Sunday 5 February 2012

white stuff and other things...

This weekend we have had snow. Quite a bit of it. It started with a very light dusting yesterday morning which looked as though it wasn't going to come to anything but by yesterday evening there was a good covering and by this morning my little garden looked like this...


That little splosh of yellow on the left is one poor, very confused rose. It has been trying to flower and now its bloom is freezing and wilting fast.

If I'm honest, I'm not a big fan of snow. Can never quite understand the excitement. I'm a bit rubbish in the cold and there are times when it seriously gets in the way of whatever it is you need to be doing.

But it does look beautiful. And today was a day off, with no particular pressures to get anywhere. And this was very lovely, white white stuff, powdery and squeaky underfoot. None of that horrible wet, slushy brown stuff.

So I wrapped up warm and went for a walk with friends...


Their garden looked really lovely, and somehow the red berries on the trees seemed more vibrant than usual against the almost monochrome background. I have to confess to really missing son 2's DSLR which he took back to Derbyshire with him before Christmas; my little Kodak point and shoot just doesn't have the capacity to capture the same detail and any close ups require willpower to overcome camera shake (I never realised I can't hold a camera still!!).


Honestly, I had to hold my breath to take this photo!

Of course, if you keep stopping to take pictures of snow, your friends begin to disappear into the distance...


The temperature hasn't risen above freezing today so the snow has stayed on the trees and hedgerows and the surroundings had a kind of muted quality.



Very pretty. We had a lovely walk with lots of chat and laughter, and the odd 'Good King Wenceslas' moment...!


And the bowl of hot soup with warm bread went down a treat after this!

Back home, after a bit of experimenting with needle sizes and patterns, I made a start with my Rowan Silk Twist yarn...


This is a bit of a leap into the unknown. I found a pattern on knitty.com  which I thought was a bit unusual. Instead of knitting the back, front, sleeves etc separately then sewing up, the body is made in one piece and then the sleeves sewn in. This had appeal (I hate sewing up!) but I am just a bit apprehensive that I have got the right number of stitches so that it comes out the right size. The site assures me that this is a very versatile pattern and you work out the number of stitches to cast on and off based on a tension gauge swatch. So I dutifully knitted up a sample with a couple of different sizes of needle, picked the one I thought worked best, did the maths and went for it! Fingers crossed!

Finally tonight, a huge thankyou to Shelley who has very kindly given me a Versatile Blogger award. This is the second time I've received this, last time from Andrea last June. I don't think I realised there were Rules last time - I just had an idea I was supposed to say something about myself and pass it on. But apparently, the rules are:
  1. Add the award to your blog
  2. Thank the person who gave you the award
  3. List the rules on your blog
  4. Share 7 random things about yourself
  5. Nominate 15 other bloggers
  6. Inform these 15 by commenting in their blogs

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about awards really. Don't get me wrong, I'm very flattered that someone feels that what I post on here is enjoyable enough to be worthy of a mention. I just slightly object to the 'bossiness' of the whole rules thing! I'm happy if people like what they see here, but I don't actually write it for anyone else other than me really. This space is kind of my place to express what's in my head (sometimes a bit of a sanitised version of what's in my head to be truthful...) and to give me a chance to record the things that matter to me. So being told what to post about goes a bit against the grain (and I have never been very good at being told what to do!). But...I have to confess that I quite like reading other bloggers interesting snippets of information that give us a glimpse into their lives and personalities (or at least, what they want us to see!) so, thanks again Shelley, I will give it some thought and if I can think of 7 things that I want to share about myself (or can make 7 up that make me sound more interesting? ha ha!) then at some point I will. I am obviously not that rebellious as i've already complied with 1-3 of the rules...

Off to try to reinvent myself... ;-)

Til next time
Sx

5 comments:

  1. Such pretty pictures of the snow. I have really only seen snow in person a handful of times in my life so it always comes as a novelty. I can say with absolute sincerity that I NEVER want to live anywhere that gets regular and heavy snowfall! I'm struggling with the heat here at the moment but I hate the cold even more.
    Congrats on the award. I'm like you, I always like reading snippets of information about other people's lives.
    xXx Helen

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  2. Yes, that snow is surely beautiful!!
    The knitting looks interesting!

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  3. Lovely snowy pics. Snow is so pretty but so disruptive.
    No need to re invent your self. I love reading your blog & the reason people come back to read it is because you are interesting and write some wonderful posts.

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  4. Hello,,
    So beautiful winter pictures, snow can be beautiful but cold.
    I love winter but when spring comes it is always very good.

    Good winter Tuesday and hug from Marit, Norway.

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  5. Blue skies in one post and snow in the next, oh Mother Nature how lovely you are. That snow is making me feel cold, we are having very cool weather here in the middle of our normally roasting summer. I would love to have it snow as long as I had toasty heating to come home to.
    xx Sandi

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Thanks for taking the time to comment! I love to read your thoughts.