Claire's blog

Well the weather might still be wintery…

… but there are signs of spring. In particular the nest box at Patchings (just visible in the picture above) has been checked out by a blue tit today!

He was in and out all day, and I took this picture in the evening, when he seemed to have settled down for the night.

So it snowed a few days ago, and kept going for a few days. Real honest to goodness snow! I’d have posted about it sooner, except it began snowing on Wednesday morning (when we got up at 6.45 am to see Mum, Dad, and Wilbeary off on their trip to NY), when I took the photos, and I started feeling horribly ill with something flu-ish that evening. I’m now upright and eating again, thanks for asking 🙂

For a couple of days it snowed most of the time, and we’d wake up to a white world, but by lunchtime it tended to be mostly melted. I got photos of the house and garden in the snow though

I got Rob to come outside so I could photograph him, I’m not sure he was too impressed at being dragged out of a nice warm house!

It didn’t stop him chucking a snowball at me as soon as I put the camera away though!

Mum and Dad have safely arrived in New York, and set themselves up in their apartment. Wilbeary’s started a blog and there are already quite a few entries. The pictures show that the apartments got a lovely view.

So I’ve been upgraded to the latest version of the word press weblog, but I’m still not too sure how to make changes on it.

This could be it. I may have to learn html 🙁

The weather must have been listening to me as it tried very hard to snow yesterday (but didn’t manage more than a few brief flurries), and we should be getting some more next week. Hopefully it’ll hold off a little, though, as we’re off to London tomorrow to see the Turner, Whistler, Monet exhibition at Tate Britain

In other news, it’s a bit manic around here as Mum and Dad found out on Friday that they’re going to do 3 or 4 one month stints in New York this year, and are leaving for the first one on Wednesday! They’ve got an apartment on Manhattan sorted out, and are frantically packing. Dad’s going to keep a blog while he’s there to show us his photos, and Mum’s getting one for one of her bears, so I’ll have to add links to them from here and from the website once they’re set up.

I’ve got a job interview on Tuesday. Wish me luck.

…depressing. I don’t think we had a summer this year, just a day of sun early in the year (the day I went to the Nottingham open actually, and got sunburn in an interesting pattern around the beaded necklace I was wearing!), and now it’s beginning to look official that we don’t get winter either 🙁 We did have some snow in November (very early for Nottingham), but the daffs are up, the crocuses are in flower, and the snowdrops have been open since Christmas, so it must be spring.

BUT it did snow on Christmas day!!! Only 10 minutes, and it didn’t settle, but I still think that counts! I took some photos of outside the house, but it’s a bit hard to see the snow.

Inside it was cosy and warm, with lots of candles…

I’ve just been updating my website, the links page has a few more links added, and I’ve updated the about me page. The about page now has photos of all of us on it, but they’re not very recent 😉

The sewing machine is fantastic!!! And I have been making a doll with it. So far I’ve finished her basic body and dyed her, so I’m now planning how to embellish and dress her

I’ ve got a sewing machine!!! Through a combination of saving up, and money for Christmas and my birthday I am now the proud owner of a Bernina Virtuosa 153QE I’ve had a little play on it and I’m now working on making a doll – I’ll have to post a photo once it’s finished!

So, it’s been a while since I posted. I got caught up in work and the run up to Christmas. But, finally, here are the pictures from London.

We stayed at the Southwark Rose Hotel, which turned out to be very nice, and close to the river. It was about lunchtime when we arrived, and the first thing we did (after dropping Dad off so he could get to his meeting) was take a walk along the river and visit the Globe which was fascinating.

Following that we took a walk a little further down the river to visit Tate Modern. Ok, so I didn’t like everything in there, but there are some fantastic works of art to see. We spent several hours there, and barely made a dent in the exhibitions so I think I’m going to have to go back sometime. The shop was fantastic, but I restrained myself and only came out with a book on Chagall instead of the 15-20 books and prints I wanted. The building is impressive – huge and slightly scary with an amazing entry hall, and with viewing decks on the third floor with a view over the Millenium Bridge and across the river.

The next day we spent shopping in the morning (my chance to buy some beads, I made it to the London Bead Co. and Buffy’s Beads). In the afternoon myself, Mum and Rob made it to a performance of Twelfth Night at The Albery, before meeting Dad after he’d finished work to go and see We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre. Twelfth Night was quite an unusual performance with the setting transferred to India, which actually worked really well, and We Will Rock You was brilliant fun.

Dad had the next day off, which gave us the chance to go for a fly on the Eye, which we followed up with a cruise down the river, giving me a chance to take stacks of pictures.

We finished up by wandering over to Trafalgar Square, via some Horse Guards and Downing Street, so we could sit on the lions 🙂

Don’t Dad and Rob look charming?

And finally, had to include a picture of HMS Belfast as this is where Dad had to give a talk and so was the reason for our trip to London!

since I moved back to Nottingham we’ve been pretty busy. So far we’ve been to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat for the umpteenth time at the Theatre Royal (it’s a bit of a family favourite).

We’ve also been to see Katie Melua in Birmingham, and to watch I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue being recorded in Hull. Both of these were fantastic! I was impressed with Katie Melua – her voice came across really well live, and her band were great. And as for ISIHAC, I haven’t laughed so much in ages. We saw 2 shows being recorded, and I’m now looking forward to hearing them come out on the radio.

Being gluttons for punishment, we got back from Hull some time after midnight on the Saturday, and then got up again at 6am on the Sunday to go to London for the London Teddy Bear Fair at Alexandra Palace where mum had a stall for her bears

We’ve also been to London for a few days, but I’m still sorting out the pictures from that.

Edited to add: Can you tell I’ve just learnt how to add links? 🙂

So I’ve FINALLY got around to taking my pictures off my camera, which means I can start putting a few of them up here. To start off with, a few days after I got back to Nottingham I went to Goose Fair (http://www.nottinghamgoosefair.co.uk/) with Rob – a tradition every year, I think I’ve only missed one or two years since I was small. I took several photos, but I think this is the best one of the fair

Each year we try to win a tacky toy, but this year Rob struck the jackpot and actually won one of the HUGE toys. We got a lot of comments going home on the tram with this…

Edited to add: Apparently we should use this bear to take over Tokyo – I reckon it could happen…