T Stands for Storm Eowyn, Garden Birds, Birthday Cards and Kitty Beds

Hi Friends!

Happy T Day!  Well we have been having a bit of weather over here – it was so severe that it probably made the news in other countries no doubt so perhaps you saw photos on the news.  Storm Eowyn made landfall here on Friday morning and with it winds of over 100mph here (in some places 114mph).  It was announced that all schools, shops and offices were closed in my area as we are right on the coast.  We even got a very scary emergency alert from the government on our mobiles on Thursday night, just in case we weren’t all worried enough!  And what day was my hospital appointment?  Yup, you guessed it, it was Friday and all routine appointments were cancelled, so I am STILL ON CRUTCHES!!! My rescheduled appointment is in two weeks.

So on Thursday night, after getting this alert saying that we could lose power, I charged up all devices that I could charge just in case – torch (flashlight), other battery-powered lights, my chromebook, phone, etc, and did some cooking – made soup, baked potatoes, soda bread and brownies.  In the event that we did lose power, these are things that I could reheat on the wood-burning stove and the brownies were just in case I needed a chocolate fix (normally I make them with tofu but I didn’t have any so I made them with avocado and they were delicious!)  This is also my ticket to tea – there are three drinks – my water filter jug, my coffee in my Cat Mum mug and a glass of grapefruit juice (yum), and some of my soda bread just baked on the wood-burning stove.

We didn’t lose power but 120,000 other households did. The bedrooms in this house are in the roof, so we ended up sleeping downstairs on the sofa because it was so noisy upstairs and I just couldn’t get to sleep.  They said the storm was expected around 10am on Friday but it woke me up at 2am and then I couldn’t get back to sleep because it felt like the roof was going to come off and I didn’t want to end up in Oz!  That almost sounds like a joke but actually there were a lot of reports of damaged roofs and buildings in several places on Friday. I lost some slates off my roof so it will need checking by a roofer and any missing ones replaced but it was not near as bad as I expected it to be.

All flights were cancelled but one flight coming up from London early Friday morning had to be diverted to Cologne, Germany!  All public transport was cancelled also, just as well as there was a lot of damage and disruption caused by falling trees as you can see from some of the photos below. Sadly there were also a few deaths mostly caused by falling trees. These photos of our “beaches” show just how wild the storm was, I’ve never seen it like this, they are usually very calm, but in one place, Troon, which is just a couple of miles away, the seawater was actually flowing down the streets. There are more photos and a video on the link.

We are on the left side of Scotland in the red zone.

I did leave a couple of times on Friday but only to the garden.  I was surprised to see the birds hopping around looking for food but since they had braved the storm because they were hungry, I thought I should go out and feed them.  Left to right – a robin, a blackbird and some tiny sparrows. I was so excited to also see a couple of Great Tits but they were so quick and flighty that I couldn’t snap a photo of them.  I’ve been looking out for them ever since in case they come back.  If you don’t know what these birds look like, here’s some info about the whole Tit family of birds. I also saw a song thrush and a chaffinch.

Today’s art . . .

Today’s art is all about recent cards, mostly birthday cards.  I made the two above for two early January birthdays.

This one was made for a February birthday but I needed to post it sooner rather than later.  It’s inspired by the blackbirds in my garden.

These two cards were sent off in the happy mail envelopes I shared last week.  They were made with chopped up embossed papers, book paper and napkin butterflies, and the lovely image of trees in the middle are postcards that are enclosed with orders from Art from the Heart, which is a craft shop here in the UK (owned by Dyan Reaveley and run by her son).

Kitty update . . .

It was Miss P’s birthday also but she didn’t get a card, she got a trip to the vet for check up and vaccinations.  She also got a pedicure for the first time and she was not impressed with that!  She has also gained a little weight probably due to her now sedentary life indoors! Here she is on the right in a plush furry bed.

On the left is Miss Lily in the bookcase.  I was looking at some catification options and saw that IKEA have fabric cubes with an entrance already cut out of the box just big enough for kitties to climb inside.  I was thinking about cutting up an existing box (drona boxes) or maybe buying one of the ones with the cutout, but then I thought why not just use an existing bed in the space?  I bought two of these little cocoon beds when the kittens were just weeks old, and they never really used them.  They are however just the right size for Miss Lily and she has been sleeping in one lately, on the back of the sofa, so it was just a matter of rearranging some of the books to leave two of the cubbies free for both beds.  And guess what, she loves them.  She is a small cat, so she is the only one that can fit in them, Mr G is way too large!  So now she has two little napping spots tucked away in the bookshelves behind the sofa.  She’s in there now as I sit here on the sofa typing this, and I can hear her tiny kitty snores in the background.

And finally, here’s an update on the cardigan I have been crocheting.  It’s almost finished, it’s in one piece.  All that needs to be done is to add some pockets, some buttons and weave in all the loose ends.  I actually can’t decide if I like it or not, the colours are different to what I would usually choose – normally it would all be black haha or at least more neutral and less bright – but I do like the style.  I wanted a big, loose, comfy, warm cardigan and it is that.  The yarn used for the ribbing is actually leftover from the temperature blanket I made last year.  A different weight of yarn was required for the ribbing and I didn’t want to buy any new yarn so I rummaged around in my stash and found five balls of this leftover green yarn.  I’m sharing the close up on the right because my stitch markers are cute little kitty faces.

Speaking of not buying any yarn, one of my resolutions this year is not to buy anything new if I can possibly help it, apart from life’s necessities of course (food, cat food etc).  I have actually just done a bit of craft shopping in the January sales but this will be the last craft shopping for the year – let’s see if I can stick to that!  I’m really excited to receive my order, and I haven’t been feeling very excited about much lately, so that’s something positive.

I think that’s about it for today.  Let me know what you think in the comments below.   As always, thanks for reading and Happy T Day!Ingredients
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T Stands for – Tuesday