Spring time

Spring is a lovely time.The weather begins to brighten up & new life is evident whether it is in the form of clean little fluffs of spring lambs in the fields or little spring flowers forcing themselves from the warming earth.This winter has been a long hard cold one .Our American friends have been in the thick of the weather at times & around the world there has been much suffering due to forces of nature.With this in mind I welcome the spring & all it stands for.

Yesterday heralded the turning point for me.The sun was out & warm, & for once I didn't need to wear a woolly scarf or hat on my walk into town.On my return I made an Easter display from sprigs of willow from the garden & eggs I have collected over the years.

Say it with Pictures!

Blogging goes hand in hand with pictures.If you had no images on a blog ,it would not hold ones interest for very long.It therefor stands to reason that most people who blog also take pictures with a camera or source images in some way from the net.I have learned a lot since I started blogging & still have a long way to go.Light is very important & also getting a clear image with no blurs.It helps if your subject is still.

Have a look at the pictures below & see what I mean!

Grouse can be very still ,Maisie finds it hard...

Before wash.....

After wash

Before wash......

After wash!!!

Our dear sweet Peggy.All clean & trimmed.

A mothers lot

Or dye lot as the case may be!

Yesterday I tried my hand at dyeing some wool tops.I only had access to Dylon cold dye & using this along with a steamer ,it seems to have worked quite sucessfully.I do have a slight green/blue tinge to one hand where my rubber glove had split ,but apart from that ,all is well with the dye world.I have dyed 200g of tops & these have been done with two colours ,blue & pink & both are completely different even though I used the same dye.

Along with this colour of fleece,I thought I would mention my yearning for some dainty little macaroons(big hint for mothers day boys!!!)These are also in delicious ,I want one of those colours for spring!Dont forget my previous blog entry,they sell them in Cocoa in Brighton.

Drink me...

If I gave you a bottle of poison to drink ,I think I know what you would say........ Well every day we are putting into our bodies things which essentially poison us.Mostly we are OK as our bodies are able to fight back but sometimes they just cannot & react badly causing an allergic reaction.Over on Carolines blog she talks about people being allergic to hair dye.Very serious if you react to it.Earlier last year my hubby had 2 serious reactions to what we initially thought was food related.His face swelled up & was so bad he nearly was taken to Accident & Emergency.The doctor saw him quickly at the surgery & put him on a large course of steroids.A lot of testing later ,we have found he is allergic to quite a few things ,many of which are in cleaning products & food stuffs.The main thing he reacts to is an anti inflammatory called Naproxin.He now cannot have Ibuprofen either.I would post a picture of his reaction ,but that's not really fare on him ,but take it from me ,it was bad.
In light of all this ,I have started being careful about the products we use in the house.The last straw was when I was cleaning using a well known brand of multi-purpose spray cleaner & he started to itch & my chest became tight.I have now thrown away all my chemical cleaning products & in their place are more natural ones like Borax & Vinegar ,lemon & Bicarbonate of Soda.I only use unperfumed non bio washing liquid & wash balls & non perfumed washing up liquid.
There are many recipes for natural cleaning products which are easy to make & very effective in cleaning power.I am happier in the knowledge that I can make a difference in my families health & environmentally.I wont be pouring nasty phosphate stuff down the drain & into the water system.

Chit chat

I have lots of things on the go at the moment but I am waiting for the final results of some of them before I can blog about them.Slippers are felting as I write & there is yarn waiting patiently in its purchase bag to get on my needles.I have a sewing machine that is shouting "Use me ,use me!!"& a whole host of other "stuff" that I am sure you would like to hear about.

So what have I got to talk about?Well work is the answer.Yes I know that sounds well, a little bit boring ,but when you have a job like mine ,sometimes the excitement can be just too much!!!

I was working with these guys the other day.......

Sorry no close ups of the crew but it was an exercise down at Shoreham Harbour where a big ship had caught fire.I went down to control traffic .It was a fabulous day weather wise & myself & a colleague had a birds eye view of what was going on.Click on the link & you can read an article about it.

The guys are great to work with & we often do.I have to take my hat off to them,Its not an easy job & they put their lives on the line for others every day.Not only that but they do lots of community work as well.Fire prevention ,youth intervention are but a few of the things the guys get involved with.