Tag Archives: beech leaves

I would like to live in a house like this

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So, following on from my last post, here is the Christmassy National Trust property we visited. Greys Court is somewhere that we’ve visited in the summer, mainly because they have a sculpture exhibition and so the grounds are filled with all sorts of impressive and also weird and wonderful sculpture! Lots of it’s available to buy and some of the fun is in looking at the price tags. However we’ve never visited at Christmas. It’s absolutely lovely, as you will see…

  • Such a bright and airy room. I got Someone to pose by the piano as if it was his sitting room. The effect is spoilt by the fact he’s wearing raincoat and mask!
  • Absolutely loved the train set which circled the tree. You can imagine excited children coming downstairs on Christmas morning. The train was going along through a box tunnel and weaving around the presents. Lucky children!
  • The stockings were laid by the (beds) chimneys with care
  • The animals went in two by two
  • Downstairs in the kitchen I absolutely loved these knitted chains
  • And the selection of knitted goodies. There are handmade items throughout the house; from patchwork quilts on the beds, to tapestry cushions, little sewn decorations, and homemade jams in the pantry. This makes sense when you read the paragraph below.
  • The last family member to live in the house: ‘Lady Brunner was chair of the Women’s Institute and closely involved in the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign, for which she received an OBE in 2000.’ From the Greys Court National Trust website
  • It was a beautiful day! We walked a 3 mile circular after exploring the house
  • Wow what a huge bull
  • The Greys Court wisteria is 130 years old

And my crafting? Lady Brunner would not be particularly impressed. (Still haven’t made that chutney.) But LOOK! I’ve crocheted a brussel sprout! I know, it’s only one but at least I’ve made one.

Next time I need to get some safety pins to hold the leaves in place, as I found it really really fiddly to hold them while I sewed them onto the sphere. I still need to glue on the eyes and thread some sparkly thread so it can hang on the tree, when we’ve got one.

Here’s the pattern I used

I’ve also added some more rounds to a new block for my coast blanket. You’ve seen that quite a bit recently, so I haven’t taken any new photos.

What about you? If you celebrate, how is your Christmas prep going? Are you feeling Christmassy?

A crunchy walk

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Such a good walk in the woods. We went at midday and the car thermometer was showing it was a mere 1/2 a degree. But by the time we’d walked for an hour and a half it had risen to a heady 3 degrees! The tracks would normally be very muddy, but today they were actually crunchy underneath your boots because they were frozen. I loved it. The best part is finding virgin ice on frozen puddles and stomping on it. There’s that satisfying crunch as the ice shatters.  It was silent in the woods, there was no one but us and birds singing in the trees. I swear the same robin flew from branch to branch following us all around.

I really appreciated coming home into a warm house, with the option of Spicy Lentil and Root Vegetable or Carrot, Ginger and Orange soup (see this month’s Red magazine for the carrot soup recipe.) I’ve been making soup every week, often trying some new recipes. I can easily make my own, without a recipe, but like to experiment. The next ones are Parsnip & Apple, Chinese style Chicken & Sweetcorn, Chicken, Rice and Miso and I’ve got a Sweet Potato with something linked in an email too. It’s the best thing to have in the fridge; especially when you’ve stomped around a frozen wood and need an instant winter warmer. 

Now the snooker’s on and I’m getting hints about how nice a Nespresso would be…then I’m planning to crochet at least two more rows on the Blackberry Ripple. I don’t mind the background hum of the snooker, but think I’ll plug myself into my  new audio book. It’s really good so far.