Freyalyn's Thoughts

They look a bit embarrassed, don't you think?  We were the only ones to actually try to be something specific in the fancy dress bit of the pup school Christmas party - Red Riding Hood and the Wolf as Granny.  Everyone else was wearing some sort of red dog jacketty-thing.  There's lots of these around now.

Mark in utter chaos as he attempts to corral the children in one of the games.


This is Lunil nearly winning the 'Musical Pieces of Paper' with a strange child.  There were lots and lots of people there, as whole families had come along.  So there were lots of children without a dog.  For some reason Bil and Lunil were extremely popular, and did the adult games with me and also participated in every childrens' game with whichever child asked for them first.  And Bil didn't bite anyone - he was even good as gold with a special needs child that thought he was wonderful!


This is the mirror over the fire at home; we decorated early this year, doing it last night rather than Christmas Eve.  The Solstice seemed appropriate.  After we'd finished running around at the Farmers' Market in Otley, Waitrose, the Blue Barn (for dog and cat food, cat litter, presents), I took the pupz up to Buck Wood and brought back armfuls of ivy and holly.  We both then took them down to the nature reserve for the Christmas walk.  I think Bil and Lunil are becoming a bit of a pair of mascots down there, as no-one minds them and they're off lead for the walk.  But we left after the tea and buns, as I thought Lunil's glowing reputation as the Killer of the Last Rat would not survive if either of them snapped up a rare vole when the boards were lifted.  We collected some dogwood and budded branches down there too.

The creel in front of the mirror is lopsided - I lowered it to hang wooden stars and apples, and left it low as I planned to wash a couple of fleeces yesterday evening.  We have no hot water.  What joy!  Something usually goes wrong in this flat in the week before Christmas, and this time it's the boiler.  So I don't know when it'll be fixed - I rang our landlords last night, but they didn't fill me with confidence.  I think we'll be up at Ma's tonight for ablution purposes, though it may be too late for me as I'm off to see Dora this evening.


This has come up rather well.  It was taken from the driveway as I arrived at work, about ten to eight this morning.  The sky had finally cleared (there was lots of vermilion and pink and crimson just to the left) and the birds were all flying away from Roundhay Park.  It's a good indication of just how dark the sky still was, even though the Solstice is nearly 24 hours in the past and we're spinning back towards light and heat.

Saturday night's carol concert turned out to be nothing of the sort.  We were in a rather nice village hall in Stockton-on-Forest, the far side of York, which was all tarted up with fairy lights, red velvet, little tables with candles, wine and mince pies.  All the other people there were in evening frocks and dinner jackets - and there was me in more-or-less what I wear for work, a linen skirt and long-sleeved t-shirt.  I was not happy.  (Although I'd surivived the long drive over there in the back of Mark's parents' Yaris by dint of plugging into my iPod and shutting my eyes.  Mark's distant cousin was part of The Diamond Divas, and they put on a super show - I had very nearly got over my foul mood by the end of the evening.  Of course, this was helped by the chap dragged up on to the stage for the encore of 'Santa Baby'.  He was wearing a kilt, but didn't sit properly.  Oh dear....

Guild on Saturday, which was fun; I hadn't been to the last meeting in October and had briefly stuck my head in during September's, so it was good to catch up with people.  I sold some fibre (having taken all the stuff from home in the hope of people wanting the odd treat or Christmas present) and nearly finished the toe on Pa's second sock - only to have to rip it out as I'd done it sideways.  Who'd have thought I couldn't talk and knit a toe at the same time?

Sunday was another sunny day, and who knows how many more of these we'll get, so we stuffed pupz in the car and went off to Hardcastle Crags. 
 
I knew Bil would be able to leap on this stump and balance beautifully, but Lunil wanted to try too - she was completely unable to, being far too long and gangly.  They'd found a tennis ball by this stage and spent the rest of the walk trying to steal it from one another.


We first saw this dipper in the middle of the millpond above Gibson Mill, flapping and struggling on the surface of the water.  It had caught a rather large (for the dipper) fish, and sat on this rock for quite a while, stuffing it down. 


Lunil wanted to point out that she is much better at camouflage than Bil.


It was cold, but you'd never guess, they way they kept leaping into the water.  Lunil just doesn't get cold, but I thought Bil might.  However, he never stopped still long enough, and he does have a proper Labrador coat.


I asked Lunil to pose and she placed the ball carefullyl in front of her feet.  Bil is equally carefully misleading her by looking anywhere but at the ball.  A few seconds later he'd lunged forward and grabbed it!


It never occurs to me to give Mark the camera.  Just as well, I was extremely disreputable.

 I won't have time to make my Christmas cake until next week at least, but I have put dried cherries and green sultanas to soak with cherry brandy.  I have two large packs of natural-dyed French glace cherries too, and am planning a cherry-based cake.  I shall use golden sugar too, to keep the actual cake-mix a lighter colour.  And to keep the cherry flavour from being overwhelmed, I think just vanilla to flavour.   I shall top it with a thick layer of toasted marzipan with incised star patterns. There's enough spices in everything else not to feel the lack in the cake, not least the spiced beef.

I am still thinking of what to do with the green Polwarth yarn I finished last week - except I haven't finished, as I picked up another bag from Carol on Sunday - a third of which was spun up last night.  The dark brown Polwarth fleece from Robin McEwen-King is dry and packet up, but an oversize, comfy, squish sweater with a patterned circular yoke is rather appealing, and would show off the colour variations in both the green and the brown fleece beautifully.  We will see - I have to make inroads into the blue shawl.