a partner to the Barker Tower on the opposite bank, and a chain used to be hung between the two, so that a toll could be extracted by boats wishing to pass.

Our beautiful eldest daughter T, whose birthday treat this outing was.

Part of the market in York.

Above: Barley Hall, York.  Below: Day to day Medieval living inside the Barley Hall   We  visited there for the Medieval Craft Fair, and I bought a present for my husband - a candle holder made using part of old (oak) farm machinery, and some thrifted (!) beach-combed Amber chips (drilled for jewellery) from a Dutch beach, which my clever daughter turned into earrings for me when we got back to her flat.

Preparing for Christmas

Well, the wreath is done.  I have managed a photograph by wiping some earlier ones.   

As for the new blog, I am not sure how many of you will be able to access me if I go over to Wordpress permanently.  Can we have a headcount?  Morning AJ says it won't let her in.  Are there many more of you?

Anyway, I am quite happy with this year's wreath which is a variation on the standard hedgerow-garnered wreath we always make.  T and I that is, but as she is not here until next Sunday, I had to make it alone this time.  I only had to walk as far as our front gate for the ingredients - bendy Pussy Willow wands, long ribbons of ivy which scramble over the front wall, and then I dived into the Christmas decoration boxes and came up with some lovely clear-glass faceted baubles on a silver wire, and for contrast, a long length of gold balls.  The Willow made the interwoven frame, covered with festoons of ivy strands, then the baubles and gold balls.  Underneath hangs a weather-proof silver tree decoration like a star-shaped snowflake.  It looks really pretty (says she modestly).

Today we got 3 bottles of wine for the Christmas meals (our offspring have promised more) and we drove down to Eynons at St Clears (an award-winning butcher) for the meaty part of the Christmas feast - salt-marsh lamb for Christmas Day, casserole venison and  pheasant breast to go towards the Boxing Day Game Pie, and two lovely thick succulent venison steaks to go between three of us when T arrives next weekend.  I have 2 brace of partridges already in the freezer, and a goose which is going in the oven on Christmas Eve and just need to get a game pack from our more local butcher.

Theo'dorable is on the mend and now that his tummy is better, he was allowed out of the kitchen today and chose to snuggle up next to me on the sofa.

Off for a hot bath now, as my fingers are dropping off with cold.