Tuesday 27th October

Oh, the cosiness of a lap blanket! I knitted this one years ago to use up some dk remnants... I could do with some of these colours now...

The colours of my leftover dk yarn are not inspiring me at the moment and I'm having to work to resist buying any! That would rather defeat the purpose of the current collaboration challenge.

I cooked the little squash/pumpkin, cutting it in half, scooping out the seeds, and seasoning with olive oil, salt and pepper, for half an hour at 180C in the air fryer. 

It came out pretty well, I'll do it again. LyndaG pointed out that there was a label saying 'eat my insides'. Which, of course, I missed. The skin was paper thin and dry, like onion skin. I'll definitely peel it next time.

The plasterer finished in the extension today:

He's done a lovely job. I had no idea plastering was such a very skilled and intense activity. One of the builders, you can see him in the foreground, came to remove the boards which were blocking the original patio doors and back door. I was overjoyed to be able to see into the back garden again,  and spent quite a while just looking at the trees. I've missed them!

But... once it grew dark, the temperature in the main house dropped until the hairs on my head were all standing on end... so, so cold. Hence the lap blanket. Why hadn't the heating come on?

Ah. The oxygen concentrator, which pumps out a good deal of heat, is exactly below where the thermostat was mounted, about fifteen years ago. Luckily it's the type of thermostat that can be unclipped from the wall and put somewhere else. We've moved it away from the concentrator and the radiator has heated up nicely. I'm much more comfortable now my hair has lain back down on my head!

This is today's piece in the book 'A Year of Wonder'. Not your usual Paganini fireworks, something gentler.

Paganini 'Cantabile in D major