My Pocket

blue, green, orange, yellow

I never knew it could be so much fun to fiddle with the basic settings in iPhoto! I've been trying to pluck up the courage to work a bit in Photoshop but so far I haven't done much. My refurbished Powerbook came with all this great software (Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, ImageReady, Photoshop, GoLive, Contribute, Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks. Oh, and QuarkXPress Passport, which I don't know what it is...) but I'm not using any of it! Beautiful icons to keep in my dock though... :] I know how to use InDesign from working with it in the office and I designed my blog banner with it, but apart from that - I've got some playing around to do.

This last one is the original - cor, all my previous photos look colourless and dull compared to the tweaked ones now. Well, that changes things a bit - I think I will be working a bit on my creations from now on. I'm thinking, isn't it the same if I would have set my camera settings to get more saturation into the picture before I capture it as digitally doing it afterwards? Anyway, that's what I'm going to keep telling myself. I mean look at this photo below - boooring!

Mind you, I won't be having blue woods, that's just not right most of the time.

Thursday

Good morning sleepy-head, time to get up!

Shower with a view...

Stretch them legs, wiggle them toes! (note sandal tan line, did I mention I live in them?)

Commute to work : round the corner, through the backyard, across the road, through the rose garden, past the greenhouses and vegetable beds and through the door of the school.

School library : backs of books to toe the line, some to be returned to their places, some just unruly generally, some books need TLC, some need to be given new homes, newcomers need welcoming and worlds come together - anywhere you want to go I can find you the shelf.

Daily-after-lunch-walk through canopy covered lanes.

Studies for this afternoon : Taking the Main Complaint, Questioning the Systems, Cancer and Pulse and Tongue diagnosis...

G'night...

...sleep well!

Here I am.

Well, where were we? Feels like I haven't been here for ages. For a change I have actually been busy though, normally I'm Miss Lazybones content daydreaming away. I did my daydreaming fidgeting on a chair in the classroom for six days last week. The beginning of the second year of college. I don't mind getting back down to business, best get on with it right, but oh were the homework-free days lovely...

I stitched this needle case in the sunshine on our porch:

I found a table for my craft corner but have yet to put the shelf up (with my new powertools kindly left by my very good friend next door when he moved - thank you Kwabena!).

My new desk!

I sanded and stained the top and I love the old worn feeling it gives to the wood. The green Stokke chair is another gift (thank you Kwabena!) and I'm intending to live in it for hours at a time poring over my study books.

I've read so many books over the break that I lost count - The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (wonderfullly touching way to mess with your head), Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass by Phillip Pullman (magic, witches, gypsies, soul animals and strange worlds - yes please), Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes (third time I read that one, the power of fairy tales in women's lives - the only self-help book I read now), Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian (any book where adults are wise and children are allowed to exist as they are is good in my view, but this one is excellent), The Plains of Passage and Shelters of Stone by Jean M Auel (I began reading this series when I was 15 and I still find them enchanting and inspiring - simple, natural life).

Well, that was my break, now back to the heavier books...

of a walk

happy easter!

Happy Easter everyone! Spring has arrived - with sunshine, warmth and fresh green everywhere. I've been soaking it up with my parents and youngest brother who came to visit for three days, being proper tourists discovering some places I've never been in the New Forest. I was able to wear my new summerdress for the first time along with the sandals I've already insisted on wearing for a couple of weeks, come rain or shine.

One of the projects on my list for the college break is on its way. I want to create a crafty corner (where there used to be a bright green homemade cushion sofa that never got sat on), a place where I can have a little table for my sewing machine and a shelf with my fabrics, yarn, knitting needles, sewing notions and other stuff from my stash.

Stage one - clearing out said sofa and surrounding items was completed a week or two ago. Stage two - replenishing stash: wooden sewing box, embroidery thread, craft books and sewing tools accomplished last week. Stage three - acquiring shelf, table and desk (related project part of grand plan of improving room interior) not quite successful yesterday as table was not available in any IKEA in all of Britain. However, I'm inspired so am sure I will find something for the purpose eventually. Pics to follow.

I wish you all lovely spring days and inspiration for everything you do.

mormor

Easter reminds me of my grandma, these glass decorations were hers. I remember them always being there and looking at them as a kid. The colour, shapes and light shining through the drops still give me the same little tingle of excitement. Not sure why but I suspect it's got something to do with girls' relationship with small colourful objects, much the same as I now feel about fabrics, yarn or what inspires me for the moment. Still small colourful things a lot of the time. And I still miss you grandma...

Wasn't she great? Look at that little girl - she's about the size of the horse's head! On the back of the photograph it says "Collecting the mail on Stina" so I expect she must have gone on that work horse daily. During the Second World War her father bought a farm in the countryside of southern Sweden in order for them to survive should food supplies become scarce. She loved living on a farm as far as I know and loved animals, like I do. I do miss our talks and simple times.

Love you, always

yarn

This is the yarn I'm thinking of using for my cardigan/shrug type knitting project. It's Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Aran in a slightly tweedy green. Still trying to find a good pattern for a beginner like me, something not too complicated. Today I've spent the day in bed though, sore throat and sniffly. Sun shining in through the window, lovely outside...

Forgot to post about the lunar eclipse whenever that was - did you see it? We took a photo, hanging out the window every now and then to check the progress.

braving it

Never mind that it's pouring outside and the bluebells are from last year (here they are one month away still...) I'm happy! Point location exam over {passed - hehey!} and the contents of my head can go down to less alarming levels again. I intend to do entirely mindless handfuls of projects and lots of aimless walking over the next seven weeks that I have off before the second year begins at college. Bought two knitting books (this and this) to finally get the courage to move beyond straight stockinette and bag-making. I've told myself these last two years since I took up knitting again (mum taught me how to when I was ten I suppose) that I was quite happy sticking with {very} simple stuff and anyway didn't know how to do anything more complex. Duh - can't do something I've never learnt how to! So here we go, thinking of making a simple cardigan that I can pull on over a vest, just for the warmth of the sleeves basically. Straight down from the shoulders, no need to be able to button or close it in any way. Will take some pictures of the yarns I'm thinking of using tomorrow.

love that colour!

And the scent. :) Treating myself to indoor signs of spring these days to get through February, it's a slog... Daffodils and hyacinths. Soon will move on to tulips methinks.

little one

I found a baby bunny on the road going for my walk today. Probably a week old, smaller than my fist. Thought it was dead but it moved a little so i picked it up. It was bleeding and freezing cold but still alive. I cradled it in my hands trying to warm it up going back home and when i began stroking it it turned its head towards my finger and made the most heart wrenching little suckling movements and sounds searching for its mother's milk. I washed him clean of the blood and found several tiny puncture wounds from bites, probably a weasel pulled him out of his nest and dragged him onto the road. He warmed up and began moving more and i stroked him. I knew he was dying from the very beginning, but thought if i could warm him up and find the nest perhaps he'd have a chance after all. I couldn't find a nest obviously - which rabbit burrow to put him in? If that is indeed where the mothers keep them and not in a grassy nest somewhere in a field. He died in my hands even before i went back to look for a nest though i didn't realise it at the time. He had heaved a couple of deep sighs and without me knowing was off on his way. A little spirit back to the universe, me left with a tiny body still warm. Life is quite something.