Spring isn't just yellow

It was such a beautiful morning I couldn't resist a quick trip around the garden. I had the camera in my hand, so here are a few quick pics, although the quality leaves a lot to be desired.



It isn't long since there was a race to see who had their daffodils flowering in time for St David's Day. This year it seems that everyone won! In fact, if you look closely at this shot you can see that one of the flowers is already spent.




While yellow is a refreshing site in spring it is lovely to see the other colours appearing too. This Camellia uaually flowers at the beginning of May, however, not only is it now in full flower...





.....some of the flowers are already dead.









The strength of the sun can be seen in the depth of the shadow,










These little flowers are forming a carpet under the trees, and there too are the bluebells. It won't be long before they are ready to flower too.

Hello again

Well, it has been 3 months since my last post, and to say the least those three months have been eventful. However, not in the way I would have wished!

Firstly, I have hardly been able to get online. I'm not sure when the problem started, in fact I don't think I realised that there was a problem at first. I was aware that emails had suddenly become very infrequent, and that I seemed to be switched offline more than I was online, but I just thought it was because people were on holiday, or that the Internet was very busy. However, then I discovered that I couldn't send emails. They would just sit in my outbox, and when I finally discovered this there was a long queue, no notification, they were just quietly waiting for something to happen. This situation is still continuing, we can only send on one of our addresses, sometimes 2. We can receive on these too - but sometimes we can't. Is there any logic? I don't know, but apparently my Firewall is reacting with the ISP and causing problems. The problem now is that I can't stay online long enough to sort it out. I am writing this post in Word, saving it onto DVD and will then put it online, maybe at my son's. If anyone has been trying to get in touch please keep trying - even if you have to resort to leaving a comment below with your email address included. I do want to hear from you, please try again.

Next there was an injury. Now I'm not sure how it happened, I didn't know that I had injured myself. I was aware for some time (from about May) that I had pins and needles in 2 fingers in my right hand (this is my dominant hand). By the end of August the pins and needles had turned to pain, not an ache, a definite pain. It was agony to do anything, writing or stitching (or knitting etc) was nil, at times it became all consuming. Sleep was impossible as it seemed to be worse at night, I was unable to find a resting place and painkillers didn't touch it. A visit to the doc's informed me that I had damaged the nerve on my elbow. Now how on earth could I have done that without knowing? I don't know - but I did. Rest was the answer, and, although the symptoms lessened while we were on holiday, the problem is still there.

You may or may not know that we had a new grandchild during all this. Our daughter-in-law gave birth to our third grandchild in mid-August. He was early, not due until early October, and, although he worried us for a while, is now doing well. I had a lovely long cuddle today, you can imagine how much I enjoyed that.

Next we had the postal strike. What fun that was! The collection service locally was supposed to be working, albeit intermittently. Packages were taken to the Post Office, but took days to arrive which was most frustrating for the recipients. A couple were returned as undeliverable. They must have been sitting around in strange places for a while, they were in quite a state when they were returned, at least the packaging was. Thankfully we had put our return address on the back of the packages - always worth doing. Customers were contacted and the goods were sent on their way again. However, those that had only sent an email address were more difficult to contact - no email as detailed above. Mails from a different address were neatly stacking up in others spam boxes, a lesson learnt in always checking spam, even if it only turned out to be something not required.

We had other dramas too. Other members of the family needed looking after requiring a stay away from home again. We managed to get through several shows without too many mishaps, but phone calls from customers morning noon and night began to make us feel a little like the Windmill Theatre ('We Never Close'). We usually work at weekends, so one customer rang us at 6.30 on a Sunday morning to catch us before we left - please could we post a packet of machine needles to her tomorrow! Phone calls have also been received at 11.30 pm, and not from customers overseas who have miscalculated the time.

Phew! I've got all that off my chest. Now, maybe I can start to make the odd entry or two, adding pictures may be a problem, but I'll face that when I have to.

Oh, and if you want a little light relief you may like to look here.

Another day, another Exhibition

I don't want you to think we have been idle since my last post. Far from it. This time of year is full of different venues. We have spent a lot of time travelling from place to place, and later today we are off to Eastleigh College for the exhibition at the annexe in Cranbury Road. Open tonight from 6pm - 8pm and again from 10am - 3pm tomorrow, pop along and see what has been going on for the last few months! The exhibitions cover embroidery, quilting, flower arranging and art. They are usually well worth seeing.

On Sunday we are off to Salisbury. St Edmunds Art Centre is the venue, for an exhibtion with Inspire Stitchers. This promises to be worth a visit too. Only open from 10am - 4pm. After that we are hot foot to the car to career off down the road towards Urchfont Manor. I've forgotten what's going on there, too much to take in this week!

The winner has been announced on the Dye a Lot blog pop over and see who has won - and then go back next week for a new little competition. I have had fun reading all the emails from everyone. A total of 72 people took part in the last draw.

I am wanting to have a little moan. It has been brought to my attention that a tutor I know vaguely has developed a list of workshops based solely on other people's work. Apparently the last episode involved a visit to an exhibition where she saw something she fancied. On arriving home she made a complete and apparently fairly exact copy. This is now being offered as a workshop. I'm interested to know what you all think. Any comments? I know that at least 2 workshops are based solely on my book - and another is based on a book by a well known textile artist. Customers have mentioned this to me and complained - I have told them to complain to the tutor in question, but I don't know if they have. I've seen the results of some of the workshops, so know that this is more than just a rumour. I'd like to know what you all think.