Christmas is ages away, right? There’s still l-o-a-d-s of time? Yes? What’s that you say? No, no, I’m not speaking in a high-pitched, hysterical voice: I’ve just… got a bit of a cold, that’s all. But everything’s under control round here. Absolutely everything. Far be it for me to play chicken with the last posting date before Christmas… again…
More seriously, thank you for all of your kind words after the shock and sadness of last week’s fatal fire. Everyone at the hospital (patients and staff alike) is doing an amazing job of metaphorically dusting themselves off and carrying on. It’s humbling to witness people’s resilience.
Knitting has been slow but soothing, and the crocheting of that project has been even slower.
The twinnage are excitedly helping with the Christmas preparations, if by ‘helping’ you mean placing a large seashell on top of the tree, over-indulging in chocolate, and pinching the little ornamental bells so they can pretend to be the sort of Swiss cows that roam the Alps with bells around their necks. They’ve also been helping shell the dried-out runner bean seeds from the allotment, ready to plant in the spring. (ALL, and I mean ALL credit for allotmenty know-how goes to my allotment-mate.)
And a cheery chap from Interflora rang the bell and delivered this gorgeous surprise! Look! How beautiful and Christmas-coloured?!
Thank you Aunt D. This was a beautiful, beautiful surprise.
Anyway to finish, let’s have a wee spot of ruthless capitalism (yes, at Christmas: who’d have thought that could ever happen?) You may have noticed a couple of disclaimers on this blog that mention affiliate links. What that means is that a little programme reads my blog posts, not for their wit and perspicacity (I know, what a waste!) but instead for any mention of products. And every time if finds a product name, it automatically hyperlinks to somewhere you can buy that product. And if anyone clicks through and buys something from that retailer, I will get a teeny tiny weeny commission, at which point I will run outside into the street punching the air and yelling “Ha, I’m RICH! Rich, I tell thee! Henceforth, I shall cast aside my family and friends to pursue a shallow life of relentless materialism!” And then what’ll happen is that the neighbours will roll their eyes and the Stoic Spouse will follow me out to say, “Phil, you’re embarrassing yourself again. Please stop it and come indoors. And for goodness sake put some clothes on.” See? Quite a simple process, really.
Truth is, now that the twinnage are a’school, and I’m still only employed by the hospital for two days each week, this website needs to earn its keep a little bit. And I thought that this would be a fairly unobtrusive way of making that possible. Of course I’m saying this without really having observed it in action, because I don’t tend to mention very many products on this blog, which is the tiny flaw in my plan. So permit me to try an experiment by mentioning a couple of products here to see whether they get picked up and clickable-linkied. Ummm… (Pause to glance around this toy-strewn room in search of inspiration.) Lego Duplo sets! And a Britains toy tractor! I’ll have to wait and see whether that works. Edited to add: Nope, that doesn’t seem to have worked, although it seems have linkied for the name of the flower retailer I mentioned earlier in this post. Hmm, back to the drawing board.
You may be getting the impression that I’m not very sophisticated at this ruthless capitalism stuff. In which case you may in fact be right.
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know. The blog won’t change. It’ll still be knitting, crochet, life, and a touch of bonkersness.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go away and cackle mirthlessly at my capitalist genius, and plot which mega-yacht I should commission with my millions. (Hey, imagine a yarn-bombed mega-yacht!)
Also, I need to empty the bins. #mybillionairelife
Love your kitchen! And I didn’t see any ads. Happy Christmas preparations 😉
Thank you re the kitchen. And very happy Christmas preparations to you, too.
I love your knitted reindeer! And I did get the link for Interflora.
Thank you! It wasn’t my pattern, but it was a lot of fun to knit.
message for the twins: the cows in Switzerland really do wear bells. Not just the ones on the mountains….also the ones near towns. You can hear them go clank in the night when it’s quiet 🙂
From Helen, Zug, Switzerland
Right, that’s it: we’re moving to Switzerland! I can’t resist it any more. You’re clearly in heaven. That nocturnal clanking must sound quite reassuring?
I’d be happy to help you out any way I can as you deserve it for running my favourite blog (no, seriously), but I don’t see any ads or affiliate links. Where on the page should I look for them?
Oh you’re so kind! Thank you! I notice that it automatically linked Interflora in the sentences by the flowers picture. Can you see that?
Nope, I don’t see it. I wonder if it’s a country thing, since I don’t come from the UK.
Ah, good point. Maybe if I mention Amazon , it’ll linky for your country?
Hmm, maybe. Didn’t work this time though. Somebody out there isn’t doing you justice!
*Sigh* There goes my evil plan for ruthless capitalism. Thank you for taking an interest, by the way! You’re very kind.
Love the sublime to ridiculous – ‘yarn bombed mega-yacht’ and ‘must empty the bins’.
Which reminds me, I must fill a few sacks for the rubbish collection tomorrow!
Thank you! (Hope you got the bins sorted.)
You have to link them ma’am. There should be a little symbol that looks like a paperclip somewhere in the area where you create blog posts. When you click on the paperclip it opens up a little box that you can copy and paste page links into. Once you do that, they will be linked and clickable in your post. As much as I tend to run a mile whenever blogs go to the dark side. I won’t be doing that with your blog. It tastes too good, like a whole bar of chocolate you get to eat yourself. Have the most amazing Christmas and think of those of us over here in the Southern hemisphere, currently melting. “MELTING I tell’s ya!”…
Ah thank you, I shall try that, although I can’t quite imagine writing the blog post about ALL THE STUFF YOU CAN BUY!
Meanwhile, please don’t melt. Seriously, please don’t. (Also, please send us just a little of your sunshine.)
Thank you for not running away as soon as I mention pound signs and ruthlessly exploiting every reader for every penny I can make.
Not hard when you don’t have pennies. One benefit of being a penniless hippy 😉
Yarn-bombed mega-yacht?? I’ll drink to that!! 🙂 x