Drawing to the End of the Year 2012

Its been quite a year, its had ups and downs health and life wise, and although thats not an excuse, I do sincerely apologise to any blog followers I still may have retained through my absence, for the lack of posts and photographs. Although I never make New Years resolutions I do hope to remedy the above absence next year with a 'I promise to make at least a weekly posting' resolution.

This year saw the return of my dear Monty to his owner Malcolm, who is very pleased with how well he is going for him, I have visited a few times and Monty seemed as pleased as I by the reunion, and showered me with slobbery horse kisses, which I love. I must admit to a deep affection and bond that formed with him, it was quite a wrench to give him back and so sad for me too, epecially on leaving as he didnt want to enter the horsebox until I led him up.

In that autumn I received a new horse on loan, to work with, Jack. Who has come with a repretation as a bit of a reprobate in so many ways, I have had him with me just over 4 months now, and although progress is slow, I am begining to see some nicer character traits emerging slowly now. I was hoping to do a little more work with him with the help of Mark in these holidays, but the weather has been so bad and as all the fields are completely water logged it has just not been possible. The water logging has been so bad the seepage had started to come up through my ancient stable flooring, what a nightmare. Prince my labrador is hale and hearty and doesn't mind what the weather brings as long as he can play in the park, and see some of his doggy friends.

A few girl friends and I had got together one day a week, 'very sewing bee', to spend the day chatting and sewing around the kitchen table. We made felt Christmas decorations prior to Christmas, and each of us took turns providing a lunch. It was pleasant to spend most of a day crafting and chatting, with no pressing time agenda and without feeling guilty we should have been doing something else. Hopefully we will continue these days in some form in the New year. I have been trying out felting, I started off by making a small mouse. I didn't seem to be able to find a lot of information about the subject, except a video that showed making the basic shape by stabbing the wool ball with the barbed needle, so armed with that very basic info, I bought a small bag of white wool and a couple of needles, and winged it. I managed to stab my fingers almost as much as the wool, but eventually got the hang of it and finished the little mouse. I added glass bead eyes which I sewed on, and lightly coloured the details. I didn't add any wire to the structure. just the wool which if you compressed enough with the needle stabbing will support the little model.