Supplies of wool and tomatoes!

On Friday Granddaughter Number One had a day off work. We had a plan. I had recently seen that a new shop had opened in Uppermill village centre, described as a craft shop but allegedly also selling yarn for knitting and weaving and such like. Granddaughter Number One, ever a bit of a crafts enthusiast and lately a knitting enthusiast was keen to investigate. I always like to discover new sources of wool for my various projects.

Her day off seemed a perfect opportunity. The problem was that her state of constant high anxiety makes her more than reluctant to use public transport. At one point it looked as if I might need to catch a bus to her house, only to then immediately accompany her onto another bus back to Uppermill. We concocted a plan. Her mother usually takes her smallest offspring to a toddlers’ music session on a Friday morning. Perhaps Granddaughter Number One could persuade her mother to collect her en route and then we could all meet in Uppermill.

So I was all set to walk to Uppermill to meet them in the late morning and even have light lunch together. But then word came that they were all going out for breakfast, an unusual sort of thing to do in my opinion, but then the pub next door to us advertises “breakfast for non-residents” so maybe it’s a modern thing to do. After that they planned to go the big Costco supermarket place on the other side of town. Would I care to meet in Uppermill in the early afternoon? They would let me know when they were en route. Okay! 

Eventually we all got together in the centre of Uppermill. They day had improved considerably. From a dull, damp morning it had turned into a bright and crisp afternoon. Later I organised to meet Phil as I walked home again. 

Granddaughter Number One and I went off to investigate the new shop, leaving her mother and small brother investigating the playground. Taking a three year old into a small basement craft shop might not have been the best plan. The shop turned out to be a smallish basement room crammed to the ceiling with yarns of different colours and thicknesses - knitters’ heaven! A veritable Aladdin’s cave! There is something very pleasing about a display of balls of variously-coloured wool. There was also a table of assorted craft materials - a sort of token craft-shop element. Granddaughter Number One spent an inordinate amount of money on balls of rainbow coloured wool. We might not need to return there for a while. 

The shopkeeper and I swopped experiences of learning to knit as a child, lamented the disappearance of wool-shops, praised the resurgence of knitting as a pastime and agreed that villages like ours need more little shops like hers. She used to sell on-line only but found her house over-full with stocks of yarn. 

On the radio news I have just heard that Aldi is joining other supermarkets in limiting the number of packs of tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers customers can buy. Apparently they have a reasonable supply but “increased demand” has created shortages. What I want to know is what are people doing with the extra tomatoes and peppers and so on that they are buying. Are people simply eating lots of salad? Are they batch cooking ratatouille to put in the freezer? Making tomato soup? Or will the extra tomatoes sit in the fridge until they go soggy and then be thrown away? The mind boggles!

The problem, the radio news assures me is all to do with bad weather in the south of Spain. Friends in continental Europe assure me that their supermarkets are still well-stocked. Nothing is said about the problems of transporting stuff to the UK with all the related paperwork. I apologise for going on about this but it’s annoying me just a little. 

Meanwhile, we await news about the Northern Island Protocol!!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!