I had a nice birthday trip from Tallinn to Paris on Friday - it was punctuated by various texts and phone calls throughout the day. I was sitting in Stockholm airport waiting to board when David called me to sing happy birthday in a variety of voices. I was laughing out loud in the airport, people must have thought I was crazy! I had upgraded myself for the Stockholm to Paris leg, so it was a good trip, especially as the plane was totally full.

Since I am bringing stuff back from Tallinn on these last trips, I had a full suitcase too, and it was fun bringing that up the stairs - but I managed, which is a good indication that I am feeling fairly strong these days. I don't think I could have done that so easily a year ago. Yesterday I was tired, though - I slept in the afternoon for three hours, but then got up and did quite a few things, including hauling out the "travelling" bag of stitching, to work out what I should finish before my Nashville haul arrives. I spent last evening working on this:
It's from La-D-Da, one of my favourite designers, and I am aiming to finish it this week. It's on 32 count "country" linen from Zweigart, this is the sort of mottled linen, which I like very much. There are a few other small pieces in this bag that I have to get out and finish, you'll see them over the next little while, I hope. It's great, I suddenly feel like forging ahead with my stitching again - last year was a write-off really for stitching, sometimes there is a year like that. 2009 was not great all round, but 2010 should be better, I hope.

Today we have the "Big Storm" that is sweeping Europe, it seemed to start here about 5am, and there was rain for a time, but that seems to have stopped, and we are just getting gusts of wind, which is supposed to be up to 100 kilometers an hour. I think it will pass by late afternoon, and it is supposed to stop somewhere near Denmark tomorrow. The Bristish papers are saying that there will be five days of rain and high winds over the UK, I assume that must be a different bit of weather, because so far our one has not been too dreadful, at least in Paris.

I'm now going to look at some more Nashville releases, and may be tempted........ then back to the stitching.

This fairly bleak view is from my office window, which is just over the front entrance of our building, so that you can see the small path in the snow that we use to get to the front steps. If we are lucky, our taxi will be able to stop by the red marker, otherwise we have to get around other cars and find the path somehow.

It really has snowed for the past week until today when suddenly we had sunshine, and I spent most of the weekend inside, plus yesterday which was a public holiday here. I had gone to Joller knitting wool shop in the Old Town to buy some Estonian wool on Saturday, in preparation for my forthcoming departure from Tallinn, and I spent some of yesterday winding 800 meters of wool from a skein into a rather large ball.

It's been a very quiet week, since there have only been two or three people from our team here, no Snowflakes or anyone noisy like that. She and her entourage departed before the weekend, so there have been several days of no shrieking or tea leaves (that's the latest, tea drinking about ten times a day is incredibly fashionable, and it has to be made with loose leaves - of exotic blends found only in one shop in Paris that imports them from Outer Mongolia and sells them only to people who know where to find it - whose soggy remains you then leave sitting around the office for hours).

Since it is my birthday at the end of February, Nashville Needlework Fair is very well timed! This year, I have ordered Mrs Waddelow's Huswife:

I've been struggling to get a half-way decent photo of my "Citron" shawl, but this one shows the colours fairly well, I think:

It's made with 2 skeins of Rowan Kidsilk Haze and one and a half skeins of Noro Kureyon Sock yarn, which is rather different from what the pattern called for, but this is the polar version of the Citron shawl - I could see myself doing a tropical version in silk, actually, but this seemed more suited to the Tallinn winter. It is actually very warm, I had it over my shoulders in bed last night after I finished darning in the (very few) ends.

It is freezing here again today, -3 and no sign of getting any warmer in the afternoon. I'm almost looking forward to the Tallinn weather, it's probably not much colder, and the shops are just downstairs instead of around the corner! I have to say I need a holiday somewhere warm, and I am definitely having one if I have to go to Australia in winter. This is by no means certain, and it would only be for three months, but of course it will be Melbourne in the winter. Great. Of course everyone in the team who has not been to Australia thinks it is wonderful and is highly envious that I may do this. It would actually be interesting for some of them to go there, it's really not at all like they think it is. Not that I have anything against Australia per se, but I did choose to move to Europe for a number of reasons - better public transport, more cultural activities, chances to improve foreign languages, more opportunities for travel etc, to name a few. It wouldn't even be cricket season when I was there! The others seem to think there would be opportunities for surfing every day after work - I just smiled, and said, yes, they could take their pet kangaroos to the beach as well....

And just think of the longhaul flights in economy class - we have to fly economy for work, every time you see me writing that I was in business class, I used points for this or even paid for an upgrade, and I'm not sure either is possible for a long flight. We have a rather disapproving and negative American colleague, who always says I am spoilt (and naive), maybe this is true? Mind you, this guy says Alec is inflexible, David is arrogant and Nicky is not too bright, so normally I do not believe a word he says.

Well, I guess I should stop moaning and go and do something more practical!

Here is the Loose Feathers needlebook, sitting ready to be assembled, with its print lining and the wool for the needlebook pages:

The wool was a find at Fete de l'Aiguille, which I went to yesterday morning, and it's a great match for the red thread in the stitching. It came from a quilt store from the Netherlands which had a stall there. So funny, the lady there was telling me in inexpert French the prices, and I was asking in slightly more expert French, and then we just looked at each other and laughed, and said, well, we probably should be speaking English!

I had a good time, but heavens it was cold, and getting there was fun. Not the metro, that was easy, but from the metro to the Grande Halle de la Villette, there was icy snow on the ground:

I seem to go back and forth between Paris and Tallinn more often this year, or maybe I am just so bored with planes that the travel looms larger in my life? At any rate, I am in Paris this week, working from home, and wishing I had company. I have had only various UPS and Fedex guys at the door, to deliver things, including my new Kindle, yes, i finally succumbed and bought one. The price is attractive when converted into euros, and delivery is less than a week. I think I ordered on Thursday, and it was delivered Tuesday, and would have been delivered Monday, if I had not gone to the office all day.