Words

I am so lucky to live in a country where words are freely printed.  This month I have read a lot of them, from a wide variety of different books, some I have loved, some I have been left wondering why I read to the end.  Do you do that too?  Somehow it feels wrong not to finish a book I have started which I am not hating but not really enjoying it either.  Perhaps it is just me........

I started the month with a self published book that was written about an area near to where I grew up.    A Handful of Straw by Mary Rensten centres around a small village in the early 1700s where an old woman is accused by other villagers of being a witch.  The accusations eventually lead to a trail.  It was a fascinating book, not just because of the familiarity, to me, of some of the places mentioned but because it was a window into a world of the past.  There were many wonderful details in the narrative which were glimpses into what life was like for some at this time.  The connections, thoughts, beliefs,  conditions were all mentioned in some detail.  The novel is based on a trial that did take place and many of the characters actually lived at that time they are joined in this novel by some that are fictional.

My random finding of books in the library occasionally turns up a real treasure, I picked up Secrets from Chuckling Goat by Shaun Nix Jones because I was intrigued by the title.  It was a fun, interesting and at times thought provoking read, an American city girl who finds true love, in her forties, with a Welsh farmer.  The book is written like a diary, and is based on the authors own diary although when you read it you wonder how she found the time to keep a diary on top of everything else she was doing.  There were many things in this book that struck a chord with me.  Her writing about how were are loosing touch with nature, how import it is to make the time to grow food and cook, bake and preserve it ourselves,  the importance of real food to nourish and to keep our health.  The cycles of nature, producing compost to nourish our soils, to growing our own food which we eat and produce compost.  There is also interesting discussions on milk, kefir and sourdough.  There are recipes and a happy ending after a nasty health scare.  A lovely read!

I have a few unread book on my shelves, one in particular that I am not sure how I came to acquire but it has been there for a few months waiting to be read.  Letters to the Midwife is a collection of letter and unpublished writing to by and from the author of the incredibly successful books that started with Call the Midwife, Jennifer Worth.  I have only read part of her first book, dipping in and out randomly reading chapters.  Its not that I don't like it or I find it an overwhelmingly difficult subject matter but that I have my own memories that make reading it hard.  The author Jennifer Worth was someone who was very influential in my life when I was growing up.  I visited her house every week in term time for years.  If you have read the blurb in the front of the books you will know that after leaving nursing she turned to music and became a music teacher.  She lived (until she died) five minutes from the house I grew up in, she taught my mother to play the piano my siblings and I would play elsewhere in her house during the lesson.  Later I had lessons too which only stopped when I left home at eighteen.  She introduced me to many composers and their music through my lessons and the concerts that she would take me and a small band of other pupils too on regular basis. I came across her first book when I was pregnant with my second child, my midwife was reading it, I couldn't quite believe it was the same person but the photos in the book confirmed it.  I thought about writing to her and am sorry now that I never did, but others did and this is a delightful book of correspondence.

I have never been one to read books that are labelled as bestsellers or have won awards, I have always been rather put off by the hype.  Nominated for an award (the Booker) for her first book Clare Morrall is not an author I have read before, but if you are nominated for an award then your books must be worth reading, wouldn't you think?  So I tried one of them, The Language of Others some of the writing in this book was good, but not good enough, for me, to outweigh the rather lame plot.  I found it rather dull, despite this I still read to the end.........

Reading a book that is not what you expected is rather a knock to one's confidence, it makes me wonder at my ability to choose books in the library, so I was naturally hesitant to start the other book I had chosen at the same time.   So when I started to read it and find that it is in written in dialect, Scottish dialect to be precise, I was lost for words.  The last book I read in dialect was Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh, it took me forever to read it.  But I found myself loving the dialect (this is not book to read with constant interruptions) and once I had been reading it for a while, it was hard to put this down.  Gone are the Leaves by Anne Donavan is a coming of age story set largely in Scotland in a period unspecified but is probably medieval.  The main character has a wonderful way of looking at the world, at odds with the rest of society, she is unlearned (in the eyes of her contemporaries) but yet, to me, so wise.  The story moves to Europe with twists and turns that had me hooked.  It was well worth persevering with the dialect which was singing to me, in its beauty, by the end.

In some way I came full circle with the last book I read this month.  A novel set in the 1600s, a work of fiction based on historical fact.  I have been planning a topic for March based around the solar eclipse that will take place on the 20th of the month.  It will be no surprise to me if you didn't know there is going to be an eclipse.  The best place to view it, a full eclipse,  will be the Faroe Islands, further south it will be a partial eclipse, around 90% in the North of the UK and around 80% in the South.  As the UK media is south centric it has yet to be deemed newsworthy.  Excuse my wee rant but sometimes it feels like there is little of interest to the media north of Birmingham.  Now where was I?  Ah yes, a topic based round the solar eclipse.  As well as finding learning ideas for the children I thought it would be fun to learn too so I had a hunt in the library to find any books that were were based on the solar system and/or astronomy.  I ended up with a wonderful book, The Sky's Dark Labyrinth by Stuart Clark which is part of a trilogy starting in the 1600s with Kepler and Galileo, as well as being an interesting read about life at this time it was also a fascinating introduction to the history of astronomy.  Both of these scientists were making amazing discoveries but they were at odds with the times.  The Sun revolved around the Earth, as set down in the Bible and believing the opposite was a heresy punishable by being burned alive.  I am really looking forward to reading the next book about Sir Issac Newton and Sir Edmund Halley, I hope the library has a copy............

...if not then I am going to read something completely different which I have been meaning to read for a while Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.

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I was interested to note that many of the books that I read this month were from very small publishing houses.  Perhaps I should be making note of this when choosing books as they were ones that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Linking with Laura

Mosaic

Oh February you are a hard month to bear.  Cold to start with, cold at the end but in the middle warmth accompanied by heavy grey skies.

It seems that the poem we read for Candlemas was right....

If Candlemas Day be fair and bright

Winter will take another flight

If Candlemas Day be cloud and rain

Winter is gone and will not come again  

...we had a fair and bright day on Candlemas

I had hoped that I would be showing you lots of sign of spring today but there are few in my part of the world and the light this month has not been conducive to taking photos.  So I offer you a lone crocus and a few hardy primroses from my garden, I am always amazed that flowers this delicate looking shows us their beautiful blooms in the snow, and the snowdrops which are everywhere and have lasted for weeks.

Perhaps March will be the month for signs of spring?  I do hope so.

Moments...

...this week of...

...happiness sharing dinner with friends, finding a new home for some books that we didn't want anymore, finally making it to a new home ed group and loving it, hearing owls calling

...sadness at the 'news' this week concerning three teenagers, on the one hand I admire their passion on the other I can't help wonder if it is misguided, we only know what we hear in the news.....

...creating a shawl, unravelling a project and starting something new with the yarn, ideas for a cardigan

...reading Gone are the Leaves by Anne Donavon and The Sky's Dark Labyrinth by Stuart Clark and to my children The Railway Children by E. Nesbit and a fable about Chinese New Year.

...learning about Shrove Tuesday, Lent, Chinese New Year, archaeology, Romans

...thinking about a home ed camp 

...wondering about how to celebrate the many festivals in the next few weeks

...hoping the sourdough starter I am making works

...enjoying this

...looking forward to helping to build a bender at the weekend in our Forest School woods

Festivals

Back in November, that seems a long time ago now, I shared some of the festivals we had learned about and observed in the Autumn.  As the Winter draws to a close and Spring is slowly beckoning us with its bloom it is time to share those we have learned about, celebrated or observed over the Winter.  I shared a list at the end of my post about Autumn Festivals which seemed very long at the time, I didn't think we would have time for them all but we did and added some more!

Advent

I was a bit late with my planning of how we would observe/celebrate Advent, only doing my research a few days before it started.  In the end it didn't matter as the research I did will now stand us in good stead for future years.  My hesitation, I am sure, was down to the fact that I was unsure of how Advent should fit into our family.  I read as much as I could, mostly on blogs, about how others observe and celebrate this time of year, finally settling on a lovely festival attributed to Rudolph Steiner although there seems to be some dispute as to whether he did create it or not.  Anyway each week of Advent has a theme, a festival, which we used as the focus of our learning each week.  We created a star path as a visible sign of time passing.  A large star for each of the Sundays and a smaller star for the other days.  We kept these in a small bowl on our seasonal table laying out a new one each morning when we also lit a candle.  The path wove its way from the bowl round the candle to our wee tree.  We read about Advent and learnt a song which we added a verse to each week.

Week One - Festival of Stones

During the week we read stories nine and ten from The Festival of Stones.  We placed rocks and minerals from our own collections on our seasonal table and identified them during the week (or tried to) we also learnt about how they were formed.  We live in a mineral rich part of our country so we look at some geology maps of our county, including what was mined and where.  We visited a local museum which has an excellent exhibition of local rocks and minerals which includes a time line.

Week Two - Festival of Plants

We read stories 11 and 12 from The Festival of Stones.  I decided to focus our learning on trees for the weeks as this would enable us to take out learning outside.   We read a few pages from the Earth section of this beautiful book learning about what the Earth Kingdom has meant to our ancient ancestors.  We read the Norse myth about Yggdrassil.  We learnt about the Holly Tree, writing up facts about the tree to share at Forest School.  We went for a walk in a local wood to learn to identify trees in Winter.  We added plant finds to our seasonal table, replacing the rocks.

Week Three - Festival of Animals

We read stories 13 - 16 from The Festival of Stones during the week.  We changed our seasonal table replacing the plant finds with animals (not real ones!) and some of the things we get from animals such as wool, silk and honey.  We leant about animals that hibernate and why they do it.  We made bird food which we hung out for the birds and went birdwatching at a local nature reserve.

Week Four - Festival of Humankind

Over the course of the week we read stories 16 - 28 from The Festival of Stones.  The rest of the week was slightly different to previous weeks as we were away from home.  Our festival was about being with family, sharing food together and enjoying their company.  In the years that we spend Christmas at home I will think about how to embrace this.

During the four week of Advent we also learnt about and observed some other festivals:

St Nicholas Day - 06 December

St Nicholas was a gift giver and is celebrated in many forms around the world so we discovered when  we read about who and how this day is celebrated.  We found a story to share and made some spicy biscuits which we shared with friends.

St Lucia Day - 13 December 

St Lucia is the patron saint of Light.  This Swedish festival which I remember celebrating as a child.  We read about how Children celebrate this day, a story behind the celebrations and made some Lussekatt using the recipe from this book.

Hanukah - 18 December

This is a Jewish Festival of Lights that is celebrated on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kisler.  We read a story about why this is an important time for Jewish people.  We learnt a simple song and made potato latkes.

Winter Solstice - 21 December 

The shortest day of the year, a day worthy of celebrating in my book as the days get longer thereafter!  For the past few years we have celebrated this at a friends house but she was not well enough to host this year we missed the lovely party.  We put up our Christmas decorations on this day, we watched the sun rise and set and we burnt our worries on a fire we had in the garden.

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Mawlid an Nabi - 03 January

The birth day of the Prophet Muhammad which is an important day for Muslims.  We read and found about the Prophet and Islam, which was new religion to the children.  We read some lovely stories which promoted some interesting discussion.  We also learnt a traditional prayer, sung to the Prophet on this day.

Twelfth Night - 06 January  

The twelfth night after Christmas Day, we talked about the Story of the Three Kings and read the Baboushka story and a delightful short story in this book.  I made a Gallette de Rois, a delicious pie which is traditionally made in many countries on this day.  My recipe was a Nigella Lawson one from   this book.

Plough Monday - 12 January

This is an old tradition which I discovered when I was researching the next festival.  In many ways the two traditions are interlinked and I can't help thinking that they are really one and the same but took place in different parts of the country depending on the nature of the agriculture.  On Plough Monday farm labourers would tour their local villages raising money and work, often in disguise as they could be mischievous in their endeavours.  If you would like to know more you can read about it here and here.

Wassailing - 17 January

There are, it seems, two versions of wassailing.  One that involves singing to raise money when work was scarce and has evolved into our tradition of carol singing, this took place prior to Christmas.  The other involved the blessing of the apple trees to ensure a good harvest.  We had a small ceremony to bless the apple trees in the the small wood were we meet for Forest School.  We sang a song, blessed the tree and shared some hot apple punch together.

Imbolc - 01 February

Our Imbolc celebrations were a little subdued this year as we were all feeling rather sick.  I made a seed cake using the recipe here (scroll down it is at the bottom of the page) which was lovely.  We also made some Brigid crosses using reeds, not our usual jolly celebration.

Candlemas - 02 February

A day for blessing candles, for noticing that candles are needed less as the days are lengthening.  We read a story about the slow return of the warmth and light.  I would like to make candles in future years but I need to make sure I order the bits in time.......

Valentines Day - 14 February

I have never looked into the history of day and was unsurpassed to learn that there is much conflicting information as to its origins.  I made a few lavender hearts which I gave to friends along with sachets of Love tea.  I have year to divide fi this is a festival/tradition for our family, it has always been one that has long lost its true meaning and seems to have been taken over by commercialism.

Shrove Tuesday - 17 February

This is another festival that has lost its meaning to many, taken over and renamed, in the UK anyway, as Pancake Day.  However in discussing its origins it sparked off an interesting discussion about the food we eat..........we did make and enjoy eating pancakes!  Next year I am tempted to make these as suggested by Camilla.

Chinese New Year - 19 February

A very important time of year for Chinese people as we discovered when we read about this festival.  The festivities last for two weeks ending with a Lantern Festival.  It is a time for family and sharing of food.  We read a fun story about how the animals came to each be given a year, 2015 is the year of the sheep.  We had a stir fry for tea and made some almond biscuits which are traditionally made at New Year.

I know that Lent started this week but it has been too busy to fit it in.  We are going to learn about this next week, when there are no other festivals, this will complete our Winter Festivals.

I acquired some wonderful books to help us celebrate these festivals, some this year and others in previous years:

The Winter Book by Rotraut Susanne Berner (I didn't pay that much for my copy!)

While the Bear Sleeps by Caitlin Matthews

The Festival of Stones by Reg Down

The Winter Solstice by Ellen Jackson

Spring

As Spring approaches we will be considering the following festivals that take place in the season:

St David's Day - 01 March

Hina Maturi - 03 March

Purim - 04 March

Chinese Lantern Festival - 05 March

Holi/Hola Mahalla - 06 March

Mothering Sunday - 15 March

Spring Equinox - 20 March (along with an solar eclipse)

Palm Sunday - 22 March

April Fools Day - 01 April

Easter Sunday - 05 April

Passover - 06 April

Songkran Baisaki - 13 April

St George's Day - 23 April

Beltain - 01 May

Wesak - 04 May

St Michael's Day - 08 May

Rogation Sunday - 10 May
Whitsun - 24 May
Oak Apple Day - 29 May

As always seems like rather a lot, we will fit what we can or what takes our interest.........

Trousers

I have had an old pair of my trousers languishing for some time in a drawer waiting for me to do something with them.  I mentioned this drawer last month.  They were worn out completely on the seat but the material everywhere else was fine, I was loathe to throw them away.  They came to may attention again when I was hunting for the trousers to make the coasters I posted about recently.  I wondered if I could make a pair of trousers for Alice*, not being a sewer who follows patterns I made it up as I went along.

First up I laid a pair of her trousers on top of mine and cut straight across the fabric two and half inches above the top of the waist line of the smaller pair.  The two and half inches is the allowance I made for the waistband.  This gave me two tubes of fabric.

I then measured from the crutch to the bottom hem on Alice's trousers, measured this on one of the tubes and turning it inside out cut the seam from the top to that point, repeat for the other leg/tube.

Turn one leg/tube the right way out and insert this tube inside the one that is still inside out and pin round the seams that you have just cut (they should be right sides together) and sew.

Then I created a waistline.  Unfortunately my two and half inch allowance had taken me into slightly into the crutch of the original trousers so I didn't have the two and half inches I needed for the waistband.  As these trousers are going to worn for messy outside play in winter I wasn't too precious about how they looked.  Ideally I would have liked to have folded (wrong sides together) a half inch first and then a further inch to create a neatly seamed tube for the elastic to be inserted into.  I just folded the material over and sewed a seam to give me a one inch tube into which I inserted the elastic.

The important thing is that they fit!  An easy pair of trousers.

I have been sewing up a storm this week as I finished off the coasters that I had waiting patiently in a pile, I now have six and I sewed up another skirt for Alice using this lovely tutorial.

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* I have decided to give my children names on this blog rather than youngest and eldest, these are not their given names.  My eldest henceforth will be Cameron.

Moments...

...this week of...

...happiness creating with friends, making things happen, a play in the woods, shared stories

...sadness words from a friend*

...creating peg people, bread, trousers, a skirt, some more coasters, rows on a sock and a shawl

...reading Letters to the Midwife and The Language of Others by Clare Morrall, and to the children The Railway Children by E.Nesbit, stories about hares, deers, mice and stoats

...learning about knots, mammals, mice, animals tracks, ropes, clouds, adding

...thinking about a project for next month

...wondering about organising a home ed camp in the summer

...hoping to celebrate some festivals this week

...enjoying this

...looking forward to making it to a new group this week.

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* I have made peace with this now.

Feasts

I have been reading a most interesting book this week, the detail of which I will share later in the month.  The author describes an interview she held, back in 1991, about virtual reality which in those days was pretty much unheard of.  The author asked the question "Aren't you worried that people will get addicted?"  The reply and emphatic No - for one reason: Texture.  Any scenario could potentially be created, you could be anyone or anything you wanted to be but there is no texture which as animals, we crave, it keeps us rooted and grounded.  A life lived fast with labour saving devices* can strip us of texture.  The 'old' tasks growing food, baking bread, preserving food are our interaction with the natural world in a mutually beneficial way.  Real comfort food.

We have, as part of our learning, been finding out about the many, varied and interesting festivals and traditions observed around the world.  It has been interesting to note as we observe and celebrate them not only the similarity between the different festivals but also how many are centred around food.   In many ways this is hardly surprising given how old some of these festivals are likely to be and how vital food production was to our ancestors.

Some festivals are still synonymous with food.  Pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, the many foods associated with Christmas, the specific foods and fasting of Lent, Ramadan and Passover.  I have found recipes mentioned as part of my research learning about some of the new, to us, festivals and this seems like a perfect way for us to integrate them into our lives and continue to observe them in the future.  A perfect place for me to start has been the two lovely book on my shelves Festivals, Family and Food and Festivals Together which between them contain many festivals and recipes.  So far we have enjoyed eating Besan Ladoo a very sweet sweet made for sharing for Divali, Spicy Biscuits on St Nicholas Day, St Lucia Buns for the feast day of St Lucia, Potato Latkes for Hanukah, Gallete de Rois for Twelfth Night, a Spicy Apple Punch to toast the apple tree for Wassailing and a seed cake for Imbolc.  I am sure there will be many more delicious recipes that we make and share throughout the year.  If you have any to share I would love to hear about them!

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* I am not for one minute going to suggest we rid ourselves of all of these!

Focus

Every morning on getting up the list of things 'to do' is long.
It feels like it gets longer each day as new jobs are added and old ones are not crossed off.
The overwhelm makes the sofa an attractive place to sit and hide.
Displacement activity some would call it.

Then a little light comes on, a seed of an idea..........

The list doesn't have to be done all at once, does it?
One thing at a time,
reduce the focus.

If there are too many mountains to climb in one day,
exhaustion sets in before starting.

Staying in the moment,
when the list is long,
focusing on each task,
enjoying it,
then moving on......

There, that's better.

Far more sustaining.

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Inspired by Luminescent a writealm prompt.

Moments...

...this past two weeks* of...

...happiness a weekend with an old friend, a lovely walk in a local wood, catching up with friends over lunch, quiet time at home

...sadness illness in our house, again, it's an auspicious start to the year

...creating rows on a sock, scarf and a shawl, a pair of trousers, ideas for future learning projects, Imbolc seed cake

...reading A Handful of Straw by Mary Rensten, and to the children The Railway Children by E. Nesbit a story for Candlemas and the Greek Myth of Persephone and Demeter

...learning about snowdrops, aconites, knots, new birds, seagulls, Romans, sea urchins, the Mary Rose, underwater archaeology, numbers, materials, Imbolc and Candlemas, Spanish

...thinking about my Mum who has been really ill for over a month

...wondering about seeds, I should really place an order.....

...hoping to make it to our groups this week

...enjoying this

...looking forward to getting back into our rhythm this week

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If you would like to join me you would be most welcome, either using my headings or you own, let me know you have written a post and I will link up to it..........

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* I posted something else last Monday

Life....

...right now...

We are six weeks into this year.

Six weeks of bumpiness

of feeling that we are not quite on 'our' rails.

Slightly off track

with more illness than in the last six years.

Our rhythm is out of sync

with illness and weather cancelling our plans.

We are happy

content in our togetherness.

Life is golden like the reeds.

I wonder what the future will bring..........

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inspired by Sliver a writealm prompt

Socks

A couple of years ago I decided I would learn to knit socks.  I decided, perhaps a little inadvisably, that I would knit socks for Christmas presents, five pairs in fact.  One of the pairs was for my husband so all the socks were knitted in 'secret', my husband was self employed at the time and the attempt at secret knitting coincided with a slackening off of his work.  I was constantly looking for opportunities to get out of the house and knit!  After that mammoth session I knit a pair for my mum for her birthday and three pairs of babies socks in the early part of the following year and nothing since.  I have really wanted to cast a pair on for a while but without the pressure of a deadline!  Last year my brother had a nasty cycling accident which has left him housebound with cold feet so I am knitting him a pair of socks as a surprise and to keep his feet warm.  I am loving this pattern, complicated enough to keep my interest but not so complicated that I have to keep frogging my knitting.  This is sock number one which was cast on a while ago now (just after the accident) but slowly it grows.

Whilst my knitting has kept me interested reading hasn't of late.  I have gotten myself into a bit of a rut by reading a book last month which was disappointing. I had been wanting to read it for some time and was looking forward to it but nothing I tried seemed quite right.  I happened upon a book in the library which somehow came off the shelf into my hand.  It has a beautiful cover and is quite a weight, not reasons to choose a book I know but they added to the appeal.  It is a self published book based in the area I grew up in, so it came home with me and I am loving it.  It is set in the early 1700s in Hertfordshire and concerns the events leading up to and the trial of an old woman Jane Wenham who some claimed was a witch.  The novel is based on real events and is proving to be a most interesting read.

Linking with Ginny

Slow Living

It is always lovely to look back and reflect on what you have done over the previous weeks or months, taking stock, observing changes and celebrating achievements.  Even better if you can join together and see hat others have been doing too in their part of the world, blogging is a wonderful way of making the world a smaller place.  Christine over a Slow Living Essentials started this wonderful reflection and has now passed the baton onto Linda at Greenhaven for the monthly link up here are mine for January...

...nourish I have felt a desire for pies this month.  Warm, nourishing food after time outside in the cold.  Each week we have had a least one meal if not two.  A lentil pie with mash potato topping, a spinach and feta filling wrapped in puff pastry, a leek and squash pie, are just a few that have made it to our menus.

...prepare we seem to be spending more and more days of the week having lunch away from the home.  This means I have to provide a nourishing lunch that will keep us warm and full.  Most evenings whilst cooking the evening meal I have also been making a pan of soup to eat, on some occasions I have made a large enough quantity to freeze some ensuring that I have a supply for 'emergencies', you never know when you might need soup.......

...reduce I have a small pile of clothes in a drawer that are beyond repair but the material could be put to good use so I have kept them.  An old pair of linen trousers have been transformed into mats for hot drinks with a piece of old towel in the middle they are the perfect thing to protect our tables from being marked.  I shared a how I did it here.   I also started on a pair of trousers for my youngest from an old pair of mine.

...green we have been visiting and staying with friends and family quite a bit over the last weeks/months.  It has been lovely to spend extended time with the ones we love but it has created a lot of washing for me.  A skin condition that developed a few years ago has meant that the only washing powder I can use is one I make myself.  There are times when touching items washed in other cleaners can make it worse so I usually take my own bedding with me!  The powder I make is a simple combination of borax and bicarbonate of soda, equal amounts of each.  We keep a jar of the mix on the kitchen counter as we use this mix in the dishwasher too.  I use a tablespoon and a half to two tablespoons per wash depending on how dirty the items are.  I add two tablespoons of white vinegar and seven drops of lavender oil as a fabric conditioner.  I have noticed that using the lavender oil has really reduced the amount of moths I have been finding in the house.

...grow it is also quiet on the growing front for me at this time of year.  We are in the middle of Winter now and it is too cold for much to grow.  The hardy herbs are still providing me with their leaves for cooking and I still have a small amount of salad leaves growing in my polytunnel which provides a welcome bit of raw green to my meals.

...create January is often a quiet month for me after the busyness of creating for Christmas.  Perhaps because I managed to make everything in good time that has not been the case this January.  I have been knitting a lot, a cardigan that now has sleeves attached and the beginnings of a yoke, a scarf that I am writing the pattern for as I knit, a sock which is growing slowly and a shawl which I cast on a few days ago and is growing very fast.  I have also made some more fabric bowls as a birthday present for a friend, the start of a pair of trousers from an old pair of mine and the project mentioned under reduce.

...discover I have been keen to observe more of the old traditions and festivals this year.  I have been writing them into my diary for a while now but not actually finding out about them and adding them to our week.  This month we have been finding out about Plough Monday and Wassailing, both very similar traditions based on the type of agricultural practiced in the area.

...enhance I am an assessor for the D of E Award, these award, there are three levels, is started at age 14 and includes an unaccompanied expedition which is what I assess.  Although I have not assessed any this month (they have to be completed between Easter and October when the weather is usually less serious) I have added four dates into my diary this month for later in the year.  This is the most I have ever completed in a year and some of them are in places where we can take a short holiday when we are there, I am really looking forward to them all!

...enjoy we have two weekends away this month one to stay with my brother the other with an old friend they have both been filled with fun.