Snowdrops, Poems and Promises

Saturday afternoon in the garden. Lovely sunny day, blue skies, birds singing, bulbs burgeoning through the soil...another couple of degrees warmer and it would have been just perfect. But I'm not complaining.

When Jim goes for his early morning walk to fetch the newspaper, he takes a short-cut through the church-yard, and he came back with these lovely snowdrop images for the blog; what a star!

A toddle down the garden path revealed all this 'emerging' going on under our very noses.

                                                    RHUBARB! RHUBARB! RHUBARB!

Feeling positively springlike earlier this week, and knowing I was going out early for the evening to play some tunes with friends Rob and Marj, Jim suggested we have lunch out at a local pub.

                                                            Getting ready to go out.

   
So now onto the POEMS bit of my post. One of my musical friends from the Burwell Bash - indeed, she was the assistant fiddle tutor-  Lizzy Doe, Musician, Artist, Photographer and maker of stunning jewellery, was nominated for the Fenland Poet Laureate Award. I tootled along to the Wisbech and Fenland Museum, in a lovely part of Wisbech I'd never been to before, to hear the poems and watch Lizzy walk away with 3rd place!  The standard was very high, and she was very pleased with her placing and hopes to work with Aetelier East in the future, based more on her music and photographic work. Well done Lizzy!

                                    Lizzy looking bashful, receiving her certificate.

We got back to ours about 10pm, and unwittingly sat up nattering until gone 3am which really didn't do either of us much good the following day - Lizzy had work to do and I felt quite hungover, still getting over the tiredness of the journey back from New Zealand. Feeling my age!

Now as to the PROMISES, well, I made a statement of intention last post, about getting my act together, and getting myself organised. I've made a good start. I've been reading up on menu planning, organising food storage and other useful topics. I've been through both freezers and thrown out the really beyond it things, and listed everything else, labelled things which I had to identify first! Later today I shall sit with my lists, my diary, and a couple of my favourite cookery books, and menu plan for the next couple of weeks. Off the topic of food, I have been through my wardrobe and weeded out a pile of clothes which are now in a large black sack and heading for a charity shop in town later this week. So I feel that I am well on my way...the hard part is keeping up the momentum! I know I have more to do in the sewing room, stuff to do on the stitching front, and music to keep up with. Lists! I must make lists!

Reading the latest post from Penny (L is for Love blog) I see she has acquired a beautiful new journal for list making. Or rather List Making, as Penny is not doing hers the way I do, on cheapo Reporters' Notebooks! Looking forward to seeing her lovely pages.

So, anyone daft enough to have made New Year Resolutions this year? How are they going? And is the thought of Spring giving you the urge to clean, sort, organise, and make plans?

Normal service has resumed.......

Well, here we are, back from the Land of Desperation! First of all, look at this little bundle of goodness! Arrived last week from lovely Penny at L is for Love blog, with whom I've been having a few off-blog chats recently. I'm very fond of gingham - reminds me of Junior school dresses! I know I will have fun incorporating these pieces - quite possibly into the 'vintage' style quilt which is on my to-do-before-very-long list. (I've been planning for this quilt for about two years now, time it grew some legs!) Thank you Penny, totally unneccesary but very gratefully received!

Jim and I spent last  Sunday (ie a week ago) - wasn't it a glorious day? - driving down to Suffolk to see our grand-daughter Morgan, taking her birthday present...I'm not saying what it was but if `I say Jim put a quality amount of credit on it to start her off you will get the clue I'm sure! In return I snagged her Hunger Games books two and three! I did take a photo but it wasn't very good - to see our gorgeous girl you can spin through the Kiwi Tales blog posts of earlier this summer. She is a stunner, just like her cousin Beccie. (Grandparents' Rights, the occasional brag, now come on, fair's fair, it's my blog!)

We had intended going home via Norwich  and have some lunch, but decided it was too late in the day and the place would be packed with desperate last-minute Christmas shoppers. Ok I'm being ironic. But I can never understand the frantic crowds...how many shops does it take to buy your Christmas Dinner, and a few presents? Why does it take six to eight supermarket visits, each one with two toppling high trolleys?

I digress. We decided to go to Bury St Edmunds instead. I hadn't been for years, befor eall the new shops were built. I have to say it looks very well planned and was quite bustling - but not aggressively so, on Sunday. We had a wander round some nice little shops, then popped into the museum at Smiths Row, the Market Cross  to see the Christmas Craft Fair. Well, what a treat that was! I asked permission to take photographs for the blog. I also bought some Christmas presents, I was spoilt for choice.

Aren't these spoons just gorgeous? I do have  a few bits of brightly coloured china about the house, these will fit in very well!

 I was hoping to have this post up before the exhibition finished there, but unfortunately Blogger chose this time to tell me I had run out of phot storage and it threw me somewhat. Had LOADS of helpful comments, and I do thank you all out there in Blogland who wrote such helpful and supportive comments - I was having a Major Wobble! When you are not very technologically minded it doesn't take much to throw you. And I still don't understand, if I have my photos stored on iphoto, /My Pictures  /drop box etc, why I need a FURTHER storage facility in order to put photos on my blog? WHat's that all about, apart from creaming off some money? I didn't ask for my photos to be stored in Picassa! They are already on my computer, for Heaven's sake! Unless you know better, in which case, enlighten me, do!

Anyway, I have purchased extra storage but will also look into reducing the size of my photos when I upload them if I can work out how to do it.and it isn't too long winded a process every time. So, sorry to the very nice lady at the Museum Shop who was expecting a heads up for the exhibition. Catch you next time with more textiley news!

Emergency Blog Post!

Sorry folks, this is an old photo from my blog, it's one of my stipple quilts. This header should have been a photo of some lovley gingham fabric and embroidery threads sent to me by the lovely Penny, of L is for Love blog fame. Penny and I have been doing some off-blog chatting recently, and she kindly sent me a fab little bundle of goodthings which I wanted to feature at the top. Only to find that I have apparently exceeded my storage! Some very techie stuff and options which make no sense to me come up when I want to upload more photos. Well, I can upload them from my camera into 'pictures' but I can't access any for the blog. I remember some of you, over time, have mentioned similar situations but don't know what you had to do to resolve them .

Can I throw this open to Blogland and ask for some advice? In words of one syllable if possible! You are talking to the terminally inept here! Posting this in great hopes of assistance and reassurance!