Knitwit

Something new on the needles.Another new (unplanned) project started, doh!

A walk on the Beach

On Sunday I took a trip to the beach. It's been a few months since I've visited the coast so some sea air was well past due. Went for a lovely walk on the Downs at Brean. It was an alternating mix of blue and grey skies.

Here is a view from the Downs across to Birnbeck Pier at Weston Super Mare. As you can see this was the blue skies part of the day.

At the end of the Downs is a Fort originally built in the 1860s, as worries about the strength of the French Naval Fleet grew. It was refortified during the second world war and became the testing site for several 'secret weapons'. This is one of the ruined buildings of the fort. The light was a lot nicer than shown in this shot (still haven't gotten round to reading the manual for the new camera, lol). I also loved this rusty window frame, but it's position made it difficult to get a shot of it in all it's rusty glory.

This next shot shows I needn't have been worried about my bad hair morning the other day. A few hours in a sea breeze makes morning hair look tame :)Before leaving we had a quick stroll down the beach and watched the start of a lovely sunset. The colours were again beautiful, and again my photography was less than adequate. I have to admit that I didn't take the camera out of auto focus mode all day and I was freezing cold by the time the sun was setting (made worse by the giant but very delicious ice cream I'd eaten moments before, lol) so really didn't take the care required to get a nice shot. This one is the best of the bunch.It's way darker than what we actually saw. But lesson learned, more time and effort will be put in next time :)

Granny's Flower

I have stopped raiding the scrap boxes and the hexagons have stopped multiplying (for the time being anyway). They are now sat in a box, having all been sorted and are waiting to be stitched together into a wild and wonderful rainbow cushion.
This one could be a while in the making, there are way over 100 of these things waiting to be stitched together. After sorting them in to some sort of order, I had a few left over. Enough to make a little flower pincushion. There is a dark and a light side, so when I get bored of one I can flip it over for a while and enjoy the other.Although there is less variation in colour and pattern, the dark side is my current favourite but I'm sure that will change from time to time. Stitching here at Angelcat Manor may slow down a bit over the coming days. My wrist is hurting.

I'm such a drama queen, this picture makes it look like I've broken the thing, but really it's only aching a bit and wrapped up in some tubigrip for support :) Have no idea what I've done, only that it's not right. I'm sure I should probably just rest it for a couple of days, but the rainbow of hexagons are clamouring to get out of the box.

Natural Magic

Went for a walk down the local footpath the other day. It was a beautiful, grey skies and sunshine kind of day. I was heading for.

Squirrels Rest is a little spot along the path where some kind souls have set a lovely bench and lots of bird feeders. There are a couple of really fat squirrels who hang out there snaffling all the peanuts and seeds so my aim was to take the new camera and get a few shots.

Is there anything better than blue skies and trees. I love trees.

Isn't it amazing what a difference perspective the weather casts over even the most familiar landscapes. Takes these trees from one of my snowy walks posts.

Don't they look different enclosed by green and blue instead of blanketed in white.

Well I got to squirrels rest, the birds were restless and there wasn't a squirrel in sight. I hung around for a bit in the cold but just couldn't get anything photo wise so decided to head back home. On the way back down the path some reflections caught my eye and on a whim I decided to stop for a photo or two. That's when Sol decided to reveal her magic to me.

This beautiful ray of perfect sunlight appeared. My picture is a poor imitation. It was beautiful to see this natural spotlight warming up the earth, making her ready for spring. With this kind of magic in the air I decided to try my luck again at Squirrels Rest so rather than return home back I went.

Low and behold Mr Squirrel was sitting there waiting for me. This guy isn't the fattest of the bunch but he was the only one who deigned to show his face.

The birds were also in friendlier mood, maybethey could tell I had been touched by magic.The long tailed tit is a favourite of mine. I was treated to not just one but a whole flock.Beautiful. I didn't want to out stay my welcome and determined to head home before the magic wore off I trode the path back.

The footpath is an old canal path, parts of the canal are currently being restored by volunteers. On the way home I came across a bag of rusty treasures that had escaped my notice on the way out. I had to stick my head in and take a quick shot. Love all the yummy textures and colours.

I also loved the way that the sunlight was hitting the remains of the lightening tree - one of my favourite sights on this particular walk.

For an instant I thought 'wouldn't it be great if all the sky behind this was all blue' but it's really only on the grey sunshiny days that you get this wonderful light that I love so much.I also loved how the outside of the tree was lit with the warming sunlight yet the hollowed out insides were still shrouded in darkness. This tree may not be whole anymore but the bark is still throwing its protective arms around the secrets this tree holds inside.
Did I tell you how I love the magic of these grey, blue and sunshine days? I did? Well I guess there is nothing more for me to say....

Stop the World

The little stitchery is finished. Not sure what it will become yet, but that's not unusual :) For now he'll just go in the 'waiting to be used in something' box. I love his bemused expression.

The end of Insomnia?

After several weeks of not sleeping I finally took some advice from my doctor and accepted some sleeping pills. I took one the other day and zonked out for 12 hours straight. What does the result of 12 hours snoring look like?

Well it takes the shape of a very bad hair morning, lol. I had to laugh at myself. I took this snap in the bathroom where I have a copy of my favourite painting hanging, The Birth of Venus. Why couldn't I have been reborn out of my sleep deprived state looking like this?Thankfully the birds nest effect didn't last the whole day. I managed to contain the mess under a beanie that I made a while back. Here I am ready to go out walking.

I'll share the magic of my walk another day.

Valentine

Happy Valentines to you all.

May your day be filled with love.

Blowing in the Wind

We've had all weathers this week, from snowflakes to sunshine. The greenman has a smile on his face though a sure sign that spring is on the way. I also love the aging effect that the winter with all its wind and snow has had on the pig wind chimes.I took advantage of a couple of hours of blue skies and sunshine the other day to finish the dyeing that I started the other day.
It was great to see the fabrics on the line, dancing a merry dance in the breeze. As you can probably figure out I had a play with blues and pinks this time. Then to use up the last of the cotton I tried a piece in brown. This came out pretty dark in places, but some interesting colour variations I think. I also found a box of black dye in the cupboard that hadn't even been opened so for fun had a play with this too.

When it first came out of the microwave I didn't like it, but it's growing on me. I'm really surprised at the colour variations as I didn't mix anything up this is purely from the black dye powder, there are browns, greys, blues and blacks in here. I'm starting to see stormy skies in this piece.

We're just about half way through February and I'm also just about half way through my to do list. hopefully I can keep this up :)

Playing with a Canon

I went to a concert at the end of last week which gave me some opportunity to play with the new camera. I have to admit that I'm not one for trying to get the perfect picture in this kind of setting, I'm at a gig to enjoy the music and have a good time. I get the camera out for a couple of snaps then I'm done.

The new camera has a couple of different settings for use at night time or for taking pictures in dark settings. So I had a quick play with them all. My pictures weren't brilliant but certainly a lot better than I would have gotten with my previous compact. A little more practise and I'm sure I'd be able to get some pretty good concert snaps.

Of my efforts last week, this one was my favourite. I had others that were more in focus, but there is just something about this one that speaks to me. For me it just captures something of the experience of going to a gig, I just have to take a look at this and I'm right back in there getting squashed in the crowd :)

Insomnia Rules

I'm kind of getting used to not sleeping anymore, and sometimes the extra hours in the day are nice! Last night I put them to good use.

I pulled out a bunch of CDs that I fancied listening to.... Went fishing under the sink and pulled out the long neglected dye boxes and put the microwave to good use.
It's a simple process, damp your cloth, stick it in a bowl and sprinkle over some dye. The above picture is before 'cooking. The one below is what the same piece looked like fresh out of the microwave. I gave some quilting cotton and some muslin the same treatment in the same dye bowl. Here they are hanging side by side.

As well as the greens I also mixed some some red and yellow for some orangey tones.
Got some fun results with this mix, but then again I love these colours so may be I'm a little biased.Of course as soon as the fabrics come out one or the other of the cats has to come an oversee what is happening. On this occasion Pip thought that the undyed fabrics on the table had been put there especially to make a bed for him.

Stitchery

Ok I have to admit to having some sort of problem, I think its somewhere between lack of will power and inability to stay focused, lol. I've started yet another new piece of stitching not on the February to do list.

I've been staying with family for a few days and needed something portable. Yes I know that was my excuse for starting the hexagons, but before I left for the trip I didn't have time to sort out more fabrics to continue with them. This little piece is just for fun, one small piece of fabric and two different threads. I figured I would probably get the whole thing stitched while I was away but I didn't count on how busy my nephews would keep me. Above is progress so far, another evening's effort and it'll be done.

Patchwork

The hexagons are beginning to multiply.

Hugo

I've been messing around at home with my new camera, trying to get to grips with all of the different settings and functions. Some of them are still a mystery, I must have a look at the manual sometime, I'm sure that will help :)

Today my (willing?!?) model was Hugo. He's the shyest of my four kitties, very nervous and doesn't like any kind of attention unless it's on his terms. I managed to catch him in a sleepy moment today and got some shots before he could realise what was happening and disappear in to the cupboard!

This close in shot isn't as sharp as I would have liked but before I got another chance at it he'd run away...

Siberian Gold - The Resurrection

As part of my Feb to do list I will be picking up my Mum's cross stitch again. It's been 4 years since she passed away and I miss her everyday.

I'm going to be working on the big Tiger piece again - Siberian Gold. Some of you might remember I started on this one a while back, but haven't touched it for over a year.

Just as a reminder this is how far Mum got.

And this is where it was at when I last worked on it.

I surprised myself by how far I'd come with it when looking at these pictures together. There is still one heck of a long way to go though. I'm going to try and focus on the other things on my to do list and just have this to pick up when I'm home and have time for a few stitches here and there. It will be interesting to see how far I've gotten by the end of the month.