The Snow Child and knitting

It is blowing a hooley today. Perfect excuse to hunker down and knit, while the wind howls outside. Inbetween work, of course. Weather like this causes the internet to go up and down. The chance to take a break, pops up that little bit more often. Silver lining, heh?

I’ve rescued our recycling bin three times already this morning. The wind seems to ignore all the neighbours’ bins and selects ours for early release down the lane. Fly, be free. Splitting it from its contents to maximize the chaos. Not much hope of recycling being collected. Our lane is closed to all traffic. Ever the optimist, I’ve recaptured the bin plus wayward contents, and weighed it down with rocks. Fingers crossed that the determined recycling people will vault the barricade and collect. We’re only a couple of yards passed it. I’d hate it if they went to all that trouble only to find I’d taken the bin in.

Book
I finished my book last night. Loved it. The Snow Child is so well written that it’s a delight to read. Holding my attention even while I sit on the sidelines of whatever sport the children are doing, which is the best recommendation I can give a book. If you like folk tales, stories of snow, and people winning against the odds, this is the book for you. It is historical, but timeless in the same breath.

The only part I found slightly annoying was the lack of speech marks. I don’t know if this was an attempt to suggest uncertainty of the character’s existence or the printer was saving the ink. It broke the rhythm for me.

I loved how it entwined the landscape and nature throughout. Makes me want to head to Alaska to see for myself. (Val, I’m on my way….)

By no means does it steer away from the reality of surviving in the wilderness. The wild beasts have to eat and so do humans. Tough choices are made, but in between ……there is magic you can only find in wild places.

Although for someone who rushed out to shut the hens up this week, only to be confronted by a grumbling badger, you’d think I really didn’t need to read more about the reality of living in the wild. (Hens were safe). Also removed a frog from the kitchen, this morning, which had found a dust bunny to wrap around itself. (dust bunny safe)

Usually, my books head back to Oxfam, but I’m going to keep this one. I’ll hand it on to older Teen, once she’s finished her mocks. I think she will enjoy it, but also I can see myself re-reading it in a few years time.

Knitting
My knitting (apart from mistletoe) had been put on hold. Somehow in my tidying up, or shuffling craft materials from one place to another, I’d misplaced the rest of the balls of wool. Hmm. Turned up at the bottom of a bag full of recycling fabric, which was not my best filing strategy. Released from the bag, it is now being used to finish the first sleeve. Must get my skates on as this is a Christmas present.

Other crafting is going on, but in the secret squirrel/hush hush category. I have a new one to share soon, I hope. In the meantime, I thought I’d share a past crafting project. Elf points. I’ve brought these out a little bit earlier this year, much to my husband’s disbelief. They always help with the household harmony at this time of year. We just needed it a bit earlier this season. It has worked.

So, what are you reading? Any book suggestions to share, please? Are you busy making gifts or something else?

P.S. The recycling people have just emptied the bin, so that’s a point for Team Optimism and also for the gallant recycling people.

11 comments

  1. I loved The Snow Child too! But couldn’t get into her second book ( To The Bright Edge of the World…maybe I need to try it again).

    Can I come to Alaska with you?? 🙂

    And I’m starting to re-read the Mitford series of books by Jan Karon, and knitting blanket squares for charity. xx

    1. Oh absolutely. Then we could compare the book to the place. I didn’t know she’d written another. I’ll have to keep my eye out for it. Not read the Mitford books. Another to watch out for. Love the idea of knitting for charity.

  2. I’ll put the kettle on shall I ?
    My brother had a badger in his hen house and it got stuck in there..the poor chap had to safely release a very cross badger and then bury his trio of silkies… I didn’t know whether to commiserate with him for the loss of his chucks or congratulate him on a close up encounter with a badger ..and so of course I ended up doing both.
    I love seeing your Elf points reappear ..hasn’t the year gone fast!

    1. No rush…but maybe one day. You live in an amazing place.

      I felt the same with our badger. Wonderful to see so close, but worried if it should meet the hens or hound. Once met a dog that had come off worse from an encounter with a badger. Was not pretty. We had a badger pick off our trio of bantams, one by one. Caught two of them red “pawed” the next night.

      Yes, Elf points again. The year has rushed past.

      1. Our hound (when he was a pup) had an encounter with a Porcupine..we thought at first it was a beaver ..which would’ve been worse. A porcupine was not good though. (Don’t google dog and porcupine..the images are not nice) We were base camping out in the Wilds and it was day 2 of three weeks..we spent those three weeks removing quills…the one time he ever was not on a leash ..such is life.
        A badger v a dog doesn’t bear thinking about.

  3. Chasing the trash bin three times in a morning! I used to listen to the World Service on a shortwave in the 90’s and heard about the gales you folks get in the fall. But I like your attitude about losing the internet connection. 😉

  4. Hi Cheryl, weather like that is good when you don’t have to go out and can settle down and get on with something without feeling guilty that you aren’t outside. I’ll check out The Snow Child, I’m must admit to not really being into historical novels, but I do like a good book. This time of year I enjoy fluffy Christmas books, I can’t even remember the name of the book I’m reading now, but it’s definitely fluffy… I do enjoy making fudge and filled chocolates to give as Christmas gifts, but that’s not until the week before Christmas.

    Thank you for linking up with the #MMBC and high five to your bin collectors!

    xx

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