Monday 22 March 2010

UK Trip

                                   

I'm due to visit the UK soon tommorrow, and I haven't even posted the photos from my last visit.
So here they are.
I spent some of the time in the north east in Newcastle upon Tyne.
These are all taken on the same afternoon and evening.
After meeting up with the family for lunch,
I had a wander off on my own,
down to the quayside.
Past the cathedral.


It was a lovely evening,
in early December!
After taking photos on the quayside
of some of the bridges,
I crossed over the Tyne,








and visited this building,
The Baltic.
It's an old flour mill,
turned art gallery.


     
As you can see,
there are a number of bridges that cross the Tyne.
And one of the photos below was taken from The Baltic
high up on the viewing platform.

       


I took this last photo
on my way back to my friends house.
I got caught up amongst the football crowds
coming out of the match.
The local team are The Magpies,
so called because of their black and white football strips.



Not sure where I'll get to on this visit.
I have only just finalised some of the people who I will be seeing!
But I will get back to you just as soon as I can.





Wednesday 17 March 2010

Inspiring Words~ Colour


I love colour.
The brighter the better



I'm attracted to colour,
like a Magpie attracted
to shiny objects,
I'm that way with colour.


I love it.










Need I say More?


Except to say,
pop over to Yiota's
for more inspirational words.



Tuesday 16 March 2010

Inspired Words~Friendship


I am covering a number of things in this post.
First of all
I have joined Yiota, in Greece
in choosing some inspiring words,
for
'Inspiring Words Week'.

Secondly I have finished my third postcard
for
Kelly is from the United States.
The theme for March is
'Words to live by'.

My word for today is
Friendship.

You can see it on my postcard,
along with;
love,
health,
faith,
wisdom.
I added in large appliqued letters
Family.
I hand quilted;
create,
learn,
cherish.
To me,
all words to live by.

I thought it would be an easy postcard to do.
I had a clear idea in my mind
as to how it should look.
But I was not pleased with how it turned out.
So I started again
with the postcard that you see here.
It is okay,
but not really how I envisioned it.
However, I will leave it at that,
for now.
I practiced my machine quilting again,
but I'm not sure you can see the little quilted hearts.


So, friendship!

A parcel arrived for me yesterday,
all the way from Australia.
All the way from Robyn at Daisy Quilts,
Robyn who is the chief administrator
for the Hexagon Quilt Along blog I belong to.
To celebrate the first anniversary of the Quilt Along blog
Robyn organised a giveaway,
which I won!


And this is what I won!


A lovely book
containing plenty of inspiration
for some new projects.
Which I will no doubt share with you,
once I have made some of them! 

Then there's this little felt brooch
sent to me by Alison from England,
along with some other goodies
some time ago now,
and I don't think I mentioned it at the time.
I wear it on my woolly hat all the time at the moment.

Then we have two of our boys.
Rufus and Arthur.
Brothers.
They've been apart for the last couple of years,
but they seem to remember each other
now that they are back together.
Brotherly friendship!


So many ways to experience friendship.
And I love the way that the internet
shares friendship
around the globe.



Monday 8 March 2010

Weekend Contrasts


We woke to snow on Saturday.


But the sun was shining in the vineyards.


And the village across the river
looked pretty.


After our walk with the hounds,
I had a quick walk around our village on my own
hoping for some interesting photos.
But by then the sun had gone in.


So for a bit of colour,
I took the photo above of a butcher,
and a pig.
I wonder what the butcher is doing!
Life size papier mache figures can be seen all around the village.
I've shown one of a clown before.
I'm told the artist lives in the village.

The photo below is also colourful.
It looks like an Easter egg tree!
In Sweden they used to tie coloured feathers to bushes at Eastertime. 


After a dull day on Saturday,
the sun came out on Sunday.
But it was cold,
and a bit windy,
which made it very cold.
It didn't stop us going for a walk
above the village though.
We walked across the plateau
where we can see for miles.
Mike is just a dot in the distance.
Sometimes he waits while I take photos,
sometimes he walks ahead,
and sometimes he offers to take the two hounds that I have with me
making it easier to take photos.


Eventually I caught up with him.
He'd been looking at the work that this bulldozer had been doing.


A road is being built.
Not any old road,
but a road that will connect with a high level bridge across the river,
with a great big roundabout of roads on the plateau,
which will spoil one of our favourite walks!
It is becoming apparent just what the impact will be.


Brothers, Arthur and Rufus.
Notice how Arthurs ears are standing up.
They are usually in this position when he is out for a walk.


We are down in the valley now
and it is Sunday afternoon.
You can see the river in the left of the photo,
and the line of dried grass that the river has left
when it flooded over the path.
The river has been flooded a lot over the last few months.


A nice sign of spring,
catkins.
Not so nice are the chopped trees.
perhaps they became unsafe in the gales we had. 


Mike is standing with Jewel and Paddy
at the waters edge,
where they launch canoes in the warmer months.


Paddy is a bit frisky.
But notice how flat his ears are.
Unlike Arthur's in the photo earlier.
He looks as though he has no ears here!
Of course they can flatten their ears making them more aerodynamic.
After all they are built for speed.



He started jumping around
making it difficult to get him in shot.
He would like nothing better than to have a good run,
except,
he would just carry on running.
He's done it before.
So unfortunately he has to stay on the lead.
They all have to.
They cannot be trusted to have a run and come back.
Such wayward hounds!


This last photo was taken this morning.
I like to watch the barges on the river.
(Mike says he'll get me an anorak.)


On the far side of the river you can see that the banks are whitish in places,
it isn't snow,
it's where they've been spraying or spreading something in the vineyards.
There's been quite a few workers in the vineyards of late.
I suppose it is a busy time.
As the weather is supposed to stay sunny this week,
I suppose I should get out into our garden too!



Thursday 4 March 2010

Shopping Trip



Mike is away today and tomorrow,
with the camera.
So I thought I would show you photos I took yesterday.

I think it was one of the nicest days so far this year.
We took our morning walk with the hounds.
But crossed over to the other side of the river.
In the photo above
you can see ours and the neighbouring village.
It looks like one long village but in fact is separated by

In the photo below
we're looking across the river to where I took you on the walk
through the woods
with all the fallen trees.
You can see at the top it's quite flat.
Some of it is covered with woodland,
and some of it is given over to agriculture.
Either way it's home to deer
and other animals. 


Later in the day,
we took a drive a few miles down river.
Mike had someone to see
while I checked out the shopping centre.
The shopping centre consists of a large supermarket
and one or two other outlets.
  I spent most of the time in the supermarket,
and most of that time
looking at the Easter goodies.


There were lots of chocolates.
Different shapes, sizes
and clolours.


I've noticed how the shops in Germany caters for the seasons.
In October there were lots of decorations for houses
for Halloween.
It's the same now for Easter.
Decorations for doors, windows,
tables.
They looked lovely.


I took photos of just two of these displays,
but there were more,
I just didn't want to draw attention to myself.
Not that there were that many people around.


Our usual shopping trips are to the local supermarkets,
of which there is a choice.
But this one is larger
and therefore has more choice.
It was different.
I think I'll come here to do the regular shop
every now and then,
just for a change,
and to see what their latest seasonal promotions are.



Wednesday 3 March 2010

Wooded Walk Part Two


So to continue our walk,
and where I left off yesterday...
more fallen trees!
But before we got to them,
Jewel heard, smelt,
or saw something.
A deer most probably.
She got all excited,
and jumped around a bit.
You can see her here looking all alert.


And here she is jumping over one of the fallen trees.


We did eventually make it as far as here in the photo below,
where we can overlook the river.
Unfortunately not an inspiring photo of a barge.


The sky is still blue.


From our vantage point overlooking the river,
we can follow it's course
and see Bernkastel in the distance.


Can you see the castle on the hill?
I watched as they set off fireworks from it
in September during the wine festival.
Ahhh yes,
we still have all that to look forward to.


I stopped to take one last photo,
or two,
while Mike took all 4 hounds.
But they didn't get very far,
more fallen trees.


So we had to go back the way we came,
back to where we started.


Once back in the car
the sun was setting over the far side of the valley
and I couldn't resist
snapping away at it.


The photos turned out not too bad,
despite
a bumpy road.


Once back in the valley,
the blue skies and the sunset had disappeared
leaving a grey light,
and photos only fit for the delete button.