Superb Saturday Surprise!

The postman usually doesn't deliver mail on Saturday, but I think maybe during the festive season they add a Saturday parcel delivery. Today he came with a surprise.

I'd read about this book in a couple of different places and considered requesting it from the library, but decided it was one I'd like to own and keep. Unbeknownst to me, Bill looked it up at Kenny's Bookshop and ordered it.

I am so excited about this book! I expect I will enjoy reading it and learn a lot. Woo hoo!

I hope this day brings some happy surprises your way, too!

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Finding and Seeking

We went out to do a couple of errands this morning and decided to call into the charity shop while we were out. We walked in and I saw something that warranted further attention.

I counted skeins (14) and looked at the label for fibre content (100% wool). I'll take it! We had a look around in the book room and Bill found one to bring home. We went up to the counter to pay and the woman said she wasn't going to charge me €12 euro, because 'some balls are missing.' She asked if €10 euro would be OK. Since I was prepared to happily give her €12, I said that would be grand and put away one of the two euro coins I had in my hand.

Off we went into the mizzle. As we passed the small shop on Main St, I suggested we pop in for some eggs. We went in and stood there looking at the space where the eggs used to be. There was plenty of milk and butter, but no eggs. This is not a big shop--it's about the size of a postage stamp, but is a deli, off-licence (liquor store), and mini-grocery store all rolled into one. There were not that many places eggs could be. I wondered whether they'd decided to stop selling them, but we picked up a bunch of fruit that's on sale and went to the till, where I asked the guy if he had eggs. He said yes and showed me where they are now. They'd been removed from the refrigerator case and placed on a rack right behind where we'd just been standing! Duh! If we'd turned around, we would've seen them. Just goes to show how we get used to certain things. I'm used to walking in there and going straight for what I'm in there for.

It was always a bit weird that the eggs were in the refrigerator case, because they rarely are here. They're just on a shelf, which was another different thing to get used to at first. We were just so used to having them refrigerated. Egg production is different here, so egg washing of hen eggs for the retail market is prohibited. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland website says:
 '...washing may aid the transfer of harmful bacteria like Salmonella from the outside to the inside of the egg. The priority in egg production is to produce clean eggs at the point of collection, rather than trying to clean them afterwards. The cleanliness of the egg should be assured by good management and hygiene of the poultry house, and by minimising the delay between egg laying and egg collection.'
In the US, conditions are such that eggs need to be washed and chemically sanitized before being put up for sale, which strips a protective outer coating from the shell. Once the egg is washed, and the coating is gone, salmonella can enter through the shell, so after washing in the US, they sanitize and then refrigerate.

I hope you find what you're looking for today and have a happy surprise or two besides!

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A Few Bits to Brighten a Sad Tree

Bill had to go to the health centre yesterday to get hooked up to a blood pressure monitor, which he wears for 24 hours. It comes on every half hour (every hour for some part of the night), and takes his blood pressure. This is the only place in either the US or Ireland where they have done this regularly, but they seem to be quite a bit more proactive than any other medical professionals he has dealt with. Because of his a-fib, they want him to do this every 6 months or so. He doesn't love it, and every time they measure his BP, they tell him it's good, but I suppose if it's ever not good, we'll be glad to know, so he does it.

Yesterday, we walked up to the health centre and Bill told me to look at the sad tree in the little window. It's one of those small tabletop trees in a burlap sack. It looks like it came with lights, but most of them are burned out and only a few were lit. There was nothing else on it. I told Bill that I'd give him a few small ornaments to bring when he goes today to have the monitor removed. Because the tree is small, I chose small ornaments. There are just a few, but they'll brighten up the tree at least a little bit and it will look a wee bit more festive.

I hope your day is in no need of brightening up!

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Where's Winter?

When we got our wood delivered a few weeks ago, I 'joked' to Bill that now we've gotten all prepared for winter, it might not arrive. Honestly, it was a joke!!! But perhaps Mother Nature didn't find it funny, because she seems to be withholding any hint of winter from me.

OK, I admit that I did get spoiled in this regard when we lived in Alaska, where there was always winter, and plenty of it!

photo by bill burke

photo by bill burke

We knew we wouldn't have much in the way of winter when we moved here, and I knew I'd miss it. People often ask how we're getting on in the cold and we just tell them it feels like spring, which it does for a good part of the year. Last year, we had a few days of winter, which mostly consisted of lots of black ice, but we had a few inches of snow that made me happy to look at. I know that snow wouldn't be good here--they're not really set up for it and just a few flakes causes a lot of hassle for people. But just a wee bit of cold air would be kind of nice. Just a little. Here we are, heading for mid-December, and it's a balmy +50f/10c out there. At this rate, we really won't have to use any of the wood. On the other hand, if Mother Nature forgives my little 'joke' and does decide to send me a taste of winter, we'll have plenty of wood to keep the cottage warm. We're three weeks and counting past the time when we usually start having heat on.

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Seasonal Hattitude

Last week, I posted a hat that I made for someone who requested it, along with the basic recipe for making it (like most recipes, adaptable to suit individual tastes). Making that hat put me in a hat-making mood, so I made a couple more.

When I make hats, the focus is sometimes on structure--hats have a general shape, even if it's endlessly variable, so sometimes I am playing with that shape. Other times, it's a particular stitch pattern/combination that I'm interested in experimenting with. Very often, it's yarn and colour that inspires me. Hats are great projects for using scraps, odd balls, textures, and fun colour combinations. For these two recent hats, I wasn't doing anything special as far as structure goes, and the stitch variations in one were simple and designed to just add a bit of textural interest. It was the yarn and colour that I was focusing on here.

For this first hat, made using the same needle size and numbers as the hat in the previous post (US size 6 needles and cast on 80 stitches), I wanted to use the white mohair for the brim. I had a partial skein of this and had thought about using it for another project, but knew there wouldn't be enough. There was plenty for a warm, wind-resistant hat brim, though. I had leftovers from a cone of navy blue laceweight wool that I'd found on a cone in a charity shop, so I made the brim holding that and the mohair together. Then I switched to a DK weight wool in what the label calls 'bright blue,' and a fingering weight navy blue wool held together for the rest of the hat.

I love the hat, had fun making it, and was thinking about how many different people and places were involved as I was knitting. The needles I used are vintage nylon needles that belonged to a former co-worker's grandmother from Maine. The mohair came from a Facebook friend in the far north of Ireland. The fingering weight was bought in the charity shop here in Killybegs the week we first moved here. The bright blue belonged to a friend's late wife and came from the UK. And the navy blue came from a local friend who got it at a charity shop in Donegal Town.

I finished the second hat last night. A couple of years ago, I crocheted myself a lightweight hat in a lace stitch using red, white, and green yarn with a metallic thread. I wear it during the festive season, but if it's chilly and I'm going out, I switch to another hat for warmth. As I was making some ornaments the other day, I had an idea for a warmer and slightly more subtle festive hat, so I tweaked the basic hat recipe to suit the yarn I wanted to use.

The main yarn is an aran weight white yarn that someone gave me when I was doing the knitting/crocheting group at the library in Moville. It was in a huge skein and I used most of it as part of a blanket, but still had a good-sized ball left, some of which was used here. I doubled that for the brim and when that was done, cut one strand of yarn and added in a fingering weight white with a silver metallic wrap to begin the rest of the hat. I had some mini-skeins in Christmas colours that a friend in Oregon had sent me. I've used most of it, but still had some left, so used a bit of that here. When the silver ran out, I added a strand with green metallic. When that was done, I added the white with red metallic. As I was knitting around and around, I randomly did purl stitches in sets of 1, 3, or 5, just to add a little texture. I did this hat on 72 stitches on 6mm needles.

I am thinking about another hat, constructed in a different way, that would also play with colour. I might be casting on for that soon.

I hope you're enjoying a peaceful day today!

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Festive and Frosty

The local SuperValu is in full festive mode, as you'd expect. They placed Frosty at the transition spot between the produce section and the bakery. I don't think I'd ever thought about the interesting placement of those two sections of the store before. There's produce on either side and then in the middle is the stand with the produce that is on sale. Right next to that is a table of cakes, cookies, and scones. Beyond that is the table of apple and apple rhubarb tarts (pies).

Frosty keeps watch by the cakes, while sporting a nose from the nearby produce section.

Over by the off-licence section of the store (where beer, wine, and liquor is sold), they have a rack of 'Festive Fun' holiday headwear.

I've not seen a black Santa hat before. Is this what he wears when he is leaving coal for all the naughty people or is it just meant to provide a bit more sophistication in his work ensemble than the bright red hat and suit provide?

I hope there are some fun and festive sights in your neck of the woods today!

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Cosy

Yesterday I mentioned that we might get some winterish weather. This did not materialize and there is no snow on the hills. After doing a load of laundry, knitting while the washing machine was doing its thing and hanging the wet laundry on the clothes horse to dry, I proceeded with my plan anyway--made a cup of tea and settled in with my cosy mystery, which I started in the wee hours of this morning, before attempting to sleep. When I woke up this morning, I thought this might be a lost day, since I had a stabbing sort of headache. I went back to sleep for a while and when I next awoke, it was gone, so I get a functioning day after all. Yay!

We got a flyer in the post for this store in Donegal Town that sells various electronics and home appliances. We don't have to worry about buying appliances, for which I am grateful, but I went through the ad anyway, just to see what sort of stuff they sell. Cookers, hobs, fridges, fridge freezers are all different than the ones that are common in the US, with the exception of the 'American-style fridge freezer' which is huge compared to all the others in the ad. This time I was particularly struck by the cookers, which run from the small fan ovens like we have, to some pretty intense (and expensive) combination appliances. One has a 5 burner hob, three different ovens, and a grille oven. There's a main oven, a small fan oven, and a third oven.

If this behemoth was installed in my kitchen, I'd have no counter space left!

We don't get many ads here, but there are a few more at this time of year. It's interesting to look through them sometimes and see what sorts of things are sold. We rarely go into a store besides a grocery store or charity shop, so this gives me a window into a certain aspect of the culture I wouldn't get otherwise.

I'll be getting back into my book shortly. In the meantime, here's the final installment of my November book list.
Armistice: A Laureate’s Choice Of Poems of War and Peace edited by Carol Ann Duffy
The title says it all. Here’s an example of a short poem she included:
Christmas:1924
‘Peace upon earth!’ was said. We sing it.
And pay a million priests to bring it.
After two thousand years of mess
We’ve got as far as poison gas.
Thomas Hardy

Beneath the Skin: Great Writers on the Body by various authors
I found this book while scrolling through the e-book section of the library website. I was intrigued, so downloaded it. What an interesting collection of essays this is! Each author chose a specific bodily organ, researched it, and wrote about it. All the essays contained both personal anecdotes and explanations about the organ and its function. Some referenced  literature and poetry as well. I found the book fascinating and I’m glad I decided to give it a try!

A Dark Time by Sophie Hannah
I was reading through the posts on a Guardian Book Club web chat about Agatha Christie (her books Endless Night and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd were the November selections) and Sophie Hannah, who was the guest and author of the Poirot continuation series. In one of her answers, she commented about a series she writes and the requests she gets for more of them. She’s written some stand-alone books since the last one in the series came out. She said that the next novel in the series is coming next year and following that will be a collection of stories. In the meantime, though, there was a link on her website to a novella featuring the two main characters that could be downloaded for free. So of course, off I clicked to get the pdf. If you’re interested, the link can be found on this page. It takes you to an ADT (home security company) page and from there you get to the pdf.

Sea Garden by HD
A collection of poetry by HD (Hilda Doolittle) that I downloaded from Project Gutenberg.

Moments: Irish Women Writers in Aid of the Tsunami Victims edited by Ciara Considine
I picked up this short story collection in a charity shop in one town or another. It was published in April, 2005 and at the time, the entire €10 purchase price went to aid victims of the December, 2004 tsunami. The writers whose work is collected here are varied in style and subject matter, although the thread that runs through all the stories is the idea of change in some form. It’s a nice collection that I enjoyed very much.

Hope it's a quiet, cosy day in your neck of the woods!

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