Grid

It's the last day of February already and not only are the evenings staying light later but the mornings are lighting up earlier.

I am not usually up at this time but this was the sky at 6.20 this morning

 

There was slight frost on the ground as well

 

I went to a coffee morning at the Minerva centre, a NHS department under North End football ground.

As we were at North End Roland took a photo of Tom Finneys statue

 

They were removing all the mementos but leaving the flowers that had been left.

We hadn't joined in any of the celebrations of his life and yesterday it was impossible to get into town (called city now)

 

These are my Grids for today

I've got to admit I forgot all about them until about 30 minutes ago hence the pictures in the dark.

 

 

Star

 

 

 

I've been racking my brains all week thinking about a star shape. Then I remembered the flowers growing on my Apache Chilli plants

I planted them far too late last year to get any chillies but they have flowered all winter. The flowers just die so there are no chillies and the flowers hang their heads so they are difficult to see but they are pretty delicate flowers.

Star shape

Trapezium

I had a lovely afternoon today at my craft group.

We have decided to make a rag rug banner as we learned how to make rag rugs a few months ago.

When we sell our makes to raise funds for the group we will be able to put the banner behind the stall.

Cutting Strips of fabric for the rag rug

 and having a good chat.

 

Roofs (Rooves) for Trapezium

I didn't need to go away from the house to find these.

 



S shapes

I've been to Manchester today to take my old sewing machine to be repaired. It is a Bernina that my Auntie bought in 1977 but it was a brilliant machine until the foot pedal stayed permanently on top speed. I want it so I can carry it to the craft classes I want to go to. I do have a workable Huskavana but carrying a computer sewing machine is not good for it.



S shapes

I just love the shape of the branches in my friend Barbaras' willow tree

It is a very old one and she prunes it twice a year.

I assume that is how the branches have got so twisted.



(Not to do with the shapes but just news)

Two more photos of different Willows with their lambs tails

I saw them on the way to Manchester.

And finally My cake stand

I am so pleased because I managed to find some plates on ebay that match the ones my mother bought in the eighties. One of them was broken and repaired by dad and the glue had gone a nasty yellow colour and I have been looking, on and off, for a few years to find a matching one Then suddenly on ebay I came across 4 plates so snatched them up not even bothering to haggle for the price. They are Moss Rose by Paragon

The cake stand was my grandmothers, passed on to my mother and then to me. I can now use it when we have parties. ( Roland says I've got to have High Tea with friends now) and I've got extra plates for sandwiches.

 

This is the challenge from Kathijo this week
Shapes from the environment
suggestions of where to look
Tree
River / stream
Roof /Building
Chimney pot
Garden planter
Clouds
Hills
Sunshine

Monday ... Semi Circle
Tuesday .. 'S' shape
Wednesday ... Trapezium (definitely a 'roof' one today)
Thursday ... Star
Friday ... a Grid
Saturday ... 'H' shape
Sunday .. Cones

My contribution today I hope you can see the

Semicircles

in the clouds

 



Sunday windows

I'm sorry Kathijo, I just haven't kept up with blogging daily but I've tried to catch up today. I haven't got out and about much this week.
Yesterday I went to a class where we were painting various fabrics, printing on them and burning holes in them and stamping on them. I really enjoyed myself and I think I might have got my crafting mojo back. I'm going to another class in March so I can make something with the fabric. I will also be embellishing the fabric and doing some free style embroidery.

 

I'm going to call this my window of opportunity
I have really wanted to play with free style embroidery for quite a while.
 

The 3 sheets on the left are paper. I painted on them with transfer paint.

Then I ironed the blue patterns onto cloth (on the right)

 Various methods of colouring cloth.

The 2 on the left have holes burnt in them with a heat gun.

A window in Cromer Church

Not the best photo of an old window

 A small window in my friends living room

Two rather nice windows in our village

 

I know that I have done my own interpretation of this weeks challenge

Windows

I can't believe we have reached Thursday this week and I haven't posted.

I have not got many photos yet.

 I have been busy this week getting back into the swing of working with the ME group.
This morning I went to the physio department and the physiotherapist was a little concerned that there is a hard lump under one of the scars so I have got to go back on Monday.



I think these photos fit the modern and large building category

A window in the pub I visited on the docks



An insurance headquarters on the edge of the docks

the windows look like mirrors.

Diamonds and Random Fluid shape.

Diamonds

A picture from Wickepedia

 and my very own diamond

Fluid shape

Milk in Rolands porridge.

 

Hearts

Happy Valentines Day to you all. If you are like Roland and I it will be like any other day but if you celebrate it have a great day.
Today I needed to go to town for a check up on my hearing aids and Hearts were all around. It was lovely to see the numbers of young men in jewellers and perfume shops - there is still romance around.

 

Hearts

Just 2 examples today.

Hangings in Boots

a shop window in St Georges Shopping Centre

 

Our cat, Stella has not been well for a few days so we decided to take her to the vet. We are hoping she is only having a problem with a hair ball.

She is getting some special food and medication and we have to keep an eye on her.

 

Some lovely news is that a friend of mine popped in this afternoon. Marion now lives in Northern Ireland. I knew she was over here but I didn't expect to see her until next week. We have talked on the phone but I haven't seen her for over 18 months.

We had a really good catch up and I realised how much I missed seeing her.

Spheres

I hope you are not fed up with my pompoms but I thought they were ideal for spheres.

 

Spheres

 

23 down umpteen more to go

Triangles.

I sent Anne an email because we hadn't seen her around for a while. She says she has been in France as her mum was taken to hospital and she will be back with us soon.

Triangles

A bit more difficult today but I managed to find us a couple.
The roof of our neighbours bird box

and the roof of our bird table

 

I am listening to the news, watching the wind and rain here and am feeling so sorry for the people down south especially the farmers.

I can see there is more terrible weather to come and just wonder how the flooded people can carry on.

I am praying for you all down there.

 

Kathi, I know somewhere you gave us your email address but I can't find it so would you let me have it again or let me know where I can find it. Thanks.

 

 



Circles

I've got quite a few pictures of circles today

Roland kept finding them for me until I told him I had enough or I would still be taking them now.

The remote for the fire

 

The adjustment holes on my crutch

 The armhole on the same crutch

One of the light shades on our lamp

Square or rectangle

I have now caught up and I think my photos are self explanatory as this weeks challenge is shapes

Square or Rectangle

 



My blog and digital or print

I started my blog at the beginning of 2012 when I joined many of you to do the 365 Challenge with Suzie.
I had been thinking for a while I would like to start a blog but had no idea how to go about it.
I bit the bullet and went on to Google (someone had recommended it I think).
I started it as a blog for me but as time went on I began to get to know you all and started writing it for you as well.

My First photo in 2012

Digital or print

I much prefer print as far as reading concerned.

It is the feel of the paper and not worrying about dropping a tablet. Dropping a book doesn't harm it and as I read in bed I often find my book on the floor in the morning.

I've also got the Daisy Trail digital programme but have yet to use it properly.

One of the reasons is I have such a huge paper stash and lots of printed photos and feel I should use that first.

Unfortunately I haven't done much scrap booking lately so my stash is not going down.

As I haven't had the experience of digital scrapbooking I can't say which I prefer.

 

 

 

TV shows and Ads

I'm an avid TV watcher at the moment, watching everything and anything but my favourite shows have always been detective shows.
I'm into DCI Banks and the afternoon show of WPC 56 this week, last week it was Father Ted in the afternoon.
I find Steven Tompkinson a great actor and loved him in "Wild at Heart" and "Truckers".



 

WPC 56

 

I don't remember seeing Jennie Jacques, who plays Gina Dawson, before but I will look out for her in future.

 

The power of Adverts

 

I'm not sure how much adverts influence me and I do like to think that they don't but they do keep us up to date with things we may or may not want.

I find them very annoying in the middle of TV programmes so I record lots of things I want to watch so I can fast forward over the adverts.

The Adverts I like the best are the Aldi ones, I find them so funny.



Sculpture

Thank you all so much for your good wishes for my operation. It went really well and because I had an epidural the after effects today are not too bad. The knee doesn't hurt any more than it did before the op and I have to be careful not to use it too much.
Because I had an epidural I was awake and the surgeon let me watch the procedure and told me what he was doing. It was fascinating, I know a lot of people wouldn't like to watch but as I couldn't feel any thing and there was no blood it didn't bother me at all.
At one point during the surgeons preparation I looked down and my leg was in the air and I was surprised as I couldn't feel a thing.  He has trimmed all the floating bits on my cartilage but he found more Arthritis than showed up on the xray and said it would mean there would be some pain in future from that. All the staff were wonderful all day. I had to get up at 6.30 to be at hospital for 8, had my op about 11.30 and was home by 4pm altogether a much much better day than I expected.

Sculpture and Art
 

I love all kinds of Sculpture and Art and have looked for some of the photos I have taken over the years but could only find this one I took in the Louvre.

 

I love .Antony Gormley and Henry Moore among other Sculptors

Painters range from Michael Angelo to David Hockney.



Craft Heaven

 I went to Hobby craft today to get some glitter glue
unfortunately Roland was waiting out side in the car so I couldn't browse.
I did really well as I got 3 bottles of glue for the price of 2.
I'm going to glitter the edges of the grey tissue paper to make them shine. 

 I love spending time browsing in the store even if I don't buy anything so usually go with out Roland.
I am now set up to play when I need to rest after my op tomorrow.

 

Craft Heaven

My Craft Heaven at the moment

 

Monday media

This is Kathijos challenge for this week


Okay so this is my idea : Media Moments

Even if we spend a lot of time indoors we can share our thoughts and memories on these:

• Monday.... a picture I love
• Tuesday... my Craft heaven
• Wednesday... memorable sculpture or art
• Thursday ... TV favourites 
• Friday .... the power of Advertising
• Saturday  ... my Blog story
• Sunday ... Digital or Print?

Today I chose to think of the word picture as film and tell you about my all time favourite film. I have never been to the cinema much but in the 1980's I went to see the film

 "Out of Africa" 

It made a huge impression me, the story the countryside and the characters.

I got the book afterwards and enjoyed reading that as well.

I have seen the film on the TV since but it was not half as impressive on the small screen.

 

 

 

 

Feet First

I didn't get out to take photos today as we had a phone call to see if we could look after Saoirse again for a while as her mummy and daddy had a leak while fitting the dishwasher in.

We walked round to there new house to pick her up and little Oliver showed his new bedroom as well as the other room.

He then asked if he could come with us as well and we couldn't say no.

On the way back here he said it's a long way to your house isn't it.

 

We had a lovely afternoon with them both but at first Oliver didn't want his photo taking.

Grandad , Saoirse and Oliver

 

 

Feet First
My favourite footwear at the moment
didn't realise they were almost the same colour as our carpet.