Tag Archives: holiday

Taking Stock – September

Posted on by

13

Making : sourdough pizza, because Friday night was made for it

Cooking : spicy lentil soup, the first of the new season

Drinking : red wine, it’s particularly fine for autumn

Reading: My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (only just; sort of as I got halfway through the first chapter last night and woke up a couple of hours later with the light on in the early hours…)

Plymouth Hoe

Wanting: to crochet again

Playing: The Police, Greatest Hits

Polperro, with a boat ready and waiting outside the house

It still has an active fishing port

Deciding: whether to have a dry October or not, what do you think?

Wishing: for these lovely warm sunny days to continue

Porth Ledden Bay near Capewall

Walking some of the SW coast path from Cape Cornwall to Levant

Enjoying: my new Sony Bluetoooth speaker. Saw it on someone’s Instagram, mentioned it and had one for a birthday surprise!

Waiting: for Invisible Sun to play next

Trengwainton garden, always a must-see

Liking: Apple picking socialising while sharing recipe ideas: pork and apple, apple crumble, apple jam, chilli & apple jelly, apple cake….

Wondering: about trying baking baguettes. Have you ever ?

Loving: my audio book. Only an hour left now, then into the new Robert Galbraith Lethal White

Some of the many Trengwainton Scarecrows, made with local primary school children. The theme this year is Inspirational Women

Emmeline Pankhurst and Frida Kahlo

Pondering: nothing high powered

Considering: going to the V&A soon

Buying: birthday wish list gifts

Watching: The BBC’s Repair Shop (S2:8) for the first time, it won’t be the last episode I watch. So good to see skilled people at work

Saffron Chelsea buns, we shared one. Delicious

Fantastic little bakery in St Ives, must buy another SCB next time

Hoping: my right hand sorts itself out by my next appointment (4 weeks time)

Marvelling: at how many people have talked about the Bodyguard series

Cringing: that I saw a major spoiler on the cover of the Radio Times magazine, which put me off watching any episodes. Viewers no longer watch programmes as they are screened and this was only a few days later

Needing: to drink something soon

Barbara Hepworth Museum & Sculpture Garden, St Ives

Questioning: what am I currently questioning? Anything?

Smelling: orangey perfume

Wearing: comfy house clothes, actually I always call them ‘dags’ like my Aussie friends when I was living in Australia

Nicest bookshop in Cornwall? The World? In Penzance. So many signed copies too as many authors live nearby, including John le Carre and Patrick Gale

Following: my own instincts

Knowing: these things come and go

Thinking: fluffy thoughts

Admiring: the way everyone’s taken to autumn clothing

Cornish Cheese Tea: cheese scones with cream cheese and a spicy tomato chutney

Cornish Cream Tea: one plain and one fruity scone with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam

The cafe at Trengwainton is always a must-visit too

Penzance harbour, our week away was mixed weatherwise but we walked every day regardless

Waking to Marazion watching the kite surfers pass St Michaels Mount; which is only accessible by the causeway when the tide is out, or by boat

Sorting: summer clothes to put away

Getting: used to team cooking, one-handed doesn’t work *that* well. But no washing up (always so much despite having a dishwasher.) One. Good. Result

Bookmarking: articles about personal power

Back to Plymouth for a night, arriving at lunchtime in torrential rain. Finding the lounges of the hotel full of people having a drink to hide from the weather, so decided if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em

Coveting: more local gins

Disliking: wrist pain / hating that sock knitting. Ride in a Time Machine please? (Which reminds me; new Dr Who on Sunday)

Opening: multiple webpages and crashing my middle aged iPad

Giggling: at Life in Pieces. I’m on S3 now

Dyrham Park National Trust, Gloucestershire, it’s an impressive filming location for movies and tv (Poldark, Far from the Madding Crowd and Sense and Sensibility, to name a few)

Feeling: chilled

Snacking: no carrots!!!!! Argh!!!! Hate running out

Helping: increase family’s carb intake by baking them sourbread. I bake much more than I eat

Hearing: the fizz of tonic and the chink of ice, my G&T has arrived (yes, spoilt)

Mixing: in red wine later with dinner

Two rye sourdough loaves I baked this morning

Worrying: I’m a sourdough bore now (but you’re lovely. I know you don’t really mind)

Slicing: and peeling a few cooking apples then completely stopping as OUCH! Not the working definition of Do Not Use Your Hand for Three Weeks

Celebrating: Autumn produce; Barty’s Bramley apples, the picking of which he was closely supervising, sitting by the asters! Trengwainton squash and blackberries all along the SW coast path in Cornwall

Forgetting: where I left my watch on 12/9

Pretending: I’ll find it, but it’s looking more and more unlikely. So hard not to keep looking at my wrist, like it’s going to magically appear there

Hello Autumn. I’m ready. It’s been a lovely summer but I always like to see you

Sneaking: M&S buttermints and blaming Mr Scrappy (remember him?)

Embracing: walking, reading and good tv

Hoping you’re fully functioning in a two-handed healthy fashion, cross your fingers / pray / send out vibes (or some chocolate) for my right hand please. I’m chipper, but concerned. Who wants a stupid third of a sock, needles and yarn??!?!

Taking Stock – June

Posted on by

9

Making : the most of the sun

Cooking : nothing – salad days!

Drinking : iced coffee – 40ml espresso, 90ml cold frothy milk, 1-2 tsp sugar syrup over lots of ice cubes. Bliss

Plymouth

Reading: the last chapter of my book

Wanting: nothing. Am content

Playing: Simon Mayo’s Books of the Year podcast, it’s really good. Episode 1 was only out last Monday (free on iTunes or acast or podbean for android users.) Lynda La Plante and Robbie Williams feature. Lynda is hilarious. I’ve listened twice. It’s made me howl with laughter

Deciding: what to read next?

Wishing: to crochet and knit again soon

Enjoying: Plymouth’s sea views

Waiting: for dinner

Liking: all this sunshine and clear blue skies

Wondering: what shall we do tomorrow

It’s now ‘tomorrow in Cornwall (30th)

Loving: sea views, summer flowers and Cornish cider!

Pondering: all sorts, as usual

Considering: repainting my nails

Buying: chocolate

Watching: the clouds

Trerice, National Trust property near Newquay. An Elizabethan manor Winston Graham, the writer of Poldark, used to stay in. It provided the inspiration for Trenwith. Quite interesting page if you’re also into Poldark

Brunch. Mines not traditional as usual: Texas BBQ beef..

Hoping: for some rain to water all the dry gardens (heavy rainfall overnight would be best)

Marvelling: at all the roses. It’s a good year for them

Needing: to drink some water probably

Smelling: fig leaves, they smell exactly like the fruit

Wearing: one of my Seasalt tops, cropped linen trousers and Birkenstocks

Treacle tart and clotted cream at Trerice

Following: Twitter a bit, since no craft of my own makes IG a little dull

Knowing: it’s not forever

Thinking: I must do the rest of my physio exercises today

Admiring: lovely summer dresses

Sorting: an unpacked car into unfamiliar drawers and cupboards

Getting: browner (orange!)

Bookmarking: anything sourdough related for the last few weeks

Coveting: a Cornish cottage with land and a sea view of my own

Disliking: people who play loud music in gardens (generally, luckily nowhere specific to me) Why assume everyone wants to hear your choice of noise? HEADPHONES!

Opening: cold-bags

Giggling: at funny people

Feeling: relaxed

Snacking: on smoked nuts

Helping: to settle in

Hearing: birdsong

Mixing: with locals

Worrying: –

Slicing: salad (hearing it happening anyway. Does that count?!)

Celebrating: summertime

Forgetting: worries

Winning: at life (sorry, too smug?)

Pretending: I live here

Embracing: holiday time

How are you?

Lazy mornings 

Posted on by

7

Sitting in bed in the mornings glancing out at the sea, I’ve been adding a few rows to my knitting and crochet. It feels really lazy and holidayish, so perfect really. I never do this at home, only when I’m away. 

Last week I bought a fluffy book to bring away with me, but discovered that it’s one I’ve read already. No matter. I found The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan on Kindle, read the sample and know it’s the book for me. At £1.99 it wasn’t a hard decision to make! This is the blurb: Antony Peardew, once a celebrated author, now in his twilight years, spent half his life collecting lost objects; trying to atone for a promise broken many years before. Realising he’s running out of time he leaves his house and all his lost treasures to his assistant Laura the one person he can trust to fulfill his legacy, and reunite the thousands of objects with their rightful owners… sounds intriguing doesn’t it?

If you’d like to share a photo of what you’re making and reading every Wednesday, leave a link in the comments and I’ll add it here. Don’t forget to link back to this post on your blog, and use #yarningalong on social media, so others can find us and join us in Yarning Along.

1: Simply Summer Street

2: Vikki Bird Designs

3: One Creative Cat

4: Needles and Wool

West Cornwall

Posted on by

5


Walking part of the south-west coast path, taking numerous photos some in the same spots as last year and the year before: “But it’s so beautiful”, staring out to sea watching gulls drift slowly along the coastline, pasties and cake or an ice-cream for lunch, stopping for an afternoon pit-stop of cider and snacks, guessing how many steps we’ve walked; then checking the pedometer, planning which fish or seafood to buy for dinner, making G&T in slightly too small glasses, swigging the leftover tonic from the can, looking at the OS map and wondering what the weather will do, crocheting in bed in the morning while looking out to sea and listening to an Alan Bennett play….

Holiday.

Summer Snapshot

Posted on by

3

   
    
    
 I’ve been holidaying in West Cornwall during a really beautiful week of weather, walking over 55 miles of coastal paths and local trails, exploring the local area, eating all the seaside holiday faves: pasties, fish and chips, cream tea and loving trying the local ciders.  Rattler (apple) cider is definitely my favourite. 

There was so much to see and photograph: particularly the spectacular coastline from all angles on the peninsula. As you headed away from the sea over a hill, or around a bend you would see it again. We were based only 8 miles from Lands End and wild flowers, butterflies, rabbits, birds and fish abounded. 

Then it was time to come home and I found my plants had grown inches (the dahlias are a foot taller – really) my porch pot has taken off, as you see, compared to the mere 3 flowers it had when I last saw it. There were juicy strawberries to eat, chillies had appeared in abundance and the herbs are bursting out of their pots. We have a very good neighbour who waters while we are away!

Although I took all my crochet kit away, to work on the border of the motif blanket, I didn’t do any. In the evenings it was too hot, or we were eating at a local pubs or sipping wine on the terrace looking out on the 180 degree view of the sea (taking far too many photos of the sunsets), or we were walking by the sea in the evening breeze. All I’ve done, since coming back, is a few rows of knitting of my Hitchhiker shawl. It’s really a scarf isn’t it? I’m not sure where/when calling everything a shawl started.

Now it’s far too hot to have a wooly blanket on my lap!  Today it’s 32 0c and reportedly the hottest day in 9 years. I was in Australia and missed the last one, but remember seeing news reports of tarmac on roads bubbling and railway lines buckling; much to the Aussies amusement. 

  
Like many I have reeled on reading about the death of Wink, there are no words to express my sadness. She will be missed by so many. XX

Whitstable

Posted on by

9

20140815-120201-43321572.jpg

20140815-120200-43320648.jpg

20140815-120201-43321141.jpg

20140815-120304-43384471.jpg

20140815-120305-43385010.jpg

20140815-120306-43386145.jpg

20140815-120305-43385577.jpg

20140815-120513-43513190.jpg

20140815-120513-43513814.jpg

20140815-120512-43512742.jpg

20140815-120512-43512278.jpg

20140815-120514-43514312.jpg

Old Neptune, Whitstable

Another week away, it’s not a proper Summer holiday if it doesn’t include the sea.

Yes, lots of pictures of dead fish but aren’t they great to look at? All shiny fresh and ready to make delicious meals. I’ve included the price board in the fish market because someone will find it interesting. I occasionally write down prices in my diary, knowing I’ll be comparing then and now, fascinated in the future.

I have to capture the colours of the fishing boats in the harbour, the blue sky and the fluffy white clouds. I love staring too, drinking in all the colour and movement. The fishing boats draw a crowd of onlookers. After elbowing a few children aside and pushing a couple of Grandmas into the water I was able to peer into the boxes stacked with fish, exciting but I really couldn’t tell you exactly what kind.

Lager shandy, chips, a lemon sherbet or rhubarb & custard in the car, miles and miles walked each day, wild plums picked and eaten, trying to spit the stones out as far as possible while walking along a coastal path (but usually just bouncing next to my shoe, useless) intending to buy greengages while they’re in season, but inexplicably not getting around to it, reading The Memory of Lost Senses by Judith Kinghorn and not knowing whether to shout ‘Just get on with the reveal!’ or revel in the slow pace and unfolding of the not-really-a-mystery, navigating old style; leaving the Sat Nav shut away, searching for sea glass treasure; trying not to put my iphone in the same pocket, enjoying the folk music, Morris dancers and the Tap & Sync Appalachian dancers (from Northamptonshire which is surprising somehow) at Broadstairs Folk Festival, losing a pounds-worth of two pence pieces in an arcade, feeling no need to crochet, knit or sew until going into a Margate Vintage shop and seeing someone crocheting behind the counter, then really having that itchy fingers feeling, lingering in shady lanes looking for geocaches and receiving curious glances from dog walkers, laughing at out of context fragments of other people’s conversations, feeling a curious hint of Autumn in the air, noticing darker early evenings, cooler breezes, beginning to anticipate cooking soups, casseroles and Autumn fruit crumbles….

Off to the South coast next, the last seaside trip of the summer.

The next post will contain knitting, and nothing else but knitting. What a treat to see craft on a craft blog!

Week 30: CAL Blocks #88 #89 #90

Posted on by

15

IMG_2279

#88 Edwardian Fancy

5 1/2″ square

Another pattern blip: R2 ‘ join yarn B to any dc…1tr into next dc.” What dc? There are none. If this was an American book first and was translated into UK terms I’d understand this error…

R9: I did 2 tr, 2ch, 2 tr corners into 2 stitches as I had too many stitches left otherwise. Did you find this too, or was this my mistake?

A very pretty block, it would look lovely in pinks and blues.

IMG_2284

#89 Spinner (I’d call this one ‘Bull’s eye’)

5 1/2″ square

A dense block, it would make a warm throw or blanket. I maybe wouldn’t give it to a very young child; you can imagine them wrecking it by poking fingers into the middle hole! IMG_2281

#90 Bright Triangles

6″ square – another huge diagonal increase/decrease block just like #1 Triangle Stripes

This block felt a bit like groundhog day as it’s so similar to the first block of the CAL. I used the same strategy of working out and writing down the stitch count for each row before the sets of 5 rows. Then I checked my stitches tallied at the end of the rows as it’s so easy to crochet into the starting chain otherwise without realising.IMG_2277

I took these photos in a rush before a last tidy up before family arrived for Easter Sunday lunch yesterday, that’s why they’re even more unruly than usual.

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*

I hope you’re having a lovely Easter weekend.

Are you enjoying some chocolate? Unlike two of my friends who were having 1) WeightWatcher’s soup and rice cakes 2) a diet friendly roast (huh?) for their Easter Sunday lunch. Oh no! NO NO NO no! Feast days and holidays are just that in my book; times to enjoy a scrummy meal with family and friends without reserve. And that’s why I’ve eaten 4 peanut butter cups (I made bags of these for family Easter presents, with a few spares for us) for my breakfast today. Now what for lunch? A Cadbury’s creme egg, a Lindt bunny or a salted caramel mini egg?! :-D

Scenic loveliness

Posted on by

2

I have some scenic piccys of North Wales for you to, hopefully, enjoy. What a stunning country!

I’ve put them into a gallery setting, so click on the first picture and view them at your own pace.

We had such a lovely relaxing time away that it’s hard not to wander about in a daze now I’m home.

As it was my birthday I was treated to a night at a nice hotel in Cardiff at the end of the holiday. There we saw plenty of purple and orange clad London 2012 volunteers who had stayed in the hotel to help at the last Olympic football match in Cardiff Stadium. There was a real festive air in the city with a big screen showing live events. The only visible security was X-ray machines at the hotel entrance which was presumably to check the players’ bags and equipment.

I’m glad the Olympics went so well and were enjoyed by so many. I was glued to lots of the events and found that I cried when athletes won, when they lost, at the reactions of their supporters and the audience. A fortnight of teary eyes is enough for anyone and I can stop for a few weeks now, until the Paralympics anyway.

I’ll be back to show you some crafty purchases I treated myself to today and a surprise I received in the mail. I hope to show you my winnings shortly too, when they arrive, as I entered a giveaway last weekend and WON!

HURRAY!!!!

What have you been up to lately? Any trips planned?

::Thank you for all your encouraging comments about Prachi’s bag, it hasn’t arrived yet but I’ll keep you posted.