WOYWW 604

 Welcome back to another edition of What's on Your Workdesk (WOYWW) courtesy of Julia.

This is my desk as it was yesterday having a gentle evening of crafting in my journals. Stickers, photos and various pens alongside my trusty mug of tea. I will show them properly next week.

I hope you all managed to enjoy Christmas in some way. I have actually been very blessed with two Christmas days, one in Sheffield (home) with Tim and Alex...

and then Alex and I went down to Mum in Somerset as her support bubble (Alex and I had been essentially isolating for 11 days prior to this, and Tim is too ill to travel that far). We had a very fleeting visit with her, which included a walk along the cliff tops at Exmouth to the beach at Sandy Cove (much quieter) 

and then back for a picnic lunch of smoked salmon sandwiches, soup and mince pies sat on the front. We then went back to her house for presents, a zoom call with my brother and his family (who were stuck in Tier 4) and Christmas dinner and a film. 

Needless to say I was exhausted when we returned home, but it was worth every minute of the drive to see her and make sure she was not alone for Christmas. Since being back I have rested, read, ate far too much and swum a few times!

I will finish with this picture of me in the snow yesterday partway through a massive snowball fight on our street with our neighbours - Alex had just dumped a shovel load of snow on my head, and Alex during our sledging in the afternoon! Take care everyone, Stay safe and I pray that we will all have a much better and easier 2021.

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 603

 Welcome back to the almost Christmas edition of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW) courtesy of the lovely Julia.

This is my desk as I was trying to get my diary up to date... stickers, pens and my trusty mug of tea. 

The only other crafting I have done has been making this mad hat for a Christmas hat competition over zoom at work - it lights up and everything!

I have finally finished work and my out of office is on for two whole weeks giving me a chance to relax a bit, so needless to say I have been swimming. This is my favourite spot - a beautiful disused reservoir in the middle of the peak district. So stunning!

With many people having to change their Christmas plans, I hope that you all manage to have some form of celebration even if it is unusual. You are all in my thoughts and prayers. Take care, stay safe, wishing you the best Christmas possible under the circumstances,

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

P.S. If anyone is finding it hard, I found this song from Casting Crowns (a Christian worship group) incredibly helpful and hope it will bless you too.

WOYWW 602

 Another week has just flown by... and it is time to show you my desk again courtesy of Julia's What's on Your Workdesk blog hop.

My desk is mostly filled by my computer - I have been preparing photos for printing for my diary.  You can also see evidence of wrapping (papers hiding my mug, scissors and selotape) but not a lot else. 

Work is insane at the moment, but I have managed to swim on occasion.  The water temperature is down to 6 degrees now which makes the skin tingle and is really invigorating.  

Not much more to report this week, so I am keeping it short and sweet this week and I will finish with this picture of Alex squashing me (he is now taller than me!). I hope that you all have a wonderful week. Take care and stay safe.

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 601

 Hello and welcome back to my blog on this cold December Wednesday for the next edition of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday courtesy of Julia.

This is my desk looking very empty with my mug of tea and my journal on it.  I have just been updating the Christmas present list (all hidden) and the journal is open at a swimming page with two little watercolours.

This is the second one, which was actually completed during the lovely zoom meeting on Saturday.  I so enjoyed meeting so many of you wonderful crafting people. It was such a special time. This is a picture of me all bundled up after a swim - I wear a changing robe that makes me look like this!

There isn't much else to report this week, other than a few swims - this was the coldest at just under 5 degrees -

including a glorious sunset swim on Monday

and socially distanced Carol singing yesterday evening. As we wont be able to sing carols in church this was great fun.  That's all from me for now... trying to keep it short and sweet as Julia likes it! Take care of yourselves and stay safe,

With love & God Bless,
Caro

WOYWW 600

 

600!  Yes, you read that number correctly - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday has been going strong for 600 weeks thanks to Julia, our amazing founder and Queen Desker, aided and abetted by Jan.

So I want to apologise that yet again life got in the way of commenting last week - I promise I will do better this week for the anniversary. This is my desk as it was at the weekend (it has been empty since then apart from work) when I was messing around with watercolours.  You can see my trusty mug of tea in the background, some stamps and ink left over from Christmas card making, various water brushes, pens, pencils and rubbers etc.

This is the final watercolour - me in the lake in Crookes Valley Park in Sheffield, one of my regular swimming haunts. The University of Sheffield Arts Tower is in the background.

I have also managed to complete my Christmas cards for posting this year with several of each of these designs (the Robin was inspired by Cindy).

Alex had a staff inset day this week so we put up our decorations nice and early while listening to cheesy Christmas music and dancing round the sitting room to get us in the mood.  All good fun!

I have been swimming this week - I managed 18 swims in November (8,100m in total) and swam my first ever December swim last night, at Crookes Valley Park, Sheffield.  This is what the lake looked like when I got out!  That is all from me for now. I am looking forward to seeing some of you on the zoom calls on Saturday.

Take care and stay safe,

With love & God Bless,
Caro

xxx

WOYWW 599

 Welcome back to my blog for another edition of What's on your Workdesk Wednesday, courtesy of the lovely Julia.  The week has gone back so fast I almost didn't post as I didn't remember it was already Wednesday!

I will therefore keep this short and sweet. Here is my desk while making another clean and simple style of Christmas card, with the distress inks in a strip down to one side. You can see the inks, applicators, ruler, stamps and nearly empty mug of tea.  I wouldn't be me without tea!

This is the final design. The white stars are added afterwards with a posca paint pen.  I will probably end up doing several of this one and several of last weeks one, but do have other ideas as well.  They need to be clean, simple and quick, due to lack of time on my part.

This week has been crazy because Alex has an assessment week at school so in addition to my work I have had to help him with revision (a very painful process due to ADHD).  I have managed to sneak in a few swims as well to help with my sanity (including one under this stunning rainbow - I am the swimmer with the orange float).

This plunge pool swim on Monday was my coldest to date (6.5 oC in the water), and was truly wonderful. I am loving how alive it makes me feel. 

That is all from me for now. I am very much looking forward to the zoom sessions and seeing some of you then.  In the meantime, please take care and stay safe.

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 598

 Hello and welcome to another edition of What's on your Workdesk Wednesday, courtesy of the lovely Julia.

This is my desk, taken last night, where I was trialling an idea for a Christmas card. With work the way it is, in order for me to make cards, they are going to have to be quick and simple to make.  You can see various ink pads, applicator, ruler, pen, pencil, a couple of stamps, post it notes (used to mask areas of the card) and my mug of tea.

This is the final card. What do you think?  Would it be acceptable for a Christmas card?

I have been continuing with my outdoor swimming, either in the lake or the river plunge pool (11 swims so far in November) with temperatures ranging between 8 and 9.5 degrees in the water. The difficulty now is that as it is getting dark earlier, I am struggling to find the time - when meetings allow, I sometimes swap work around and work later in the evening in order to get a swim in! 

The art form to cold water swimming appears to be getting dry and warm layers on asap afterwards, something I am getting better at.  Someone once described open water swimmers as looking like they had been dressed by toddlers who insisted on them wearing everything Michelin man style- its not pretty, but its warm!

That's all from me for now - keeping it short and sweet as I am off to Uni now to teach face-to-face. We have 20 students in a massive lecture theatre, all 2m apart from each other and we all have to wear masks - as I am slightly deaf, it does make hearing what they have to say a little challenging. Still, I am sure we will cope. 

Take care and do stay safe everyone, give me a shout if there is anything I can do to help anyone.

With love & God Bless,

Caro

xxx

WOYWW 597

 Hello and welcome back for another edition of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, hosted by the lovely Julia.

Here is my desk looking rather empty - I have to confess that the photo is staged - it was taken late last night after an evening of zoom meetings, when I had put away my computer. On it is my empty mug of tea ready to go downstairs and be washed up, my two new notebooks/planners that I intend to use for next year (the paper quality is lovely), and my new swimming medal (for swimming 10,000m outdoors in October).  I have signed up for a November one, but with the colder water, darker nights and tons of work it is going to be hard to reach 10,000m so I have signed up for 5,000m which is more doable.

I have only done a little crafting this week - making Tim's birthday card as he celebrated his 50th birthday this weekend. 

As it was a lockdown birthday we celebrated with food (lots of food!) and films, and family silliness.

Other than that there is not much more to report. We are all staying safe and well. I am involved in our church online services, working hard and happily swimming whenever I can. I mostly swim in a lake, which is actually an old Victorian reservoir in a park in Sheffield (about 2 miles from here), or in the river plunge pool in the valley just below us.  They are both very different in feel as you can see from the photos so where I swim is a mood thing, especially as at the moment they are a similar temperature ~ 9oC. 

Standing under the waterfall is wonderful when it isn't too strong, as it feels like a massage. For those of you wondering, I don't wear a wetsuit due to a shoulder injury (I can't get them on or off by myself and getting dry and warm quickly after getting out is essential), but I do swim in a hat and have neoprene gloves and socks - they make all the difference.

That is all from me for now. I hope that you all have a good week. Take care and stay safe, and let me know if there is anything I can do to help anyone.

With love & God Bless,
Caro

xx