Fool, rushing in

(a watercolor I made up long, long ago)

It's the depths of winter (even though it's been pretty mild here so far), and I'm cabin-crazy. My urge is to bury myself in blankets, fortified with hot chocolate and a six-foot stack of mind candy in the form of books, and British TV mysteries, and just not be seen outdoors at all until April. It wears on the mood, it does.

Also it's hard on the health. This is my most inert, junk-food-crazed time of the year. And the least social. Really, why DID I not get into the Hibernate line B.B. (Before Birth)???

Anyway, in a desperate attempt to not devolve into a puddle of primordial ooze here, I'm going to give a "Month of Drawings" a try. (If you google that you might find something, but I just made it up right here so whatever you come across has nothing to do with me.) I'm going to spend February trying to do a drawing a day, and post it here. Fair warning: they're likely to be drek, but I am going to go at each one with the best of my abilities. Not just scribble something to fill out the day's check box. And I will go further: I'm going to draw actual people, places or things, not *pictures* of people, places or things. That will probably mean I'm going to have to go out of the house sometimes. *shudder* It'll be good for me. I might expand the OK subjects into mere designs for things, too, like designs for end papers of books, or placemats or something. I have two more days to prepare myself for the ordeal. So do you. Good luck to both of us!

A passing thought

The BBC must be one of the yarn world's biggest assets.

Found an illustrator whose work I LOVE

Vince McIndoe's his name, and I love his almost-retro style!

Makes me want a whole library of novels with these pieces as cover art.

Life in the slow lane

is just fine with me.  Dominating my thoughts this past week have been the horrible events in Paris, though the response around the world is very heartening. I only hope leaders don't just use these despicable murders as further excuses to deprive the people of our liberties. Time will tell - but one can hope that even the most venal, conscienceless pol will look at the millions flooding the streets in support of "Je suis Charlie" and take pause at what might oppose them if they are not wise.

Anyway, aside from following that unfolding story, I've not done much this week. Got Season 8 of Doctor Who and marathon-watched it all in two nights; I think I love Peter Capaldi's Doctor. I've never been very fond of Clara, but I do like the prickly interplay of those two characters. I do wish Pink hadn't left the scene - maybe they'll bring him back, somehow.

I've read two books this week: the newest Flavia de Luce, As Chimneysweeps Come to Dust (LOVED it - like all Flavia fans, I think, I was a bit nervous about her decamping to the Canadian girls's school but oh my it turned out quite well). Keep 'em coming, Mr. Bradley!  The second book is non-fiction, The Secret Rooms, by Catherine Bailey. It's kind of advertised as a possible ghost story, in a real ancient family ducal seat in Britain, but it's really the story of that ducal family's history and in particular the generations just before, during, and after WW I.  I really enjoyed it until she got to the part where she was detailing - and I mean *detailing* WW I battles and the behind the scenes machinations of a particular mother - I skipped a LOT of pages there. In the end it's a fascinating look at how those people really lived before it all fell apart after WW I - mind-boggling wealth and arrogance OMG it's GOOD that it fell apart (and I am again reminded it was GOOD that the American colonies scraped Britain off their shoes like horseshit).  Ms. Bailey (except for the boring war details) is a good history writer for popular readers and I will be watching for more from her.

I got hung up knitting Sock 7 - discovered I need to tink like, 7 rows so I can start decreasing for the toe sooner, but tinking is SO fiddly and tedious. So I picked up the CoBaSi sock (Sock 8) again and got a little further on it. It's certainly not perfect (you can't see the other side) but I really don't care - I am needing socks, and I'm not out to show off my knitting expertise (since I don't have any). I try to learn more with each sock, though.

This is reminding me of a soccer jersey, and it's odd because that pleases me, even though I have zero interest in any kind of sports. Psychology, go figure it out. I can't.

Happy New Year!

I opened last year by putting this picture:

as my laptop desktop image. Eight days later I was in the hospital (just for 26 hours, but my they were an exciting 36 hours - those that I remembered)! I thought maybe I'd tempted fate. Then I remembered I don't believe there is such a thing, LOL. But that image and challenge just embodied my feelings at the time - I was ready for 2014 to be amazing! In many ways, it was.

And here we are, in 2015. This time, I've put this:

as my desktop. It was taken in Paris, I don't know where, exactly. But isn't it lovely? I can lose myself in that picture. Go drifting down a willow-shaded stream hazy in the summer sun, to the background of bumblebees humming and birdsong. That's kind of where I am right now. If it changesI can always change the desktop.

Best of 2015 to all!