Visiting a show....

This weekend, we took a day out to visit the Creative Crafts Show being held at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern www.sccshows.co.uk It had been on for two days already and Saturday was the last. We took the motorhome as we haven't been out in it much and found somewhere to park have lunch before going into the show itself.

One of my main reasons for going this year, like last, was because the Knitting and Crochet Guild has a stand there but this time, I wasn't helping out.

The stand looked very good and the fact that it was so much bigger this year helped a good deal. Lots of people stopped by and I was told it had been quite hectic at times.

I sat for a while and had a chat and then set off to have a look around. I wasn't after any wool or fleece, or indeed, anything else but predictably, before I left, later on I did get my purse out.

There was lots of yarn for sale, buttons and haberdashery, jewellery and patchwork, together with some foods and some paper work. 

There were also a number of workshops each day.

In the end, I bought a very large Lucet and some yarn from New Forest Mohair. I bought some of their yarn last year and found it beautiful to knit with, although generally, I am not a great fan of this particular wool.

We bought a cake from the purveyors of such things and had a tea break, then returned to say goodbye to everyone and have a last look round. By that time, some stall holders were beginning to put their things away and outside, the rains had returned....

A fleeting visit to Broadway (the Cotswolds one).

The other day, the motorhome and the open roads began calling again......but where to go for a night or two....? We didn't want to drive for hours and although we enjoyed staying in Morton in Marsh, we think we should begin to build up a portfolio of places to visit for the odd day or two and this is how we came to choose Broadway for our next stay. I don't think either of us feels like losing too many home comforts at this time of year, especially when it is so cold, so we chose somewhere where we knew we could rely on good facilities and not too far on foot from the town (about half a mile, in this case).

Broadway is very picturesque: the architypal Cotswold village, consequently, visited by huge numbers of people.
http://www.broadway-cotswolds.co.uk 

I've been to the little town so many times in the past to do research, because of its connection with Gordon Russell. His parents owned the Lygon Arms and restored and made furniture in a building adjoining it. Nowadays, there is a separate building with a Museum dedicated to his life and work.(http://www.gordonrussellmuseum.org) Broadway is very much 'Russell themed' and making the most of its son's fame.

This photo was taken outside the Lygon Arms. One of my ambitions is to stay here as I have read so much about it and I would very much like to have the run of it - obviously it won't be quite like it was during Russell's time but the whole building has been preserved as far as possible, I believe.

A bit further along the Main Street, there is Russell's, which bills itself as a 'Restaurant with Rooms'. It would seem booking very much in advance is the order of the day here but we did manage to have lunch in the attached Fish and Chip restaurant before we left on Sunday. (An excellent meal!)

This is the walkway through to the square where the Museum is and the canopies on the right are on the forecourt of the Fish and Chip restaurant.

As I understand it, this is part of the building that was used for the furniture.....it now adjoins Russell's.

Further along here, there is a terrace of Cotswold stone cottages bordering one side of the square. It is very 'modern picturesque' but in the shadow, unfortunately, when I took the picture, so the warmth of the stonework is rather muted.

There are lots of tiny shops.....The two that stood out for me are, Mary Maggs, a really good craft shop and the Broadway Deli: both have excellent products (there is a tiny cafe in the Deli) but are rather expensive to shop in (like the rest of the town, I seem to remember...)

.....pretty vistas and grass.....

We stayed only overnight.......and it turned out to be a very chilly one with a lovely clear sky and pretty sunset.

The site we stayed on was terraced and behind where we parked there was a stretch of water on which there must have been numerous ducks (not evident when I took this picture) as they quacked loudly until long after dark. The following morning, they were joined by geese honking even more loudly from a farm at the end of the site.....very rural and noisy!

We will be going back to stay at Broadway - for longer and booking into Russell's - as there is a lot of exploring and walking to be done in the area.

 

Christmas memories....largely

It seems a long time ago now but I want to look back on this Christmas because was it was special for two reasons: our 3-year old granddaughter came to spend it with us for the first time and her Mummy and Daddy for the first time in four years and despite the odd cold, it was such fun. The Little Person is at the age where Christmas is beginning to be appreciated but is still new and magical and it reminds me of how precious this time of the year can be.......

It began with making The Cake. After not decorating one completely for a number of years because icing isn't universally appreciated (just lots of Marzipan) I found my decorations were a bit random in size (to say the least) but I wanted to use all the relevant ones to appeal to our Little Person, so I came up with an idea.....

.......which seemed to go down very well - in more way than one! ☺️ All very pleasing!

The Christmas trees were put up a bit belatedly since, although I had made a very timely start to Christmas preparations, I managed to get a stomach bug and had to work hard just at being well enough for Little Person's 3rd birthday a few days beforehand. I managed in the end and put the usual one in place ...

...and also got a real one, although not pot-grown as I had wanted because they had all been sold by then...

Considering that it was such a special Christmas, very few photos seem to have been taken by any of us. When putting together this Blog, I often look back on what I have been doing and realise that I have no photographic record as I/we all seem to have been to busy engaged in whatever was going on to remember to take any/many.

The turn of the year this time was full of social events - more than is usual - and that's why it was particularly disappointing that I managed to catch what might justifyably be called 'The National Virus' since so many people seem to have had it. I missed a neighbour's New Year's Eve party but managed to get to do a very short Felting workshop and a visit to stay with some friends in Cardiff whom we haven't really seen for around 18 months. I also made it to both of the celebrations for our friends' Ruby wedding anniversary, so all was not at all lost but I had to lie low in between each event in order to try and make the next one, so little else got accomplished.

The mini workshop on Felting I managed to get to was about making beads. I'd had a go on my own in the past but hadn't been very pleased with the outcome. This time, I found out more about it and discovered how some of the pretty variegated fleece I have doesn't do itself justice as a bead but that using a solid colour and adding some contrast after the bead had been formed produced a much more striking outcome. (the bead on the bottom left is the one I made with the variegated fleece.)

I have done lots of knitting over this period as the Little Person was given her first baby doll for Christmas and her first pram. I made some pram bedding - with help from Mummy including a pram blanket.....

This is it at the blocking stage...I lined it as well. I also made a shawl. Then "Baby" needed some clothes. A cardigan was requested so.....

Here it is but the colour is so far away from what it actually is! Baby also has a kind of foot-less babygro.......Am currently knitting what used to be known as a pram suit: hooded jacket and leggings but progress is a bit slow as the pattern has a mistake in it - something I didn't notice early enough, unfortunately.

 

Who knows what next Christmas will bring...but this one is one of those which will stay with me for a long while.

How time flies....

It is months since I managed to add anything to this Blog but the arrival of our new mobile abode seems as good a reason as any to come back to writing...

For many years - probably right back to my early 30s, I wanted to tour Britain (and other places?) in a campervan when I wasn't working any longer. In the past couple of years, The Archaeologist and myself have look at models but it's been inconclusive - to a degree because the former favoured a caravan over a campervan and I didn't....Then, one day, we went to a show and found a model that took both our fancies and to cut a story short, we arrived home with our motorhome (as I now understand it is more suitably called), last Friday...

Happiness is an ambition achieved - or at least in the making!

As soon as were were able, we went out for the day to Dyrham Park, near Bath. This provided additional practice in driving what is a big vehicle for both of us, but especially for me. It is very good riding higher up and once you get used to it, very good to drive but I need to practice a lot more yet...

We enjoyed our first cup of coffee...

and our first lunch...

Then went off to stretch our legs before the rains arrived.....

The grounds are beautiful at Dyrham and extensive and there are lots of lovely trees but the dullness of the day detracted from their potential for Autumnal colour. 
(http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dyrham-park/)

It was a very pleasant day out, just chilling. We are looking forward to our first over-night trip next month to the Cotswolds as we hope to make use of our home-on-wheels throughout the winter unless the weather stops us: we found it so cosy and warm and quite comfortable enough to relax completely.

More mobile blog posts to come....hopefully! 

Chuff, chuff, chuff....

Bank Holiday Monday is not a day the Archaeologist and I would normally venture forth but we made and exception and went to investigate the Swindon and Cricklade Railway (http://www.swindon-cricklade-railway.org/). There isn't much of it - yet - but it was good to see what was there.

                                          

The main station is Blunsden

The route, as produced in the publicity leaflet.

The first part of the journey goes south for a little way, ending up at Taw Valley Halt, where it runs next to the houses. This is due to be extended a little further round (see the map above). The train stopped for a while and the engine went off to turn and join the other end of the train and return the way it had come....After another stop at the Blunsden station, the line goes a little further north towards Cricklade and the train stops at Hayes Knoll station for a while...

.....where the engine again moves off and comes back to the front of the train to return to the main station.

Back at the Blunsden, there is a cafe, a shop selling a variety of train-y items and also a tiny museum which has a sideline in second-hand railway-associated and other books.

It was, predictably, quite busy, especially as children could be taken free that day. One very popular installation was the little engine....

......and also, there was a waiting room complete with a toy rail track and some 'furry friends'.

However....the highlight of the visit was quite unexpected. We found we had arrived just in time to see a Spitfire flypast...several flypasts, in fact: it was so exciting to watch...

It was terribly difficult to catch the plane as it went over and in the end I just 'pointed and shot' but was quite pleased to get the second picture as it is unmistakably a Spitfire.

It turned out to be a very good way to spend a day out...

Rub-a-Dub-Dub...

Considering the number of fleeces I have stored, I should be taking every possible opportunity provided by sunny weather to process them but for one reason and another that doesn't usually happen. The other week it did, however....when I got round to tackling a Gotland fleece.

These are the kind of sheep my fleeces this time came from.

(Picture taken from http://www.gotlandsheep.com/)

I have a couple of them which I was given and I have been looking forward to doing something with them but they arrived as one, large bundle and I kept putting off looking at what I was going to have to tackle....Anyway, curiosity and the wish to have some of this fleece to spin got the better of me: I managed to separate them...

This is just one, spread out to sort into manageable bits to wash..

.....which seemed to have had some of its locks trimmed off and I found piles of them in amongst the rest of the fleece.

I washed the loose locks first and then sorted the rest for washing.....predictably, this process took all day and loads of bowls and a baby bath, not to mention lots of water....

......and three days draped over an airer to dry. The result, however, is lovely and soft and I am looking forward to processing it.

One thing is for sure, I have lots of spinning ahead of me!