Happy birthday, DSM

That was Sunday, actually. I've been slow.

We went and had a very - very - good meal out on Saturday, but it was difficult to now what to plan for the day itself as the weather has been so foul. But miraculously, the sun was out, and there was no rain around.

We had intended to have brunch at the newly refurbished Organic House, but by the time we had actually got up and he had spoken on the phone with his ma, it was more like lunch-time. OH is looking very smart, but I was disconcerted by the menu changes - all of a sudden it is no longer 100% veggie. Still one of the nicest places around town, though, and definitely a possible venue for a knit-in.......

So, fuelled, we went for a walk. He took me up a local path I had never actually visited before, but where he used to run sometimes. This part of the world has loads of little clefts and valleys with streams running down through them, and it was in these that sprouted all the mills in the Industrial Revolution. I still find it strange to be somewhere so charming and rural and find myself next to the remains of a mill. Makes for great photos, though.





The higher and lower mill chimneys, pretty much all remaining except for a group of houses.

In one of which, it turned out, lived someone we knew from a book group, and we spent a very nice half hour over a cup of tea in the mid-afternoon sun before finishing our walk.





I can never resist photographing these peaty becks.

I've got an AH class on Friday, so I'm doing some prep for that, but I'm mostly preoccupied today with my misbehaving Timbertops. It has one flaw. Sometimes when you change the bobbin, it proves very hard to realign the maidens, resulting in an 'orrible graunching sound. This time is even worse than usual, with the annoyance compounded by the yarn refusing to draw in. So, I've wiped off and re-lubricated, to no avail. And I'm coming to the conclusion that what is called for may well be a fresh drive band. I haven't changed it for ages, and renewal can work minor miracles.

I do hope so!