Happy Winter Solstice!

We made it! Another successful tour of the sun!

We are going to London on Thursday -- at the two extremes of the earth's course, there is a palpable difference in light between London and Edinburgh. ("Palpable" is perhaps not the mot juste. ) That will be welcome, and the change will begin to make itself felt here not that long afterwards. By Groundhog Day it should be obvious to all that another year has been born.

My knitting books arrived yesterday from the Schoolhouse Press --"Two-End Knitting" by Ann-Maj Ling and "Shadow Knitting" by Vivian Hoxbro. Both are clearly going to demand some concentrated work. There are some pages on two-end knitting in Sheila McGregor's invaluable "Complete Book of Traditional Scandinavian Knitting" which I think will be useful when I tackle Ling. I am a bit disappointed that the Hoxbro book doesn't have any aliens in it, but perhaps once I get to grips with the system, I'll be able to devise aliens of my own.

I don't buy books by designers any more, except for Candace Eisner Strick and Sharon Miller (Shetland lace) and dear Kaffe (who has quieted down, alas); just techniques.

We had a bit of a turkey crisis over the weekend. (Christmas Dinner is extremely important here -- it is like celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas in one day.) I had ordered an excessively expensive large organic turkey to be delivered to our daughter in London on Thursday. I paid with a Visa card which expired at the end of November, as of course was clear on the order form. On Saturday I went over my November statement for that card and was horrified to discover no turkey payment. (Perfectly correct from the supplier's point of view, of course -- charge the customer when you make the delivery. But I thought they'd see that the card was about to expire.)

I emailed them and tried to phone. The phone produced only a pleasant voice saying in a recorded message that our order lines for Christmas have now closed.

But after a few hours of mounting angst, they phoned me, in response to the email, and all is going forward. They now have the number of the new card. They said they would have delivered the turkey anyway and straightened it out later. Maybe.

I may well finish knitting Mungo's sweater today. Certainly, tomorrow. So I'll be able to tuck the loose ends inside and send him a pic of the whole thing.