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!