Sketchbooks, cats, and gifts!

I have been tagged by Bad Penny over at The Hen House. She in turn was tagged by Sticky fingers who started this off.

I need to show one of my favourite photos of all time and explain why I chose it. Now this is such a difficult choice because as you know I take A LOT of photographs.

But in the end I picked the one above (it sits in a frame in our lounge.) The reason, is it is the only photographic evidence that Lucy and Bob did once have a cuddle! Lucy is not a cuddly cat and HATES all other cats. She put up with Bob because he was first in the house. When she was little, she did lie with him in front of the fire but it never happened again. Don't get me wrong they would sit next to one another and sometimes curl up next to one another but this is the closest they ever got. I miss Bob, now he was a very cuddly cat!

I need to pick five people to tag and show us their favourite photo. I choose-

Heather of Ragged Old Blogger

Jenny of My life in flip flops

Willow of Tea with Willow

Joanne of Happy Ever After

Snooydog of Snoopy dog knits.

Please show us a favourite photo, tag some people and link back to sticky fingers.

Now I know some people don't like being tagged but this is a nice easy one, nothing too scary anyway. And I try not to tag the same people, well I have a lot of favourite blogs so plenty to choose from!

A selection of sketch books to choose from!

Marmalade rose has been sticking to her resolution of doing some sewing every day. I said in reply I want to get back into keeping a sketchbook again.

Levens Hall Garden
So off I went in search of a sketch book. There is no need to buy a new one, I have loads I have started in the past and they can be used.

The lakes.

I did keep a little A6 sketchbook with me on holidays and days out. But these days tend to reach for the camera instead.

Pepper, 1996
Sketch books I think should make you work quickly. I tend to want perfection and over work things. A sketch is something you should be able to work from later.

Boats.

So I will dust one off and start this week, of course some days are going to be more interesting than others so we shall see.

I had to show you the beautiful jewellery I received as Christmas gifts. The glass necklace was all the way from Michela in Venice, just my colours! The pink glass square brooch was from my friend Shan and the circle of stones is an Edwardian brooch from my lovely mother in law. Didn't I do well?

On 1st February I will have my 1st Blogiversary! so I plan to do a giveaway! keep popping back for details.

I read a lovely blog called Felted house She's just had some sad news. Her cat Newton died last night. If you have any words of comfort please pop over and leave her a comment. I am sure she will appreciate it.

Back to school

The main road is clear

We went back to school Thursday and Friday. I was a little late arriving on Thursday because I had to wait for the ice in the INSIDE of my car windows to melt!

The sun and bright blue sky in the morning

I was so mesmerised by the beautiful landscape I drove through there and back to and from school.

The sky was a wonderful colour

Tonight the sky was pink and the snow looked orange! They are not the best photos as they were taken through the window and I didn't want to stop for too long.

The sun setting behind me as I head home.

This is my crochet holly brooch I made before Christmas. It was a little fiddly and I made it up as I went along but I am quite happy with it. All I have to do is remember how I did it and make some in time to give as Christmas presents in December!

Tonight the curtains are drawn and the snow is due over the weekend so who knows what next week will bring. I do know there will be more local walks, a bit of home made soup made, maybe even a lemon cake and lots of looking at blogs.

Talking of blogs I have to plug a brand new blog here. Edward is Shan's dad and has started a blog of his own (Shan helped him set it up and is warming to the idea of doing her own!) Anyway, pop over to read about life in Montserrat living with an active volcano! Go to his home page then click on the tab top left 2010-what now? to read his posts. If the link above doesn't work scroll down my 'blogs I love' to ashfall near the bottom and that should work!

Another snow day!

Sunrise

I had ANOTHER snow day today. I woke to the familiar white world outside the window.

I'd love to show you photos of some of the beautiful birds we get on the bird table but my camera isn't that good at catching them. I do have to chop the nuts to mix in the bird seed for little beaks!

The school was closed and so I spent time today trying to keep the birds fed, preparing for my art class tomorrow, and a bit of reading.

Lucy managed about 45 seconds outside this morning, she doesn't like the snow, who can blame her it would be up over her head!

I walked to the shop to get some milk and although you probably don't want to see yet another picture of snow, I had to show you this one. They are trying to sell this land in the valley for housing, I would be so sad to see the trees cut down.

Narnia

It truly was like Narnia out there today. Hubby and I tried to get to work then I got a call to say school was closed (yippee!) Hubby got stuck in standing traffic on the M62 and eventually made it back home.

I know almost everyone in the UK is having a 'snow day' and we must sound like awful wimps to people who experience this sort of weather on a regular basis but please indulge us, it doesn't happen to us very often!

After having homemade vegetable soup for lunch we put on our boots and went for a walk.

It had been snowing since 6am and only stopped about teatime.

We met some interesting creatures on our walk.

Follow the country code and close all gates behind you.

Then as my nose was starting to feel chilly we thought we had better make for home.
I hope all of you have had a nice day if you have had an unexpected day off work and school. Sorry if the snow has made your day a nightmare, remember it doesn't happen very often!

Snow day

And still it keeps on coming. Three weeks of snow and we only made it back to school for one day because they closed school today. Another snow day now what shall I do?

I have already made a start on the books I got for Christmas.

Of course there is the ironing..... but no I think a little snuggle on the sofa with my crochet, Lucy and a good film, that's what an unexpected day off work calls for!

Time to put it away

We woke on Sunday to a world that looked like it had been sprinkled with icing sugar. There was a fresh layer of snow and a heavy frost. But we had a task to do that day. It was time to put away the decorations for another 11 months.

Remember this post? Last September Hubby and I went to a craft fair and I said I had bought something for Christmas. Well here he is.

I got him from this lady, Sarah who makes the most wonderful things. His little elderflower twig antlers have been wrapped in tissue paper and placed in a box for a sleep over summer to come out again in November.

The print on the wall behind the reindeer is by Chris Neale. A Pembrokeshire artist that lives and works near Mathry. We went to his studio and bought the print while we were on holiday about 5 years ago.

Also Thank you everyone who left lovely comments on my previous two posts. I appreciate each and every one of you who took the time.

2010

(Warning this blog post is long and Photo heavy!)

So that's it then. A whole decade has just flashed by and we have a lovely, fresh, clean new one to play with.

Sitting this morning my thoughts have gone back to just what did we do in the last decade.

We bought this house with it's long garden which we adore. Hubby had a career change, got a second degree and became chartered (so proud of him). We reluctantly settled into a life without children. I changed career and started working in school. We lost our lovely cat Bob after 16 years of being our baby boy. We went to Italy (I went twice!) and fulfilled a dream of seeing Florence. I started to craft again. We lost some dear family and friends. We made lots of new friends who we now consider close. We became godparents, again! We had 7 months in a tiny cottage on the Yorkshire hills-it was an experience! I got into photography. I started this blog. We both entered our forties (yikes!)



What does the next year hold for us. No one knows but we can make plans.


We plan to build a one storey extension to the side of the house and I will get my very own workroom/studio. I want to get the garden in order and grow more fruit and vegetables. We plan to do more walking. I want to start to go swimming once a week after school. I definitely want to do more craft, I realise I enjoy it so much. I am going to start early and make more Christmas presents. Try and make more of an effort and visit friends more often. Try REALLY hard not to buy anything I do not need, this includes books as we have loads of them as yet unread we need to get through! Carry on blogging!

So there you have it, our plans for 2010. What of the last day of 2009 and the first day of this nice new decade I hear you ask. Well....




This was the reason we could not go to see Hubby's mum in Shropshire. These photos were taken the day after when the roads had been cleared. As you can see those people that did try and get over the tops were stuck and had to abandon their cars.


The wall of snow had drifted to over 7 foot high at the side of the road in some places.

We went for a walk on New Years Eve to Saddleworth. The valley bottoms were green and it was strange to think there was all that snow on the hills.

We did have a hot chocolate in Uppermill to warm us up.

Then on New Years day we went to Haworth. It was quite busy in the village.

We had some lunch and a little wander round the shops.

Then we drove to Oxenhope station where the fire was lit in the waiting room and there was a Christmas tree and lights.

We caught the Steam Train to Keighley and back.

The sun was already going down as we rumbled along towards Keighley.

The stewards gave out mince pies to the passengers on the train.

We had 15 minutes before the train departed for our return journey.

Haworth Station looked pretty in the evening light.

Then we were back at Oxenhope and ready for the drive home.