On Saturday, Ramsey, our small village, had their annual turning on of the Christmas lights. The lights went on at 7:00 or thereabouts (they were a bit late) and then there was a fireworks display. We had a lovely time wandering around looking at the funfair rides and buying a few sweets.
It is now getting dark at 4:30 and it gets really cold, still have to get used to this. I think the winter weather has arrived early, thank goodness for central heating.

Sorry about the one blurry picture, my camera is not the best for taking night time shots and it would help if I could hold it still for the double flash.

This is a photo from our workroom window out to the fields during one of the sunny spells.

The lamp post reminds me of the one from the 'Narnia' stories. The council has started trying to get the street lights around here back into working order with some mixed results, the ones in our square seem to be beyond all repairing and down the road this one never goes off.
You can just make out the side of our house and a bit of the car behind the lamp post.
The next few photos are just of the lovely scenery from the end of the road. We are lucky that all the houses in this little area look over farmland, it is so peaceful except when they go pheasant hunting but that we have to learn to live with.


When I took these photos the sun was out but I was shaking in my boots it was so cold. This area is apparently like Norfolk in that we get the winds from Siberia blowing over the channel and because it is so flat it comes right in from the coast.

'Holly and Mistletoe Rabbit'

These two are my Christmas patterns for the year, I finally managed to finish them and the patterns should be in our etsy shop in the next couple of days. They look so cute sitting together and I love the fabric I used in Mistletoe's ears.
I was thinking of putting them on Ebay but they just might stay here. We keep very few of our bears and this is the first Christmas in a new country so these two can celebrate with us.

On a sad note, Wendy found a dead squirrel under one of the trees the day after I got bitten, we think the poor thing must have died from the impact trauma. We buried him in the garden so at least he will be by his trees.

Just trying to decide how to dress the giveaway bear, so keep watching, not long now.

Some days are just stranger than others.

I was bitten by a squirrel yesterday, we came home in the pouring rain from the Post Office and found this squirrel lying on the front path. I touched him to see if he was okay and he turned around and latched onto my finger ( I know - don't touch wild animals, hindsight is a wonderful thing) I think he must have fallen off the roof and been winded, quite a drop from the roof of a two story house. He disappeared quite quickly into the trees, I just hope he is okay.

So now I am sewing with my left index finger stuck up straight in the air with an impressive set of teeth marks.

The other very annoying thing that happened a few days ago is that I lost a whole lot of my pictures. I was trying to move them off the computer onto a disc to free up memory space and I lost them. Always remember to copy and move not just move stuff. You certainly learn the hard way sometimes.

I have a new bear on eBay, 'Montague' has a lovely knitted hat. I love knitting the little things but they can really take a lot of time. At least it was finished before the injured finger incident.


This is a very typical winter sky scene. The rooks are all nesting at the moment so it looks amazing. The only time you get to see their nests properly is when the leaves have fallen off the trees.

A new posting finally, the days have gone by so quickly but I do have a few bears lined up on my table waiting to be finished, so I know what I have been doing.

The weather has been an example of two extremes, we had the very bad storm last weekend in the UK and the wind here was so violent and then we have had a couple of beautiful sunny days which the kitties have really enjoyed. Mishka and Merlin where out and about and were very happy to be photographed.

The other photo is the trees across the square from us, the autumn colours are so lovely.

Will be updating the blog more regularly, I miss sharing my news when I don't do it and I will have some more bears ready to show off soon. I am busy with two new patterns for Christmas and the special Christmas bears that we do each year are in the planning stage. Who let Christmas arrive so early I can't believe how the year has flown past.

I also want to have a blog giveaway, Wendy had so much fun with hers so I want to join in. Watch this space.

Work in progress, sometimes I just seem to have such a pretty selection of fabric, threads and bears on my table. So I decided to share a photo of what I have been doing today.

It has been a lovely day here, the sun is out although there is an icy wind, the kitties played outside for a few hours and I seem to have actually got some stuff done.
I hope everyone else is having a good day.

Saturday was Halloween and we had a lovely day. Wendy and I caught the train down to London to do some essential craft shopping, some fantastic ribbon and beads came home with us.

Got home in time to take some photos of my Halloween decorating, I managed to get a bit more elaborate with my pumpkin carving this year. We had a few 'trick or treat' children come visiting and handed out a lot of candy. I can't wait to do it again next year.
I have listed my new pattern bear 'Calico' (above) in our etsy shop and also managed to list 'Griffin' (below) on ebay, so there is a lot for you to visit if you have a minute.

Also don't forget to go and visit Wendy's blog and leave a comment for a chance to win one of her beautiful bears.
http://wendy-essentialbears.blogspot.com/2009/10/give-away.html

Some mornings I actually get organised enough to go for a walk and I wanted to share some of the lovely scenery around our house.
This is the front door and it is looking lovely with the flowers providing a splash of colour against the dark brickwork wall.
Turning right you see the other houses in the row below us and then right again and past our house we have the open field, the trees are the most beautiful colours at the moment.
And then we walk past the back of our garden, this is where I see the pheasant walking and the squirrels playing in the trees.
The most incredible fungus growing on the one tree, it looks like a seat for a fairy or tree elf.
The sun was definitely out when I took the next two photos, cross the road and looking back at the fields behind the houses.
The path then meanders around the airforce base and when we get tired we head back home.
I have spent the last couple of days stitching bears and just had to show you the photographers assistant at work again. I didn't even have to get him to pose for this photo, I wasn't paying enough attention to him and he decided to move to somewhere where I couldn't ignore him.

This is Pumpkin, the new bear on ebay and my last Halloween bear of the year. I am busy working on an order for an Edwardian nurse bear and then I have a couple more shop orders to stitch but I have almost finished a new pattern bear, a lovely boy in dungarees which should be in our etsy shop by the weekend.