From the archives: Boot!

 It's been a while since I made cards (apart from the 25 Christmas cards I made just using shape punches and an embossing tools). I love a holiday where I have a mammoth making session.  Wish I had done this, this holiday. Anyway, I was having a look at my blog archive(love doing this- especially as I am the queenofnostalgia) and here is a post I  posted this back in November 2015.  I made this card for my much-missed Father-in-Law and I was really proud of it!

Hope, if you missed it first time round, that you enjoy seeing it!

xx

Boot!

It strikes me that the title Boot! should have been a Terry Pratchett title.  Alas, he died before he could finish it. I've recently finished another Pratchett called 'Wee Free Men' which was utterly brilliant and I was delighted when my favourite characters Esme Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg turned up at the very end!

Obviously, from the picture, you are patently aware I am digressing, so I had better divert back to the main point of the post.  I've had a little bit a of time this weekend to prepare a few posts for the week, so, I hope I may be here in spirit if not totally in mind!

It was WOMOTM's birthday last week and I decided I had exhausted the 'camera' angle for his birthday cards and instead plumped for a walking/hiking angle.

I decided to create a 'walking boot' so I googled "Walking boot colouring template' and looked at various 2D plain ones on the screen.  I then using a nice piece of clean food packaging, created a basic boot shape by drawing it roughly.  I then added some extra bits of black card to make the heel and stuck it below and added some brown paper details on top.  

You can see below, I attempted some sort of 'stitching' on these elements by using a paper-piece (essentially a large needle on a long stick) to pierce holes in the brown.  The silver lace holes were drawn on in silver gel pen once I'd drawn some black bootlaces in Sharpie (none-too neatly)

For the background, I found a bit of old atlas to use as the background (I would have used the Lake District but all the interesting bits were obscured beneath the boot).  Finally, I made some photo corners out of the rest of the food box and embossed them with an old biro and went over in white pen.

The final touch was just to pierce some tiny holes all around the black base card.

I'm pleased to report that WOMOTM liked it (hurrah!) 

It was not too difficult to make this- the only tricky part is lining up and measuring all the different materials that collage on top of the base boot so they are neat and exact.

What do you think?  Suitable for a Wise Old Man Of The Mountain?

Linking to Creative Mondays with Claire Justine

xx

Braving the cold

Hello there!

Greetings from our bedroom!  CBC and I are currently hiding in our bedroom as it is so cold and our boiler is broken! What unfortunate timing as we have had snow this weekend and I have been in all weekend!  

It is ironic that we have moved into our new house which is only 3 years old with a 3 year old Vaillant boiler and have been here 3 months.  And in that time, our boiler has broken TWICE!  This time it broke last Wednesday but the Vaillant engineer cannot come till Tuesday. I thought Vaillant were supposed to be the best? I can honestly say that this is not my experience at all!  We lived in the Bungalow for two years with a Vaillant boiler and it developed about 15 faults in that time.  Most of these times we managed to fix these by bleeding the radiators, allowing more water to go in, trying to raise the pressure but on THREE occasions, the engineer was called out. I have really started to develop this silly conspiracy-theory in my head where the engineer DOES something each time to ensure that it will develop a fault in a certain amount of time and then it will go wrong! 

Having got used to central heating over the past 4.5 years of being married, I sometimes struggle to imagine how I survived living in a house with no central heating for some 30 years! I DO remember the cold. I remember in my twenties when Mum had got married and moved out, sometimes, I would sit myself on one of the uncomfortable fold-up chairs from the kitchen so I could sit right up in front of our fake-fire fan heater wearing a myriad layers. In fact, I remembered a blog post in which I shared what I would put on when I get home to combat the cold and have just spent 10 minutes searching for it- here is The Blogger who came in from the Cold!

I have been adopting that very same technique today and yesterday to try and combat the cold.  I thought I'd take a picture and show me dressed up in all the layers! I am wearing thick trousers, handmade thick wool socks, sheepskin slippers, a long-sleeved top, a reasonably thick, jumper, a vintage alpaca wool over-sized jumper, a vintage sheepskin gilet, a sheepskin lined hood, a fluffy scarf, a cashmere shawl and two odd fingerless gloves! Sorry, I could have moved the unsightly boxes and random carrierbag from the background but I didn't!  

CBC and I have both turned the oven on a few times and stood in front of it with our hands in whilst in the kitchen.  Aside from the oven and layers, the other two things which have been our saviour are the tiny little portable fanheater that was my Mum's that I used to put on when I was going to bed back in my family home. We've had it on here in the bedroom.  The thing that makes me most happy about this was, when we moved here, CBC was all rude and bitchy about this little heater and told me we didn't need that dusty old rubbish any more with our new modern house with underfloor heating, EPC rating B+ and the suchlike. I told him that we WERE bringing it with us and our heating might break at some point and then he'd be grateful for it.  He was, of course, very sceptical, but I now hope that it has proved its mettle in remaining in our house as a back-up.  I keep it by my side of the bed and like to use it anyway when it is cold when we go to bed.

The other saviour comes in the form of a gift from WOMOTM, my Father-in-Law. He was already the saviour when I lived in my childhood home as he bought me an electric blanket. But Christmas 2016, he bought us an electric duvet for our present which saved us in the poorly-insulated bungalow.  Last night, I went to fetch it from the spare room and it kept us cosy all night. Even beyond the grave he is still protecting us!  On that note,I was so happy on Tuesday night because he was alive in my dream. It was so vivid, he was well and I was able to chat to him. When I woke up, I realised, of course, that it was a dream, but it was so lovely to see him. 

What do you do to combat the cold?

xx

Wise old Man of the Mountain- a farewell.

I wanted to say thank you SO MUCH for all of you that left such kind comments regarding the death of my Father-in-Law.  His funeral is to take place on the 22^nd of January in Hexham.  As I sit and write this on Sunday 14^th January, his brother is trying to write his obituary for the local paper and CBC has written the eulogy for the funeral.  I wanted to so much to share my love for him and key memories connected to him. Please don’t feel compelled to read this but it is something I really wanted to write.

WOMOTM stood for Wise Old Man Of The Mountain. This became his blog pseudonym because I am reluctant to share names of family members- the reason for this name will become apparent. I remember when I first met him he seemed to me, to be such a sweet, kind man. He would not necessarily come across that way in all situations as he could be quite brusque and not the most talkative, but if you got to know him, he was such a kind, gentle soul. I always think of him as being fiercely loyal and fond of his family.  He loved everyone coming up to see him.  He was extremely generous yet always careful with money which is a stance to finances I respect greatly. 

I remember back in February 2010 when CBC took me to Northumberland, when I said goodbye to him and he gave me a big hug (bear hugs only when you arrived and left- he wasn’t one for affectionate hugs every day), I knew that I loved him and wanted to be part of his family.  It was bitterly cold that year and I lived then, in my childhood home which had no central heating.  But in Northumberland, the bed came with an electric blanket. It was a revelation! I had never experienced such luxurious warmth at bed time! I remember the Christmas or was it that Birthday,  that they bought me an electric blanket for home and winter freezing was no longer an issue.  Last year, he sent us an electric duvet as a Christmas present to keep us warm as he thought that was much better than the blankets!

He always said he liked it when I came up there because I helped him with the washing-up.  I often tried to get there before him to avoid him being chained to the washing up sink.  CBC used to laugh and say that his dad used to hum the tune form the ‘Slaves Chorus’ as he did the washing up in previous years. This always made me giggle. He was meticulous about cleaning and the housework and could be a tyrant over his routines. Many a time, I came towards the kitchen and didn’t dare enter as the mop stood like a rigid sentry to stop any entry as the floor was mopped clean! We used to laugh at it because it was such a clear signal.

DO NOT ENTER THE KITCHEN

Maybe mocking the mop!

Any memory of going to Northumberland is always integrally linked with the excitement of seeing him. He’d always send emails saying how much he was looking forward to us coming up.  And I remember the excitement at arriving at his warm house in Haltwhistle- the sofas with the Latin writing on, the enormous Apple screen, the photos to see, the enormous shower with its squeegee, the poetry book which sat on the shelf in the toilet which I would sit and read when in there- how I learnt to recite Jabberwocky and Daffodils whenever I was up there. He used to smile when I came down to recite what I had learnt but was also able to correct me and/or complete it if I failed. He was greatly fond of poetry and had memorised a great deal.  

 

At our wedding with a friend. Wearing J's, not pictured, hat.

One thing I loved was his willingness to always stop and smile for a photo. Most of CBC’s family always groan and hide when I try to take a picture but he always put on his friendliest smile for me. As I write this, I am gutted that I recently lost my portable hard-drive which was from my old lap top which houses all my photos from the past- it has many happy photos of our times with him. I was sad because I wanted to share this hilarious photo from CBC’s sister’s wedding in which he wore his wife’s bright pink hat, but look, I found one from our wedding where he wore her purple one! 

Hindscarth 2011

Photography was a great love of his- apparently he founded the Photography society at the school he worked at in Hexham for 29 years. Most of my memories of walks with him and any occasions involve his enormous SLR camera attached to his Berghaus rucksack- he let me have his Berghaus rucksack last Summer which I shall cherish.  He always generously allowed me to use his photos on my Blog posts and told me that I didn’t have to acknowledge them as his.  So many beautiful photos were taken and shared. He would upload his photos at the end of a day and would take great pleasure in editing them in Photoshop, lightening any shadows and sharpening images and I would await the great sharing of these with bated breath! For our wedding, he printed out and made some lovely collages of photos of CBC and I and.

Ridley Hall 2013

And how could I forget the infamous Wedding Invitation photoshoot. We went with him to the grounds of Ridley Hall in Northumberland to take photos and had great fun taking photos until the three of us were asked to leave the grounds as apparently it was now private property with kids on site!

In addition, he was the great benefactor to this blog of not one, but two tripods! He knew I wanted to take outfit photos and gave me his spare which I used until I misplaced it and then he gave me his good one! I use them to this day!  His other great contribution to this blog was also the Pink Canon Ixus Camera which was a 31^st Birthday present. This marvellous camera has taken thousands upon thousands of photos for this blog and has lived in my handbag for 6 years, taking photos on a daily basis. He was always really pleased when he mentioned this camera saying with a smile, that I had really made good use of it.

Hindscarth 2011

My latter-life love of walking is down to CBC and him.  Every time we came up to Northumberland in the early years of mine and CBC’s relationship, he would plan a walk in the Lake District for us. He always said he liked walking with me as I walked at his pace (CBC and his brother were mountain goats who would speed on ahead.). He always loved planning where we would go next.  The first walk was in July of 2010- he chose Catbells as my inaugural peak walk and the three of us walked on Catbells in perfect weather. It was a wonderful walk and many breath-taking views were seen.  Other walks followed- Robinson and Hindscarth, Castle Cragg and my personal favourite- Rannadale Knotts.  Following his heart-attack on Summer when we were there, he found it harder to climb and this was a good walk with a burst of short uphill and then glorious ridges and downhills. We repeated this walk in glorious weather which we planned in advance as it was such a pleasant journey.  One other glorious walk I remember taking was in December 2014- we walked from Steel Rigg to Halsteads along Hadrian’s Wall.  The weather was utterly stunning- we were bathed in golden light as we reached our conclusion and he, CBC’s brother and I were so utterly delighted by this experience.

Sycamore Gap. Christmas 2014

WOMOTM by Cawlfields

The end of the walk at Halsteads when all was golden.

It was around 3 years ago that he was diagnosed with Pulmonary Fibrosis and it restricted his ability to walk more- we had fewer walks as time went on but I do remember possibly the last happy walk we had in October 2016.  He had said that his walking days were over as he just struggled so much to walk but we managed to persuade him to take a short walk around Haltwhistle. I kept stopping, ostensibly to take photos but in reality in order to allow him to catch up and not feel he was holding us up and it worked- he had felt gloomy before that and after that walk, which was a real halcyon day in the autumnal gloom- he was pleased with himself for having managed to have a walk and not feel he was holding us up. I remember the delight I felt then as I had felt really bad about how gloomy he had been before that.

Haltwhistle

Two other walks or moments stand out in my mind- one was when we walked to the Prisoner of War camp near Haltwhistle.  We got caught in absolute torrential rain on the way back and since he and CBC are fairweather walkers, they were both game not to get annoyed with me for having pestered them for a walk.  As we had walked, he told me a personal story connected to that PoW camp which he had never shared with the family and they were astonished to hear it.   The other was when we took a family holiday to Sarlat in France in July 2016, before CBC went off to Costa Rica for a month. He had not had a holiday in years and he was so grateful, effusive and thankful over it and I remember him planning that we would go to Avion the next year, alas unfulfilled.   We went to this Chateau and he couldn’t hear the words very well, so the pair of us sneaked off and walked in the grounds and found a Bamboo maze to walk in!

 

Hiding from the heat in the Bamboo maze

I can see you! Me in the moat- WOMOTM on the bridge!

He was a retired Maths teacher and taught me about Binary numbers- I remember the Christmas we had the epic Christmas quiz- there was a Maths round that was very hard! I remember his making some 3D shapes out of straws and then subsequently I bought him some metre-long straws in order to allow him to make something like the Great Stellated Dodecadodecahedron!  He had this amazing book which had all these complicated shapes I had never heard of!

His mechanical calculator!

He was a good and kind man who always made me feel welcome, maintained a kind interest in my interests- be those blogging- he was a silent reader of this page; Doctor Who (he used to record it for me when we didn’t have a TV; card-making, and books I read- I remember his saying we could watch The Hunger Games when we went up there as I had recently read them. Whilst it was harder to spend time with him in recent times, since he was ill, he was not very sociable and found it hard to cope with company, he was always humble and never wanted to cause anyone any bother.   Writing this and looking for photos, I have shed many tears and I feel so sad at the years we will not get to spend with him- despite his illness, despite the fact he was receiving Palliative care, he was such a determined guy, that I really did not see him dying when he did- I imagined us going back up there in February half term and watching Blade Runner which we had pre-ordered for him for Christmas.

I am gutted and sad that this horrid lung-disease robbed him of many more years- we all imagined him going strongly into his 90’s since he was walking fells aged 80.  I don’t know how I shall feel going up to Northumberland without him. He was who and what I immediately thought of whenever I knew we were going up there. I regret that we did not go up there often- usually around 4-6 times a year and although he was not a man who talked about feelings and things like that, I wish I had told him how much I grew to love him and was grateful so much for his friendship and kindness.  WOMOTM, know this from the very centre of my heart, that I am so, so glad I knew you and I will miss you greatly.