Mid February Ramblings!!

I sometimes wonder how many people actually read my ramblings at this time of year and was going to skip a week or so. Then I received a couple of lovely emails referring to my blog and I now have 3 comments on my last post, so the select few who are reading it have inspired me to write a few lines again this week. My news these days is a little sparse and not quite as upbeat as in the Summertime. I long to get outside and do some planting, mow the grass and get out my tins of paint without having to breathe in all the strong fumes indoors!
I did manage to venture out on Friday as the snow had stopped falling. I am not as bothered by the cold weather now that we are past mid February. After dropping Amber at school and getting my weekly grocery shopping, I came outside to find that another snow flurry had appeared from nowhere and it was already about 2cm's deep on top of my car. Taking the back roads home I did my first spot of 'ice dancing', in the car!! A complete pirouette in fact (fortunately I was on a quiet country road) Once I had come to a stand still and was facing in the right direction, apart from feeling pretty shaken up, both car and myself were just fine. Resisting the strong urge to brake, as my car did it's own thing, I will put down to the 'ice driving test day' many moons ago, which was part of my Norwegian driving test. Along with a night time driving test, long theory test (in Norwegian) and a mock theory and practical test, before being allowed to take the 'real test' I guess this equipped me for the Canadian roads, plus of course the 20 years driving experience since then :D
I have not been totally confined to the house this week I have to admit. Last weekend the whole family (children included!) went to visit some friends further down the valley. Craig has just started doing some consulting work for them in their Timber frame house business, and they had us over for a lovely lunch. Being Quakers, they had plenty of home made goodies to eat and drink and some funny and interesting stories to tell of their travels overseas.
I met my friend Tina for lunch and proper catch up girlie time mid week (between snow days) Then this weekend it was my friend Rhonda's birthday, she came over with her hubby and we had a lovely evening while all the children were over at their house. One of the gifts I gave Rhonda was a Holly Hobbie calendar for her kitchen, it brought back memories for both of us, both Holly Hobbie and Betsy Clarke were my favourite characters which adorned my bedroom walls in the mid 70's.
In my Etsy shop last week I introduced a couple of new designs, the first being a Westie puppy and a baby blue whale! A cat loving customer enlightened me to the fact that a Calico cat is in fact a tri-coloured cat, and I made one up for her as a special order.Bye for now, I hope you all have a lovely week.
Hazel xx