Sledging above the Col de Dret

Napkins finished just in time for the visit for from Jasper and Rosa. Susie's birthday was on the 21st but it was marked with sadness as our neighbour Michelle Cao was buried after she died suddenly from Covid last week.

On Tuesday the weather was good and Susie was feeling better, so we drove up to the end of the road close to the Etang de Lers, from where we walked up to the Col de Dret then on to the natural bowl below Courtal d'Arbiet....perfect for sledging.

 

We quickly realised that we didn't have time to inflate the innertubes that Susie had bought for sledging (they weren't fitted with a pump valve and blowing manually would have taken hours) so we sledged on them up inflated like a you would on a plastic fertiliser bag. An hour or so of sledging before it was time to head for home.

 6 napkins of the loom - washing and hemming next

Covid and plumbing

Susie started feeling unwell on last Tuesday morning, she took daily tests and at first they were negative but on Wednesday that changed. She's been pretty poorly but seems to be slowly improving. I've been isolating from her and sleeping in the spare bedroom and remain negative. We bought a new mattress last week which was delivered on Friday - alas I haven't got to sleep in it yet....Susie says it's fantastic!

Yesterday I was sorting out the connections to the water tank from the solar panels and installing the controller. I thought I could fill the system using the circulating pump, but apparently not. As I need to add 40% anti-freeze I can't use the mains either, so I had to buy a pump. Today was filling day, but a large number of leaks were discovered when I tried (repeatedly) to fill the system...really frustrating. Eventually on the third time of reassembling the system I inadvertently forgot a washer in one of the joints, the glycol went everywhere when I pumped it into the system and on opening the joint I realised I had overtightened it without the washer and damaged it! The joints for the flexible stainless steel tube are order only, so the job is now on hold for 3-4 days. I took out my anger on the workshop - which got a long overdue purge of junk and a tidy up!!

5 out of the 6 of the napkins are woven - they'll be off the loom soon.

Solar hot water

 After nearly three years of delay, finally the solar hot water project is go! Panels installed and pipework into the tank room. Just the usual couple of missing plumbing fittings to get from St Girons tomorrow....hopefully hot water by the weekend!

on the loom

Napkins on the loom. Another fine pattern but with just one colour weft if flies along. I only have one reed (the comb in the beater which keeps the warp threads apart) which is a bit coarse for such a fine fabric (8 dents to an inch, the fabric is 24 ends per inch) so it distorts the true pattern during weaving. The warp (and pattern) will find its correct place once it's washed.

 

End of napkin one, start of napkin two with hem allowance. A couple of errors in the section on the photo - very difficult to spot as work progresses with this pattern, especially with temple (a device which holds the weave at the correct width) covering the last completed section of the work.

Next weave