Saturday, June 27, 2020

Tour de Fleece Day#1 27th June 2020 (Day 107 of restrictions)



Hello all, 
Today is the first day of the Tour de Fleece 2020. What is that, you might ask? Well, The Tour de Fleece (TdF) is an annual event, in which spinners around the world spin along with the Tour de France cycling competition. The Tour de France has been postponed this year, but the Tour de Fleece will go ahead. 
So on the days, they (would normally) spin, we spin. And there are challenge days and rest days. It is non-competitive. you just decide on your own challenges and goals. 
Today I am hosting a Zoom Spin Café for spinners (and other crafters) and that is going to be very interesting. 
Hopefully I get the chance to spin a bit myself too, though I may mostly be making sure everyone else is ok. 
I will be back to put in some photos of my spinning as it proceeds during the Tour. 
Best of luck to all spinners out there! I hope you have an interesting and productive Tour. 
Purples, pinks and blues in this fibre, with some silk. Yum.





Sunday, June 21, 2020

Sunday 21st June 2020 Day 101


101 days since schools closed. Hard to believe.
I got my Summer holidays last Friday.
The weather turned all wet, windy and cool.
Not to worry, usual Irish Summer weather so...
Swedish Midsommar last Friday and we had nypotatis and sill, (new potatoes and herring)etc,
Father's Day in Ireland today Sunday.
I am still trying to finish the Geology and the Textiles courses, and there is also the spinning of course, and the gardening and the spring-cleaning,
and the walks to be had and the plants to be spotted and the family to socialise with...
Have a great summer.
I will pop in here as and when I can.
Stay well, thankfully we are well too.

Liz

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

Day 89, Tuesday 9th June 2020

Tuesday, 9th June 2020.
It is almost 13 weeks since the schools closed. Today I went into my classroom to tidy it up and to prepare for the coming school year. I had to move books from my room to another room, then collect books from a different room for the class I will have next year. I was there for 6 hours!
Tidying always feels great, moving stuff on, throwing stuff out (i.e. bringing things home to recycle them) and making plans for the coming year.
The past few weeks have been very busy. I had end of year school reports to write and I had two online exams to do in the part-time Geography and Textiles courses I am studying. All went well, thankfully, and now there is just the last 2 weeks of school as such, and then I have my school holidays for July and August. It is going to be very interesting to see how we are are going to return to school in September, what the guidelines are going to be, etc.
I have been getting my walks every day, not always 10,000 steps, as the right foot is giving me  a bit of grief if I walk too far on it, but I still walk , just in two shorter walks instead.
I have been taking photos of wild flowers and grasses, but they do not turn out too good, they just look like a mass of greenery, so not much to post here really. I will see if I can find a few good ones.
Ireland has moved into Phase 2 of reopening the country. Phase 1 meant people could travel up to 5km from home to exercise etc, whereas before that people had to stay within 2km of home. With Phase 2, we can travel anywhere in our own county and if a person lives at a county border, then they can travel up to 20km into the neighbouring county. Shops have opened up again, yes even IKEA. Penneys (Primark) is going to open in a few days time.
I have zero desire to go shopping. I buy online now. I bought a pair of new runners online, just like the old (torn) ones I already had, same brand, size and colour. Perfect.  I bought 2 music magazines for my husband; he had been talking of going to town to look for the magazines, but a phone-call ascertained that they weren't in stock; in fact, they hadn't come in from UK at all so I just went online and bought them for him instead. I bought cutlery from Sweden, just like the ones my dear Swedish mother-in-law Inger in Karlstad used to have, and they remind me of her everytime I open the cutlery drawer. I have a very cute little item coming next week, which I will share with you when I get it.
I even bought a spinning wheel from Holland and some baby houseplants! I need to order extra bobbins for the spinning wheel from Holland also. I bought a hand-embroidered picture of a kitchen with a spinning wheel from Sweden also. I am looking online for a Rock kit, for my geology class.
I may never again leave home!!

All is well here, thankfully. I am so lucky to be living on this quiet country road, with fantastic cows and calves grazing in the green fields all around, with birdsong and wildflowers blooming and thriving, and with friendly neighbours. Life is good, and I hope it is good for all y'all too.






Irish Suppliers of Wool, Fibre and Spinning related items

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