Still snow... I love it

as long as we have power and luckily the loss of Friday was the only power cut we have had since the snow began.

Frank goes for a walk with a tiny little Jack Russel and they love it!

Where did the little guy go?

He'll get totally lost one of these days....

Come on Bernie, time to go home now...

Snow and no power

Today the new kitchen cabinets were supposed to arrive. I got a call from the driver at 6.30am and although it was still dark I could see all was white. The delivery has been put off until Monday. I just hope the installation guy can get here, apparently his house is quite remote.

Meanwhile snow makes everything look pretty, even our house with the dustbin left out..... lols. There isn't much snow on the roof not because it didn't land or our insulation doesn't work but because the high winds blew it off.
And from the bedroom window.

Quilt marking

This is a photo of a quilt with the freezer paper drawing of the feather I want to use with the shiny side pressed to the wrong side of the fabric. The light you can see in the lower right hand corner is from a light placed on the floor below my glass sewing table.

I was disappointed I couldn't get a photo of how clearly the feather shows through the fabric for me to be able to draw straight over the lines showing through.

I did a post some time ago on how to find your perfect marking pen here.

Once you have traced your feather or any other quilting motif, just peel the freezer paper off the back and iron it down where you need the same feather or motif repeated. You can normally get away with using the same piece of freezer paper about four times.

It gets worse

The electricians arrived today. They didn't use dust sheets until it was too late.... things will get better.

Out with the old.

After much banging and dust, the old kitchen has gone.

I saved a couple of the units as they fitted my Ikea top perfectly for my cutting table.

The Hunt turned up in the car park of our local pub.

Even though it was about 10am, it is traditional for the huntsmen to be given hospitality and they had mulled wine and some sort of ham dish to eat. I was offered some mulled wine as well but I knew it was too cold for me to stay and drink it.

Someone on Facebook wondered about the dark legs of the horses. For non horsey readers, the horses have their long winter coats clipped but the longer hair is left on their legs to offer some protection from the undergrowth. It is much easier to clean up a horse after a day out in the mud if they have been clipped and it allows them to sweat more easily and cool down after the chase. Then a coat is put on so they don't get too cold.

Hunting foxes with dogs has been banned in the UK for cruelty issues. The hunts now follow laid down trails.

Ready to go.

Andy from up the hill came and removed the range for someone up the hill. Cheryl came round and helped (I say this though in fact I directed and she did most of the work) to empty the last of the kitchen into the dresser. It all fits, phew. I took the knobs off the units I will not be using in the sewing/studio just in case the ones I have ordered from the States don't arrive in time.
And this shall be my little 'kitchen' for the next three weeks.

How does this happen?

A few days ago I tidied up my sewing room (I didn't take a photo but it looked like this) and today I went in and it looked like this?

How?

I am trying to walk a little each day, nothing impressive just 15 minutes because it is good for my soul to get out and smell the earth.
The is an old well in the village.

It says
BRINCEY'S WELL (MED. BLINCIES WELL)
ONE OF SEVERAL ANCIENT WELLS IN STAUNTON
POSSIBLE ORIGINS GO BACK TO THE ORIGINAL SAXON FARMSTEAD
FROM MEDIEVAL TIMES IT WAS A MAJOR VILLAGE WATER SOURCE UNTIL 1931 WHEN MAINS WATER ARRIVED

It looks like there is a little seat in there, presumably so you could sit and haul the water up. Those aren't bricks around it but the local red stone.

It was a slightly hazy, but sunny January morning and the first snowdrops were in flower.

Exciting Times (well for me it is)

This is the kitchen as it is now. It doesn't seem so awful does it? Until you see the distance between the range and the sink (see 2nd photo) and you can see this space covers the route from the sitting area and the hallway door (this is where I am standing to take photo 3) to the dining area. I could shoot whoever designed this as it is so dangerous to carry a boiling saucepan to the sink to drain. And of course with my fibromyalgia and the loss of strength in my hands it makes matters even worse. I discovered in the last house how a range cooker doesn't function well for me as the bending and leaning forward to get things in and out of the oven is painful. Then there are all those base cupboards with shelves below, this is as hard as getting stuff out of the oven (though at least these things are not hot). The builder of the house was disappointed when the first thing I said on seeing the kitchen was that it had to go. He said it was the most he had ever spent on a kitchen... It is very much a builder's kitchen. Solid oak doors etc. but cheap integrated dishwasher and fridge. The dishwasher works surprisingly well but given this is a room we live in with our sofas up the other end, we need the decibels turned down.

I have moved a lot of stuff from the kitchen into the new dresser but there is still loads to go. I have someone coming on Friday to help with the rest of it and the kitchen gets ripped out on Saturday....

And when all this is done and all the stuff in the container we've hired at the bottom of the hill is here and organised, I shall be a quilter again! Yay!