New year resolution

Although I've had no comments, I know people are reading this - I did get an email from one kind soul.  Hope whoever you are you had a good Christmas.  I'm hoping for a better New Year than this one which hasn't been a lot of fun.

Had hoped to have pictures from a trip away (our first time away from this house in a year) but weather intervined and we didn't go: you'll have to imagine what's over the hill and far away.
Best wishes for the New Year to you all.

Oh, snow !

Love this postbox outside of Worcester cathedral.  Dusted with frost it looks like a very superior mince pie crust.  We'd escaped the worst of the weather, but it's snowing now - it can if it likes as I've got no reason to go out until next Sunday!  Just a pile of sprouts and parsnips to deal with and rather a lot of cooking, but I determined to do some in advance tomorrow so I can relax on Friday morning - and if I've forgotten anything someone else can get it...

Glowing

Actually managed to cover one of the notebooks today.  It's not as neat inside as I would have liked, but I'm reasonably pleased to have done it at all.

And it's an improvement on the rather dull navy blue it once was.  Unfortunately, the dull light means you can't really see the glowing pink of the handmade paper which is brightening up my shelf.

A small rememberance

The little boy on the left of this picture is my father, aged about two, his older brother would have been about four.  It was taken in about 1915 for their father to take into the army as he went off to fight in WW1.  My father looks fairly close to tears - his hesitant expression is the forerunner of a scowl seen in photos of my brother and myself and my daughter at a similar age.  My father and mother both died 21years ago, in their mid-seventies.  Both had been ill for a while but had carried on as best they could, my mother surviving my father by about six months then dying suddenly and unexpectedly just before Christmas.  They both died as they had lived - quietly, without fuss and wthout causing anyone any trouble.

The best advice my mother could give was 'if you don't know what to do, do nothing, keep quiet and wait, and something will come to you'.  I'm taking that advice at the moment while I try to sort out several things at once, I'd like to think she's nodding in approval.

Shop locally

 

Bought these beautiful papers from a local gallery today, to cover some hardback notebooks that have been waiting in a box for about three years.  (My daughter says I'm obsessed with buying notebooks (and towels), but we won't mention her shoe buying.)  Did, however, manage to resist notebooks with lovely leather covers, notebooks covered in sari material in fabulous colours, and these handles which would look lovely on the cupboards in my study if I ever get round to repainting them  -when I win the lottery (which is never as I don't buy a ticket).