Here....and there....1

It's been a long time since I got round to posting anything again but here goes......

On the second weekend in April, the Archaeologist and I sallied forth in our mobile home to stay in Brighton. Originally, this had been in aid of the Marathon but sadly, the Archaeologist wasn't fit enough to do it....so, we pottered about doing other things instead and, on the day of the event took notes (me, especially - in readiness for next year...) and generally joined in as spectators.

There were a huge number of runners and they streamed past us for ages. Once the leaders had begun their journey back along the promenade, with those following on going 'outwards', it was almost impossible to get across the road.

The organisers had a lot of clearing up to do...

...and the winner ran the course in around 2 hours. He was a farmer from Kenya and had superb technique: long strides and relaxed, upright posture..

There was loads of fruit and refreshments for those who finished.

Earlier in the day, the green, baggage lorries trundled past....loads of them.

Before and after this event, we explored the town...The weather was lovely for most of the time we were there, except for the cold wind.

On the first morning, we decided to take the Volks Electric Railway from the Marina in to the town. However, when we got there....

...which was disappointing, so we walked.

A sit down on the big wheel was called for and we got some splendid views..

...and I couldn't help but admire some rather beautiful flats.

During the weekend, we wandered the Lanes, ate good food and visited the Royal Pavilion. 

(Image from http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/royalpavilion/)

It is an amazing building in which there are no photos allowed. Although it looks Indian in origin on the exterior, inside it looks Oriental. The reason for this is suggested as being the fact that few people had been out East in those days (1700s) and had limited experience of what Eastern culture consisted of, so they just did what they thought related to that part of the world. No expense was spared though. At one point the building was used to house wounded Indian Army officers, who presumably, felt at least a little bit at home, especially when outside in the gardens.

The  royal stables have now become the Museum and Art Gallery.

The balcony of the restaurant provides a pleasant vantage point for viewing the gardens in front of the Pavilion.

It is rather difficult to discern but there was a guy making huge bubbles and lots of children running to catch them.

Because the weather had been so beautiful we opted to stay a further night but unfortunately, the sea fret moved in..

....so different from the day we arrived!

Before we left the caravan site, I just had to get a picture of something I had never seen before: an Airstream motorhome. It is possible to see increasing numbers of this make of caravan over here these days, but I have never seen a motorhome before.

I think it was quite elderly as it wasn't exactly in the first flush of youth.

More travels next time....

A Wooly weekend

Once a year, Wingham Wool Works visits the local area enabling a lot of spinners, knitters, felters and others to get their 'Fibre Fix'.

They set up on the Friday evening and provide two days for perusing, sampling and buying their wares.

Many ladies come to sit and spin because, for £6 for each day, you can take sample lengths to try out.

Others come to just buy....well, in point of fact, most of us are seduced into buying at some stage. There is a vast array of fibres from Merino and Merino/Silk blend, linen and various man-made fibres, through all sorts of luxury ones, such a silk, camel down, cashmere and Quivet; this last probably the most expensive of all, so not much comes along...There is a selection of books and journals, equipment, dyestuffs, yarns and everything necessary for felting and needlefelting. 

Ruth Gough, who with her husband Alan, owns Winghams, gives demonstrations of spinning techniques and the use of various pieces of equipment to process fibre with.

This year, I decided I wouldn't get any fibres except some for a felting project for which I didn't have the right colours...

However, I also succumbed to the temptation of some of the luxury yarns for my smaller projects. 

From left to right these fibres are,
Dyed Tussah silk
Camel down
Mulberry silk
Camel down and silk
Yak and silk

About half the Tussah silk tops are spun and will be plied with some dyed Gotland singles which are ready. The rest, I haven't decided about yet.

This is the dyed Gotland fibre, which I finished spinning on the Saturday and...

...this is the silk. In reality, the Gotland is rather darker than it looks in this picture: one is fairly hairy and the other very smooth, so I am interested to see how they blend.

Instead of doing lots of sampling (although I did some), I plied some other yarns I had previously spun but I haven't been organised enough to write down what they are.

As always, it was a very good and sociable weekend!

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.