Randomness

When even your mother is telling you it’s about time you updated your blog, it’s probably about time you updated your blog…
Not that I’ve got anything in particular to update it with.  It’s that boring part of winter where nothing in particular happens, and the days are grey and dreary, and spring seems an eternity away (although I did spot a few early violets peeking out from under the cherry tree yesterday, so all is not lost), and the most exciting thing happening is a good book in front of a warm fire.
Actually, a good book is the most exciting news this week – my copy of This Is How You Die finally arrived (yes, I know I could have got an e-book version and been reading it weeks ago, or even have read any of the many sample stories that have been floating around the web even before its release, but I wanted a physical, bookcrossable version (especially because the very first story in the book is by a bookcrosser, ‘Nathan), and I didn’t want to spoil it by having read any of the samples first).  I loved Machine of Death, so I was really looking forward to a new collection of stories, and so far (I’m only about a quarter of the way through) I haven’t been disappointed.
In other news, I had a very social weekend (well, for me, anyway) – I went out on both Friday and Saturday nights! On Friday everyone from the office went out for dinner to farewell one of our team who’s off to New York.  Then on Saturday I went to a party (complete with live music – it felt very Jane Austen to be sitting in someone’s lounge listening to a musical performance) to celebrate another colleague gaining his PhD.  Had a great time at both, but I’ll admit by Sunday I was in serious need of reverting to my usual introverted self, and spent the day hiding in my study playing computer games and avoiding all human contact.  Balance is everything 😉
Oh, and Lytteltonwitch finally got the parcel I sent her, so I can reveal a craft project I’d been keeping under wraps until she’d seen it:


The bag construction worked out a bit better than Jenny’s one (see, I do learn from my mistakes!), but I still need to figure out the quilting bit – I put batting under the witch to try and make her stand out, but it didn’t quite work as planned.  Still, I’m pretty happy with it (and most importantly, LW liked it – especially the number of books she can fit in the bag (and yes, of course I had that in mind when I sized it!!!)).
While I’m uploading photos, evidence that winter is very slowly on its way out: the days are starting to get a little longer, so it’s actually daylight when I leave the house.  With the result that the sunrises I’ve been seeing as I walk to work are now happening before I leave home, so I actually had time to race out with my camera one morning last week and quickly capture the pretty: