blog award better bear weather weather

I have been given a blog award by Soggibottom

thank you.

To accept this award, you have to thank the person who gave it to you.
Paste the award on your blog, link the person who nominated you, tell 7 interesting things about yourself, nominate 7 blogs and post links to them.......

I never know what interesting things to post about my self. Perhaps this is because I am not interesting.
So here goes:
1. I hate shopping think its the bright lights in the shops and all the crowds.

2. I am scared of heights and got stuck halfway along a bit of the Roman Wall in York. I had to make a decision on whether to back or carry on. I carried on.

3. I like to have things organised but I still end up losing things.

4. I share my house with over 100 bears

5. I spent a year in Berlin way before the wall came down.

6. I prefer sport programmes to most other tv.

7. Like Soggibottom i hate having my photo taken and its unlikely you will find one of me on here ever.

See I told you I wasn't that intersting. Now to my nominations

SwirlyThoughts

Shari's sharings

SewprimKhris

Cupcakes for Clara

Sew-fantastic

Everydaylife

Widget and friends

well that took a bit of doing. I need a lie down

Biddle is better. He had his little operation and is fighting fit.

he has been to check I have been looking after the birds


There are some signs of spring

and some blue sky today


The jumper is finished and will be mailed when I finish this. Photo next time as I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Thanks for stopping by

A snowman a poorly bear and not much else really

The snow eventually went after a quite rapid thaw over the week end. This was the final little bit left on Monday


And now we are back to damp cold and rain. In fact I feel colder than I did that week due to the wind.

Biddle is poorly. he has a bad neck which he gets periodically. It is connected to his holiday travel, in and out of the rucksack and getting squashed back in. So he is waiting for a small operation which will hopefully go ahead at the weekend.

Here he is snuggled down in bed.

No the snow picture is not what was left of a snowman! here is my first piece of cross stitch for the year. I am really pleased with him He is a Jeanette Crews design

I have inserted him in a tuck pillow I was kindly sent.






My mission for the year is to clothe my artist bears to protect them from the elements. This will be quite a task and might involve buying new yarn even though I have plenty!

Thanks if you have stopped by

sherbet, jumpers, snow ice

When I was small every Christmas we hung up our stockings for Santa to fill when he came. Well we actually hung up a sock belonging to my dad. What we didn't know was my mum filled the other one to the pair and swapped it. Our stockings would be filled with little things, with an orange in the toe, chocolate coins, crayons, a colouring book or one os those where you painted with water and the colour appeared. We had our stockings first thing in the morning and they kept us going until we got our other presents after dinner. Dad was a postie and worked Christmas morning when I was small.

I kept up the tradition with my children. All stocking presents were small with things costing pence or maybe a pound. Anything more expensive was a proper present and under the tree.

John and I have carried this on and although the prices have increased the are still little bits and pieces. I am easier to find things for because reels of cotton and skeins of floss are always welcome. John loves chocolate coins. This year I received a Basset's sherbet fountain which was lovely. But what a shock. When I was small they came in a cardboard tube covered in paper with the liquorice sticking out the top. Now they come in a plastic tube with flip top lid and the liquorice is buried inside.


Coincidentally, a few days later in our local paper was a report that the company, now owned by an Australian firm, is shipping sherbet fountains to ex pats in Australia by the million. it lead me to wonder if this is why the packaging has been sanitised?

I mailed the jumper to Angela's troll, sadly in does not fit because she is unusual shape.



So I am going to make her a big baggy one using Biddle's pattern.
Talking of Biddle, he is so pleased with his latest jumper


Iggy's will be as bright and jazzy as I can make it.

We are still covered in snow and ice. I managed to get to work on Monday after waiting nearly an hour for a bus. Yesterday was fine, but today we woke up to black ice suspended buses and the possibility that there will be snow later. Reluctantly I had to phone school to say the buses were not running. It is too far to walk, google maps predicted an hour and a half in normal conditions! They were very understanding. At this point the buses are still not running to my destination.
Although the temperature this week has hovered around zero this week it does feel colder than the minus ones last week as there is much more wind.

So I am off to find something constructive to do. My little snowman is coming along nicely , pictures next time.

Thanks for stopping by

A new year and snow,snow,snow

We spent a quiet new year's eve watching a film and ignoring all the hype. I am not a fan of celebrating. Think its because I know nothing will change just because the date does.

Over the week end the snow had all but gone, just a little tiny bit in the furthest corner by the line post where the sun does not reach at this time of year. But this all changed on Monday. It was the first day of a new term and I travelled to school with a little snow to contend with but the buses were running there and back OK.

However Tuesday was a different matter and just before six there was no new snow but by an hour later it had began and did not let up for over eight hours so we had a good 10cm (4inches).



I managed to clear the bird food so we could have our usual visitors.

My school afternoon was cancelled, when I phoned the head was not sure whether they would be staying open so suggested I did not travel. As the snow continued to fall I was quite pleased to be in the warm. I spent the day dismantling the Christmas tree so that it was down by 12th night.
Surprisingly we have had more snow over night, usually when its coming from the east it does not quite reach us.


I have just found out that my school has closed today so I will be snug in the warm. We have actually got some sunshine at the moment but the weather forecast is suggesting a snow shower later. The one thing about the work I am doing at the moment is that although I will not get paid for it this week the days will be added on at the end of the sessions. So long term it evens out.

I forgot to mention that I had the 2010 All new quilting block and pattern a day calendar. This is the 4th year JOhn has bought me one and he had great difficulty tracking one down this year. There is not much chance I will ever make a whole quilt but it is lovely having a new picture everyday.


I have made the jumper for Angela's troll but will not post a picture yet as I have not sent it to her.
I have started a very small cross stitch of a snowman to go in the little pillow Cathey sent me a while ago


And gardener Bunny has a new scarf although she will not be visiting the allotment for a while


Biddle's new jumper is coming along nicely and will progress much more quickly if Tia would let me knit in the evenings. She is like the children were hen they were small ignored me if I was not doing anything much but as soon as I picked up something to read or sew wanted my attention.


We have a wormery which over a period of time produces very nice compost for the plants. In our kitchen we have a small big for peelings, tea bags eggs shell and other bits and then that gets transferred for the worms to munch on



They are snuggly tucked up in paper shreddings. We recycle most of our paper now and our tins so anything that has an address on is shredded for the worms. We have very little in our household bin each week and if the council recycled plastic it would be even less.

Here is the fabric I received as presents

you can check out the website if you click on the photograph to enlarge it.



I am thinking about some projects for the year but have not been inspired yet. Any ideas.

Happy new year and thanks for coming