It's a beautiful day.

I'm trying to make the most of my last two days off work so today I had a lazy morning, doing lots and lots of nothing! Well, I did read a few blogs, does that count as something or nothing?
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This afternoon as it turned nice I went off out with my camera. No great long journeys today, just a stroll around the harbour.
I love how blue the water looked.
Then I wandered into the park, and this odd man out caught my eye.

He is trying to hide in the golden host.

A quick turn around the lake, then home to do some more knitting.

The wind has dropped and it was a lovely walk.

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Speaking of my knitting, I've finished the back and the left front of my latest creation. This afternoon before going out I made a start on the right front, yes, I have double checked and I'm not repeating myself again! LOL

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Now I suppose I had better cook dinner.

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Gratitude's

1) One more day off.

2) A nice day

3) A quick and easy dinner.

Prince Alberts Tower.

Coming for another walk? There are lots of pictures, all taken with my new camera.
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In 1847 Queen Victoria and her beloved Prince Albert visited Ramsey. Albert was taken on a walk around the district and is said to have stopped to admire the view atop a hill over looking the town. So later a tower was built on that very spot to commemorate their visit.
Said tower is that tiny dot, on top of this hill.
We walked along the road for a way, until we could get in to the trees under the tower.

We followed winding foot paths through the trees and up the hill side.

I wasn't the only one with a camera.

We stopped to admire the views at various points of the climb. It was much clearer in real life, but we could see Ireland from the above viewpoint.

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When is a tree not a tree?

When it's a telecommunications mast!

That's not a bad disguise.

And here it is, Alberts Tower. Along with a crop of undisguised telecommunications masts.

When we looked out, just where DD Kay is stood we could see the whole of the North of the island and Scotland, away on the horizon.

Look Mummy, you can see our house!! LOL (I'll let you guess!)

We walked around the tower and the foot path continued across the fields to an old farm house.

After walking down the farm track we crossed the road. (Part of the TT course) and on to another foot path. This is where we stopped for lunch.

We continued down the hill to the reservoir. Ramsey has only a small reservoir, with most of our water coming from the Sulby damn.

We still treat and use the water gathered here though. This building houses the treatment works.

As you can see, we're at the top of the damn, we walked around the reservoir.

I did say it's only small!
Spring is in the air.

All around the water there are tiny streams and rivers, with their bridges.

When we got to the top end I looked back and could just see England out on the horizon.

More bridges and streams.

I think Joe explored every inch of the place.

Always we stayed on the foot paths.

Well, most of the time! Some times some one had to act his shoe size though!! LOL

You have to admit, it does look like fun. I remember sledging down the damn on a plastic sack!
Joe slid down on his belly. His clothes are in the washing machine as I type.

From the damn we walked down the access road and crossed a busy road and into Ballure Walk.

Then we crossed the electric tram lines.

Where we came in to a garden, which sits atop some cliffs.

We looked out over the sea and planned another walk out to that head land over there.

The path through the garden leads down through a pretty glen and across a small river.

Underneath the arches.

And tide permitting..............

Out onto the beach.

We had a little time to waste if we wanted to let the tide go down and allow us to walk back to town along the beach, so we turned south, where the kids found a cave.

We walked until we ran out of beach.

Then headed home across the drying sands.

Phew, I'm exhausted, time for a cuppa.

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Of course all of this means I didn't knit or sew a single stitch all day.

Maybe later.

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Gratitude's

1) Beautiful countryside

2) Beautiful coast lines
3) Beautiful weather.

A New Toy, and some sewing!

Do you remember the Dragon Quilt? Well I finally got around to making a matching pillow slip. Nothing fancy, just a simple slip cover,

using just two fabrics.

Now there are only scraps of the dragon fabric remaining, we finally used it up.

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I have to say I am not impressed with the photography of the pillow case. I have a new camera. I asked Hunney to get me something smaller, more easily portable, for when I'm out walking, or indeed, just something to slip into my hand bag. Just in case you didn't guess the blue one is the new one! I'll have to play with the settings though, and see if I can improve the picture quality.

I took my new camera out for a walk yesterday, I was headed for the beach, but soon changed my mind. LOL

Instead I just wandered around the harbour side and into the shopping street. The pictures I took were disappointing, so I binned them.

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Once I was back from my walk, I did some more knitting. I finished off a baby cardigan and got started on a larger knitted waist coat. I'm using the same yarn I used for my own jacket. It's a gift, for a friend. I'll post a pic soon, it looks like being a quick knit.

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Gratitude's

1) Sunshine.

2) Quick knits

3) A new toy.

Did I say Sunshine?

Did I say walk? I really should know better!
I did get out into the street in between showers. I had to go and visit Carlo and collect my angel. Her name is Hope and Glory, I stitched her way back in 1996 I think. I had framed her myself and she was looking more than a bit ratty, so I took her along to Carlo my friendly framer.
I'm sorry it's not a better picture, I took several and this was the best of a bad lot. In real life it looks as though you can reach out and play with the folds in her dress. I find her very peaceful and serene.
Hunney is very fond of her too, she was pretty much the first thing he saw when he first walked into my home. As he walked in through the door she was facing him from the wall, he says he was amazed and blown away when he looked closely and realised that she is made up of 1000s of tiny stitches.
She is back home with us now where she belongs.
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So with lousy weather I didn't get much of a walk, instead I hopped onto the rowing machine and rowed my way across the sitting room before getting out my French Roses. I've cut all of the two largest size petals and all the leaves, oh, and the leaves are also pinned onto the blocks.

It was at this point I realised that I don't have the correct colour thread! So I'll be off out again today. Yes, I'll be dodging the rain drops again. I think the April showers got here early!

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So what is in store for today? Maybe some more work on French Roses. A walk, or a paddle around the sitting room, depending on the weather. My knitting fingers are still itching, and so are my stitchy fingers, maybe I'll dig out one of my BOMs, I'm only 2 months behind on ALL of them! LOL

I'm off to play.

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Gratitude's

1) Professional framers.

2) More days off.

3) A quick and easy dinner tonight.

Has crafty content!!

My knitted jacket / cardigan is complete. I got DD to take pictures and well, we ended up with me pulling a load of stupid faces, sorry I'm not sharing those, so you'll have to make do with a faceless model.
I'm really pleased with it, it's very soft and cosy. I think I'll see if I can find an old kilt pin or something similar though as I do feel that it needs something to close it. Either that or make a button loop and find a giant button.

The colour shown here is not quite right, it's a little more pink in real life, but try as I will I can't get a picture showing the true colour.

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So, what next? I set off yesterday knitting up a baby sweater, I have the front and the back done and made a start on the sleeves yesterday evening, but stopped at dinner time when Hunney came home. I'll do a little more to that later , but I want to do some more work on my 'French Roses' quilt today, maybe I'll be able to get the rest of the roses cut and possibly make a start at getting them appliqued into place.

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I may try to get out for a walk today too. The rain yesterday eased off and stopped while I was slogging away on the rowing machine, so later in the day I did get out, but didn't take the camera. Perhaps if the sun stays with me today I'll go for a wander and take some pictures.

Thats me, I'm off to play.

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Gratitude's

1) Sunshine.

2) Quiet mornings.

3) No chores to do.

Too much work, not enough life

But that's about to change, because I now have a week off work. Thank goodness, I really need it. The last couple of weeks have been really stressed at work, and when I go back it will be just as busy. I have a lot of work to get done. The one shining light is that of the two major jobs, only one comes with real pressure, the other is self imposed pressure, but I still feel driven to deliver it within my self imposed time limit.
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When I got out of work on Saturday I had a sore back, as we made our way around the supermarket getting the groceries it settled into sciatica, shooting pain down my leg and causing me to stumble a couple of times. It bugged me for the rest of the day. (We're old friends, I've had back pain on and off for 20 or so years.) So the whole family helped out. Hunney made a beautiful Toad in the Hole. It was great.
Little chef Joe made pineapple upside down pudding and Kay and Jonny washed the dishes. So apart from directing traffic I had Mothers day early. (It was Mothers day here in GB on Sunday 22nd March) They also made breakfast on Sunday morning, which was wonderful. Thankfully the trapped nerve had shifted itself by Sunday morning and I was able to go to work. Though I spent the whole shift sitting at a desk buried in paperwork.
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As I said, it was Mothers day. We called in to see my Mum taking cards and gifts. While we were there I remembered to take a quick picture of a Mothers day gift from about 8 years ago. Mum has a seaside themed bathroom and had asked me to make her a seashell lamp shade.

It's looking old and tired now. Mind you, so is the bathroom, the paper is peeling off the walls and ceiling!! Mum still loves it, no matter how tired it looks. (Sorry it's not a better picture, I had to use the camera in my cell phone.)
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So a week off work, what am I going to do? Last week was so settled and warm I hoped it would last and I could go out walking! HA!! No chance, the gale force winds and sideways rain arrived last night. So it's the rowing machine if I want to exercise.
I've finished knitting my cardigan and have just one seam left to close up. Yippie!
I have patterns and a few bits and pieces of yarn to make up some baby cardigans for the charity shop next door.
I have how many WIP quilts?
I have how many BOM WIPs?
I have how many cross stitch WIPs?
If the lousey weather continues, I should get some crafting done. I just need to figure out which craft I want to do!
Oh yeah and I've just found out I need to quickly put together a couple of essays to complete some training at work.
So I've plenty to keep me busy. I just need to decide what to do.
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Gratitude's
1) A whole week off work.
2) A mothers day weekend.
3) 215 days.