Looking at the sky on Friday

When I got off the train this evening, coming home from work, I looked up at the sky and saw Venus and the Moon very clear and almost perfectly aligned in the sky. I snapped a picture on my mobile phone camera and hurried home to try to take a proper picture with my normal camera.

When I opened my email, I found an email from http://spaceweather.com, with the following wording:

PRETTY SKY ALERT: When the sun goes down tonight (Friday, Feb. 27th) step outside and look west. Venus and the crescent Moon are having a beautiful close encounter in the sunset sky. If you point a small telescope at the pair, you will see that Venus, like the Moon, is a crescent. The phases of the two are almost the same, adding an extra dimension of beauty to an already lovely show. Don't miss it!

I didn’t miss it. :)

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve partaken in the “Looking at the sky on Friday, but this week I just couldn’t miss and I’m glad to be back.

Did you look at the sky this Friday? I’m off on a tour of the blogs to see what you came up with.

Please visit Crazy Working Mum’s blog to learn more about this picture meme.

Have a great weekend.

Photohunt - warm

Guess what makes me go all warm and fuzzy around the edges? Yup - the spring flowers making an appearance in my garden. The weather is lovely and the warm yellow colours of spring are appearing everywhere. I made this wee collage after having been for a wonder in the garden this morning.

Whilst I was out in the garden I thought I'd take the opportunity of taking a few other pictures of something warm that is hot off the needles (pardon the pun...) in the crafting department.

I've been practising my crocheting (more about that in a seperate post) and have completed another project, which is definitely warm, as it is made of good sturdy old fashioned WOOL. I love it!

Are you Photohunting? I wonder what made you feel warm today?

Photohunt - nautical

This week's theme for TNCHICK's PhotoHunt is Nautical. I have loads of nautical pictures, but picked this one, which is one of my many favourites.

The photo is taken on board a Thames Barge, named Lady Daphne. In July of 2007, my sister-in-law came over from Texas. She hadn't visited for a very long time and was only able to stay for a few days.

It so happened that we had an invitation to go sailing on Lady Daphne during her time here. The trip set out from London Bridge and the owner had arranged for Tower Bridge to be opened for us, as we set sail for the Docklands. What an evening. I do see the bridge open every now and again, but I'd never sailed through it when opened before. :)

Are you Photohunting this week? I look forward to seeing your nautical pictures.

Sunday Scenery

Last Sunday I was in Ireland, which is a land FULL of beautiful scenery whatever the day of the week. It was rather overcast, but still I managed to capture the beautiful Wicklow Mountains. Having grown up in a country with just one "mountain" I am always taken with the beauty and the drama of mountains.

The "Sky Mountain" in my native Denmark is all of 147 meters tall... :)

Have you posted your Sunday Scenery photo? If not, play along and post a link to your photo right here.

I picked up my sticks!

Friday of last week, I took my sis-in-law by the hand, upped sticks and went to Ireland to visit my sister and to partake in the "Pick up your needles" workshop in Tinahely.

We really wanted to have left home a few days earlier, but sis-in-law was called to do jury service the week before and the week after the weekend of the workshop, so we had to limit ourselves to just two days. :(

Saturday morning we set out to go to Tinahely. The clouds were so low that we could barely see the gorgeous mountains surrounding the tiny village. In fact, the weather was just perfect for spending the day indoors and surrounded by wool! (He he - any excuse...)

The Courthouse Arts Centre in Tinahely is a wonderful place, which acts as a cinema, an art gallery, is home to many local meetings, live performances and so much more. The village is tiny, but it is so full of life, much of which happens in and around the Courthouse.

The crafting day was nothing short of a massive success, in fact so much so that a date for a follow up workshop has already been announced! The venue remains the same and the date is set for the 21st of March 2009.

The Courthouse was buzzing right from the start and soon the spinners were spinning, the felters were felting, the knitters were knitting and the crocheters were crocheting and laughing their heads off. The crocheting class was on the balcony above the rest of the classes and rumour has it that the people downstairs were rather curious to find out what on earth was going on upstairs that made us all laugh so much.

Well, it all looks rather peaceful if you ask me... O:) (that's an angelic looking smiley...). The day went far too quickly and it got rather late before we made it home to a gorgeous meal and a nice glass of red wine.

Sunday we had a birthday to celebrate. My darling sis-in-law was 60 years old, except she's not old at all, she really is 60-years young. :) The birthday cake was ehmmm... toast, but the candles were there all the same.

We had to leave late Sunday afternoon, and had time for a wee outing. We set off to Avoca, where we had decided to pay the Avoca Handweavers a visit. I just LOVE that place. Their materials are simply scrumptious, but they do know how to charge as well... Anyhow, it is all handmade and worth every penny!

The shop is very airy and has no end of beautiful goods, from handwoven blankets and coats to silky dresses, handsome printed materials and gorgeous kitchen and housewares. One year I would love to go to their yarnsale - then again, maybe I shouldn't...

Ireland is a great place for knitters, as everywhere you go, you are surrounded by WOOL! All of a sudden it was time to turn our backs on the beautiful County Wicklow and make our way to Dublin Airport for our flight to Gatwick.

Well, we didn't really get very far at all, as all of a sudden the Captain piped up and told us that all the London airport were closed because of SNOW! Now, we don't often get snow in London, and certainly not to an extent that would close airports en masse, but none the less, the airport closures were a fact and we landed in Birmingham, which is approx 100 miles north west of London, and were put on coaches to Gatwick. Upon arrival in Gatwick we were told that the trains, busses, coaches and taxis were suspended due to the wild weather conditions! We waited at the airport for a couple of hours and eventually two trains were sent, one going south and one going north.

We managed to catch the train to East Croydon, where once again we were stuck! Despite the ridiculous hour I decided to wake up a friend who lives close by the train station. The poor sod was woken up around 04.45 hrs and didn't even mind - well, at least he said that he didn't and seeing as he plied us with coffee and brandy he really can't have minded too much.

My beloved managed to pick us up and dropped sis-in-law home. The road outside her house was like a ski slope with rather wide tracks!

Eventually we made it home to our own house - only around 18 hours after I left County Wicklow to fly home. Normally the journey would be around five hours in total! We hadn't even slept a wink the night between Sunday and Monday and I was eternally grateful that my train and all the busses were cancelled all day, which made it impossible for me to go to work!

I slept for a few hours during the afternoon and woke up to an even thicker layer of snow, some of which is still on the ground this evening. Gosh, how I love snow - and what an end to a great weekend!

Oh, and I crochet too...

At the weekend I went to Ireland to attend a workshop arranged by my darling sister, Irene. The plan was that if I helped her in the crocheting class, then she'd teach me how to follow a pattern. I used to crochet as a child, but back then I'd just copy what Irene did, and I never did learn to follow that pattern.


Well, I've put paid to that now, and I'm soooo pleased. The pattern was designed by Irene, especially for the workshop, which was an absolute hoot (more about that in another post - will get round to that at the weekend...). She couldn't understand why I was so enamoured by that specific pattern, but it is just right up my street and I love the fact that it's a real family effort; pattern by my sister, crocheted by me! Now all she has to do is to publish that pattern (yes lady, the pressure is on!).

The yarn is from Kilcarra of Donegal and is called Aran Twed - in the colour called "very dark purple" (LOL - mistyped the name as "very darn purple"). I haven't even washed the mittens yet, they landed straight on my hands and will have to be washed at the weekend as I'm using them for going to/from work and boy, there's a need for that at the moment, as we had an unusually large snowfall on Sunday and Monday. Yup - the snow is part of the weekend story too and I will get around to telling it. For now, I'll leave you with the pictures of my latest finished object. :)

Update: the pattern has now appeard on Irene's Etsy shop. Have fun!

Photohunt - furry

I was on the Gatwick Express on Friday and suddenly became aware of something moving underneath the coat of the young woman sitting across from me. I thought it was a rabbit, but the ears were a wee bit on the short side, so I asked. Well, I had to find a way to slip in the request to take a picture. :)
The animal is a chinchilla and it's the funniest wee thing I've seen in a while. The fact that I managed to cram into one picture both fake fur, fun fur and chinchilla fur really topped off the experience. :)

Are you Photohunting this week?