Sunday night, Söndag kväll

Söndag kväll, jobbet imorgon.
Få se hur många av min familj lyckas med att ta sig till jobb/skolan imorgon, vi är förkylda allihopa.

Påskliljor har jag sett, men inte har jag lyckats med att plåta dem, de växer alldeles intill en farlig krok i vägen, och där vill inte jag parkera bilen.

Snödroppar håller på att blomma utanför min fars mosters hus, dessa snödroppar har jag tittat på i hela mitt liv, mer än 45 år, och de fanns innan jag föddes,skulle jag påstå, fantastiskt eller hur, att kunna komma tillbaks till samma ställe varje vår och få se de samma växter slå ut varje januari.

Det kanske kommer snö ikväll, fuktig luft rullar in från Atlanten medan det kommer väldigt kall luft från Europa ikväll över Irland, det kommer säkert att bli nederbörd, om det nu blir snö vet jag inte än, men det ser så ut.
Hoppas bara att det går att köra fram imorgon, inte har vi dubbdäck inte....
Ha det så bra allihopa under veckan,
Stay well and warm!


It's Sunday night, work again tomorrow.
I'm not sure how many of my family will manage to get to work / school tomorrow, we all have colds.

I was telling you that I had seen daffodils by the side of the road on my way to work, but I have not managed to photograph them, they grow right next to a dangerous turn in the road, and  I do not want to park the car there. These particular daffodils are very, very early, they are the earliest I have ever seen. The rest of the daffodils are just beginning to show spears and a few buds, but no flowers yet.

Snowdrops are just coming into flower outside my father's aunt's house. I remember these snowdrops from when I was a child, more than 45 years ago. I am sure they were there before I was born. It's amazing isn't it, to be able to go  back to the same place each Spring and see the same plants bloom every January.

Maybe it will snow tonight, there's a Low Pressure with moist air rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean while a band of  very cold air from Europe is coming in  over Ireland from the east tonight, there's sure to be precipitation, I'm just not sure if there will be snow or not, but it looks that way.

Just hope that I can get out and drive tomorrow morning, no studded winter tyres here, although apparently they are available, just that there is no law obliging us to have them on our cars.

Have a good week everyone,Stay well and stay warm!
liz

Photos Christmas 2012 and New Year 2013

This very friendly donkey was at the Live Crib in the local village, along with some ewes and lambs and a cow and calf.

Merino fleece from a New Zealand sheep,
Horrieta, a hermit sheep, she stayed up in the hills and avoided being shorn for 7 years!

Christmas dinner, turkey and ham and stuffing, sprouts, etc,  with all the trimmings, yum...

A mild green Christmas, I do love the shapes of the beech trees across the road. The poet Gerald Manley Hopkins used to speak of the Inscape of the tree.

Finished spool of 2 ply handspun spun from a blend of fibers, received from a Raveller on Spin-Cycle, so soft...

same as previous, only this time I put all the green/yellow fibers together before spinning

water on the road, near us, took ten days for the men to come out and clear it up

singles of Horrietta's wool, ready for plying

Horrieta's fleece spun up, can't remember if this is the single and can't quite see if it's the plied finished handspun

Ashford spinning wheel,  Elizabeth

Primroses blooming in the ditch, 3rd January 2013!













I love detangling, this lace weight tangle was given to me and it took me over 5 hours to detangle.... phew...

nearly Friday!

 It's Thursday night, best part of the weekend, I think, coz I am anticipating the weekend, tomorrow is just one day to get through and then I've 2 days off. Phew, I made it this far.......!
This week:
1. not bad being back at work, plenty to do, but at least there's routine back in the house and children aren't up all night and in bed all day (slight exaggeration)

2. nice to be back at work when the other activities haven't started yet, ie driving to matches, training sessions, evening classes,yoga and trying to keep food in the house. This week was quite restful, once I got home from work, I was free just to take it easy. (Next week, all the activities start again, batten down the hatches and ride the storm.....)

3. Sat one evening this week and watched and listened to a wonderful dvd: Fleetwood Mac live in concert, from about 1996, in The Dance, brilliant from first note to last. (Reminder to self: get Husbeast to put the corresponding CD of the concert onto my MP3 player so I can play this in the car on way to work/training/classes, cf point 2 above). Seriously, how can anyone survive without knowing and loving the first bars of Gold Dust Woman, or the build-up of Tusk, or the lyrics of Landslide...

4. Trying desperately (exagggeration) to find an Internet provider that will meet our needs and provide mobile broadband with wireless router which accepts 4 or 5 devices, with good coverage and large amount of allowance, ( 30GB per month or more), for a reasonable price. The current provider is not able to guarantee the coverage in our location. We are 'between masts'. Search continues, I think I may almost have a provider, gotta send a few emails to check.

5. Spring is coming/here, there are a few early daffodils already in bloom since before New Year, not at my house, but outside a house I pass most days. I saw primroses in bloom, a few early ones, last week, on a roadside ditch. The prmroses are not in a garden, not planted, nor cultivated, just wild. Very early for them, I think. Gotta go check if there are snowdrops outside my great-aunt's house as usual.

6. Books: From the library: 1. Alan Sillitoe, A Gadfly in Russia, loving it.
         2. Wildflowers of Ireland, a Personal record, Zoe Devlin, love that too, (possibly shoulda studied Botany, back in the day...)
        3. Yarn Harlot: 2 of her books, read one, very enjoyable; got the other one this evening at library, should be good too;

waiting on bedside table to be read:
1. Eat Pray Love,
 2. Moranthology and
3. assorted knitting and crochet books.

7. My Ashford Spinning wheel, she spins like a dream, so light on take-up, such even yarn, love it! I  took it to  Limerick Stitch and Bitch in Zest Cafe last Sunday. She stops traffic, my wheel, and I just love sitting spinning and then talking to people about what I am doing. I'll talk to anybody about spinning!

8. Weekend ahead - some spinning for certain. Match on Saturday, as well as a training session I'd say, and copies to mark, and a house to tidy and clean, and a walk to be had!

One more lie-in, then it starts all over again.

So 2013 is here and tonight is the 5th of January, already, can you believe it!
There is only one more lie-in tomorrow morning before we all go back to school and work on Monday 7th, and so tomorrow is to be treasured. (Husband has been back at work since last Wednesday, poor man, struggling to work in the morning while we all lie on and sleep till 10am!)
We have taken down the Christmas decorations, my eldest daughter did that yesterday with the help of young son. We could probably have left the decorations up until tomorrow afternoon, as tomorrow is the end of Christmas in Ireland, it is the Epiphany tomorrow. But I love to clear the stuff out of the living room and get a few days of living in clear space without trees and lights etc before I go back to work.
I wanted to add photos to this blog, but I haven't succeeded since I changed to the new Blogger layout, this is frustrating me a little bit, as I really enjoy looking at other people's photos in their blogs. I feel that my blog has too many words at present and not enough pictures. I will have to give the photo-loading instructions another go, maybe I will get it the next time. Although I don't think I can't try it tonight, as there are daughters waiting for their turn on the laptop, my laptop, as I remind them.
Today I saw for the first time this year  some new cars registered this year. In Ireland you know what year cars are registered by the first numbers in their reigstration plate. Last year cars had 12 as their first digits. This year there's a slight change, it will be 131 for cars registered in first 6 months of 2013 and then 132 for cars in second half of 2013. Rumour has it that this is to avoid a slump in car sales, which might have happened if superstitious people refused to buy a car with 13 in the reg.
Today I saw this reg: 131 D 1331. D stands for Dublin. That's an impressive number plate!
Wishing you all the best for the new year!