Life has been a little hectic recently.

I have been busy with a batik landscape. This was part of it at the beginning stage. Relieved that I can say that it is finished now and ready for Sandown next month . Phew!

--------------------------------------------------

Have also been having a big clearout and sort through of my stuff as it was threatening to overwhelm me. I started another blog here to sell some of the accumulation of many years of doll making. My hands can't cope with the stuffing any more.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

After nearly six months since the Cockermouth floods we still have no vehicular access to our house and are beginng to go a little cabin crazy every now and again! We are hoping that over the next couple of weeks we may have some idea of when work will start.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Last weekend it was Cockermouth's Georgian Fair and it was great to see visitors to the town and so many people dressed up. There was everything from maypole dancing and morris dancing to Cumberland wrestling and sedan chair racing! You can see some pictures here.

The Main Street is gradually coming to life again and looking almost better than ever with all the new shop fronts and clean paintwork. Woolfest next month too!

End of the year.

It seems only a few weeks since the start of this year and here we are nearly to the end of it. I think it was John Mortimer who remarked on the fact that breakfast seems to arrive every five minutes as you get older! We have now got to the point of remarking how quickly the weekend paper reappears!

We had a quiet and slightly different Christmas this time! There is usually a succession of family visits over the holiday period but the snowy weather put paid to that this year. We have had to keep in touch by phone and email and will have a succession of visits over the next few weeks which will be lovely. We haven't had much snow really but lots of ice and the pavements are treacherous especially today when they had a little water on them.

The pictures above were taken on Christmas Day afternoon. It is only about 200 metres from our house to the first field and this is the view from the top of it, looking across to the Lorton fells. The building you see in the view looking south is the Sheep and Wool Centre which was one of the evacuation centres in November. Just opposite there is where Woolfest is held each summer.

Even if the weather had been better we couldn't have driven anywhere ourselves as we still haven't got a safe road to drive out on, so we are still marooned! We hope something can be done soon but fully realise that there are still people in far worse position than us after the floods. Town councillors and our MP have been out to look at the problem and promise to see what can be done to help get it sorted. Keeping fingers crossed!

Although work in town has continued on a lower level over the last ten days , it has felt more like our home town again without all the workmen and their vans and skips. One of the bridges has been passed as safe to walk over now so that all the people at the other side of the Derwent were able to walk into town again rather than driving several miles to cross via another bridge. They were very isolated until just before Christmas.

It will be really good to see the renovation start up again next week but also good to have had this breather. Some shops have already got dried out, refitted and reopened and many more are hoping to be up and running by Easter.
Cockermouth is open for business again!

I couldn't keep up with making the badges so we are having them made as metal lapel badges to sell in aid of the Flood Fund. They should be here in first half of January!

Hope they sell out! :o)

Why haven't we got any snow?

More pictures taken as I walked Rosie this morning.




There was frost on the ground earlier but it has all melted away and we have blue skies now. The rest of the country has had snow and we have missed it again!! We have only had a couple of flurries of snow all winter-----never enough to make a snowball! It doesn't feel like we have had a proper winter.

These are the trees that you see as you climb up the path to the top of the park. Note that cloudless sky.

This is the path we walk up to reach those trees. It is quite a pull if you start down by the river and walk all the way up in one go.


This is one of the views from the top. The building that you can see halfway up on the right hand side is the Lakeland Sheep & Wool Centre. It is directly opposite where Woolfest is held in the summer.

Home town.

I was just surfing around and came across this video of my home town of Cockermouth. Hope the link works!

I know that people are beginning to plan their visit to Woolfest for this year. Perhaps this will give them a taste of what else there is of interest in town.

Wordsworth House (birthplace of William Wordsworth) has really come to life with the recent overhaul by the National Trust. The town will be bright with daffodils everywhere soon!

First go with the embellisher at last!

A couple of weeks ago I treated myself to an embellisher after resisting for as long as possible. Today was the first chance I have had to play on it .
This was done on painted Timtex and has wool roving (acquired at Woolfest last year), silk fancy yarn, ribbons and some Madeira gold FS thread used to embroider a little with a Bernina 180. The rest is just some stripped down silk flowers which allow a 3D effect.

I found it very useful to catch it all under some dress net to stop it moving whilst doing the needlepunching. The needles seem to go
straight through the holes in the net and then it just lifts straight off.