Attic24

Autumn Colour

I had a slow start to my day and I welcomed it wholeheartedly, making the most of this week where I'm home with the fam and there is no school routine to dictate my schedule. J is also off work this week so it feels good for us to just be in this slow, gentle routine together. We went out for a coffee this morning, and it feels like the Autumn season really got into full swing in the short time we were away.

Later I walked into town on my own, I needed to call in at the bank to make an appointment and pick up a few groceries. I took a homemade chilli out of the freezer this morning and bought some large baking potatoes to have with it instead of rice. Perfect Autumn comfort food.

On my way home I detoured into the church yard, it was unplanned and somehow I found myself there without really realising that's where I wanted to go. I have felt a little like I've been in a daze today, a bit detached from reality. I sat on a sunny bench for a little while, watching people come and go. I chatted to the jackdaws (I was surrounded by them on all sides, seven in total like a little gang) and ate half a bag of sugar snap peas. Afterwards I wondered what I must have looked like, a lady sitting on a bench talking to the birds and eating peas. I'm obviously in my crazy bench era.

I really enjoyed my slow stroll home, wandering these much loved little pathways along the canal side. Being by water is so calming. Obviously the sea will always have my heart but I'm drawn to any kind of water - lakes, ponds, rivers, waterfalls, fountains, canals.

The colours of Autumn were looking so inviting today, I can't believe how much change there has been in the trees since last week.

^^ Isn't it beautiful? This Japanese Acer puts on such a fiery show each year - you can see the pretty leaves it sheds onto the pavement in the first photo.

I want to thank you all for the comments you've been writing to me on my recent posts, and to tell you how much they have meant to me. I know from what you write that so many of you have enjoyed my daily ramblings, and in turn I've really, really enjoyed your words written back to me in the comments. We (you and me) are a two way street, isn't that a lovely thought?

Writing a daily October blog has been weirdly therapeutic, and although at times I've felt very vulnerable sharing such personal life stuff, it has helped me a lot to be able to share my thoughts. I know for a fact that if I hadn't committed to Blogtober, you would not have heard from me at all during these past few weeks. I would have hibernated until my emotions were back in check. And yet I don't have one regret about showing up in this space and writing about my days, it's proof that no matter what we go through, there is always beauty in the world and things to be grateful for. Those small moments of mindfulness and gratitude mean so much, most especially on the fraught days.

If you followed me in past years with Blogtober you will know that I do like to put together a monthly review at the end. It's a fun post for me to create and I'm looking forward to doing it again this year. This month has been far from ordinary! I can't even remember what was happening at the start of October, it's all a blur in my mind - haha - I wish this was an exaggeration, but sadly it's true. No. Idea.

So a review will be coming, it's a mystery what it will look like, but I'll be happy to share it with you.

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♥ Blogtober 2021 review

♥ Blogtober 2020 review

 

 

Joyful June

We are almost at the end of this early summer month and hand on heart it has been an utter dream. The weather - ohhhh - the WeAtHer!!!! It has been perfectly perfect, really hot and sunny and light and bright. And then after a good few weeks of parched dryness we had some terrific summer storms with giant claps of thunder which shook the whole house, and I mean literally, the house ((shook)). It was quite scary at the time, possibly the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my entire life. We've also had some wild downpours, bringing us the most lush smell of summer rain on dry ground. I've loved it, the heat and the sun and the rain and the smell of it all, it has made me so bloomin' happy.

We've still been trying to get out and walk every morning at 7am, but these past few weeks it's been harder than usual for us to wake up in time. I think it's because J and I both suffer from hayfever and the pollen has been very high in this hot, humid weather. The first weeks of hayfever season do kind of knock the wind from your sails and we've both felt unusually tired even though we've been sleeping very well.

But on the mornings when we are up and out, it is so, so beautiful in the woodland in June, the greenery is in full tilt and the slant of sunshine through the leafy trees makes my heart sing.  

These long, hot golden days have drawn me out in the evenings too, even though honestly I've had so little energy to spare. Little Lady often pulls me from my slump on the sofa and I can't resist when she is so keen to have my company.

I mean, eight o'clock in the evening and it looks like this ↑↑ - I would give anything to experience this in midwinter! So outside I go, making the most of these deliciously long, bright summer evenings.

Summer views out over the town as we stroll home from the woodland, gosh, I do feel so lucky to have all this on my doorstep.

It's almost been too hot to walk through much of June (and by that I mean the sort of walking that eats up the miles), but J and I have done a little bit. Mostly local ambles across the fields and down quiet lanes, time to stretch out our muscles and chatter together about this and that. 

The kitty has been flopped out all over the place, sometimes lolling over the furniture but often times she's taken to hiding away under my bed which I guess must be a cool spot for her. Did I mention it's been hot??? ;)

Our routines continue to flow through these early summer weeks - Saturday morning trips to the market where the fruit and veg is abundantly ripe and lush. I ate a lot of asparagus this month.

The strawberries are especially good at the moment and we are eating our way through punnets and punnets of them each week. I'm not big into ice cream, but last week I had a craving for it and bought a small tub of plain vanilla, mainly to have with strawberries. Oooo, it was stupidly good, I had kind of forgotten the deliciousness of good vanilla ice cream with very ripe strawberries.

On Friday mornings, I like to try and walk to the bakery if I have time before 8am. It's not very far to walk, less then ten minutes each way, and I can walk part of it along the canal. The bakery is just over this wooden bridge and across the road to the right there.

I like to treat the Little People (who are no longer little) on a Friday, because I think to myself that this is the kind of mothering that might stick in their minds when they are grown. When I was growing up, we used to have croissants once a year at Christmas, and if my Mum had gotten up early to go to the bakery to fetch me fresh pastries for breakfast on an average Friday, I would have been absolutely beside myself with the luxury of it. I tell this tale to my Little People of course, and in return I do receive genuine thanks and gratitude which I believe are the foundations for true happiness.

Spending lots of time outside in our modest little yarden, and enjoying the simple pleasure of unpegging and folding warm, fragrant, sun dried laundry. The joy of it never gets old.

We had our town's annual charity Gala, the usual  procession of decorated floats, walking entertainers and marching bands passing the very end of our street as they made their way to the park. It's such an old fashioned tradition and a bit faded nowadays I suppose, but always touches some deep rooted memories I have of experiencing many carnival processions as a child. Here in Atticland, the tradition of a charity Gala is positively ancient, with the very first one being held in 1901. As well as the entertainments, there is always a travelling fairground set up in the park, and at precisely 10pm on Saturday night there is a free firework display. I'm a sucker for fireworks and absolutely love the dramatics of an aerial display, it really was excellent this year.

A few weeks ago my good friend Christine came to visit from Winwick for the day which is always a lovely thing. As the weather was far too warm to be doing yarny things inside a café, we opted for a walk at Bolton Abbey instead.

Eeeep, it was hot! With hindsight it was maybe far too hot for a five mile walk, but as much of it was through shady woodland we thought it would be OK. It was a moderately sweaty affair, and I was really glad when the bridge came into sight and I knew that a a sit down and some much needed refreshment was in my near future.

I opted for old fashioned Victorian lemonade, and at the last minute I decided that I really, absolutely needed to top up my energy levels and picked out a generous slice of Victoria sponge. My very Victorian refreshment combo was exceptionally good I have to say.

Don't worry though, I have still been drinking coffee right through the recent summer heatwave. Spending Friday mornings in the company of good yarny friends continues to be a true highlight of my weeks and I love my "Coopers" times so much. The past few Fridays I've been knitting instead of crocheting because none of my current crochet projects are particularly portable or sociable.

I cast on these "Frost" socks at the beginning of March, so I was keen to get them finished up and off my needles.

I'm happy to report that a) they are indeed finished and off my needles, and b) they fit like a dream and feel amazing on my feet. Obviously June hasn't in any way been sock weather and my toes have been permanently living an airy, sock-free life. But my newly completed socks did get a wash, a blocking session, and then a try-on which is the law when you finish knitting a pair of handmade socks. If anyone is remotely interested, the yarn is an old, hard-to-find Regia yarn, the "frost" colourway designed by Kaffe Fassett. I purchased from a lovely little online company called KnitUK. The sock pattern I always use is the beginner-friendly Basic 4ply Sock by Christine at Winwick Mum.

Hmmm.....what else to tell you about the joys of June? Flowers are featuring in my daily life and I am thrilled by them as always. The climbing rose is blooming in my front garden ....

....and in the yarden the first sweet peas have flowered. I was late planting the plantlets so they are still quite small and straggly, but they are so good at popping out floral abundance even when the plants themselves look less than stellar.

The first flowers had very short stems and in all honesty I felt very guilty snipping them because it seemed a bit cruel to strip the plants. But I know from experience that the more you cut them, the stronger the plants will grow and more flowers will be sure to follow. Plus there is the obvious bonus of this.............

..........the most uplifting, joy-inducing jug of flowers on my table, making me ever so ridiculously happy. Love love love love love times a gazillion. There is nothing nicer than a small homegrown posy in a jug - well maybe a large homegrown posy might be nicer, but I was still delighted with the humble nature of this small arrangement. Absolute Joy in a Jug.

Summer Solstice came last week and it was the usual emotional affair for me. I find this particular day in the year so full of feels - gratitude, joy and relief for the abundance of daylight, but also the rather sinking realisation that days will now get shorter. As my darling husband delighted in telling me, and I quote - "It's all down hill from here. Soon be Christmas". Well bloody hell, what can you say to that?!!

Anyhow, I ignored his harsh, winter-loving words and went forth into the evening to marvel at the very lightness and beauty of it, and to drink in the knowledge that at this time of year the sun sets at a quarter to ten in the North of England. Wowsers, it's absolutely lovely out there in June.

I had Little B with me on this Solstice jaunt - 9.42pm in the above photo as we were strolling home from the meadow together. We'd been on a little walk around the fields to see if there were any elderflowers still blooming because it's been a very early, short season for these precious flowers this year and I feared I might have missed them.

I had no need to worry because we found a whole hedgerow of trees still in flower, so we went together the very next day to gather some in.

So pretty! 

We managed to snip enough to make 3 litres of cordial (recipe in this post, scroll down to find), so all was fragrant and floral and zesty in my kitchen for a while last week. We're all really enjoying this delicious summery drink and I have lots of small bottles of it stashed in the freezer.

I'm well aware that I've had very little to share with you on the creative front this year, and I feel weirdly sad about it, like I'm letting you all down a bit. As you know, my annual crochet-along finished at the end of February and ever since then I've been in a real dither with my creative endeavours. 

However - stuff has been happening in the background, in slow, stuttering stops and starts. In April I created a colour palette for a new blanket which is a square design - I think I might have shown you a few little bits of it here and there. It's been a challenge to find the necessary focus and concentration to tackle this blanket, but I have a September deadline and I hope to be able to show you some progress once I've actually done a bit more work on it. Right now it's just messy piles of part-made squares which don't really make much sense!

Overlapping that, I had to then create another colour palette ready for my next annual CAL, as it's necessary for me to work five months in advance when choosing my colours with Stylecraft. So I was working hard on that last week, and I'm happy to say that as I already had the spark of inspiration in my mind, the stitch pattern and colour palette came together like a dream. Following on from the beautifully muted Springfrost colours, this next one is rich and colourful and I am so so excited about what I've chosen. 

And finally, this week has been all about preparing for my upcoming crochet retreat to Madeira (I fly out next Thursday), and yet again I'm so sorry that I can't show you what I've been working on. All this invisible behind-the-scenes stuff is very boring, isn't it?!

Do you like the sky in the above photo? It was a-maz-ing to stand underneath it, I felt a bit like I was going to fall into it, sort of like a reverse kind of vertigo. 

Well.....this has turned into an epic blog post, over two thousand words of ramble about the month of June. I am never short of things to yak on about it seems. I wonder how you've been, and hope that there have been plenty of joyful moments for you during this lovely mid-year month. Drop me a line or two and tell me what's been making you happy of late, I do really enjoy reading all about life at your end.

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A Lovely May Weekend

I was thinking yesterday about all the many, many weekends I've written about on my blog over the years, and how they are mostly a visual celebration of ordinary, domestic life. Nothing outrageously exciting ever happens on my weekends, they are made up of mundane routines, gentle chores and slow living, and I am honestly full of gratitude for the uncomplicated ease of them. I was saying to a friend the other day that I think living a slow, contented and ever so slightly boring life is very underrated in terms of the happiness it delivers.

When the Little People were young, my weekends looked and felt very different. All three of them were seriously early risers (especially at this time of year when it's light in the mornings) and it was such a full-on, rather cray-cray time in my life parenting three Littles. I remember wondering what life might feel like in the future when I could wake up before them and spend my days doing pretty much what I wanted to do while they did their own thing, I could hardly imagine the total luxury of it back then. Fast forward to now, and I'm living and loving my once longed for quiet morning starts, and fully enjoying my leisurely weekend days where I have plenty of time to relax and do things that make me happy.

It's a funny thing looking back to those days (and I do often read back through my own Attic24 archives to help me remember), because I really did love parenting through the toddler and young school ages....and yet....I am SO HAPPY that I'm beyond it all haha!! Of course I do still have my three offspring at home so I'm still parenting, but at ages 20, 19 and 13 it's a totally different kind of gig these days.

Anyhooo....where was all this leading, I really don't know.....I hadn't meant to wander off down memory lane! 

I was at Coopers café on Friday morning which isn't strictly the weekend but often times those hours at the tail end of the  school week do have a delightfully weekendish feel. I had a lovely time chatting to my friends while knitting up some stripy rows, eating toasted crumpets and slurping a frothy cappuccino. I cast on these "frost" socks at the start of March and they are great to have on the go for when I'm at that faffy, unsociable stage with my crochet project.

We went out for a walk in the woods on Sunday morning, notable because a) I spotted the first bluebells in flower and b) we had both Little B and Little Lady walking with us. I've worked out that I can encourage them to walk with us on a Sunday morning if it's not too early (10.30am is the sweet spot) and if we detour via their favourite coffee chain on the way. The lure of a Sunday morning coffee and a pastry works wonders, I wonder where they get these ideas from (??!)

The woodland is absolutely bursting with greenery and lushness right now....

....fresh green leafage everywhere you look.

Spotting these teeny tiny fluffy ducklings dancing along in the reflections made me quite weak at the knees, the cuteness was almost too much.

It takes about ten minutes to walk from the coffee shop on the main high street to the woodland, isn't that something? Such a lovely combination of pleasures to enjoy on a sun dappled Sunday morning.

It's three in the afternoon on Sunday now, and things are happening out on our street. For once, the weather got the memo and there is blue sky up above, yay! Bunting is flapping in the breeze, and down below there are tables all set with cloths and napkins ready to be piled with all manor of sandwiches, cakes, fruit platters and savoury snacks.

I didn't take in any of the Kings Coronation on Saturday as I was busy doing other things, but on Sunday it was a lovely chance for our little terraced community to come out and celebrate. I live on such a friendly street where we know most of our neighbours up and down on both sides. There are thirty houses in total, and being terraced I think it's safe to say that we have no choice but to be close knit! It makes for a very jovial atmosphere when the children are all out to play (we had a permit to close the street so there were no cars for a few days) and everyone brings chairs and benches and gets down to the happy business of chit-chatting and having fun.

I snapped the above photo on my phone and it did make me laugh just now when I uploaded it - a jug of Pimms next to a half empty bottle of bubble mixture, kind of sums up the afternoon rather nicely! The kids varied in age from small toddlers up to teenagers, and the activities included bubbles and chalks (so nostalgic), a little bit of football, some jump rope skipping (huge fun, nearly wet myself laughing when the adults got involved after a whole lot of Pimms had gone down), and later s'mores on the barbecue, music and dancing well into the dark of the night.

As a result of the enormous quantity of Pimms which ended up in my system, Monday was spent mostly horizontal in a recovery position. It was worth it though, such a happy and memorable day.

I hope you had a good weekend, whether it was mundane or something exciting, do tell me what you got up to? I'd love to hear..

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All the Thank-You's

I've been thinking about you a lot this past week and wondering how I got lucky enough to have so many beautiful souls in my life. This community that you and I are a part of, the one that has grown and flourished around my Attic window over the years, is absolutely amazing and I couldn't be more thankful for each and every one of you.

After my last post where I had a long chat with you about my recent trip to Dorset and my Dad's health, I was deeply touched by your words which flew in through my window and wrapped me in the biggest virtual hug. (( T h a n k ~ y o u ))....so, so much for every comment both here on my blog and on Facebook too, you've no idea how much it helped me when I was feeling quite raw and worried. Your kindness and empathy was so very much appreciated, but also thank you for the great practical advice too. I made notes, wrote a long list, and have lots of amazing suggestions which I know I can work with to help ease the pathway forward.

I've felt quite a lot brighter this week actually, and for that I'm thankful. I hate feeling so overwhelmed and flattened by worry, it really doesn't suit me one little bit and I usually try and do everything in my power to rise above it.

I generally find that flowers help, and these gorgeous tulips have really brightened my days this week. They were a cheap supermarket buy and worth every penny - I snapped the above image one morning when the sun was streaming in through the window and lighting up the petals, honestly, such a simple moment which made me really happy.

The sun has helped too, when it decided to come out from the grey. Right now as I sit and write at my desk, it is really bloomin' cold, an unwelcome return to single digit winter-like temperatures and grey skies. But during the past week we've had days here and there that have felt like real Spring, not the pretend kind which appears to look like Spring but which still freezes your extremities, no, this was real, genuine warmth and I love love loved it. I even went out without a coat!!

The grass in the park had it's first cut of the season and it looked so good, although the smell of freshly cut grass weirdly wasn't there which was very disappointing. Can you see that line of trees in the above photo that have a very faint pink tint to them?

Well that's the double line of cherry trees which I obsess over every year around about this time. I'm in full on stalker mode, and during the past week I've made all sorts of weird excuses in my day to go and look at them. Need to buy groceries? Lets go the long way to the supermarket via the cherry trees! Need to get some bloomin' work done? Nah.....why not procrastinate BIG TIME and instead of sitting at my laptop, get outside and go see the cherry trees instead! 

But just look ^^^ we are on The Cusp of Bloom! How exciting, and how totally irresistible, I'm sure you can see why these trees call to me every day. You can just call me the Blossom Stalker, and I shall keep you updated on floral developments.

J and I are loving our early morning walks still, and at 7 o'clock we head out the front door to go stretch our legs and enjoy walking these familiar pathways together.

Now that Spring is well under way, the sun is fully up as we walk through the woodland and the bank of wild garlic is growing greener by the day. It's such a pleasure to be out and about this early in the morning and well worth the effort it takes to get out of bed and make it happen.

Book-ending a fresh, sunny spring day with a walk is the loveliest thing - first the morning woods with J, and then out to the meadow in the early evening with my girl. I absolutely love that she'll ask me to go on a walk with her when she feels the need to unwind her mind or talk things through ♥

It's a quarter to seven in the evening in the above photo, and we (Little Lady and me) were walking homewards from the meadow. The blackthorn blossom is at it's peak here in the north of England and it's looking absolutely delicious. We're now into the wild floral season and we've still so much to look forward to - the wild garlic will be flowering soon, the bluebells will be out next month, and then the cow parsley and buttercups will show up. It's no wonder that May is my most favourite month of the year.

Yesterday I finished my sampling and made the final colour adjustments for my next blanket, and it felt SO GOOD! My crojo hasn't really been in full flow the past few months and I've been working on this new design in very stuttery stops and starts. This is going to be a square blanket which will take quite a lot of concentration as I'll be working on a gazillion colour decisions on the fly. But I'm committed to the cause, and more importantly I'm inspired and excited by it too. I'm looking forward to sharing the journey with you, and hopefully by next week I should have made enough progress to put a blog post together to share the inspiration behind the colours.

Well, I feel all talked out now it seems, even though this is a relatively short post. I just wanted to show up here to send you all the thank-you's, and to let you know that I've turned a bit of a corner out of the worry cul-de-sac I was stuck in for a while. Clear roads ahead I hope.

I'll be back soon - J and I went on a date on Monday and I took some photos to document the rare occasion, I'm sure you'll be riveted (!)...........more soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

Springy Easter Things

There's a small but prolific ornamental cherry tree growing in my next door neighbours front garden and during the past two weeks this tree has bloomed it's little heart out. After a very cold,  slow start to the spring season it's been absolutely glorious to gaze up at these gorgeous flowers and feel the gentle warmth of the sun on my face.

The tree has been a-buzz with bees and it made me feel grateful for our neighbours who grow such lovely flowers, shrubs and trees in their small patches of front garden.

There aren't any floral trees in my own front garden just yet (our butterfly bush is an August flowering shrubby tree), but I did plant up a large terracotta pot of grape hyacinths and narcissus which is looking rather lovely on my door step. 

I've had these daffodils on my table during the past week, and I've been swooning over them on a daily basis. I splashed out an extra pound on this fancy-pants frilly bunch in celebration of Easter and they've been so lovely, if just a bit extra.

Also on my table this week is a cute bowl of mini eggs. Along with hot cross buns, these delicious little chocolatey morsels are an essential taste of Easter for me and I absolutely go mad for them. The mini-egg season is over for another year and I'm quite sad about it, but then again I don't think they would be so special if you could buy them all year round.

I unearthed the Easter Box from the depths of the attic eaves and was overcome by a tender wave of fondness and nostalgia. So many memories held in this miscellaneous pile of bits n bobs, a precious reminder of years gone by when the Little People were still oh-so-little. 

I love decorating for the seasons (I think Easter is my favourite actually), and bringing out the same decorations year after year feeds into my emotions for sure. At one time I used to decorate purely for the enjoyment of the Little People, but that faded away some years ago and honestly, now I do it all for me, me, me. 

Easter weekend was mostly quite sunny and warm and I was able to use my outside washing line for the first time this year. Sun dried cotton bedding has to be one of life's great pleasures - getting into bed in the evening when it's all fresh and clean and smells DiViNEly of the outdoors is just the most joyful thing.

Day by day the trees are waking from their winter rest and this particular shade of new-leaf-green really makes my heart sing. 

On the woodland floor there is no shortage of greenery because we are right in the middle of wild garlic season and I'm very happy about it.

I picked some leaves to bring home a few days ago so that I could whizz up some wild garlic pesto. I generally manage to make one or two batches each year (here is my recipe blog post) - the wild garlic picking window (when the leaves are young and fresh and before the flowers arrive) is pretty small so you've got to be motivated when the time is right.

I made a jam jar full of this vibrant green sludge and it tastes wickedly garlicky, it's incredibly potent. In fact, I'm almost too scared to eat it because I fear I will reek of garlic for weeks on end and repulse everyone. I went and bought the most expensive and Italian-looking spaghetti I could find in the supermarket to make a simple bowl of garlic pesto pasta....but I've yet to pluck up the courage to do it. I've got the garlic fear.

Since Easter weekend came and went, the warm, springlike weather vanished and a storm has blown in across the UK. It's been rotten, absolutely rotten this week. Really cold, seriously blustery and wet, wet, wet. I think the official term would be "Squally Showers" (and shamefully I just had to look up the spelling of squally). In amongst the weather chaos there have been odd little patches of unexpected sunshine, and we were lucky on Tuesday to time it right and spend a couple hours walking at Bolton Abbey without getting drenched. 

It was a lovely amble along the riverside, made even more special by the sighting of a peacefully grazing deer. This is only the second time we've spotted a deer at Bolton Abbey, although I'm pretty sure they are there all the time and are experts at staying hidden. I love walking with the family so much (we had Little Lady and Little B with us), and the pleasure of it has only grown over the years since they were small little peeps walking with us.

We drove home via the "scenic route" which takes us up over the top of Barden moor, and it was lovely to see the hills rolling into the distance under a blue sky with nooooo raaaaain. We stopped the car very briefly and Little Lady and I got out to get a blast of fresh air - it's the kind of fresh that steals your breath clean away and I love to inhale it right down to my toes.

Do you recall the very first photo of this rambly blog post, the one where I showed you my neighbours cherry tree? Well it has reached its peek now and due to the squally conditions this week, we've been showered in petal confetti every time we step out the front door. So pretty, despite the bloomin' rain and wind.

Did I mention how cold it's been too? I wish my Springy April narrative was different, but alas we've been plunged temporarily back into winter and the past few evenings I've even lit the fire to keep out the chill. I hear next week's supposed to get better, and this morning the ladies in the coffee shop told me to expect double digit temperatures next week, woohoo.

I wish I had more exciting things to talk to you about, but truthfully life just lately has felt like a bit of an uphill trudge. I think my immune system must be a bit fed up because I've got yet another cold, hot on the heels of recovering from that awful one last month. I've struggled with low energy levels, and not a lot of motivation to do anything much. 

The week before Easter I went down to Dorset, my second visit of the year. I travelled by train to go and stay for a week with my Dad again, a trip planned so that Lady B could take some days away from the responsibility of caring for him. I never know quite how much to share about this kind of thing as my family affairs are pretty personal...but the reality is that I am carrying a fair bit of worry about my Dad's health and it does affect my equilibrium quite a lot. We are around two years into a steady dementia decline and I can tell you it's tough. I do try and deal with it in as positive a way as I can, and of course I do still love to be down in Dorset - but yeah, it's not at all easy. Maybe I'll chat to you more about it in another post, and show you some of the photos I took there?

Thanks as ever for calling in to visit, and if you have time to leave me a comment then I'd love to hear your news. 

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Autumn Snaps :: November 2022

♥ Early November brought the first frosts and our seven o'clock morning walks were suddenly very chilly. Such a beautiful and invigorating way to start the day though, I love the energy it gives me.

♥ Continuing to walk around my lovely little rural home town, observing the beauty of the changing seasons.

♥ Even on damp, dull days the autumn colours cheered my spirits and I took so much pleasure from being out underneath the trees.

♥ Most weekday mornings I head out by myself for an hour or so, mostly to pick up groceries or run errands around the town.  I realised just the other day that this has kind of taken over from the school run that used to be such a big part of my routine, and the thought of that made me smile. 

♥ Two weeks ago we celebrated a whole fifteen years living here at number twenty four. This house, in this friendly town with this remarkable hill view fill me with gratitude every single day. I'm so glad we live here!

♥ Ahh, a random photo of a leaf, of course. This is the exact kind of thing that literally stops me dead in my tracks as I'm walking up the street. The colours in nature fill my brain to bursting, it's no wonder I can't remember stuff - there's just no room for information in amongst the leaves.

♥ November is a month full of cosy. The rapidly shortening days and cold, snappy weather makes me appreciate the comforts of being indoors, covered in the all the yarn. Socks, mitts and blankets, layers and layers of warmth.

♥ Waking up and realising it's Friday - allllllll the happy feels. I get to jaunt down the hill to the café to spend three delicious hours drinking coffee, hooking up something colourful and chatting with my very good friends. I bloomin' love Fridays.

♥ The joy of sharing a love of yarn and colour with my tribe. Sitting opposite my talented friend who's been knitting a circular blanket in the most glorious shades of Autumn. My Fireside cushion really looked good with her blanket, such a photogenic pair.

♥ Haha - mid November, and I was still hanging onto the last remains of summer, I just couldn't seem to let it go completely. The little wood and wire sculpture is a recent purchase from one of my favourite makers Helen of Thimbleville. I love the simple words because they remind me to stay positive on days when it feels like a struggle.

♥ Cheap and cheerful autumn flowers on my table, bringing colour into the room for almost three whole weeks. 

♥ November has long been the month of the indoor hyacinths, ever since I first moved here and found them in the supermarket in November 2008. I've had them in the house every single year since and look forward to them very, very, very much.

♥ Here's an observation though - they really don't seem to smell any more? The scent of hyacinths would easily fill the room once upon a time, but in recent years, not so much. They are still the most beautiful things to observe though - there are six days between the two photos above, don't they grow fast?

♥ A weekend family walk at Bolton Abbey, taking advantage of some unexpected afternoon sunshine.

♥ The low sun was blindingly bright at times, but I couldn't get enough of it. Sometimes I just stand still and face the sun with my eyes closed - J says I'm solar powered and need to recharge my panels. I think he might be right.

♥ Gorgeous, gorgeous light as we drove home over the moors - it's just after 3pm in the above photo. The long, tall shadows are me and Little Lady prancing about while the boys sat patiently in the car waiting for us to finish.

♥ Cosy crochet by candlelight - very, very Novemberish I'd say.

♥ The first mice pie of the season, such a perfect little afternoon sweet treat. I adore these little mini ones that you can buy from the supermarkets and much prefer them to the big filled ones.

♥ November is generally waaaaay too early for me to think about anything Christmassy, but it's hard to avoid as little signs creep in everywhere you look. I can cope with the odd bauble here and there, and maybe some extra twinkly lights about the place.

♥ All in all, November was a good month, really good actually. Ohh....yes! There was also this.....

....a few days spent by the sea which was absolutely, wonderfully restorative and energising. I'll show you some more photos in  my next post xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn Snaps :: October 2022

Thank you for all the kind words you sent my way after my blog post yesterday, it's been something special to receive so much feel-good from you all and for me to digest your wise words and take your advice. I've been thinking a lot about my blog today, and remembering how much I love to create and share my stories here in this space - blogging for my own pleasure has always been my priority since day one and that hasn't changed over the years. Having said that, I've learnt that I do still need to give myself permission to take a break when I need it, and to place value on time spent away from my laptop. I need to remind myself that it's not a failure if I miss some weeks here and there, especially not given the length of time I've consistently shown up to open my Attic window - over fourteen years now, one hundred and seventy seven months and counting. I'm really proud of still being here, writing about my life as I moved out of my thirties, through a whole decade of my forties, and now into my fifties.....oooo.....I'm feeling a smidge emotional, I had better get a grip and start chatting about leaves!

Autumn leaves.....aren't they just the best little gifts from nature? Right now the trees are bare and the leafage is just a memory, so it's been lovely to dig back into my photos from two months ago and find some lovely seasonal colour to share with you.

October was a month for visiting Bolton Abbey, I think I went at least three times maybe more. I love to spend time in the woodland when the seasons are changing - the first rush of bright green leaves in May, and then the beauty of the Autumn colour shift in October.

In October I had to admit that my toes were cold and put my sandals to sleep for a while. It's no hardship really, because >>hello<< cosy, stripy handknit socks and my beloved Fly London boots. Believe me, it's a heavenly combination and I can highly recommend both. If you need to learn about knitting socks, then Winwick Mum will hold your hand with her free beginner tutorials. And if you are in the market for some uber-comfy leather boots to house your stripy socked feet, then I can point you in the direction of my Fly London chelsea boots ((here)). I've got two pairs, the purple pictured above (they are a lovely deep dark reddish colour in real life) and the green ones, and this is their fifth winter. I love love love them.

Speaking of hand knit socks, in October I made a real effort to finish off the pair that I cast on in August.

They came off my needles and onto my feet after I got back from France and was feeling the chill, and I'm so happy with them. The yarn is from the Regia Design Line range by Kaffe Fassett and the colourway is called "Moor". It's quite hard to find this range of sock yarn now so you need to hunt around in your local yarn shops or online. I found mine at a small indie online store called KnitUK which is fabulous - the yarn came beautifully packaged with real care and attention. You can find it ((here)). I've just actually ordered the "frost" colourway as it reminds me of my Springfrost blanket. I admit I do get a bit of a buzz out of matching my socks to my blankets, all those colourful stripes are perfect eye candy I have to say.

I've grown to love Autumn in recent years and the colours in nature are a big part of the enjoyment for me.

It's a habit now for me to spend as much time as possible outside throughout the year and I walk a fair bit in the course of an ordinary day. I find it extremely good for my mind, and I think that walking might be even more beneficial for my mental health than for my physical health (although clocking up 15,000 steps a day certainly does some good for the old bod).

I love that there is always beauty to be found, and I am very tuned in to finding it.

My photos are certainly full of all sorts of random things that have caught my eye (most of which I share with you), so I hope you enjoy seeing things through my goggles.

Another photo from Bolton Abbey...I've just remembered that one of the reasons I took so many visits in October was to do with friends visiting or local friends wanting to walk there with me, and for us to see the moon.

Yes, the moon......

......ta-dah!! This amazing installation was hanging inside Bolton Abbey priory church for a few weeks in October and it was wonderful to be able to see it a few times while it was there. It measures seven metres in diameter and features detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. It's amazing to think that each centimetre of the sculpture represents 5km of the moon’s surface....it really is a bit awesome.

The "Museum of the Moon" is a travelling exhibition which moves around the world so maybe you've already seen it, or perhaps it will be dangling in a place near you next year. You can read more about it ((here)).

During October I was mainly fixating on my Springfrost blanket and working on sampling and preparation for the crochet-along kit to launch in November. I have to say that in the run up to the reveal of a new blanket it really does take over so that it's hard to think about very much else.

But looking at my photos I was reminded that I also had this round cushion on the go too, and it often came to Coopers with me on a Friday morning. I'm not sure if I've shown it to you before - I started it when I was in France and it's made using the leftovers from the Fireside blanket (12 shades of Stylecraft Highland Heathers). I've almost finished it, but the cushion pad I bought is a bit larger than I thought (I bought 18 inches diameter instead of 16 inches by mistake) so I still need to work some extra rounds for it to fit. 

October was the start of the leaves beginning to fall, and they continued to gently tumble right through November. It's kind of a bitter sweet time in some ways, the true end of summer with the constant visual reminder that the year is falling away.

We had our half term week towards the end of October and it was a gentle week of rest and relaxation for us here. We did manage a couple of day trips which were soooo good, but I'm going to share those in another post because really I took way too many photos to shoe-horn them into this one. Pumpkin season came and took over for a while, I don't think I've ever seen so many huge piles of them in the shops, or such a variety to choose from.

With my own Little People growing up, the rituals of celebrating Hallowe'en are slowly slip sliding away. Little B was only momentarily interested in the pumpkin carving and although his ears perked up at the mention of sweeties, he didn't really want to be involved this year. I carved my pumpkin quietly in the afternoon and enjoyed the gentle creativity....

....and in the dark of the evening we did have a large number of Littles calling by for treats. My pumpkin was much admired which gave me a ridiculous amount of pleasure, so I do think it's still a lovely thing to do to round out the end of October.

Well, I think that's about all for now, I hope you've enjoyed my rambles. I'll take a look at November next and see if there's anything of interest to show you - ooh, I did take a few days away to the seaside in November, so maybe I'll share some of that with you. A little bit of salty sea air is always good for the soul. 

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Home into Autumn

Hellooooooo to you all, how have you been? It feels like a good long while since I was here chatting to you but that's mainly because I've been away from home, and I think time away often moves at a different pace to the normal, everyday sort of tick-tock time on the home clock.

Actually, this time last week I was still travelling, making my way from the south France to London, then up along the backbone of England all the way north to Yorkshire. It took thirteen hours in total, a coach, a plane, the underground and two trains, with some weary walking up the hill at the very end. 

I've spent the last week resting quite a bit and easing myself back into gentle home routines. It's been a pleasure to allow my days to gently unfold and soak up the quiet, comforting homely vibes here at number twenty four. 

There has been a distinct chill in the air this past week and honestly, it has felt really beautiful. I've often said that I am happiest when our English seasons run true, and so far autumn is feeling wonderfully autumnal. Happy me!

It was my birthday last week and I celebrated fifty four trips around the sun. I had coffee with my good friend (we have a standing date at a favourite café every Tuesday morning) and she gave me a card, a little wrapped present, a bag of pears and a solitary beetroot (complete with roots and soil attached) which she'd dug up from the community veg plot on her way to the café. It was the funniest gift which made me double over with laughter, and that reminds me I really do need to cook it! I think I'm going to roast it in the oven. She also very kindly gifted me the most stunning bunch of fragrant stocks and I inhaled their sweet, peppery scent all the way home.

Don't they look lovely? Stocks and a muddy beetroot - what more could a girl want, eh?!

My birthday was on Wednesday and the day was bright and blustery, perfect for a lunch time stroll. 

J doesn't often take a proper lunch break when he's working (something which we often argue about), but on this day he made time  to come to the woods with me. We had Little Lady with us too, and I must say I am really, really loving the fact that I still have her at home for the time being. 

The leaves are just beginning to fall in the woodland and although it's still mostly green in the treetops, there are lots of leaves now on the ground. There is seasonal beauty all around, and I am absolutely here for it.

We are continuing to manage without our central heating, and I'm kind of getting used to the house being a bit on the cold side. I can't say I like it that much (I take after my late Mum, and really don't like to feel cold), but I am coping. I'm dressing in multiple cotton layers, adding a thick jumper when I need it, woolly socks constantly on my feet and blankets, blankets and more blankets. If I'm sitting, then I'm covered in at least two blankets. I shall be known as Lucy Layers this season. Thank goodness for the fire, my gosh I worship this thing, it brings me immense pleasure and comfort and I absolutely would not be without it.

Since I came home from France, I'm taking even more pleasure than usual from my every day views. I really do love where I live and looking at it as if I were a visitor is something I do quite often. Do you do the same I wonder? Or is this just another of my weird and wonderful habits?!

I walk along this narrow road beside the canal almost every day as it's the quickest route into the centre of town, and it's such a sweet way to observe the changing seasons too. 

On bright days when the sun has felt juuuuuust about warm enough for us to sit outside, J and I have had our morning coffee al fresco. There are a couple of small bistro tables outside our regular coffee shop and I've really enjoyed having the October sun on my face as I slurp my frothy coffee. These small pleasures bring such a lot of joy to my days.

I don't really have much to say about the above photo to be honest! It was an afternoon walk to the supermarket to pick up a few bits that we had run out of. The flowers caught my eye as I walked along the tow path to Tesco, and my immediate thought was to take a photo so that I could show you. Blogging is such a deep-rooted way of life for me that I very rarely stop to question myself over it. Take a photo of a boat with some flowers to share with the twenty thousand strangers who visit the Attic every day (give or take a few)? Completely normal.

I almost forgot that in between the slow, mundane, restful days at home last week, I took off on a very quick jaunt. Good job I snapped a photo of the platform or else I would have forgotten! So yeah...three days after returning from France I was back on the trains again, but a quick journey this time just over to York to visit some of my dearest friends. It was a reunion with the ladies who kept me sane during those very early new born baby days, celebrating twenty years of motherhood and friendship. It was honestly the best night, so full of laughter that I had to work hard not to actually pee my pants. I count myself very lucky to have these kind of friends, it's something special to be able to pick up with each other over the years and feel like no time has passed.

I haven't had chance to chat to you much about the Fireside blanket which launched about a month ago. But I just wanted to say a massive, heartfelt THANK~YOU to everyone who bought a yarn pack and started out on this cosy blanket journey, it's been wonderful for me to see so many new blankets taking shape in recent weeks. I know that many of you are new to using Stylecraft Highland Heathers yarn and it's been great to hear how much you've liked it. 

My own blanket is in constant use and it's the perfect size to wrap around my shoulders (my name is Lucy Layers, remember) or cosy across my legs.

A few days ago I came across a photo on Facebook which made my heart skip a beat, and I knew I had to show you.....

......what do you think?? Isn't it BEaUtiFuL??? It's made using the twelve Fireside colours following my random stripe order which you can find ((here)). The pattern is the Seashell Stripe (which I used to make my Dune blanket) and I think it looks absolutely stunning. Amanda, if you are reading this, I just love love love your blanket, thank you so much for sharing on Facebook, what an inspiration.

At the moment I'm using the leftovers from my Fireside blanket to make a circular cushion and I am absolutely crushing on the colours all over again. They somehow look different when in a circle, a bit brighter and more lustrous? Is lustrous a real word or did I just make that up...hahah....I kind of want to say Lush-trous?!! 

Anyhow, this is the second side of the cushion and I'm almost finished so I'll show you later in the week when it's done. I started the project when I was in France as I needed something fairly easy to work on in the teeeeny gaps of time when I was free from teaching and wasn't out walking and falling in love with stone walls and cobbled streets.

Speaking of France, I had a wonderful, amazing time teaching on my Stitchtopia retreat and I fell a little bit in love with beautiful Carcassonne. It was ridiculously picturesque and atmospheric and I took a gazillion photos which I've spent aaaaaages organising and editing over the past few days.

I'd like to share my trip with you, if you'd be interested to see what an Attic24 Crochet retreat looks like? It was pretty colourful (of course) and there was lots of crochet and coffee and beautiful views and the sunniest sunshine.....more soon!

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September Seasonal Shift

September was such a lovely month here this year, an absolutely perfect mix of summer and autumn. This seasonal shift has caught me by surprise in the best possible way, and I have to say that one week into Autumn and I am really loving it.

Early September still felt very summery with warm, dry weather and many days of sunshine. My toes were certainly happy :)

Little B went back to school in the second week of September and setting an alarm again after the ease of the summer holidays was a bit of a shock to the system. I do enjoy the school routine though, and once the youngest, noisiest child is out of the house for the day a rather delicious quietness settles on the home front. 

The kitty has wanted to be close to her humans just lately and in the quiet of the morning I really enjoy her cosy company. She's not a cat that you can entice onto your lap very easily, so these kind of snuggles are always very much on her terms and it's lovely when she decides I'm the place to be!

I bought summery flowers for my table and gave our downstairs living room a bit of a tidy up and a refresh. I don't mind telling you that I was very lazy over the summer months when it came to housework, but there is something about the back-to-school vibe which returns the focus to home routines.

I continue to really enjoy my weekly yarny meet-ups at the café and in September I was obsessed with knitting these socks. I managed to finish one sock down to the end of the toes, and the second sock is ready to start with the heel I think. I had to put them away while I concentrated on creating the Fireside tutorial, but with the colder weather snapping in I really want these socks off my needles and onto my feet. It's firmly on my to-do list.

Middle of September I was gifted some beautiful produce from my friend's allotment plot which almost made my cry with gratitude and delight. A punnet of the most delicious sun ripened tomatoes and a bunch of flowers for drying so that they'll last right through the winter months.

Such beautiful late summer colour wrapped in newspaper, a nostalgic reminder of my childhood too as my Mum used to grow these flowers on her allotment.

I made a caprese salad for my lunch with some of the tomatoes and ooooohmygosh it was ever so good. Such simple, fresh flavours and a real taste of summer.

This was a sunny Saturday afternoon walk around local fields and lanes because it was just too nice to stay indoors.

 I stood for ages watching that tractor ploughing up and down the side of that huge hill, it was crazy satisfying to observe the slow but pleasing toil of it somehow. I remember also thinking that the colours of the landscape in mid September perfectly matched the seasonal shift from summer to autumn.

I love this view as we get near to home after our walks out to neighbouring villages. We live in quite a hilly area of the town and I love to see all the old Victorian terraced streets following the contours.

We had some really beautiful weather once we'd passed over the autumn equinox, the sort of bright, clear skies that invite you to walk just for the pleasure of it.

I found myself wandering through the park and up to the farm shop one morning, just to get a feel for the season and see what was fresh and inviting. Lots and lots of baby pumpkins greeted me as I walked in the door, leaving no doubt about the season we are now in. Bye-bye summer.

I didn't buy baby pumpkins, but I did buy chocolate. This is one of my favourite local chocolates made in York and I just love it. I love the packaging and I love the gorgeous flavours they come up with - dark chocolate is my preference and this Blood Orange Gin flavour did not disappoint. Crikey it was insanely good.

Some days have felt very much more autumnal than others, and although September was a pretty dry month we did have our fair share of the damps. Low, low cloud pressing down on the landscape....

....spinning teeny, tiny droplets of water into the hedgerows and over everything, us included.

Other days were just amazingly golden and gorgeous, I mean, look how StUNning this light is!! Seven o'clock and the sun is just rising over the hilltops at this time of year, my goodness it really is something special to be out in the world at that time of day.

A gorgeous reward for those early alarms and a reminder that a brisk morning walk is so, so, so good for the mind and soul as well as for the body.

I am still wearing my sandals on days when it's dry and not too chilly, but I often find that by mid afternoon my toes need a little snuggle time. So far we've managed to keep the central heating off and have been making very good use of the crochet blankets and woolly layers as the temperature continues to drop. I light the fire most evenings now, and am truly embracing the cosy vibe of the autumn season.

So here we are into the beginning of Autumn and summer is most definitely over for another year. I've got an exciting trip coming up though, and I'm hoping for some wonderful, warm sunshine which will be such a treat. On Monday I'm going to be travelling south, all the way down to south west France in fact to spend a week in the medieval walled city of Carcassonne (pictured above). This is a working holiday for me - I'm travelling with Stitchtopia and will be teaching on a crochet retreat with a lovely group of ladies, and I'm pretty bloomin' excited I can tell you.

I'll look forward to catching up with you all once I'm back here in Atticland, I will probably have one or two photos to show you from France.........! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Snaps :: late August 2022

Hello, hello, hellooooooo!!!!! How're you all doing out there in the Big Wide World?

I've been meaning to check in here for the past week or so, well ever since Little B returned to school actually, and it's been tricky to find the right time of day/evening when I can be fully present without other things clamouring for my attention. Finally I've managed it - it's 7.30pm and I've come to sit cosy in bed with my laptop as it's been a surprisingly chilly day and I needed the comfort.

I had a long debate with myself earlier on today about how exactly to jump back in here, and in the end decided to give you something of an end-of-summer round up before everything starts to get forgotten in the seasonal shift. Although I'm embracing the return to the school and working routines and the fact that Autumn is sitting very close on the horizon, it's always lovely to look back and celebrate every last bit of Summer.

J had some time off work at the end of August which allowed me to take some time down south (more of that in a bit), but also for us to enjoy a bit of a staycation week here with the Little People.

We took a day trip up to Cumbria to visit a National Trust property called Sizergh. It's quite a grand old house with a huge estate, so we did a four mile circular walk with a picnic lunch, then spent some time enjoying the house and gardens which were at their peak in late August.

The kitchen garden was absolutely beautiful and I couldn't get enough of the abundant colours....

....oh, it was glorious!

I also loved this long walled border which was bursting with later summer colour....

....and attracting a good many bees and butterflies too.

It was a lovely day out and I'm hoping we can do more exploring of new places in the months to come.

Closer to home, we've been getting out and about to walk in the local countryside right on our doorstep. The weather at the end of August and into early September was seriously lovely, remaining bright and sunny and warm enough to walk in t-shirts. I can't adequately describe my constant levels of happiness in relation to the warm sunny summer we've had, but it has been pretty sky high. Finally a summer that behaved itself and truly felt like a Proper Summer!!

I walked and walked, often two or three times a day I would find myself keen to get out there and walk. J and I continue to enjoy our 7am fast-paced, slightly breathless power walks through the woodland (so good, love love love it), then a solo stroll around town sometime in the morning for me - walking along the canal, a trip to the café for coffee, errands to run, groceries to buy. And then sometimes an evening walk too, usually with Little B, to take in the summery evening skies and breathe it all in.

My daily coffee, taken outside most days through the warmth of late summer. I simply can't imagine life without this pleasurable mid morning pause, I love it so much.

I enjoyed being at home as the summer shone on through late August, our sash windows pushed up high to let the warm breeze blow through the house. 

At the every end of August I set off to travel south on the train down to Dorset. This seems to have become the norm for me now - frequent solo visits every 3 or 4 months to touch base with my Dad, making the most of these times when his health is still pretty stable. It's also lovely for me to be back in my childhood place too, and I find myself soaking in that deep-rooted familiarity and feeling very grateful for it. 

I hardly ever eat ice cream, but on this day I joined in with my Dad and Lady B and had an old fashioned Mr. Whippy with a flake. My goodness, what a hit of nostalgia that was, I felt like I was ten years old! 

We strolled slowly, slowly along the promenade - I think my Dad is honestly the slowest walker I have ever met in my life and I have to dig deep to find the patience to slow my own pace down to a dawdling shuffle. But promenades are good places for slow shuffles, so once I adjusted to it, all was well.

The sea was incredibly calm on this day with barely any waves at all, and even though I prefer it when it's noisy and crashing and salty, it was still lovely.

My trip to Dorset was only short this time, and after two nights I was off on my travels again. I took the train and journeyed east into Hampshire - destination Portsmouth Harbour. I was then heading across the water to the Isle of Wight, traveling at high speed on the fast catamaran that operates between Portsmouth and Ryde. It was all very exciting, and a first time for me to travel on a catamaran (you can see here what it looks like, it was much bigger than I expected). I sat next to the window and tried not to fidget too much with over excitement, wishing that the trip was way longer than twenty two minutes long.

It's been eighteen years since I visited the Isle of Wight - one of my best friends from my art/textile uni days lives here and I used to regularly come and stay with her in the years before I had children. We've been friends for thirty four years, isn't that something? It was absolutely wonderful to see her and her family and how much they have grown since I  last saw them (three ginormous, handsome boys, and I mean they are huuuuuuge, well over six feet tall all of them). We had such a fun time, some delicious meals out, bottles of prosecco, chatting in the garden, picking blackberries out in the countryside, walking the dog and generally just enjoying a massive, long over due catch up.

On my last day there we took a long walk all around the eastern coast and it was really interesting to see how different the beaches are. The coastline is very woody with trees coming right down to the beach in many places.

We stopped off for lunch at a really beautiful café nestled into the trees overlooking the beach. It was warm enough for us to sit out on the decking and enjoy a chilled glass of refreshment and some delicious food with stunning sea views. I felt as though I was abroad....I mean, just look at this beach.......

.............just WOW!!!! Isn't it beautiful? You can see the café tucked into the trees above, and imagine how bloomin' delighted I was with it all.

After three super happy days it was time to say goodbye and begin my long journey home. Back across the water to the mainland (that ship is HMS Warrior, an old Navy vessel docked in Portsmouth Harbour), then a train up to London.....

....where everything was it's usual hectic, noisy, crowded, busy city self. Then it was the final three hours on the train back up to Yorkshire, and I tumbled in the front door at around 9.30pm. It was a lot of hours on the move (eight in total) but I happen to like travelling by myself and really enjoyed every bit of it.

I was away for six days in total, and the day before I left decided to cast on a pair of socks. I've not done any knitting since last year and had this yarn waiting patiently to be transformed into stripes. Socks make great travel projects and I really enjoyed knitting the hours away as I journeyed up and down the country.

The sock yarn matches perfectly with my latest blanket too, a delightful happy accident which is making me very pleased with the visual harmony. I'll be able to share my new blanket with you very, very soon - yarn packs will go on sale on Wednesday 21st September. I'll be here to tell you all about the blanket which I've named "Fireside" (cosy, warm and comforting vibes) , and as always there will be a free pattern and tutorial for you too. I'm really looking forward to showing it to you.

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