New Year

Off to Holland again this year. We haven't been for a few years and haven't seen our friends for ages. 

 On the Eurostar.

 Chips in Brussels while waiting for our friend to pick us up. 

 In my friends' cosy house. Those tables are standing tables, something that lots of people have at parties. Encourages standing around and chatting!

 The evening was fun as always, with lots of nice food. On New Years day we went for a long walk to a restaurant near the woods which has a waterwheel on the side. It was a lovely day, perfect for a a walk. The village where my friends live is very small and very well cared for. Every house is different, and many have beautiful outside decorations for Christmas.

 I was impressed by this hedge. It must be quite a challenge to keep it trimmed. 

 The black and white decorated shutters were on a number of houses. 

 The gardens are mostly very formal and structured. Quite a few had espaliered trees like this one.

 I love this combination of Monkey Puzzle tree and topiary. 

 The pink, red, greens and greys in this garden look good. The weather has been very mild there as at home so the roses were still flowering.

 This house had six trees in front of it, all decorated with gold bows, as were the box hedges.

 A man and his cat, on the way to see the donkeys.

 This must be the home of a designer.

 A friendly horse-let me stroke his nose. 

 Through the woods. 

 The waterwheel.

 A big mug of hot chocolate and some Jagermeister. A good way to finish a walk. 

Catching Up

A third of the way through January already! 

Happy new year to you! 

I am feeling the need to catch up with blogging as it has not had much priority recently and I miss it. I will miss looking back too, so want to keep it up. Christmas first-spent at my brother's. He cooked a tasty meal, and we had crackers with balloon animals and conversation starters such as 'what is your favourite colour?'

 In fact only I made balloon animals. Not done that before and felt quite proud of my efforts. A dog and a giraffe.

Then he took us to see where he is working at the moment. It is a Victorian pump house in Chatham which is being converted into a distillery. It was a pump house for a dry dock, and could empty the dock in a few hours, due to the massive holding tanks underneath the building. It was interesting to look around. I loved the 1950s machinery, and the worn layers of paint. The holding tanks are very creepy. There is water in them and you can just see deeper holes-dark patches on the floor. Not the kind of place you would want to get stuck.

 Beautiful detail in the brickwork. 

 A machine with personality. 

 One of the hatches.

 A rocket from a picture book.

Back tomorrow with New Year!

Happy Christmas!

Happy Christmas from the tinned Santas, 

 the heads and various creatures, 

 the Christmas puddings,

 Christmas Amineko, 

 and the Brussels brothers.

 The Nativity set is from the boot fair. When I bought it the woman had a tale to tell-she was getting it out and couldn't see the baby Jesus. Christ, where's the little baby?! I said to my daughter, Christ. the little baby's gone!'' Made me laugh. The box it is in is an old radio case I found on the street. It makes a perfect Nativity setting.

Fair Tomorrow

These are the things I have made over the last few weeks,  for the fair I am doing tomorrow,  in Staplehurst, Kent. I have more stuff including hand printed wrapping paper,  but this is the recent output. I have been crocheting at any opportunity to get everything finished. I put the last hanging loop on a Santa about ten minutes ago. The car is packed and I am ready to go! 

 The week has been so busy at school and today I was just waiting for home time. My colleague was off sick and I had one supply EYP and our regular one that we have on Fridays. They were both very helpful but it is not the same when you don't have your normal staff. I had to make gingerbread men with the children which I found to be a bit stressful, especially the morning group. Lots of the children were behaving uncharacteristically today, for various reasons, but added together it was hard work. On top of that Tiger was ill last night and I got a vets appointment this evening and was worrying about her all day. The vet checked all the basics and said she is fine but to monitor her and consult with him next week. She has been sick and had a bad tummy and just could not settle last night. She seems better today anyway and has been eating and sleeping normally again so hopefully she is fine. I am just looking forward to next week where I won't have to crochet for a reason and can try out a few ideas I have had that I have had no time for. (The one I am most excited about is cute Brussels sprouts with faces, inspired by a BBC advert on at the moment where a little sprout goes about his day being constantly rejected,  until he finds some people who love him.)

All my Santas look surprised due to the goggly eyes I used. Perhaps they forgot what time of year it is and have just realised.

Hope whatever you are up to that you have a good weekend!

Advent

Made using Motion Portrait.