A Gentle Day

It is taking the sky is taking a long time to wake up these last few days. It remains the same misty silver pink of a watercolour dawn until well into the afternoon. As we were driving to Chepstow this morning I saw charcoal treelines against a horizon that changed from pearl to rose, topaz to olivine - all lit up by an opalescent sun. For over a hundred miles it made me want to paint...

Other than admiring a jewelled sky, there is little better in life to sit in a castle, well wrapped up against the cold with a thick woolen cape and the knowledge that a beef and barley stew is on the fire, waiting only for the sword practise to finish before we can tuck in, having spent the previous hour teaching a youngster how to use a drop spindle. A girl's determination to make a workable yarn defied chilled fingers and awkwardly slippery merino fibre. She made a very creditable first thread which many a spinner I know would be content to call an "art yarn" or "textured" (for that you can read "lumpy") but for an eleven year old, there is nothing wrong with that.

Hope your skies are soft and beautiful too

Pretty

The wonderfully talented Jessica at Wayfaring Wanderer gave me this which is so sweet of her. And isn't it pretty? So thank you very much Jessica and I will continue to visit your blog and be speechless in admiration at the beauty that you capture with each of your posts.

So firstly I would like to pass this on to the girl who put me in the way of Jessica's blog in the first place and that is the lovely Pippa atMy Arty Life. Pippa is creative in the same way that birds fly - it just comes naturally to her. Paper craft, crochet, beadwork and now photography. If you haven't visited her blog yet, treat yourself right now.

Gina who is busy Quilting in the Valleys whose eye for colour and design just leaves me speechless with admiration. I found Gina (who lives about forty miles away from me tops) via Kate Quilts in Australia. Weird or what? Kate also gets nominated for this award. You quilters are such a talented and busy bunch of crafters. You put me to shame.

Patois who though not to my knowledge a crafter of paper or wool, is never the less a crafter of words - some of them screamingly funny, some poignant, some written with enough vitriol to blister the screen (okay, that was just the once and she had just been burgled, I should cut the girl some slack) Her poetry is a treat too.

An artist's blog is always a treasure and the blogs that belong to Nan in Maine and her animal friends are daily reading. If you like cats, the sea, and pictures of snow in slanting winter sunlight then this is the place for you

And last but by no means least is POD - who is the modest owner of just about the most eclectic blog I have ever come across. I know he won't mind when I call him unique and I know he will understand when I say that a triple decker fried egg, chili sauce and chutney sandwich is unique too. I love both - the POD and the sarnie - crazy but fab at the same time.