Some Tell, no Show

Sorry – I have been obsessing with my camera since Friday and very little fibre work has been done. The Red Swirly Thing is still on my desk in front of me. I am eager to finish it but it just is not happening. Maybe a WIP shot tomorrow?

There is new yarn but the promised photograph has not yet appeared. I still have not cleared space in which to set up a shoot. I do keep fondling the yarn, but that’s not very informative for you, dear reader, is it?

My time just seems to be eaten up in reviewing camera output and doing work on the new blog – especially yesterday, when things went wrong and due to the recent reinstallation of Windoze I had none of the right software available to ease the rescue process. There is still much work to be done to my PC and it all gets in the way of knitting.

Sigh

However – I did do some carding and some spinning yesterday! The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that I did not venture to town as planned. I was asked to stay home with the furry fiends instead. The cockup with the new blog ate huge chunks of yesterday but there was time to revert to the original plan of playing fibre in the conservatory. I wasn’t at it long, but it did make me very happy. I carded some of the rainbow-dyed Shetland and then literally chucked it at the jumbo flyer, to make a very rustic thick and thin single that I have plans for. The fibre is fab – a real cloud of supersoft lambswool in pastel, almost nacreous, shades.

I’d do  some photos for the Show part but I’m deeply involved in preparation for this afternoon’s painting class and don’t have time to do everything that I would wish to. At least I found time to Tell…

The news on the car yesterday was very bad indeed. Major surgery required (four figures just to  get it through the MOT!) but fundamentally,  a terminal verdict was given. We have to work out what to do and, stupidly, it’s all the harder to decide due to the small amount of use that we make of a vehicle. It may be hard to comprehend just how little we use a car but we do under 500 miles a year. How can we justify replacing the Maverick with a new-to-us car? But how can we justify the fuel consumption, MOT, Road Tax and Insurance that goes with the Maverick? We should have something less greedy. Yet we just invested in a new exhaust and new shockers for it, which would be money down the pan if we ditch the car at this point.  It’s difficult to defend car ownership at all and yet we do need a vehicle to get to town and do the shopping, although we only make a handful of trips a year. If we buy a newer car it will only rust in this salt environment and end up as the Maverick has. (Maybe a Reliant Scimitar?)

It just goes around in circles, this discussion and we do not have an answer, let alone an easy or an obvious one. We both resent the money that is wasted on vehicles. Money sinks, they are. Cash sumps. Horrible things. But, until such time as we take leave  of our collective senses and elect to move back to a city, a car is a decided necessity no matter how infrequently we use it – there does need to be one available to us.

We are investigating (once again) the possibility of a tax-exempt Land Rover. There is one in Wick. Watch this space.

Yes – there are many drawbacks to Landy ownership as a single vehicle household but, hey – we never go any further than Loth in one go (6 miles) and I am sure that we can live with six miles of cold and discomfort. They hold lots of shopping and are fun. The gas guzzling aspect hardly holds meaning for the small mileage that we do. Most importantly, they are easy to maintain and plenty of spares are available. And what a good excuse to invest in the flying jacket that I always wanted! Last time I owned a Landy the possibility of a flying jacket was just pie in the sky…

In the meantime the car is not legal, is barely road-worthy, and I am stuck with taking my trolley to town on a frequent basis. I’m gutted. Thankfully, Mr L had the good sense to fill the car up with a few necessities yesterday while he was just about legally on the road. Why he thought beer and crisps were worth the space, I really cannot say 🙂 At least he got toilet rolls and some veg as well.

 

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