I finished - -

- - little album I made at our last craft club day - no photos yet admittedly - but it is all decorated and all the tags and photo mats are made ready for pictures to be added. As I am planning on adding photos of my niece's "Prom" I won't be able to share it once the photos are included, I thought I would post a couple of pics now.
It was made using Laura Denison's (of Following the Paper Trail) "Stack the Deck" binding - check out her You Tube from December 2011 for instructions. I love it - it is such a neat binding system - and the little albums look so "professionally finished" - even when I have made them!!

There are six pages - and as each page is a pocket there are two tags in each one, so I can get plenty of photos in the album and have room for journalling. I used Prima paper and embellies - from the Nature Garden collection - and I think the soft neutrals in the colours scheme will make the photos of the jewel like prom dresses really "pop".

Today we have been "up the mountain" - on the Electric Railway - just for a change. It was a reasonable day - though still a little cold, and we did get something of a view before watching the drifting fingers of mist of Manannan's Cloak spread over the mountain top and hide everything from us! The cafe was warm and pleasant though and we enjoyed coffee and cake before we headed back down to Bungalow Tram Station. In the waiting room I found several of this year's "World Book Night" donations - all from different "givers" - to be part of an initiative called Ride & Read - and I quote " Enjoy browsing a book and then return it to your nearest ---- -- --- Railways waiting room for another traveller to pick up and enjoy". We liked this idea - a kind of mini "book crossing" so chose to borrow Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson - as neither of us has read it. I will return it to the Steam Train station when we have read it - but am going to keep a note of its number - to check its travels on the World Book Night site.

Thanks for stopping by -
'til later

Bannaghtyn J xx

I'm so excited -

- today I am going to see my girls. It does involve quite a lot of travel - first by sea and then by train - and a little bit of me - just a smidgeon - feels slightly apprehensive, as it is quite a long time since I travelled alone. However I also feel quite excited by the prospect - I love sailing, it is years since I last went on the ferry and I do like travelling by train - it makes me think of the railways heyday - when steam was king. Nostalgia kicks in (not that I am old enough to have travelled on the railways in their  heyday I hasten to add) - random thoughts fill my head, scraps of poems like this one float to the surface of my mind -  I hear the rhythm of the wheels on the tracks and feel such a sense of anticipation which far outweighs my slight apprehension! I have laughed at myself though - because last Wednesday I was also talking about railways. But you see - I'm so excited! And I am going to see my girls!

From a Railway Carriage

FASTER than fairies, faster than witches,

Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;

And charging along like troops in a battle,

All through the meadows the horses and cattle:

All of the sights of the hill and the plain

Fly as thick as driving rain;

And ever again, in the wink of an eye,

Painted stations whistle by.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,

All by himself and gathering brambles;

Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;

And there is the green for stringing the daisies!

Here is a cart run away in the road

Lumping along with man and load;

And here is a mill and there is a river:

Each a glimpse and gone for ever! Until next time. Bannaghtyn J x