I am not hibernating - just not enough hours in the day to blog

My poor, sad woodburner.....

The reason is simple, I am trying to catch up with some chores around here. Number one is wood burner repair as the glass cracked last week and I had to go to Penrith to buy more which is expensive. Whilst there I decided I would need to redo the rope around the door seal too and I thought I had cement/glue left over from last time so did not buy any. Wrong again: I now have sent for some from Ebay as driving back to Penrith with the cost of petrol was not an option......So the Morso cannot be lit and I have resorted to various candles to bring a bit of cheer to the gloom of no comforting fire. The place does not seem the same in the morning either because its colder as the heat usually keeps in until the next morning and I just pile on more wood and it springs to life.

Number 2 was new curtains for the kitchen door as the draft is a bit of a problem in winter. I decided they had to be thicker but did not go for interlining because I was worried the weight would be too much and bring down the curtain rail (that once happened in the hall and it smashed a favourite large pottery bowl made by Marea Goodman who is now resident in Colorado so no chance of another). So I just used light fabric for a backing and went for the velour/velvet material. I thought they were going to look too dark but DH says they have transformed the kitchen, a welcome pat on the back....



Probably the darkest fabric



Contrast

The material is actually very pretty and I used it to make a patchwork of rectangles so the kitchen does not look formal as it's country style with a dresser and open shelves with pottery on display.

For those of you interested in the bird saga, I had a fright on Sunday morning because a hawk swooped down to the bird table when 6 Lesser Redpolls were having breakfast.... I don't know if it made off with one or not, it was so fast. I did find though that the speed with which it scattered the other little birds caused one of the Siskins to fly into the greenhouse glass and I found it lying in a pool of water hours later. The poor little bird's neck was probably broken, I was very upset and decided to put something up on the greenhouse glass so the birds know its a solid wall. I am going to a garden centre later today to see what they have. Any suggestions?