Cold, Blustery February

So February has arrived and the cold, blustery weather continues.  The days are getting a bit longer, but it's still as black as night when I get up in the morning and dark again by 6.00pm.  I find it very hard to get motivated this time of year, and spend a lot of time picking things up and then putting them down again and moving onto something else.

I'm also very easily distracted, and because George was going into school to do a Careers Fair, he asked me to send some photos to get printed.  They are all photos he's taken and, actually, I thought some of them were beautiful, but at the same time show just how lonely life can be as a farmer.

Driving the harvest corn cart under a big sky threatening rain:

Ploughing the fields with only gulls for company

 

and a pair of Red Kites

 

and then a less melancholy picture of hay making:

It's hard to remember in these dark days how blue the sky can be and, when the grass is all brown and rusty in winter, how lush and green it is in summer.

Then, when they are working in company, they are working so hard that there isn't much companionship!

Just mouths to feed:

 

Being a farmer's wife is a funny old life too - either the men are under your feet most of the day moaning about the weather, or you only see them when they want food!

I suppose that's why I enjoy doing the workshops so much - it's so nice to spend time chatting and sharing stories at the same time as making beautiful things.  The Tuesday morning Pitch and Stitch sessions are just a get together where we sort out the world whilst getting on with our own little projects.  The next post I do, I think, will be all about the amazing projects everyone is working on.

Today I went and collected three lovely boxes of fabric from Jan.

We are so lucky - Jan works for Village Fabrics in Wallingford (a lovely quilt shop packed with all kinds of quilting fabrics) and they send over boxes so when people come for workshops they can buy any fabrics they may need.  They always choose a lovely selection and because Jane comes to the Lynne Johnson workshops here, she knows the sort of fabrics we'll be looking for.

I've just realised - there isn't much loneliness in quilting!