Out and about and at home.....

Hello,

 

It's been a funny few weeks. We have been out and about quite a bit and yet had odd quiet

days at home, nursing colds and catching up on long-overdue DIY jobs while daughter has been absent for some considerable time, enjoying the start of half term with her friends.

 

So this is another post of photos with few words.

 

 

Pure gold! Early morning sunlight at work.  

 

Woke one Sunday morning to find that autumn had arrived overnight,
heralded by the first fallen leaves of the season. 

A visit to Sheffield to spend a few precious hours with my two sons.
 

Secondary schools cross country race, daughter competing.

 

View of Exeter and beyond from my hotel room (attending a conference).

Boy was it a loooong train journey to Exeter!

Enjoying supersized raspberries for breakfast.
 

Snapping a photo of my new bag on the train to send to my friend who treated me to it
- love the colour and it's a great reminder of a super day we enjoyed in London.

A pre-match walk in a country park.
We are on the top of a hill here - the ground drains so badly because we are walking
on slag heaps. This country park has been developed on the site of a disused colliery
in North Nottinghamshire. It's quite sad to think of all the activity  and economic prosperity
this "country park" once offered.
Back in the 1980s I was one of many who wrote to Thatcher urging her to keep the mines open - but to no avail. Little did I know that one day I would be walking on one of these sites.
 

Colliery lagoons, now a haven for wildlife.

Watching daughter play football - as captain of her team.

Taking possession of a new coastal cottage.
A charming little two up, two down with roses around the door....

... that will fit nicely on the hearth.

My latest project, that is now progressing well.

Gorgeous yarn, including Wesley Bob for my next project.

Just need a mantelpiece now to hang my stocking from (once it's started and finished!)

Enjoying the late evening sun in the garden.

Life viewed through the bottom of my wine glass!

Sorry this is another mismatch of photos - sometimes I am enjoying somewhere or something
 too much to want to spend too much time looking through a camera lens and hence I end up
taking one or two snaps of a whole host of things. 

But actually this post is a great representation of my life:
work, knitting, reading, watching sport, walking, train rides, and spending time with the family but most definitely not in that order.

Have a good week and enjoy half term if it is half term with you.
We are off camping for a couple of days on Wednesday -
can't wait for that outdoor cooking and sleeping!
xXx

 

One cowboy

Hello,

One cross stitched cowboy,

(sewn from a kit bought from Mouseloft many years ago)

now sewed up at last as a little hanging decoration for younger son. 

Boy, I lost count of how many times I sewed this and then unpicked it 

- the "stitched with love" ribbon still isn't straight but I think I'd given 

up by about the 5th attempt!

This has now been packed up and posted to Sheffield.

Elder son said he would like one now 

and guess what? 

I'm more than happy to oblige!

Happy crafting

xXx

Richard III and my 3 day weekend

Hello,

I was lucky enough to enjoy a three day weekend this weekend - and it has been a pretty busy one, a complete contrast to last weekend! And what a contrast of activities too!

On Friday a friend and I went to the NEC to the Hobbycrafts, Sewing and Knitting Show.

 I had never been to a show like this before and my goodness, there was a whole array of

 very tempting goodies to buy - and a fair number of people even had shopping trolleys with

 them to carry their purchases!

 I thought I was very restrained buying two DMC cross stitch kits

 and two other small craft kits. 

Oh, and a light complete with a magnifying glass and large clip to hold an embroidery hoop. I can't believe I haven't bought one of these before, considering the time I have spent sewing/knitting 

over the years, and sadly (and I hate to admit this!) my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be!

I'm hoping this new light will last me many years. 

On Saturday, daughter and I tried out an orienteering course, not very far from us. It was in a

 beautiful location, that I didn't know existed. 

Daughter has recently started orienteering in an endeavour to maintain her interest in cross country running; and she has a big race coming up so needs all the practice she can get. The course took us 1 hour 45 minutes. I can see the  growing attraction to orienteering - fresh air, exercise, discovering new places, and relying on your map reading skills to work out where you are - not easy in dense woodland. 

Saturday afternoon we picked up both boys from University - so the poor washing machine is on

 over drive at the moment - and plenty more washes to go too!

Daughter had football this morning...

and Richard III grabbed our attention this afternoon. 

 Elder son and I drove to a village to watch the procession of Richard III's remains from Market Bosworth to Leicester. I was surprised by how many had come to watch. 

We only had a fairly quick glimpse of the cortège as it passed, but it did feel like we were

 observing an incredible piece of history. 

 

 And I thought I would finally finish with a photo of the view from my office window, taken one

 day this week. It's not a particularly inspiring view but that glimpse of blue sky every so often, 

during a working day lifts my spirits no-end!

Hope you had a great weekend and I wish you a good week, whatever your plans!

xXx

A warm September weekend saw me...

I do love that feeling on a Friday, around 5pm, when you know you have the whole weekend in front of you to look forward to. A whole two and more days of endless possibilities.

And this September has been so beautifully warm that this weekend, my Friday evening saw me....

 

... cutting back our Leylandii tree and discovering lots of footballs underneath. I am not a great 

fan of these hedges but it makes a good barrier between us and our neighbours and stops 

a few balls from going into their garden!

 ... hanging out the washing in the evening knowing that it will dry the next day 

(I've never worked out why I get such pleasure from hanging my washing out late in the day -

 I've even been known to hang it out in the dark!)

 

  ... enjoying a glass of Prosecco and a read of my book - for it to be warm enough to do this sat outside early evening in September is a rare bonus.

 ... watching the sun go down behind the trees at the end of the field.

 ... and Saturday was warm enough for me to wear shorts while watching daughter run 

the first cross country league race of the season.

 ... calling at a garden centre on the way home for a coffee and finding some treasures in their antiques barn including the pliers above that daughter fell in love with.

 ... and the basket I fell in love with,

 

 

... which I decided was ideal for my magazines and knitting. 

I LOVE the shape - tall and rectangular, a little bit unusual.

 

... making the most of the warm weather to catch up on some gardening.

I think I may start again with this overgrown corner. I'm not sure that it is possible to even

 work out what is going on in this corner.

 ... collecting a few things together for younger son's imminent departure to university.

.... this has also meant buying in a few supplies.

 Please note the bottle of bleach - I forgot to buy one for older son when he first went off 

to university and considering that they have en-suite facilities I soon learnt that I had 

made a grave omission, enough said!

I hope you had a good weekend

xXx

Three lazy days

Yes, I feel I have had three very lazy days but they have been a lovely three lazy days. Why? Well, here are just a few of the reasons why.

Firstly, a pile of washing means by eldest son is home from University - yay!

Secondly, a belated Mother's Day lunch with the same son at our local organic farm - the chickens were huge and the lambs skinny!

Thirdly, a trip to a local fabric store with my friend  - my choice of purchases prompted by a recent patchwork day we attended - I posted about it here . I LOVE the material I bought - one with a picture of allotments, the other three pieces show beans and pumpkins - so cute.I just need to decide what to do with it - but that requires a bit of thinking time!!

Fourthly, further progress on my cross stitch Tatty Ted.

Finally, key lime pie made by returning eldest son - DELICIOUS!

Hope you have had a lovely weekend.

xXx

A weekend of sport and a tow home....

Hello

So another busy week has meant that I haven't written a post for seven days and rather more alarmingly, I've had little time to pursue those interests that help me unwind, such as reading and my various crafts.

This weekend has been another busy one on the sporting calendar for us: a cross country race at Cofton Park, Birmingham yesterday and another key football league match today.

Cofton Park is beautiful and looked particularly impressive yesterday in the spring sunshine when we arrived. However it clouded over a little and so my photos fail to catch the hazy sun and blue skies that greeted us.

There were ten races in total and the course was muddy and well-churned in places, but I think it is those exact conditions that makes the sport so appealing to cross country runners. You can see standing water in the photo above; this is while we await the start of the U15 girls race. 

And see the girls below running through mud - what a challenge, and up hill too! Spiked shoes are a must and spiked shoes tied on securely are an even greater must. The runners in our family have all lost shoes at one time in very muddy races - if that happens there is only one thing to do - forget about it and carry on running.

 

So we had had an enjoyable afternoon at Cofton Park but these photos hide another tale that was occurring at the same time and not far away. On the way to Cofton Park our car developed a shake each time we accelerated; when this happens on a motorway it is a bit worrying. We were so thankful to arrive at our destination in time for the race but we really did not feel safe travelling back on the motorway so on arrival in Birmingham we called the breakdown service. And this is how we travelled home - with our car on the back of the breakdown truck!

Of course I had my usual crochet project with me, and I managed to crochet 3 stripes on the way to and from Birmingham. I had a mild panic half way through our journey home when I mislaid my crochet hook in the back of the breakdown truck - this happened when I stopped to answer my phone. But it was soon recovered and off I set, crocheting again. I wonder how many times our driver has had someone in the back of his truck crocheting? 

Anyway, this morning it was off to a football match. While we were waiting for the players to warm up I noticed this beautiful tree, I love the colours of the bark, lichen, soil and white flowers. They reminded me of the colours of the wrap knitted by Kristen  - please find a link to her blog here. She is an extremely talented and prolific knitter.

This reminded me of how much we can use nature as an inspiration for our craft projects. And I slowly raised my camera from the bottom of the tree trunk to higher up to its bares branches and snapped a photo of the tree outlined by the blue sky.

 

And finally a photo of the girls in action on the football pitch. Our team won 1-0 so we came home happy.

But just before we left..... we'd noticed on arrival that there was an abundance of groundsel just near to where we parked our car. Now, we know a little boy who is very fond of this weed, and so we picked several clumps to take home to him for his lunch. And here he is.... munching away.

He is a big boy but even he looks dwarfed by the mountain of groundsel he was served!

I hope you have a good weekend and have had the opportunity to enjoy the spring sunshine and blue skies.

xXx