Wending West.....

Finally it arrived - the day for us to Wend our Way West to Wonderful Wales!

I love Wales so much - I am always so excited when we drive over that bridge and feel like we are going into a foreign country - and it's only an hour away!!

The sky was grey at that point, so I was pleased I'd packed lots of warm clothes.  We then drove on to our destination, a little cottage in Amroth, a village near Tenby.

The next day the sun shone - and continued to shine until our last day - so I lived in shorts and a top!  Because it was so sunny we didn't really visit any 'indoor' places - so no lovely mills or sightseeing drives - we just walked and relaxed.  Jonathan's idea of the perfect holiday is to lounge around reading books all morning, so I sorted out my Happy Holiday Step and sewed until he was ready to head out!

We walked around the Colby Woodland Gardens that were very close to our cottage and loved all the Rhododendrons

Absolutely stunning.  The flowers everywhere were beautiful actually - and we were very excited to discover wild orchids on another walk.

One day we decided to visit the Bosherston Lily Ponds and were bowled over by how beautiful they were - the lilies were just coming into bloom

After walking around the lakes (because they are much bigger than ponds) we decided to walk on around the coastal path.

Well, what a treat: bay after bay of beautiful white sand, sparkling blue water and lovely sunshine.

First this, with Church Island

then around the corner to this

                                                                   then this

and on to this

                        then this

 

and finally this:

 

The whole walk took about three hours and the views were absolutely stunning.

 

Another day we visited a beach closer to home and Jonathan built a stone pile (apparently this is what you do)

 

We visited Manorbier Castle, which was lovely

 

 

and on our last day (when the sky suddenly clouded over) we headed to Tenby, which is so picturesque with all the brightly coloured houses

 

and - just to put the icing on the cake - A SeaSalt has opened there so I could do a bit of shopping!!

What a lovely holiday .....can I really wait another whole year before I go back to Wonderful Wales?

The End is in Sight!

Phew - it's been a long time coming but the end of lambing and calving 2019 is well within sight now.

I'm still bottle feeding my four (very sweet) little lambs

and Jonathan's still bottle feeding his calf

which is very sweet indeed

The weather has been kind to us this year, so all has gone fairly well.

Unfortunately spring in the valley also means the time when the rooks descend.  They are a real nuisance; after feeding the chickens I have to stand there for ages or the rooks will take their feed, they steal the horses feed in the yard, and they can be very cruel to livestock.  If there is ever an ailing sheep or lamb in the field, they will swoop down and peck out their eyes which is a very pitiful sight.

Which leads me to a sad story about Lucy, our ten year old pet lamb.  She has two claims to fame: the first, when she was still a lamb but quite grown up and she used to stay out in the chicken field with her friend Mabel.  One day there was a rainstorm and I looked out and wondered why all the silly chicken weren't sheltering in their hut.  On closer inspection I found out why:

Then, last year, Lucy had twins and after he'd pulled out the second one Jonathan and George went out (dancing).  To my horror I realised she was having a third, and I couldn't get hold of anyone to help, so her second claim to fame is being the only sheep whose lamb I had to pull out.  Jeffrey came over after the deed was done (and after he'd finished his supper) to see if I was okay and said he'd better take a picture:

Anyway, this year Lucy had twins.  It was early in the morning and sadly the first one was born dead, but Jonathan pulled out the second one and because it was big and healthy and Lucy was licking it Jonathan left them to bond (which is the right thing to do).  I saw a couple of crows out there a bit later so Jonathan went out to check.  The crows had pecked the lamb's still wet umbilical cord and left the lamb disembowelled.  Of course it died.  Lucy bleated none stop for the next two days.  It was very sad but at least she's okay.

Any way, on to happier things.  We have had a lovely visit from our grandson and I was inspired to crochet him a Toft zebra

I will never, ever again crochet with black wool - it was an absolute nightmare! - but apparently Isaac likes him!

In the workshop Eileen had a length of Sari silk and she suggested to Jackie that she might like to make a doll's outfit out of it.  The next week Jackie turned up with this:

So lovely!

Finally, my sister decided to celebrate the ten years since she had her kidney transplant by collecting all the 10ps she came across over the year and donating them to the  Six Counties Kidney Patients Association, the charity that looks after patients covered by the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Victoria had a collection in her offices in Jersey and Isaac handed his great aunt the haul:

 

And I mentioned it in the workshop and was thrilled when so many ladies handed over their cash:

There was a lot more than this by the end and Belinda was able to donate a grand total of £205.00!!

Cold, Wet, Windy Weather.....

So, clearly, we're lambing!  It's got off to a slow start, which isn't a bad thing - especially since invariably the sheep like to lamb right at the top of the hill, so we have to walk all the way up there to bring them down (and in the absence of George, I can't stand at the window with the binoculars and send him up to bring them down).

That was the first set of twins.

Once Jonathan has treated them we put them out into the bigger paddock, with the alpacas to protect them.  One of the most annoying things they can do on a cold, wet, windy day is tumble under the fencing

so I have to go out, catch them, and reunite them with their mothers:

and off they go without a backward glance!

In between times I have managed to finish my traditional Penny Rug - I'm quite pleased with it.

But what is really special is that underneath each of the circles is an actual old English penny.  Eileen gave them to the workshop because rather have them sitting in a pot, she liked the idea of the mat falling apart in years to come and people finding the pennies. 

They are called Penny Rugs or Mats because traditionally pennies were stitched into them to weigh them down.

Now that little project is finished I'm working earnestly on my Janie Crow Magic Lanterns blanket,

Oh my word...I hope I like it in the end!

Now, if only the rain would stop I could take this little girl out for a walk.....

After a Slow Start....

This year is just racing away!  Where did February and March go?

Such a lot has been happening - Pitch and Stitch every Tuesday morning is a real hive of activity.  The other day there was nine of us working and chatting away and I took pictures of everyone but my computer is misbehaving and I can't transfer the photos - hopeless!

You'll have to take my word for it that there was knitting, crochet, quilting, rug-making, Bargello seat cover making, tapestry, patchwork paper piecing and cross stitch.

 

I have been knitting for my baby grandson with kits from Stitch and Story

 

Very quick and easy to do with lovely soft yarn

 

I did the biggest size so he can grow into his Miffy hat and sweater!

Meanwhile on the farm we are about 2/3 of the way through calving

and looking out for the arrival of our lambs any day now.

I am now completely obsessed with shrooming and every walk includes a quick (sometimes not so quick) scout through Rogers Wood up on the hill.  I was particularly pleased when someone said they thought I'd staged this photo

I most certainly hadn't!

I'm now a convert to Instagram and put lots of pictures up on that - but mostly of mushrooms I'm afraid.  It's also the only way I get to see what George is up to in Japan - it's lovely that he is getting to see so much of the world but he's not that good at letting me know what he's up to......

 

Snow Day

Well, today has been a snow day - all day, it's only just stopped, and so I have been housebound.

I'd like to say I spent the day sitting in front of a crackling fire and quilting, or knitting, or crocheting, but I haven't.

I've spent the day doing two things (if we don't count taking the dogs out for frequent, short walks).

The main thing I've been doing is eating.  I cooked a fried breakfast for the boys because they'd been out in the snow, and I ate it too.  Then I made soup and ate that too.  With a great chunk of bread.  And then when they came in again this afternoon I joined them for tea and crumpets.  And now I have pizza in the oven.

The other thing I've been doing is taking loads of photos and videos and putting them on social media.

For example:

a snowbound workshop.












And this:

And the view from the kitchen first thing this morning:

Which was really quite boring because of course everyone in this part of the world was looking out at snow, but it's just so fascinating, and it just kept on coming!

I did get George to take a photo of my finished Kate Davies designed 'Traigh' which I started at the Ros Harwood workshop we did this Autumn (I was posing in a similar fashion to her on the pattern, but it's turned out to be a somewhat less sophisticated photo!).

 

Finally this evening, when I went out to put away the chicken (although they hadn't come out all day anyway) and geese, we saw this little wren sheltering in the porch.

It was so tiny and fragile and reminded me of the very great loss someone I know has suffered recently.

They look Okay......

After my Hob covers disintegrated in the (first) wash, I decided I may as well make my own replacements:

I think they look okay.....but I'm making some belated New Year Resolutions to try and stop making the same mistakes I make every time I start a new project.

1. Never, ever start a project thinking, "if I get a move on with this I should have it done by lunchtime and then I can cook the roast".
2. Never start by carefully drawing out the circle with a compass and then decide it will be much quicker to draw it freehand.
3. Never layer the wadding and two pieces of fabric together and then zig zag stitch around the edge in the hope it will hold it together - you'll have to unpick it because it will go very wrong as the fabrics revolt.
4. Never decide it will be much quicker to just machine quilt the layers rather than tack them in place first; again, you'll have to unpick it because the fabrics revolt.
5. Never quickly think, "Right, so I want the binding to be 1/2 an inch wide so that's 1/2 an inch front and back plus two 1/4 inch seams so that makes 1 and a half inches" and not remember to double it.
6. In fact, never, never think, "I'll quickly do this".

Four days later they are finally done but the work is pretty shoddy to say the least.  Best part was yesterday at Pitch and Stitch when I was huffing and puffing over it and Eileen said I'm too much of a perfectionist.  I think I know a few people who would splutter at that.

I know the sun has been shining but I have been making quite a meal of January, so I felt a bit feeble when I read my cousin's blog all about their lovely walks along the beach and work in the garden.  I decided (when it stopped raining) that I would walk around the garden and seek out colour.

The pansies are getting more established

and the Hellebore is in flower

The Winter Jasmine is the best it's ever been (probably because Jonathan forgot to cut it back)

and the Viburnum is pretty and heavily scented

and I'm so pleased with my succulents I brought back from Wales

But best of all has to be something I didn't even know existed until Pippa (well, who else?) pointed out the tiny little pin prick flowers on the hazel.

Oh, and then of course

 

 

Happy New Year to Everyone!

Well, this Christmas is going on for EVER!

And I'm hanging on to it - I've never been one of those people who take their decorations down before Twelfth Night, (a friend of mine used to take hers down on Boxing Day, and this year she said she wasn't going to put any up) so I'll be taking mine down on Saturday.  I went to Marlborough yesterday and was pleased to see the Christmas lights still up, and on, both there and in Hungerford.

As ever, this Christmas has included lots of home made gifts....

.....my quilting friends and I exchanged home-made gifts and I was thrilled to receive the collection below:

My gifts to them were the cause of some considerable pain.....back in October I had the idea of making little scissor purses for them, and then four days before we were due to exchange I decided I'd better get on and make them.  I stalled for two days with the prototype which went horribly wrong and was thrown aside.  Then I sent to work again and literally a couple of hours before I had to hand them over, managed to finish them.

They weren't too bad in the end.

Then some of the ladies at pitch and Stitch found the prototype and insisted it couldn't be thrown away, so I changed it a bit and turned it into a tissue holder for my Auntie Pauline.

Hmmmn.

And Isaac enjoyed his home made gift from me

made from the pattern I bought from Tactile Treasures and the Ally Pally.

Anyway, we have had a lovely Christmas with our little grandson coming over so everyone finally got to meet him, and I got to spend lots of money on essential things like cots, highchairs, activity centres and various musical toys.  I was so pleased to be able to put in Victoria's room this musical box which my cousin Jen, and her husband Steve, made years ago.  That's it, in the picture at the top of this post and it still works as good as new. 

We've sung lots of carols, eaten lots of food, visited friends and family and had visitors here.  I just finished my Christmas puzzle yesterday

which is a bit special because my sister, who leant it to me, knows the artist who painted the original picture - Mary Tozer.

And I even convinced everyone to join me on a shrooming expedition up in the woods and we found some very interesting specimens

which I can now attempt to identify with my lovely book I was given for Christmas!

Possibly the biggest surprise was my discovery of these

 

under the Hazel tree at the top of our drive - there are loads of them.  Have I been going around with my eyes shut all these years?