Icy Fingers and Frozen Toes

It has been cold, cold, cold this week.  Each morning as I go to drive my car for the dark, icy commute to work, I slip, slide and hold on to the garage door before I slip backwards while negotiating the handle.  The advantage is that my car is already free from snow and ice and I'm ready to go.  However we don't get gritted in our village so the first lot of commuters have to negotiate the fresh ice...not fun!  But, the views from my car window always amaze me.  So much sky!  Lincolnshire is certainly spectacular for this.    I especially love the fens in the snow, they look so fresh, clean and amazing.  You can see for miles and miles in all directions.

Once in work, the kettle goes straight on, doors are shut to keep heat in and the work begins whilst holding our warm cups.  Even my wooden tulips, which were a gift from my previous boss, have had to have their hats on!!

However, it is now the weekend.  I have stocked up with bits and pieces to keep me and my kids amused and hopefully there will be the annual snow ball fight that myself and my neighbours partake in...it gets very strategic and serious!  The house is warm and cosy and it has been a very good house cleaning day.  Fresh flowers were the order of the morning...

...along with a happy moment of finding the perfect orchid in Butters factory shop (two for £8.00, well it would have been rude not to buy!).

On the way home along the sliding roads, myself and Mr Teenager decided to have a little walk along one of the obscure public footpaths between Spalding and Crowland.  So boots on, we trod gingerly along the tracks.  Mr Teenager went on ahead as I negotiated a bit of a hill...yes, a small hill in the fens, who'd have thought it!

We then stepped across an old wooden bridge which covered a frozen part of the river below.

Looking the other way, it seemed that two rats or other critters had attempted dancing on ice!

Our walk continued, the icy wind was now blowing through our ear drums and whistling through the grasses.

Our faces were extremely numb with the cold, but we persevered discovering all sorts of wildlife tracks, such as deer, fox, rat etc.

We finally reached a bridge that goes over the River Welland.  By now we were absolutely frozen!

The river was flowing easily through, and so was the wind!

So with icy fingers and my rather fetching red boots, we set to have a very brisk walk back to the car.

It was so lovely and warm in there!  We had to sit for a moment while our faces came back to life (who needs botox when a good icy blast does exactly the same thing!!)

So, want to see what I have been working on?  Busy busy!

• The wrist warmers are for my daughter.  She wanted plain ones, so black was decided, with a bobble cuff and I couldn't resist at least two buttons.  Just plain double crochet lines and bobble stitching for the cuffs.  Very easy.
• The start of some wrist warmers which you can find on Cherry Heart's blog.  These are beautiful! and I love the yarn.
• The blankets in progress are coming along.  I'll soon be finished with the pink ripple, and the granny square is one of those projects that you can do in between others.
• AND, knitting!  Hmmmm, my first square of blanket stitching eventually came together.  I think I did well...but it's not going to be a cushion.  No, instead I created one of Attic 24's Triple Layer flowers, placed this in the middle, folded down the top of the knitted square, sewed up the back and created a nice cosy mobile phone holder.  So a bit of crochet and knitting joining forces.

So all in all, I WANTED a very busy weekend!  Last weekend was a bit of a washout in the end due to my continuing migraines, but hey ho!  Here I go....

Have a wonderful weekend with whatever you are doing...and keep warm if you are in a freezing cold winter!...and if you are basking in a heatwave, I hope the pictures are cooling!!

Take care.