Stormy, stormy night!

So, did you have a good one?

Apart from me having a cold (I tried to deny I was getting a cold, but after two days of blowing my nose I had to admit defeat), we had a lovely Christmas.  After a bacon butty and present opening, we went for a nice walk, starting off in the rain and getting wet (probably not the best idea with a cold, but I survived), but then the sun came out and we were almost dry by the time we got home.  We walked up the Moelydd which is a hill near here with a stone on top showing the direction of Snowdon, the Long Mynd, etc.  On a clear day (and it was beautifully clear by the time we got to the top) you can see for miles across the Welsh hills which had snow on the tops, in one direction and across the Shropshire plains in the other.  It looked as though a good deal of Shropshire was under water as there were unexpected lakes shining in the sun.  We had a wonderful piece of steak (Chateaubriand) made into beef wellington in the evening - you hardly had to chew it it was so tender.  The leftovers made very posh sandwiches with homemade bread and sprout-coleslaw with horseradish the next day - yum!

This is my present from Bob made by a local Blacksmith.  It is
a copy of a medieval (I think) design for a three-way candlestick.
You can have it as it is with the candle in the top or you can jab the
spike on the left upright into something and put the candle into the
opposite hole or you can have it the other way up and hook it onto
something.  Clever, eh?

Laura has been busy and made us this felted picture of a moody
sunset over the hills with two little sheep.  It works really well against
the wiggly stones in the living room and the colours are just right.
We were wondering what we were going to put in that space!

I bought Bob a dart board for Christmas and that is now up in the workshop with an oche line drawn on the floor.  I had a go and I'm absolutely rubbish at it - we'll have to make sure there are no precious bits of wood stacked underneath it when I'm playing or they might end up looking as though they have woodworm!  I'll just have to practice I guess!  I also got him a Sony Walkman (not the old cassette ones we used to have but a new-fangled thingy where music magically gets onto it from the computer).  Being in the workshop all day, he gets a bit bored with the playlists on the radio so he can now listen to whatever he wants.  I can now just imagine him in the workshop, woodburner lit, polypin of beer at hand, music playing and darts in hand . . . . . we'll have to think of a name for this new pub!  The Chairmakers Arms perhaps or The Chair and Chicken.  

My goodness, it was windy last night.  We didn't hear the tree fall down just across the bridleway from our bedroom though.  Mind you, I think it might have just laid down gracefully rather than crashed down.  Its trunk has been split vertically for quite a while and it had kind of bent over rather than fallen down.  So our first job this morning was to clear that as it was blocking the bridleway completely.  Luckily it didn't take too long as the weather was still really horrible - the rain was really so wet!

Luckily, it wasn't a very big tree otherwise it may have reached the
lean-to.  As it was though, no damage was done and we haven't
found any more casualties.  I think we have had so many violent
storms in the last couple of years that most of the vulnerable trees
have already gone . . . lets hope so anyway!

Happy Christmas Everyone

Well, yes, it's nearly here.  I'm quite lucky this year because I had yesterday, today and tomorrow off work.  I'm in on Monday and Tuesday (6am start on Christmas Eve - oh my!) and then another three days off, so not too bad really.

Gathering our 'christmas tree'.  It's a couple of
Cherry saplings which we then bound together,
stuck in a heavy block of wood and decorated.

Ta dah!  It does look better in real life - you can't see the fairy
lights or presents underneath on this picture.  I quite
like this look, festive but different and it doesn't block the
light from the window.

Yesterday we had a bit of a neighbourhood party/get-together.  We see all our near neighbours individually, but never see them together and so we thought we'd have a go at remedying that. The weather was truly awful with howling wind and lashing rain, but quite a few people fought their way through.  I'm so glad they did - we thought no-one would turn up because of the weather.  We got a polypin of beer from the local micro-brewery which seemed quite a cool thing to do - nice just to be able to pull a pint whenever you want.  You do have to look after it though which Bob took very seriously.  We chose to have the beer with the yeast still in it (as opposed to 'bright' which is when they take the yeast out - that's my new bit of terminology for the week by the way) so you have to not move it around to let it settle and you have to keep it between 10 and 15 degrees.  So it was in the utility room which is the coolest room with a thermometer on top of it and we had to keep checking it wasn't getting too warm and opening/closing the window to regulate it!  We made pulled pork for in rolls which worked really well and is really very easy and mulled cider as a welcoming drink which also worked well once we'd completely changed the recipe.  We finally went to bed at 1.45am and so we have had a very lazy day today, bit of tidying up and a walk round the block and that concludes the activities for today!

Here are the knitted chickens I made for Laura's friend to sell -
they do have a look of the Chicken Run chickens.   They are filled
with rice so they can be used as paperweights to bring a
smile to the working day.

We do have some festive greenery (not just dead branches)
across the beams in the kitchen (top) and lounge (above) and
this has little fairy lights in amongst it which don't really show
up on the photos.

So, now I'm feeling Christmassey so:

I hope you all have a very merry, chilled and fun Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year.

Crafty things

This is Bob's latest chair made from Yew and
a very burry piece of Lime for the seat - it's
very strokeable!

At long, long last it feels as if Bob's furniture business is starting to become a reality - somehow the scaffold board furniture he has been making doesn't seem to count.  At the weekend we had a stall at a craft fair in an art gallery in Oswestry.  This forced us to get on and design some leaflets and business cards, polish and wax all the old stock and get our heads back into selling mode which is all good.  The Willow Gallery is quite a nice venue with a cafe and little shop and it was fairly busy most of the day and everyone was very complimentary.  Quite a few people seemed genuinely taken with the chairs and lots of people took leaflets.  We had some smaller stuff to pad the stall out  and we sold some of that - some cards I'd made with pictures drawn on slivers of oak and yew, the same but mounted on slate as a picture to hang on the wall, a peg board made out of an old oak fence post and some garden dibbers.  So, we made a profit on the day and came home feeling as though we'd had a pat on the back which is a nice feeling.  The girl who runs the gallery also asked us to leave some bits and pieces for them to sell in the shop (I had to make some more oak cards for them as there was only one left).  They have a craft fair each season and I think it'd be worth going a few times, so people get to know you.  Next one should be around Easter.

The week before Laura was manning a stall at village Christmas Fayre where the monastery is.  She was raising money for ROKPA, the charity she works for up there.  I had made a lots of cards and comedy knitted chickens for her to put on the stall (in addition to their other stuff) and my things  brought in about £130 for them, so that was worth doing.  Someone has even asked for some more of the knitted chickens so they can sell them where they work/live (still in aid of ROKPA) and so I am knitting away like mad again!

This weekend Carol and Graham (sister and brother-in-law) are coming so Graham can have a go at furniture making.  Over the next year or so he is going to make a rocking chair under Bob's guidance - he can just do a bit to it whenever they come to visit.  Actually, Bob has never made a rocking chair before (he knows the theory), so he'll be learning too.  Luckily, we went to the local woodyard earlier in the week and they had unearthed three big planks of Elm which we were able to buy for seats.  We have had real trouble trying to find anywhere round here that sells interesting wood, so it was quite a relief.  We never had this trouble where we used to live and were quite spoiled for good woodyards.  We even phoned one of them up thinking we might have to go all the way back to Northamptonshire to get the wood for Graham's chair!  That would have been ridiculous wouldn't it?

I guess after Carol and Graham's visit we'll have to start thinking about Christmas.  Working at M&S does put you off it all a bit - mince pies were in at the end of August!  It's all just so . . . . so . . . I don't quite know the word?  False?  Forced?  Not sure really.  I actually like Christmas and gathering greenery to decorate the beams in the kitchen, getting in touch with people, making cakes, etc, but just not all the commercialism and one-upmanship.  I must just be getting old!