Cold Starts

Soon Be Winter

   The nights are so dark now, it seems just a week or two ago when we were sitting by the pond in the late evening sunshine watching swifts hunting and waiting until late to see bats appear over the water. Now by eight the night is with us with it's dark cold evenings bringing thoughts of winter and all that she brings with her.
   I hope one day next week to get the barn roof felted, the first job leading up to the the colder months, months when the barn seems to change character from that hot workshop that can produce some very long warm days when fresh cool air seems as rare as hens teeth to a warm little haven keeping us safe from the cold ice and snow outside.  Still my winter dream is to set up a wood burning stove out in the barn, it would make sense as we spend so many hours there. We have no central heating in the house so the wood burning stove in our living room heats most of the cottage in the evenings when we finish work and they are so cheap to run, I just think it would work out a lot cheaper than having to use electric heaters to warm the barn. But like everything that helps in the long run you need to obtain them in the first place and with the cost being around 300 pounds I'm guessing it's a dream for next winter.
   This morning when I opened up to turn on the kiln it was really dark and cold and for the first time this year it struck me that those summer morning sounds are no longer with us. Now I hear the rustle from the trees behind the barn and a real lack of bird song, no finches singing or calls from early morning swallows, even the running water in the ponds has a different sound, it's as though everything is letting summer go, giving in to the thought of winter.
   The thoughts of Christmas are holding court in my mind at the moment, I know it's early to mention it but I guess I need to get things moving in that direction, there are colours to try and ideas that I've noted down to play with. Yesterday I listed the first red disc beads in my etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/pebbledreams and they have sold already so maybe jewellery makers are getting started on the seasonal pieces already.

   I'm trying to get that feel of Christmas yet in a rustic form, you all know I hate the idea of snowmen beads and santa beads etc etc, all those same old designs that we see sold, I'm looking more into those old Victorian Christmas colours, those rich colours that added fun and excitement to the gas lit parlor and made wide eyed children stand and stare, those orange and purples that mixed with the forest greens and dark reds of the holly berry. It looks like I've got a lot to try but I'm sure I'll have fun doing so and just the thought of Christmas makes this big kid excited.
   Well as the dark wide skies of the fens open to drop heavy rain this morning I need to go get a few beads made before we take a ride to visit family, so an easy day here but a busy weekend ahead with lots of ideas to play with.