Colour my world

Hello and welcome to the first day of a brand spanking new year. Nice of you to call in. I'll try again with an answer to this question. 

Terra28 December 2014 at 03:55

Some years I choose a word for the year, do you ever do that?

Thanks Terra. I haven't thought about doing this, but now you come to mention it, yes, I will. The first word that came to mind as I was out for a morning walk was COLOUR, so that is my chosen word. I will open my eyes and look for colour every day. Even if the world looks grey and gloomy I will search for colour where I least expect it. I will try and find colour where there is none. It isn't hard when you walk around a pretty village, there are little pockets of colour everywhere. 

I pass these beautiful purple berries on my way to the church. They seem to last ages, but look closely, some of them are beginning to shrivel a bit and lose their colour. 

 A few red berries left for the birds, against a background of yellow and green variegated leaves.

I wonder what has caused the green mould to form such a perfect pattern on the wooden fence?

As I enter the churchyard I see colour. Trevor is trimming the branches from the trees. His red overall stands out against the dark trunk.

It's a hard job he has, there are three avenue's of trees to cut back, it will take him a while. If he does one a day it will probably take him to the end of the month. 

They look pretty ugly when they have been butchered, but they will come back.

Oh look, red has been joined by yellow. Graham, the previous church gardener, is out for a morning walk with Lady dog.

Oh my, more colour has arrived, people pass through here on the way to the shop. Now we have orange and purple. Little girl is eating my favourite ice cream, she has a Magnum.

So what colour is your world? Do you see things in fifty shades of grey, are you locked in your own little world and don't see the colour beyond it? It's there, you just have to find it. I am going to look for colour every day because it makes me cheerful, and it lifts my spirits.

Colour blindness must be quite difficult to cope with, I'm sorry if you have this problem. I have worked as a fundraiser for the RNIB so have a little understanding of visual impairment. If you are in this category, and you can't see very well, please join in and let us know what other senses you use to bring a little colour into your life. I would be very interested to know.

Have you chosen a word for the year, share it with us, please.

Thank you for all your comments and emails over the last few days. Enjoy the rest of today.
Toodle pip.

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A busy day at the Village Hall

Hello. I'm falling asleep in front of the keyboard here. I think it is the one hour of heating I treated myself to that's done it, turned it off now. Or could it be all the nattering I've been doing at the Christmas Fair. Here is me and Hilary, one of our crafty ladies.  

Lots of lovely colourful displays. Seated is Carol, another crafty lady. She is manning the Village Hall stall, with her assistant.

All manner of stuff for sale.

 Ali is selling her beautiful hand made wares. She is also one of our crafty ladies.

Blimey, they've piled that one high.

The busiest stall of the lot? The Womens Institute cake stall of course, and before you ask, no I didn't indulge. That's Judy handing over her dosh.

More cakes, such a lovely display.

And an overall view of the Village Hall. The Fair opened at 11am and closed at 3pm, and it was busy most of the time. 

There was entertainment from the school choir, a local dance school, and the Scouts did a presentation. Santa put in an appearance, and there was a fancy dress competition for the small children. A pretty fairy won that. Refreshments were served, tea and coffee, sandwiches and cakes, and home made soup. All in all a great afternoon was had by all. A great effort by everyone, it's good to see the village community coming together. We didn't sell very much but I wasn't expecting to. Charities benefited by doing their own fundraising, and the Village Hall, which has to be self funding, also did well.

Now I'm going to chill. No alcohol tonight, haven't any in, a juice drink and a read of a book will suffice.

Hope your Saturday went well. Enjoy your Sunday. Toodle pip.

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How to make a Suffolk Puff

Hello. Did anyone see the gorgeous sunset last night? I spotted it looking out over the rooftops, from my bedroom window. Boots on, coat on, off to the churchyard for some pics. I like to play around with the flash, sometimes it works really well at picking out objects close by, and sometimes not. It depends on how much natural light there is. Love how it picks out the red berries. 

Silhouettes of the bare trees against the moody sky.

Love how the flash picks out the railings. It was still quite light at this point.

Love how the lush green leaves add even more colour to the red sunset. 

I like to try and frame the picture to draw the eye deeper into it. Looking for overhanging branches or strategically placed bushes.

Talking of pictures, I mentioned that someone wanted to use one of mine in a publication. I am happy to allow that, and it's nice that I was asked, rather than it just be taken. One of my photo's was used as a cover for a community brochure in Lincolnshire. Another was used in advertising material by someone in the USA who was coming to London to give a presentation at the London Palladium. He wanted a photo of the venue without any advertising boards on the front. I happened to be passing when there wasn't a show on and got the picture. Here is a link to Bed Times, my picture of a bed spring gate is at the top. From what I can remember I was in Derbyshire when I took it. 

What was I doing last night at sewing class? Making Suffolk Puffs. I don't know why they are called that, I think the common name is yoyo's. These are for embellishing the cushion cover I am making from a mans shirt. Still need some more. 

There is a gadget you can buy to help you make them. A circle of plastic which sits inside another circle and sandwiches the fabric between the two. They clip together and have holes around the edge that you sew through. Last week I borrowed one from a class mate, but she didn't bring it this week so I carried on making them without it. It's quite simple. Probably most of you know how to do this.

Cut a circle twice the size of the puff. Fold a single hem around the outside. I didn't bother to iron it, just folded as I was sewing. Basically you sew a line of small tacking stitches around the outside, and when you get back to the beginning you pull the thread tight, gathering the fabric into a puff with the raw edge on the inside. Then you finish off with a button.

I've just watched a video which demonstrates this, but the lady didn't make a hem, she sewed round the raw edge and pulled it in. I think this way is a bit messy and if you were going to wash the piece afterwards the raw edge would fray.



Here is another video which shows the hem method, and how to make square puffs.



If you go onto yoootooob and search Suffolk Puffs there are lots of ideas on what to do with them. Happy stitching. The sun is out and I am off outside. Got to dig up the last of my spuds. Hope all is good where you are. Toodle pip.

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Playing with the new toy

Hello. It's been practice day with the Hudl. Oh my, how confusing it all is. Can't get the hang of swiping the screen, my technique is not consistent, what starts as a swipe ends up as a stab, and things pop up when I don't want them to. I wish I could add a mouse to it, it would make life much simpler. However, I must soldier on and keep trying. 

I went a bimble round the church to take some photo's with it. The bigger screen makes it a bit easier to compose a nice shot. Hold it out at arms length and walk around until you see the scene you want to capture. Zoom in and out by sliding finger and thumb in a pinching movement across the screen. In theory you should end up with the exact bit you want, which should eliminate a lot of cropping later.

I've been finding my way around the photo editing tools, a lot of them I don't understand, it's a case of try each one and see what happens. 

Right, photo's stored somewhere on the Hudle, next transfer some onto here. It's strange not having a mouse and a keyboard to jiggle things around with. I found the keyboard keeps popping up and covering the screen when I don't want it to, and it's not there when I need it. It keeps coming and going, very confusing. 

I managed to get some pictures loaded. I always put them on first then add the words after. By this time my brain was feeling a little bit pickled. The keyboard kept popping up when I didn't want it and an assortment of letters kept appearing in random places. I wanted to load the pictures in a different order than I took them but it wasn't having it. Now how do I move picture 4 to the picture 9 position without a mouse? Mega baffled now. Oh I give up, that's all the confusion the brain can manage for one day. I am now completing the task on the  Samsung Netbook. Here are the pictures taken with the Hudl. 

View of the front gate.

Playing with the enhancement tools. View towards the side gate.

A group of ramblers came strolling by. 

And disappeared out of the back gate.

More enhancement tools.

Black and white anyone?

 

View from the back gate.

Oh, and my little friend came too.

Phew I need a rest now. I am going to have to get to grips with this new gadget, it may take a while, ha ha.
Toodle pip.

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It all happens in our village

Hey, how ya diddlin? Miss me yesterday? No thought not, it was my day off, empty head, day of rest. Quite the opposite of today, I've been running around like a blue arse fly, never stopped, feet didn't touch the ground, ha ha. Well they did get a bit of rest when I sat down at the craft club.

First thing this morning I had to do a dog walk, I didn't have to, I volunteered. My friend Joyce has had a cataract operation and she is not supposed to tilt her head forwards while bending down. Very difficult to pick up dog poo if you can't look down while scraping it up with your hand inside a plastic bag. So I am doing the morning walks for her because that's when Bailey the poodle does his ablutions. Three squats and he should be empty.

I really enjoyed that walk around the village, it was very busy for a Monday morning. The council men were filling a few holes in the road with tarmac, looks a right state now, a real bodge job. The bin wagon was out blocking the road while the men ran around pulling the bins to the back of the lorry. I had a little smile to myself, the operatives were all of slender stature apart from one who was a young portly chap. He must be new I thought, give it a couple of months and he will be as skinny as the rest of them. There was folks rushing to work, and other dog walkers to chat to. I love it when the doggies get to socialize as well. You sniff my bum and I'll sniff yours, ha ha.

On the way to the Chat and Craft at the village hall I passed a large rubbish bin on wheels, which was overflowing. The lid wouldn't shut and the contents looked quite interesting so I couldn't resist a nosey inside. There was a large storage box with a leatherette type covering and several strong shopping bags which had plenty of life left in them. I fished them out and took them with me. Two of the bags were snaffled by the ladies, and I stripped the cover off the storage box. That will do for a crafting project. I wish people wouldn't dump useful stuff.

While I am talking about village life, I'll tell you a funny story, well I thought it was funny. Open Reach, the company who are putting in all the cables for our new faster broadband, has spent the last two weeks installing a large green electrical junction box thingy. It's outside my friends house, on a main road, opposite a long straight side road. A couple of days ago a driver who was not paying much attention to what he was doing, overshot the junction and ploughed straight into it, totally wiping it out and demolishing a wall at the same time. No, that bit isn't funny, the driver is ok by the way. My two friends, him and her, don't live in the house any more, they have moved to another street. Someone told them about this new installation a few days before, so she went to have a look at it. Apparently they didn't put the box in the right place and it was partially over the entrance to their driveway. She got on the phone, and after pressing many buttons she got through to the reporting damaged boxes department. This is before it happened don't forget. She explained where the box was, and was asked if it was damaged. Her answer, 'no not yet, but it will be'. She said this because they will struggle to get their caravan out and it might get damaged in the process. Well blow me down, she was right, it did get damaged. My friend must be clairvoyant, I think I will ask her to read my palm if she can see into the future, ha ha.

After lunch, which was a banana sandwich with lemon curd, no time to cook something, I went to Helen's to help her with the newsletter deliveries. I was pleased to do this as I really need to do more walking. I've been thinking of my next long walk, which won't happen till the spring, I have a hankering for another long one. The bus pass holiday was different, and fun, because I had more time to stop and chat to people, but I did miss clocking up the miles. It felt like cheating, like I hadn't achieved anything. Oh yeah, I did one day of 20 miles, big deal. I climbed a couple of hills in the Lake District. It was nice and all that, but it wasn't a challenge. So roll on next spring when I can get out again for some long walking days.

The time coming up to Christmas is the time of the year I least enjoy. I try and be outside as much as I can, weather permitting. From now on there's going to be chaos at the shops. Shelves of essentials are cleared to make way for the ever expanding array of Christmas paraphernalia. Roads in and out of car parks will be blocked and there will be jostling in the aisles as shoppers barge their way towards the checkouts. Let madness commence. Glad I have opted out of it. I just sit back and let them all get on with it.

Had a nice surprise when I checked the blog tonight, Jason has sent a comment. Thank you  :o)) I'm chuffed.

Some good news, we re homed a black and white cat called Lucky last week. He came to us because his elderly owner was moving into sheltered accommodation and couldn't take him with her. A lovely couple have adopted him, they live in a village location, with plenty of open spaces around his new home.
Toodle pip.

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Childhood revisited

Good morning, Yesterday was a time for reflection and families. I was out of the house from 8am till 11pm, hence no blog post. It was all about going back to where I spent my childhood, visiting the village where I grew up, and the village where I went to school, but hey, it wasn't about me, it was about Stephen. 

Stephen was my brother, he was our brother. We were three, two sisters and a brother, now we are two. Stephen died four years ago in India. Although this is not the anniversary of his death, his widow feels now is the time to lay him to rest. And so it was that yesterday we made the same journey to the crematorium, as we did 32 years ago, to say goodbye to our mother. 

Very few words are needed for this post. Enjoy the Autumn pictures.

Afterwards we went to Stretton to see the house where we grew up, it looks so different now. Then we went to Rolleston, the school is no longer there, and we had lunch in the Spread Eagle Hotel.

Rolleston Church.

A pretty cottage nearby.

The brook runs alongside the hotel. 

Past this lovely old house which is now a hotel......

next to this little footbridge which goes over the stream where Stephen and Anna used to go fishing. This was his favourite place to play.

Later on, after a meal back home, our sister in law caught the train back to London, and I went to visit Uncle Stan and Auntie Pat, before I drove home.

Thank you for reading. Have a nice Sunday.

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Enjoying village life

I was expecting to have another day in today, after the miserable weather yesterday, but this morning it was back to fine and sunny again. I had a morning on artwork, with a break for elevenses and a fruity smoothie. One nectarine, one banana, a few peach slices from a tin with a drop of juice, a dash of Ribena, and two tablespoons of plain yogurt, topped with ground almonds. It was scrumshus. Deliberate spelling mistake, I make my own words up. 

Lunch was veg curry and pasta, I made extra portions yesterday to save cooking today. Dinner was the same and still some left for tomorrow.

I had a short trip out this afternoon to take a look at Winteringham Music and Arts Festival. My friend Helen is on the Parish Council and helped organize it. There has been a lot going on over the weekend, something of interest to all age groups. There are photo's on the web site of events that took place yesterday. I must say they are very quick to post updates on the site.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon, which brought a lot of people out. The art exhibition was busy, I forgot to take photographs, oops. I sat for a while on the bench outside the church. People were arriving for a classical choir concert. Here is Helen manning the pay desk.

Me in my summer pink.

The concert is just about to start. I decided not to stay as the sun was beckoning me to go for a walk. The ladies were getting tea and cake ready to serve in the interval, I wanted to buy some cake but they weren't getting it out until the interval.

I bimbled around the village and called into the Village Hall where there was a photographic exhibition going on, There weren't many photo's but those that were there were interesting and good quality. I had a nice chat with a man who told me all about the camera club and said I would be welcome to come as a guest to a meeting. I might just do that, I'll look at my calendar.

Tonight I am making a tree for the new weaving. I needed some wire to make a skeleton tree, and as luck would have it I have a massive reel of electrical wire which I recovered from....you've guessed it, a skip, ha ha. I'm quite excited by this, now I have to decide what colour to make my tree. Best to get on with it. Enjoy tour Sunday evening. 7 o clock and it's dark outside, oh dear, the days are getting shorter.
Toodle pip.

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