Smoke on the... ground?

Today is a good day! I have accomplished lots. I have spent the morning studying Norwegian (I am now getting the hang of dependant, subordinate and main clauses), and taking care of certain small Guinea-pigs that live in my bedroom. I also had a go at helping to tidy the kitchen but failed miserably. there is only so much i know about re-hanging curtains.

I was grateful this morning on my walk for a frost. This meant the south field was less muddy than it has been most of this week. (for the past few days it has resembled the Glastonbury Festival, with mud about 4 inches deep!) I suspected there would be a good amount of mist this morning because whilst driving to the shops last night, we passed a small valley in a field which was filled with cloud! It really looked like someone was having fun with a smoke machine!

We are realising slowly that Ipswich is a town that has very localised weather. For example, Dad was telling me the other day of occasions in the past when he has gone to his car in the evening, to find one half of his car frozen and the other half not frozen! if that isnt localised i dont know what is.

Tonight I am going out with my friends for a meal to celebrate Aimée's birthday at our favourite haunt (brilliant restaurant with TVs on the walls showing fun stuff like NASCAR etc.) There is a brilliant desert at this particular restaurant. A very naughty bowl of ice cream and chocolates that is big enough to feed about 5! I think there is a good chance of a photo of that tomorrow :D

--- I leave you with an update of the Dalmation balloon. It would appear it has learned how to climb hedges! It was actually sitting on top of the Hedge looking very regal today! Dog balloons do the funniest things!

A Dalmation???

I saw the wierdest thing today on my morning walk! I was just strolling through "South Field" and suddenly, beside me, I saw a dog! I had to do a double take though, as this was an inflatible dog! A Dalmation balloon just stuck there in the hedge! I couldn't help myself. Instantly, my mobile phone was in my hand and a photo opportunity was not missed! Someone must have had a great time leaving that there for me to find. The Apaches were doing their training routines today so we were being buzzed all day by scary looking millitary helicopters. These are the scariest looking things in the world, with huge guns strapped onto them so watching them is always fun. They must be going off to Iraq or Afganistan I reckon, so hopefully most of them will make it back. Today was a day of change for me. After years of having long hair, down to my waist, hair almost able to sit upon, I figured I wanted a new look. So I telephoned a hairdressers shop in Ipswich and within an hour I was sitting in a swivel chair, sipping a cup of coffee whilst 'Abbie' snipped away. I love the new look and thought you might all enjoy seeing it. To quote U.S. president elect Barack Obama, "Yes, we can change. Yes, we can." Change is good. I love it! :D

Oh and I believe Happy Birthday greetings are in order for my wonderful friend Aimée and Edgar Hansen! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Men with bells on!

The picture you see above, is the product of two days of searching. I knew i had it somewhere! It is a scan of a picture that was taken in 2000, on one of the funnest mornings that can be had in the year! Picture the scene. It is the first day of May. You get woken up by your alarm at 4:30 a.m., stumble bleary eyed from your bed and head for the nearest source of coffee. by 5:00 o'clock you are in the car heading for the coast. As the sky in the East gets slowly lighter, a growing sense of excitement finds you. In half an hour, you are on a beach gazing at a bright spot on the horizon that is beginning to turn a wonderful pink/red colour. The band in the carpark at the top of the cliff starts up and you climb the steps from the beach to join in the fun. This is what i shall be doing on May day this year. We travel to Felixtowe and watch the sun rise over the sea and then have lots of fun dancing with the Folk band and Morris Men! (if you have never come across Morris Men you have missed out on real treat. Grown men dancing about waving handkerchiefs, with bells strapped to their legs and waving sticks! I love Morris men they are a traditional form of English dancing but I have geat trouble not breaking into giggles!). After watching the sun rise at 5:35, dancing and chatting to a man dressed as "the green man" (the green man was a Celtic god of spring who dissappears and returns year after year), everyone bundles into their cars and goes off to have a full english breakfast at the many cafe's that dot the Felixtowe coastline (I am sure May day is how these cafe's stay in business. within a few minutes of people leaving the cliff tops, all the cafe's are packed to standing room only!). This year I promise to take my camera and take lots of pictures for you guys. Especially of the Morris Men and the Green Man! --- whilst I was searching for the picture of May Day sunrise 2000, I stumbled across a picture that I had forgotten about! It was taken a couple of years ago from my bedroom window. I thought I would put it in my post today as it was kinda appropriate (being a sunrise-ish sort of post today).

IFQ Weathermen

I had a funny conversation with my Father today! I was telling him about the "how's the weather for you?" thread on the F/V Northwestern forums. He seemed mildly intregued at the thought of a whole thread dedicated to the weather! (because the English love to talk about the weather of course!)

At the end of my description of flooding in Seattle and cold, windy Norway, He came up with a briliant one liner.

Dad: "So somewhere in the world is there a weather forum discussing crab fishing?"

I had to laugh at this because he conjured up such a picture in my mind. Weather forecasters sitting in their offices discussing IFQs, Fishing Vessels, and Dutch Harbour! (it probably happens aswell!)

Sticking with the weather for a bit:

winter is still here! pack ice still exists on the duck pond and icicles are plentiful! celebrations all around!

This feels like the last of winter for some reason. I hope I am wrong. Winter should last all year in my view.

I think I may have jinxed the weather by buying a new warm hoodie and a scarf. stupid me! We shall get up to the dizzying heights of 6'C this week which means no more ice.

the Ducks down the road may be grateful for the warmer weather however, they have been plagued by "pack ice" on the village pond for about two weeks now! finally they can get back to the water.

Here then are the last few ice pictures for the moment. Me in my new hoodie and balaclava/scarf and a fantastic cobweb that was just dying to be photographed.

There was a beautiful sunrise here today, so at eight in the morning i was taking my dog Monty out for a walk accompanied by one very eager camera.

Sunrise is my favourite time of the day and no matter what the weather, beautiful photographs are always available wherever one looks.

This then, is my attempt at some artistic sunrise pictures. Enjoy.

A new year has to start with the sea.

Two thousand and nine. Lots of things have changed over the past few years. I have grown up, I have developed my own sense of who I am and what I love, but I am very pleased to say that the experiences that shape you when you are little, play a great part in shaping you as you grow up also.

Ever since I was little, I went fishing with my Dad on beaches around the county of suffolk where I live. For me, the word "fishing" brings to mind memories of freezing cold weather, wind, rain (sometimes hail), sitting on a bucket beside my Dad, clutching onto a flask of tea as if my life depended on it and usually returning with no fish at all. That was proper fishing.

I took great pride in teasing my little sisters about how they went "sissy fishing" in the summer with Dad on freshwater lakes and how I alone braved the elements at the shoreline. Little sisters however will always tease back as I have discovered. They now boast back about how they are unafraid of the maggots with which one fishes in freshwater whilst I run terrified from them.

I love the sea. This will not change for me. Ever. It has the power to comfort and yet amaze and horrify at the same time.

The chance came today to go to my favourite beach for a New years day walk and so I took my camera and took a few photos.

Dunwich is slowly dissappearing. About a yard vanishes into the sea every year and now so many of the paths that I walked on as a kid are gone. Dunwich will always be there in my memories however, no matter how depleted it may be in real life.