The Force of Nature

A rapid overnight thaw combined with torrential rain and gale force winds meant that the scene which awaited us this morning was in complete contrast to yesterday's. What a difference 24 hours makes! All that rain and melting snow had to go somewhere. The beautiful vistas in my previous post have been replaced by these incredible views.  I couldn't replicate all of yesterday's photos, simply because many of my viewpoints were inaccessible today, but I think you'll get the picture. If you haven't seen the previous post, do have a look and compare.

This first one shows how quickly all the snow disappeared, in just a few hours. 

The others show where it all went to!

Picture No.6 in yesterday's post shows a gateway next to a tree by the river. Here (below) you can just see the top of the gate, which gives an indication of the depth of the water. Scary!

 The river does flood quite often, but this is about the worst I have seen it since we moved here. The water you can see in the next two photos is not usually there!

The normal course of the river follows the line of trees in the centre of the next picture and then bends off to the right in the distance.

The next view is looking in the opposite direction. The direction of flow is from left to right in front of the line of trees across the middle of the picture. The tree at the LH end of the line at right angles (the tree by the gateway in the earlier pic) is normally high and dry at the edge of the near bank!

Normally I would walk through this little wood alongside the river. Couldn't do that today!

The sky is now blue again, although it's still very windy. It's two hours or so since I took the photos and already the water level has dropped quite a bit. I always wonder what happens to the creatures which live in and around the river when it floods, but they seem to cope! We saw a large hare this morning, and some swans were swimming happily on the new lake which had appeared! I'm not sure where the otters go, but they seem to come back eventually. We found a dead otter, sadly, by the roadside a few weeks ago, but have seen more otter tracks since then, so hopefully there must be several around.

This is certainly a fascinating place to live!

A Walk In The Snow

Although it's been very cold here, we've been lucky not to have had as much snow as some parts of the country. However, yesterday it snowed most of the day. The most snow I've seen for ages. The sky was leaden, and it seemed dark all day. This is what it looked like from our lounge window.

This morning, however, we woke up to beautiful blue skies and sunshine, so I took the opportunity to get out for a walk and some fresh air. I went along the river and across the fields nearby.

The next photo is interesting. The sun was covered by a little thin cloud and must have been shining through ice crystals, as there was a rainbow effect all around the edges of the cloud. I wasn't sure whether it would show up in the photo, but it did. You can see it better if you click on the pic to enlarge it.

Unfortunately the good weather didn't last, because by late afternoon the sky had clouded over again and now it's raining. But at least that means it's getting a bit warmer!

New Year and New Challenge

Hope it's not too late to say Happy New Year everyone, and to wish you everything you wish yourself for 2013.

Being the first Sunday of the month, we have a new challenge for you at Stamping Sensations, and what better theme to begin the new year with than

** FRIENDSHIP ** 

I think that speaks for itself, and we would love to see your interpretation of what Friendship means to you.

We have a fabulous sponsor for you this month - STIX2! They have given us a wonderful prize. A huge selection of essential items, well worth an entry!

Now, my usual new year's resolution is not to make any! However, if I were to make any crafty ones for this year, it might be along the lines of thinking outside the box, or at least getting out of my comfort zone and challenging myself to do something different. So here's my card for "Friendship".

What's different about that then, I hear you ask! Flowers and butterflies are never far from my cards. Well, yes, but - they're red! Red is not my first colour of choice for a card. I don't like colours that shout at me, I much prefer cool, soothing ones - blues, purples, and greens. But having said that,  I do love poppies, and poppies are red, so....

It might also have something to do with the fact that Brenda sent me a package of gorgeous goodies for Christmas, which included some delightful dotty red ribbon which I couldn't wait until next Christmas to use!

I decided that it would go beautifully with some Chocolate Baroque poppies, which I stamped on to red spotty paper and on to plain white and then I paper pieced just the flowers. 

 I cut out the image and the red spotty frame with Spellbinders dies, and then added just a touch of colouring to the butterfly and bud with a red Promarker. I tried paper piecing the leaves too in green, but felt that introducing a second colour lessened the impact, so I left them plain. 

I didn't have any suitable background paper, so I made some with some more Chocolate Baroque stamps. A lovely friendship sentiment (also by Choc B) and a few punched  butterflies (Martha Stewart) completed the card.

So that's my celebration of friendship. My lovely teamies have made some gorgeous samples to show you, so do go and have a look at them on the Challenge Blog. I look forward to seeing yours!