Well, this week has been a refreshing blast of actual winter cold between Storm Henk disappearing and Storm Isha landing. Short of snow, gorgeous cold sunshine is my favourite sort of wintry weather, with frosty mornings and ice on puddles to crack. We drove back across from Brittany to Calais on Monday, with Tan delivering a running temperature commentary as we went - zero degrees was the high point. As I’m doing both highs and lows on the temperature stitch this year I should be able to show contrasts in a way that I haven’t before.
This year’s tracker is the ‘Goth Stitch-a-Long Temperature Cabinet‘, by GrandmaBeWildin. As you can probably guess from the title, it’s a little less of a colour explosion than the last couple of years though for consistency I am going to use the same thread range for the temperatures. I’ve chose a printed aida fabric again, this time a parchmenty colour which reminds me of old library books. The cabinet is underway (only 4500 black stitches to go!) so hopefully by the end of the month I’ll be ready to start tracking. This year it’s a ‘book’ for every day in the high temperature, with a band that shows the low.
Of course this lovely cold snap also meant that Redricks Lake was frozen, with ice a good three inches thick. Yesterday’s dippers had fun with mallets breaking enough of a hole for people to dip, and despite the rise in temperatures today we still got to dip with the ‘bergs. It was our coldest dip yet at just one degree, so we were in for about three minutes before running for our robes and a hot chocolate!
Other things making me happy this week
- Tea and cake with my gang of ladies, with the best china. Plans were laid for an alternative village WI which doesn’t meet on a weekday afternoon and which has interesting speakers.
- The Brothers Sun on Netflix – Michelle Yeoh on top form
- Restocking my supply of Surf-fizz at Carrefour
- Lots of reading. Lots.
- Breakfast meeting at Bench to start planning National Illustration Day 2024
- Getting on top of the paperwork!
- Meeting the Education Committee at Copped Hall Trust to talk about their schools programme
And now it’s time for a quick nap before the Things start demanding feeding…
Same time next week?
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading
The Prayer of the Night Shepherd/The Smile of a Ghost/The Remains of an Altar/The Fabric of Sin – Phil Rickman
The Last Devil to Die – Richard Osman (Audible)
The Chalice – Phil Rickman (Audible)
What Kirsty did next 