It’s Wednesday again

And I’ve been knitting again for some quiet, uneventful passtime. Also G is on holiday and watches a lot of tv in between all the house maintenance, so I needed something not requiring too much attention from me. I don’t enjoy just staring at the box, it feels like my evening is completely wasted, but I don’t want to lock myself in the bedroom with a book all the time.

So I started a simple box shaped wool sweater from yarn I “tripped over” at my LYS. She only had two skeins, so possibly I’ll need a solid colour for the sleeves, time will tell.

And, as usual I’m driven to know new things, so this is my current reading material. I’ve given up trying to plan my studies, I simply go where the wind takes me and that works best on many levels.

wips3

There will be weaverly show and tell too, but not today. It’s a miracle if I get enough uninterrupted time to finish this post! I haven’t plant dyed at all this summer, but I do have a mind to check out the wilderness for woad plants and dunk a haggle of yellow skeins sitting here in my office, all forgotten why. When I get around to scouring my dye pots that is. We rarely travel anywhere during holidays because of the ponies and other pets, but also because we usually have a list of heavy jobs to be done that I can’t and G has no time and energy for while he works. But that’s ok, I’m guessing the world will be out there a little while longer.

saori18

Tomorrow we’ll be getting a new woodstove, the chimney sweep has complained about the old one for the last 3 years. It’s the only source of heat used in the house and we’ve saved so much not using electricity (not to mention the option of having to tear everything apart if we wanted to install more efficient heating) that by now it seems the only way to continue, whether we stay in this house or not. From what I hear other people spend on oil etc. we spend about 10-15% a year, so a new system would never be cost efficient if you count installation etc. Chances are, if somebody bought this place, they’d tear it all down and put up a new bigger house anyway, so luxuries at this point really are a waste of resources. We don’t need it to be a status symbol, it’s water tight and sound. (although I really wanted to paint those blue panels, but that will be another project)

ovenbefore

Remember my no dig beds? I didn’t think anything would grow in them with non composted horse manure, but I threw in a couple of old potatoes anyway just for laughs. And this is what happened, drought and all. One potato per box… Apart from weeds it’s about the only thing that has grown this year, and perhaps it’s all happening above ground, we’ll see later. They’re large potatoes for baking, so I won’t dig them out just yet.

potatoes

And that’s all from the cottage this week.

 

5 thoughts on “It’s Wednesday again

  1. I hope the installation of your wood burning stove goes well. I admire you both for keeping to just that form of heating and hope that the coming winter won,t be too severe. The horse manure seems to have done a lot of good, composted or not. Do let us know how the potatoes come out later on.

    1. I just finished cleaning the room, dust all over the place from removing the cement under the tiles. My plants are outside so I can hose them down! Phew…

      We’ve had several long and very frosty winters while we’ve lived here, and it works really well with the stove since I’ve been self employed and home all the time to maintain the fire. So it’s just the mornings that can be a bit nippy, but nothing that will kill you. 😉 And I do enjoy playing roast chicken as I walk by, you can’t do that with a radiator!

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