Another allotment layout: this is Emily with our purple sprouting broccoli, the only thing that is harvestable there at the moment.Background paper is from a Scrapmuse garden kit; alphas and tag from Club Scrap kit "Farmer's Market"; fibres from my stash.
We were invited for a BIG roast chicken dinner at Eve's, and to keep Sean some male company she had also asked James, the curate, to come. I'd known James through my work as he had been standing in for one of our Deanery vicars during a year of absence, but had never really met him in person - so this was a nice touch. Surprisingly, Eve knows him through the Goth Meetup Group! As usual when she has guests, she was dressed up nicely Goth Style, and there was loads of food and everybody ate far too much - but it was SO delicious.Papers are from Club Scrap kit "Culinary"; silver mizuhiki cord from my stash; 3D stickers from Jolee's Boutique and peel-offs from Craft Creations.
I visited a nutritionist to get the supplements for my special diet sorted out. She recommended that I take my temperature daily because I always seem to feel cold, to see if my "core temperature" is right. She also said that I don't have enough complete protein in my diet and said I should either eat lots of sprouts or start eating meat and fish again. As I really do not like sprouts, and Sean won't eat them at all, I decided to introduce some of the latter - Eve has been telling me about a very good butcher near her place who sells traditionally raised meat. That might be an option... Tag reads: "Since my decision to try the anti-candidiasis diet, recommended for ME sufferers, I thought it might be good to see a nutritionist and make sure I will be getting the right supplements to go with it. The session lasted for over an hour, during which Olga grilled me on my problems and my habits. She prescribed a series of vitamin and mineral supplements and more protein in my diet, and made me take my temperature three times a day to exclude the possibility of Wilson’s disease."All papers from Club Scrap kit "Aromatherapy"; alphas from Renae Lindgren.
A day with nothing special going for it - so I'm featuring a heirloom piece that came down to me from my granma. It's a very fine porcelain vase, about 20 cm high with a kingfisher design.The paper is Club Scrap "Heritage"; title and frame cutouts from HOTP; heritage cutouts from K+Co; ribbon from Wiggly Woods texture box "Heritage"; and peel-off numbers from Craft Creations.
This was the winter halfterm break and my teacher friend Eve was off work, so she had a visitor from down South, and from her childhood: Mr Duck (yes, it's his real name!) who had become somewhat of a grandad to her. He's 80 years old but was good company as we walked to and from "The Swan" pub along the river and had lunch there. The pub menu had some really nice salads which were huge and came with big chunks of lovely freshly baked bread - Eve and I enjoyed one of those while Mr Duck had salmon. I think he thoroughly enjoyed being out with two "young women" and treated us to the meal as well.Paper is from one of the Club Scrap retreats several years ago and I teamed it with a tag and sticker set from Pebbles SnipIts; fibres from CS "County Fair" and "Extra Extra".
One of my New Year Resolutions was to have a good reorder and clearout of my stash - I have far too much stuff and too little space to keep it in... Not to mention that with the present economic situation, a bit of extra pocket money would come in handy. So I sorted, labelled, photographed and listed on Ebay about 20 big multi-packages. And then it was waiting...Tag reads: "I had been thinking about some reducing to my stash for a long time…after all, I had so many goodies I could not even remember them, let alone where I’d put them. Finally, it was the Credit Crunch that got me going: I reckoned that the longer I waited the harder it would be to sell things as people began to think more about their spendings… So, as one of my resolutions for the year I marked down selling, and duly sat down sorting, photographing and packing, embellies, surplus tools, stamps and other things – and finally took the plunge to begin listing on Ebay! Let’s see what happens…!"I couldn't find an appropriate paper so I made one myself from £40 note vouchers (for those who don't live in the UK: there is no such thing as £40 notes - so it's quite funny...). All the sentiment stickers are from Club Scrap kit "Time + Space" (how some of them are taking on a new meaning with what's going on in the world right now!); peel-offs from Craft Creations; black paper from "Science" and fibres from "Time + Space" and "Textiles + Notions".
Back to the weather: with more rain, the flooding got worse - the problem was the drains not coping. One morning they even closed the road in front of our house (it's a main A-road and also the only way to get to our driveway...). Luckily by afternoon the water was gone enough for them to reopen the road...Paper is Club Scrap kit "Collections" red and cutout from "Road Trip"; umbrella and bubble puddle from Jolee's Boutique; and peel-offs from Craft Creations.
Valentine's Day... Sean and I don't really do Valentine's - he doesn't like special occasions of any sort! But it was a good enough reason to take a photo of him, happily doing something on his computer.Paper and title/number stickers are from Club Scrap kit "Let me count the ways"; epoxy stickers from Creative Imaginations "Marah Johnson". Fibres: CS "Road Trip" and "Summer Harvest Special".
Back to the English people's favourite topic: the weather. After frost and snow earlier in the year, now we had heavy rainfalls with flooding. Water was standing in the road outside our house (which is a major A-road) and huge puddles at the bottom of the bridge which you can see in the photo by the spray caused by the car. I thought the "Lucky 13" was appropriate as it didn't get near our house and we "didn't get wet feet"...Paper is Club Scrap "Weather"; chipboard from "Let me count the ways"; Jolee's Boutique 3D wellies and rain drops; and Marcella dome alphas.
A personal achievement - after years of labour and several pitfalls to do with size and space I finally got my scrapbook website up and running.Tag reads: "This is my scrapbook website – all my albums and pages I ever made! And I call it my “lemon project” because for years it had that sour lemon taste for me: I conceived the idea of this online album years ago – I wanted to share my pages large enough so that people could see the detail and read the journals - and subsequently I put in lots of time to write the site; then found I couldn’t host it because it was far too large! For years, it just sat on my computer…Now DH has his own hosting site – I can have as much space as I want. So I updated and TODAY it went ONLINE!"Papers are Club Scrap "Mosaic Twist" and the pink from "TYWL" to match the kit used in the picture LO. Peg from "Tie Dye"; peel-off letters from Craft Creations; and numbers from Making Memories.
Another photo taken through a window and showing my unfortunate reflection... It was quite a nice sunset, though, which made the air traffic streams in the sky a livid orangey pink. Tag reads: "These “paintings in the sky” are a vivid reminder of how close we live to the big airport at Heathrow. In a clear sky, you can always find one somewhere, although not often as many as these, or as beautifully lit… They have pushed through permission for Terminal 5, which is now working, and unsurprisingly, are now trying to get permission for another runway – which supposedly wasn’t the idea behind the new terminal (or so the campaign said at the time). I find it incredible that in this time of Climate Change problems a country like the UK would still allow a step up in flight traffic, particularly passenger flights!"Papers and "Savour every moment" sticker are from Club Scrap "Kit for a Cause" (mini version); fibres from "Road Trip"; chipboard from "Let me count the ways"; alphas from MAMBI; and an unknown little plane charm which was perfect for this LO!
I started this year's "spring clean" in the kitchen cupboards, to simultaneously clear out all the goodies that wouldn't go with my upcoming diet - in time to use them up, rather than having to sling them out or give them away...Paper is Club Scrap "Home and Hearth"; date tag and corners from "Let me count the ways"; alphas from "Salsa" (round) and from MAMBI (script); brads from Making Memories; and the little broom was in a pack I bought years ago from a card making store to do a Harry Potter LO.
Another "odd shot" - view out of one of our upstairs windows. There are sometimes a lot of gulls about at this time of the year - they come up the river Thames. It looked so funny, all of them sitting arrayed on this lamp post, and the one leaving just reminded me of the nursery rhymes ("Ten green bottles..." in English; "Ten little moors..." in German) where each verse ends something like "...and then there were nine/eight/seven...), which lead to the journalling on this page... BTW, the strange dark share in the photo is just my reflection in the window.Paper from Club Scrap "By the Seashore"; alphas are CS "Freedom", and Jolee by You seagulls.
This was the kind of photo you sometimes take spontaneously of something funny or outrageous. I tried to bin Sean's old trainers - he always wears them until they've got holes but these he managed to keep from me until the soles nearly fell off! Tag reads: "Sean is notoriously bad about letting go of his favourite clothes. Every year we have this problem of the trainers: he calls them his “hol(e)y shoes” and is not pleased when I commit the “sacrilege” of consigning them to the bin…"All papers are from Club Scrap "Chapter One"; alphas/numbers from "Let me count the ways" and a mega brad from a Scrapgoods kit.
These two teddies are the oldest and the biggest I've ever had. Tag reads: "“Volker” and “Thomas” are sitting by the window in our living room – they are the remnants of a plush collection I finally let go when we moved to Chertsey!"The paper is Club Scrap Friendship - one of my all time favourites with a gorgeous slate like relief. The cirle is a punch out from the "Bistro" kit; tag is from a tag swap I did on a card making Yahoo group years ago; and the 3D paw I took off a birthday card.
This is a bit of a filler - for lack of anything exciting I took a picture of "Panda". Tag reads: "“Panda” is a fluffy memento from our “2nd honeymoon” in Florida. He was handmade in Peru from alpaca wool furs – all the colours are original in the animals, not dyed. And he is ever so soft and fluffy – far too nice to be used as a rug." -- which is why he covers my needlecrafts chest!And for an explanation of the "2nd honeymoon": before we got married we decided to book our honeymoon to Florida, the one place we thought we would be able to have loads of fun as deserved by a newly wed couple... But then my FIL told us that he'd sort out a honeymoon as a wedding present, and so we went to the Channel Islands, where we nevertheless had a thoroughly good time! Still, we booked our Florida trip a couple of years later, and it was the best holiday ever...Paper is a Club Scrap design classic of Asian Artisan on Autumn Splendour, and the bamboo mesh is Asian Artisan, too. The chipboard is from "Let me count the ways" and the alphas are from an older kit, probably "Journeys".
Last one of the winter LOs...this is what our garden looked like under "maximum coverage".The paper is again from Claire's Kits winter kit; date sticker is Club Scrap (one of the older kits); title is a fabric label I think from Making Memories, and the thing on the left is another one of those magnetic clips with a sentiment on the front and winter picture on the back (and I still can't remember the manufacturer).
It snowed again in the night but you can't really see the snowflakes in this photo. Sean ventured out into the road to take a photo of our house and cars in the snow, and also some others like cars crawling down the bridge in the snow...Assorted winter paper - no idea where that came from - with a title sticker and felt snowflakes by Rebecca Sower "Fresh Stickers". Letter and number stickers from Making Memories.
I was completely and utterly fascinated by the rare sight of snow in these parts, so for several days I kept running into the garden to take different photos... This one shows nicely how deep the snow was...More Claire's Kits winter paper and the little snowflakes were in that kit, too. With a quote from HOTP Vellum Quotes (I think they are called "Home & Family"); brad from Making Memories; and alphas from Club Scrap "Poetic".
The front cover of the Anniversary calendar (the January page of which I used for the church picture two posts ago). I wanted the calendar itself to have a place in this album as it is really special to me and I plan to use the gorgeous pictures in it for an Englefield Green scrapbook later on.Paper and cutout lamp post are from Club Scrap kit "Old South"; the big number is from CS "Let Me Count The Ways" and the letter stickers are from another old CS kit, I think "Tuscany".
Finally, and unexpectedly, winter really hit us this year. After the hard frost we had in January - more than we are used to! - now it was snow. This was Monday afternoon, 1st February. Nicole was due to fly back to Germany but the airport was closed and all of London, and most things out here, were stuck in snow chaos. Keep in mind: this is a place that does not normally get any snow to stay! There was a snow storm all through the night and most of the day, and afterwards our garden looked like this! (Picture taken from my study.) It was totally amazing. I cancelled everything for the day and just sat staring out the widow, enjoying the sight of pristine snow!The paper is again Claire's Kits winter kit 2004 or so, with letter stickers from Making Memories; a Paper Bliss 3D title and Jolee's for You star.
Another LO to do with our church choir. Our leader, the lady in the African gown in the middle, retired last August and ever since we haven't had a leader. For one reason and another, there was never an official farewell party for her, but we had bought some little gifts and a big card for her between the choir members and wanted to give them to her - so she invited us round for an "in house party" which was lovely and a nice ending for this choir which was disbanded soon after. There were a few more people in the choir but didn't make it to the party. The photo looks a bit faded because it is a scan from an inkjet printed digital photo her husband gave to each of us.The papers are Club Scrap kits "Musical Interlude" and "Music & Fine Arts" (the latter as design classic on T+N paper). The quote sticker and tassel are also from "Musical Interlude" and the note eyelet is from Eyelet Outlet; peel-offs from Craft Creations and number stickers from Making Memories.
This is the church Nicole and I visited in Englefield Green (see previous LO) - in fact the calendar was the reason for the trip. I didn't take a photo of the church myself but thought this one would do - it wasn't quite as snowy when we were there, though.Tag reads: "We went to St Jude’s on their open Saturday for me to pick up one of their commemorative calendars, on the occasion of their 150 years’ anniversary. I was interested in the beautiful photographs of village scenes, seeing that Sean and I had lived “up the Green” for seven years…It felt a bit like homecoming, although I’d never been a member of St Jude’s and saw the church inside for the fist time. It is beautiful, esp. the stained glass windows!The January calendar page shows a pretty view of the outside – and it was a harbinger of things to come: we had a sprinkling of snow then, and a blizzard two days later!"The title refers to the fact that it felt a bit like coming home because I had lived in this village for so long...The paper is from a Claire's Kits winter kit from some years ago - never thought I'd actually get to use it! The stained glass border is silk ribbon! I bought a whole roll of it some years ago and made lots of cards to sell at church... The number stickers are Making Memories, and the fibres are CS ("Stepping Out and something else - should have made a note).
Nicole is one of my best friends - we met when she worked at the local hospital here as a midwife. Unfortunately (for me), a couple of years ago she decided to go back to Germany and now we only see each other on the few occasions when she comes back to do "bank shifts" at the hospital to keep her UK licence going. That's about 3 times a year for about 5 days, and she usually stays with us, which is handy for her as the hospital is only about 15 minutes walk away. It also gives us a bit of time to catch up and do things together. Tag reads: "I have missed Nicole greatly ever since she moved back to Germany, although of course it is nice to see her happy with her new boyfriend Patrick. It’s also nice to have her come back for a few days to do bank shifts at the hospital ever so often. Every time she stays at our house and we are glad to welcome her, and the two of us get a little time to share between her nightshifts and sleep, to do some scrapbooking together, talk or go and visit other friends. This time we went to see Eve and had a trip to the church in Englefield Green which is very pretty."Papers are from Club Scrap kit "Friendship", and the twists as well. The twist in the tag reads: "‘Share’ is a charming word in a friend’s vocabulary.”, which seemed perfect for the LO. The metal title was a leftover from a kit we worked with in a metal embellies workshop at a Bonanza years ago - I think Making Memories makes those, as well as the number stickers.
Usually, at the beginning of the year I have this urge to have a "good clear-out", and over the last years I have enjoyed this even more what with Freecycle available to get rid of the things where they will be brought to use again! I totally subscribe to the idea of Freecycle and over the last years it has grown enormously here in the UK. I remember when I first looked into it some years ago, there was only a group in Guildford, the capital of Surrey - with most things being way too far to bother. Then they opened one for Woking which was a bit nearer, and about a year ago they openeded Runnymede, which is our Borough. At at first there were only some ten or so people on it and it was pretty slow going. Now there are loads of messages coming in every day, and I have managed to give away lots of my clear-out stuff this year, as well as acquiring some things we wanted...The picture is of the Freecycle UK homepage with all the links to the different groups, and the arrow points to Runnymede (I suppose that will be too small for you to see...).The papers used here are from Club Scrap kit "Hearth & Home"; fibres and alphas also from CS but can't remember which kit...
A Christmas LO in January...this is the last heap of old Christmas cards I brought home from church where they collect them for me every year. They get used by the charity crafts group I run (Stitches for Presents - see my previous LO "Charity Cards") to make "recycled Christmas cards" to sell. My first job is to sort through all the cards and discard those that are not in good condition or don't have suitable designs, then cut off the front panels and distribute them to the card makers. Later in the year I'll get the completed new cards back for packaging with envelopes, labelling and selling.Paper is from K&Co; peeloffs from Craft Creations; title and 3D stickers from Jolee's Boutique.
This year's first visit to the allotment I'm sharing with a friend (you can see Emily working at the far end). It looks its bleak rough winter self. In the far middle you can see a stand of kale, about the only thing available at the moment, and Emily is fixing netting over the purple sprouting broccoli which should be ready for harvest soon. The tag reads: "As of this year, I’m sharing my friend Emily’s allotment! It’s only 5 minutes walk from our house and she is too busy with her studies to look after all of it. Another step towards the “live simpler, live healthier” resolution! Not too much work in January but bleak to look at!"The paper, fibre and alphas are all from Club Scrap kit "English Gardens"; silk leaf from Craft Creations; plus some pressed grasses.
A tribute to one of my other hobbies: knitting. I used to knit about a sweater a month - that was during secondary school where we were allowed to knit during lessons as long as we paid attention! After school, I didn't pick up my knitting needles again until some time last year when a friend asked me to teach her. I promptly got addicted to the lovely wools that are available now and keep making little accessories like scraves, hats and bags...Inside the file folder will be a photo of me wearing the finished scarf but I keep forgetting to ask DH to take it for me! There's also text inside: "Late last year, Eve and I found out about a wool shop located just off the road home from her school. We paid a visit and, needless to say, fell in love with several types of wool. I bought for 2 scarves, the first of which is nearing completion. Quite unusual for me, it is a wool laced with glitz. Looks lovely but my prediction is, I’ll look like a Christmas tree!"The paper is from Club Scrap kit "Tiny Treasures" - I'm not sure it's visible but the print is of knitted fabric! The alpha and quote stickers are from "Textiles + Notions"; the file folder is Fossils; and the fibre is a bit of the actual wool used for the scarf.
Burns' Night celebration at the local Scottish Club. I'm far left in the picture with some of my friends around me (Richard to my right; Mark to my left next to Trisha and Peter). The celebration always consists of a traditional Scottish supper with Cockadoodle soup; Haggis with Neeps and Tatties; and a dessert. The haggis gets piped in whole on a platter and praised in the "Address to the Haggis", a Burns piece. There's also Scottish Country dancing and some entertainment, partly by the "ADSS Singers" (see my earlier LO).The paper is from Club Scrap kit "Mother's Day"; the alphas are "Freedom"; the silk heather is from Craft Creations; and the tartan ribbon was just a scrap left in my stash.
This is a bit of a sad LO, to do with our church choir. We had a meeting that night at the Vicarage to discuss whether there was a future for the choir or not, as we have been without a leader for over half a year. Although all the singers were positive about our calling, in the end the decision was to disband the choir (we were told a few days later). The photo is of our hymn books and several pieces of anthem sheet music.Paper and gold peeloffs from Club Scrap kit "Musical Interlude"; alpha and number stickers from Making Memories; brad from "Wheels + Sprockets".
I caught DH with one of the laptops open to be sorted out. It's one of the things he does in his own business: repair, upgrade, refurbishing of laptops - our whole house is full of laptops, parts and boxes with bits and bobs. Probably food for another picture sometime!Everything on here including the wire is from the Club Scrap kit "Matrix", except the red bubble stickers which are from The Philadelphia Group.
On 21st January 2005, we moved into our new home here in Chertsey. I was celebrating our 4-year home anniversary with a photo of the trellis by the entrance, surrounding the plates with the house name and number. "Treffelin", we were told upon buying the house, is a Welsh word and has something to do with milling but the previous owners weren't quite sure what exactly...This was a great opportunity to use some of the Club Scrap kit "Let me count the ways", although I think the writing in the cutout strip looks more like "let me count the days" which was just what I wanted... The big cork number is from the same kit, and the various peeloffs are from Craft Creations.
Every winter, my MIL and her significant other, who hails from Barbados, take a holiday somewhere that makes Vince feel more at home temperature-wise... And every time we get a card full of "sun, sand and surf"...Paper, tags and alphas from Club Scrap kit "Surf's Up"; flowers from "Painted Desert"; brad from "County Fair".
The photo is of our domestic recycling service, provided by Runnymede Borough to collect paper, glass and tins once a week - I usually remember to set it out about once a month... The tag text, however, refers to our Church Council Meeting that night and my subsequent investment as "Eco Officer" - with first task to sort out some recycling possibilities for our church! It reads: "At the church council meeting tonight I finally was invited to present “EcoCongregation” – this has been pending for a year! The motion went through, and I was put in charge of further investigations and actions under the title of Eco Officer."Paper and mosaic tiles are from Club Scrap kit "Mosaic Twist"; peeloffs from Craft Creations; mix of fibres from "Mosaic Twist" and "Stepping Out"; and a number sticker from an office pack.
Another allotment layout: this is Emily with our purple sprouting broccoli, the only thing that is harvestable there at the moment.
We were invited for a BIG roast chicken dinner at Eve's, and to keep Sean some male company she had also asked James, the curate, to come. I'd known James through my work as he had been standing in for one of our Deanery vicars during a year of absence, but had never really met him in person - so this was a nice touch. Surprisingly, Eve knows him through the Goth Meetup Group! As usual when she has guests, she was dressed up nicely Goth Style, and there was loads of food and everybody ate far too much - but it was SO delicious.
I visited a nutritionist to get the supplements for my special diet sorted out. She recommended that I take my temperature daily because I always seem to feel cold, to see if my "core temperature" is right. She also said that I don't have enough complete protein in my diet and said I should either eat lots of sprouts or start eating meat and fish again. As I really do not like sprouts, and Sean won't eat them at all, I decided to introduce some of the latter - Eve has been telling me about a very good butcher near her place who sells traditionally raised meat. That might be an option... 
A day with nothing special going for it - so I'm featuring a heirloom piece that came down to me from my granma. It's a very fine porcelain vase, about 20 cm high with a kingfisher design.
This was the winter halfterm break and my teacher friend Eve was off work, so she had a visitor from down South, and from her childhood: Mr Duck (yes, it's his real name!) who had become somewhat of a grandad to her. He's 80 years old but was good company as we walked to and from "The Swan" pub along the river and had lunch there. The pub menu had some really nice salads which were huge and came with big chunks of lovely freshly baked bread - Eve and I enjoyed one of those while Mr Duck had salmon. I think he thoroughly enjoyed being out with two "young women" and treated us to the meal as well.
One of my New Year Resolutions was to have a good reorder and clearout of my stash - I have far too much stuff and too little space to keep it in... Not to mention that with the present economic situation, a bit of extra pocket money would come in handy. So I sorted, labelled, photographed and listed on Ebay about 20 big multi-packages. And then it was waiting...
Back to the weather: with more rain, the flooding got worse - the problem was the drains not coping. One morning they even closed the road in front of our house (it's a main A-road and also the only way to get to our driveway...). Luckily by afternoon the water was gone enough for them to reopen the road...
Back to the English people's favourite topic: the weather. After frost and snow earlier in the year, now we had heavy rainfalls with flooding. Water was standing in the road outside our house (which is a major A-road) and huge puddles at the bottom of the bridge which you can see in the photo by the spray caused by the car. 
A personal achievement - after years of labour and several pitfalls to do with size and space I finally got my scrapbook website up and running.
I started this year's "spring clean" in the kitchen cupboards, to simultaneously clear out all the goodies that wouldn't go with my upcoming diet - in time to use them up, rather than having to sling them out or give them away...
Another "odd shot" - view out of one of our upstairs windows. There are sometimes a lot of gulls about at this time of the year - they come up the river Thames. It looked so funny, all of them sitting arrayed on this lamp post, and the one leaving just reminded me of the nursery rhymes ("Ten green bottles..." in English; "Ten little moors..." in German) where each verse ends something like "...and then there were nine/eight/seven...), which lead to the journalling on this page... BTW, the strange dark share in the photo is just my reflection in the window.
This was the kind of photo you sometimes take spontaneously of something funny or outrageous. I tried to bin Sean's old trainers - he always wears them until they've got holes but these he managed to keep from me until the soles nearly fell off! Tag reads: "Sean is notoriously bad about letting go of his favourite clothes. Every year we have this problem of the trainers: he calls them his “hol(e)y shoes” and is not pleased when I commit the “sacrilege” of consigning them to the bin…"
These two teddies are the oldest and the biggest I've ever had. Tag reads: "“Volker” and “Thomas” are sitting by the window in our living room – they are the remnants of a plush collection I finally let go when we moved to Chertsey!"
This is a bit of a filler - for lack of anything exciting I took a picture of "Panda". Tag reads: "“Panda” is a fluffy memento from our “2nd honeymoon” in Florida. He was handmade in Peru from alpaca wool furs – all the colours are original in the animals, not dyed. And he is ever so soft and fluffy – far too nice to be used as a rug." -- which is why he covers my needlecrafts chest!
It snowed again in the night but you can't really see the snowflakes in this photo. Sean ventured out into the road to take a photo of our house and cars in the snow, and also some others like cars crawling down the bridge in the snow...
I was completely and utterly fascinated by the rare sight of snow in these parts, so for several days I kept running into the garden to take different photos... This one shows nicely how deep the snow was...
The front cover of the Anniversary calendar (the January page of which I used for the church picture two posts ago). I wanted the calendar itself to have a place in this album as it is really special to me and I plan to use the gorgeous pictures in it for an Englefield Green scrapbook later on.
Finally, and unexpectedly, winter really hit us this year. After the hard frost we had in January - more than we are used to! - now it was snow. This was Monday afternoon, 1st February. Nicole was due to fly back to Germany but the airport was closed and all of London, and most things out here, were stuck in snow chaos. Keep in mind: this is a place that does not normally get any snow to stay! There was a snow storm all through the night and most of the day, and afterwards our garden looked like this! (Picture taken from my study.) It was totally amazing. I cancelled everything for the day and just sat staring out the widow, enjoying the sight of pristine snow!
Nicole is one of my best friends - we met when she worked at the local hospital here as a midwife. Unfortunately (for me), a couple of years ago she decided to go back to Germany and now we only see each other on the few occasions when she comes back to do "bank shifts" at the hospital to keep her UK licence going. That's about 3 times a year for about 5 days, and she usually stays with us, which is handy for her as the hospital is only about 15 minutes walk away. It also gives us a bit of time to catch up and do things together. 
Usually, at the beginning of the year I have this urge to have a "good clear-out", and over the last years I have enjoyed this even more what with Freecycle available to get rid of the things where they will be brought to use again! I totally subscribe to the idea of Freecycle and over the last years it has grown enormously here in the UK. I remember when I first looked into it some years ago, there was only a group in Guildford, the capital of Surrey - with most things being way too far to bother. Then they opened one for Woking which was a bit nearer, and about a year ago they openeded Runnymede, which is our Borough. At at first there were only some ten or so people on it and it was pretty slow going. Now there are loads of messages coming in every day, and I have managed to give away lots of my clear-out stuff this year, as well as acquiring some things we wanted...
A Christmas LO in January...this is the last heap of old Christmas cards I brought home from church where they collect them for me every year. They get used by the charity crafts group I run (Stitches for Presents - see my previous LO "Charity Cards") to make "recycled Christmas cards" to sell. My first job is to sort through all the cards and discard those that are not in good condition or don't have suitable designs, then cut off the front panels and distribute them to the card makers. Later in the year I'll get the completed new cards back for packaging with envelopes, labelling and selling.
This year's first visit to the allotment I'm sharing with a friend (you can see Emily working at the far end). It looks its bleak rough winter self. In the far middle you can see a stand of kale, about the only thing available at the moment, and Emily is fixing netting over the purple sprouting broccoli which should be ready for harvest soon. The tag reads: "As of this year, I’m sharing my friend Emily’s allotment! It’s only 5 minutes walk from our house and she is too busy with her studies to look after all of it. Another step towards the “live simpler, live healthier” resolution! Not too much work in January but bleak to look at!"
A tribute to one of my other hobbies: knitting. I used to knit about a sweater a month - that was during secondary school where we were allowed to knit during lessons as long as we paid attention! After school, I didn't pick up my knitting needles again until some time last year when a friend asked me to teach her. I promptly got addicted to the lovely wools that are available now and keep making little accessories like scraves, hats and bags...
Burns' Night celebration at the local Scottish Club. I'm far left in the picture with some of my friends around me (Richard to my right; Mark to my left next to Trisha and Peter). The celebration always consists of a traditional Scottish supper with Cockadoodle soup; Haggis with Neeps and Tatties; and a dessert. The haggis gets piped in whole on a platter and praised in the "Address to the Haggis", a Burns piece. There's also Scottish Country dancing and some entertainment, partly by the "ADSS Singers" (see my earlier LO).
This is a bit of a sad LO, to do with our church choir. We had a meeting that night at the Vicarage to discuss whether there was a future for the choir or not, as we have been without a leader for over half a year. Although all the singers were positive about our calling, in the end the decision was to disband the choir (we were told a few days later). The photo is of our hymn books and several pieces of anthem sheet music.
I caught DH with one of the laptops open to be sorted out. It's one of the things he does in his own business: repair, upgrade, refurbishing of laptops - our whole house is full of laptops, parts and boxes with bits and bobs. Probably food for another picture sometime!
On 21st January 2005, we moved into our new home here in Chertsey. I was celebrating our 4-year home anniversary with a photo of the trellis by the entrance, surrounding the plates with the house name and number. "Treffelin", we were told upon buying the house, is a Welsh word and has something to do with milling but the previous owners weren't quite sure what exactly...
Every winter, my MIL and her significant other, who hails from Barbados, take a holiday somewhere that makes Vince feel more at home temperature-wise... And every time we get a card full of "sun, sand and surf"...
The photo is of our domestic recycling service, provided by Runnymede Borough to collect paper, glass and tins once a week - I usually remember to set it out about once a month... The tag text, however, refers to our Church Council Meeting that night and my subsequent investment as "Eco Officer" - with first task to sort out some recycling possibilities for our church! It reads: "At the church council meeting tonight I finally was invited to present “EcoCongregation” – this has been pending for a year! The motion went through, and I was put in charge of further investigations and actions under the title of Eco Officer."