Enjoying autumn

Thank you so much for taking the time to write comments or emails after my last post about Astrid.  It does help to know that I’m not alone in worrying every time she sets foot outside the door – and also that you feel the same way about cats needing to do that.

She’s back home again and we are very glad to have her here.  Fortunately (if that is the right word for any of this), the accident happened in the middle of the afternoon when there were less cars on the road (if she’d tried crossing the road later in the evening or at night, the outcome doesn’t bear thinking about) but we’ve discovered that she is a regular visitor to the houses across the road which has left me rather despairing that she might go back to visiting again once she’s well enough to set paw out of the door.  I’m not even going to think about that now – for now, she is here, she’s safe and she is recovering and that’s enough.

The photos are a collection from the last week or so when I’ve been out and about with the dog – with the exception of that rain cloud which I watched pass the house and listened as the rain bounced on the roof.  I always think it’s amazing to see the leading or trailing edge of a rain cloud where the rain starts or stops as you tend to think that rain clouds blanket everything with no end in sight.

We had our first frost too, but since then the weather has warmed up again.  It has to be a good thing, really – we’ve not been cold in the house without the heating on although I have heard the radiators come on a couple of mornings.  We’ve got the thermostat turned down really low (17.5 degrees C) as we’re trying not to let the house get too cold as it takes a long time to warm up, and we also don’t want the rooms we’re not using to get damp (we have a spare bedroom now that big daughter has moved out) which is what can happen if doors are kept shut and no heating is on at all as condensation builds up.  We don’t want the bigger problem of dealing with damp as well as heating bills!

I’ve picked the last of the tomatoes from the greenhouse; most of them were still green and I had no desire to do anything with them (I remember my Mum making green tomato chutney once and I didn’t like the smell at all) so I left them in a paper bag with one ripe tomato and they’ve all ripened up nicely.  (In case you’ve not seen this trick before, it works because the ripe tomato gives off ethylene gas which ripens the rest of the fruit naturally.  It works wonderfully with green bananas too!)

One final photo before I go …

Meet the Sofa Snuggle Socks!

I mentioned that I had a new pattern to release back in September but Blogtober and life in general have got in the way of me mentioning them again – until now!  These socks are designed to be worn for “light duties” such as watching the TV or a film, curled up reading a book, adding an extra layer if it’s a bit chilly or even in bed; perfect for yarns that feel soft and beautiful against your skin but which wouldn’t stand up to the rigours of everyday walking – and just what’s needed for some of those special skeins that are currently insulating our houses and not ourselves … 😉

The Sofa Snuggle Socks are DK (8ply) weight and I’ll tell you more about them soon, but I just wanted to give you a heads up that I am finally organised enough to release the pattern and hope to do that this weekend.  It will be a paid-for pattern and I’m going to make a donation from each sale to the Trussell Trust which is the organisation behind food banks.  It breaks my heart that anybody needs to use them and with a winter approaching where some people will have to make a choice between heating and eating, I can’t pay fuel bills for people but I can help to keep the food bank shelves full so that’s what I’ll be doing.

Thanks again for all your kind wishes for our daft cat, and I’ll see you soon! xx