Rising Up From the Pile of Tissues

The Four Horsemen whose Ride presages the end of the world are known to be Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence. But even less significant events have their own Horsemen. For example, the Four Horsemen of the Common Cold are Sniffles, Chesty, Nostril, and Lack of Tissues; the Four Horsemen whose appearance foreshadows any public holiday are Storm, Gales, Sleet, and Contra-flow. --Terry Pratchett

There's nothing like a good old head cold to give you a good dose of reality. And I had a good one last week. It's just about gone now, apart from some very attractive nose-blowing and phlegm coughing. At least I don't look so much like a zombie anymore... at least, no one has run screaming and crying from the sight of me. Not today anyway.

It started last weekend during what started out as a very nice weekend. I was invited by a friend to go away for a weekend retreat in the north of the Island, and it was all very nice indeed. We stayed at a lodge by the river with a big hall with a big wood fireplace in the middle. We woke up to a beautiful foggy morning on Saturday, full of the promise of personal exploration and relaxation:

It was a yoga and meditation retreat, and I met some really nice people, did some really good reflection, did a lot of yoga and ate some amazing food. I didn't do much knitting because someone brought along their puppy and he was pretty sure my yarn would be a great chew toy:

But he was so cute that I couldn't resist giving home lots of puppy snuggles:

The only thing is that I think I was already pretty run down to start with, and so by the time I was on my way home on Sunday morning I knew I was not feeling quite right. And by the time I got home, I was feeling pretty much like a zombie. That evening, I arranged for someone to cover me at work, because I could feel a pretty wicked cold coming on. It kept me down for a couple of days. By the end of it, Seymour was exhausted from looking after me:

When I got back to work this week, I got a lovely surprise when this arrived:

It's a mug I made at a class I attended with some of my workmates a couple of weeks ago. We made them using a slab technique where we decorated a slab of clay with various textures, then formed it around a cylinder to make a mug. I really did not expect it to turn out so well:

I am especially amazed by the handle. I was so sure it was going to fall off as soon as I picked it up. And I am particularly pleased by this thumb rest I added to the top of the handle. I stamped it into a chunk of clay and attached it right at the last moment. I'm not sure what it is... is it a hamster? A bear? Is it even the right way up? I'm not sure. But I like it, whatever it is:

And it even holds a cup of coffee without leaking. A really, really big cup... which is exactly what I needed after a week of being sick:

Since I've been down for the count for a lot of this week, I have been able to get a lot of knitting done. I can't really explain what it is I'm making right now because it really is a big experiment at the moment. It's a cardigan which I am converting from a crochet pattern to a knitting pattern which uses a funny construction which is simple but complicated... so yeah, not easy to explain. But at least Seymour likes it:

So I guess that's my update. Oh, and now the hubby has a cold as well. Aren't you glad you're on that side of the screen and not over here right now? 

I'm gonna go disinfect some stuff. Have a good week.