It has been a fairly storm week here, and the weather was fairly stormy too!  The weather took a turn for the worse on Thursday afternoon, when the noise in my workshop got to the point that I fled indoors for warmth and shelter.   As it got darker and darker, the lightning and thunder began to resonate all around the house.  One of our biggest fears, having a wind generator, is being struck by lightning.  There isn't much to be done about it - by nature of having a wind generator you have a tall pole sticking up into the sky offering itself as the perfect vehicle for a lightning strike.  So far we have been lucky, and on Thursday night the lightning missed us again.

However, we were not so fortunate with the wind.  The generator had such a high wind speed working against it that it burnt itself out.  We don't have a final analysis yet from the manufacturer as we have only just posted it off to them to investigate what went wrong, but the pole is looking very sad without the generator on top.









[caption id="attachment_3828" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Last Week"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_3829" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="This week - lonely pole"][/caption]

This also means that we have very limited power at the moment so we are on a low energy regime so my computer access will be restricted over the next week to 10 days.  I will continue to check and update the shop site and check e-mail, and I will log in a couple of times a day on to Ravelry and Twitter, so I won't be completely out of touch.  We do have a back up petrol generator which charges the batteries that keeps our lights lit and our computers running, but besides the noise pollution it creates it also uses petrol which is an expensive commodity at the moment.

Some exciting news from this week though - the artists, makers and food producers in Assynt are arranging a series of markets to be held throughout summer.  Dates will be announced as soon as the bookings are finalised.  I am so excited about these.  The Christmas Fair illustrated just how many talented makers we have in Assynt, and it is time they were bought to the attention of visitors and local folk alike.  The meeting we had to discuss the markets was absolutely buzzing with energy and enthusiasm, and I know this enthusiasm will be carried through to the markets themselves.  So if you're planning a trip to Assynt this year, keep an eye on the blog for market dates which will be announced soon.

On to Shop News - to celebrate the start of the Six Nations Rugby Tournament I have a special offer running on the shop for the next couple of weeks.  Simply enter "SixNations" into the coupon box during the check out procedure and you will be rewarded with a 6% discount on your purchases.  Please note that there are a few items not included in this offer, including club memberships and yarn already in the Bargain Basket section of the shop.  Enjoy the Rugby, but here is the opportunity to make sure you have some yummy yarn to work with while you're watching.