First fortnight

falklands-keynote-jpeg-001 falklands-keynote-jpeg-002Where to start?
50 hours passed from my leaving home and arriving in the Falkland Islands to find a house strewn with open and unopened boxes.

Two weeks on, the contents and I have a new home in the most beautiful part of the world.

Sewing and quilting are great icebreakers and I’ve already met the quilting queen of the South who does the most amazing pieces. I’ve not yet made it to the spinners and weavers portakabin!

Living so far south and in such an isolated spot brings with it many challenges I hadn’t anticipated such as a lack of coat hangars. Our shipment of Ikea curtains for the rooms cant easily be sent back (they are double the required length) so we have to alter each one which is a painstaking task. I am helped by a wonderful Chilean woman who has made the task more of a competition and definitely more fun.

Cellphone registrations to be made, new accounts to be set up. Its a cash economy in most shops so I’ve had to open a new bank account. All of this is so much easier and quicker than in the UK.

Most importantly I’ve made time to visit the local penguin colony and love to how each day they are preparing themselves for winter. I am starting to look forward to September when they will return or awake from hibernation. The weather is variable and I am glad that I made the penguins a priority over everything else.

I miss all my friends and hope that they can share in this beautiful adventure by following my posts.

OMG

Less than 26 hours to go to commence my journey to the FI. My fitness plans astray after the various hotel stays associated with my work in January will resume as soon as I arrive. A hectic weekend of packing followed by two days revising my packed choices and I still have 5 kilos over the allowed 54! Deeply indebted to Sonya for her help over the past few weeks. My current displacement activity is to check out the FI webcam. No movement on the jetty for several weeks until today. Boat loads of tourists who are probably on their way to South Georgia and Antarctica are milling around in the sunshine. If I get too isolated I may well join them.

One boats already left the jetty – they don’t spend long.

34 years ago I first heard about ….

34 years ago the Falkland Islands became a daily part of my early working life.  It seemed very far away but I remember feeling scared for the people living there. In May, I saw Minefield  at the Royal Court theatre. The play gave me some indication of the experiences of that time.

Fast forward 34 years and I am now preparing to travel to  the islands. There’s lots to do to get ready and I am starting to feel a mix of excitement and the odd tinge of anxiety.

Mostly I feel excited and look forward to seeing the wildlife, the scenery, the crafts and meeting people. So far everyone’s been very friendly and helpful. Now I need to get my planning and packing sorted so I make the best use of my time there.

At the time of writing there is a 3 hour time difference between the UK and Stanley so no reason for us to lose contact. Current time in Stanley

5 species of penguins

Looking forward to seeing some of these little chaps whilst on the islands. I’ll be posting some sightings. You may end up with penguin fatigue if the 2500 photos from Antarctica, taken in only 10 days, is anything to go by.  Really looking forward to learning more about Falklands Conservation.
Falklands Conservation

A number of islands make up the Falklands and here’s a video of one I hope to visit.

Bleaker Island

Crafting

Time to craft is, for me, an amazing gift

Fabric

I love fabric, texture and sheer pleasure of making something for another person to enjoy. So far my crafting has focused on patchwork and working with a wonderful woman who uses a Long Arm quilting machine turning my patchwork into beautiful quilts. Being bashful about crafting isn’t sensible and I know my quilts won’t please people who like the sludgy colours. I love vibrant colour and being able to mix a palette of colours feels like magic to me. On this page I will post some of my completed projects. On the blog page I will post information about projects as I work on them. I will share some of the problems I encounter. I will also ask for opinions there or on my Facebook page. Thank you for reading this far.

Paper

I love paper, all forms, books, pictures, magazines, notebooks and writing paper. there are so many wonderful crafts I could learn here but for now I will restrict myself to collages – there is a drop down page on collages here.

Wool

The Falklands has some of the best wool in the world. Looking forward to some new projects which I will blog about so check out the blog page here.

Falkland wool growers

Spinners and Weavers Guild

Writing

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”
—George Orwell

Well, whatever the demons  its time they were exorcised. On this page I’ll occasionally blog about my experiences of trying to write my first novel.

Following long conversations with my wonderful coach I was set the task of writing for one hour every day.  I succeeded some, but not all, of the days since. Its a discipline and, much like the gym, once I’ve started I don’t want to stop. The very next day I can think of a million things I’d rather do and create any number of hurdles to keep me away from my desk. Luckily I have enough demons to drive me on. Looking forward to seeing how my characters take shape. All support and encouragement will be most welcome.

Society of Authors