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Blogtober 2021 :: Day 23

Another Saturday rolls around and once again I find myself feeling comforted by my familiar and gentle domestic routines. I took great pleasure in switching off my alarm yesterday, and although I still woke up at around about the same time it was blissful to just stay in bed for a while. I stretched myself out to full capacity like a starfish (J was already up so I took full advantage of the extra space), and thoroughly enjoyed the slow, still, quiet start to my day.

Let me tell you about this box of tomatoes which is probably the biggest thing I've ever carried home from the market, possibly with the exception of the Giant Celery last year. ** As a side note, the giant celery was purchased on 24th October last year - this exact time of October seems very abundant around here, no?

Anyhow - about the tomatoes, these gloriously sweet and juicy sunshine-ripened Spanish tomatoes still clinging to the vine. I've been buying large amounts in brown paper bags every single Saturday for many months, often returning on a Wednesday to re-stock because we eat a ridiculous quantity of tomatoes in this house.

Last week Dominic (the lovely man who runs the veggie stall) was away on his holidays to Scarborough and so there was no veggie market stall last Saturday. Oh I did miss it, we had to buy from the supermarket and I tell you it just wasn't nearly as good, it really wasn't!! So this morning when we went to his stall I told him how much he was missed and in return he said  that he had a present for me. I didn't believe him at first, but then he told me it was no joke and that there really was a gift waiting for me. He asked me to guess what I thought it might be, and the very first thing that sprang to mind was tomatoes. Well I was utterly bowled over when he laughed out loud and reached under his stall to bring out a box FULL of vine tomatoes which he said were especially for me. They are the last cherry vine tomatoes of the season, and he had saved them for me - all mine!!!!! I was so touched, and of course I absolutely insisted on paying him for them because just look how many there are, but he would only take £2.50 for them. I felt like the luckiest lady in town this morning, so crazy-happy carrying my wooden box of toms, popping a few in my mouth every so often and marvelling at how sweet they are.

I wanted to show you these mushrooms too, also from Dominic's stall  aren't they a delight? They are a mixture of edible varieties and I'm not really sure how to identify them or even whether I need to? They were a  bit of an impulse buy (I was still quite overcome by the tomatoes) so I'm not sure what exactly to do with them....

....I think I may just cook them very simply and have them for brunch tomorrow while they are still nice and fresh. I'm thinking I'll pan fry them in a little olive oil, butter, garlic and parsley and serve them up on granary toast. Maybe with some vine tomatoes on the side too, because I do have a few tomatoes to hand that I could use.

Similar to last Saturday, I decided to make some soup for lunch and of course it absolutely had to have tomatoes in it. I roasted up a big tray of red peppers (I bought 5 peppers for £1 from the market), onion, garlic, sweet potato and tomatoes. When they were soft I added them into a pan with some veggie stock, a generous squeeze of tomato purée and a dollop of sundried tomato pesto, seasoned it well then whizzed it all up with my swanky new stick blender.

I only recently bought myself a stick blender for making soups and I am so taken with it. It's a dream to use and makes the whole process so much easier (and not nearly as messy) as transferring the mixture into my blender in small batches. I can just whizz away directly in the pan now. I bought this 600w Bosch one so it's quite powerful and does the job effortlessly. 

The soup was absolutely delicious, very rich and warming and just the thing for a quick weekend lunch. 

This afternoon I pootled along to the pharmacy with Little Lady to collect a prescription for her. Her blood test results came in yesterday and although mostly they were all normal she does have mild anaemia so has been prescribed iron tablets to take. It would go some way to explaining her low energy and low mood during the past few months so in a way we're relieved to have found something that can be worked with and fairly easily fixed. Some of you may remember that I have been anaemic in the past (twice in fact) so I know exactly what it's like and how low it can make you feel. The struggle is real, and I very much hope that she will begin to feel like her normal self again as the iron tablets begin to give her body what it needs.

On the way home we rested for a little while on a bench beside the canal. It was quite cold to be honest but LL needed to eat something and told me in no uncertain terms that she absolutely could not wait until we got home. Okay then, a bench picnic it is, no matter how chilly my bones are.

I snapped the above photo of my sofa when I came home as I could just tell that Little B had been right there at some point. Even when he was very small he always needed at least two blankets to be properly cosy and things haven't really changed all that much. He's just very much bigger now (as tall as me) so I'm surprised he only felt the need for two blankets today - usually he can be found under a whole pile of them. 

I've started writing my blog by candlelight in the evenings and I absolutely love it. It gives me just enough light to see where to put my fingers on the keyboard but feels beautifully cosy and atmospheric. The only light we have in our large downstairs room right now is coming from candles, fairy lights and the fire. It's quite lovely. 

Right then, I'm going to love you and leave you for now, I hope you've enjoyed this scintillating tale of tomatoes and mushrooms, soup and cold benches, blankets and candlelight. Such a thrilling life I lead. More waffle coming your way tomorrow xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

Blogtober 2021 :: RHS Harlow Carr

A visit to Harlow Carr is always a treat and the last time I visited was back in July 2019 when the sweet peas were in full bloom (that blog post is here). The trip I made yesterday was planned quite a while ago when Christine bought herself a membership to the RHS (which stands for Royal Horticultural Society - a very well know institution in the UK but if you aren't from this quirky little isle then you may not have heard of it). An RHS member can have unlimited visits to any one of the five RHS gardens in the UK and take a guest in free of charge. So being the wonderful  friend that I am, I very kindly offered to be available at ANY time if she needed some accompaniment to Harlow Carr, or any other garden for that matter. We set a date, and I have been really looking forward to it for many weeks.

Harlow Carr is near Harrogate, so about a half hour drive from my house, making it a very easy day trip for us. We arrived around midday (of course we had to go out for breakfast first) and honestly I was so, so, so insanely happy about the weather that the gardens could have been half dead and I still would have been delighted with it. If you hadn't already gathered, the weather was absolute perfection. It was quite chilly (around 8 degrees I think) but the sky was completely free of clouds and the most gorgeous shade of clear blue, which meant that the sun shone it's little heart out all day.

We had a printed map to follow, but as I'd been before we just decided to work our way around on instinct, following the meandering pathways through the various different areas of the garden. In the summer the above bed is usually filled with meadow planting, and the amazing kinetic sycamore seed sculptures gently turn in the breeze above a sea of wild flowers. It looked a little sparse at this time of year but the sculptures were still lovely to watch.

I had been expecting colourful foliage in October and I was not disappointed - there was lots of it!

The grasses were also very beautiful and were incorporated into a lot of the large flower beds. I loved the combination above - the tall purple flower is Verbena Bonariensis and it looked wonderful planted with the yellow daisy flowers which are a variety of Rudbekia. Yellows and purples seemed to be a bit of a theme throughout the garden.....

....and the colour contrasts were very striking.

We continued to follow the winding pathways around ponds and flower beds, eventually finding our way into the more natural part of the gardens.

There is quite a bit of woodland at Harlow Carr....

....and in the early afternoon it was magical. The sunlight was beaming through the treetops, and it was so nice just to stroll along chatting and breathing in the fresh woodsy air.

Eventually the pathways lead us up to the kitchen garden which is one of may favourite parts.

The extreme orderliness of the raised beds is somehow very appealing to my brain, and I love that the beds themselves are made out of recycled plastic milk bottles, how brilliant is that?

There was still quite a lot of veg growing in the beds, but obviously this part of the garden is at it's very best in high summer. This is where you will find a lot of the sweet peas in summer, scrambling up and over those gorgeous rustic arbours. 

There was still lots of colour though - a whole long row of neatly trained crab apple trees.....

.....and these amazing yellow flowers which must have stood about seven foot tall. I had to gently bend a stem down to take the above photograph. They look like dainty sunflowers, and I think they are in fact a perennial variety of sunflower.

I would love to grow some in my back yard - imagine that - seven or eight foot tall golden beauties right outside my window!

I showed you into this green house in yesterday's blog post - it was roped off so you couldn't venture inside, but the doors were open and it had been very beautifully staged for the season.

Just look how gorgeous it all is!! Pumpkins galore!!

There were lots of chillies too, and I loved the whole look of it in here. 

We are entering the Sub Tropicana garden now which is full of exotic looking foliage and bold planting.

There were brightly coloured dahlias here (although not as many as I would have liked) and lots of different varieties of Salvia. In fact I noticed that there were salvias of all varieties in pretty much every part of the garden - they are easy to recognise because they have flowers that look like baby snapdragons, do you know what I mean? Salvias are a humungous plant group and if you search for them on the RHS plant finder thingy, there are over 2000 results. The ones we saw at Harlow Carr were mainly deep purples and very dark pinks and they really were gorgeous. 

It's around 2pm now, and we've been walking and talking and oooooing and ahhhhhhing and taking umpteen photos for two solid hours. Time to find a bench in a sheltered sunny spot and have a bite to eat.....

.....doesn't this look yummy? Before setting off, we'd called into the farm shop to have our breakfast and pick up some lunch to take with us. I chose a vegetarian sausage roll with a filling of Mediterranean veggies and it was delish! We had some baby tomatoes on the vine, and some fruit for afterwards - a simple lunch really, because we were saving ourselves for a bit of an afternoon treat in the very well known Harlow Carr café (more of that in a bit).

After  our rest and refreshment we were raring to go again, and set out to explore the main borders. These aren't like your average garden borders at home because of course they are completely ginormous, so the planting is equally ginormous in scale. In fact the borders were so big that it was hard to photograph them, they just wouldn't fit into the frame.

What I did do was take lots of pictures of the colours that I liked, building up a floral colour palette in my photo album...

....from the pale purple asters (of which there were many)....

....to the deep and gorgeous burnt oranges of the heleniums.

I really fell a bit in love with the heleniums, they looked so beautiful in the glow of the afternoon sun.

I took way more photos than I am showing you here, but I'm trying to be careful not to send you over the edge with too much floral abundance. 

The last part of the garden we visited was one that I hadn't really seen a lot of in previous visits. I said to Christine that when you visit with Little People, you tend to have a different pace and different priorities. With children in tow, we would spend a lot of time playing in the woodland, and then time allowing the LP to run, run, run (and roll and cartwheel) across the wide open grassy spaces. By the time we got to the rock gardens, they would be a bit on the tired side and then it was all about wanting an ice cream, or a drink and something sugary to eat. So it was nice to be able to stroll slowly through this part, and it really is made for visiting in Autumn.

This area is called the Sandstone Rock Garden, and it's a mixture of giant sized rockery rocks, watery pools and the most beautiful shrubs and trees chosen especially for their foliage. 

I mean, just look how beautiful it all is!

The blurb on the website describes this area as reaching "a crescendo of colour" in autumn and it wasn't wrong - there is a large collection of Japanese Maple trees here and the foliage was spectacular.

I hope you can tell from my photos how special this place is - the atmosphere is a curious mixture of highly energising and calmly relaxing and you can't help but feel hugely inspired by it all. I love that there are soooooooo many benches of all shapes and sizes positioned around the garden, inviting you to rest or simply stop and enjoy the nature surrounding you on all sides. 

Of course our visit was hugely helped by the weather which was nothing short of perfection, we honestly couldn't believe our luck, especially after so many days of grey, wet weather earlier in the week.

It was quite honestly one of the nicest day trips I've had in a long time, well I would even rate it alongside my seaside jaunt which tells you just how happy it made me.

Now before we leave Harlow Carr, there is of course the pressing need for some top notch refreshment, and the café here is rather special. It is none other than a branch of the famous Betty's Tearooms and it is one refined and civilised place. A cup of tea is served to you quite literally on a silver platter with silver tea pots containing real leaf-tea which you must remember needs to be poured through a silver tea strainer. You must not forget this important fact, or your mouth will be full of leaves (please don't ask me how I know this).

Bettys is also famous for its baked goods, so we opted for a simple but very delicious toasted sultana scone to go with the tea. The toasting of a scone isn't something I've ever heard of before, but apparently it's a Bettys Speciality. It arrives already buttered so that the butter is completely soaked into the warmth of the scone, ooooooo, it's just melt in your mouth good. All very sophisticated and a very lovely way to end a sunny, colour-filled day.

I have decided that we must visit HC on a more frequent basis, because I would really like to see it change through the seasons. I imagine that even in winter there will be many delights, and oh, can you imagine Spring?? And early Summer?? Picnics on the grass, and some wonderful time idling amongst the flowers....I am all for it.

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Blogtober 2021 :: Day 21

I'm a bit late to my blog this evening because I've not long been home, yes, all very exciting because I've been OUT-out! I went out to a local bistro for dinner with my very good friend Christine who is visiting my patch, oh we've had such a lovely time of it. 

As you can see by these photos, not only have we been out to dinner but we had the whole day out and about as well so I'm feeling thoroughly happy in my soul and inspired by all I've seen. We took a trip to RHS Harlow Carr  which isn't too far from where I live - I've been quite a few times before but it was Christine's first visit. We were so, so blessed by the weather, it was chilly but stayed clear, bright and sunny alllll day and the gardens were looking absolutely stunning.

I wasn't expecting to see a huge amount of colour at this time of year but I was beyond delighted to find that colour was very much in abundance. It wasn't only the trees that were putting on a good autumnal show - the borders were absolutely radiant with swathes of late summer perennials still looking fabulous. I really felt uplifted and inspired by the colours in nature and I took oodles of photos, too many to sift through tonight so I've just given you a little taster for now. More will follow on tomorrow.

It got me thinking about Autumn and the colour inspiration I've found in this season over the years, and I thought it would be fun to share a few bits of it here.....

This was the inspiration behind my Cosy Stripe blanket - flowers, leaves, berries and seeds gathered at this time of year. You can see lots more photos ((here))....

....and more pics of the finished Cosy Stripe blanket ((here)).

My Woodland blanket was also directly inspired by the changing colours of trees and leaves in Autumn - ahh, I do LOVE this colour palette very much. You can read more about it ((here)).

I can't possibly talk about Autumn inspiration without mentioning my Autumn Wreath. This make proved to be incredibly popular and I see that it's still inspiring folks to make their own versions even eight years after I created it. You can see lots more photos and find pattern links in this post ((here)).

Four years old now, this is my Autumn Garland made in 2017. I designed some lovely new patterns for this make, including the oak leaf and acorn. You can read more about it in this post ((here)).

And last but not least are the little pumpkins I made to decorate my mantel for the autumn season. I absolutely adore them and really enjoy unpacking and displaying them each year. You can read more about them ((here)).

There were some lovely pumpkin displays at Harlow Carr today, it was such a feast for the eyes. I can't wait to show you more tomorrow, I hope you're ready to be force fed a gazillion photos of flowers and trees?!!

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Blogtober 2021 :: Day 20

If today's blog post had a title other than Day 20, it would probably be something like "Unsettled" as that pretty much sums up my mood from start to finish. I've felt off kilter, still a little bit achy low down in my belly, and not really able to concentrate on anything. My morning followed a familiar routine which I was thankful for - our usual early morning walk, followed by a busy hour or so seeing to alllll the jobs that need doing to get the day started and the Little People ejected out the front door at the right time and with the right stuff in their bags. Make the bed, empty the dishwasher, feed the kitty, clear out her litter box, make packed lunches, get breakfast ready, put a load of laundry into the machine. Reminders for rugby kit, reading book and packed lunch, good luck wishes for an easy day, wave them off as they head down the street one after the other. And breathe.

Between nine and ten I used the time to get myself ready for the day. I had a shower and got dressed, then caught up on my blog post comments, replied to Facebook comments and had a quick pootle through my Instagram feed. I ate a healthy bowl of milky porridge with banana, raspberries, mango, grapes, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.

Just after ten o'clock J and I went out for coffee which has become our new midweek thing. I can't tell you how much I love it, it feels like such a treat. The little William Morris café had the fire lit for the first time this season and it was soooo cosy, we sat in old wooden high back chairs and enjoyed a seriously good cappuccino.

I then spent the next few hours faffing around achieving next to nothing. Pulled my heavy wheelie bin to the top of the back street so it could be emptied this afternoon. Pulled the laundry from the machine and shoved it in the drier. Messaged various friends on WhatsApp. Ate some left over couscous salad with avocado for lunch. Pulled the laundry from the drier, then folded it all and put it away. I felt restless but not sure what to do with myself, didn't feel like crocheting or knitting or stitching. 

It's two o'clock now, and all of a sudden I had an urge to bake, so I decided to make flapjacks. Realised I'd run out of golden syrup, so stood in front of the cupboard for a stupid amount of time trying to decide whether I could use honey and maple syrup instead. Would it work? Not sure, but eventually decided to try it and hope for the best.

I forgot to put my timer on and got distracted online (looking at beautiful seaside apartments to rent), only realising how much time had passed when a slight burning smell filtered into my brain. The flapjacks came out very "caramelized" around the edges, no, not burnt, just very, very well done.

Four o'clock now and I'm sat knitting and chatting to the Little People who are home from school and telling me about their day. Sodden wet muddy rugby kit to deal with, a tearful Little Lady who got her days muddled up and handed in the wrong piece of homework on the wrong day. I knit 7 rows of sock.

The kitty had the right idea....

.....so I allowed myself to be influenced by her and lit the fire so that I could loaf around in front of it warming my toes in the hearth. I didn't have to cook much tonight because we had a bit of a freezer disaster this morning. J came downstairs and found the door open and everything inside partially defrosted, so we had to throw some unsalvageable stuff away and put spaghetti bolognese on the menu for tonight. Luckily everything else in the freezer was either vegetables or bread products which are safe to re-freeze. The culprit was the Big Teen, foraging for an ice lolly in the middle of the night and not shutting the freezer door properly - he apologised and offered to replace the ice cream that had to be thrown out, so I guess it could have been worse. And the spag bol was delish.

At 4.47pm I stood on my front doorstep and took the above photo because it really felt like a minor miracle had occurred. After days of steady rain and glowering grey skies, all of a sudden the clouds were completely gone. Gone! Blue sky, blue sky!!

I did the only sensible thing I could do - pulled on my boots and a coat and ran out the back door and up to the trees at the top of the street.........

......chasing the sun......

......oh just look how glorious the light is!!

Ahhhhhhhh, it was so so so beautiful. Fresh and bright and so full of colour after days where everything has felt brown and grey.

I stood under this sycamore tree and gazed up through it's branches and felt so glad that I'd run up the hill to experience this perfect little slice of an October afternoon.

Utterly glorious.

I hope you've had a really wonderful day and that it has contained at least one utterly glorious moment in it, preferably more than one. Sometimes you've just got to get out there and chase those moments down.

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Blogtober 2021 :: Day 19

Another rain-filled, blustery day with leaves swirling down from the trees as I walked my way into town. Raindrops bounced into the canal, and the roads and pavements were puddled everywhere, but do you know the air felt pretty warm for this time of year (my weather app said 17 degrees) so I didn't mind the wet at all.

My feet were toasty warm in my hand knit socks and beloved Fly London boots - this will be my fifth winter wearing them and I love them very, very much. 

This is the narrow street which runs from the canal side into the centre of town,  a very convenient short cut known mostly to locals. At the very top end, you literally emerge between two shops..... 

....onto this charming little street which is called Sheep Street. At the weekends it is a very bustling, busy street indeed but on a wet Tuesday morning it was extremely quiet as you can see.

Two minutes to nine, and I'm right on time to meet my friend at our favourite café for a much needed milky coffee and a natter. We've been meeting here for over a decade so it feels wonderfully comforting and familiar....

....and the coffee is absolutely scrumptious. Not pictured is the sourdough toast with homemade plum preserve, it didn't last long enough to be captured on camera. It was good to chat to my friend, she's the closest friend I have locally and knows me pretty well. We met when I was pregnant with Little B and she stopped me to tell me how much she loved the crochet scarf I was wearing. I made the scarf in the days before I started blogging, so not sure if I've ever shown it but I wore it so much it eventually fell apart (you can see it on Flickr here, I hope the link works as Flickr is very old skool these days!)

An hour and a half later and another coffee down the hatch, we parted ways and I made my way home....

.....turning down another one of the "cut-throughs" to head back down to the canal. I live less than ten minutes walk from the main town centre shopping streets, so it's no hardship to walk to and fro to meet friends, pick up groceries, grab a quick coffee or run errands.

My diet has been a bit rubbish of late with far too much chocolate consumption and not enough of a healthy balance, so I made sure to have something wholesome for my lunch. I went for poached eggs on wholemeal toast, followed by a plate of fresh fruit. I cannot imagine daily life without fruit, it's probably my most favourite food group of all and always makes me feel good.

After I finished my fruit plate I got up to go and grab a drink, and when I came back to my chair I found it had already been taken.......

.......ooooooo, cheeky kitty! You can just see by the look on her face that she was being oh-so-cute in an attempt to distract me!

I popped out into the rain-soaked back yard this afternoon to put some old magazines into the recycle bin and noticed that my flowers were looking very sodden out there. They are still flowering pretty well, but the days of rain have made them very droopy indeed and I felt a bit sorry for them. I decided to snip some stems to bring inside - popped into a little thrifted jug and placed beside my bed.

I love having little posies beside my bed, it's such a sweet thing to wake up to in the mornings. I washed my bedding this morning so it's all nice and fresh and waiting for me to enjoy tonight, I honestly can't wait.

I felt out of sorts this afternoon, it's day one of my cycle and I was not feeling the best so I took some paracetamol and made myself a hot water bottle to try and ease the discomfort in my lower abdomen. I decided that a frothy decaff coffee and a bit of snuggle time on the sofa would help.......

......and one of these too. Possibly my most favourite chocolate of all time, have you tried them? You know how much I love a good bit of descriptive blurb, well you just have to read this ::

" Experience bliss with Lindt Lindor smooth melting salted caramel chocolate truffles. The Lindt Master Chocolatiers combine expertise and the finest ingredients to produce the perfectly round milk chocolate shell with salt crystals filled with an irresistibly smooth melting caramel centre. Since 1845, Lindt has been dedicated to producing the finest chocolates and the recipes created by the Lindt Master Chocolatiers are of the highest quality to delight your taste buds. The Lindor salted caramel chocolate box is the ideal gift for every occasion, from Father's Day to Easter, birthdays and Christmas, as well as being perfect for indulging in a blissful moment all to yourself "

Well quite, they certainly do delight my taste buds.

The Little People did good with their gift-giving for my birthday this year, although I have been enjoying a good many "blissful moments", way too many actually. I need to ease off a bit, make them last.

The magazines are September issues which I had forgotten about, so the pages are a curious mix of summer and autumn. I found it ever so slightly lacking to be honest (lots of neutrals) but there were a few inspirational pages which made my heart leap. 

Later on in the afternoon I had to pull myself together and prepare to go forth and do parental things. Little Lady needed to go and have some blood tests done which meant a short walk to our local community hospital in town. Afterwards she asked if we could stop at the supermarket and buy pumpkins - I've no idea why she suddenly wanted to go buy pumpkins right after having a needle stuck into her arm, but I figured it would take her mind off things a little. We ended up buying a rather large orange one as well as two smaller squash which were only 50p each. The dark green one is especially lovely in all its knobbly autumnal glory. We'll carve the big'n' on Halloween (when I say we, I mean ME, obvs) - the smaller two will be accents only and then I fully intend to eat them. I seem to remember that green squash have a strikingly orange interior? Delicious.

Right now, this is what I'm viewing just beyond my laptop. I've moved the jug of lilies by the way, after many of you told me how toxic they are to cats, so thank you for that. I had no idea. I've put them up on top of a tall chest of drawers where the kitty cannot get near them and I'm still able to adore them, so all's good.

I don't think the pumpkins can stay on the table until Halloween as the orange one is pretty massive, but for now I'm really enjoying the seasonal appropriateness of it.

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Blogtober 2021 :: Day 18

Today has been one of those days that passed in a blur of not-a-lot-ness, and to be perfectly honest I've not felt inspired to capture any of it in photographic form. It's been another grey and rainy day, the kind of light drizzly rain that seems to be fairly non existent and yet it leaves everything soaking wet. The raindrops caught on the alchemilla leaves stopped me in my tracks earlier when I was coming home after running a quick, wet errand. It's one of those occurrences that always amazes me even though I've seen it dozens and dozens of times.

The lilies on my table are in full throttle now and they are spectacular, I can't stop looking at them and the scent is something else. I know the colours are completely artificial, but I really am enjoying them. I've spent a lot of time at my laptop today doing some housekeeping. My jaunt down Memory Lane yesterday prompted me to take a good look at the files I store, and I've given them all a thorough sort out. Lots of deleting and a complete reshuffle of my word documents into folders so that things are easier to find. And then finally an up-to-date back up of everything onto my external hard drive. It feels good to have done it, but my goodness it was a time suck and didn't leave a lot of space for anything else in my day. 

I've felt a bit on the low side today to be honest, I've got some worries going on with family and it's playing on my mind a lot. I'm trying to decide whether to head down to Dorset next week to check on my Dad, or whether I need to be here to offer support for Little Lady (it's half term next week). I think I'll most likely be heading south, and a few days by the sea is actually very appealing.

Right now I'm going to go and sit by the fire and crochet for a bit and hope those soothing stitches calm my mind a little. Crochet is really, really good for that, especially the colourful rows I'm working on at the moment. I hope you've had a restful day, and I'll try harder with the photos tomorrow xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

Blogtober 2021 :: Day 17

Slow Sunday vibes here today, and it's been good. I enjoyed a little bit of a sleep in (till 7am) and then spent the next few hours sat up in bed with my tablet and several cups of frothy coffee, browsing on Instagram and watching YouTube videos about cute camper van conversions which is my latest fixation. I just can't get enough of watching them and love seeing how people of all ages and walks of life have created their dreamy little homes on wheels. It's insanely appealing, although I swing between desperately wanting to own a camper van and wanting to own a small apartment by the sea somewhere. Of course it's all just day dreaming at the moment, but daydreams do seem to bring me a lot of pleasure. I'm quite happy living in my own fantasy world.

Late morning we ventured out into the drizzly grey of the day to go and have coffee with a distant relative of mine who got in touch out the blue to say she was visiting the town where I live. She's my Dad's cousin which I think makes us second cousins, and although I didn't remember her at all (I think I was around 8 or 9 years old when we last met) her face was instantly familiar when we met up. Her Mum (my great Aunt, who is still alive at age 99) I definitely know and remember and there was a striking resemblance which I recognised immediately. It was a lovely hour to chat about family times and exchange news, and I was glad to make the reconnection.

This afternoon I cooked a chicken and lentil curry in the slow cooker, and spent more time with Little Lady who still seems very down. I'd been looking through my photo archives earlier in the day, diving right back through the years and getting thoroughly lost down Memory Lane. I was actually looking for blogging photos, but in amongst the crochet and flowers and hill views there were of course many, many images of the children going back over the years of their childhood. Oh, it was so sweet to spend time back in my thirties when I was a mum of two little ones, and then in my early forties when life with two young children and a new baby played out in my photos. And then I found the file with years of video clips and I was thoroughly lost back in time for a good while.....in the end I took my laptop up to Little Lady's room, squeezed into bed with her and made her watch endless little reels of her and her brothers when they were small. It really cheered her up I think, well that was the idea. 

Anyhow, I am rambling - what I'm trying to say is that earlier on it dawned on me that there were precisely two images on my camera roll today, and that would make for a very short Blogtober post indeed. So I began to wonder about what this particular day looked like last year, and the year before that, and the year before that? It's an interesting concept and due to my obsessive photography habit I was pretty sure I'd be able to plug in my external hard drive and dig out thirteen 17th-of-Octobers.

Would you like to see what I found? I'll work backwards, starting last year.

17:10:2020 ↑↑ I was sharing my completed cross stitch hoop and chatting about creating a little corner in my bedroom where I'd recently put a small desk. 

17:10:2019 ↑↑ I was working on my Dahlia blanket behind the scenes before launching the yarn pack in November 2019, and by the looks of it I was also poorly (blackcurrant Lemsip in the mug). 

17:10:2018 ↑↑ Snuggling up in the Big Chair with the kitty, working on a design for a woolly bag. I was making it out of a pure wool yarn with the idea of felting it in the washing machine - this project never did get finished, but it's still on my to-do list!

17:10:2017 ↑↑ I was making leaves and acorns for my Autumn Garland and the 17th of October four years ago contained loooooooads of leafy images. I remember having a fantastic time photographing the making process, it was very photogenic.

18:10:2016 ↑↑ I didn't have any photos for the 17th, but on the 18th Ocober 2016 I was in the studio getting all giddy over dried hydrangea flowers. Similar to the Autumn garland, I took lots and lots of inspiration photos of hydrangea flowers as I worked through ideas for a colour palette and blanket.

18:10:2016 ↑↑ October 2015 and I was walking in the woodland, it's certainly a place that you are probably extremely familiar with if you've been visiting with me for a number of years. It's interesting to see that the leaves were very much more Autumnal back then - they are still very green here this year.

17:10:2014 ↑↑ A walk home from town and a photograph of my feet. Ahh, it's the stuff that good seasonal blogs are made of!

18:10:2013 ↑↑ A slightly out of focus but very pretty little jar of back yard flowers on my table. Note that the zigzag baby blanket hanging over the back of my yellow chair is still in situ seven years later. I find it fascinating to see how little changes around here over the years.

18:10:2012 ↑↑ Oh yes, this was a nice surprise! These three little ceramic bowls reminded me that this time nine years ago I'd just returned from teaching on a crochet retreat in the South of France, and I bought these bowls from a market along with a bag of highly scented Provence Lavender. Such wonderful memories - you can read my posts about that trip here, here, here, here, and here. And of course, the project that I designed especially for this trip was the French Bower bird, which you can read about here. 

18:10:2012 ↑↑ a bit of a terrible photo I'm afraid, but I remember that the camera I had at the time really didn't like artificial light. You can see my beloved Big Blanket on my bed, and my colourful Interlocking Ripple blanket in it's early stages. It's been a long while since I made a blanket with anything other than my favourite Stylecraft Special DK.

18:10:2011 ↑↑ Oh, this photo is a bit special because it took me on a jaunt to Mallorca! I was lucky enough to have a long weekend away in October ten years ago (my first time away from Little B, who was only 10 months old at the time), and on this exact day I was wandering around the beautiful Sunday market in Pollensa Old Town. It was soooo photogenic, and I've just spent a gorgeous time re-reading my posts from that trip here and here. 

16:10:2009 ↑↑ Oh look, Little B is still in my tummy here!! Awwww!! I was showing off my stripy crochet wrist warmers and working on a little tutorial for the bobble edging.

17:10:2008 ↑↑ This was the first October in my blogging archives thirteen years ago. My hill view has featured a lot over the years, in all weathers, seasons and at different times of day. Today when I walked to the end of the street and gazed across the valley I could only see a very faint outline of the hill because it was obscured by a damp, grey mist.

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Well, I must say I've really, really enjoyed putting this post together, and it's something I think I'll do again in the future. I know a good many of you have been following me for many, many years, but for those of you who are newer visitors, my archives are listed at the bottom of the right hand side bar so you can dip into them at any time. 

And just for the record, this is post number one thousand, five hundred and sixty two. That's a lot of sharing.

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Blogtober 2021 : Day 16

It's been a couple of weeks since we walked in the woods (Blogtober Day 2) and it was good to be back. I think a woodland walk may well become a new Saturday morning thing for J and me, a prequel to our market jaunt and café breakfast. I think I'd be pretty okay with that kind of weekend arrangement.

Signs of Autumn were plentiful....

...but it felt fresh and is still surprisingly green in the treetops.

It was beautifully quiet along the woodland paths this morning, and I appreciated the sounds of the little beck as it tumbled it's way over the rocks. No matter how many years I live here, it always comes as something of a surprise when you reach the end of the narrow walkway in the photo above and find yourself suddenly in the town centre. 

Out of the woods and straight into town, how convenient is that? We finished our shopping not long after nine and right on cue my tummy made a really loud "feeeeeeed-me" type of a growl. Time to leave the town behind, head over that little hump backed bridge and into the warmth of the café for some outrageously good coffee and a bite to eat.

Ahhhhhhhhh, that's better!! Saturday morning coffee with J as we waited for our eggs on toast to arrive, and I felt overwhelmed with a feeling of deep gratitude. This simple lifestyle of mine is something I used to dream about when I lived a hectic city life, and I feel so, so lucky to be living it.

During the week we eat wholemeal brown bread, but as a treat on Saturdays I always bring home a traditional baguette from the bakers. Crusty bread always makes me crave soup....

....so today when I got home I decided to make some ready for lunch. I had some leeks which needed using up so I made a simple leek and potato soup (I loosely follow this Delia Smith recipe). 

It was yummy, and I even managed to do a pretty drizzle and a garnish with chives from the yarden. All very wholesome I think you'll agree.

Despite my photos looking decidedly leisurely and weekendish, I did also manage to get a few jobs done. Two loads of laundry washed, dried and put away, the kitty's litter box and eating mat all cleaned and disinfected, bins emptied, a quick swish and swipe around the bathroom surfaces. I'm very slap dash when it comes to housework, and truthfully there is a lot more that I should really be doing on a more regular basis, but I try not to stress over it. I find that clean clothes and good homecooked food are priorities and everything else will get done as and when.

It's been cold today, so I lit the fire in the mid afternoon and settled down right beside the hearth to knit for a little while. It was a slow and pleasurable hour or so - the Little People were all doing their own thing, J was sat in the big chair reading, and I enjoyed those knitty stitches very much.

I finished the leg of sock one, then I cast on and knit the rib for sock two on the second needle. I have two identical small circular needles because I like to knit both socks at the same time. Actually, I've had a few questions lately about the needles I use for knitting socks, so I thought I'd show you what they look like.

After trying out the recommended 30cm short circular needle at the start of my sock making journey I found that it was just a bit too big for my knitting tension (it pulled my stitches too much and kept catching). A friend suggested I try a slightly shorter needle so I switched down to a 23cm length and found it suits me perfectly. They are much harder to find in this length - I would recommend looking for HiyaHiya or ChiaoGhoo brands (you can find HiyaHiya 23cm / 2.5mm short circulars at Wool Warehouse).

Right now I'm sat at the dining table and I've been trying to write this blog for the past three hours. Three HoUrs!! I've had approximately 249 interruptions from the Little People as well as the TV (a supernatural horror drama with lots of screaming), and so I've not got any idea if my writing even strings together properly. I hope it's not too jumbled because I'm too tired now to check through it. I'll just press Publish and hope for the best.

Hoping you've had a great day with lots of happy moments which have made you thankful.

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Blogtober 2021 : Day 15

Ahhh, it's the end of the week and to be honest I feel a little bit done in. Some weeks just feel longer than usual and leave me feeling a weensy bit ragged around the edges, do you know what I mean? Or is it just me? My alarm woke me at 6am and I was so hard and fast asleep it felt like my eyelids were glued together. After a much needed coffee (which I sneak back to bed to drink) and a splash of cold water on my face, I was ready to head out 40 minutes later, and oh, what a truly gorgeous start to the morning it turned out to be.

There is no mistaking the season now, the crisp chill in the air could only belong to autumn. Despite walking much of our early morning walk in semi-darkness, it's still amazing how much we get to see and appreciate. 

Three hours later and I was heading out again, by myself this time. Friday mornings always bring about a feeling of excitement as it's one of my favourite parts of the whole week - precious time spent with my yarny tribe, yippeeee!!

Just look at that sky, isn't it radiant? There wasn't a cloud in sight this morning, the sky was completely clear and blue and it made me feel so good. I hope we have many more days like this before the year is out. Isn't it strange to think that there are only eleven more weeks left in this year - that's right, only seventy seven days left of 2021. How??? I've no idea how, the passing of time honestly baffles me sometimes.

I thought you might like to see the above view which I don't think I've ever shared before. In the morning when I set off on my jaunts, I head down the steep hill from the end of my street, round the corner at the bottom before crossing over the canal via a swing bridge which opens from time to time to let the boats pass through. Once I've crossed the canal I can either turn right to head along the tow path to the park or turn left to head along the tow path towards school town. Or I can walk straight ahead and continue down that steep hill which runs between the mill buildings and takes me to Coopers café and the supermarket etc. Believe it or not this is actually a road where cars drive (cars can also drive across the swing bridge) - I wonder if you have any unusual roads like this where you live? I do enjoy living in such a historical town, and especially love the textile heritage of the old cotton mill buildings here.

Coopers café was a really fun place to be this morning, it was buzzing with friends and all things yarny and I loved it, every single minute of it. It was extra special too because my old friend Tracy (who I used to share the studio with) was visiting for the first time in twenty months since she moved with her family to a very small island far away in Orkney. It was wonderful to see her again, and to catch up with all her news, I've missed her and she hasn't changed a bit which was lovely. 

I spent much of this afternoon with Little Lady, doing my very best to offer advice and support, she is really coming through some wobbles right now. These teenage years can be tricky to navigate, there is so much decision making expected at a time when I don't think they are always ready for it. Add in a dash of sky-high hormones and the melting pot is quite likely to bubble over. The main advice I could offer is that whatever happens at the end of this school year, she will be OK. She will have our unconditional love and support no matter what grades she gets and what she decides to do (or not do). All will be as it should be. I hope that doesn't sound too vague, I mean it with all my heart.

It was definitely time for a little bit of liquid refreshment come four o'clock, that's for sure. We decided not to cook this evening and had a very rare Chinese takeout instead. J and I shared crispy duck and pancakes which is quite the treat I have to say - it was very yummy, but now I am overly full (I ate too much) and feel extremely thirsty. Like I could drink a bath full of chilled fresh water, I am parched dry from head to toe. Water, water, water, it's all I can think about. I want to lie down and rest my full tummy, and drink water for ever.

We are pretty much half way through the month of October now, day fifteen of thirty one. I hope you're still enjoying our daily get togethers during Blogtober and not yawning your way through the sameyness of my daily routines. I wonder if you're visiting any other blogtober blogs? Christine? CJ? Barbara? Do tell me your thoughts, I love to hear them. I'm thinking about doing an "ask me anything" type Q&A sometime next week, is there anything you've always wanted to ask or wanted to know? Gosh, here's me asking you lots of questions, haha, please do feel free to ask me any burning questions and I'll put them together in a post of some sorts.

Right............w....a.....t.....e....r......

I really need to go and get a drink or ten, so I shall love you and leave you and will be back again tomorrow.

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Mandala Hoop Love

I've been meaning to write this post for a long time now, and today seemed like it would be a good time to do it. I wanted to document the collection of mandala hoops I've made over the years so that all the blog post links and pattern details would be easy to find in one place.

I've been making mandala hoops for years, ever since I was involved with Yarndale and had the idea to create colourful crochet decorations for the yarny event. 

At first I was just making these gorgeous starflower mandalas for the creative thrill and excellent colour therapy. But after I'd made two in quick succession and realised how large and eye catching they were (45cm across), I thought that if I could work out a way to attach them to hoops then they would make really excellent hanging decorations.

I made the Starflower Mandalas in 2014 -  the blog post and pattern links are below >

♥ Starflower Mandala blog post ♥

♥ Starflower Mandala pattern by Zelna Olivier ♥

Two years later in 2016 and I was at it again, working on more large 45cm mandala hoops to hang in the trees at Yarndale.

The above two hoops were made using the central part of a free doily pattern I found on Ravelry. Doilies are traditionally made with very fine crochet thread, but the patterns work equally well when crocheted with DK cotton, only they are obviously very much larger.

The blog post and free pattern details for the mandalas shown above are linked below >

♥ Mandala Hoops blog post ♥

♥ Autumn Spice Doily pattern by Elizabeth Ann White ♥

A short while later and I was still obsessing over making these mandala hoops, I just couldn't seem to get them out of my system.

The one pictured above was taken from a pattern for a summer shawl which was published in Simply Crochet magazine (issue 47). Similar to the doily patterns, the shawl was made using much finer yarn, and the original design made a substantial circle. Upscaling to DK weight cotton, I simply crocheted the first 19 rounds to make a 45cm mandala which fit the plastic child's hoops I'd bought.

You can find blog and pattern links below >

♥ Mandala Hoop blog (includes photos showing my method of attaching the mandala to a hoop) ♥ 

♥ Mandala Love Shawl by Elisabeth Davis de Herraiz ♥

Another couple of years later in 2018 I began to make a collection of slightly smaller 30cm mandalas designed to fit into metal craft rings. 

These are quick projects to work on and insanely satisfying, I can highly recommend them if you want to have fun with colour and make something pretty to hang on the wall or dangle somewhere eye catching.

The blog post and pattern links are below >

♥ Mandala Hoops blog (including my own design) ♥

♥ Spirit Mandala pattern by Lilla Björn (shown above) ♥

♥ Dream Catcher Mandala by Emily Littlefair ♥

The mandala pictured above is my own design and I named it the Positivity Mandala.

You can find links below >

♥ Blog post showing colours and photos of the Positivity Mandala in progress ♥

♥ Positivity Mandala pattern and photo tutorial ♥

The above photo shows the first six mandala hoops I made to fit 30cm metal hoops - I LOVE them so much!

Another year on and it's the Spring of 2019. The rather grand building in the photo above is a chateau in the French Alps which has been converted into a beautiful hotel, and I had the pleasure of staying here during the Spring of 2019. Lucky, lucky, lucky me!! This was a working holiday for me as I was invited to be a tutor on a week long crochet retreat, how splendid is that? As it happened, the retreat was so popular when it was released on the Arena Travel website that it sold out in less than 24 hours, so I was asked if I would do a second week. Did they really have to ask??! 

Springtime in the French Alps is absolutely delicious and I had a wonderful time teaching two groups of very lovely ladies. I created a workshop which focused on some elements of colour theory, as well as giving lots of help and advice about planning and creating colour palettes for crochet projects. 

I decided to use mandalas as a way of experimenting with colour and putting some colour theory into practice and I designed some new patterns especially for the retreats.

This is a smaller 20cm hoop and I called this the Daydreamer Mandala. The simplicity of the pattern allowed for the focus to be on the colours, and the decorative dangly bits were a fun way to finish it off.

We used a combination of crochet with felt feathers, wooden beads and ribbons.....

....and the ladies really enjoyed this project. The resulting mandala hoops were so lovely!

I also designed a bigger 30cm mandala hoop which I named the Chateau Mandala. In the photo above, my hoop is the one at the top left of the photo. It was fascinating to see how the ladies selected and ordered their own colours, and how unique each mandala looks even though everyone started out with the same yarn palette. 

Another year on and it's 2020, the year of the pandemic. I crocheted the above rainbow mandala for no other reason than I needed some colour and yarn therapy, and mandala hoops are most excellent at delivering in times of need. This is the same pattern I used in France - the Chateau Mandala - made using a rainbow palette of Ricorumi DK. 

I love the way it turned out, and really enjoyed working from my own pattern which added another layer of satisfaction to this sweet project.

The rainbow Chateau Mandala is here in the Attic right now, but not for too much longer. You see, I've offered to donate it to a charity raffle which is happening this coming Sunday 17th. The raffle has been organised by my lovely blogging friend Helen to raise money for a charity which is very close to her heart. There are prizes to be won every week, and they are all of a yarny nature - my mandala is only a small part of a larger prize this week and it's absolutely fabulous - you can see more on Helen's blog .

The raffle is run via Just Giving, so the idea is that you donate to buy raffle tickets. So £2 will buy you two tickets, £5 five tickets etc. You can donate right up to the end of Sunday, and the winner will be announced on Monday, does that makes sense? It's open worldwide too. Here is the direct link to the raffle page >>>

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/helen-kurtz

Helen has raised more than £21,000 in the past two years which is a remarkable achievement, please support if you can.

Well, I think that's all my mandala madness for now, I hope you've enjoyed seeing my projects from the past seven years all in one place, and who knows, perhaps you might feel inspired to make some for yourself?

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ps I forgot to add links in for hoops, so here they are for reference >>

♥ 30cm white metal craft hoop

♥ 30cm wooden craft hoop

♥ 45cm child's hula hoop