Long tall bunny... Thursday 3rd April 2014

Good Morning Friends,

A scheduled post today as I am off early to work (another of those meetings I'm afraid!). A bit of a long post today, so please bear with me!

Last Saturday Tom and I went Cirencester for a browse around the town and shops; it's one of our favourite places to go on a sunny Saturday. Our visit happened to coincide with the launch of the Hare Festival. Last year Bristol had a Gromit trail, Cirencester has a hare trail and here are two of the decorated hares...

This is Daniel

No name for this one: he was decorated by  celeb Interior Designer
Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen, who lives in the town

Anyway, I thought these would tie in nicely with my project for today..a needle-felted bunny, that has such long ears I think I turned it into a hare!

 This hare was my second go at needle felting...I had the kit for my birthday and as it is something you can do over a couple of evenings in front of the TV, I thought I would get going on it! He stands 16 inches high and is pretty cute! I bought the kit for the little dog below at a festival at our local Arboretum last year and I actually took it all the way to California and made it whilst relaxing on holiday, but somehow I had never posted it here before (despite it sitting next to my little model of TinTin's Snowy on my desk for the last 6 months!)

They are fun to make!

Yesterday, my mid-week day off and usually my craft day, was in fact not much of a craft day at all. I did spend a bit of time first thing in the morning making a pop-up card  for a teenage cousin's birthday(inspired by Hazel's post -and then forgot to photograph it before posting it!) and then my cousin Nina called for me and we went out to lunch.

It was lovely to see her and spend a few hours 'catching up' because we 'travel in different circles' and haven't seen enough of each other in recent times, despite living so close.  Nina is younger than me, I'm caught in the middle with cousins because Mum & Dad were older parents..my cousins both here in and in the US are either 10 years younger or 10 years + older than me.. but as time goes on age gaps seem to narrow don't they? 

Nina was a warden and manager in a local womens' prison for 15 years before taking redundancy last year and now..always the one for adventure, with no ties to home, she is off to start a new chapter in her life, as a warden in HM Prison... The Cayman Islands! Her former boss is the Governor there and another of her friends already lives there. She has visited before, so is not going entirely into the unknown. So this time next week, she will already be there and her little dog, Mason will be on his way to join her. I am sure this is not the last time I will have given her a kiss and a hug, but it was a rather poignant parting nevertheless. I know she will embrace this with fervour, as she has with every new challenge in her life.

Here we are below at a fundraising event she organised at her house a few years ago. Of course, as you are about to part, you suddenly realise that meeting up for lunch or coffee more often would have been a good idea!

Once I got home, there was still no crafting..the hens had me rushing outside no less than three times! The garden yesterday was a hive of activity..we have Great Tits in the nest box and they were in and out all day; there are always two pairs of blackbirds in the garden nesting - one pair behind the coop and another in a tree the opposite side. I can never understand why they choose that tree as a fence runs along-side it and it makes them easy prey. A cat I had never seen before, had perched itself on it. He was after the birds but was mesmerised by the hens who were making such a noise. They really hate cats and will usually see them off, but this one was having none of it! Eventually I persuaded it to go, but it came back and got in the garden. The hens made a run for it, flapping wings and squawking. I don't think he'll be back in a hurry! Bless!

Well if you're still awake, I promise that's it for today, I'll be back with just crafts and far fewer words tomorrow!

Love and Hugs,

Carole X

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