Hello Again!!

Now I know I have taken a very long, extended break, but I am back!! There were a lot of reasons I have not been blogging, but hopefully they are long gone, and I can get back into the habit of sharing some of my thoughts and things I make with you.


We have had lousy weather for ages. We had the first gales in October, which was very early for us and since then we have had high winds on and off, and loads of rain. On the night of December 8th we had terrible gales, with winds gusting to over 136mph and no power. One of the larger fishing boats, tied up at the harbour, was swamped by a 20ft wave, and sank! This is a picture of the boat a few days later.

 The boat had been pumped out and dragged further into the harbour.

 It looks as if there is not a lot wrong with it. The insurers, however, say it is a write off. The people who own the boat are heart-broken, as it has been in the family for three generations.

The harbour looks very calm, but when I was taking these pictures I was being buffeted by a high wind, and had to be careful I didn't end up in the harbour too! It was very difficult to take pictures without them being affected by the wind - see picture below -

Usually I just stay indoors, when the weather is bad, but I am getting quite fed up of wind and rain. We have had a few good days -

- but they have been few and far between. This is a picture of our bay at sunrise, with the tide out. The following was taken at the same time, turning the camera to the right, towards our neighbours. Although it does not look it, they are about four or five fields away,past the bridge -

When the wind is in a certain direction, and over 70mph, it lifts the water off the top of the sea, forming a mist called spindrift. I tried to get photos of it, but, what with the wind buffeting me and trying to get a steady photo, I did not succeed very well. The pictures look unclear, but that is the spindrift on our bay -

Now the waves don't look too bad in these pictures, but I was nearly blown off the path, taking these! Just after I went back in, the wind got worse!!


It sounds all doom and gloom, but we are just having an exceptional winter this year. The previous winters were fine, so we just have to think that we are now in the new year, and Spring is on its way!!


I know it is a bit late, but one of my friends sent me this, so enjoy the beautiful scenery! Double click it to get the benefit of the complete screen and turn your sound on!







Happy New Year!
Till next time,
tich

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Happy New Year Graphics provided by MUDTRAP.COM

Wonder what 2012 will have in store? Lots of fun and creative energy, I hope! For all my readers  - I hope you have a fulfilling New Year, with lots of health, wealth and happiness!

till next time

tich

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a joyous New Year!!
Hope Santa is good to you all.
tich

Digital Photography Class

I have got a good digital camera, but I must admit that, most of the time, I point and shoot, keeping my fingers crossed that the pictures turn out. Most of the time I am lucky, but sometimes I could wish for more. When I heard that there was to be a photography class held in the Community school, I signed up and just hoped I would not make too much of a fool of myself. 


There are five of us in the class. Two members (plus the teacher) have, what I would call, professional cameras, I am in the middle, and the two others have reasonable, but slightly older digital cameras. Our first assignment for the class was -'juxtaposition of circles and lines'. Phew!! I wandered round the school looking for lines and circles, and it was really amazing how many I found. I deleted loads, but was quite happy with these remaining photos.

 Window blind cord.

 Door handle and lock

 Radiator

 Screws

  Screw

Drawing pin

I enjoyed doing this, but still like my landscapes better. Guess I am not arty enough.

Till next time.

tich

Tana Lawn

 I have definitely lost the impetus to blog regularly. It is not that I have little to share, but that the time just seems to get away from me too easily. Anyway, I am on today!


You will remember, perhaps, that I was given a lot of scraps of Tana Lawn a long time ago - years in fact!

I decided I was going to make a log cabin with foundation piecing, drew out a block I liked and photocopied lots of this design. I only had scraps of the lawn, albeit some of them were a reasonable size. I really enjoyed puttering away at this, and laying out lots of permutations of the log cabin on the floor.

I sewed four of the smaller blocks to make bigger blocks and eventually got this -

Next I had to decide what kind of border I wanted. If I put on ordinary cotton, it would have been too heavy and eventually have made the lawn tear or wear badly. I decided on a piano key design, using the material I had -

The photo below, with my husband's feet sticking out, shows the top completed. It still has the papers behind the border, and these will not be taken out until I get round to sandwiching it, prior to quilting.

I have still got quite a lot of scraps left, so I might make another top in a different design - later!!
Till next time.
tich

Summer's End

I can't believe it has been a month since I last blogged, but the time has just flown. Our weather has changed radically since this time last month. Our grandchildren were here and having fun on the beach in August.

The dog was on its lead, because the previous day she had taken off over the dunes after a rabbit and disappeared for two hours!! She came home on her own, happy but exhausted!!


Since then the weather has deteriorated. Last weekend we had our first gales, which is really early in the season. We had a weather warning out from the Saturday night, with high winds and torrential rain until late Monday. We woke up on the Sunday morning to no electricity. It was off from 7.30am till 6.20pm. No ferries or planes could get out, as the weather was too rough, so the repairmen had to wait until it calmed down a bit, before they could get out to repair the break. Only ten houses were affected, but we thought it was the whole island. We had just hatched quail from the incubator and had one new one chick, so the woodburner was on high the whole day to keep them warm, whilst my husband and I went round in t-shirts, trying to cool down! The winds were between 55-60mph, so that was not bad. The wild geese are back early and eating the grain, which has still to be harvested. It is going to be a long winter!


Whilst the girls were here, we had our yearly horticultural show. They entered the visitors' section as usual, and the elder girl got three prizes for-
1. Making something from articles found on the beach (she thought the dried seaweed looked like reindeer antlers.)

2. Shellcraft

 3. Painting/drawing of a Sanday view. (The Wetlands)

Unfortunately the younger girl did not get anything. There were a large number of visitors this year, so the competition was fierce.

Hopefully we will get an Indian Summer later on in the year, but for now I am going to read, as it has been raining on and off all day!

Till next time,

tich

House Name

House names can be quite personal, but when we moved here a few years ago, we liked our house name. The only thing was, there was a bit of a mix up with it. The locals called it one thing and the incomers another. The sign on the gate did not help as it was neither one nor the other, as it was not spelled correctly. The sign was very tatty, and I wanted to repaint it, but did not know which version to use.

I rather liked the local version of the name, but when we put it on the computer to order something, we didn't exist! When we looked up the deeds for the house going back to the 1700s, we found the name was not the local version, but the English one, so that settled it. My husband took down the old sign and sanded a bit of wood for me.
I told you  that I had been speaking to Prof. Michael Barnes about Viking Runes at one of the Soulka Weekends, but he told me about the Pictish Ogam alphabet, and very kindly sent me a copy of it - thanks Michael!. (the Picts were here before the Vikings) 
I decided to paint the original name in large letters, the ogam symbols above the letters and to include the local name in small letters underneath. That way I covered all bases. I also tried to design a Pictish looking symbol. I am really pleased with the results. My husband has to sand the edges and varnish it, and then it can go on display.

Till next time.

    tich