So here we are – another year. Another one. Couldn’t we have stuck with the old one for just a smidge longer?*
There’s nothing like replacing the calendar that hangs on your kitchen wall to bring on a reflective mood. When I was younger, I struggled with all sorts of “Another-year-and-I-STILL-haven’t…” angsty thoughts at roughly 11.59pm every 31st December, no matter how much fun the NYE party. Now that I’m 46 (ouch) and various life stuff has taken shape – even if that shape is a dodecacrazypolyhedron – I’m a bit more shruggy about the whole thing… with a healthy dose of “Another-year-and-I-can-STILL-read-larger-sized-text-without-my-glasses-on:-GO-ME!” thinking.
Anyway, I hope that 2019 brings you – and the world – an increase in goodness. Also, yarn.
It’s been a relaxed festive season here at Twisted Towers, seeing family and also friends such as Silvina. And on the very last day of 2018, we triggered the reflective mood still further by visiting Stonehenge. There’s nothing like seeing a millennia-old sacred site to drag your mind away from “What colour socks should I wear tomorrow?” to slightly more… profound matters.
In case you’re reading this from some far-flung land and thinking ‘Huh?‘, Stonehenge is a 4500-year-old sacred ring of standing stones in Wiltshire, about an hour’s drive south west from our Oxfordshire home.
These stones? They’re four metres tall, and the large ones weigh 25 tons. Somehow, they were hewn from rock, dragged across the land, and plonked on top of each other with sacred symmetry – and all before the concept of the wheel, let alone the JCB digger, had come about. Not bad, huh?
The stones are – or rather, were – aligned so that twice a year, at the summer and winter solstices, the light is perfectly framed by key stones. And on the 21st December, the Stoic Spouse showed me our very own marker of the winter solstice, at home! I’m not entirely sure it was constructed deliberately, and I can’t show you a photo because I was too busy laughing to be able to take one. BUT at the winter solstice, if you look down the plughole of our kitchen sink – I’m not even joking – you’ll see a strange bright glow. I didn’t believe him at first, but then I looked, and he was right. Because then, as the sun’s light is at its lowest angle for the whole year, it just about manages to sneak in through the back door, across the room-next-to-the-kitchen, into the kitchen, under the kitchen table, and into the gap between cupboards where the trays are kept. And whilst it’s there, it LIGHTS UP THE U-BEND OF THE KITCHEN SINK, with a glorious golden glow that can be seen as you peer down the plughole from above. So that, my friend, is our little Stonehenge-at-home. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before our kitchen plumbing will, just like Stonehenge, be designated a World Heritage Site.
Meanwhile, the knitting on my stonking great big picture is continuing.
I can’t wait to show you the finished thing. But in the meantime, happy new year, my friends! I hope it’s a good’un.
Phil x
* Yeah, I know that 2018 hasn’t been great for lots of people (including friends of mine) for both world-craziness and personal reasons.
The U-bend that was foretold in the ancient scrolls lol! Awesome 🙂
???? I’d been wondering why druids turned up in our kitchen every December!
I had to share your Stonehenge story for my better half, so funny I could barely read it out loud. Have a great 2019.
Thank you – and you. I hope that better half wasn’t too disappointed.
Wonderful and fun post and I love the knit.
Thank you!
I needed your letter to brighten my day today. Thank you and happy new year!
I’m sorry that you were in need of cheer, and I hope that your day/week has improved markedly.
i love your pics … thanks
Thanks. ????
I love your knitting project, I have never knitted anything with a skull on it. It’s wonderful. My son took his lovely Canadian wife to see Stonehenge last June, she was fascinated. Happy New Year!!
A very happy new(ish) year to you, too. Must admit that this was my first knitted skull – pattern will be available if you’re ever in need!
Another delightful page of craziness! Your blogs would make a wonderful book …. The Adventures of The Twisted Yarn and the Stoic Spouse!
OK, you know how to make a grown woman blush! Also, I fear that all this Stoic Spouse love might be going to his head!
Besides the beautiful knitting which I wish I had a smidge of your creativity and imagination, I loved this story. Funny and true. Happy New Year, to you and your loved ones. May God continue giving you energy, strength and great sense of humour to bring ours up a bit. Thank you.
Thank you. Seriously. It’s always an honour to make someone smile. Wishing you an extremely happy new(ish) year, too.
Sending lovely fibre greetings from the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Your photos are outstanding and brought back so many memories of our visit to Stonehenge – magical! How inspiring is your knitting?! Cannot wait to view your completed project. It’s so fantastic already, cannot imagine what feelings it will exude at completion. All happiness in 2019.
Fibrous greetings received, appreciated, and reciprocated! Thanks for such kind words. It was a dull grey day, so I’m grasping any compliments I can find about the Stonehenge photos. Happy new year!
Down the plughole, your stoic spouse is as twisted as you are my dear. I was just thinking the same as Connie, your blog post are the makings of a fabulous book. I for one would surely buy it. Happy New Year from across the pond in sunny Queensland.
Cheers Maggie
He is. Truly, there’s no hope for the poor man. But thank you for your kind words. A book of the both of us would be… unhinged!
Stonehenge, how interesting. Happy New Year from across the miles in Australia. thanks for your inspiration, my happy knitted chain at Christmas adorned my kitchen window and made us all happy.
Aww, I’m very glad to have been of service. Happy new(ish) year!
I’ve not read your blog , or any others for that matter, in a while. It was just what I needed at this crazy hour when I couldn’t sleep. You made me realise I have such a lot to be thankful for, so thank you very much. I need to stop stressing about the small stuff as I am very fortunate.
Well I’m sorry that you couldn’t sleep (boy, do I know that feeling) but otherwise, I love your kind comment.
Every u bend has a silver lining?
One word: hahahahahaha!
(Actually, it’s more gold than silver. We have a properly superior u-bend, you know.)
Happy New Year. It seems that the plumber had an eye for detail. I have come across the work of many creative plumbers. Like Stonehenge, it’s hard to tell how the pipes etc were all put together.
And a ludicrously happy new(ish) year to you, too. Maybe plumbers are wiser and more profoundly creative than some of us give them credit for?
LOL your plug hole. I read the story out loud to my hubs.
Yikes – I hope he wasn’t disappointed! (But thank you for your lovely comment.)
It’s all very well to change the calendar if you can find the replacement. Every year the Gardeners’ World lives on the side of my fridge and now I can’t find the 2019 one. I fear that it has gone into the recycling box which was put out before Christmas. I’ll miss it.
So…., in the throes of packing to move house I will have to make myself as close a facsimile as possible. And no, I’m not going to knit one.
THIS. IS. A. CATASTROPHE! Um, I can send a vaguely horticultural calendar? Or sympathy? Or neat gin? (I hope that the house move goes ridiculously well.)
Happy New Year, dear, for you and your beloved. Laughed out so loud about your “Plumbing Henge”. Old houses do have some twist in certain parts. XD
You’re not wrong. We’ve discovered a weird second cellar and a few additional attics since we moved in. Happy new year!
PLEASE take a photo next solstice-time!
I will. I’m kicking myself so hard for not already doing so that I almost have bruises! That said, our plughole is not a thing of beauty.
Well, I don’t know about twisted yarn, sounds like you have a twisted pipe as well, so love your blog Phil keep em you certainly make me smile and giggle a bit too Daphne.happy happy new to you and yours x
Ha ha, yes I fear that twisted may be a general theme around here! Happy new(ish) year!
Your knitting takes my breath away each and every time I see it. You are an extraordinary artist and craftsperson, and funny too. How come you got all the good genes?
I would love to see Stonehenge in person one day, and would equally welcome a trip to your kitchen sink on the winter solstice. That’s extraordinary, too.
Wishing you all good things in the coming year.
Well that’s sorted, then. You (and Tessa) come to stay here. We’ll generously show you our kitchen plughole AND take you to Stonehenge.
(And thanks for your kind words about my knitting, but your horticultural skill is greater.)
Oh, that would be great fun. (No fair deflecting your knitting brilliance by the way *and* I’ve seen your pond too). Wowsa
I’ve just sent a submission to the authorities so have your sink declared a World Heritage Site. Utterly unique in their annuals, I’m sure.
Hurrah! And thank you! But I do worry very slightly about the hordes of tourists who will soon, no doubt, tramp through our kitchen on a daily basis. What if I’m still in my dressing gown?!
I just bet that those Stonehenge builders would have been fascinated to see your example of the solstice light. Think about it: They would have thought, “We went to all that trouble, and now we see a simpler way to do this?”
Yes, we just need to invent plastic and then we can do the whole thing so much more easily!
I have laughed so much the tears fell! ???? You’ve made my year! Yes all of it ???? . Keep blogging you’re the best xx
Oh no, I’ve peaked too soon! (But thank you for such an enormously generous comment. May 2019 bring you endless joy.)
happy New Year from Australia
Thank you! And a very happy new(ish) year to you, too!
your kitchen drain bit had me laughing – really, actually hahahaha laughing – which I badly needed because my computer/chromebook caught a virus and so had to be put back to factory settings – something akin to ripping out back to the cast-on and then trying to find the directions which you’ve stuck away in a little notebook somewhere…etc. But here you are (obviously I finally got on my email site) and making me laugh and it’s wonderful. By the way, it’s so good when Stonehenge is shown with visitors beside it because we get an idea of the size of those huge pieces of stone! Thanks, Phil – for everything you do, make and describe. Ann
Love your U-bend Solstice marker! Well done the Stoic Spouse for noticing.
Come to think of it, the ‘Shortest Day’ was a good few minutes (half an hour or more?) longer than more recent days here. Why? Winter Solstice was SUNNY. Today, as with too many days recently, is heavily overcast, hence the actual hours of what is currently passing for ‘daylight’ will be considerably shorter.
Ah well, at least it isn’t raining, _and_ the breeze is blowing Sou’westerly so it’s warming up considerably from the weekend. I may be a tad overdressed for this afternoon’s weather! At least I shan’t need the heating on.
Meanwhile I suggest that if you or the Stoic Spouse want to anything with/in your kitchen, you get on and do it before it’s recognised as a World Heritage Site as you won’t be able to even wash up or cook in it then!
Happy New Year!
Love the U-bend-henge. Irony. Lived in eastern Bavaria in a small village that did a “Straw-henge” for one summer solstice. (Out of large squarish bales), but a personal winter solstice marker…well done.