do you mind if i knit

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone....................

In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind make moan,

Earth stood hard as iron

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid winter,

Long ago

Hello dearest readers, these words are the first verse of "In the Bleak Mid-winter" written by Christina Rossetti. I scribbled down this verse on a till receipt I found at the bottom of my bag, from The New English Hymnal, hymn 28.

Hugo and I went to a carol service on Christmas eve. We slipped and scrunched through the deep snow to get to church, along with a sizeable number of other people, considering the snowed-in sort of weather.

Squeezed in, at the bottom of the said till receipt is the last verse, verse five of the hymn, which I think is very touching, and I want to share with you.........

What can I give him

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd

I would bring a lamb;

If I were a wise man

I would do my part;

Yet what can I give him -

Give him my heart.

  I heard the Unthank sisters sing this hymn the other day, they sang it very, very slowly, and it was beautiful.

Merry Christmas! I hope you had a good Christmas?

We had a lovely meal on Christmas day, with Hugo's family, and have been dodging out and about all over the place, when we should probably have been resting at home, doing precisely nothing.

This cold weather makes you tired don't you think? And the long dark nights too?

I've been de-frosting the bird bath, so the birds have water to drink. The other day, a bird was pecking at the frozen water in the bird bath, and I felt very guilty, it was obviously desperate for something to drink. We've decided that the entire neighborhood of birds is visiting our garden at the moment, it's busy out there in our garden. One thing we both find amazing is this, the birds are fussy eaters!

I'm going to slip away now, and say cheerio till the New Year. Take care, and see you in 2011! Cheerio! Love Vanessa xxx

We've been in Cornwall, and it was FANTASTIC!

Hello! LOVELY, LOVELY, LOVELY to see you! Really and truly! We got back from Cornwall at the weekend, the lovely Cornwall, the beautiful out-of-season non-crowded Cornwall, where we spent a week resting (a bit, actually we seemed to cram in a lot), and recuperating. I still haven't caught up with my bloggy friends, all your lovely messages, the post, etc etc, you know how it is when you return from a holiday, everything hits you at a hundred miles a minute, mainly real life. Phew.

We really needed that week away, a week of escapism, and it didn't disappoint. We had lovely days out, exploring, eating good food, marvelling, but the icing on the cake was the GORGEOUS cottage we rented. See the true-to-life photos here. It made such a difference to return to the cottage each night, knowing that we were going to be cosy in front of the wood burning stove, living in beautiful surroundings. Antonia and David have other places to rent out, which I would love to stay in too. Their website is exquisite, just like their properties, which you can see here. Their website will make you drool and dream.

This is the only photo I took inside the cottage, because each morning we were dashing out, and photos were forgotten about, but the link above gives you an excellent idea of what the cottage was like. I had to show you this lamp shade, which I was fascinated by. A sea anemone lamp shade, which sort of sums up Antonia's imaginative and considered approach to the decorating. We could feel the thought that went in to everything, from the toaster, to the mirror in the bathroom, the original works of art on the walls, to the welcome pack sitting on a beautiful wooden board on our arrival. Very special. And whilst I love my own home, I wouldn't mind being back there right now!

It's quite difficult to know where to start picture wise, in this blog post................... well, let me see, what was I taking photos of mostly?

The boats and their colourful buoys were a joy to behold. Infact, I could do with returning to Cornwall and it's coastal towns and villages just to draw and paint the boats and buoys.

How absolutely joyful a colour to have your boat painted, bright turquoise!

And you know something? Things were positioned so very nicely! The triangle shape created by these three boats is a gift, pictorially speaking.

 

Yes, those boats and their buoys were a joy, I wish I'd taken more photos now. Well, as I say, I need to return to Cornwall.

I thought the buoys above looked like an art installation.

We didn't just prowl round harbours, me snapping away with my camera at boats and the buoys tied to them.

We did a bit of visiting of various must-sees. We had high expectations for the Eden Project, but were astonished to find ourselves disappointed by the in-your-face preachiness of the information everywhere and the ice rink, which we were baffled as to how it fits into the eco-friendly theme. I won't go on about the other things.

We loved the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, what a splendid place that turned out to be. There was a special exhibition about lighthouses and the lives of the keepers. I find the human side of history especially interesting. It was fascinating to learn about the lighthouse keeper's lives before everything became automated, and the keepers became redundant. There was a cabinet displaying some of the crafts, such as knitting, drawing and making ships in bottles. I love all that sort of stuff.

We had tea and cake in the cafe overlooking the harbour, where there were some multi-million pound luxury yachts berthed. Those boats are astonishing and fascinating, even if you try to imagine the wealth behind them, I suspect that probably isn't even half the reality of the riches, influence and power of these boat owners. One was called "Steel", and we mused that it might be owned by a steel magnate.

One of the things we participated in, was the 'sail a remote controlled boat'. That was FUN, and it didn't matter if you lost control and bashed into another boat. Ahem.

The man over-seeing the proceedings had to turf me off my remote control, in the nicest way possible, but firmly.

I'd love to be able to say we had sunshine all week, but we didn't, that's something we're resigned to expecting when we holiday in the United Kingdom. We were given some half days of sun. Usually rain in the morning, sun in the few hours left of the day after lunch, but largely there were full sunny days to be enjoyed. Weather reports are important when it comes to holidays, aren't they?!

I like to think of this sort of weather as 'atmospheric'.

Atmospheric when you're warm and dry in your car.

The sunny days were glorious. Isn't the British countryside spectacular in the sunshine?

We had a rollicking old time driving around the country lanes with their high hedges either side of the road.

What else did we do?

We went to St.Ives and had a lovely time wondering around the lanes, going into galleries and shops (yarn shops!). 

We visited the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St.Ives, which was quite simply wonderful. It was so fantastic, I plan to give it a post all of it's own some time.

Then there was the Tate in St.Ives, another place worth visiting. The cafe was at the top of the building, and of course a coffee and cake stop was made. I loved the menu cover, with the silhouette of a cup and saucer formed from a detail of an Alfred Wallis painting. Love his work.

We treated ourselves to lunch (the very much cheaper alternative to the evening meal), at Rick Stein's seafood restaurant, which was nice, but totally out-shone by lunch at Jamie Oliver's Fifeteen restaurant.

Fifeteen is perched on a cliff, with spectacular views, and we were given a window seat!

I took some photos of the view for you.

Well dear readers I'm going to scoot off before this becomes a list of holiday activities. I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into our holiday. It's lovely to be back with you, so cheerio till Wednesday. Cheerio! Love Vanessa xxx

 

Mother and Father Blackbird.

Hello dear darling readers, sorry for my absence on Wednesday, this has been one of those weeks where my trousers feel looser from all the rushing around I've been doing. Wednesday just skipped away, before I knew it, it was time for my knitting group meeting, which I had to go to, just to get away from all the rushing around.

So here I am, at the end of a week, feeling so tired I feel slightly hysterical, it's that sort of tiredness, hysterical tiredness. It's not my body so much as my brain, which has been on overdrive with new ideas and plans, and thingy-ma-jigs I'm dyeing to tell you all about.

Today was meant to be the day I revealed one of the two mystery patterns I did for Coats Crafts, but there seems to have been a hitch at the Coats Crafts end, and my pattern hasn't gone live yet.

Hopefully I'll be able to reveal it on Monday.

This afternoon I popped in on a pal, to see the bird that is nesting outside her studio window.

She's put a bit of netting up to give the Blackbird a sense of privacy, but I could have put my nose against the window, and been right next to the nest if I'd wanted to. I didn't do that, but it shows how close I could have got.

Barbara was hoping the mum might leave the nest, and we'd get a glimpse of the chicks, but the only time mum got up was when the dad arrived with a worm. Most of the time she was sitting on top of her chicks, keeping them nice and warm and protected.

Would you like to see Mother Blackbird on her nest a bit more clearly?

Here you go:

Isn't she adorable?

Do you see the seagull's feather?! Wonderful!

Barbara, or Bob as we know her, told me the nest took quite a bit of time to build, then Mrs.Blackbird left it for a couple of weeks. Bob thinks it was to let the nest dry out, because apparently it looked very damp and unwelcoming when it was first made.

When the mum leaves the nest, apparently the father watches over it. I love that.

I realised as I was sitting down to do this blog post, that I'd forgotten to take photos of the progress of my knitted dress. I don't know how I could have squeezed in the time to take them this week, to be honest. I'll try and take photos over the weekend, inbetween work.

I've also been doing some 'thinking' about my work I sell, and its cost.
I've been working hard to try and find a way to reduce the price of my paintings. I do realise they are too costly for many people to purchase them, and that really bothers me. I want to make them a more accessible and affordable price. I've been trying out getting laser prints made, and I'm really pleased with the results. Prints are the only way I can sell my pictures and make them affordable. The originals take too long to do, to charge less than I'm asking on my website, sadly. This way, I can also sell images I haven't wanted to part with, and haven't put on my website. I have a painting I've done that I'd never part with, and printing it would solve that little dilemma.

I'm thinking limited edition prints, say, a run of 100 for each painting, what do you think?

For instance, a print of this painting could be £23.50. It would be signed and numbered.

I was also thinking that this print could be sold as a set of four paintings, like this:

A set of four prints, each signed and numbered, could cost £85, and there would be a saving of £9.

The same with the set above.

I'd also sell my still lives as prints, signed and numbered.

I'd sell them in my etsy shop, so purchasing them would be about clicking a button, rather than e-mailing me, as is the case with my website.

I've got some other things I'm going to sell prints of, up my sleeve, but that will have to wait till next week to be revealed.

What do you think? Do you like this idea? Would you buy at this price if you were in the running for buying my work as prints?

I would so love to know, and I'd be so grateful if you let me know what you think. Thank you.

Well, I'm going to potter off now, and try and get my brain to relax.

Have a wonderful weekend, take care, and see you on Monday! Love Vanessa xxx

Doesn't time fly!

I just looked at my watch, and did a double take, it's six in the evening, and I'm just sitting down to say hello to you, where has the day gone!

Did you have a good weekend? I hope so. Ours was a very simple weekend really, just walking the dogs, I did some work on my paintings, and Hugo tried to find things around the house to put on e-bay, to make some extra cash. I had to keep a close eye on him.

I thought you might like to see a before-and-after, with one of my paintings. I showed you the above watercolour a few weeks ago, and since then, I've been working on it. I worried that it looked unfinished, and you can be the judge of whether I've ruined it or not, because this is the painting now:

Personally, I prefer this painting after having worked into it more, it just looks more substantial, but you might disagree with me!

I'm so pleased you all liked my last post so much, I did enjoy that massive shot of colour, and glad you liked it too. So when it came to today's post, I was in two minds about it. It's starting off nice and colourful, with the photos of my painting, but I'm just about to launch into showing you pictures of our weekend walks, which are much less colourful. I prefer to put up colour filled posts, but our walks this weekend were so lovely, I thought I'd show you the photos. So be prepared for a sudden drop in cheery colour, because we woke up to a thin covering of snow on the ground on Saturday morning, so the landscape was quite powdery white.

Even the beach had snow on it. But the day was bright as a shiny new button, and the effect of the sun made us feel happy. The dogs were running round like puppies, I love that happy body language of dogs, it's so endearing.

That was our morning walk.

After going home from the beach, doing some work on my paintings, and having a quick read of the paper, it was soon the afternoon, and the light was beautiful.

And it was still light! The days are definitely getting longer, yipee!

So we went off for another walk, by the river. Inland there was more snow on the ground, but the sun was still warm. The evening light was soft. I love that soft light.

We crossed Chain Bridge, (that's it's name), and walked along the opposite bank.

It was still, you know? Peaceful, noone else around. I love having the countryside to myself. Here in the North East of England, we get deserted beaches and countryside, which must seem like a miracle to people from more heavily populated areas. When I first moved here from London almost ten years ago, I couldn't believe how deserted the roads were of cars, now I take it a bit for granted. Well, until we drive to more populated areas, then I know just how fortunate we are.

On the other side of the river, the footpath is lined with intermitent stone walls, which you can get a nice clear view of, because the trees are bare at the moment. These hand-built walls are extraordinary, don't you think? Works of art I think.

Can you feel the chill in the air, in these photos?!

When taking these photos, behind me was the river, with its banks full of the dried stems of giant, Cow Parsley, I think that's what it was.

Hugo found the most spectacularly large hollow stem of the stuff.

And Hugo did what boys do, he made it into a piece of technical equipment, a Telescope.

Well, I then thought that it would be interesting to see what the dogs would make of it.

Douglas made it perfectly clear that he was very uncomfortable looking down a tube. (Shame I didn't think of using a treat to get him to look at me).

Ellie was the perfect little performer, and I managed to get one photo that wasn't blurred, of her little beady eye looking at me.

Ellie is more of a natural infront of the camera. Douglas would rather hide from anything remotely odd looking, or even anything that isn't odd looking.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the excursion? I'm off now, to do what, I don't know. Maybe some knitting? Yes, some knitting, after I've lit the wood burning stove, it's cold in here. So I'll see you on Wednesday then? Yes? Goody! Love Vanessa xxx

Fragile birdy legs alert!

Hello dear readers................. Welcome to Thursday almost Friday, almost the weekend.

Thank you so much for entering the great tea towel ironing debate from yesterdays post. I now know as a certainty that ironing, and the topic of precisely which items receive the iron treatment, is not something I alone think about, ponder about, even agonise and feel guilty about. How wonderful to be part of a huge group of people who think about the same things as me!

Melissa left me a great comment telling me how to make my iron redundant, which I thought sounded more like magic. I'd never heard of this trick to avoid ironing clothes, or anything else you fancy freeing of its wrinkles. Apparently, Melissa tells me, you put a damp cloth in the clothes dryer with your wrinkly item of clothing, turn the dryer on for ten minutes, and hey presto, your clothing is no longer wrinkled. If I had a clothes dryer, I'd be trying this one out. Melissa says she no longer owns an iron! Is that magic or what?! I personally would feel much more liberated as a woman, if I never had to do another bit of ironing in my life. I don't even want to have to iron the smallest, most beautiful handkerchief in the world. Nope, even if it was so small, it belonged to a mouse, ladybird, or ant. 

Now, just a small question. What do you see in the above photo? When I took the photo, I saw a heart. But after putting it in this post, and thinking about the main subject of this post, I can see a bird in flight. Can you see it? I hope so! Isn't that great? A heart, a bird, isn't it wonderful?!

I just wanted to mention something that was flagged up in a couple of comments, which I thought was important to let everyone know about, just in case you don't already know, which I didn't myself. Apparently you have to be careful with leaving out yarn and thread for the birdies to use in their nests, because birds and chicks can get these caught around their legs, with dire consequences. I understand it's best to keep threads and yarn short, if you're going to leave them out. And apparently natural fibres are better than man made. It doesn't bear thinking about, the image of a bird tangled in threads and yarn, just horrible.

So on a much happier note, Hugo just called from his office asking what I'd like for supper. I'm so glad I won't be making myself 'cereal poured into a bowl, with milk over the top', for the third night running. I bring up the 'cereal for supper' subject with confidence, because I now know from your comments, that eating cereal for a meal is not my habit alone. I couldn't believe how many of you do the same thing! When I mentioned my cereal habit yesterday, I thought I was the only person in the world who did such a thing (I'm made to feel guilty about this cereal habit you see). Of course, it's ridiculous that I should think I was the only person in the world to do this, but I did.

I've requested stir-fry for supper, to make up for all the vegetables I've been missing out on, the last couple of days. Hugo makes a delicious stir fry. While I'm waiting for Hugo to return home and cook supper, there's some ironing that needs doing!

Hmmm, why not put off doing something now, that can be done tomorrow, especially when there's something important, like crochet, that needs doing right this minute! see you tomorrow dear readers. Love Vanessa xxx

A glass of Sherry to keep me in the Christmas spirit......................

It's getting dark in the day, earlier and earlier isn't it? ................. When I take the dogs for a walk, in the afternoon, I have to go out as early as three o'clock..................... There's a house on one of my routes, that sits high up.............. and looks like something out of Alicia's Christmas scenes, her recent post here is magical ................... ............ There is a small cluster of trees further on in the walk, showing their bare bones, so I can still see the house, lit up in the distance............. ............. I like to think of this house as being something out of a film set............... A haunted house!.................. That's not very Christmassy is it? ......................... BOO !.................. Sorry............. I could not resist.............. Do you think maybe I'm a little behind the moment with my haunted house? More Halloweeny isn't it? Not Christmassy AT ALL................. I have to be honest with you.......... I've spent a good part of this year doing a Christmas book, (for Christmas 2009). Yep, I had the Christmas carols playing over and over throughout this summer, to make me feel Christmas spirited for drawing and painting my illustrations........................... Hugo and I are also still recovering from the building works................................ Plus, Christmas 2007 seems like yesterday! I actually feel like I've been having some sort of weird Christmas experience most of the year........................... and so I feel tiiiiired, tired of decorating and housey things............................. We spent all of Sunday clearing out rooms to make way for book cases. And that was after a day, on Saturday, spent fighting the crowds in Edinburgh, to get some Christmas shopping done........................... This year I fancy the idea of sitting back and watching everyone else do Christmas decorations, while I drink my glass of Sherry, and chomp on my Mince Pie................. I sound a bit "bah-humbug!".............. I will be joining in of course.............. but it will all be accompanied by a glass of Sherry.............. : )

Winter wonderland weekend !!!!!!!!!

WHAT A WEEKEND !!!!!!!!!!!!! ............Sorry folks, I don't mean it's been a weekend of debauched partying............... no I mean we've been huddled round the wood burning stove mostly, because outside it's been like something out of 'the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', where the Witch turns the landscape to winter................... I suppose the frozen Sparrows in the picture above are quite appropriate, given my reference to Narnia ................ We live in the North of England, but because we live by the sea, we rarely get that winter wonderland effect on our surrounding landscape................ you can't have the best of both worlds can you.................... We actually have to drive in-land to see snow............. when it snows.................. Anyway, the photograph above is from Saturday, when we took the doggies for a walk................ ............... We had woken up that morning, to see frost, well .......frost! ......... Frost that looked more like snow! Very exciting!!!!!!!! .............. Frost, that when you walked on it went crunch, crunch, crunch ............. like walking on snow.....................Saturday's walk was lovely.......... awe inspiring.............. and freeeeeezzzzing!!!!!!! ............. We returned home to our wood burning stove, a cup of tea, and a mince pie, hoping the frost would last till the next day................... .............. And it did! Not only had the winter wonderland survived the night........ the sky was a brilliant blue and the land was sparkling with white frost................ On Sunday, nature was smiling on us............. ........... So off we went on another walk with the doggies. We were all wrapped up in our winter woolies, even the dogs had their coats on ................ Douglas seems to get particularly excited about the frost/snow, and does a lot of rolling and wiggling around on his back................. which we don't quite understand, but looks very endearing.................. a happy, wriggly little dog with all four paws in the air...................... ............ One of the things I love about a winter landscape, that has been covered in a sparkling white blanket, is how each branch and twig of every tree becomes fascinating ................ .......... more magic coated branches................ ............. And you know what? People we met on our walk were smiling .............. smiling at the wonder of it all ................ Isn't that marvelous?!

They led................... I followed..................

I am not physically fit............................... This sounds like some sort of guilty confession doesn't it ..................... Yesterday, while Hugo and the doggies jauntily took the lead, I struggled behind them, on a walk that largely involved steep paths ................. .................. Well, half the walk was going up a vertical incline, and the second half was going down a vertical incline. .......................... And I used to be so fit .......................... Despite their unfeasibly short legs, Ellie and Douglas are real little troupers. The only hiccups occur when they are faced with puddles. (Puddles to us, probably ponds to them). On this walk, Ellie stranded herself in some mud, but I thought she looked like she had dipped her paws in hot chocolate ............. We had lunch by this Cairn ................ the dogs were very interested in Hugo's delicious home-made pate ..................... And then we headed off back down the hill............... We were walking in the cheviots, which aren't too far from where we live ................. we're very fortunate ............................ ................ The winter light was soft, and made the far hills look hazy .............. and beautiful................ This is one of our favourite walks, not just because it's lovely country side, (I love rugged landscapes), but because we always feel like we're the only one's there for miles around, quite a privilege on our crowded little island ................

Purple Heather hills.............

Hugo and I drove up to Edinburgh, along the scenic, twisty roads route, last Saturday................The purple hills along the way were so vibrant, the heather looked as though it had been coloured with a magical, other-worldly paint brush............... It was glorious. My little camera, quite simply, does not do justice to the colour of the landscape............... Plus, standing there in the stillness.......... amongst the rolling lilac purple haze hills............ well, there's nothing quite like that sensation of quiet in nature................ and feeling part of it.............. We moved on quickly when a line of cars pulled up not far away, people spilling out of the vehicles, brandishing shot guns for an afternoon of hunting. To change the subject completely.............. I've just taken photographs of the finished basement, to share with you! I just need to upload them.............. so I'll reveal all next week............. for the curious amongst you............ Have a lovely weekend...............

Nature's freebies.

 

I'm always on the alert for 'freebies'......................... 

I mean nature's freebies..........

 .............. Like shells from the sea shore ...........  

.............. When we take the dogs for a walk on the beach, they run around, and bark their heads off at any dog who will listen .........while I  'scavenge'............ 

..... I trail along behind, picking up shells with holes in them.............. 

I then push them on to my fingers............. 

......... rather than carrying them in my pocket .............  

...........And I say to myself............."I could do 'this' with these............. 

....... Or 'that' with these"..............

The problem is deciding which idea to go with .........................

......... And of course.........................

.......................... Actually doing it!

Sometimes, actions speak louder than words............