there was a queen and she did sing, c-c-c-c-c-c-COLD!

That's me, lounging around the castle last evening.

I've showed you pictures of my house before, right?

It was snowing outrageously all day, so I generously let most of the staff go home early. (After all the pots had been scrubbed, of course:)

My chief and most loyal serf, JJ, stayed behind to take photos:

But the snow has finally stopped!
It is rather pretty, I must confess. Apparently we had some visitors last evening...

Hey wait... I thought all the birds had flown south by now? Man, this global warming has a lot to answer for.

And - rarely seen proof of the existence of the Loch Ness Monster!!!
(JJ advises me that the Loch Ness Monster was actually an old-time chief of his own clan, who had too much of the malt one day and slipped into Loch Lomond, never to return in human form. He should really be a tour guide - I actually believed this for 45 seconds or so! The whisky was a good realistic touch, mind you).

And as if there weren't enough ice around, I brought home some of my own:

Pearly seed beads! Hard to tell from the pic (especially since idiot old me thought it was a good idea to photograph them on top of the snow), but half are opalised and half are plain white. The opalised ones are intended for my SOTSii! Stay tuned...

Oh, and I had to snap up these as well, even though I already have another 23,000 or so beads in the house presently:

Why, oh why, did I go out into an ice storm to the bead shop? Because...
Oh - and I received a little "giftie" at the office yesterday from a swap on the knittyboard. In exchange for some extra 3mm needles I had hanging around, Goknitgirl generously donated the following to my stash:

Koigu Painters' Palette sock yarn!!! Almost enough to make me want to take up yarn knitting. (And no, Amy, you can't have it.)

I leave you with this parting thought (the images, by the way, are by Anne Taintor and come from last year's daytimer):

Hmm... replace the apples with hanks of yarn and the basket with a blog post and that well could be me touting the benefits of Handmaiden, Malabrigo, etc... I should be in advertising!

Happy Saturday...