It is like crystal - ready to shatter if you shout. The air is so clear and crisp it acts like a telescope - you can look at distant hills and feel almost that you could put your hand out and touch the trees and rocks. The sky is a pale winter blue, without a cloud. The grass is so green it almost makes your eyes hurt, and breathing the air makes you feel alive and full of energy.
This of course means that last night was so cold and the frost so hard, the pipes froze and it took ages to get water to run at all, let alone heat up for a shower. I really don't mind the frost, because it means that the days are so beautiful.
Thank you for all the lovely comments on the new look. I'm not sure that it makes me look 23 (but thank you anyway, Madmad), but it is cleaner and fresher. After blogging for however long (I really can't remember - although I have a feeling it may be two years), the place needed a spruce up.
In addition, knitting is going well. Kim (the jumper) is finished in the divine Fleece Artist River (an alpaca/silk/wool mix). I swear, I was tempted to knit myself sheets from this, as it felt so soft and gorgeous. Instead, I chose to knit Kim, a knitted-in-one-piece-but-folded-like-origami number. It is not quite a cardigan and not quite a jumper, joined at the crossover, but nowhere else. It is warm and gorgeous and I like it very much.
I am hoping to have the red Flair finished before Bendigo (which is only next week! Squee!) as I suddenly feel that I have no warm clothes at all. Stop sniggering, you down the back. The wonderful Taphophile sent me a parcel of fleecy comfort, because I was practicing my spinning and ran out of prepared fleece to keep practicing. There were also other goodies in the box - some lovely fibre for when I get better, some books for the children and some cards - but they seem to have scattered quickly to the four winds before I could take a photo. Thank you, Taph.
In other happy postal news, on Monday I received these fun things. Finally, two pattern books I have been craving for ages - Heartfelt and Thrown Together, and some Fleece Artist Somoko from the lovely Ladies at Knitting inspirations. This colour is called Forest Fairy, and is utterly delectable.
There was also a case of Sangiovese. I am very happy. I am off to enjoy some more of the day, before we return to our regularly scheduled winter weather programming, which involves grey skies, wind, fog and drizzle.
Ciao!
