Winter Wonderland ...

... and a day where Mother Nature just takes your breath away! I was booked for a day of classes yesterday, at the Glitterpot with Jane, making BIG flowers! My journey to the Glitterpot involves a drive through the countryside and it was ... WOW ... at nearly every turn!! Jack Frost had been out with his paintbrush and left a very heavy covering so I left home early in case of problems. Was tempted to stop at Ditchling Beacon to survey the view (especially as I had my camera with me) but decided not to as there was still a way to go and potential for probs with traffic. How I wished I had! Driving down the Beacon road and glancing across, the scenery was stunning! I've not seen views like that from this road ... ever - and I spent 5 years driving it every day to get to work. The views, when clear, are always spectacular but I'd never seen the like of these before. I had to stop and take some photos but, by then, had to wait until I'd got to the bottom of the hill. Even then it was amazing to see. You can imagine what they were like from the top - and this wasn't even snow!

The class with Jane was a full day one, making big flowers in the morning and a card, using the flowers, in the afternoon (with a box). She wasn't kidding when she said big flowers either - lol! As it turned out we only had time to make one and it ended up 5 inches in diameter. This was what I had achieved at the end of the morning session (colour isn't true though) .....

..... and here's the view from the workroom window at 1:50pm - still as white as it had been on the drive up in the morning!

By the end of the class I was really pleased with the result and I think I'm finally beginning to look at punches in a different light. Takes some of us a bit longer than others (hehe!) but have to say - I'm not gonna be holding my breath, LOL!! Here's a hint of what I made - with thanks to Jane's designer prowess 'cos I don't think I'd have come up with a design anywhere like this. If you want to see the full 'reveal' you'll need to pop back sometime soon ...

I decided to stop at Ditchling Beacon on the way home, just to see if there was any chance of the views I saw in the morning. By then it was getting dark and nothing was clear but the moon was starting to shine through the clouds and gave a really ethereal effect so out came camera and I took a chance and here's what I took to round the day off.

Had to use the 'twilight' setting on my camera because it wouldn't play ball without so, there is a purple tinge to them when it should be more blue but hey - think they're not too bad anyway ......

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

Thanks for dropping by .....