Lunar Eclipse

Start of Lunar Eclipse last night

Well we have had some very hard winter weather here in Lancashire starting with almost 2 foot of snow on Friday night.  Normally we are sheltered by the Irish Sea but we got some of the spin off what hit Ireland and landed 30 inches of snow in some places. We have had some snow here before in the last couple of years but generally it is just a quick splash and that is it.  This time we has 12 continuous hours of snow fall. Over the weekend we got daytime temperatures topping out at -10C. Such lovely weather. It has been the perfect weather for sitting at home and knitting but unfortunately I have had to do some university work and paid work so I have been tap tap tapping away on the keyboard.  

I trudged into LJMU today taking 2 hours to do the normal 45 minute commute to have student after student cancel after I had got in there. At least the hubby and I had lunch together in peace for the first time in ages before we turned around to make the 2 hour commute home. 

The downside of the weather has been the effect on my sleep pattern but the upside has been I got a lovely view of the lunar eclipse this morning.

So take care all, may you all have a lovely Christmas and Yule time and I will probably not be posting again until the new year.

You know it is cold when

Your milk delivery is frozen solid in the glass bottle.  We have only have had a light dusting of snow much to the chagrin of the children who have been plugging for a snow day. We have had temps in the range of -8C to -10C on a couple of nights and some of the day time temps have been below 0C.  It made it to 1C yesterday. At the moment we are hovering at about -2.54C and I am feeling particularly sorry for the milk man who is dropping off bottles of milk from his electric milk float. He would not be able to deliveries if we were getting the snow that Kent and Surrey is.  

Frosty Friday

Frosty footpath and road (last year)

We have had a very cold night last night and this morning it is a balmy -4C at 5am.  There as been a light dusting of snow but I expect that to melt as soon as the sun actually hits it but that will sometime after 9am long after I have gone to work.  The kids are still hoping for snow day sorry that is not going to happen today.

Knitting wise the Ruby Ruby is sitting and looking at me with pleading brown eyes saying "pick me up, you know you want to knit".  Sorry I have to do a couple of thousand words first.

A chance of snow

This week we have a chance of snow. Driving home from knit night last night there was ice on the roads to the point there was a serious accident and a police redirection. The gritters were out in one district so their roads were covered but my local district has only sent the gritters out this morning. Not much help to those who have to go to work early.

Kids are hoping for a snow day
 like last year.

From the various weather reports we could have a deep flurry come Thursday through to Sunday. Both the kids are watching the sky and the weather reports with the thrilling hope of another snow day like last year. It is cold enough for everyone to be looking for all their hand knit items. Daughter it is probably on your floor. Yeap she is doing that teenage thing at the moment where her floor is her cupboard. The downside is the son is now replicating his sister's habit.  We officially have two teenagers and I just don't go into their rooms so I don't freak out at the mess.

Fallout from the Snow

We had a lovely enforced break thanks to the snow during the Christmas period but as a result there has been an absolute panic by students to meet the early January deadlines. One institution I work at provided an automatic one week extension the other did not even consider this option even though all the facilities were closed so students were unable to access their resources on the various campuses.

On the knitting and crafting front I have been waiting and waiting for some yarn and fibre that I ordered so that I could knit J’s version of the R’s Xmas pressie. You remember that moment of insanity I had during Christmas week were I knitted a small mans size jumper in less than 48 hours. I want to get this sweater done for the father of the boy before his birthday in March but it will be a case of holding onto the wool and not starting the project straight away as I have decided that I will use the Winter Olympics to challenge myself to complete this gorilla size project. The Dad size is 4XL and is estimated to take over 30 balls.........

Yes I will need the motivation... This weekend I am really looking forward to a spinning day with the North Cheshire Spinners and Weavers Guild in a little village called CROFT.... Yeap thats the name of the village. I have driven through the CROFT Interchange on the M6 and M62 for years and not had a clue about where the name came from. Well I am going to find this village and undertake my desired next fibre challenge to learn to spin properly.