Today I Could Smell Summer

I've had a day off work today due to having worked too many hours just recently - flexi days are one of the very few perks of the job that we have left and it is probably only a matter of time before we loose this as well.

So I've had a relaxing day at home and have had a a really good sort though my stash of balls of wool brought over the last few years, and I have decided that as last Xmas was so hard on the pennies, I'm going to knit a number of items as Xmas pressie's for this comming Xmas for some of the little ones in the family, and try to save a few of those pennies, so wool, pins and patterns are already in their seperate bags now waiting to be worked on.

I'm presently crocheting all the odd balls of wool together and have made a couple of small blankets to throw over my arthritic knees when the weather is cold - My husband says that they're a bit jazzy and a throw back to the 60's in design but who's worrying.

We have a summer house at the bottom of the garden which is my craft room through the summer months and I had to go down to find some wool from there and that's where I could smell summer............why do summer houses and caravans have there own 'perfume'? We used to have a caravan a few years ago near Montgomery in Wales and whenever we went there in the winter it had a summery smell and I used to stand in there in the bitter cold of winter, breath in and think -'won't be long now and we'll be back' - which is exactly what I've done today........ Mind you the garden looks awful - lots of work out there when it does start to warm up!

I've also sorted out which seeds I have to get for the garden and the allotment and happily don't have too many left to get - a trip to Wilkinsons on Saturday should suffice.

But the down side today was the shock of the gas and electricity bills comming on line!! We've been so careful but the gas is still going to jump up by £9.00 per month and the electricity by £12.00 per month from March onwards -  £21.00 increase is an awful lot. I've kept the thermostat at a steady 18 degrees after reading a post from Frugal Queen about only keeping the thermostat at the same temperature as a pleasant summers day and still that big increase plus we only put the heating on when we're in the house - if we go out it goes off. I just feel so sorry for the elderly and the young couples with young children how on earth are they coping with all these increases - I don't know.

I remember the recession of the early 80's when inflation was at 20% + but don't remember it being as bad or as long as this one.......or is it just my memory playing tricks.

Work tomorrow - back to all the stress........ Byeeee