Apologies in Advance....

To any crafty people who are reading this post and may be disappointed (there will be some craft photos at the end so go straight there if that's what you are after), but I have to confess that I have become a total fungiphile.

Back at the end of the summer people started posting photos of interesting fungi, and when I lamented that there was no fungus in our woods Pippa insisted there would be, I just had to look properly.

Well, I have been walking these woods and fields for nearly a quarter of a century....and I must have been walking around with my eyes shut!!  They are everywhere!  And I don't like to just look at them, I like to take photos....and if I've forgotten to take my phone, I try not to look because I couldn't bare to see some fascinating specimens and not be able to photograph them!

I've seen stands of toadstools

Little lonely ones

Cute little ones hiding in trees

Rather disgusting ones

Lacy ones

                                                                     Fat ones 

Orange ones

Carpets of them

 

 

and ones stretching up into the trees above my head.

How is it that I've never seen them before.....and what else is up in those woods that I never see......?

Anyway - that's got that out of my system so now back to the workshop.

Betty brought in her completed Yoko Saito Town quilt, which she started here on the farm, to show us

Very much a Summer town, we decided.  Denise is busy quilting hers, and didn't want a photo of it before it's finished, but I did snap a few details

 

Such stunning quilts.

And Ros brought in her linen quilt to show us

Those pebbly colours will look perfect in the beach house.

Then the other weekend I visited a neighbour.  Last Christmas she told me she was planning on upholstering a chair in needlepoint, and asked me for some pointers.  Well, she is now well on her way.

Her canvas was meticulously planned

and this is going to be a very beautiful chair indeed

 

 covered in really pretty pansies, one of her favourite flowers

I can't wait to see it finished but this is an opus so I'm afraid I'm going to have to!

Finally, my sister and I went to a lantern making workshop in Hungerford on Saturday

 

It was a lot of fun, but I hadn't realised we would be making them to parade at the Victorian Extravaganza!  Anyway, I finished mine off in the workshop this morning (all kinds of things go on at Pitch and Stitch) - hope it works!

All Too Much

Don't worry - I'm not about to throw in the towel but there has been so much going on....Most of it good.

Best of all, of course, was the flying visit from the next generation and welcoming our little grandson to Lorne Hill Farm

Here he is ready for bed and in the outfit Lynn gave him.  A very sweet little baby and I could fill this post with pictures of him - but, don't worry, I won't.

As everyone knows, the weekend before last was Remembrance Day and our little village put on a show to be proud of.  In the church there was an amazing exhibition of memorabilia from the First World War.  Villagers were asked to display anything they had from the war, and there was so much to see.  There were a number of diaries written by grandparents who were in the war and made fascinating reading.

Local Cabinetmaker John Hing had made wooden life size silhouettes of soldiers, one to represent every man from the village who had died in the war, and they were displayed in the churchyard.  It was really very moving.

There were 15 in all, and although we stand at the memorial every year, seeing this life size representation of those poor men really made you think.

So that was a busy weekend.

And things have been very busy in the workshop too - yesterday I walked around and took pictures of everything people were working on in the Tuesday morning drop in.

Ros, of course, was knitting (when she wasn't helping Louise and me with ours!)

Sally was doing some lovely applique with tweed fabric (It's an owl picture)

 

Janet was working on hexagons 

Louise had her Attic 24 blanket and Jane was working on her Yoko Saito quilt

 

Jackie was working on her stunning quilt for her great niece 

 Anthea was putting the finishing touches on this wash bag she's made and Barbara was working on her scrappy quilt.

 

and Glenys finished one sock and started on it's pair!

 

So that means in one little workshop there was knitting, crocheting, sewing, applique, old English piecing, quilting and I was working on my tapestry cushion.  Crafting is clearly very much alive and well in East Garston!

 

I tried to do my knitting but can't concentrate with so much going on, so didn't.  But the scarf I started at Ros's workshop really is coming along very nicely!

 

 

Glenys started coming after Mother's Day this year when her daughters gave her four mornings at Lorne Hill Farm Pitch and Stitch as a gift.  She wasn't sure what to work on so bought a tapestry cushion to make.  She was just finishing that, and wondering aloud what to do next, when Eileen came through the door saying, "my friend is moving and has given me this tapestry kit if anyone wants it", quick as a flash Glenys said, "I'll have that".

 

And now it's finished

 

I have now combined my daily walks with the dogs with fungus hunting - now that I am actually slowing down and looking properly, I see mushrooms and toad stools everywhere!  We had our first snow this morning and Pippa said once the snow comes the fungi will disappear, but I managed to spot some today - this was a whole pathway of them

 

And this isn't a very good picture but I was pleased to find this little thing in a hollow tree.

It's actually really a relief to get out of the house because Jonathan has gone bonkers and keeps buying new furniture......he seems to be replacing every dresser and cupboard in the house, which means constantly emptying things and tables being piled high with 25 years worth of STUFF.  Clearing out a cupboard the other day I got quite ruthless with throwing stuff away.  That night I remembered a little Jaguar key tag and mentioned it to Jonathan.  He said that must have been from his father's Jaguar and started reminiscing about how they all loved that car.  There was only one thing for it - the next day we went through all the rubbish bags with a fine tooth comb to find that little badge but of course we couldn't.  Then I had a thought and pulled out the drawer in the new dresser - there it was.....so I wasn't so ruthless after all.

However, that might change......please, someone, make him STOP!!

 

Sockcess!

Well, the sock workshop with Ros the other week went really well - most of us there were fairly experienced knitters, but not necessarily using more than two needles, so it was quite a learning curve.  (I did a similar workshop over the summer, in another place, but I have to say we are really lucky having Ros to show us what to do.  The lady I went to had been knitting for years, and certainly knew her stuff, but at the end of the day I was none the wiser about how to knit with four needles.  It really isn't helpful when teachers undo your knitting when you go for lunch, and then re-do it for you). 

Ros was wearing the beautiful scarf we shall be learning to knit this Wednesday - she assured us it is quite easy, because the pattern part is only 30 stitches or so across.  We shall see..... There are still a couple of place if anyone wants to join us.

Anyway, back to socks, and the following Pitch and Stitch when we all turned up with half of a pair of socks and lots of questions for Ros before we could carry on to make a pair.

We decided Eileen's was probably the neatest:

and some people didn't want theirs photographed until they were finished.

The workshop is quite full these days

with lots of interesting things going on.  Anthea has been making some lovely dresses

Not my area of expertise, but I did replace some buttons for my mother

- some lovely new buttons:

 

a bargain at 1 and thruppence!
Sandra brought in the place mats she will be showing us how to make on the 5th December

either Christmas fabrics or everyday.

And finally, just to put me to shame, Jan has finished the first Medallion she ever started

I should be quilting mine but I have a bit of knitting to do first.....

What a Malarkey

I'm really not sure this not going out to work malarkey is right for me.....I seem to be spending an awful lot of time doing not very much at all.

Yesterday I spent most of the morning considering the various things I really have to get on with, such as cleaning up the greenhouse, sorting out the garden, going through my clothes, doing a bit of mending, perhaps even finish decorating the bedroom or start decorating the office, and clean out the chickens.

So I went out to admire my lovely new Buff Orpingtons,

and then I came in and made some candles.

Today I went through the same list of jobs, and then found myself making blackberry jam.

I think I'm drifting a bit.....

Earlier in the week though, when I was a bit more motivated, I went to 'Martin & the Magpie' - my favourite florist in Hungerford.

I love this shop because as well as beautiful flowers, they have quirky plants and little bits of  'this and that' to look at.  Well, I went in to buy flowers for a friend, but, just like at Christmas, something caught my eye which would make a lovely gift for me:

An indoor plant called String of Hearts.  I don't really like indoor plants that much, but I thought these trailing hearts looked so pretty - and, of course, they were hanging in macramé potholders which I happen to have a few of.......so, it's found it's way out into the workshop!

The only thing I have been good at is taking the dogs out for at least 3 miles everyday.  The weather over the last week has been extraordinary - hot enough for shorts some days, then into waterproofs, then into sweaters - and me and the dogs have seen a few things that made us look twice:

A fairy ring

 

Old Man's Beard covering everything

 

The men out drilling and rolling

Bits of fungus

And then yesterday evening a beautiful double rainbow

Off to the Ally Pally tomorrow, so I can get lots of ideas for more things to not do......