I didn’t use up too much wood today but by the end of the day it had all gone, so it was a relief that Steve had planned to come home earlyish with the aim of heading out into the woodland to bring some more dead trees back for firewood. We spent a happy hour out there, trimming branches, clearing our way through, and brought back five or six trees. It’s a really silly thing to feel, but I was feeling guilty about using up the firewood because I’d not helped bring it in. It’s silly because I got over the monetary equivalent of that feeling many years ago. And it’s like Steve feeling guilty for eating the bread I’ve made. Why should he feel guilty? It’s there to feed us with! Likewise, the firewood is there to keep us warm and comfortable. So I have got over myself. It did help that I helped bring a couple of trees back though!

Anyway. We’ve made our way through to a really sorry looking area in the woodland, a few trees have fallen in storms and they’ve taken out several other trees as they fell. It’s going to look a bit bare once we’ve pulled out the fallen trees but once the area can breathe again we trust that the forest will be able to recover.

I also made a much more successful pizza dough for pølsehorn, but completely forgot to feed the sourdough. But that’s ok. It is happy enough now that it can cope if I miss a day. I think that’s a bit incredible given how young it is really.

I’ve also started to make a fruit basket, inspired by my friend Mette, but until I can find the rest of my twine I can’t finish it! I’ve used a length of copped wire as a stiffener around the edge, and I have a feeling it’s not going to be enough as it bends quite easily despite being pretty thick. But we’ll see.

And, as Erika was kind enough to give me some actual free time after everyone was in bed and asleep, I thought I’d have another go at trying to get the sleeves the right size for my cardigan. I have got to this point though, and have realised I’ve offset my stitches in the pink sleeve – which I’d managed to get the right size – wrongly. So as well as having to undo the orange sleeve to add in an extra increase near the cuff, I now also need to undo the pink sleeve to offset the stitches for the moss stitch pattern properly. Time for bed. Bah.

Last but not least. This is Erika’s ritual whenever either of us comes home. She looks so happy to see Dada come home doesn’t she!

Nope. No groceries to unpack. No hug for you then 😂