Home studio now set up

Finally managed to get the lampworking studio set up in one of the outbuildings and have been learning some new techniques.  Check out my other blog at http://greenglassbeads-devon.blogspot.com/ . 

What a Christmas!

I cannot remember the last time we had snow on the ground at Christmas, not proper deep(ish) snow anyway.  It was icy cold (minus 11 on Christmas eve night, didn't get above freezing all day Christmas and minus 11 on Christmas night), with deep frost and sparkles everywhere.  Deep blue sky and sunshine with Dartmoor giving it's best winter display in the distance.  Pure magic.

Christmas Eve evening started the magic with the film 'Prince Caspian'.  Us 3 girls were raised on C.S. Lewis and my eldest sister even wrote to him (and got a letter back - a long long time ago); and my youngest nephew is named after the prince; I have never met another Caspian, wonder if there are any others?

Then Christmas morning bright and clear and a visit to our friends to deposit presents for their two little girls and a glass of pop (for M not me I was driving) and some very pleasant company in front of the fire before coming back home again to our own fire, lots of pressies and a roast chicken.  I was going to do a goose but chickened out and it is in the freezer to be cooked on a day when I am not so distracted by pressies!  That evening we had a very close flyby of our resident barn owl, so white you could almost miss her against the snow.

Boxing day morning saw the barn owl sitting on the fence by the chicken run, quite undisturbed by me opening the front door, but when I went back to get the camera she decided it was time to take off; a real shame as she was so close and so still, it would have made a wonderful picture.  Instead I managed to get some lovely photos of the sun rising over a very white Dartmoor.

Then the thaw came and quickly, on Boxing day morning we went for a walk round the lanes, still covered in crisp powdery snow, but the evening it had turned to mush and now all the white has gone and the green is back (and I have found a row of carrots in the veggie patch again).  We did have some Christmas excitement though; not like last year when M's car slid into the back of mine on the drive because of the ice; but also ice related.  On Christmas morning we noticed that our water supply had gone a little brown and the flow was reduced. We boiled all drinking water and hoped we hadn't got frozen pipes.  Boxing day morning, no water at all in the house, lucky we had filled up some receptacles the day before.  Thankfully one of the outbuildings still had water so we collected big containerfuls and boiled what we needed for drinking.  Yesterday morning water back on, no brown and flow back to normal.  Need to keep an eye on this and let the landlord know (the water company will only deal with leaks on their network and the house is a good 50 yards from that so it is probably on our land).  Must have been that the mains comes in through the kitchen along the back wall which is north facing and for two nights well below freezing.  Oh the joys of rural living!

So is the winter weather over?  Who knows, it is only December and for the last two years the worst of the weather has been in January and February, so it probably isn't over yet.

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays whether or not the celebrated the season.

Winter weather back again.

Not as much snow as the rest of the country, about 5cm on Saturday night followed by about another centimeter or two on Monday.  However, the temperatures have struggled to get above freezing over the last two days and we have a fantastic hoar frost (thick fog for two days).  Yesterday it got to about minus 2.4 and currently it is minus 6.7, sorry just had an update, it is now minus 7.4, how on earth can it get colder during daylight!  The sun is trying to get through, but not making much impact obviously.  Haven't been out of the drive since Saturday but need to get out today to pick up a prescription for our neighbours who don't have a 4x4 and need their meds.  Nice to think that we can be of some help, as long as our 4x4 can make it up and down the hilly untreated roads.  Must do a supermarket run tomorrow and pick up the birds (couldn't decide between a chicken, duck or goose so have ordered all 3, will freeze what we don't have on Christmas day).  Also have to pick up more insulin and syringes for our diabetic cat.  Thank goodness we did the majority of present buying last week, there are still a few bits I wanted to get but probably have to be late presents.  I do have a couple of items stuck in the post still, but the good news is that my amazon parcel that I ordered on the 8th of December and seems to have been round the whole of the North of the country is now in my local sorting office; we haven't had a postie since Friday but will see if I can pick it up from the sorting office when I get out tomorrow.  The main roads should be fairly clear but we have about 2 miles to go up and down single track roads to get to the main road, should be OK in the 4x4 if we take it carefully.

Seems like a big problem in this country when many other countries manage fine with much more snow than we get.  I think the issue here is that often during the day it warms up and there is a partial melt and then at night it freezes.  Of course this doesn't happen in places like Norway, Sweden, Canada etc so you end up driving on compacted snow, we have driven across the Rockies in February in deep snow with no problems at all.  Also in many countries they have snow tyres which in some places are mandatory in the winter.  If we are going to continue to have such winters it might be prudent to purchase these but they are not cheap.  Snow chains are another option but you cannot drive on clear roads with these on and putting them on and off with freezing hands is not a pleasurable pastime.

Probably won't post again before the holidays, so happy holidays to all who celebrate this time of year. :)

End of our big freeze

It never really happened here.  We got a fairly good snow fall last Friday and until yesterday it hadn't gone as the temps were so cold.  Got down to minus 8 on two occasions, otherwise around the minus 4 mark during the night.  Most days it never got above zero, so pretty chilly.  Then the rains came; yesterday evening it got up to a balmy plus 4 and today it is hovering around the same mark, but lovely icy cold rain too!  It must be pretty dreadful for those stuck in snow in the rest of the country, but it would have been nice to have had a bit more.  It is only December though and Jan/Feb is supposed to be our cold time so winter isn't over yet!

First snow

When we moved down here we were told that they never get snow.  Last two winters have been very snowy and our first sprinkle arrived on Thursday morning.  Big proper snow yesterday, settling quickly on the drive and roads, great fun getting to my friends for my annual hair cut!  Then it sleeted and then started a short thaw, result this morning is thick ice everywhere.  BMW now grounded for the winter!  Thank goodness for the 4x4 (although that isn't much good in ice as we discovered last Christmas day when it slid slowly and gracefully into the back of my parked car, now parked at the top of the drive so hopefully if we do take it out it won't do it again).  Minus 3 at 08.30 this morning and still at 10.30 below freezing, nice!  Fully stocked up so we will be OK for a few days...

Had to stop this for an hour as M told me we have sheep!  7 strays now fully enclosed in a field and trying to find out who they belong too.  Unfortunately you can't get close enough to them to see their ear tags, hopefully someone will claim them after my phone calls.  Also this year had had stray cattle and currently there is a stray fox hound in the vicinity, again someone is supposed to be coming today to try to catch him, what is it about our place and animals.  Also since I started writing it has started snowing again despite a forecast of sunshine!

Must go and start preparing the curry for tonight and marinade some chicken.  Hope everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is warm and dry! :)

Another month

Busy busy, mostly with the beads, having a lovely time at my mentor's studio, but really got to get my own lamp and equipment.  Have a new blog too now just devoted to the beads if anyone is interested (mind you that needs updating too!) http://greenglassbeads-devon.blogspot.com/.

Also we had friends to stay for the half term week, they opted to camp (mad things), but it was a lovely posh bell tent.  Sadly the boys chickened out and spent most of the week in the house - wimps!  We had some good days on the beach and the boys went up into Dartmoor to get lost - I think they did too.

I have been reading a great book on Dartmoor, written in 1900 by a mad Vicar called Sabine Baring-Gould.  He wrote many books on this part of the world and also wrote an introduction to Conan Doyle's Hound of the Baskervilles at one point.  He also wrote a biography of another mad vicar from this part of the work, the famous Reverend Hawker of Morwenstow fame who I have written about before.

All the veggies are now finished and we have had our first hard frost, unfortunately this was also the night the chicken got locked out of her house.  Thankfully she survived both minus 2 degree temperatures and the fox, poor thing.

Charlie is still coping with his diabetes, not sure how, but is currently sitting in my chair! whilst I perch on the edge trying to write this.

We had a lovely day at Mum and Dad's too last weekend when it was Dad's 90th birthday.  I made one of my fudge cakes but unfortunately managed to forget to take the greaseproof paper of the bottom of one of the cakes and my lovely niece had to dissect it out!

After our day at Mum and Dad's we had a good and very long walk into the depths of Dartmoor from Belstone.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and not too cold.  Had to ford a few streams again, but it wouldn't be a walk on Dartmoor without getting your feet a bit wet!  We went up to the head of the Taw river along ancient (and modern) tracks and ate our lunch sitting on top of Oke Taw, just lovely.  Feel very stiff now, but I suppose that means it was doing us good.  Have a new Camera and took a few photos, need to get the software loaded so I can upload them to the blog. :)

Oops!

Good heavens, has it really been nearly two months since my last post, am getting slack!

Yes, yes, you say, you are busy, well aren't we all, it's no excuse.  Well I suppose being dragged up Dartmoor every weekend and spending time on my new wonderful hobby which I hope will become a job, and trying to keep up with my current day job, and trying to keep on top of the lawns and the garden, and spending time on the beach, could be good excuses?

So the garden first.  We had quite a good crop of runner and french beans, should have planted more peas out and the carrots have been good.  The spuds all got blight as did most of the tomatoes.  The chillies did OKish.  The beetroot looks OK and really should be pulled up now.  The cauli's bolted, someone ate all my swede, brussel sprout and winter cabbage seedlings!  Now having lots of blackberry and apple crumbles but they are pretty much over now.  Been sloe picking and have some nice sloe gin on the go.

Animals.  Charlie cat isn't really responding to the insulin and his back legs are very weak, but he still likes to sit in the sun (when we get any) and seems to spend much of the night out hunting.  The chicken is still with us, doing very well on her diet of chicken food and cat food (occasionally) shame there aren't any eggs.  I have looked into getting more, but the lady I want to get them from has had a rush on and won't have any POL's (young hens) ready till January.  We have little darlings in the fields (baby deer of course!) and a huge barn owl nesting in one of our outbuildings.  The swallows sadly have gone to sunnier climbs. :(

Dartmoor.  Had some great walks up from Belstone and then last week we discovered Okehampton Camp, which is an army base but you can check online when they are using the area for practice and when they are not you have a huge expanse of High Dartmoor available for walking.  The great thing about starting here is that you are almost on top of the moor, so even the highest Tors are accessible without getting completely worn out with climbing hills (cheating I know).  Last weekend it was clear as clear could be and we thought we could even make out our house which is 30 miles away.  We could see the sea on the Clovelly coast and the sea at Bude, amazing.

The beach.  Been good down here, M has taken up body boarding and has been having a great time.  I like beach combing (can't quite bring myself to squeeze into a wet suit, but maybe next year).

Work.  OK, but with spending cuts who knows what the future will bring (all my work is through the local council).  

The new hobby.  I have spoken before about jewellery making and it is going OK, may even have found an outlet but need to have enough stock before I can even think about putting anything in there, two pairs of earrings and a couple of necklaces will look at bit pathetic!  However, last week I went on a course to learn how to make lampwork beads (picture above).  This is done with glass and a torch and long metal sticks (in essence).  The beads are truly beautiful and I just love love love glass.  The first session went well and I have another one booked for next Friday.  I do need to get my own torch, but need to think about where to put it.  Watch this space for more pictures.