Home again - with a surprise!

Hi there! Thanks a lot for all the lovely comments on my stumpwork card.=) Sir loved it as well and it is now proudly displayed in our living room.

We got back from our holidays/vacation/break/whatever you wanna call it yesterday lunchtime. Had a nice time, although the weather was rotten for half the week. In fact, they say a month's worth of rain fell in about a day all over the country and there was widespread flooding. Both where we are at home and also the place we stayed on holiday are on high ground, so we had no problems.

I take it all back when I said to American friends that England isn't full of castles as it seems that the north (north of where we are even) is chocka block with them! We went to Bolton Castle last Monday and here's my (rotten) sketch of one of the towers. I'll add in the photo DH took when I can get it, (he's put the holiday snaps on his laptop or external hard-drive and I can't yet get at them), so you can see Bolton Castle as it really is too!

Now for the surprise. Well, it was a surprise to me! When I took the dog with me, I said that I would be happy if I just closed up one of the gaps. I never ever expected to get into it again and close them all up! Here he is:

He's not actually finished yet as I need to do some softening of the darker lines on the cheeks and then put in the whiskers, but he's 99% there. I honestly thought I'd do one ear at a push and get 'Child of Spring' done, but realised when said ear came on well and quickly that it was better just to press on with that and get it done as I seem more able to get on with it whilst away from home. I'll finish him completely over the next day or so. WOW!

Then it's on with 'Child of Spring', then the Brazilian piece, then..... Also have a LOT of lesson planning and course prep to do before September as well as more work around the home - getting things cleared up and helping to clean up during and after the decorating (DH hopes to get the hallway done over the next month or so, the last room - HUZZAH!) and then another great big, hard project to get back to. So, far from being restful, it's going to be a gruelling summer, but at least Mr Bow-wow is pretty much done! YEAH!