Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 10

I have been struggling this week to update my blog, with very little success, so please excuse the incorrect side bar. I will keep trying and have enlisted the help of another blog friend, so it might improve soon.

I didn't expect to be posting this week as Chris' op was scheduled for 6th. Unfortunately his last test showed he needed some blood work first, so the operation is now postponed until the end of March. So here I am after all.

I have also returned to my craft blog after a year's break and wrote a post about my first Christmas card for this year.

This morning we woke up to a thick mist/fog over the park. I couldn't even see the bandstand. Of course it soon burned off and we had a lovely sunny morning so I walked across and did my monthly grocery shop. Now it is raining!

However, yesterday the sun shone all day. It was so warm I felt confident to walk to my knitting group wearing just a thick cardigan. (I only wear a coat when I really have to). In the morning I stripped the bed and washed the sheets and they actually dried out on the line. That always makes me happy.

There were lovely streaks of light and shade on the grass as the sun began to sink at teatime.

Last Friday my daughter-in-law came over for the morning with our youngest grand-daughter.  She is such a sweetheart, and didn't cry once all morning. Ella brought me some flowers and they look so pretty together.

On Sunday I got a message that Chris was meeting our son Jonathan in the park to collect some paperwork from him, so after church I walked across to join them. We had a little shower of rain although the sun was out, so there was a complete rainbow over the playground.

Jonathan brought baby Niamh and her big sister Aisling with him and he challenged Aisling to climb the high cone with him. She is only four but she got up there with no help. She turned to smile at me, but then looked down and wasn't at all sure how to climb back to ground level. But Jonathan got behind her and helped her find each rung and she was soon back down with us.

Although I finished making the motifs for my wall hanging back before Christmas, it had not got any further, so this week I got it on poles and hung it on the hall wall. It makes a lovely splash of colour as you walk out of the sitting room. But it is a bit creased here. It needs to be stretched and steamed and I hope I can do it where it is, without steaming the paper off the wall!

I also woke my laser cutter up this week. I miss having a clock on the wall, and although I almost always have my smart watch on or my phone with me, it is nice to be able to glance up at a clock to see the time. So I made one. It is only 30cm, (12") high as that is the largest size I can cut with my machine. I made a solid back layer from a piece of mahogany ply and the more intricut front layer from basswood ply, and glued them together. Today I have given it a light spray of varnish and now I need to buy a clock mechanism with the right length of hands, and then we can hang it up above the fireplace mirror.

I have quite a folder of 'park' photos now, but I need some spring and summer ones before I can make a scrapbook page of them.

Friday Smiles 2026 # Week 9

I ended last week saying I had a busy weekend ahead and it was. Our youngest son Ben came over on Saturday, because Sunday was his birthday. (My baby will be forty next year. How did that happen?!) I had huge potatoes baking in the oven when he arrived with mounds of grated cheese, beans and coleslaw. Comfort food for us and for him!

I wanted a small gift for him so I did some real 'old school' crafting and made this rainbow spiral, nail and thread art. I had a big picture made in this way back in the seventies. I like the way it turned out and Ben loved it so that was good.

Late afternoon  we walked across to 'Festival Square', a small patio in the centre of town, to see the Lantern parade. This was an arts and crafts workshop for the end of half-term, where the children could all make a simple lantern on a stick.  Then they assembled on the square for an anouncement by the Town Crier, and led by the Snow queen, they set off for a parade through the park up to the market square for a fire show. There was quite a lot of them though their lanterns don't show in my photo.

In the back of the Town Crier photo you can see two of my sons, Jonathan's wife and her sister, and my smallest grand-daughter tucked snuggly in her pram. Her older sister was already running off with her lantern, making sure she wasn't left behind. I would have done the parade with them, but we had arranged to meet up with other family members to have a drink with Ben, so we went straight to the bar, and had a lovely evening of lively chatter. I always enjoy a family meet-up, for any reason.

It was a weekend of birthdays because on Saturday my sister Dorothy was 91. She lives down on the south coast so her daughter drove down and took her out for the day. They went to Longleate House and fed the giraffes. I gather it was an amazing experience which they both enjoyed. What a fun way to spend your birthday!

Living on the England/Welsh border we expect to see daffodils growing everywhere, and they are just opening in all the gardens in time for St.David's Day on Sunday. These ones are in the park, fighting for a space among the crocus, but they are on every patch of soil, in gardens, and along the roads, all with buds at bursting point.

My little tete-a-tete ones in the front tubs are looking so good with the last of the winter pansies adding a little lilac colouring.

Another of my finds as I walk through the park is this tree. I am not sure what it is until the new leaves come in Spring, but all winter it had grown lichen, I think, on all the thicker branches, leaving a perfect camuflage pattern. I love it, and I am going to use these photos to make some background paper for a scrapbook page.

I am trying to get back into crafting, and making a few cards. I needed two for last weekend anyway. So this week I have done some stamping, cutting, printing and colouring, so I have a few elements ready to turn into cards soon.

I have also dug out the jacket I was making back when we first arrived in England and were staying with our son in London. I finished all the squares a while ago, but then they got stored away. So yesterday I layed out the ones for the 'body', i.e. the back and fronts, following a scheme that came with the pattern. Now they are tacked and pinned together and I have the task of crocheting them all together. Then I will need to work a border all the way round the bottom, fronts and neck, and some mock rib on the sleeves. 

This is the wool I used. It is a lovely combination of greens and purples, with a touch of gold and blue, but it actually looks much greener in real life than it does in my pictures.

Needless to say, I have a new project in mind and am waiting for the yarn to arrive in the post. I wanted a smaller piece to occupy me when I am going to the hospital on the bus each day. It is only just over a week until Chris' operation now, and I shall be visiting him each day if possible.

And finally, I bit the bullet and had my hair cut really short yesterday. It feels strange but I am happy with what she did. I have taken a photo to use as my new profile.