The Longest Month

I don't know what it is about January, but it's a never ending month. It's not been a bad one, hubby and I have gotten into a good routine with him being on furlough and me working from home. Missy seems to have figured out the new routine and has settled again too. I had always assumed that she would have loved having company all day everyday, but it seems that routine is more important to her. And a sunny window - she will abandon us all in favour of sunbathing at the French window in the kitchen. 

Despite the cold, it does feel a bit nicer. The sky is blue again and the sun had been out and about. All good things. 

This weekend has been a busy one. I know it's been mentioned before, but hubby is a magician. He and one of the fellow magicians have been doing Zoom magic shows for carers and young adults with disabilities over the various lockdowns, and he finally caved in to me pestering about a friends and family show. That was Saturday, and it went brilliantly. We managed to get a good mix online and people got to see faces they wouldn't have asked to see, but were pleased to see doing well after the year we've had. 

I'm sworn to secrecy on the hows and whys of magic, but I will say the routine had a perfect mix of laughs, magic and good old fashioned now-hang-on-a-minute, what happened there? I will confess that I do take great enjoyment in watching him perform for an audience, there's nothing better than to see someone create joy, especially in this dark, cold lockdown. 

Today was K. Its the penultimate week of #leadthewayatoz, and I do think I will miss it - its breathed life into old walks and encouraged us to get out and explore, even when it's cold and miserable out. We had planned to do the Kelpies for K, but it's outwith our council area, so we went with the Korean War Memorial instead, and honestly, I think it was a better choice in the end. The walk around it is quite steep, so we spent an hour laughing and shrieking whilst sliding about in the snow. I had to give up a few times and just sit down and slide down some parts. Missy, with her nimble paws and mountain goat ancestry trotted about with no issue and was bemused as we blundered about. 

I had a bit of a mercy dash with the sewing this week - my neice who I am homeschooling on Skype keeps chickens, and one has lost a bunch of feathers. I had a lesson where my neice spent most of it lamenting about the timing being the worst possible for an outdoor animal, and promised her I'd look into jumpers. I was shocked at how easy it was to find a pattern and assembled 4 of them (I imagine they'll need washed daily). No sooner had I sent a photo of them to her and she'd pestered her dad to drive over - her chickens welfare is absolutely an essential visit.

It would have been nice to have seen her longer than the 30 seconds she shivered on my doorstep, but the jumpers exchanged sanitised hands and were put to use. The feedback has been good, and I've kept the drafted pattern just in case I get a request for more again, you never know. 

I think I can safely say that chicken jumpers are the weirdest thing I've been commissioned to make!