Inspeciton Day...and a new mug

The home-ed inspector called in this morning and despite a frantic and unsuccessful search for Amber's file of work, we accumulated quite a bit to show him what we'd been up to. He was, as usual, duly impressed at our planning (!) and how happy the children were. The girls have also had their Stagecoach reports and they have settled extremely well and seem to have kept up with the regime even though they didn't start until almost half term. It's so easy to get nit-picky with children with what they do and how they are, so it's always nice to get someone else's opinion to achieve a little perspective!

After lunch we resumed the quest for winter footwear for the girls so a trip to town was necessary. I can't bear real shopping but there are only so many things that can be effectively accessed online or in charity shops. Rose found a fab pair of boots that were reduced, then we braved Debenhams, and - I can hardly bear to remind myself - Primark. The girls found some clothes and I got Tristan some jeans but I would rather buy howies! After such an experience I felt I really had to treat myself to a new Le Crueset mug which I had seen in Steamer Trading the other day. They didn't have the green one which was gorgeous but they did have the volcanic orange :-)

I might have to start collecting them! I have a huge fondness for Le Crueset as my maternal grandmother used to cook with it on her Aga and I have amassed some of the orange and yellow saucepans and dishes. Lovely.

Knitting-wise, I am still finishing off some Christmas projects - I'd started knitting some mitts but realised I'll run out of yarn so have unravelled them and will start again in a slightly more yarn-thrifty manner! I'm waiting for my Shetland wool to arrive and I really want to get on with some socks but I'm resisting until my Christmas presents have been completed. The mulled wine jelly is straining as I write, so I will get that finished tomorrow, and Charles has a day off so hopefully we'll be able to go out somewhere if the weather isn't too awful. I also need to confront the mess that I found in the greenhouse and fix the coldframe so I don't lose all my sweet peas that I grew from my saved seed.

I will pick up the knitting needles now and sit with the children and the guinea pigs who seem to be occupying the sofa....