Valley sheep

The weather was again miserable. In J's art talk we looked at paintings of snow scenes. She had chosen some lovely Japanese wood block prints by Hiroshige, which I really enjoyed looking at with her, and the whole session was really nice.  I then fitted in a quick walk before lunch. It wasn't raining but the air was damp and chilly, and I decided after all the rain that I needed to walk on a road, so just marched briskly along the road to Bere Forstal, a farm and small handful of houses a little way out of the village. There were sheep in the big field and tightly closed buds emerging on the roadside trees, reminding me that we will soon pass the solstice and start seeing the days lengthen.

After lunch I joined a small group of Quakers to knit on Zoom. I initiated the Crafternoon group in 2020, during the first lockdown, as an opportunity to stay in touch with each other, chat informally and keep up with one another's news, and it continued for a long time, but subsequently moved to meeting in person, which means I no longer attend. Today's online meet-up was an opportunity for two Friends who have moved away and for me to see each other and some of the other longstanding members of the group and to catch up with both happy and more difficult news. It was good to be there (and to make progress with J's rainbow socks); I hope it will be repeated from time to time.