It's Snow Joke

Well I guess you all have your own snow stories.  We've only just had ours arrive.  I really do believe that this part of Dorset is quite often in a slightly different time line to the rest of the planet.  I won't inundate you with photos.  It's white everywhere and quite often very beautiful.  I have the Hellebores out and was going to take photos of them but they are now under  blanket of the white stuff and I'm not going to disturb them.

There is a possibility that my friend Gilly will be holding an exhibition and sale of work next week, this is weather permitting I'm sure, and she has asked if I could put in some of my quilts and bits.  Trouble is I don't sell my stuff so I have been making things that could be sold just to raise a little cash for the Royal Signals Benevolent Fund at the local camp, every penny counts. So far I have made the following.

Aquarium cards A5 size.  I took the photos after I put them in the cellophane wrappers so they are a bit shiny.

 Some quick baubles from panel fabric.  They remind me of ravioli!

And some Teabag Wallets.

I have other bits on order to make more things but whether they arrive in time is another thing. 

I did have these DVD's arrive in the post so a great time reading through them will be next on the list! 

I hope you are all staying safe and warm.


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Good To Be Home

Nothing like your own furniture.

Yesterday we were at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (Jersey zoo as I used to know it) and it tipped it down.  Add a few thunderclaps and most of the animals were decidedly absent, sensibly keeping dry in their lovely indoor home while we, their daily entertainment, became rather wet outside. 

The weather was not much better through dinner later as we sat watching the waves crashing over the sea wall onto the hotel windows.

Later the howling was really worrying me so I looked up the met charts, a great plus for the iPad while travelling, and was not too happy with what I saw.  In fact I didn't sleep much at all after that.  It was worsening.

I told my worries to John in the morning, as he slept through like a baby of course, and he interpreted the charts from the airport for me.  We were flying home in the tiny little Jetstream today, it only seats 19 and is as light as a feather.  John had a ppl until a few years ago and used to fly himself here, there and everywhere so then he then promptly told me wonderful tales of bad weather and near misses he had had whilst flying light aircraft.  (Don't ask him about the one with the wheel not really falling off!!!)

Darling man.  And I usually love flying. 

He did have me Google the aerials of the runways and explained wind shear and approaches and all the precautions.  I just reasoned that the pilot and co pilot wanted to land safely as well and they would be doing their best.

Take off was good.  Flight over was fairly good too.  Until we reached landmass where the clouds had built up thickly over the Isle of Wight.  John had told me about flying through the canyons of the clouds before but he forgot to warn me of the joyous thrills of 'falling off a cliff' of clouds in a very small aeroplane. 

Southampton approached and we all (there were 8 passengers) could see through the cockpit to the runway ahead of us.  And then not.  And then back again.  And then on the other side.  And then gone again.  Oh joy.  John was grinning and decidedly gagging to go up front and have a proper look.  I think I was hanging onto him far too tightly for him to move or he would have gone. 

In my head I kept reminding Mother that if she wanted me to keep looking after her garden and not make the dogs homeless it would be rather nice if she could see Her way to letting up on the wind at the last minute.  She could then blow and howl and rain all she wanted even if it is St Swithens day.

She did let up, just briefly, and we were down. 

I didn't kiss the tarmac but I did hug the bonnet of the car when we got there.

We picked up the dogs and arrived home to lots of post and parcels.  One parcel was the Jinny Beyer Quilters Album of Patchwork Patterns which I have been after for some time.  Amazon finally decided to catch up.  Also a Customs notice.  I assume this is for my EQ7 upgrade.  Did anyone else have the charge?  I'm always caught by them. It would be cheaper to fly to the States and buy direct.  Also The Quilt Life magazine and some late shoes I had ordered for the trip.  Plenty of reading to be doing for a while along with catching up and dieting.

I found I had taken this photo of a poster of the letter regarding the knitting effort.  It was for airmen not soldiers.  (Don't forget you can click to make any photos bigger).

Looking forward now to bed time and my really squishy feather pillow that I always miss the most.  There is nothing like your own bed.

And Clouds Come From...?

After a beautiful week of really blue skies they returned!!  The aircraft that is.  John laughed last week when he said his Dad always told him that the aeroplanes made the clouds!!  How silly!!!


Or was it??

It's certainly been hazy again since and all the clouds have a strange straightness to them!!   Vapour trails at dawn, can you tell which direction London is from us????

A Quickie Catch up

Not a lot has been happening here the past couple of days apart from the gales!  We lost another branch off the Atlas Cyprus but this time only a small one.

We had this helicopter hovering over the barn you can just see through the trees on the other side of the valley for a good 15 minutes and I had just fired up the camera to use it's zoom to see what it was doing when a kestrel decided to join in!  I know it's a poor picture but it was literally a long shot.

On Wednesday the frost was quite sharp and I managed to capture some of the crystals on the bathroom window before the sun hit them.  They're just like frozen feathers, again much nicer in reality but I thought I would share a couple of them.

We have Elsa and Mike down with us for the week ahead and we will probably be busy, I know bowling is on the agenda already, and hopefully lots of other nice things to share. 

Have a good long weekend!