wishes do come true

but not necessarily how you hoped they would, remember my post about not seeing my grandchildren, well for Christmas my son sent me some photos of my grandsons,

there is a saying to be careful what you wish for as it may come true, or as Karen says in Out of Africa ‘when the gods want to punish you they answer your prayers’,
my son has also said that I might be able to visit in February……

good post

I had a lovely surprise package just before Christmas from Julie, a lovely atc ‘magic carpet’ just what I need and the small medallion on the reverse says ‘hope’, Julie has covered the carpet with one of my fav stitches ‘fly stitch’, she also included a lovely little paper atc and a piece of her shibori dyed work, thank you Julie,

the camera lies

well did I get a surprise when I downloaded these photos, not that I am complaining but this is not what I saw with my human eye, I saw an orange ball rising from behind the hill,



the last photo I took I saw a perfect orange ball hovering just above the horizon but this is what my camera saw…..

despite the distinct lack of an orange ball I do like the photos and thought some of you might too,

Merry Christmas everyone

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas I hope you are having a nice time where ever you are, I am behind reading e mails and blogs and as you can see I have not been updating this blog much, I am two photos behind on my photo blog too, I will try to correct this soon, take care all,
best thoughts Frances

figure drawing, sun and frost

last night was the last figure drawing class this year, we did 3 half hour poses and it was good, yes after recent doubts I enjoyed last nights class, last week we had a single pose and it took me a while to get going but in the end it was ok I kinda enjoyed, I was surprised the next morning as I thought my drawing looked better than I had been thinking the night before, my problem at class was that I was on the darkside of the model and she was wearing black making it even darker, the lighting in the room is horrible for the purposes of drawing of any kind, anyway here’s the result of my dark in dark drawing,

I like the props which were supplied by the model, I wasn’t sure I would have time to put in any background but just managed to quickly add the panel, which does give the pose more finish,

This morning we woke up to a white frosting everywhere which is unusual for the island,



silly but I sometimes miss the look of white mornings on the mainland, I do not however miss the chill factor,

the sky was almost clear, aeroplane polluting vapour trails ugh! I love seeing the sky light up before the sun is visible,

the sunrise was gorgeous wish I could get a good photo of the round circle of sun sitting on the horizon but it is so bright that the pictures come out way overexposed, which is why you only see the sun peeping over the moor,

ufo to wip

I did start some stitching a few weeks ago and now it has stopped again, part of the reason is that I have lots to do in the house re decorating, moving things to other rooms so that rooms that need building work done are ready for the work and finding suitable good workpeople,

I did some machine work and then decided I don’t like it, I then sorted out ufo’s and have told myself I must finish some of them, so I got out the last of this quartet, the first 3 were finished about 4-5 years ago and sent in exchanges, the fourth was meant for me which probably explains why it got side tracked, I have now (almost) finished the hand sewing so now to get the original design for the quilting out and just ‘do it’,

I’ll explain more about the exchange later when I get more of this finished,

grandchildren and grandparents

as a child I use to long for grandparents but unfortunately 3 of my grandparents had died before I was born, I did though have a grandmother living in south Wales, my fathers mother, she died when I was nine without ever seeing me, I asked even begged my father to take me to see her but he would not go, now I find myself in the same position as my welsh grandmother, I have six grandchildren, two I have never seen, two I have not seen since six years ago and two I had been allowed to see a few days each year but this year I have not seen them and I have just received an e mail from my son to say my wanting to see my grandchildren is adding to his stress, no I have not been nagging him, I only asked once,

I was told I could visit one weekend in October when my daughter-in-law was away but I was told this just before the weekend and it was one of the weekends I was due to be in Edinburgh, had I known it was to be that weekend I could see my grandsons or not at all I would have dropped everything and gone, ironically I was free for the nine months before October and am free for the 2 months after October but that is not suitable for them, they could only allow me to see my grandsons one weekend in October,

the son and daughter-in-law that have not got time for me to see my grandsons this year are not a struggling working couple, my daughter-in-law is a full time mum, my grandsons go to school the elder and nursery the younger, my son works 5 days a week nine months a year in the computer games industry and earns a very high salary, this year they had a weeks holiday at February half-term overseas, went to centre-parks for a spring holiday, spent the summer holiday at Disneyworld Florida paid for by the company my son works for, went overseas for the October half-term and will be going to Australia for a month from the middle of December to the middle of January,

I find it really hard that I have three children who are all like my father in relation to their own family, my mothers family think my Dad was great but as an adult I started to realise and say to some of my cousins you wouldn’t find him so great if you were a blood relative and he was ignoring you,

It is not just me they ignore they are the same with my mother their grandmother, I know other people who also have a similar problem and those who walk on eggshells whenever they see their children, then I know others who see a little of their children and a lot of their grandchildren but mostly as unpaid childminders, there seem to be very few people who have a good normally relationship with children and grandchildren,

I do not usually post personal things but the e mail my son sent really cut me to the core, it will be his eldest sons birthday next Sunday and as usual I will not be allowed to visit my grandson for his birthday and 2 days later they leave for a month in oz,