Holidays are great

But it's a shame that we have to come back from them isn't it. Still I suppose we'd have nothing to look forward to & it would get just as much a grind being in the place where you holiday all the time, there'd be no change, which as the old saying goes is as good as a rest.

We were very lucky with the weather, which is unusual for us, it's normally great weather & we go away & it turns horrible, but this time we chose the right week.

Yesterday I had a lovely surprise. I got a hand delivered letter which had been sent via a mutual contact, from someone I was friendly with as a girl, the last time I must have spoken to her must have been over 25 years ago. Apparently she reckons that she said something to me in a phone conversation that really upset me & I broke off all communication with her, but I thought that I'd upset her which is why she never rang me again, just goes to show how words can be misconstrued. But it is lovely to catch up with her. I emailed her with my address & phone number & she was straight on the phone for a chat. She's now married for the 2nd time with 2 sons of her own, one adopted daughter from her 1st marriage & 3 step children from her 2nd marriage & 6 grandchildren, they look such a happy family & I'm so pleased for her that she's found happiness with her 2nd husband. I'm also pleased that we've got together again as I've often thought about her over the years & wondered what happened after her 1st marriage broke up.

I can see that my weekend is going to be busy, our post lady asked me yesterday if I knew of someone who could help her process a fleece that she'd been given while on holiday in Yorkshire. Apparently it's a Cheviot fleece that's from last year's shearing with which the farmer won a prize. I of course said that I could help her, so it looks like Sunday will be spent sorting this fleece & teaching her how to wash it etc. She has a spindle which she's tried to use but can't, so I'll have a go at teaching her as well. I'm certainly not going to offer to spin it up for her, got far too much stuff of my own to spin.

Coffin Fleece anyone?

I've just been to collect a fleece, a Norfolk, and the shepherd said that it was his coffin fleece. He explained that it's a traditional thing for a shepherd to have a fleece in his coffin if he/she dies as a mark of their occupation & he keeps one from the current year's wool clip just in case he dies. I felt a bit guilty about it, but he assured me that there was plenty of stuff around that could be put in his coffin by his family if need be, and I did say that he looked pretty healthy to me. I said to contact me if he ever needed some of the fleece back, but then he'd be dead wouldn't he doh. Anyway, I haven't had a chance to really look at it yet, but it doesn't seem too bad, not too many second cuts etc. & seems at first glance not to be too full of VM, but I will see when I open it out properly. What is a bit upsetting is that he's let all the other fleeces, some 200 of them, go to the BWMB for pennies. I told him that hand spinners would happily pay good money for decent fleeces & he said that they do have some good ones, he's even got a 2nd prize for a fleece recently at one of the shows. So next year I've promised to contact him around April/May & see if I can find people interested in buying some of the fleeces. He actually works for a Trust which needs to obviously make as much money as it can, so it would be good if he could make a bit more for them.