Sheepish

At last, my little sheep knitting pattern is complete, tested, and now published for sale!

On offer during May 2017 for the introductory price of just £2 (will be £3.50 from 1 June 2017), as an instant download through Payhip.

I'd love to see your Sheepish efforts!

February: Lapsang souchong

For February, I have been drinking the fabulously decadent Lapsang souchong tea.

Lapsang souchong tea is a black tea, grown in the Fuijian region of China. It is sometimes known as 'smoked tea' which rather gives the game away because it is the smoking of the leaves over pinewood that gives the tea it's distinctive flavour and aroma. It really is like drinking a bonfire!

The tea is made from the older, larger leaves of the tea plant, which is where the word 'souchong' comes in. Tea made from the younger tips is generally known as pekoe. Tradition has it that the usual way of drying the leaves was interrupted by the Emporer's armies passing through the region during the Qing era, and so to speed up the drying process and meet demand, locals spread out the leaves to dry over pine fires. Today the tea is becomming increasingly expensive as the region is a small one and demand is growing.

Lapsang souchong is a bit like Marmite - you either love it or hate it! Winston Churchill loved it, and so do I.

It's not that common to see in smaller supermarkets, but there are some online suppliers and a couple of well known brands who offer the tea loose and in bags:

• Twinings have both a Smoky Lapsang and a traditional Lapsang souchong in packs of 50 bags
• Waitrose do a very reasonable box of 50 bags for around £1.90, as well as loose leaf
• Whittard of Chelsea offer loose leaf Lapsang souchong, and also for those not over keen on the smokey sensation, they have a blend called Russian Caravan which has just a hint if camp fires.

2017 a year of tea

This is not a new year resolution. Just wanted to make that clear, because I don't subscribe to that self-defeating nonsense. This is something I've been thinking about for a while, and having a full 12 month period to carry out my research seems a good way of structuring it.

What research, I hear you ask. Tea.

I am a black tea purist (though I do like a drop of milk) and I find fruit 'tea' is a lot like drinking hot water with twigs in. But throughout 2017 I intend to try a new tea each month, and write a little post about it with some information for anyone else who might be interested. Having said that, I'm cheating a bit with my January tea because it's my favourite: Assam.

Assam tea is grown in the Assam region of India.

From: http://www.peasantautonomy.org/assam-overview.html

The tea comes from a single specific species, Camellia sinensis var. assamica. The first tea plantation was established in Assam in 1837, and traditionally Assam has been the second largest tea producing region, with southern China being the largest. The region is heavily forested, and home to rhinoceros among other wildlife. Unlike other tea bushes, Assam is generally grown in lowland regions. It is these conditions that make the area a prolific producer of tea - the collective estates produce 680,400,000 kg of tea annually.

Assam tea has a strong flavour, often described as 'malty'. It is commonly used in blends known as Breakfast Tea, particularly in Irish Tea. 

Early imports of Assam tea were mainly through the British East India Company. At that time, China tea was seen as the 'ideal' and Chinese plants and methods of cultivation were brought into Assam. This proved largely unsuccessful and eventually a hybrid of Chinese and Assam plants was established as the variant used today. The plant has larger leaves then its Chinese counterparts. Harvesting is usually done twice each year: the first harvest is in March, and the second to harvest the tips of the new shoots which give a sweeter and full-bodied tea is carried out later in the year.   

Currently I'm drinking Marks & Spencer Assam Tea (though I would say it's cheaper if you visit the store than if you shop online with that link), as Assam can be hard to find in other supermarkets. 

• Waitrose offer both standard Assam in boxes of 50 and 100 bags as well as loose leaf, and Golden Tippy in packs of 15 pyramid bags. 
• Twinings offer Assam including a 'nutty chocolate' blend.
• Whittard of Chelsea have a range of second flush or 'Tippy' products.   
• Imperial Teas have a range of interesting Assam teas from a number of gardens (plantations). I haven't tried any yet, mainly because they use a courier delivery service and items must be signed for. I'm sure postal delivery would be adequate, but anyway....
• Boston Tea Party offer one of my favourite Assam teas. If you want to buy your own stock, then the Canton Tea Co. is the place to go.

As this is the first of my Tea posts, just a note on how to brew black tea. If you are going to use a teapot, small is beautiful. A bigger pot just encourages you to leave the tea steeping for longer than it should, so a pot for one or two cups is ideal. Leave your big family-sized teapot for the PG Tips and Yorkshires of the world.

Make sure you warm the pot with hot water first. Hot water from the tap is fine, but leave it for a few minutes so that the pot is hot to the touch on the outside. Empty the pot just before your kettle boils and then pop your tea in.

Use water that has literally just boiled, but is not actually boiling. I've seen people state that 95 degrees C is the ideal temperature, but I'm not going to stand there with a thermometer! If you put your tea in a warmed pot and then put the teapot lid on, as soon as the kettle has boiled take the lid off and pour the water from the kettle directly on to the tea. Stir, particularly if using tea bags. Wrap the teapot in a tea towel folded double, or pop a tea cosy on, and leave for 3-4 minutes. The trick really is not to over-brew otherwise the flavour becomes bitter.

I'm not going to comment much on adding milk or sugar except to say it's completely up to you. Just remember honey and stevia have their own taste that will have to compete with the tea.

Winter Solstice

(or the end of one year and the start of the next)

I'm sitting here as the sun disappears on the shortest day of the year, with a red cinnamon candle burning. Red for love, happiness, warmth, generosity. I am not sad that this year is over, though it hasn't been my worst by a long chalk. I had hoped to be a leaseholder by now, but that looks likely to happen next month so I can wait a little longer.

Unusually, I took a few extra days off work this week to give myself a longer soul holiday this year. Normally I work right up to when my employer closes for Christmas, and I would have no objection to working on Christmas day (or any other day) as long as I was compensated in some way. But this year I need to use up the leave I had been saving in order to get my kitchen re-done. I intend to use these days as soul yoga time. It's a phrase my friend Ciel came up with years ago, meaning doing things that are gentle stretches for your mind and mental health. Sometimes it can include physical activities, if your mental health responds well to them. Today I decided to go for a walk, instead of staying home all day with only the garden birds for company.

I started by taking one of our town buses to the end of its route, where I'd never been before. It was an interesting ride, and easy to know where to get off as it was a large supermarket. Then I looked at the road signs and picked a direction that would lead to somewhere I was familiar with.

I have osteoarthritis, and depending on the weather I can walk about 3 miles on a really good day before I get some pain or discomfort. Today was not a really good day, but an OK day, and my spidey senses got me onto a familiar bus route after about a mile which then gave me the confidence to take the rest of the distance one bus stop at a time. I managed about 2 miles before getting back on a bus, and I'm happy with that.

Back home, my de-stash continues; I had some dusky pink aran yarn that has now been turned into a jacket for a 2-3 year old and I finished a matching beret this afternoon. Then I started a cowl with some alpaca mix yarn which will be for a friend when we have lunch next week, and I'll try and get a pair of fairisle gloves done for the other friend who will be joining us. There is a lot of half-used 4-ply yarn left over from socks and fairisle seems a logical thing to use it all on.

And then I have a secret project that I want to work on in 2017. It involves knitting rather small things and leaving them anonymously as gifts in public places. I have been inspired by a church group who last week hung up hundreds of knitted angels around their town which were free for anyone who wanted to take one.

I think we can all give a little more next year.

Enjoy the rest of the Solstice everyone!

How long should it take to purchase a property?

Certainly not as long as it is taking me to purchase the flat I live in from my landlord.

We started this process at the end of May, and I have already had to serve notice on the landlord for missing a legal timed deadline for one portion of the transaction process. My landlord is a social landlord, and I'm buying under the Right to Buy scheme - mainly because of the threat by the Conservative government to make workers pay full market rent on social housing properties. Commercial rents here are more than twice what I currently pay, and on the property I live in would take approximately half my income each month if that were to happen. A mortgage, with the RTB discount, is roughly the same as my current rent. The choice is clear.

What is not clear is why it took my landlord almost 14 weeks to provide me with a valuation of the property, and why it has taken since the end of May for them to finally confirm this week that there is no asbestos in the loft space (I have an upstairs flat). It has so far taken them 3 weeks to put together the transfer documents to send to my solicitor (and even she has started calling this a 'saga'!), and they still have not sent them.

The landlord also refuses to tell me whether a wall I want to remove is a load-bearing wall in advance of the completion of sale. It wont make any difference to me buying the flat, but my solicitor advised me to try and get the confirmation in advance of completion. Now that they have confirmed there is no asbestos, I can get my own builder to check, but it makes me very wary of how long they will take when I'm a leasholder to give permission for the building work to be done. My builder says I should allow 3 weeks for the building and then to fit a new kitchen, and I've saved a couple of weeks holiday from work this year to cover that period, but our holiday year runs from April to March and at this rate the work wont get done before next summer. I could do with a few days away right now, but daren't use any more holiday just in case the sale is suddenly completed and we can get going with the building work.

Why do we make these things so difficult in this country? I work in customer service and if I had delayed something in the way the landlord has, I'd have lost my job by now.

Nutcracker suite

Last weekend I spent about 20 minutes watching a squirrel in my garden. He (or she, impossible to tell unless you're close enough to get bitten) was helping himself to the hazel nuts on my tree. There are lots, and I don't really mind, I was just a little surprised to actually catch him doing it.

Today I decided to see if any nuts were ripe enough for me. A few are, but now I have a new problem ....

I don't have a nut cracker!

While I was in the garden, I thought I'd take a few pictures of the flowerbed, to show how the colours change from spring through to autumn - which we now seem to be in.

Waspgate update

After last week's wasp post, I thought you, dear reader, would like to know how the 'Take Back The Garden' movement was doing.

I'm sorry to say that I did indeed resort to chemical genocide in this instance. It would have been lovely to just wait for some passing hungry badger or honey buzzard to snack on my colony of stripey invaders, but as I'm not in a rural location I'd still be waiting for that to happen some years down the line. So action was took, and 2 cans of spray foam later plus disturbing at least part of the nest, I think I have got rid of the infestation. Wont know for sure until tomorrow morning when I attempt to dig the final patch of soil, but there were no wasps flying around the final entrance hole just now.

The nests themselves are a thing of beauty though. If you've never seen inside a wasp nest (and why would you!) here's the top half of a chamber:

Wasps, huh! What are they good for?

Absolutely nothing!

Well that's not strictly true. Wasps, I'm told, eat insects that we don't want in our gardens. Right now though, I'd happily trade a plague of greenfly for the wasps that find my garden such a desirable residence. A couple of weeks ago, wasps were busily moving in to a gap behind the fascia board next to my front room window. The pest control folks came out and put something in the hole that either scared the wasps away or killed them all, but either way within 12 hours they were no more.

But in digging out the pile of spoil from the flower bed in the back garden this morning, I discovered another wasp nest, and this time they were not at all happy to see me. I've never been stung by a wasp before, and I actually expected it to hurt a lot more than it did. That doesn't mean I particularly want to make a habit of it. I made a hasty retreat, and I now have some 'wasp foam' that I will attempt to spray on the entrance to their nest this evening. I don't like using chemicals in the garden, but sometimes, needs must.

Meanwhile, my natural attraction to mosquitoes and any other biting insect prevails. After 3 hours in the garden this morning, my ankles are swelling with numerous bites - some of which have drawn blood, but many that are 'testing' sites. Having been bitten twice earlier this year by Blandford Flies (that did not live to bite again) I seem to be particularly reactive to any other kind of bite. I've read up on the subject and it would appear that as a larger, active, blood Type O individual I'm up there with caviar and oysters when it comes to choice cuisine. I've always been popular with the mossies, and if your pet has fleas I'll be able to tell you within a couple of minutes of sitting on your sofa, but it seems to be getting worse.

Still the flowers are doing well, and citronella candles do appear to keep the worst of the little biters away while I sit on my bench.

Quick garden update

Not a lot of knitting going on here at the moment, although I'm still working on a sheep pattern.

But lots of stuff done in the garden. We've gone from this (last August):

To this (today):

Everything in the garden

In my previous post I forecast that this post could be a while in appearing as I now have a garden. So here I am, 3 months later, aching but happily so because it's a result of digging!

I have a 30 x 30 foot square of garden, fenced with wire mesh all round, and with an established hazel tree. I didn't do anything with it for the first 6 months I lived here because I wanted to see if anything else was hiding and would sprout. In that time I sorted out the inside of the flat instead, still got a few boxes of stuff to work through but it's comfortable and coming together now. I got a bird table for my birthday from my daughter, and I've hung some feeders from the hazel tree. The birds happily hoover up all the food I put out for them, and I did the Big Garden Birdwatch a few weeks ago.

The garden last August when I first moved in, complete with neighbour's rabbit!

But the garden kept calling to me. Resistance was futile, mainly because I am a plantaholic and adore gardening. Having been without a garden for the best part of 12 years, I needed a fix and badly. It started with a pair of beech trees. They were only £3 each and I couldn't leave them, had to have them. You know how some women are with shoes, bags or make-up? That's me with armfuls of plants.

The popular thing to do here these days is to put up a wood fence to enclose a garden. That's not particularly good for the wildlife though; birds need hedges and bushes, and hedgehogs need to be able to travel between several gardens to forage. As I already have the wire fence, I have decided to leave it in place and plant a mixed hedge around the 2 external borders. This means digging out a border, so to have more space for plants I am making a curved deep bed that will take up approx 1/4 of the whole garden.

All sounds simple, right? Except whoever lived here before me decided to bury sheets of corrugated asbestos about 6 inches under the turf exactly where my flower bed needs to go. I'm aware how dangerous asbestos can be (which is probably why the morons buried it instead of disposing of it properly), but we had it at home when I was a kid, and it can't stay where it is so I'm taking my chances. It's certainly not dry, and I'm working outside.

I have osteoarthritis and 2 replacement hips, so I can't spend all day digging even though I want to. I'm having to do it in 2-hour slots, early in the mornings at weekends when I'm at my most mobile. I'm sure it would have taken a strapping young man just a day to shift it all, but I don't have one of those handy. Today I lifted the biggest pieces, and I really thought I'd got to the end of them length-wise but nope, there is a bit more under the biggest piece, still buried. There is also more buried towards my neighbour's garden so it looks like at least one more weekend before I can get the council to come and remove it all. One of the most awesome things was uncovered today - a baby slow worm, awake but sleepy, under one of the pieces of asbestos! I carefully picked it up and moved it to the pile of bricks and stones under the hazel tree to keep him safe.

Baby slow worm picture from blog: Everythinginthegardensrosie.com

 

I've put a Rowan tree in the corner, with shrubs and a holly. 

Honeysuckle and dog rose to climb the fence.

I've designed gardens and wildlife areas before, and I know how this garden wants to be organised. There will be a seat next to the hazel with some ferns and hostas, and a patio area along the neighbour fence (which I will screen with some bamboo screening I've already bought). Along the fence that separates my half from the downstairs' flat's garden I will have a raised veg plot, possibly a small compost heap and an apple tree. I'm putting a gate in the fence nearest the footpath so I don't have to always go though downstairs' garden. Luckily, my half gets sun for most of the day despite being north-facing, and the soil is a dreamy sandy-loam.

I am definitely in my element.

It's about time

A few days after I wrote the previous blog post on here, my life took a big jump to the left and I ended up moving house in less than a week. It was mayhem, exhausting, but wonderful at the same time. one of the hazards of social housing these days is that most councils have now adopted the practice of bidding for vacant homes. It means that only people who really want the home will be considered, which is good, but it also means that, at least where I live, you only get 24 hours to say yes or no when you are offered something.

I had bid on a smaller flat some weeks before, and had thought that I'd been unsuccessful as I hadn't heard anything from the council about my application. Little did I know that they had been carrying out background checks on me. The previous tenant of the new place had been a nightmare neighbour and the chap who lives below has Aspergers and they didn't want to give him another bad neighbour.

On the Tuesday I had a phone message left on my home phone, could I contact the council urgently. Wednesday I phoned, arranged to view the flat in my lunch hour, and the moment I walked in I knew I'd say yes. Council lady filled in the forms with me there and then, and because the Monday after next was a bank holiday she said I'd be able to take up to 3 weeks to move in, but I'd have to pay for both flats for that period. Or I could move in over the weekend and as long as the keys to my old place were handed in to the office by midday on the Monday, they wouldn't charge me rent for both flats. Challenge accepted!

Luckily, the two flats were just 10 minutes walk apart. I borrowed bags and holdalls from neighbours and carried as much as I could down in the evenings. Then friends from work helped with their big estate car and miraculously we managed to get even my bed and sofa moved down on the Sunday. And an amazing thing; moving from a 2 bedroom flat to a one bedroom flat with smaller rooms you'd think that I'd be falling over extra furniture. But with my daughter taking the spare bed to her place, everything else I have fits better here than it did in the old flat.

I've swapped a dark, cold, noisy flat in a block of 9, for a light, bright, warm first floor flat in a converted house - with a small garden - in a cul-de-sac. Downsizing is good!

And then I got offered a permanent position at work doing what I'd been seconded to do at the start of the year. So again, I said yes.

And then I got a bonus, which has meant booking my next trip to see my husband in March, and also a short break in Stockholm for me and my daughter in May - for EUROVISION! Oh my dog, we are so excited about that you would not believe.

So for the past 4 months I have been painting walls, tiling walls, throwing out the junk I didn't have time to sort through before I moved, working hard at a job I now love, and wandering round with a ridiculous smile on my face because I am so happy. I have decided that only "nice" things will come in to this flat - no more making do with stuff I don't really like. And this spring I will make a start on turning the square of grass that my bedroom window looks out onto into a pretty bird-friendly garden. So it may be a while again before my next post, but at least you'll know that I'll be keeping out of trouble and spending my time productively.   

Burning the midnight oil

The quilt I have been making for my daughter is finally finished! It has taken around £80 of fabric and a good 9 months of stitching (on average around 10 hours a week), and on Friday night I was so determined to take it to her yesterday that I stitched from 6.30pm until almost midnight. But it is done and she is very happy with it, and I am very happy that it will no longer be cluttering up my work room.

Now I intend to move on to smaller projects that will use up some of my yarn stash. Luckily my friend is pregnant again, so I have a good excuse to be working on baby items! My first project is a toddler hat with a small cable detail:

I will be adding a smaller version for a 0-6 month old to the pattern and then it will be available to download through Payhip - this is the digital download service that is commonly used for self-published e-books but it works really well for craft patterns as well. Keep checking my Hare's Moon Patterns page on the right. I also have ideas for bibs and jackets to work on this autumn.

Things on the prison front are very quiet at the moment, which is a good thing. Unlike many other couples where one is incarcerated, we don't have much of the drama that can accompany this situation. It is almost certainly because we are older, and less worried about what other people are doing. But as we approach 11 years down, my husband is starting to put together a plan for things he needs to do in the next 9 years to put himself in the best position possible when he gets a chance of parole. Why start so early? Because laws do change, as do attitudes, and being an older inmate it is not beyond the realms of possibility that he may have a parole chance a little earlier than we current expect. Waiting until the last minute has always been my husband's way, so it's good to see him making a change in that area.

Fathers

Father's Day and Mother's Day are not things my family does. And now that I have neither a mum or a dad still living, they are events that I am completely detached from. But I've been thinking about my dad this week, and trying to tease out things that I learned from him, directly or indirectly.

The first thing was very definitely, follow your heart. Because he wasn't able to. My dad wanted to play football and work on boats. But his knee was dodgy so the playing of football was short-lived, and my Grandad decided that working on boats was not a suitable career and insisted that dad did his apprenticeship on cars and lorries instead. I wouldn't say that dad hated it, because an engine is an engine, regardless of it's wrapper, but dad wanted to be on and around the water, not in a garage in a town. The apprenticeship was a good thing, and lead to mum and dad being able to get their first mortgage too as dad's employer was also their referee, but it wasn't in his heart.

The next thing is, you are good enough. This I probably learned more directly from my mum, but indirectly through dad's own self-depreciation and long-term depression. Trying to sell a house while the owner is pointing out all the things they haven't yet fixed or even started isn't easy. Allowing someone else to form an opinion of you as you stand, warts and all isn't easy. But it brings with it a sense of achievement, that they want the house, or you, for what is there.

Finally, say yes more than you say no. Or not yet. Or I can't. The more you say no, the more you paint yourself into a corner. Saying yes is a stepping stone on to something else. Of course, you should be careful of what you are saying yes to, but if it doesn't hurt anyone and you can afford it, and more importantly if it takes you out of your "normal" expreiences, try a yes more often. You might only get that opportunity once.

#WWKIP

Saturday 13 June 2015 was World Wide Knit In Public day, and if I had been more organised I would have been at the Bath Assembly Rooms to join the other knitters there. It looked a lot of fun, but as with many things, I only found out about it at the last minute.

Instead I did my own KIP mission around Cheltenham. I packed my essentials and jumped on the bus.

The weather was not helpful; my first location was on a damp bench (I took a plastic carrier bag with me to sit on!) under a tree next to the Neptune fountain. It had just started mizzling again (that misty rain that gets everywhere and for which umbrellas are little defence), but the tree kept most of it off me.

I had chosen to work on a new pair of cotton socks for myself, something that I can knit from memory. Several people watched me knit as they walked past, and one lady did come over and ask me what I was knitting. She said she knits, but she had never seen anyone using 4 needles before.

After about half an hour, the mizzle turned to proper rain and the drips from the tree were finding their way onto my hands. Time to decamp and find somewhere under cover. I walked to one of the two shopping arcades in the town and found a space on a bench there. I alternated keeping my eyes down and looking up and knitting by feel. People are a bit wary of direct eye contact, though many were either glued to their phones or on their own missions to get in, around, and out of town as quickly as possible. I did catch a few people watching me though, and several young children were very curious as they were walked past me by their otherwise distracted adults. I got some smiles, which was nice, and I heard a couple of people talking about knitting once they had moved past me.

I stayed there for about an hour, and managed to convince a nice chap to take a photo of me as proof.

I had hoped to do a final KIP in Boston Tea Party, with a cup of tea and a slice of their wonderful berry yoghurt flapjack, but when I got there they were packed and not a table to be had. So I had to admit defeat, and did a final few rounds of the sock while waiting for my bus home instead.

Next year I shall be more organised ....

Introductory offer

There is a new knitting pattern at Hare's Moon: the "End of September" cowl. Available as an instant download via Payhip for just £1 until 31 August 2015.

It's a loose-fitting, quick to knit cowl, ideal for the first days of autumn. Knitted in the round, using Aran weight / Worsted yarn. Suitable for a beginner knitter, this garment can be completed in an afternoon.

Materials required: approx 100g / 200 m Aran weight yarn; size 4.5 mm double point needles.

It's also listed in the Ravelry.com pattern library here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/end-of-september-cowl so you can link to it and show off your own versions!

Another "Finished Object"

The jumper I was commissioned to make for one of my mother-in-law's friends turned out to be quicker than I expected. Knitting in the round eliminates the sewing up of the seams at the end, although for this pattern I did still have to set in the sleeves. You just need to remember that if you are knitting in the round a pattern that was originally designed to be knitted flat, reduce the stitch count by 2 because you wont need the seam allowance.

So here it is:

Hot and cold

Busy week, with eating out and knitting jumpers. Mother-in-law ordered a small jumper for her great nephew after the first one I made fitted him but had no room for growth. It's never easy doing this from 4000km away with only a "he's about 18 months old" to go by! Still, the second one for him has a bit more room, and is a tried and tested pattern I've had since my daughter was a baby. Very simple to knit, and you can play around with the seed stitches to create diamonds if you like - I did that on a peach version for my daughter and then embroidered flowers in the centres of a few on the front.

 

I've now started another jumper for one of MIL's friends, a 3/4 sleeve scoop neck with a patterned panel at the front. 

At work, it was my turn to organise a Team Eat which we do every couple of months. There is a new Caribbean restaurant/bar in town called Turtle Bay, and we went there on Thursday evening. Even though we knew it was a school night, cocktails flowed freely (2-for-1 until 7pm was just too much to resist), and the food was hot ... and very HOT. Even veteran curry eaters were struggling to finish their main courses. The atmosphere was great though, and we all had a really good time. The only downside is Turtle Bay can't accommodate parties larger than 8 at the weekends, so with 20 in our team we're struggling to find places where we can all go for a night out together.

 

New knitting pattern: Mercia tea cosy

My next pattern is available now to download as a pdf file HERE.

A pretty tea cosy in 2 sizes, named after my current home, the kingdom of Mercia.

Thank you to the Royal Mail

As you might imagine, I have a love-hate relationship with the Royal Mail (and USPS, but this post isn't about them). I spend monthly on stamps what most people spend on their mobile phone contract, and some months it feels like I'm literally paying my postman's wages.

On 30 March 2015, the Royal Mail are putting up the postage rates again. Nothing new there, it happens every year and I'm not against businesses making a profit. Except we know that the Royal Mail hardly makes a profit, if at all, and is slowly losing the battle with other mail carriers here in the UK. There has been talk of stopping Saturday deliveries, reducing deliveries to certain more remote areas of the UK, and the more obvious putting prices up by a lot more than they usually do. New postage rates pdf is HERE.

Many of you reading this might be struggling to remember the last time you actually sent something through the post. We all use texts and emails now, don't we? Well no, not all of us.

I have started buying greetings cards on Folksy, rather than on the high street. Generally they cost the same even when postage is included, and I like to support small businesses. One in particular is DaisyWings, run by a lady artist based in Berkshire who puts her gorgeous watercolour illustrations onto greetings cards. The Royal Mail get two hits out of this: one when the cards are sent to me, and another when I send them on to the recipient.

But in general, I use the Royal Mail to communicate with my husband and my penpals. Over the past 10 years I have sent on average 6 letters each week and the international letter rate has gone up steadily from around 60p to the new lowest rate of £1 for anything up to 10g (basically a postcard). There used to be a large table of prices and weights, but the Royal Mail have now simplified things wonderfully, and there are just 3 rates for international letters. The majority of mine will fit in the "up to 20g" rate, which will be £1.33 a time.

When you consider how many hands that letter will pass through, and the 4800 km journey it goes on between me and my husband, I think £1.33 is still a pretty good deal. So well done and thank you Royal Mail, for getting the vast majority of our letters across the pond safely.

Sad? No way!

(or How To Make Your Birthday Last A Week).

Yes, it's my birthday this week, and as usual I have taken the week off work. Why anyone would want to work on their birthday is beyond me; it's the first date I book for leave every year and I have no intention of working on my birthday ever. So there!

I have had a couple of comments recently, from well-meaning friends and colleagues, along the lines of, "It must be hard when your husband can't celebrate your birthday with you". Isn't it odd how people make assumptions? Of all the 365 days in each year, birthdays are no more or less hard than any other day. Him not being here (or being there) is just how it's always been for us.

To me, birthdays are more important than other national or religious holidays. In our family they have always been the day when the birthday person gets to choose what to have for tea, and what to watch on telly. We also tend to spin our birthdays out too, covering as many days as possible. In previous years I've been to gigs, exhibitions and on general adventures in the days before and after my birthday. If week-long celebrations were good enough for the Romans....

My husband is very good at getting his cards to arrive before the actual day. I have no idea how he manages it, given the number of different hands our mail passes through and the inevitable delays and disappearances. My birthday envelope arrived at the end of last week, and I have been very good and not opened it yet.

Of course most people associate birthday with presents. I get enough from my friends and other family, I'm not in need of anything more from my husband. If the giving of gifts was a requirement of mine for a successful relationship, I really shouldn't have married him! And at least this way, I don't have to share my chocolates, or worry that the flowers I treated myself to this afternoon will bring on his allergies.

We are focused on our next visit now in a few weeks, so this week is more a time to get practical stuff like dental appointments and boiler servicing done than being too extravagant. I am visiting Oxford later this week with my daughter and we are going to the William Blake exhibition at the Ashmolean, and for burgers at Atomic Burger down the Cowley Road.

I have no need to ask for more.