I’m really enjoying doing a little bit of sewing every day still. It doesn’t seem to be affecting my hand unless I do too much. I am as happy as a very, very happy thing to be able to be a little bit creative again.
Corinne Lapierre saw my progress posts on Instagram and says she’s had quite a number of clicks from my last post here to her website, including purchases, and has offered to send me something as a thank you! How nice and totally unexpected. Thank you for clicking through to check out her site, if you did. Does this officially make me an influencer I wonder?! What will she send? Exciting.
I understand Corinne does demos on Create and Craft TV on Freeview. Have you seen any?
I saw hand drawn felt tipped numbers in the window of someone’s house the other day. This gave me the idea for a new cross-stitch. I thought I could rest my right hand on top of a hoop to keep it steady on the edge of my desk, while I stitch with my left. This is going really well and doesn’t seem to aggravate matters. The last time I did any cross-stitch was last July in Regents park, London. It feels like aeons ago.
I know the five is a bit dodgy. I drew it freehand after looking at cross-stitch number patterns online. I wasn’t copying a specific design, but went with the flow. Do you think I ought to add a bit more thickness to the bottom? Apparently it looks a bit like a letter S, but with the four next to it should be identifiable.
You can see if you zoom in when I started smoothing out my thread before stitching, and periodically letting the needle dangle from the hoop to untwist the thread. The perfectionist in me is tempted to undo the messy rows but I’m resisting.
I found myself looking at sewing kits and threads in John Lewis and The Range while away in Aberdeen. If you were around The Range and heard a man muttering about “Pikey tat” and a woman shushing him, while looking embarrassed, then that was probably us. He’s not that impressed with spending time in Hobbycraft but The Range always provokes strong emotion for some reason. Idiot.
Look at those rabbits! How can anyone resist a rabbit in a carrot racing car?
I might have spent a few minutes arranging them, but no one seemed to notice or care. The rabbits enjoyed the attention.
Lucky weather on Friday meant it was unseasonably sunny and warm. A bus out of the city to Don Bridge seemed like a good plan. We walked along the esplanade and onto the beach to collect sea glass, then had a couple of scoops of Mackies Scottish ice cream before reaching Footdee, wandering around the harbour and back into the city centre. A good walk by the sea in bright sunshine, is a pretty perfect day for me. Plus it was capped off with a selection of curries at Shri Bheemas with old friends in the evening. That was the best lamb biriyani I’ve ever eaten. The paratha were really good too; lacy and light.
I read on an airport poster that Aberdeen has 15 miles of unbroken beaches. There’s a coastal trail to drive, see here, which would be fun to do sometime.
So far I’m on target with my aim to walk 1000 miles this year. I’ve walked well over 200 miles and this despite my dodgy knee giving me jip. Fingers crossed that I can carry on because it’s a really good way to motivate yourself to walk, even on non fair weather days when the temptation to curl up on the sofa is strong. I guess another way would be to get a dog which needs lots of walking. I’d probably inadvertently get one as lazy as me on rainy days!
Tell me a few things? How are you?
Adoring: no-knead sourdough cooked in my charity shop treasure. The moisture in the bread means it cooks in its own steam. You then take the lid off for the last bit to burnish the top. It needs to be just this side of burnt for the flavour and crustiness.
There’s something about the joining of these motifs that has turned them into a thing of real beauty. I loved stumbling across, fortunately not literally, this bicycle after a walk and a chat to the coastwatch guard at Cape Cornwall.
Do you see why I absolutely love West Cornwall? The sea there from left to right as we like being in the villages, along the coast roads and South West Coast Path which stretches from St Ives to Land’s End. As you’re basically on a peninsula the sea is all around, it’s bliss for a land-locked water lover like myself. It wasn’t too hot either with the sea breeze to cool things down, but there was still a fair bit of slapping on sunscreen as the temperatures were high. We are having a proper summer here, it’s begun to feel unrelenting now actually; gardens and the land need rain.
And everywhere, and I mean everywhere, you could hear ‘Its coming home, it’s coming home, football’s coming home’ playing, singing, chanted (while staggering) or shouted. The euphoria of England winning the quarter-final against Sweden was tangible. Noisy. Jubilant. By Sunday evening I had to slowly sing ‘Happy Birthday to You’ through twice to get rid of the ear worm which plagued me from hearing that damn song so much!
I also got another fix of the seaside, albeit courtesy of the North sea. It is not, it has to be said, as pretty as the Atlantic sea which surrounds West Cornwall, but it is good to walk along to Sutton. I certainly felt I needed to walk at least 5 miles! We walked 8 by the end of the day.
My cousin hosts several BBQs from early summer to mid-autumn for family and different groups of friends. We try to go to one, or maybe two, each year. They’re always good fun, with everybody mucking in. The informal rule is that every time you go to and from the cottage, across the tiny lane to her field, you take something. I have to admit that the (huge) glass of champagne I had on arrival went straight to my head, so the only thing I initially managed to take across was another glass of champagne! But if this was hash-tag land I’d probably be typing #winwin.
It continues to be a gorgeous sunny warm Spring here in the South of England. Walking at Cliveden (6.5 miles, now pretty much a breeze apart from really steep bits!) in beautiful sun, seeing abundant wild bluebells and primroses feels like such a treat. You need to catch bluebells while they bloom; it never feels as if they are around for long. I’m sure we usually go to the bluebell woods of my childhood in May, everything seems earlier this year. 
Sun, sea and ice-cream. The first of many this year, I hope. This was Friday at Bognor Regis after a good walk along the prom. It’s lemon meringue flavour; and had fizzy crunchy little meringue pieces mixed into the tangy lemon. I’m looking out for this again!
West Wittering has a beautiful sandy expanse of beach. On Saturday lunchtime it was full of happy dogs playing, kite surfers, kite flying families, horses galloping along the beach and walkers striding out in the sun. It was t-shirt weather again, woo hoo! 
Apart from watching others enjoying the beach, stopping to examine interesting looking pebbles (I have one with a fossil) and look for sea glass, we played ‘which one would you like’ as we passed beach houses. I like the chalet style on the right. What about you? 
We’d walked 5 miles along the shore, not easy going on pebbles towards the end. We walked on sand some of the way, but the tide was coming in fast and covering it as we got to East Wittering and Bracklesham Bay. We stopped at the Medmerry Holiday village, which fortunately had a very comfortable pub. This gate made me smile as we walked back to the beach after lager shandy, crisps and a well needed pit-stop. (You know that feeling of relief girls?!)
How’s that for driftwood?
Although I had a rule that I wouldn’t start any new crochet until I’d finished the motif blanket, my fingers felt sooo itchy to do something. It feels like weeks! I packed my basket full of new yarn, but with the great weather for walking I didn’t open it at all the whole weekend. Evenings were for wine, a little chocolate, reading or a film.
On Sunday we visited 
I had low expectations for the scent garden at Uppark, this early in the year, but wow! The scent from so many hyacinths was stunning. Unfortunately my nose and eyes ran for the rest of the day! Oh well, we’re heading to hay fever season. I’ve just checked my anti-histamine supplies and typically all are out of date. There’s obviously good business in the hay fever relief industry.
Aren’t these fritillieries beauties? 
I did start some new crochet (tut, tut) when home. It’s bright and sunny again today; so I’ll nip into the garden later to try to take some decent photos for you.
As I wrote this title, following a discussion about farming, wool and the great wealth which came from wool in Yorkshire during decades gone by, it occurs to me that if this were one of those ‘big blogs’ there might be uproar from the wool purists. My Yorkshire cowl is made from 100% acrylic. It’s named because I crocheted it during a week there, and it’s always going to remind me of walks by the sea and the coastal path. The 
Yorkshire Cowl
Some people are good at selfies, some are not; especially when in windswept Derbyshire visiting 
What are you making at the moment?
Later the Mister and I had a good walk along the beach, then bought a dozen crevettes from the quayside fishmongers to take home for dinner. And that was another good day.
Today we parked at Bridlington’s North Beach and walked along looking for sea glass. We had a little bag of mostly green pieces by the end, but unusually I’d found zero! My sea glass spotting skills seem to have deserted me, mind you I’ve never thought my beanie would blow off before!
We knew that Dad’s Army has been filmed here recently, isn’t it perfect
For a fan of the oldie but goodie tv programmes this week is turning out to be a delight! But wait there’s more…
Initially I was horrified that they would remake such a classic but now after today’s sights, and hearing who is in the film I am looking forward to seeing it. The helpful lady also said there is a Facebook page with photos of the actors and the filming, if you’re interested.
On our way up to Yorkshire we met my cousin and family for Sunday lunch and she gave me this box of freshly laid eggs from her hens. Aren’t they pretty colours? The labelling on the box made me laugh. I think there might be a lucky rooster in the mansion!
On the way up I’d checked my emails and had that heart stopping email titled ‘We have news about your lottery ticket.’ It wasn’t a life changing amount, but £25 is good pocket money. I treated myself to a ball of Marble Chunky I’ve admired for ages because I love the colours, and the new Simply Crochet.
As a fan of Last of the Summer Wine I was delighted on Monday to see some of the haunts of Foggy, Compo and Clegg in Holmfirth, with Trish of 
We mooched around a few yarn shops and both bought marble chunky. Then we browsed in a secondhand bookshop which is tucked away in one of the narrow lanes. Holmforth is built up the sides of the Holme valley so has many steps and winding alleys, it’s a great place to explore. 
After the 8.5 mile walk I really felt I deserved my pint mug of tea and chocolate. Today we’ve walked 5.5 miles. I’m keeping a record so I can see how far we’ve walked by the end of the week.
The Little Room of Rachell 
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