When the sun drops off the edge of the world...

A quarter of the way through a project at the moment, but as it is a calendar there are technically three separate pieces completed out of twelve, so I am able to show you them. I got the G45 Time to Flourish set the other day and, as I had six hangers left, I decided to make a hanging calendar. So far I have completed February, December, and April. The flowers are all from Wild Orchid Crafts, but they all came white so that I could paint them myself. I've used alcohol inks and Lindy's sprays to do this.

The flowers (I love the trellis rose) were coloured with Lindy's sprays and a coral distress spray. The leaves were die cut from spring greenery.

The flowers here were inked with alcohol ink to give them a poinsettia look, with a little bit of gold wax to make them more Christmassy.

I was hoping that the alcohol ink and distress sprays I had were more yellow than they ended up, but it still worked well with the April theme. I decided against leaves for this one. All the months were started in the same way, with the background for the appropriate month and the calendar page which was backed onto a co-ordinating colour, but each month is different in the little additions. For example, some had more chipboard, some had the bunting (December's was too big) and some have little things like butterflies.

Stitching seems to have fallen away completely at the moment, so no updates there I am afraid.

watching as the sun

sinks below the horizon

sand between your toes

This week's was a no-brainer given the weather. I've been outside while the sun goes down, but I have never sat down and watched it, and something that Brandon Lee said stuck with me this week,

Because we do not know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you cannot conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.

It makes you think doesn't it? We put these things off, thinking that we have forever to do them, when in reality we have increasingly little time to pay attention to the little things, which, if we miss them, transform from little things to big regrets. So at nine yesterday I set off with my camera, and went to watch the sunset.

As annoyed as I sometimes get when the summer rolls along and the town's population swells beyond measure, you can't buy a view like this for love nor money.

Spotted a lifeboat during the sunset, so thought I would take a snap. Seemed to be a routine thing.

These are small, but I was fiddling around with the panoramic part of my camera, and managed to take a couple of good shots.

Turns out it was more than routine! I guess a couple of people got stuck on the rocks.

There's nothing so beautiful as the palette of colours in a sunset.

Lifeboat crews going back after dropping the people they rescued off. Have nothing but admiration for people like this. Risking their lives to save others.

The sun was so strong as it dipped below the horizon. I ended up with a blue patch in my vision for a while!

I will be doing the opposite this year, but not yet! Sunrise at the moment is about four in the morning, which is way too early, even for me!

Ems