New Year, New List

Hello, welcome to 2009, which is particularly chilly in this little corner of the Universe. Surely the most prolonged cold spell we have had since the year we moved here and were snowed in for a week - funnily enough we had no central heating then either....

Did you have a good festive break? Did you get new books for Christmas? I DID!

• A great US book by these folks on recycling old stuff into new stuff, but very stylishly put together with a good few quirky ideas to try
• The best preserve making book I have seen, from River Cottage - lots of information and lovely recipes for Britain's fruity bounty
• A fantastically inspiring collage book, with lots of new ideas for me to try
• A book I feel drawn to...! The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein by Peter Ackroyd - yeah, weird choice maybe but I only recently read (well listened to an unabridged version) the original novel and found it compelling. I am saving it for the lighter nights....

I also scored for a quite a bit of quality chocolate, and there's even some of it left.

Having spent since mid-December with a cold/hacking cough/sneezes - the symptoms vary daily - I am well sick of it and have achieved much less than I would have liked. A few more bits have been finished in the cottage, and Hugh removed the old porch with a chainsaw before digging out foundations for the new one. Now the ground is so frozen he can't get the concrete laid or it will crack. I am staying warmish by working mainly in the living room, laboriously stitching a loose cover for an armchair destined for the cottage too. It seemed a good idea at the time to make a patchwork using remnants I had squirreled away. You may get a pic of it when it's finally finished.

Ther will be a Woolgathering on Sunday 18th January at the village hall - you're welcome along if you are in driving distance.