New Year and new projects

Happy New Year to my followers and to the many people that pass through my blog. I hope you all had a good Christmas, ours here was a very quiet affair as always, the big day itself included a trip up into the mountains, a little tradition my daughter and myself have. This year the scenery was even more spectacular than usual with the heavy snow we'd had, so I make no apologises for all the photo's on this post. The first 4 photo's were taken just before Christmas in and around Anglesey after a night which dropped 10" of snow on us, which was very unusual for here.

After two weeks of having all my art and craft stuff tidied away, I always find it hard to get back into creative mode, so the time has been spent turning out cupboards and drawers and tidying them up, something that was well over due lol. One job I really enjoyed doing was the large cupboard in my front room which stores most of my arty crafty stuff. This was a job I'd been dying to do for ages, but I needed to have the sliding doors off it, so as my son was floating around I got him to get them off ....which trust me isn't an easy job !!! Now everything is all sorted labelled and tidied up and for someone that's natural untidy I'm getting a lot of pleasure of being able to see exactly whats what and where for a change lol.

My latest project is going to be a painting for my bathroom which is going to get decorated at long last. This is the only room that hasn't been decorated since we moved in just over 12 months ago. The delay was caused by us not being able to decide what colour to do it and not having the money to do it either. But the arrival of a bill I was dreading ( gas and electric )has come and gone, and I was really pleased that I had managed to save enough to pay it !! So the extra cash I'd put to one side incase this bill was even higher than I thought, can now be used to decorate the bathroom. The colour is going to be a bright lime green which will contrast nicely with the black tiles in there. I'm going to do an abstract painting in there, but I'll also be using copper wire, glass tiles and goodness knows what else on it, as I want it to have the wow factor.

Anyway enough waffle from me, here's the photo's I mentioned earlier.

Cable Bay



Hermon



Two photo's of a mass of icicles in Cable Bay





Snowdonia





These icicles were huge at least 6or7ft and very thick.



A stream that produced some very unusual ice formations.

New Year New Blog

Between Christmas and the New Year, I set up another blog, this one will be just for the photo's my daughter and myself take when we're out on our wanderings. The link is at the top of the page, and I hope you enjoy our journey into the world of DLSR photography. We're at the very beginning of this journey, and are learning as we go, how to use this camera that has so many settings.

The New Year crept quietly in for me, unlike most people I wasn't seeing in the new year the traditional way, I spent it sat outside taking photo's of the moon lol. As it struck midnight I could hear cheers going up followed by loads of fireworks echoing off the mountains, for a split second I almost wished I was out there enjoying it with everyone. Then I remembered I'm not the party animal I used to be, that went out with mates to the pub 3 or 4 times a week, so I quickly decided I preferred doing exactly what I was doing, and not waking up with a hangover !!

We've had a few trips out since Christmas, exploring the countryside in and around Anglesey, on the hunt for snow, which seems to be very elusive in our little village this year. In fact as we were taking the dog for a walk one day, we spotted loads of cars coming towards us, with inches of snow on them !! How could that be as we were only half a mile from home and not a snow flake in sight. So us being us, we decided as the snow wouldn't come to us, we'd go to the snow lol. We decided to stop when we got as far as Newborough as we were low on petrol, and as it was New Years Day there probably wasn't going to be many garages open. As we parked up in Newborough forest, the snow started coming down thick and fast, it was brilliant. Once we'd had out fill of snow we headed off home, hoping that we might have some snow in our little village now .... no chance lol.

We also took a drive deep into the mountains another day, and on our way home we got caught in a really good snow storm. We parked up and my daughter jumped out of the car to enjoy it properly, as I had slippy soled shoes on, I decided it was safer to stay in the car, not wanting to end the day in A&E. The snow was coming down really heavily, and as we weren't sure what the weather was going to be like further on, we reluctantly decided we had to go, as the roads were very quickly getting smothered in snow. As we got further on the snow slowly stopped and the roads were clear, we were gutted, we could have stayed in the storm for longer ....never mind.

Yesterday when I got up it was -3 the coldest day yet here, and I fancied trying to capture frost on leaves etc. So off we went trying to find some frost even though it was 2 in the afternoon, surprisingly it was still pretty easy to find even though the sun had been out most of the day. Using the macro setting on my camera, I started snapping away, what I didn't account for was how badly my hands would shake with the weight of the camera, due to the arthritis in my hands at the moment. Added to that the arthritis in my back made standing longer than a minute or two very painful too. So I was on to a bit of a loser before I even started. I really will have to start carrying my tripod around with me. However my daughter came to the rescue and took some photo's of things I asked her too, including a really brilliant one of a little robin.

Great Christmas

I hope you've all had a great Christmas, I certainly did. Our Christmases tend to be slightly unconventional, as many years ago I decided I just didn't want to be one of those women that had to spend all day chained to the kitchen lol. I'm so lucky that my daughter isn't into those kind of Christmases either.

Our day started when my daughter got up and I gave her the presents I'd bought her, and within the hour we were off up into the mountains for 4 hrs. As always it was stunning up there, unfortunately it was pretty slippy in most of the places we went to, so I stayed in the car, while my daughter jumped out taking loads of photo's. It didn't take away from my pleasure of being there though. In a forest park we went to there was thick ice, which made some very loud creaking and cracking noises as we drove over it, I loved it but my daughter was glad when we managed to get away from there lol.

As we've only had one day of snow here on Anglesey, it was lovely to see snow covered mountains and frozen ponds and lakes. There is however another cold spell due to come in next week, so maybe we'll be luckier then.

Brrrrr it's turning colder

Brrrrr after all the rain, it's started to turn colder now and we've got a sprinkling of snow on the mountains now. It looks gorgeous and makes it seem more christmassy. My daughter took me for a drive up there yesterday, and I loved it. I just wish it wasn't so expensive to turn the heating on *sigh*

Sadly the firing of the kiln never happened on Monday, because Mike at the gallery had a couple of commissions to do. So it's been rescheduled for Saturday now, but I've just remembered my daughters got a friend visiting ..so I'm not sure how we'll fit it in.

I'm on a mission today to get some bits and bobs I need for my new style mosaics. That's the one good thing about tempered glass mosaics, they are much more versatile than the stained glass ones I usually make. Also not having to cut the glass gives my hands a rest, so no pain for a few days I hope.

Here's a few photo's I took yesterday in the mountains.

I think I'm on the mend !!

As I suspected I got bronchitus, which has laid me low since my last post on here. A quick visit to the doctors got me some antibiotics, to try and get of the dreaded lergy. So far they dont seem to have done an awful lot of good, the coughs got worse, I can hear hardly anything, and my chest is crackling and wheezing like an old steam train. But on the up side, my head has stopped feeling woozy, what an odd sensation that was, a bit like being drunk without the alcohol ...and the hang over thank god lol.

As my daughter was feeling bored, and I'd been given instructions how to get that lovely blurred effect from waterfalls by a friend on a forum .... thanks Jeff, it was off up to the mountains. We decided that instead of our usual route, we'd just go up any old little side road that took our fancy. I'm so glad we did, we saw some beautiful scenery and at one point was almost at the top of a small mountain, it felt like we were on the top of the world. We also saw Llanberis from the opposite side of the lake too and even managed to spot our friends yurts way off in the distance. On our way home some chips were on the menu and as we were going to the chippy we spotted a little hippy shop where I bought some Nag Champa joss sticks, my favourites, we also spotted a lovely little gallery Elfen-celt (Art Elements) that was newly opened. We saw some glass work by an artist we knew, and also some woodwork by our friend that lives in the yurts up on Snowdonia. After chatting to the lady in there for a while she showed some interest in our glass work etc, so who knows we may be exhibiting some of our work there, some time in the future.

Sadly our petrol was getting very low and we had to miss going to see a couple of waterfalls I knew about ...but never mind there's always another day.

Some photo's from todays trip out.

An unusual cloud formation we saw as we drove of the island.



Looking over to Llanberis.





I couldn't resist taking a photo of this place, what a great name for a B/B lol.

Adventures in the Highlands Part 3

Reluctantly after we'd taken loads of photo's it was time to jump back in the horsebox and carry on our journey to Ullapool.

I really didn't know which way to look first there was so many stunning scenes to see. Little streams with icy cold water rushing past snow covered rocks. More icicles where the winter sun had melted the snow and then frozen it again. Pine tree boughs bent low with the weight of the snow. Then as I was drinking in all these fabulous sights *CRASH*. A lorry driving past us had pulled out to pass some parked up cars, and had hit Andys rear view mirror with such force that the mirror smashed into drivers window and shattered it into hundreds of pieces. It was nothing short of a miracle that Andy, who took the brunt of the shattering glass only got one cut on his ear, it could have been so much worse. Andy jumped out the horsebox only to see the lorry driver dissapearing into the distance. None of us managed to see what company owned the lorry because it happened so quickly, but I'm pretty sure the driver would have gone back to his bosses with a story of how someone had hit him and carried on driving !!!

Annoyed that the driver hadn't stopped Andy drove on to the nearest layby, but grateful that none of us had got more than a scratch. Once parked up at the layby we all started picking up the shattered glass, I was furthest away from the window but there was even glass in my handbag on the floor, and I had a cut on my foot where the glass had hit me. Resourceful as ever Andy dissapeared into the back of the horsebox and came back clutching a replacement mirror, which he'd found previously while rummaging around in the scrap yard. Ten minutes later the mirror was fixed on and we were off on our travels again, fresh mountains air blasting through the missing window.Andy remarking " Ochhhh its all part of the adventure !! "

The journey on continued on with even more stunning scenery, it was like looking at real life Christmas cards, and much to my delight even more stags dotted on the landscape. Eventually we reached Ullapool, a lovely little seaside village. We parked up in a Tesco's car park and while Mel and I got out to do a bit of shopping, Andy jumped into the back of the horsebox to checkout what the signal was like for his laptop. He was well chuffed to find there was a great one, and decided that this would be a perfect place to come once a week if there was a bad signal wherever they parked up next time.

You have to laugh ......

As I was going up in the mountains to take some photographs of the snow yesterday, I decided to get out the brand new jogging bottoms and a pair of 3/4 length leggings I'd bought in anticipation for my trip to Scotland on Weds. How funny was that !!! The jogging bottoms although they fit in the length, which is unusual as I need 36" inside leg the actual legs themselves could do a clown proud they're so baggy. So undeterred I thought I'd wear the leggings instead..... more laughter the 3/4 length of these only came to my knees and look like slightly, over long shorts lol. That will teach me to buy on the internet !!

Going back to my trip to Scotland tomorrow, I am now becoming a little concerned that I might have problems getting there. I'm travelling from Anglesey to Manchester Airport by road and then flying to Inverness. If today weather is correct I'll be able to get to Manchester ok, but it's whether Inverness airport will be open. It all seems a little ironic that I was going to Scotland to met up with my friends Andy and Mel, and was hoping to get some photo's of snow on the mountains while I was there, and yet as I type there's more snow here, than there lol.So I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that everything goes to plan.

My trip into the Snowdonia mountains yesterday was great. A gemerous sprinkling of snow transforms them and much to my delight there were some gorgeous icicles. My daughter Jenny bravely managed to overcome soggy banks and jumped over a little stream just to get me some photo's of some particularly pretty icicles. We also found a little track that led along the other side of the river I took photo's of on Saturday. Snow laden tree's overhung the little track, so when we emerged at the other end onto the main road, it felt like we were coming out in the light.

It's looking doubtful that I'll have time to continue the tagging today that was sent to me by Dave at http://woodwosecarving.blogspot.com as I am well behind getting myself packed and ready to go to Scotland tomorrow. But maybe if I'm organised for once in my life I might have time to squeeze it in tonight. Even if I haven't got time Dave's blog is well worth having a look at, his carvings are brilliant.

More mountains photo's

I thought I'd just add a few more photo's of the mountains as they're too beautiful just to be enjoyed by me. While a lot of the UK is covered with a blanket of snow, here on our little island there's not even a flake of the stuff :o( I do hope that the snow doesn't affect my trip to Scotland on Weds I will be very annoyed and that's being polite about it lol.A couple of these photo's were taken by my daughter by the way, just to give her credit where it's due lol. I've been tagged ...but I'll do that later on cheers Dave lol.