Friday, February 09, 2007

Speaking of posties

Yesterday morning a great swathe of central England woke up to snow.

No big deal I hear you Canadian and Scandinavian girls............... well probably not in Canada or Norway but here in the UK you might recall that our favourite topic of general conversation is the weather, too cold, too hot, too wet, etc etc etc and we see all varieties of weather but seldom any real extremes. To hear the media you'd think we'd had 8ft drifts not a measly 2 - 4 inches at most!

Much to the disgust of my two youngest particularly, Taunton had precisely none. Gloucester, where we used to live and it's neighbour Cheltenham near where Siobhan lives had a good covering. So much so that a lot of the Gloucestershire schools were closed for the day (probably because the teachers couldn't (be bothered to?) make it into work) and the kids had an impromptu holiday.

My two were appalled........ 'It's not fair, in all the time we lived in Gloucester we never had a day off school because of the snow, I'm not going to school then!!!!!!!'

Of course my reply was 'Oh yes you are, I have to go to my school, you will go to yours!'

As is usually the case over here the minute we have a sniff of snow everything grinds to a halt. The BBC headlined the 'adverse weather conditions making travel hazardous' . You Canadians must be laughing into your thermal knickers at us! Jane in Rugby is a Canadian and can't believe how all our systems grind to a pathetic halt at the first flake.

However as you can see from the picture above at least the post gets through and this postie still has his shorts on. My little lad always wears shorts to school each day regardless of the weather - he just detests hot legs, but he will get an incredible shock in September when he goes up to senior school and is not allowed to wear them. Maybe he's destined to be a postie!?!

The quilting group I go to each Monday morning is held in a converted victorian warehouse next to the river in the centre of Taunton - we have the use of an upstairs room with skylights which make the lighting excellent for stitching. However as we're a small and chatty group we wouldn't dream of taking machines in - it's a strictly 'hand-stitching' zone. Therefore on Sunday nights I usually have to pull together some hand work to take in and do the next day.

This week I couldn't lay my hands on anything specific and just cut a square of white-on-white that my friend brought 5yds of back from her last trip to the States and some bits and bobs of mauvish-pink and pale green to have a bit of a play.

Here are the results so far along with some matching pieces I flung together once I got home. I might make a whole quilt with these eventually including various applique blocks and pieced sections - we'll see. I do think the white/green/pink a little restrictive and would quite like another colour to pop in here and there to add variety but can't make up my mind which to use - any ideas???I particularly like the chevron effect with these flying geese.

And I even tackled a QST - (which I hate) for the centre of this star block. Getting brave eh?

Tomorrow marks the second weekend of the Six Nations Rugby championships here in the Northern Hemisphere. After our dreadful efforts under the previous manager Andy Robinson (8 losses from nine games) a new era has dawned under a new manager. Jonny (Sarah's hero) Wilkinson is back injury free and we comfortably beat Scotland in the Calcutta Cup match last Saturday. This weekend England play Italy at Fortress Twickenham. The men kick off first at 1.30pm and then the ladies team, who currently hold 'their' Six Nations crown, follow afterwards at 4.15pm. For anyone wishing to watch only the Ladies game entry to the ground is free once the men's game is finished. Some friends of ours whose daughter Cat (short for Catherine) played with Sarah at Regional level last year have kindly taken Sarah for the weekend and will head off down to London tomorrow with the intention of watching the men's game in a convenient bar and then watching the ladies game live in the stadium. Sarah has never been to Twickenham before (what mean parents we are) and is so excited. She found out today that her best friend had beaten her to become Head Girl at their school and she was very disappointed so this will give her a real lift as well as the opportunity to watch some really class ladies rugby.

This little fellow (taken from the BBC website pictures) certainly hopes we beat the Italians in both games too :o) (Or at least his dad does anyway!) And so do we - GO ENGLAND!!!!

13 comments:

His Office, My Studio said...

Our schools closed for one day because it was -9 and -22 with wind chill. We maybe have 2 inches on snow on the ground and the temps have been aroung zero all week.

Your blocks look great! Love the colors.

Enjoy and good luck with the Rugby championships.

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh I love the chevron flying geese and your blocks so far. What a soft look it has!

quiltpixie said...

we were -45 with the wind this morning, so the school buses didn't run, but schools and all were open... But to be fair, we're prepared for snow and cold -- we have heaters for the cars, winter coats, hats and scarves designed for this temperature, shovels etc.... If you seldom get snow, even a little would through life into turmoil

meggie said...

We saw all about the Snow over there. It made the news healines here in OZ- where we are slowly broiling in this ghastly heat & humidity! LOL
I love the soft colours of the pieces you have done.
Dont really have any suggestions, but perhaps you could audition a few colours to see how you feel.

ForestJane said...

Ohh, your postman looks like he has cold knees! And the baby in the last picture certainly has a lot of growing to do before he fits into that shirt... lol

Love the soft colors you've used in your blocks so far. Maybe add some deeper blue?

Sew Create It - Jane said...

Thanks for the link, Anne and for the comment. :) Judging by the rate the snow is melting this morning, I suspect several people have opening their front doors with the central heating on! LOL

YankeeQuilter said...

Well the snow only last a couple of days so your kids didn't miss much. I did think it was interesting that there weren't a lot of cars on the road on Friday when the weather wasn't half as bad as Thursday!

The applique looks wonderful. Maybe some pale blue?

Ali Honey said...

And you won cricket against Australia! Things must be looking up eh.

Lily Mulholland said...

Don't worry Anne - we grind to a halt here too if there's hail or snow!

Re colours - a really soft, soft 'aqua' blue? As soft as your mauve and green?

Have fun at Twickenham - I haven't been to the stadium, but I did spend a couple of nights in a cottage opposite the village square waaaay back in 1988. What a most beautiful place it is!

Shelina said...

Anne, we complain about the weather here a lot too. It changes regularly so it is always good fodder for a conversation.
Looks like you did get quite a lot. There was a man where I was working that always wore shorts, even in below zero weather. Crazy.
Your soft colors look so pretty on the quilt blocks. If you wanted to brighten it a bit, you could just use darker shades of the colors you already have. Or maybe a print to add some texture.

Ruth's Place said...

The blocks look great, especially the chevron flying geese!

Clare said...

Pale Lavender? Am I behind again? Alex had 2 days off the week before last because of the snow. We struggled through slush and ice to get her in, only to be told the teachers hadn't arrived and we could go home. Johnny Wilkinson? Yoh! I still go weak at the knees when I think of Rob Andrew.

Unknown said...

could you please tag your picture as copyright Howzat photography www.howzatphotography.com.
Its one of our images and rather than ask for its removal we are happy for you to use it for non commercial uses as long as you add the credit to it. Thanks
Richard How
Howzat Photography