Foiled again ......

So.  I stocked the cupboards and the freezer and the fridge, I posted all the Christmas cards and the CT return, I checked that all the prescriptions were up-to-date, and then I thought, that's it, I can survive here without going out until the New Year if necessary, and I planned some more sewing and kniting.  I was even inspired to make a Clementine cake and a huge batch of soup - I was feeling quite pleased and inclined to let Christmas be acknowleged.  I didn't mind too much when it began to snow, and it wasn't very heavy anyway.
This morning M having refused to do anything about her eye all last week when travel was easy, decided that she must ring the hospital about it.   'Oh', said the woman on the phone,'you must come in at once - I'll phone you back.'
I went outside and swept clear the drive and sorted out the car and brought in the wheelchair and I said to H it wasn't really too bad to get the car out as the lane had been partly cleared.  And we waited, and waited until noon when they rang and said she must come on Wednesday.   As if summoned by some malignant force, it then started to snow and snow and snow, covering up all the bits I'd swept and covering the car and the lane, and bringing traffic on the main road to a standstill.
So now we wait to see if, by Wednesday, this lot will clear or get worse, and I'm very cross with the receptionist at the hospital that we phoned 10 days ago who more or less told us not to be so daft when we asked if we should bring M back.
Fortunately, daughter at home now until New Year so we could get her to mount a mercy mission if we can't get out - as long as the main road is clear.
Hope you're all safe and warm and don't have to venture out.

.

Stuck at (gn)'ome

I always forget how much I like knitting gloves, and the last week or so I've had plenty of opportunity for knitting.     M's cataract operation does not yet seem to have been successful - she maintains that she still can't see out of her right eye at all, despite the surgeon assuring us that it was very successful.  We wait to see whether it improves, but it means that her ability to do things for herself has been even less than usual.  Unfortunately, H did something rather silly which has aggravated his heart problem - temporarily I hope - but means that both of them have to be attended on at regular intervals and I've only managed to get out for the essentials.
The upside to this is that I been forced to re-think Christmas shopping and to do food and present shopping online, I've also had to use the internet to stock the freezer and make sure we have plenty in the cupboards against another lot of snow.   And I've set to and made rather more presents than I thought I'd have time for - most of which have been posted now thanks to a kind neighbour.
It hasn't been entirely plain-sailing as the internet connections have been terribly unreliable so I've been reading and commenting on blogs rather less often - often at speed so forgive me if a comment you received was full of errors or didn't make sense!
In case I hadn't got enough things to keep me occupied, a friend asked me to knit some decorations for the hospice where she works as a volunteer so several of these little chaps have gone off to a new home:

This one has stayed behind and I've promised to knit him a friend when I've done the Christmas cards and done some more to a quilt in progress. It's a  great pattern for using up small amounts of yarn as long as your stash has some yarn suitable for the beard.   The stash has done me proud when it comes to presents, too, and having finished a hoodie for baby E, I was pleased to find enough chenille type wool to make her a snowme:

So we may be getting some more snow, but we're well stocked, and Christmas can be managed even if snow stops the later deliveries (like Julie over at Little Cotton Rabbits, I was mindful of my Christmas not arriving in a van, hence the freezer stocking exercise), and most people will get their present and many of those will be handmade.  So, fingers crossed that H gets better not worse, we could now hibernate till after Christmas and I might even get more than one quilt made!
Welcome to Busybusybeejay  and Minnie,  so glad you've found me, I shall be popping over to your blogs soon.

Stop press:  It's gone very very dark and started to blow a gale.  Lots of wet snow rushing past the window now - hope you're all safe and warm at home .

Gnome and Snowmee are Alan Dart patterns. You can find them on his website here http://www.alandart.co.uk/pages/products

A winter's tale

The snow went away, but during the night the Frost giants came and separated us from the world........

Until the sun came out.

Fragments

Some weeks ago, Elaine, at Ted and Bunny, posted this and kindly said I could use the photo in my art project which is using architectural fragments as a basis for a collection of drawings.  I've really enjoyed my first attempt - done in pastel, and hope to try again with soft pencil.  Blogger refuses to post the second photo the right way round so please imagine it turned through 90 degees.  The current light has turned the colour rather more blue than the original.
This last few days have been very fragmented - we can just about get the car out if necessary, though the top of our cul-de-sac is very icy and no grit between us and the main road.  I've been doing small amounts of crafting, cooking, drawing and sewing  - and the inevitable end of year accounting has started to impinge again.  It also occured to me that I hadn't properly acknowledged the lovely give-away I won from Chrissie at Niminy Fingers:

This lovely little bird and its garland of bobbles are trying valiantly to brighten up my study - and making it even more obvious that I really must smarten up of all the pine shelving and cupboards with a good coat of white paint - now would be a good time except that I can't have the windows open - perhaps better wait for better weather.
I'm still slogging on with the slides that need converting - currently I'm in Spain in 1963!  The various and miscellaneous were great fun as one minute we were in a 1950's summer garden and next on a 1970 cruise.  More of that another time.  If you're wondering why a lot of posts have disappeared, I had to remove them at the request of one of M's friends.  I think it's unreasonable but I decided it was anything for a quiet life.

 

Still hoping that we shall be able to get M to hospital on Tuesday to have her cataract removed - fingers crossed that we shan't get too much more snow.

                                                         Who Knows If The Moon's

                                                      who knows if the moon's
                                                      a balloon, coming out of a keen city
                                                      in the sky--filled with pretty people?
                                                     (and if you and i should

                                                     get into it, if they
                                                     should take me and take you into their balloon,
                                                     why then
                                                     we'd go up higher with all the pretty people

                                                     than houses and steeples and clouds:
                                                     go sailing
                                                     away and away sailing into a keen
                                                     city which nobody's every visited, where

                                                     always
                                                     its
                                                     spring) and everyone's
                                                     in love and flowers pick themselves

                                                           - e.e. cummings

Two very different views from our house at 9.00 a.m. this morning reminded me of this poem.  I was heartily relieved not to see a snow scene, but I don't suppose we'll escape.  I'm praying that it comes and goes before the hospital trip on December 7th - if we get snowed in it will be very difficult to get there. (Unless we go by balloon?)

One hundred, one year

 This may be the closest I get to packing a suitcase in the forseeable future - bought these in the local Post Office because I couldn't resist them.  The large is about 8 inches wide and the smaller about 6 inches.

Items I'm packing to send to China Kidz Christmas appeal (see my previous post).   Probably the closest I shall ever get to going to China.

Lion's head finished at last - just to prove that I do sometimes finish what I set out to do!

Haven't time today to say all that I would like to about my experience of my first year of blogging.  Thank you to everyone who has commented, and all those who just read, for your support and kindness, I really feel that I am among friends.  It's been lovely to meet a few of you in person and to correspond with others by email, and I look forward to continuing to do so during the next year, whatever that may bring.

The view from space?

Fireworks from the display at the Three Counties Showground - taken from our top floor window about a mile away, through the torrential rain using the camera's own firework setting.  I think another time I would experiment for myself and use a tripod but these were very spur of the moment.