Peace, Love and Cookies!

This week I have been attempting to edit my NaNoWriMo novel, slowly but surely I have been reading it through a chapter at a time. This is the first time I've actually read it back and am still only about five chapters in. I have been really pleased with a couple of chapters, the words were obviously flowing then. But have heavily cut others when I must have been short of inspiration but still soldiering on to meet my daily word target!

For the rest of my weekI am going to let the photos do the talking....

This was taken from my kitchen window, as you can see the snow is still
thick on the ground. I love how it has settled on the Buddha in the background,
his face is still showing but he has a cosy snow hat and coat on. :-)

This week for the very first time in my 50 years I baked cookies!
They turned out to be really delicious, I told my Mum and she
reckons that I am a late developer! ;-)

There was Peace in the air and on my mantelpiece this week.

There was lots of Love in the air too!

And on the Winter Solstice we had our first open fire of the year,
we kept it and lots of candles lit all day long while we curled up,
warm and cosy and watched Avatar again. (We enjoyed it just
as much as the first time that we saw it in 3D at the cinema.)

Sammy kept me company from his spot on the sofa in my computer room.
I should have cleaned him up before I took his photo, he is always filthy!
That face is his 'stroke me please' face. :-)

And then in the heart of the night there was the full Moon lighting up
my night time garden with an intense silver light that illuminated
the glittering snow so that it glowed and sparkled!

It was a beautiful and magical sight!

"There are diamonds in the snow, I see them sparkling.
Tiny lights, brilliant and bewitching.
Glistening there on the cold and holy ground."

I hope you had a magical week too!

I am linking this to week 15 of I Saw Sunday why not join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. :-)

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My Purple hat, feeding birds and Snow, Snow, Snow!

Well, this week I finally retrieved my scarves, gloves and hats from the vacuum bags where they had been stored in flat packages since last winter. I had thinned out my collection of hats and scarves before I put them away and couldn't remember which I had kept, so was very glad to find my purple hat again. :-)

It had been dry and a bit icy but then we had another light sprinkling of snow.

Then a couple of days ago the snow began to fall. I took these photos from my desk
of all the little birds visiting my bird table just outside the window.

A bluetit sheltering from the snow.

A sparrow taking his turn.

A bluetit filling up on seed.

A Robin seeking seed and shelter.

And then yesterday the snow REALLY began to fall and the scene outside
my window got whiter and whiter and the snow got deeper and deeper.

So by the time I got up this morning, turned on my computer and lifted up
the blind at my window, this was the scene I was faced with.

The poor birds were hanging around and there was no food anywhere, any that had been left over from yesterday had been buried under inches of snow. Now I still wasn't fully awake but I couldn't relax and drink coffee and check emails with the poor birds out there looking for food.

So I needed a plan, Joe was still asleep (he would have been my number one plan!)

So I began to look for my wellington boots, then realised that they were in the shed, meaning that I would need wellington boots to fetch the wellington boots! I realised that the spade was there too. So I improvised. I put on my everyday boots but as I gauged that the snow would come inches over them, I decided to put plastic bags over them and up to my knees.

I gathered up the big tub of seed and something to scrape the snow from the bird table and with the seed tucked under my arm, I opened the back door. Then all the snow that had been drifting against the door promptly fell inside. Now this was not starting well.

I managed to get myself through the door and promptly fell over, down the three steps outside the back door. Luckily the snow was soft and despite being covered in snow I was okay, so managed to get myself back up onto my feet again and attempted to get to the place we kept the spade. After finding myself on my back again I realised that I really wasn't cut out for this and that the plastic bags were probably not a good idea as despite not helping with the falling / slipping... my feet ankles and calves were the only thing left on me that was dry!

I gave up on the spade and made my way around to the back of the house and the bird table. My hand were wet, icy and crimson with cold. I kicked the snow away from a patch on the ground and poured seed for the birds that like to eat from the floor, and filled the bird table with seed too. Just time to shake the snow from the cotoneaster berries that the blackbird was eating yesterday before I fell over for the third time!

I finally got indoors looking like a snowman, still with my plastic bag leggings. So having had to completely change all of my clothes and trying to warm my freezing hands, I finally got to read my emails and to write this post.

To add insult to injury, instead of sympathy from Joe when I told him about my escapades, he thought it was hysterically funny! Which in hindsight I agree it probably was. :-)

Just a shame no one could have snapped a photo of me when I came back indoors, now I agree that would have been funny!

I took these photos before I began my mini polar expedition!

I am linking this to week 14 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
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Frost, Fog and Frozen Rosebuds.

This week has been one of the coldest I can remember and has lead to some beautiful sights. The snow finally disappeared and for a couple of days was replaced with an extreme frost that covered everything and transformed it. This was my view from my window...

On one day it was accompanied by fog which
gave everything such an ethereal magical look.

"Feathered with hoarfrost,
skeletal trees loom closer;
fog shrouded arches."
- Paul Brown

I took a walk around my garden and snapped a few photos,
this is the lantern on our shed complete with frost covered cobwebs.

The fog beginning to build in the distance.

This beautiful rosebud was frozen and covered in ice crystals
its delicate colour and shape frozen in time.
At least I saw it and was able to appreciate its beauty...
not everything has to bloom to make its mark.

We went to the nearest town to do our shopping. . .
wrapped in so many layers we could hardly walk. :-)

I noticed the decorative top of this building,
though the clock has shown the wrong time for years!
It was about 1pm.There was a decorated tree in the middle of a roundabout.

Now a couple of abstract images that caught my eye.
I loved the way this grating around the bottom of
the tree looked covered in deep frost.

And I adore this, bird and human footprints and railings. :-)

"Winter solitude -
in a world of one colour
the sound of the wind."
- Basho

After all that white, it was wonderful to see this shop
window lit up with this glowing chandelier!

Well, that was a few snapshots of my week

What about yours? What did you see this week?
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The three regulars would appreciate your company. :-)

"Expect nothing,
appreciate everything."
- unknown

This is for week 13 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
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This week - Nanowrimo and Snow

"Everything begins with a story" Joseph Campbell

Well, I finally completed the Nanowrimo challenge! I am still busy writing though, because even though I managed to write the 50, 000 words to complete the challenge, I still haven't finished my story. I have at least one maybe two chapters to go. I am looking forward to finishing and then leaving it alone for a couple of weeks before I finally read it through and begin the next stage in the process.

I really didn't know if I would be able to do this. I had never written anything longer than a blog post before and always said that I didn't think I could write anything that long, but now I have and I loved it and that has opened up a whole different world for me to explore.

Yippee!

For the last month I have been so concerned with getting the words down and finding the story, I haven't really concentrated on writing, on the beauty of the words, the painting of the picture and that is good because that is my favourite bit about writing. The part I feel most comfortable with. So now I am looking forward to taking the bones of the story and making it beautiful. It is like I have just completed a detailed sketch for a painting and now I can pick up the colours and make it come alive.

Today outside my kitchen door

The weather has turned really cold here with minus freezing temperatures and yesterday we had our first sprinkling of snow. By this morning it had almost gone but I braved the cold this morning and opened my kitchen door and took this photo. The little ornamental tree in the white pots already has buds, ready and waiting for next year.

Creativity exists more in the searching than in the finding.
- Stephen Nachmanovitch

This is for week 11 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
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Squirrels and Sammy and Finally Finding The Story

Hello, I hope you have had a good week.

Here's my round up of the things that stuck out for me this last week. . .

My cat Sammy spotted TWO squirrels outside the window, he couldn't believe it. Then one of them jumped from the bird table on to the windowsill right in front of his nose and proceeded to run up and down, sending Sammy frantic. He started to make those strange sounds cats make when they're engrossed in watching birds from a window. Then in his frenzy up and down after the squirrel, he stepped in his water bowl and shot in the air. I am sure he was convinced the squirrel had got him!


Warning this one isn't nice - I saw a young guy lean in to his toddlers face and shout. The toddler laughed, the young nervous mother said Daddy is playing, but Daddy wasn't playing, I heard the anger and felt the aggression, as I watched in the supermarket car park an unfolding drama that made me sad that things like that happen and children are bought up in to it. He had a manic look and a swagger, she had a brace on her teeth, pale skin and no confidence. As we drove away I heard the tirade of verbal abuse he turned on her and she once again turned to the child and said. . . Daddy's playing.


I am still writing for Nanowrimo, I started writing without a plot, no ideas, just trusting the process and feeling my way through. And this week, I saw my story take shape and the characters begin to live. I started writing down what they were saying and describing what they were doing rather than 'making it up'. It was a wonderful experience, I am hooked on writing.

What did you see this week?

This is for week 10 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
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Photo - Sammy sleeping in the sunlight.

The Winds Blow and The Words Flow

"The birds they sing at break of day, "Start again..." I hear them say."
- Leonard Cohen

This week I have seen....

• Roaring winds that have stripped the trees of the remaining leaves and blown anything that was light enough to be blown over, over. :-)


• The squirrel has been back, actually looking at me through the window! Up close I've discovered that his tail looks like the seed head on a Dandelion.


• In a nearby village I noticed that the pub is boarded up and offered for sale. (See the picture) Looking up, I noticed the old looking lantern with the satellite dish above it and the 'for sale' sign too, also you can see the Ivy just creeping into the doorway.


• I have seen the inside of a tow truck! We came out into the supermarket car park and the immobiliser on our car stopped working and actually lived up to its name and immobilised us. :-) We came home in the back of a tow truck with our car on the back. What was really interesting. was seeing things that normally I wouldn't because we are much lower on the road. It was a familiar route but now I know what is behind the hedgerows that usually I can't see over.


• Also more words, I am still writing every day for nanowrimo and as I said last week it is such a learning experience and I am so glad that I decided to take part. The novel is secondary to all that I am learning, there will definitely be a blog post about the experience some time in the future.

"You don't have to see the top of the staircase to take the first step."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

What did you see this week?

This is for week 9 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
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Words, Words, Words.

This week I have been busy writing as I am taking part in Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) where the challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It started on the 1st November and carries on all month. As I have never written anything longer than a blog post before it really has been a challenge to write my target amount of words every day.

It has been a real roller coaster of emotions but at this moment I am loving it! I'm learning so much about myself and about the process of writing. Also I am really having to walk my talk about 'trusting myself' and 'trusting the process' - one step at a time it seems to be working.

Luckily I still have things to report for I Saw Sunday and I didn't even need to leave my desk.

We have been having a squirrel visiting the garden lately and he has now discovered how to leap from the bird table to the windowsill, where he sits so close to me.

I can see him in such detail it is amazing. It sends the cats crazy they can't believe this creature is sitting calmly just inches from them. :-).

From the windowsill he can access the hanging bird feeder that he is ingenious in his attempts to try and get it open. I really should set up the video camera it is happening so close it would be a really good bit of film.

I managed to get a photo of him earlier in the week before he discovered his ability to leap onto the windowsill. Unfortunately It was taken through the window and isn't very clear.


Then tonight (Saturday) I was sitting here at my desk with a nice cup of coffee and there filling the sky outside my window was a huge professional firework display! The next village has an annual huge event to celebrate bonfire night (Guy Fawkes night) and it just happens that my computer chair gives me a wonderful view and front row seat!
Loads of Whooshes and Aaahs as the sky filled with magic!

What did you see this week?

This is for week 8 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
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Colour, Colour Everywhere!

This week is more 'show' than 'tell' because what has struck me most has been colour! and why talk about it when I can show you what I saw.

So first let me share what I can see from my window when I am sitting at my computer. I never fail to feel grateful for my wonderful view! I can watch the seasons change, the clouds scud across the sky and the birds flying!

I suppose autumn is the time for colour with nature wearing her fiery hues.

But other wonderful bright colours having been shouting at me too this week!

GREEN

...of the big glass recycling bin in the supermaket car park
- with its glorious patches of rust and I love the number '26' too.

Then just a touch of...

BLUE

Before we get to...

RED

So it was a colourful week for me!
I will try to find some words for next week. :-)


What did you see this week?

This is for week 7 of I Saw Sunday why not click on the link and visit and join in with us! and tell us what you saw this week. Oh, go on! :-)
You have all week to post your link - words or pictures or both!

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