February days

I am having a bit of trouble at the moment making the days go slower.  It only seems to be five minutes since my blog post last weekend, and even today’s is on Sunday and not Saturday as I intended … I’m not quite sure why this is, although I suspect it’s got something to do with trying to do more things than I actually have time for – and makes me very glad that it’s half term week next week and not so small daughter and I can have a bit of a rest!

I didn’t feel very well for a couple of days at the beginning of the week; I did think that maybe I’d eaten something that disagreed with me, but later came to think that I’d had one of those 24 hour sickness bugs.  Whatever it was, I felt a bit sorry for myself and spent most of Tuesday in bed, but that was the day it rained all day and so I didn’t feel as if I’d missed too much by sleeping the day away.

By Wednesday, the rain had gone and the sun was out when the dog and I went into the woods for a walk.

If you look closely at the photo above, you can see the dog heading into the water – he does like to sploosh in all the pools around this wood!

Just a bit further on, we had to stop as all the rain the previous day had caused the footpath to flood again.  This path has never really dried out since autumn last year, and now there’s a well-walked alternative “off road” route which keeps your feet dry.  “Shall we go that way?” I asked the dog …

He thought for a minute and had a good look round.

“Nah.  You’ve got your wellies on, let’s just go straight through it!” he said.   So we did 🙂

It gets pretty deep, that water, I can tell you!  I’m glad my wellies come up a long way!

Wednesday was Valentine’s Day and I couldn’t let the day pass without showing you this pair of trees which obviously love each other very much …

They’re giving each other a proper hug! ❤️

It makes such a difference when the sun shines, doesn’t it?  I’ve been able to take a few photos in the garden to document the coming spring – although at this time of year, I do still worry about the flowers as it’s entirely likely that we could still get snow.  Well, I say could but let’s not forget that I live in that undiscovered volcanic hotspot that is Winwick so it’s not as likely as I’d like it to be, but I never consider it warm enough for the growing season to be properly started until about the end of May.

The border that I planted last year is starting to look a little greener, and the crocuses in the photo above are from that border.  It’s the first time I’ve had crocuses in our garden for years because usually the mice get them, but we have an efficient mouser in the family now so I think I have her to thank for my purple blooms!

I’m looking forward to seeing this filling out over the year, although it may take more than one season to properly cover the ground.

In other news, I’ve been doing a fair bit of baking this week.  A couple of loaves (this one is a sourdough) …

scones, madeleines (I’ve always fancied making these so I thought I would give them a go – not a bad first attempt but more practice won’t go amiss 🙂 ) and mini chicken and mushroom pies.  They’re mini ones because I made them in a muffin tin as I didn’t have anything else that would give me a small, deep pies instead of a single large one and they turned out very well!  I used ready-rolled pastry, made what would otherwise be a chicken casserole for the filling and then baked them in the oven – and was delighted at how they turned out!  (This is a quick snap I sent my husband, I didn’t think to take a better one for the blog!)

It’s all part of my “trying to eat better” plan for this year, and didn’t take as much effort as I thought it might do so I’m inclined to branch out in my pie range, although I might have to get some different tins!

Finally for today, my socks are finished!

The yarn is Pickled Cabbage from Truly Hooked, the scissors case came from Muud and I can’t wait to wear these socks!  I’ve got another pair of Treasure Socks on the needles that I’ll be working on next (they’re the Spring Green pair that I started as a sample for the pattern photos), so I’m looking forward to getting on with those now.

And that’s me for today … and I am very glad if you’ve made it to the end of this post as I can tell you that tomorrow, there’s going to be another post because something Very Exciting is happening at West Yorkshire Spinners.

Yes, it’s to do with yarn.

Yes, it’s to do with socks.

Yes, I am involved!

But you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out what it is! 🙂