Day 5

Well it was a Good News, Bad News sort of a thing with the advent calendar this morning. Good news - Gleanashdale again. Bad news, body lotion had to make an appearance sooner or later and we were probably lucky to get away with it this long. Like talcum powder of old, I'm never quite sure what to do with body lotion. 

I'm opening the calendar in the sun room each day; you can see how impressed the boys were with all the excitement! 

Music was Au Fond du Temple Saint aka The Pearl Fishers Duet. So good, as they say, that I listened twice.  I have a recording of Jussi Bjorling and Robert Merrill singing it, so that was first up. (Strangely enough, another link to my late aunt as she and my uncle were huge fans of Jussi Bjorling and it was probably them who introduced me to this piece in the first place.) Then on You Tube I hunted down the version with Gosta Winbergh and Hakan Hagegard, because, well, Hagegard, obviously, but I do think that in this their two voiced blend better than Bjorling's  and Merrill's do. 

In other news some knitting to show off, hot from the needles. 

I made this cowl for a swap and I found it very hard to give away. It's so pretty, and the yarn was the softest mix of alpaca, silk, camel and cashmere. On the upside, I may have finally found the pattern for the precious skein of camel blend yarn I bought way back at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival. 

And the much delayed gansey for my elder grandson. I started this last year, but abandoned it when it became clear it was going to be far too big. He's another year older now so I picked it up and dragged myself through  finished it this year. Slightly worried that if I post it now it might get lost in the back log from the Canadian Postal workers strike so I may have to bite the bullet and send it and the one for his brother International tracked and signed for to be on the safe side. As my sister would say Ker-CHING. I'll see what the news is on the strike on Monday.