Sunday, 28th April

Having been away from home for the past week, I have returned with a change of heart over the title: the magic carpet has floated off to be replaced by Grandma's Yarns, which I hope will have the kind of ambiguousness I am looking for. This Blog will indeed contain yarns of the recounted and story kind but it will also be closely connected with those of a more fiberous nature; in other words, it could be said that yarns of all types will be spun here......

 

Frustration has set in somewhat, at this early stage, with template issue and I will be grateful to anyone who can cast light on how I make the typeface the same size throughout an entry, since it doesn't appear to be in my first entry. I am perhaps making things somewhat more difficult because I am uploading from an App (BlogGo) as well as from a computer. Since this whole thing is new to me I am feeling my way somewhat: strange results may sometimes occur, especially as I attempt to collect my images together from diverse sources and try using them to illustrate my 'yarns'.....

 

From last Tuesday until earlier today, I was in North Wales; first of all at Portmeirion and then, Llanberis. As anyone who is familiar with that part of the world knows, the weather can only be depended upon in one sense and that is for its uncertainty. However, we had some of its best and its not-quite worst: three beautiful days out of six isn't a bad total, really. 

Portmeirion: Clough Williams-Ellis' Italianate village. He wanted to "Cherish the Past, Adorn the Present, Construct for the Future". Here follows a very brief introduction, for now......

 

The Piazza

The village is very complex, for example, the Piazza above is made up of a number of separately-named elements which have their own stylistic themes. The whole place is wonderfully photogentic....

 

The Toll House

Part of the Piazza

Sunday, 21 April

Having thought from time to time, about beginning a Blog, I finally did so yesterday but owing to numerous (unconnected) IT hurdles I found myself faced with, I ran out of time and nothing got posted, so it's going out a day late.

Yesterday was, I decided, a good day for beginnings: I saw a first Swallow sitting on the phone line outside the house and even though "One Swallow doesn't make a Summer", I  am happy to take a punt on the fact that "One Swallow might make a Spring", especially since the sun has been shining for two days, at least. It looked a bit lonely but these little birds, in company with House Martins, do arrive a few at a time over quite a long period.

Another feeling of Spring was being able to dry washing on the line for the first time this year -  I felt as though I hadn't done so for such a long time. It was also possible to do some gardening without gloves on, for a change. The pots that stand in the front of the house are now almost complete; I miscalculated and am a couple short for the bigger ones and they look so much more upbeat now that the little Daffodils have been brave enough to flower.

The flock of Lleyn sheep nearby seem to have mostly had their lambs and these are growing rapidly. It's so much better to see them laying in the sun or gambolling around than it was a while ago when, in company with their Mums, they stood looking miserable with they backs hunched against the cold wind.
 

The other job that I got round to was re-potting 4 Lavender plants I bought at the Isle of Wight Lavender Farm last year.

I had already planted the 2 Hidcotes but had 2 pink and 2 dark blue that had over-wintered under cover. I am hoping they cope with being outside suddenly.

That is it for this entry: more another day.