Little Treats to Ease the Path Through January.

Well, Happy New Year to you!  Twelfth Night has come and gone and this year I followed my Mums rule; Take down the decorations and immediately go out to buy Spring flowers.  She does this to bring a different kind of cheer into the home.  So I thought I would give it a go.  There is a tiny little shop round the corner from me and they always have a few bunches of flowers in a bucket, so that is where I headed.  There was one bunch left!  The shop keeper explained that he had had a rush on flowers over the last two days since Radio 4 had given the same advice a s my Mum just the day before!  So this is the sorry little bunch I was left with!

Besides the flowers I have had some other rather lovely treats this week.  One was taking an extra day off work and not returning until Wednesday.  My friend recommended this to me, explaining that when I woke up on Tuesday morning I would almost feel like I had cheated death!  He wasn't far wrong, especially as I had a big day planned, visiting Grand parents and a friend in London as well as the new Crochet shop called The Crochet Chain in Waltham Abbey.  I had discovered the shop via Revelry and I had wanted to visit when it opened in November, but sadly life conspired against that, but as they say "All good things come to those who wait", and boy was it worth the wait! Now I am the kind of person who is as happy as a pig in muck in any kind of craft shop, but I have never been to a craft shop before where the main focus is on Crochet, it was HEAVEN!  Diana was really friendly and enthusiastic, giving advice about the kind of Crochet hook I was looking for, as I have become a little picky in my choice of hook.  She chatted about her future plans which were incredibly exciting and when I picked up one of the wealth of books she had for sale, she pointed to a blanket on the back of the sofa and explained that all the squares in the blanket had come from the book I was looking at!!  What more can you ask for in a shop?  I was thrilled and the range of yarns was just as spell binding: From the cheap and cheerful acrylic to the precious project wool that you may only ever use once in a life time but is just divine!  Diana let me take some pics of the shop to share with you, I think you might just agree that it is something special.

 

                                            

The final treat I have had this week I think was most unusual.  I live in a little town centre terrace and so I was stunned to see photographers outside my house yesterday morning with huge lenses pointing into the trees and then I saw them too...

They are Waxwings, a type of bird from Scandinavia and Russia, stopping off to eat our winter berries.  Sadly I don't have a huge lens on my little camera and this was the best I could do.  You can tell by the shape they are not British birds.  There is still a huge flock of them today, I have tried to entice them to my feeding station with defrosted blackberries and raspberries as well as apple, but they know there are much fresher meals to be had and they won't be fooled!

Hold tight one and all, Spring will be springing very soon! X