Another Walk in the Woods

My brother, the dog and I had a lovely walk in the woods this afternoon. Who would have thought we would have had such a lovely day after all the rain, wind and cold of the weekend. This is a really nice spot near my brother's house in Surrey. I am using this picture in the 112 in 1012 challenge, this one is #102 Vanishing Point.

A Walk in the Woods

I joined the Tuesday walkers at the RSPB at Sandy for their regular Tuesday walk this morning. I hesitated as it was raining when I left but as soon as we set out at 9.30 the rain stopped and although the sun didn't come out it stayed dry for most of the 2 hour ramble. We saw a large number of birds starting with a sky full of sky larks with their trilling song and frantic wing flapping. I'm used to hearing and seeing one at a time, this morning there were lots of them. Lots also of linnets and sand martins. Individual goldcrest, nuthatch, kestral and buzzard. The usual blue and great tits and the unusual long tailed tits. The beautiful song of the mistle thrush alerted us and after lots of looking in the trees with binoculars we eventually spotted him, really high up and bigger than I expected.

It was a lovely morning, the highlights have to be the skylarks and seeing a goldcrest. What will next weeks walk bring?

While I was out I took a few pictures for the 112 for 2012 challenge. I'm going to have a go at this even though it will mean taking my camera everywhere. I like the idea of having a focus for my photography. So the pictures to go with this blog are not of birds - I'm not good enough, but of #50 Yellow and #8 Gateway, I might not choose these for the final 112, I was eyeing up fields of rape on the way home, that is so yellow! but that's a start of 2 for the 112!

Very Busy and Wet Weekend!

My brother, sister and myself spent the weekend at my parents home in Dorset clearing. We need to get the house in a condition to rent it out to help pay for my mother's care. So we went through every room, drawer, cupboard, box etc to sort the contents into house clearance and storage. It was a bitter sweet process, so many memories and good times are attached to the house and its contents. So sad that this does mark the end of an era.

We have shared some things out between ourselves for safe keeping for my mother, there are also things to sell which have value which will also go into the looking after mum pot. Amongst the things I brought home with me are these vintage linen items. I love old linen, I love how it feels and I love the colours. I will take good care of these.

Both the drive down there and the return journey were horrible as I seemed to hit every downpour and hailstorm going on the M1, M25, M3 and A303 this weekend!

It's a Two Post Day!

I know what I said about starting things and then leaving them for ages before finishing, which is why I have so many W.I.P.'s. But, I couldn't resist making this this afternoon. I had spent an hour on the Bow Tie Quilt and more than an hour on the Red Ohio Star Quilt so I felt I had earned this little make. It took about 45 minutes and I used bits left over from the Red Ohio Star. It went together really easily, the only change I made to the original was to use buttons on the intersections of the patches rather than stitching in the ditch.

W.I.P. Horror!

I have just taken stock of all the W.I.P.'s I have, both knitting and sewing. How does that happen? I thought that if I listed them for the world to see it might motivate me to get some of them completed. So I have the jumper in the photograph, another jumper, the bow tie quilt and the Ohio red star quilt. I did spend an hour on the bow tie quilt this morning and was pleased to find I only had 32 more squares left to hand quilt! O.K. I also have a sock yarn blanket, the hearts all around BOM from Popular Patchwork and the farmers wife sampler quilt.

Waiting to be started are the Linus quilt for my quilting groups challenge, the yarn from The Natural Dye Studio's Great British Wools Club, to make a crochet granny square blanket, yarn for the swing jacket I bought from Woolfish which is a gorgeous shade of purple and finally all those little bits of embroidery and ideas to be tried.

What a good job it is that I have retired!!!

Moda Ruby Heart Cushion

After a lull in creativity due to my fathers passing and funerals to organise, I found myself with time on my hands today and a newly arrived piping foot. I made this using some left overs from this quilt. I love the colours in these fabrics.

The piping really finishes the cushion off and adds a pop of turquoise.

The back, I should have used a zip but I didn't have one long enough, I like the edging on the flap, again a little of the moda ruby jelly roll made this possible.

All in all, I'm happy with it. This will go into my Etsy or Folksy shop once I have decided which to go for and made a few more items so my shop isn't empty.

The End of Two Eras

After almost 20 years of teaching full time, I retired. The pictures shows the lovely gifts I was given by the children and staff at the school where I worked. Those eagle eyed amongst you will of course spot the large Cath Kidston project bag. In it was some yarn and John Lewis vouchers. The flowers were beautiful. The most precious item though is this lovely card/book. There is a note for me from every child in the school and every member of staff. I was truly touched to receive this. I will treasure it. So an end of an era for me.

No sooner had I had my retirement do than I was called to my parent's home as my father had been given just days to live. It was expected, he had been ill for a while but I thought I would have longer, he left us quietly and peacefully with his family around him on Sunday 1st of April. He had a wonderful life and he will be hugely missed. So the end of another era as my mother cannot live alone, she is too unwell, so the house will be shut up and gradually emptied over the next few weeks. Sad times but necessary.