February

is nearly over.  Lovely weather for walking - mostly and yesterday and today were no exception.  Yesterday I was thrown out of  a moving car and walked home.  Made a nice change from the usual circular walks and I got chatting to a fellow walker while we were headed in the same direction.

Today we walked to Middleton in order to look at a plot of land for sale.  Not that we wanted to buy it but we were curious as to where it was and it gave us a destination.  Coming home we diverted off the High Peak Trail and tried to find our way over the fields.  Suffice to say we entered the fields at the correct point and exited at the correct point but somewhere in the middle we lost the path and did some creative walking.  Which involved a fair bit of climbing over fences/walls etc.  Made it more exciting and adventurous.

I have been playing with stained glass at home and have realised that you need the correct soldering iron - none of dearly beloved's were suitable as they keep going cold and the solder won't run.  So I need to buy a specific one. 

The kitchen is the only place to work in and I have done my best to clear up after myself but the next time I am cutting glass I think I will put up a cardboard barrier to minimise the risk of us ingesting ground glass in future!

In March the boat finally starts to have the works done in the engine room that I have been waiting for all winter - so definitely no boating yet.  However there is that 3 day walk I am doing along the Wey and Arun canal which means I will still get my canal fix.

And now in glorious technicolour

Showing my age here?

Any hoo

here we have for your delectation - my unfinished bit of stained glass window decoration

 

We completely ran out of time so the welding is untidy.  I need to get some solder and flux and smooth everything out at home as I only had time to basically attach all the pieces to each other and fit the hanging loops - no time for finesse.  One more week and it would have been perfick.

I wanted the blue water element to be much darker blues purples etc and the top sunset to be more yellows oranges and reds but I had to use what was available.  Still I like it.

Works the other way up with blue sky and dark canal water!!!

And yes my fixation with having my stove in the 'correct' place has led to it not being a mirror image.

Quirky I call it

 

Then the ones I painted direct onto my portholes.  

(I have two 'spare' due to the fused glass bobcat portholes made by Bonnie. http://www.purpleglass.co.uk )

Can you guess what this one represents?

I will tell you. 

It is the Trent and Mersey Canal.

Harecastle Tunnel

The potteries

Rugeley/Willington power stations

Burton on Trent Breweries.

Then I thought dearly beloved needed to be represented as well.

I am represented by the bobcat portholes so here is his

May I introduce 

Ratty

 

I took photos of some of the other work done at the stained glass workshop

This one I think it is brilliant

On the left her father then she got carried away and included her mother.  

Both back in their hippy days!

 

I also love the curves on this one

and this one 

although I think this lady forgot to allow space for the fusing.

It all fitted perfectly until the copper foil was added.  

Which was a shame.

There it is - my foray into stained glass.

Absolutely loved it. 

 

Looking forward to installing them on the boat

 and 

looking through them 

whilst I float around England and Wales this year.