Adieu February!

Day 59 of 2010. (I sound like the bloke off Big Brother there!!). 

So that was February then! A month of terrible weather, if nothing else!

We were shocked yesterday to see that a woman had died in Yorkshire while crossing a ford in her 4x4, not far from where we were last week. An horrific and chilling story. It just goes to show how dangerous roads like that can be, especially in the bad weather. http://tinyurl.com/ydzgh66

I traced the route we tried to take to Robin Hood's Bay on google earth yesterday. It was difficult as the journey itself is a bit of a blur to me. In retrospect, the fact that there were warnings of 33% inclines in places whould have perhaps made us think the weather and road conditions weren't particularly condusive to the trip we had in mind! This is a link to the route on google maps!

http://tinyurl.com/ykdqcmf

We came off the A169 onto Little Beck Lane and followed that to Lousy Hill Lane (very aptly named) and then back into civilisation on the B1416, which we followed up to Whitby!

These are a few pictures of the route taken by Himself, which I hope give an impression of what we were up against!! The second picture below is the spot where we got properly stuck and where I no doubt lost several hundred miles worth of tread off my tyres! I'd come down the preceding hill very slowly and carefully and then simply didn't have the momentum to get up the other side. I have no idea how the locals cope!

It was a sad morning yesterday. It was Mr A's funeral. Loads of people attended. My dad and I went and we ended up in the second "overflow" chapel. First time I've been in there and I'm in no hurry to go back, thank you. It was a bit of a weird experience as there is a big screen in the chapel and you watch the service that is being held in the room next door.  The service itself was very informal, not religious and a lovely tribute and farewell to a very well loved and popular man. At the end of the service they played the song "Time to Say Goodbye" by Sarah Brightman. That's the song my mam chose for my Grandma's funeral in 2008 and that did it for me - the floodgates opened!

While all that was going on, my car was at the garage for its annual MOT test. It failed. It needs part of the exhaust replacing and it is going to be done on Tuesday. As my last MOT has expired, this means I can't use the car until the work has been done. Funny how when you don't have the car you can think of a million places you want to go and things invloving car usage that you want to do!!

I got stuck into making some cards last night and got 3 lighthouse cards completed for a 3/3 blind swap. I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out. I used photos that Himself and I have taken of our local lighthouses and manipulated them so they look like pencil drawings or paintings. I so wish I could draw/paint like that for real!! I hope the lady they are for is pleased with them. The ship that features is The Bounty (as in Mutiny on.....") which came here in September 2007. Thank you to Himself for the fab original photo!

Busy Weekend

We’ve had a rather busy weekend.

On Friday we headed down to Leeds to see The Hawklords at the Irish Centre. We had a good journey down there (thank you to my lovely, trusty satnav, kissy kissy!); the hotel room was great; the hotel staff were really friendly and helpful (Leeds Vicar Lane Travelodge – highly recommended and a £19 bargain!!); the taxi driver who took us to the venue was really canny and the taxi fare was sooo cheap!!

When we arrived at the Irish Centre we were very pleasantly surprised at how cheap the drinks were! Always a good thing!

The support band, the Sewersuckers, were really good and might deserve some more investigation……..

The Hawklords were just fantastic! Really good. I haven’t enjoyed live music so much for ages! I took lots of photos and some videos too (personal use only!!). It’s the first time I’ve ever taken “proper” photos anywhere like that and I must say now I know why Himself enjoys doing it so much (I might be hooked!!).

The only spoiler in the evening was a strange lady who approached us to ask rather impolitely “what the f**k” Himself thought he was doing taking photos of people without their permission. She went on to accuse him of being Drug Squad and then apologised that she was “a bit stoned and paranoid” – just as well he wasn’t Drug Squad for her sake then wasn’t it? If by some very strange and bizarre coincidence she should be reading this, let me assure her that out of the 300-odd photos Himself took, there were none of her. In fact there were only 3 non-band pictures, one of which was a rather nicely posed shot by two young ladies, so go stick that in your pipe, deary, and if you can’t cope with the effects of drugs – don’t take them!!!

The journey back to the hotel was not the best as, rather than wait 20 mins for a taxi, we decided to walk. It was only a couple of miles but a) it was freezing cold and b) we got a bit lost. Again, we relied on the wonders of modern technology and my Blackberry directed us back to the hotel very nicely!

The next morning we were up bright and early (no choice, we had to be out the car park by 10:00am) so we decided to head off towards York.

We stopped near Pickering for lunch at The Fox and Rabbit. Another lovely place, albeit a tad pricey. However, you really do get what you pay for and we both had a fabulous lunch!  A pud would have been nice but I was far too full to even look at the dessert menu!!

We then had a slight change of mind and headed for Robin Hood’s Bay.  On the way we passed the Hole of  Horcum. My goodness what a sight it was. The photos just don't do it justice - it was mad!!  I'd never heard of it before and this is what Wiki has to say about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hole_of_Horcum

Now, Robin Hood's Bay seemed like a good idea at the time, especially after what my good friend Mrs B had to say about it (follow her, she's hilarious! - http://likenailingjellytoatree.blogspot.com/) and, had it not been snowing, it might have been very enjoyable. However, the narrow, winding roads with steep drops either side were lethal and we were sliding all over the place. A couple of times we actually got stuck and I thought that was us trapped in the middle of nowhere until Spring (a bit like in Misery!!). Fortunately, we managed to find a main road (eventually) and decided to give up for now and try again in the warmer weather.

Having extracted ourselves from that pickle, we stopped just outside of Whitby so I could catch my breath and calm down. I checked my phone and found a text from a close friend to say that her Dad had just died. That was such a shock. He had an operation last Tuesday (16th) and we all assumed he’d be fine. I spoke to her today. She and her mam are doing as well as can be expected. I think we are all still in shock. RIP Mr A, you were a very lovely man and will be very sadly mised by your family and friends.

After than I needed a drink but as I was driving, I had to settle for a coffee. We went into Whitby and I had a very nice coffee at the Dolphin Hotel.

http://www.thedolphinhotel-whitby.co.uk/

We had a brief look around Whitby and cleared our heads taking some photos. I’m a bit disappointed with mine as I somehow managed to have the camera on the wrong setting so they all have a blue tinge, plus I had them set on 3200 ISO which didnt really help!!. I’ve done my best to sort them out on photoshop and they are a bit better now.

Finally, we headed home. Himself’s mam had very kindly stayed at ours looking after the cats. They were all a bit huffy as we’d had the audacity to leave them for about 32 hours! We dropped her at home and then went to collect Ollie from my parents’. He’d been spoilt rotten and mollycoddled (mam tucks him into bed at night with a biscuit!!) but I think he was pleased to see us, judging by the waggy tail!

Pink Angels

I made this card last week. The image is from a backing card that a little angel pin came on some years ago. I kept the image as I thought it was so pretty. I was quite pleased with the way the card turned out - its the first time I've used lace - ooh I am getting adventurous!!

I think I've worked out my problems with layout, so far as pictures go anyway! I was using the old editor - hopefully I'll get on better with the new one!

Messy

Ooh my blog is so messy. I really think I picked the wrong template! Other peoples (especially Mrs B's) are so neat and tidy! I can't even remember to justify my text before I post it!! I suppose that means my career as a web designer is a non-starter!!

I've been busy with cards today. I've experimented with a watercolour technique which is busy drying. Not 100% sure about it but its not bad for a first attempt!

I've also made a new Me-How card. The others are on flickr. He's all loved up in time for Valentine's Day tomorrow!

Another card

This is a daft card I made the other night. Its based on a magnet I have on my fridge that I manage to totally ignore most of the time!!

February Already?

This year feels like its on fast forward! Valentine's Day next week!!!

I feel like my feet haven't touched the ground since Christmas and I have very little to show for it. I thought I'd pop on here and then got engrossed in checking out all the latest posts on the fab blogs I follow. Everyone has been so busy and what wonderful stuff they have all produced!

I'm still keeping up with my 365 project, although I tend to leave it to the last minute to take my picture so invariably I end up relying on a cat to sit still long enough for the camera to do its magic click! With them being black I miss so many wonderful photos as I tend to end up with nothing but a silhouette! I keep saying to himself that we need a black and white cat purely for photographic purposes however (perhaps wisely) he disagrees!!

I'm busy making some fun ATCs based on my favourite socks! Here's one of them. I hope to get some more finished today!

One day I might actually learn how to paste more than one picture into a post as well!