I wish it could be Christmas …

in about three weeks’ time as I might actually be ready by then! 🤣

Oh my goodness, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve had a minute to chat to you – how are you doing?

It’s all been a bit chaotic here … the essential building work we needed on our house that was supposed to start in October (hence no Blogtober this year) got delayed and it’s still not finished.  Thankfully, we just need one final visit from an electrician but he’s not coming until Friday and I am keeping everything crossed that he doesn’t go down with the lurgy before then.  So many people have been poorly, haven’t they?  If the germs got to you, I do hope you are on the mend now xx

The dust in the house finally got to me and I’ve had a fuzzy voice and a cough for a couple of weeks, but thankfully I’ve avoided anything worse so far.  It doesn’t half slow you down, though, doesn’t it?  Not sleeping well, coughing, the extra effort to make yourself heard when you don’t have much voice.  I’ve made a start on cleaning to get rid of the dust, but the electrician needs to be up in the attic and out in the garage and I’ve not been able to put anything away properly until it’s all finished … I’m telling you, there was one point last week when I was more than ready to curl myself up in a little ball and hibernate until spring!

Anyway, I’m here now so as a reminder to me in future years that I did actually survive December 2025 and not disappear under a sea of wrapping paper and tinsel, here are a few photos!

Last week’s plans were put on hold as I ended up having to wait in for tradespeople so I missed the Christmas get-togethers of both the knitting groups I am part of, which I was really sad about.  However, whilst I was waiting for said tradespeople to arrive, I made a wreath for the front door.

I had spotted this old wreath frame in the shed earlier this year and was about to throw it away when I thought that I might be able to use it myself.  I pulled off all the old wire and moss, and I was glad that I hadn’t chucked it as I was left with a sturdy frame …

I needed some new moss to cover the frame and as our grass is now mostly moss these days, thanks to endless rain and an oak tree that shadowed it for years, I was not short of the stuff!

No prizes for my frame-covering skills (I probably shouldn’t have put it on the grass to photograph it, it feels like one of those images where you have to squint to see the picture hidden in the picture 🤣) but as it’s just going to be sitting on our front door for a few weeks, I was happy to let go of my perfectionism on this occasion.  I collected some leaves and berries from the plants around the garden, and then it was time to set to work adding them to the frame.

And here it is!

That’s not too bad at all, if I say so myself, and I’m happy to see our garden represented on the front door!  We’ve had the wreath hanger for years so I couldn’t tell you where it came from, but it’s just the right size for our door.

I also found Hattie the cat’s secret treasure hoard when I was cleaning … honestly, I think this cat might actually be a pirate the way she buries treasure!  This was under the arm chair – I’ve already cleared out the hoard from under the sofa, although she’d been making a start on rebuilding that when I looked.

I’m not entirely sure where the Untamed lick stick has come from as I don’t buy those, but it was still in date so I passed it on to big daughter as her cats love them.  Also, in case you are worried, no birds were harmed in the making of this treasure trove.  There are a lot of crows that live in the trees near us and Hattie regularly brings home feathers but so far, as far as we know, hasn’t taken it upon herself to go into battle with the birds.  I’m very glad about that!

I did manage to keep one of my appointments at the end of last week and that was to head up to Skipton to see my friend Lucy, and we had such a lovely day.  It was cold and crisp with a pale winter sunshine, and the reflections on the canal water were fabulous.

After a cup of tea we decided that we would walk up to the farm shop along the new canal path as I haven’t been along there yet.  It’s a good walk that takes you out of town and along the canal, past the meadow and up to the auction mart where Yarndale is held, and then you can walk from there to the farm shop.  The cafe there has been altered and extended since the farm shop changed hands and it was very busy, but fortunately there was just room for two friends to eat lunch and catch up on all the things that have happened since we saw each other last.

By the time we were ready to leave, it was heading on for three o’clock and the sun was already starting to go down.  We followed the path back down towards Skipton town – and got waylayed by the reflections in the canal.

The water was like glass and the reflections were just beautiful.

If you’ve read Lucy’s blog over the years, you might well recognise this tree as the “blobby tree” …

They’re not nests, as I first thought, it’s a fungal growth called “witches’ broom” which causes those nest-like formations in the branches.  They don’t harm the tree, apparently, so they can be left to do their own thing.  You can read more about them here.

On the way home, I went “over the tops” (ie, across the moorland) rather than on the main roads through villages.  It’s my favourite route to Skipton and even more so at this time of the year when the sheep are out on the hills.  There are lots of signs up to warn drivers about the sheep, and they really are very close to the road at times – in fact, one of them shot right across the road in front of me and another car coming the other way.  Fortunately, we were both able to stop in plenty of time but it does remind you that sheep don’t know their Green Cross Code!  (This was a UK road safety campaign in the 1970s aimed at children to stop them getting squashed by cars.)

Just a bit further along this road is a parking spot and I pulled over to spend a couple of minutes watching the sunset.  The light goes so quickly at this time of year, but it’s only a few days to the Winter Solstice and then the days will start to get longer again.

As you might imagine, our conversations during the day included lots about yarn!  Lucy has her CAL coming up in January and I’ve got the Winter Haven KAL as well (this is my annual January knit-along, I’ll be writing more about it soon but you can see previous years’ posts here).  I’m a bit further behind on my KAL sock than I’d like to be – I always post a free sock pattern on the blog in time for the knit-along – but I’m hoping that after today, I’ll be a bit more organised with my Christmas preparations and I’ll be able to focus on getting that finished.  It’ll be done in time, don’t worry! 🙂

I’ve finished my husband’s socks to the point where I’m ready to put the afterthought heels in.  I’ve only ever tried afterthought heels once and wasn’t a huge fan, but any good scientist knows that you should repeat an experiment to check the results so I’m giving them another go.  This is because my husband likes those bought socks with the colour block heels and so I tend to knit his socks so that they look the same.  I’m trying out the afterthought heel this time (instead of my usual short row heel) because I need to repair a pair of his socks and I think that taking the heel off is the answer.

I am going to remove the pins (they’re not a permanent decoration!) but didn’t think to do it before I took the photo 🙂

I’ve also made a bit more progress on my Emergency Socks … to be honest, I’ve not knitted much at all the last week or so because of one thing or another, and I’ve missed it.  An Emergency Sock in a simple pattern you can pick up and put down whenever you want to is the answer at times like these, and I’ve been able to get a few rounds in which has made me feel a bit better.

And now, it’s time to get stuck into the Christmas prep again – I’ve nearly finished writing my Christmas cards (just as well as tomorrow is the last 2nd class posting date) and I’m actually starting to feel quite festive with my Christmas candle and Oh Christmas Tea which was a treat to myself from Brew Tea Co.  I think I expected it to taste more like a fruit tea than it does, but it certainly tastes festive with the spices added to the tea!

I’ve also got a big glass of water on the table as I had a blood test recently (nothing serious, just a check up) and the doctor told me that I was dehydrated.

“I can’t be, I easily drink 2 litres a day!” I exclaimed.

“Two litres of water?” asked the doctor.

“No … 2 litres of mostly tea …”

That doesn’t count, apparently.  Tea is not the water with tea leaves in it that I had been telling myself it was, and I am now on a mission to get used to drinking 2 litres of water as well as all my cups of tea.  It’s good job I finished decorating the downstairs loo recently as I am visiting it A LOT! 🤣

And on that jolly note, I’ll love you and leave you and hope to catch up with you again before Christmas! xx