A sad cat & a wonky bird

Pumpkin doesn't understand where Andy is. He is more dog-natured than cat- natured and he follows Andy about like a little ginger hound. He looks at me with large, questioning owl-eyes, as if I could magic our beloved from my pocket. He has taken to sitting in the bay window, watching the lane, which is something he never does. (The other cats just sleep...and sleep...and sleep).



The weather hasn't improved and at first it looked as if we wouldn't be seeing him until Christmas Eve, but he rang earlier to let me know he is going to try to make it back this afternoon, Wednesday. So all fingers and paws are crossed.

The temperatures have been so low that there is ice inside the windows - which is quite pretty here with the bottles, if a trifle frigid. And the heavy snowfall has felled our lovely polytunnel. Hopefully the poles have just tilted at the joints and no real damage will be done. My herbs and geraniums are in there - I am hoping that at least some the roots will survive.

To take my mind off things, I have been putting my clumsy sewing skills to making a little bird - at last. It took me a whole afternoon and much cursing. I made a lot of initial mistakes, as I am completely out of my comfort zone and despite all the reading I've done, all the mental planning, I am still hopeless at making patterns.

It's been a humbling experience. I had tried making a bird a couple of months ago, but was too ashamed to 'show and tell'. The curved seams were wonky, the bottom gusset was so fat it turned into a hen and my *primitive sewing* just looked plain bad. But it made a handy pin cushion.

This time I thought I'd try assembling one by hand, patchwork style and be 'proper' by making a plain cotton dummy which I would tack onto paper and stitch together.

It didn't work. It really, really didn't work. Frustrated, I got the machine out and cut into some nice print fabric. The first way of putting in a beak was a disaster and had to be unpicked.

Once I finally had a bird ready for stuffing, I tried using woodwool which I'd thought would give a firmer finish but the body was too small and it came out a bit lumpy and mishapen. Or maybe that was down to me.


The tail design needs flattening out; it's too small to cut darts (?) into, but puckers on the too-sharp inside bend.

I made these legs when I made the 'hen' and it seemed a shame to waste them. This was my biggest mistake - of course, because they are separate, they wobble and slide away from each other. Why I didn't realise this when I always put one single strong strand of wire through my needle felted geese's legs and feet is anyone's guess.



However I was determined to finish the darned thing and hopefully learn from my mistakes. The belly gusset is too wide again and I still don't like the beak. It's a poor effort, lurching drunkenly and precariously on unequal legs; one wobble and it falls down. But, dammit, I made one! Let's hope the next one will be an improvement.



So today is a mad whizz of tidying the cottage, baking a big fruitcake, counting up this year's cheese pennies and cashing in my dividend vouchers at the village Co-op, if there is anything left. Thankfully I've got a local farm chicken reserved at our great little deli, or it would be cheese and crackers for Christmas dinner. We aren't having decorations this year, the only bauble I want is Andy safely snoozing on the sofa with Pumpkin sprawled on his lap. And besides, our poor little pot tree has been encased in an ice palace -




Without my online friends and contacts, real - and virtual - the last few days would have been even more lonely; you have no idea how your kind words and support have helped. Thank you.