Wednesday - The Christmas Village

 Managed to get a walk in before the rain set in. Well, almost. I did get rained on for a little bit. It was nice to get out for a walk. It was nice and warm, shame about the rain. There were lots of birds out singing. I would have liked to get more photos, but I was trying to keep the camera from getting too wet and the light wasn't the greatest. It does seem as though more spring birds are returning though!

We were back at Jane's today. We decided to give the book sorting a rest (and rest my knees from having to keep going up and down the stairs!) and start on dismantling Jane's Christmas Village. It was quite the production. I actually forgot to take photos before we started but did find a couple that I had snapped months ago. 

It was quite the set up. It was arranged in front of a (unused) fireplace, on three small tables on the bottom and a shelf above. Each house was lit up and there were several streetlamps. They were all plugged in on quite a circuit. It took quite a lot of unhooking and working out how to get it all apart. They were on Styrofoam blocks and all arranged quite carefully. It took us several hours to take it all apart. 

I'll have to take a photo of the fireplace. I thought I had but I only have one with MIL in the photo and I don't want to share that one. We arranged the pieces on cleared bookshelves (all the books have been taken care of). There are boxes in the basement for each house so we still have to match those. 

The room looks so much bigger without the fireplace blocked out. It felt really productive to get this taken care of. MIL and I had both been dreading it. Friday we will be back on the books. Husband is going to come over after work to take some bags up from the basement to the rubbish skip and load up his work van with donations. That will help clear out some more things. 

My thing that made me smile today was one of the little people from Jane's village. BTW one of the village signs she had said population 1100+ and I think she may have had that many little figures to go with the village! Anyway this one made me smile. I think it would be me if I ever went skiing.  Not the best photo but made me smile. 

103/365

Tomorrow - well, I'm trying not to think of it. I have a dentist appointment. I am - as usual - dreading it. Miss having Mum give me encouragement. I shall get through it. I'm trying not to think too much about it. Wish me luck. 

Halfway Through the Week

 Well, it's Wednesday and we were back at Jane's again. I couldn't seem to get moving this morning, so didn't get to my walk early and then I got distracted. I hadn't seen a lot around the park so I decided to head back to the car. Walking along the path I saw a bunch of robins, then some nuthatches, woodpeckers (three varieties!) and finches (two varieties!).  It always seems to happen when I have to be somewhere! I took a few photos and headed off to pick up MIL.

Today we sorted twenty-two - yes 22 - plastic tubs/totes clothes! This is hopefully the last of the clothes. We have already sorted (and donated) approximately 20 black rubbish bags of clothes. Who knew one person could own so many? I don't think I even have a fraction of that amount of clothes. They date back several years and are in several sizes. I am hopeful that someone else will get plenty of use out of them. 

I was hoping tomorrow to go and photograph a sunrise but we have had some snow and if the roads aren't the greatest in the morning I shan't be going far. Sigh. I'm going to get up and then see. I'm supposed to walk with my walking friend too. I hate to cancel. Although I enjoy walking with her I like going by myself to for the very reason that if I am running late, don't feel like going or want to try somewhere else, I have no-one to please buy myself. She'll probably think I'm a chicken for not wanting to drive in the snow. 

Positive things for the day :-

* I got eight books sorted for the donation pile. Not as many as I hoped but after Jane's I was tired. I         really didn't feel like rummaging around in anything else so picked some easily at hand. 

* I managed to get some photos done on my project! I am doing a year long project and want to keep         on track. 

* I got up in the craft room and put together some 3d toppers from a set by Craft Consortium called In       the Forest

Phone Photo Things That Make Me Smile

19/365 Sometimes it's just the little things that make me smile. Chocolate. Chocolate always makes me smile!

Brrrr

 It was really cold this morning and a touch snowy. Our road was pretty icy - as it had both rained and snowed the day before. The main road was a little icky but I braved it to go to the park for my walk and by the time I got finished the road was a lot better. I already miss the warmer days when all I had to do in the morning was hop in my car. Now I have to warm the car up, dress in long undies, gloves, hat, boots, scarf. Today I even wore double socks and double gloves. It really was that cold!

Before I left for my walk I looked out of my back window and although I don't have a clear view of sunrise the sky was ablaze with beautiful deep colours. Yes, it really was this colour. 

Sadly after the sunrise there wasn't a lot of sun for a while - just lots of clouds!!

I didn't get as many errands done as I had hoped. I did get the food shop done, but it was busy and crowded and I just couldn't face going anywhere else. I am glad I went to the shop I did as I read later that the one I sometimes go to (a little further away) was going to be closing at 2pm until Thursday for 'deep cleaning' due to increased local Covid numbers. I read that to mean there are several cases at the shop as there are other branches of this shop in our town and none of those have been closed! Over here they won't tell where the cases are so it's speculation on my part. 

Got one more shelf cleaned out at home. Not as much done as I wanted to. Daughter called and we chatted for a long time. She said she was feeling a little lonely. Her workplace is now working at home for good so it means little interaction for her with people. It's nice that she doesn't worry about the dogs but not so nice that she's all alone all day. 

It's back to Jane's tomorrow. Oh, I almost forgot to share the photo of the room. I know it's not perfect. We are leaving the books on the shelves (they have been sort of looked through) as they are mostly history/genealogy books and we are hoping to have one of her genealogy friends come look through and take what they want or think their genealogy group would be interested in. The dressers are empty. I am SO pleased it looks like this. It was one of the worst rooms. We could not even get into it when we first started!

It really makes me feel as though we are making progress!