Lunar eclipse & now an earthquake.........

We had a lunar eclipse 2 mornings ago, apparantly it's the first on a winter solstice for 400 years,

& it's when the shadow of the earth crosses in front of the moon, this is a photo whilst it was 1/2 way across, difficult to see but it was quite amazing.

If that wasn't enough we had an earthquake last night, 3.5, didn't feel any shaking, although our neighbours did, but just a tremendous sound, like a Hercules plane flying really slowly or a large articulated lorry - quite bizarre - awaiting the plague of locusts next............

Hound Trailing

In our village we are lucky enough to have The Melbreak Hounds, which is a kennel for hound trailing & although we don't go out following them, we do like to show our support! And today there was a coffee morning & these were the hounds very patiently waiting to go out....

Having a better week, so far....

Well, the plumbers have been twice & the engineer once & we can use the boiler, yippee! Not fixed but usable. Apparently it's a design fault, a condensing boiler can't take low temperatures! Brilliant, how useful is that? Labour pushed through a change in boilers so that they'd be more eco-friendly, however, they don't work properly, how eco-friendly is that?

Also, the builder very kindly came on Sunday which was a really frosty day & removed the bag from our chimney so we have a wood burner too, so only wearing 3 layers now!

Bring on next lot of snow....

Have a new outlet for my knitting, The Cockermouth Craft & Gift Shop, which is in a fantastic position in Cockermouth opposite Wordsworth House (where William Wordsworth lived for a good part of his life-was very badly flooded, but open again). I have some of my kits there as well as some different things that I don't sell at The Woolclip as it overlaps with other people. Corsages & felt Christmas Decorations. Fingers crossed they go well.

What else can go wrong.....

Well, car service yesterday, not too bad but needed work we hadn't expected.

Then boiler was leaking in the morning, turned out the outlet pipe was frozen & cracked so the condensation was freezing in the flue & then running back into the heat exchanger & leaking - I sound like I know what I'm talking about, but just have a very good plumber - of course it's the weekend now & won't be able to ring the engineer until Monday & goodness only knows when he'll come!

I daren't say we still have running water (through taps as opposed to walls) & electricity, at the moment anyway!

What else..... oh yes, the builder covered our chimney pot over a month ago as it was leaking & we were trying to work out where it was leaking & then it snowed & he hasn't been able to get up there to take the bag off, so now we can't use the wood burner either!

Oh yes, ordered some oil, can't deliver for 2-3 weeks.

Tax bill.......

You want more, diagnosed with pernicious anaemia & have to go to the hospital for more tests with the cardiologist.

If I survive until Christmas I'll be lucky!

-12 degrees at 10am!

Oh my goodness, it was so cold last night when I let the dog out, but this morning we were driving into Cockermouth on frozen ice covered roads & the temperature gauge on the car was
-12 degrees, I don't think I've ever seen temperatures that low in my lifetime. Even when I've been abroad ski-ing in France or Italy or Switzerland, it's cold but not that sort of cold. I looked up on our local weather station for the village & it said it got down to -16 last night, no wonder the dog didn't want to go out!

Have ordered some crampons, which are due in next week, guaranteed to arrive on the day the snow melts!

Anyway, made it into town for a very important appointment - hair cut - if I'd have missed it I wouldn't have got another one this side of Christmas, so glad I struggled in.

Work on teeth was finished yesterday, so am the proud owner of 2 crowns, next one is booked for April, will take me that long to save up for it, £290 a go. A friend was calling me Your Majesty today as I've got 2 crowns not just 1!

Unfortunately our Gardening Club Christmas Party was cancelled because of the weather, as some people literally haven't been able to get out of their drives for a week because of the ice & the roads generally are dreadful. It's a shame as it's an absolute hoot, everyone brings a plate of food & the club supplies the wine & the bar is usually drunk dry by the end of the evening & there are silly games to do, mainly plant-related, which sounds really naff but when you've had a drink or 2 is quite good fun, even the husband admits to enjoying it!

Advent Calendar, more snow, Christmas tree & knitting!

Got my trusted advent calendar out for another year, really must get a new one, but still like this.

And we had a virtual white-out yesterday afternoon....

But what a difference a day makes........

Put the Christmas tree up & did the wreath, so house is feeling very festive along with the weather

My i-pod/mobile phone covers feature in The Woolclip's newsletter this month, unfortunately though the shop's not been open for nearly 2 weeks now as none of us can get there! Ho hum, roll on summer....