Longer days

The sinking sun looked beautiful this evening

We're at the end of February and the days are noticeably longer.  It's getting lighter earlier in the morning, and the days are really stretching out.  It's still light at 5 o'clock and if it's been a bright day rather than overcast and grey, I don't look to pull the curtains before 5.30pm.  It makes such a difference and I'm sure everyone feels better having more daylight.


We had some good news yesterday - 2 of our extended 'brood' should be offered permanent employment tomorrow, so we are very happy about that.  A really positive bit of news that should alleviate quite a few financial problems!  The kids have proved themselves hard, willing workers, and they'll do well.

Today we had some news that reminded us (if we needed the reminder) just why buying and selling houses can be so fraught - the house we saw a couple of weeks ago is now under offer.  We couldn't make an offer ourselves as we don't have a buyer for our property.  *Sigh*  I guess that's the way it goes sometimes.  N and I both believe that if something is meant to be, then it will happen.  But it's a waiting game.

Anyway, lots of preparations today as we are off to visit N's dad 'up north'.

We're taking a jar of marmalade, and another date and walnut loaf (I will get around to baking a different sort of cake soon!), and we made our own granary rolls for lunch on the train tomorrow.  It'll be good to spend some time with G and the rest of N's family.

Rather than buying new books, I try to support the local library.  Here's the latest selection I have on my bedside table.  I love Agatha Christie, especially the Miss Marple books; the rather old-fashioned language evokes an era gone by.  The Hamish MacBeth series provide a good, quick read, and again I'm working my way through them.  The Rain Tree looks like an interesting autobiography, but the book I was really pleased to find was Walden, by Henry Thoreau.  I've seen it mentioned in several blogs and I am interested to find out if it's as fascinating as many people say.  I'm taking it away with me this weekend. 

 

Here's a sneak preview of the latest woodworking project.  It's in it's early stages, but looks set to be another triumph.  And if you think there's something familiar about the design, check out my profile photo ;)

 

Finally, I've been meaning to get a photo of this for a while.  Several weeks ago we bought a 25kg bag of potatoes from a feed merchant about a mile down the road.  I was delighted to find the spuds were from a very local farmer, in fact, I know exactly which field they were grown in!  OK, so the potatoes are not washed clean, they are not perfect - they have lumps of mud on them and some gouges in them.  They may not be 'pretty' but my goodness, we are so pleased to have found such a local supplier.  We feel this is one of our successful 'small steps', and will buy here again until our own potatoes are ready later this year.

We can't always get connection 'up north', so it may be a few days before I post again.