Hobby Craft Show & Sunshine

What a lovely weekend we've had here in the UK, the sun was shining and at last it really feels as though Spring is on the way! There is a rumour that it's to continue for the rest of the week too, how good is that! My weekend was just as good, i visited the Hobby Craft & Sewing for Pleasure show at the NEC in Birmingham, what a great day! it was just lovely to have the day to myself and browse around the many stalls. The Hobby Craft show was filled with lovely goodies for scrapbooking & card making, although i love the idea of scrapbooking i am really not that imaginative, nor could i be surrounded by all that equipment, as lovely as it is :-) The Sewing for Pleasure show was filled with the stitchy type goodies i was in search of and i came away with just a few essentials ;)I treated myself to a new magnifier (i just cannot stitch without one of these now!) this one is a little larger than the one i already have and with a longer bendy bit (see I'm so technical, lol). Two charts, LHN 'The Bookshelf' which i've been looking at for ages, & 'Simply Live' which i thought was simply wonderful after seeing it on someones blog:-)
I bought two more storage boxes, you can never have enough of these, right? There was a really cute cat needle minder that begged to come home with me.... and who can resist a cute kitty :-) Lastly i bought a sheath for the scissors my daughter bought me last year and I've just started using.
I did meet with a couple of non stitchy things, the little wooden box & peg board are to be painted and decorated with decoupage, never tried this but it looked fun to do, and the wool is for a cute knitted bag, these little bags looked great and the instructions say they are a weekend project (I'll let you know if that's true lol), the kit came with pattern, wool, lining material and button, so there you go, that was my day's haul!

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Progress on Yesteryear has been almost non existent this week, so no photos to show, i couldn't seem to get back into any sort of routine for anything last week, I've now caught up with the washing ironing & cleaning so this week i shall be able to get back to my normal nights stitching starting right after tea tonight.

On that note, DD#3 has just come in from school which is my cue to start tea.

Thanks to all who take the time to leave a comment, i love to read them and they are much appreciated, hope everyone has a good week....Till next time, Tara-a-bit

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Did You Get Snow This Week?

No this is not the snow we got in my area, the photos are from the winter of 1947.

From 22nd January to 17th March snow fell EVERY DAY somewhere in the UK, the temperature seldom got a degree or two above freezing, there were snow drifts 8 feet deep in some areas. Throughout January 1947 there were 46 days of sunshine & 13 days that were totally sunless, February got even worse with snow drifts reaching 12 feet in places, neither schools, shops or factories closed though. By the end of the month there was chaos, fuel was in short supply and the railways were impassible with striking workers to boot! This was all before motorways, computers & central heating, fuel was in short supply so people just kept one room heated and rationing was still here in the UK too at that time, women were queing for food for an hour at a time in this weather. By the end of the month snow or sleet had fell in the area i live in now for 19 days, hail on 9 days and there was fog on 4 days and the sun had only appeared on 2 days by February 23! the first part of March that year bought much of the same with the second half milder and very wet, the rain causing a rapid thaw and then came the floods.

The Big Freeze - 1963

I was born in 1961 but my mother has relayed to me often about the harsh weather of 1963, it was the coldest year since 1740. Glasgow had it's first white Christmas since 1938 and from boxing day 1962 until early March 1963 most of England was continuously under the white stuff, although it was sunnier than average, unlike the winter of '47. 1947 was snowier, 1963 was colder. At Herne Bay the sea froze 2 miles out, can you believe that :-o and talking of cold, in 1684 John Evelyn took a coach to Lambeth along the FROZEN River Thames, now that's cold! (click on the link below to see a short film of Herne Bay frozen)

http://sasesearch.brighton.ac.uk/view/?from=search&fromid=placeid%3D4&film=1032&imagefile=%2Ffiles%2Ffilms%2F1032%2Fimage_a_full.jpg&imagealt=A+Still+from+%27Herne+Bay+on+Ice%27+%281963%29+showing+the+frozen+sea

Met Office - Winter Chills: 1947 & 1963, below

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/secondary/students/winter.html

More photos from the winter of 1947 below

http://www.topfoto.co.uk/gallery/1947Winter/default.htm

Somehow this weeks snow seems a little insignificant, don't you think?

Keep warm...Tara-a-bit x