Sea fishing and more sunshine

Well here on Anglesey we've been enjoying the longest spell of sunny weather that I can remember. In the last couple of months (maybe longer) we've only had one proper rainy day and a couple of cloudy days. My daughter and I love the sunny weather, so we've been making the most of it.

My friend Steve came and took me sea fishing for a couple of days, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed fishing. We went to a popular place to fish, Holyhead Breakwater and over the two days we caught 11 dog fish. The fact that Steve's got a camper van added to the fun, you just can't beat a bacon butty and a cuppa while you're fishing lol. He wanted to take me to RAF Valley to watch the sunset, but as the tide was a high high tide, the sea started coming in a bit too quick for our liking, so we abandoned that idea before we got cut off lol.

I've also been spending most early mornings and nights working on my latest mosaic panel. Yesterday morning I put the last piece of glass on it ...whooooo. This only left the grouting to be done. Grouting is very time consuming, putting it on isn't quite so bad, but cleaning it off again is a nightmare as it's not a nice smooth surface like when you do tiles in bathroom. It's a mass of 100's of slightly uneven pieces which are a nightmare, as I have to clean off pretty much every one individually. But eventually by midnight last night I'd done the first rough clean off. Shortly, once I've posted this and wrote an email I'll do a 2nd clean clean on it, this involves polishing the tiles of the residue of grout dust and checking to make sure I've got it all off. Quite often this involves having to scrape off grout that I've missed, which I'm not looking forward to as my hands are already really painful from last nights grouting. Then once that's done it'll be a couple of coats of varnish as this panel is going to live outside my front door, so needs protecting from the elements.

Here's some photo's of my fishing trip, and my new grand daughters first smile captured on a photo awwww, she's so cute.

Best made plans and all that !!

We were due a visit from friend Coral, her mate Steve, and her son Deckie on Saturday due to arrive in two vans. Everything started well and I was due to go sea fishing with them on Saturday night.... that was about the last thing that went to plan !! After meeting Steve for the first time, we got on really well especially after I realised very quickly Steve was a cheeky scouser, with a sense of humour that matched mine perefectly and there was loads of banter flying back and forth lol. As Steve was a dab hand at DIY, I thought I might as well ask his advice about my bed !! When we first moved here I bought a lovely mexican pine bed, very comfortable ...however because I'm so tall I can't stretch out in it properly, because it had a foot board at the end. This has been a real bug bear for me and try as we might, every idea me and my daughter came up with seemed very complicated so we never got round to doing it. Within minutes Steve came up with an excellent idea, went to his van and got his power tools and within half an hour had it all sorted out !!!

PLAN A ...... was for us to take both vans and go up to the other end of the island, to fish off a popular fishing spot called the Breakwater. Steve and Deckie shot off first with me and Coral bringing up the rear more slowly in her camper van which she also happens to live in. We hadn't even got out of our village before I realised that Corals van wasn't very well at all !! But Coral being Coral decided to plod on anyways. We got about 1/3 rd of the way up the island going up a hill when the cab of the van started filling up with smoke and we were losing power fast. Now I'm a pretty unflappable, laid back type of person usually, but even I started to get more than a bit alarmed at this point. I suggested to Coral that smoke might mean fire, and that maybe it might be a good idea to stop straight away !! It was then that Coral told me her handbrake wasn't any good ...so stopping on hill might not be a very good idea, plus she had no hazard lights, so maybe it wasn't such a good idea. With my heart in my mouth, clutching my bag and a camera ready to make a quick exit incase any flames followed the smoke we struggled up the hill. Once at the top, in the distance we could see a lay by, Coral was convinced we could make there by coasting down the road ..... we DID much to my surprise. With much relief we pulled into the lay by and Coral turned off the engine ( oh yes ..I forgot to mention her alternator was also bust so once the engine was off there was no chance of turning it on again without a jump start lol.

PLAN B ..... ring Steve and get him to come back and help. The only flaw in this plan was that Coral had left her mobile at my house, and even though I had my phone I didn't have Steve's number seeing as I'd only just met him lol. A quick text to my daughter who was at home, asking her to use Corals phone to ring Steve and tell him what had happened and where we were, seemed like a logical idea, but Steve's phone went on to answer phone. So we were sent Steve's number to carry on trying to get hold of him. It was only much later that Steve told me he always kept his phone off, as he was having some hassles off an ex girlfriend lol. We sent a text hoping against hope that he might turn his phone on and get our SOS message. By pure good luck he turned it on and came to hopefully rescue us. Once our knights in a shining van arrived, it became a bit obvious that Corals van wasn't going to go anywhere quickly as the clutch had gone !!

It was decided that it might be good idea for my daughter Jenny to come and pick me up and take me home again, as there was no point in all 4 of us spending the nite in lay by. Oh did I mention that Corals side door on the van doesn't lock, so it couldn't be secured ?? By the time my daughter arrived, the kettle had been put on and we were having tea and cake with music blasting. As we were having such a laugh, it was decided that maybe we should leave my daughters car behind, all pile into Steve's van and go off to a beach at the top of the island and for some fire spinning to go on. Once we got there, Steve decided he might as well do some beach casting, while the others did their thing. After a few hours, with more tea, biscuits and crackers with cheese, it was time to go back to the lay by and for me and my daughter to come back home.

PLAN C Sunday arrived and it was decided that the best plan of action was for Coral to join the AA, and then on Monday we would see how much our regular mechanic would charge and also Corals mechanic who specialised in working on Renault Master vans, who was back in Oswestry.

No doubt there will more to follow in this little saga ...I shall update you as it carries lol. But for now, here's some photo's of the fire poi and fire staff antics, and a picture of Steve after one of my Sunday dinners...I shall take great pleasure in embarrassing him on Facebook with this photo lol.

A staff burn out, for those not familiar with fire spinning. A staff is a long metal bar with wicks soaked in paraffin on each end, and a burn out is when someone gets rid of the surplus paraffin.



A cage of fire



Close up of one end of the fire staff



Coral doing fire poi.



Steve after devouring one of my Sunday dinners lol.

The day before Christmas

Well it's Christmas Eve, and to mark the occasion my house is actually tidy for a change lol. Yes folks, I cleared away all my crafty stuff, and did that thing I really hate ...housework !! Even the word fills me with dread lol, it must be the most boring thing in the world. I never have and I never will get any pleasure from having a neat, tidy, polished, sparkling house, it's just totally alien to me. I'd much rather spend the time doing something useful or constructive, well actually it doesn't have to be either of those things, I'd just rather do anything other than housework lol. The only time I willingly plug the hoover in, is to get up the tiny bits of glass that end up on the carpet ...and that's only cos I don't want the dog to get it in his paws !!

I'm itching to get started on one of two projects I've got in mind. The first is to mosaic a pair of Doc Marten boots, and the other is to mosiac the top half of a female dummy I used to use when I did Ebay. Both will be very tricky because they've got so many curves on them, which I'm sure will drive me nuts just as the guitar did, I finished recently. But that won't stop me having a go. If I do the boots first, it means I've got to figure out a way of making the leather rigid rigid first. The best idea for that, was thought of by my daughter, who suggested I paper mache the inside of the boots. I could just pour a load of plaster inside I suppose, but then the boots would weigh a ton. Either way it'll probably take ages for the boots to be ready, and I like to just get on with things so I'll probably do the dummy first. Hmmm just had a thought, maybe I should take photo's as I go along, to include on this blog...yes I'll do that later I think......

My other main hobby besides crafty stuff is photography. There's nothing I love more than capturing nature at it's best. I particularly like taking weather photo's the harsher the weather, the better I like it. As we live by the sea, I love it when the wind picks up and the waves start crashing about. I've got a favourite spot about 1/2 mile away from where we live, when the winds in the right direction the waves hit a 12ft wide wall called the Breakwater and crash over the top, sometimes the wall completely dissapears with the tons of sea that hits it. Sadly as we live so close to the sea, it's very mild here so we rarely get any frosts and snow is even rarer. So I'm really looking forward to going to the Highlands at the beginning of Feb to see my online friends Andy and Mel. This being the first time I've ever met them in person, I'm pretty nervous, as meeting new people is something I find really hard. But if we get on half as well for real as we do online, I'll be a very happy bunny. I'm hoping that there will be some snow when I go there, as it's been a lifetimes dream to visit Scotland, and even better that I'm going in the winter.... my favourite time of the year !!

This is the Breakwater, if you look closely you can see a red van in the centre of this photo. The driver and his son were extremely lucky to survive, they'd stupidly gone to the end of the Breakwater which is about 1 mile long, to fish and didnt realise the danger they were putting themselves in. What you can't see on the photo is the lifeboat that had to escort them off, as they could have so easily been swept into the sea. I've lived on the coast for the last 12 yrs and it still never ceases to amaze me how little respect people give to something so powerful as the sea.



A snowy scene from the Snowdonia mountains a few years ago. How beautiul is that ?



A gorgeous sunrise taken from just outside a little village called Hermon on Anglesey.


One of my favourite photo's, I'm not sure what caused the rainbow trails but I suspect it was a slug lol.