It’s been too long since I wrote.

I have had a couple of busy-ish weeks and even though I wanted to write my blog earlier in the day, I’ve been doing things as well as getting sleepy of an evening so my writing has slipped a bit.

My son has gone to university and has moved into student digs in Pisa. The first apartment he was allocated was filthy. He wanted a room mate but this one had been there for a while and hadn’t cleaned in months by the look of it. He came back for a few days to collect his things and I was very nervous about him going back. We went together and got it sorted. He was allocated another, very clean room with a lovely room mate to boot!

I was hoping to call into a nearby IKEA when he went back but snow was forecast and so coming back was a priority. When you live in the mountains, if it snows sometimes you can’t even get up the road to get back home. It’s very nearly happened to me a couple of times and so I didn’t want to go through that again.

I’ve been painting my room and have just one wall to finish (second coat), then I need to do my ceilings. I’m not stressing about it, I will paint at the weekends and not kill myself trying to finish it. I’ll do a better job that way.

The weather has been much cooler. My panelled ceiling has kept the temperature way above what I’m used to at this time of year but it’s still cool at just over 10 degrees. We are at the end of our wood supply, remember how much there was?

The wood we got before was 5 tons. Thanks to a warm October and my new windows and ceilings, we’ve used less and whereas we’d normally run out around Christmas time, we have lasted a month longer. We are on wood rations and only light a fire in the early evenings through until bed time as we can’t get a delivery until the wet and snowy weather has cleared. We are dab hands at this and two jumpers over a t-shirt, thermal leggings and fleecy socks and slippers as well as a hand crocheted woolen blanket certainly keep me going until fire lighting time. I can’t wait though for the wood delivery and getting back into a cosy art and crafts studio to finish my on going projects and to start new ones.

I have been finishing a cardigan I started a few weeks ago. Since I lost my job, I can get stuck into my crafty projects and really get things done well and finished.

Also, guess what? I’ve just bought a spinning wheel. I’m so excited. It’s not a new one as I don’t have the budget since losing my job, only half of what I’d anticipated, but, I promised myself and I intend to spin and knit and sell my work as well as any mini skeins left over for crafters.

I’m hoping to get news of it being shipped, tomorrow. I’ll need to take my time to learn properly but I have so much fibre to spin at the moment, I’m dying to get it done. I love my drop spindles but just need a faster method for some of them.

I’ll keep you posted about how my spinning is going.

Meanwhile we may have snow tomorrow. We had a flurry this morning and we’re expecting more over night. I don’t function very well in the cold but I have a huge amount of plans for spring and summer outdoor living!