Winter come-back

Yesterday I woke up to a snow storm. It was such a windy day that even our fireplace refused to work and all the smoke gathered inside the house! I really hoped today would be different. It was - there was no wind but about an inch of snow lying everywhere and it was still snowing! So, when outside looks like this (poor daffodils!)...

...I stayed inside with these :) ...

... and decided to make my favourite Easter tarts (in Polish they are called "mazurek") - orange ones! I really miss the sunshine and the oranges and lemons were exactly of the right colours for such a white and cold day.
It takes some time to grate the fruit peels, cook the sugary topping and make the crysty base but after a few hours my mazurek was ready. We decorated it with sweet almonds:
Now there is only the poppy-seed one to bake. And the lemon one. And I think I might also make some meringues to use up the left over egg white...

Spring walk in Strathpeffer

Today I won't say much, I'm going to show you photos instead. Location: Strathpeffer, Highlands of Scotland. Time: the very first day of Spring. It was such a lovely day!
our walk started with a light shower...

but soon it got better :)
(view from a woodland walk just above the village towards Dingwall)

an example of Strathpeffer's own architechtural style

I was enchanted by the peaceful little streets!

White Butterbur (Petasites albus) found in the woods

My preciousssss....

It was a great day at the Scottish Bead Fair despite the terrential rain during our journey all the way down to Perth. We arrived just in time to watch Emma Baird's demonstration on how to use and work with Precious Metal Clay - very inspiring! I'm now actually seriously thinking of learning that jewellery making method in the future :)
And yes - I did get that Mystic Topaz trio!!! Thank you very much to Dawn from Precious Sparkle Beads for bringing them along to show how beautiful they are in reality! I'm also proud that I stuck to my budget limit and still got what I wanted most:from the top: Mystic Topaz, Sodalite, Blue Topaz, Labradorite, Peridot

Now when I cleared the workshop table (yep, as it gets messy soooo quickly!) I only need to put the beads in they boxes and I'll be ready to start new Spring projects!

My Spring begins with Scottish Bead Fair

Finally there is snow on the fields around, the Nature is almost ready to boost with colours and I'm ready to enjoy the true feast, the rainbow of natural gems at the Scottish Bead Fair in Perth tomorrow! I've been there twice already but I just love gem fairs so this time can't wait too! I don't really NEED new gems but you know... once you start buying, using and *ehem* collecting them it's very hard to resist not going to an event like this. My favourite local online seller (well, she's based in Scotland and is the nearest quality gems supplier I have here) will be there with a stall so I will be able to see in the real life some of the stones I'm very interested in. Like this Mystic Topaz trio, isn't that amazing colour?
or these beauties *sigh*I'm sure I won't come back with empty hands... with an empty purse though - maybe...