Serial Crafter

Enjoy!

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Thu, 16 May 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Anne is in positive mood for our 'Reflect' challenge in May. We are on our fifth letter of 'Silver Lining' and that is E. Our word to reflect on is 'Enjoy'.

I have a very special 'Enjoy' to share with you but without any photographs. Our grandson was born yesterday a healthy 8lb 8oz and Mum and baby were back home less than five hours after his birth! Our son came round about 10pm last night to ask us to come and meet 'someone' next door. We couldn't believe that he had arrived so quickly and was home so soon! It was lovely to meet Mason, in his own home and to have a little cuddle.

Mason's Mum and Dad prefer not to have his picture online, so I'm afraid I can't show you this precious bundle. But, without doubt, he will bring us many things to ENJOY!

Kit - Baby of Mine by Jen Yurko

The View - May 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Mon, 06 May 2013 13:15:00 +0000

So here we are at the beginning of May and time to show off our 'views'. I know that some parts of the country are enjoying a warm and sunny Bank Holiday Monday, but here it is cold, grey with a cold wind that cuts right through you. I think things have got rather mixed up this year, either that or there is something seriously wrong with this poem!

March brings breezes loud and shrill,

stirs the dancing daffodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,

scatters daisies at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs,

skipping by their fleecy dams.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,

fills the children's hand with posies.

In March I brought you 'flocks of pretty lambs, skipping by their fleecy dams', I did manage to find a 'primrose sweet' for April but they are even better now.

It's taken until May before I had enough dancing daffodils open and they are sparser than usual too.

And I see that we are expected to have tulips in June, when they are already open!

Let's hope we can manage some lilies and roses for June and get back on track.

I'm going to have a busy week as I am away for work, so I'll post the view from my kitchen window while I'm here, same view different angle! By next month there should be more plants growing.

A birthday treat!

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Thu, 02 May 2013 20:20:00 +0000

Last weekend my Mum and I travelled to London. We went First Class on the train from Edinburgh to Kings Cross and stayed in a hotel close to Leicester Square. Over the weekend we saw 'The Lion King' and 'Singing in the Rain', visited the Tate Modern, The Globe Theatre and the National Gallery, but the highlight was afternoon tea at The Dorchester.

We had almost finished our tea when the pianist started to play 'Happy Birthday to you', Mum turned to me and said "It must be someone's birthday", she was so surprised when the waiter brought the cake with lit candles to our table.

It's not every day you reach your 80th birthday and not many 80 year olds would have the stamina to do all the things we packed into our weekend. It was a trip that we both will remember, and if you ever get the chance to have tea at the Dorchester, I can highly recommend it.

Musical Nostalgia!

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 18:10:00 +0000

When I saw the theme that Kathi Jo had chosen for Lucky Snapping this week, I immediately thought about these digiscrapping layouts which I made in 2008 for a challenge at, a now defunct, digi-scrapping forum. Matthew and Son by Cat Stevens was the first record I ever bought in 1966, I still love it and at least it isn't something embarassing! Speaking of embarassing...that's me with our cat 'Jasper' round about the time I bought the record.

The second layout features Joni Mitchell's Miles of Aisles. I think I bought this in 1976, just before I left home to go to university. When I played it at home as my Dad always called her 'that wailing woman'! It was a double album and I played it again and again. I still listen to it to this day, it's a live album and contains a lot of her best work. I highlighted the lyrics to Carey as that is probably my favourite track, it's one of the more upbeat tracks and always makes me smile. I continued to buy Joni Mitchell's work, she hasn't done any new work recently, just re-worked old stuff, and I managed to see her in concert just the once.

It took some digging about in my folders to find these layouts, as my digital filing system leaves a lot to be desired, but I'm glad I did.

The Cloak of Invulnerability

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 14:22:00 +0000

I have found it difficult to decide what I can publish for Anne's "vulnerable" prompt and may write in more detail in my art journal, probably in a hidden panel. The reason for this is mostly about the vulnerability of others. The job I have. involves me in supporting people with different levels of vulnerability. I've been doing that for over 30 years, now I manage others to support those who are vulnerable. This, in turn, has revealed both the vulnerability of some of those staff and my own vulnerability. As my boss said to me "no one ever considers that we have feelings too".

In my home life, I also have a role to support family at both ends of the age spectrum, it seems that there is often no space for me to be vulnerable, I must always be the problem-solver, the strong one who copes.

I don't want it to seem like I am complaining, most of the time I am indeed that strong capable person, however underneath the Cloak of Invulnerability, I too can feel vulnerable.

Yesterday, there were some things going on which really got me down. My son came home from work and he came in for an update, I must have let the cloak slip as he asked me if I wanted a hug. It was the perfect response and as we hugged I felt so much better.

So next time you are feeling vulnerable, don't wait till someone offers, ask for a hug and let some one wrap you in their Cloak of Invulnerability. With apologies to JK Rowling.

Posted with Blogsy

Through my kitchen window in April

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 20:01:00 +0000

The view from my kitchen window is a little bit brighter than it has been in the last three months. Still not much growth, but at least the sun is shining and it was a balmy 8C today!

I even managed to find some daffodils in flower, not on our road but about 1/2 a mile away. I was on a mission to find some wild garlic which grows in the woods by a stream.

Some of it had been damaged by the snow, but I managed to gather enough new undamaged leaves to make some garlic butter.

No daisies to complete the poem yet though, maybe next week :-)

The View - April 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:03:00 +0000

So here we are at the beginning of another month, starting our April Lucky Snapping Challenges with 'The View'. The blue skies are somewhat deceptive as there is still a very cold wind blowing and, if you look closely, you can see the snow that remains in the shady parts of the hill. We missed the snow as we were on holiday in France, but it seems to have been a heavy fall and they needed the snow ploughs to clear the roads.

Jennie has reminded us about the Sara Coleridge poem which charts the months and the seasons. Our primroses, took a bit of a battering with the snow and the cold winds but they are hardy little plants and it's good to see their sunny little faces between the crocuses.

You can see that there is still snow lying at the side of the road, it's just too cold for it to melt away in the shadow of the hedge.

Another sign of spring is the sheep with lambs that are in the field next to us. I think they thought I was going to feed them as they all came running to see me!

This one was very brave, but he did have his mum close by!

And here is our first 'naturalised' daffodil bending it's bud over and showing a little tip of yellow. The daffodils grow up the sides of our road and would usually all have been flowering by now.

Looking forward to April's challenges as I was very busy in March and wasn't able to take part in all of them.

Laugh!

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Anne set the challenge 'laugh' just before we set off on holiday to France. I wasn't sure if I would have time to respond and I am coming to this particular challenge in reverse! However, one of the joys of our holiday was meeting some great people and having a really good laugh.

This is a shockingly bad photograph, but sums up our last night on the river cruise, with some really fun people and probably too many alcoholic drinks!

This one is a bit more in focus and shows some more of our new found friends.

How busy?

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 20:08:00 +0000

“ Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it” Lynne has provided a really great quotation to work with this week and I'm pleased to say that it will be easy for me to create a post around this quotation. We have just returned from a Viking River Cruise, our tour was 'Portraits of Southern France' which started in Chalone sur Saone and ended in Avignon. Here are a few photographs to illustrate just how much we packed into our week, lots of looking around and trying not to miss too much!


Hotel de Dieu - Beune

'Hotel' is used as a term for many public bulidings, in this case a hospital run by nuns for the poor of the town of Beaune. Fantastic glazed tiles on the roof.


Wine tastin - Beaune

We moved on to Lyon, this is the Cathedral, known as the upside-down elephant!

French Street scene with flags.

Vienne and the Roman Temple dedicated to Augustus and Livia

View from Vienne - Belvedere de Pipet

The bridge at Tain L'Hermitage our only rainy day.

The Amphitheatre at Arles

The bedroom of Vincent Van Gogh at St Remy

Here I am in front of the 'Pont de Avignon'

And here we are at Pont du Garde a fabulous Roman Aquaduct

We had a fantastic holiday and saw so much, looking back at the photographs it's amazing just how much we did and how many incredible sights we took in. There are many more photographs which will, no doubt, be featuring in future posts!

A birthday card for my Mum

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 22:28:00 +0000

I thought I'd show you the card I made for my Mum's 80th birthday. I used to post a lot of cards on this blog, but it's been some time! I made the card using papers which came with Simply Homemade magazine and made a pocket card to hold two tags.

The first tag featured photographs of my Mum from her teens, through the 1960s...

on the reverse a photo from the early 1990s and at my son's wedding 3 years ago.

The second tag, shown here in it's pocket, shows the 'gift' I am giving Mum for her birthday.

We are heading to London at the end of April to see a couple of shows and have Afternoon Tea at the Dorchester.

Here is the card, shown with the cake I made, more about the cake at Farmersgirl Kitchen

And here is my lovely Mum (not looking 80 at all) blowing out the candles on her cake at our family lunch today.

From my kitchen window March 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:14:00 +0000

It seems that every time we feel that spring is on it's way, it seems that winter comes back with a vengeance! We had some lovely warm and spring like days earlier this week, but by Friday cold winds brought the temperature right back down and today we had flurries of snow as you can see in this photograph. I long for some warm sunny days.

The View - March

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:36:00 +0000

Here is the view in March for Lucky Snapping in 2013. I took the photo on Monday morning and there was quite a hard frost as you can see from the car, the fields and the misty background. So what has changed since February? Not a great deal, but I did clear out the pots that had the remains of last year's bedding plants in them and put the pots of bulbs on the patio.

You cna see that some of the little flag irises have already started to bloom!

Look closely - a quotation

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:44:00 +0000

It's week 4 of February and that means that it's quotation week. I was thrilled to see my mint plants starting to burst through in their pots and it is those small beautiful shoots which tell me that spring is on it's way.

Here are a few more photos of the buds and flowers in my garden.

My Funny Valentine

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:38:00 +0000

My Funny Valentine

My funny valentine, sweet comic valentine
You make me smile with my heart
Your looks are laughable, unphotographable
But you're my favourite work of art
Is your figure less than Greek?
Is your mouth a little weak?
When you open it to speak
Are you smart?
Don't change a hair for me
Not if you care for me
Stay little valentine, stay
Each day is Valentine's day

It was in 1979 that I first started to go out with Brian. We stayed in the same blocks of student accommodation, I was in my third year and he was a postgraduate student, one of the girls in my flat was on the same course as a guy in Brian's flat and that is how we met.

The student flats backed on to an old area which had been pretty much demolished, all that stood was the old communal Baths and a little row with a couple of shops and 'The Royal Bar'. The Royal Bar was a bit of a dive, frequented by locals and the occasional student. We once had to leave rapidly when a fight broke out and chairs were being thrown about. In the Royal Bar there was an old fashioned Juke Box we liked to play and on the B side of Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello and the Attractions, was a vocal and guitar version of 'My Funny Valentine'. As a dyed-in-the-wool fan of those old musical movies they used to play on a Sunday afternoon, I love those Rogers and Hart tunes and, at that time, Brian was playing bass guitar with the University Big Band and this was one of the numbers that they played. And that is how it became our tune.

We have the record, but I was delighted to see that you could find it on YouTube so, if you would like, you can listen to it too.

Nostalgic Valentine

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 20:20:00 +0000

This week the Lucky Snapping theme returns to nostalgia and Kathi has asked us to consider 'Affairs of the Heart'.

So, we are back at my Week 3 challenge and I am using 'nostalgia' as the theme, it doesn't have to be a long lost memory, it may just be from last year...or last week.

My theme this month is going to be 'Affairs of the Heart.'

Feel free to take the prompt wherever it suits..

maybe it will be a vintage Valentine's card in a shop or a little gift you have saved in a drawer somewhere.
or a special little thing you do in your house that might become a traditon for your children in their future...
it might be just your news this week which fits the theme and you can put it down for posterity..

To start the week we must all have a little story to share about Valentine's Cards or Valentine's Day..or a romantic gesture which was a great success .. or a huge failure even!

This vintage valentine card is framed and hangs in my hall. It came from a 'scrapbook' which belonged to my husband's grandmother. She was a great hoarder and I am eternally grateful for some of the beautiful and interesting things that she kept.

Her story is an interesting one, her name was Elizabeth and she was engaged to a man who went out to South Africa to farm, but in the end she did not want to leave Scotland and broke off her engagement. It's not clear whether this Valentine card was from her sweetheart over the seas or another!

She later married a man nearly 40 years older than her and moved to the farm and house that we now live in. They had a son and two daughters, one of whom died falling off a gate. When her husband died, her eldest son inherited in his early twenties, whether it was that he was not a good business man or just inherited too young, he got into a lot of debt and Elizabeth took out a mortgage to buy the house and farm from her son. By this time Elizabeth had had another child (out of wedlock) then met the man who would be my husband's grandfather. He had already been married and had a large family in Lancashire, he married Elizabeth and she had another three children including my late father-in-law.

I hope you enjoyed seeing the Valentine card and hearing a little of Elizabeth's story.

Snowdrops

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 20:01:00 +0000

It was a beautiful sunny day yesterday so I headed up to the top of our road to take some photos of the snowdrops growing on the banking. They are looking particularly good this year.

The view looking up the road with snowdrops on the right.

Looking back down the road toward the farm with snowdrops on the left.

This morning it was -3C but the sun came out again later, of course, I was back at work so didn't get the chance to enjoy it, so will just have to look at these pictures and remember!

Reflection February - Impossible

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 10:44:00 +0000

And so we come to the Lucky Snapping in 2013, week of Reflection. There have been some astonishing stories of courage and overcoming adversity from the Lucky Snappers this week. I found it really difficult to think of anything that had been so challenging to me that it was impossible. I have faced many challenges but am fortunate never to have felt that anything was impossible.

During the week, I was tweeting with some of my foodie friends and one of them discovered that I lived on a farm, worked full time as well as actively cooking, baking, occasionally crafting, blogging and sharing a house with my 88 year old mother-in-law. That was my lightbulb moment, I would journal about something other people thought was impossible i.e. sharing a house with my mother-in-law!

I put a little altered picture of her (taken in 2009) under the flap (the reason for the flap will become apparent when the cover of the journal is revealed) and I've given her glittery hair! Anyway, here is what is written in the journalling around the edge of the page:

"I have shared a house with my mother-in-law since 1985. Many people find this hard to believe and tell me that it would be impossible for them to live in the same house as their MIL. I am not saying that we don't fall out sometimes, but on the whole we all rub along quite well together. There is more tension between my husband and his mum, than between me and her. She will be 89 this year and still drives her own car, she has an active social life and helps around the house as much as she can. Without her help my career would have been impossible, as she was there to look after our children when I returned to work. Sometimes I wonder what our lives would have been like if we didn't share a house with her, but I find it impossible to imagine how it might have been."

Thanks to Anne for a great challenge, it pushes me to do some art journalling which I love, but never seem to find time for.

A special delivery on the farm!

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:57:00 +0000

Last Sunday we took delivery of a dozen weaned calves. They will spend a couple of months in the shed then go out into the fields until October when we will sell them on to other farmers in October. We have no livestock November to January and then start again in February, it works well for us as we both work full time.

No matter how often we have done this there is always a frisson of excitement and anticipation when the calves arrive in their trailer.

They seem to have settled in well, this 'red' and white calf is a bit of a character and was having a good look out of the window!

Brian had a bit of trouble with the silage bale as it was quite soft and wouldn't stay on the spike. However, it is excellent quality and the calves are eating it well.

February brings the rain...

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 19:37:00 +0000

February brings the rain, thaws the frozen lake again

This was a lovely sketch to work with although it took me a few goes to get it right, thank goodness it was digital and not paper I was working with! Thank you for the lovely sketch Jennie.

And a little taste of what the view from my kitchen window is likely to be next week and for the coming weeks. Our calves arrived today and have settled into their shed including nosying out the window.

Through my kitchen window in February

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 18:37:00 +0000

There was a fine drizzle falling outside when I took this photo, it's actually a bit warmer today a high of 4C! It made a surprising difference to the temperature inside the house though.

It was a different picture on Tuesday when we had snow and a wind which meant that it gathered on the window ledges. More snow is forecast for tomorrow, but hopefully only a little.

What a difference a day makes...

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:01:00 +0000

24 little hours brought the snow and the showers, where there used to be rain. I've used a little artistic licence to change the lyrics of this classic song to fit my photograph!

It started snowing last night and when I woke this morning everything was white again. This time it was also blowing a gale which is why there is snow gathered on the window. The snow on the roads has melted but it is still there in the fields and some on the side roads. Skies are clear tonight so I expect tomorrow I will have to negotiate ice.

Lucky Snapping February View

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:41:00 +0000

February brings the rain, thaws the frozen lake again

It's the first week of February and time for our Lucky Snapping challenge to wheel round to Jennie's View Challenge again. It has certainly been wet today, although the sun kept coming out, followed by more gusts of wind and stormy rain showers. We have a forecast of snow for tonight and tomorrow morning, I hope it is not too heavy.

Reading the 'Months' poem (our inspiration from Jennie) by Sara Coleridge again encouraged me to make a digital layout for each of the months, hopefully I will be able to encapsulate the verses for each month. January certainly came up trumps with a stunning display of snow!

This is another layout I made earlier in January when we had a light fall of snow, I never got round to posting it, so thought I'd share it now. It is, of course, the tracks created by a tractor, the one that was cutting the hedges round our fields.

Look out for another layout using Jennie's sketch at some point during this week.

Melting Snow

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 19:41:00 +0000

Snow melting and dripping off the corrugated tin roof of the shed. I captured these photographs last weekend. As I haven't taken many other photos this week I am sharing these with you.

Sparkling Snowy Views

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 15:53:00 +0000

Today the sun came out and made the snow look so pretty, but you could be forgiven for thinking that the photos from yesterday were taken in black and white as heavy snow fell all afternoon and evening.

You can see from the snow on the fence posts just how much snow we had, it must have been about 4 inches (10cm) and we had to cancel our trip into town due to the condition of the roads.

Here is the same view I took last week, when there was just a little dusting of snow and frost and still lots of green showing.

Looking down towards the river from the top of the field.

Shadows in the snow!

Looking back towards the farm from the field.

I have lots more snowy photos but will leave you with this view of the overhanging snow on our gutters against a stunningly blue sky.

Lucky Snapping - a Quotation

noreply@blogger.com (Janice Pattie) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:59:00 +0000

This week Lynne has provided us with a quotation to inspire our creativitity.

There are 3 things that a child can teach an adult
To be happy for no reason
To be always be busy doing something
And to know how to demand – with all one’s might- what one wants” ~ Paulo Coelho

This is our home taken looking across our 'wee' field last Sunday. I love living here and my home is very important to me. Some weekends I come home on Friday night and don't leave home again until Monday morning to go to work. It makes me happy for many reasons and none, it just does.

I am always busy doing something, even when I watch TV I am usually knitting or looking at a magazine or maybe online checking websites and tweeting! But I'm most often busy in my kitchen and this week, as it is the season, I was making marmalade with seville oranges.

What I want right now is to be in a warm place where I can swim in an outdoor pool and soak up the sun. I'm not sure about demanding, I've found that is not particularly effective. We wont get that sunny poolside experience this year as we are going on holiday in March so let's hope we get a little sun in the UK this year.

Thanks for the quote Lynne, it made me think about what makes me happy, what I am busy doing and what I would like to be doing!