A beautiful ruin

Hi folks. I guess it’s been a while again. Partly becuase things have been busy. And I’m sure you know that when things are busy, the days can just slip-slide away from you. If I’m honest, it’s also because I’ve been struggling a bit with anxiety in the last couple of months, mainly brough on by dealing with the completion of my PhD, viva, and corrections. It’s a weird feeling. I don’t want to talk about it at great length here, because that’s not what I want this space to be about. I passed the viva, yet I don’t feel like celebrating.

I feel scared still. Scared that something will go wrong because I am not over that last hurdle. I think other people find this hard to understand, and just want me to celebrate and be happy. And the fact that I don’t feel like that is hard for me too, as I feel I am letting people down, in a strange way, by not feeling jubilant. And then there is still all of the original anxiety lying beneath that. I hope that one day, not too far in the future I can look back on this, and it won’t matter any more…. but I think that is some time in the future. I’m not there yet.

In the midst of all of this, as always, crafting has been a life line. This blog, which always used to be a bit of a life line (even if no one read what I was writing), and which I had to give up, is again becoming something of a life line. I guess that’s why I am here, now, writing this. I could bury it. It’s easier to bury feelings, I often find – at least in the short term. But long-term, it does no good. Sometimes you need to confront things. Only then can they take their true shape and proportion in life. But enough, I waffle. I didn’t come here for this, and I am sure you didn’t either.

The pictures I’m sharing here are of a cotton throw, something that I’ve been working on for a while. I created this based on a picture that I saw in a magazine a couple of months ago. It was Country Living (which even though I am a city dweller, is a guilty pleasure for me!) – I think it might have been the May edition. I know it was after lock-down started. I was flicking through, and saw this beautiful cream bedspread in an interiors spread, crocheted, and with a tassel border all around. I couldn’t think about anything else except how I was going to replicate the pattern, and how much I loved it!

I wasn’t able to find a pattern anywhere and there were no clues in the magazine. So with a bit of careful scrutiny of the photos, I set out to figure it out myself. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too difficult as I think it is fairly similar to a lot of existing fillet square patterns that you see around. I’m not sure I’m going to give a tassel edging (it would be a lot of tassels!)

I’m using Sirdar Cotton DK, which is my current favourite for this type of project. It’s a bit softer than a lot of mercerised cotton yarns, though I think it might have been treated in some way. The colour palette also floats my boat as there are plenty of softer, chalkier colours. It’s slow going, as I think I started this back in April. It might be finished in time for next spring though!

As well as the throw, I’ve been working on a Bryum shawl. This is a lovely gentle knit, with easy texture stripes. I started out knitting something involving lace, but ended up ripping it all out as my brain just couldn’t cope with lace over such a large number of stitches! I think it’s been too long since I’ve knitted lace. Also I am not sure that lace shawls are really ‘me’. I’m more of a texture gal! I do think it is important (at least for me) to know that I am knitting something that I will love and get lots of wear out of. So I have to really like the pattern. The yarn used is a combination of a lovel OOAK skein that I bought from Hedgerow Yarns, probably a couple of months ago now. It’s the yellow-y coloured skein above. I’m using it in combination with a terracotta coloured yarn – actually I think it is two yarns! I had 2 small balls in the cupboard left over from something else. I know one was Madeleine Tosh 4 ply yarn of some kind in the colour Pink Smoke Tea Tree. The other is something else, but in an almost identical colour, so it works.

As well as crafting, weekends are my gettaway. We bought a car about a month ago, and it has transformed our weekends. The short walks around our neighbouring streets because we didn’t feel comfortable on public transport are no more. Now we jump in the car and head out for a picnic in the Kent countryside. Last Saturday we made it to the beautiful Beyham Old Abbey. This may not be everyone’s thing, but personally I love a beautiful ruin.

Coastal escape – Falmouth 2017

A few weeks after our West Country visit to see S’s family, we had a proper getaway down to Cornwall for a holiday. I love this part of the UK, and although this is now the fourth year in a row we’ve had our summer hols to the same part of the world, I still find it breath-taking and thouroughly enjoy our visits there.

Although we based ourselves in Falmouth for the week, we got out and about a fair bit considering we were without the use of a car (as we live in London we don’t own one – it would be pointless most of the year).

We meandered along the beaches and shorlines of Falmouth:

 

I found plenty of plants and flowers to admire and snap:

 

 

 

We took strolls and caught ferries to other towns and villages:

 

 

 

We even made it as far as St Ives by train one day, which is on the other (North) coast of Cornwall. Oh my gosh it is a gorgeous town I can tell you. It’s the first time I’ve ever visited St Ives and the sandy beaches and turquoise water really took my breath away. You could almost think you were in the Meditereannean!

 

As you can see this Seagull obligingly decided to pose for me!

Well, that’s all for this time, I’ll try for a catch up on crafty goings on closer to home next time!

Tintern Abbey

So, here is the first of my promised catch-up posts!

One of our little jaunts away was to see S’s family over in the West Country. On one of our days out we hopped over the border and into Wales, to visit the lovely Tintern Abbey.

Tintern is a picturesque ruin, in the most beautiful setting, nestled in the depths of the Wye Valley.

The Abbey itself was built in medieval times, before falling into ruin as a result of the dissolution of the monasteries brought about by Henry VIII. It’s a familiar story for most monastic buildings or Abbeys found in the UK dating from this period, but for anyone who’s not aware, the dissolution of the monasteries basically involved the crown under Henry VIII seizing large amounts of land previously owned by the Church at the time when the Church of England split from the Catholic Church.

If you’re interested in the history of this, you can read more about Tintern here. But I really just wanted to share my photos – my little attempt to try and capture the atmosphere of this amazing place.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek, if you’re ever in the Wye Valley area I recommend a visit to take in the sight for yourself!

 

Jxx

A typography walk

January is a good time to try something new. It was completely unplanned, but this weekend I’ve managed to try two new things – pretty good going!

The first was a new magazine, Breathe, which jumped off the shelf and into my hand whilst browsing the magazine rack in a supermarket on Saturday morning.

I am a bit of a magazine addict. The Simple Things is one of my favourites, and probably the only one that I get every month without fail. I tend to gravitate away from the traditional ‘women’s lifestyle’ magazines – you know the kind that are full of make-up tips and fashion spreads – those aren’t really my thing. To be honest I’ve been feeling a bit fed up with homes and interiors magazines lately too – they always seem to have the same spreads of all white houses. Magazines like The Simple Things which mix features that I actually want to read, recipes, craft and travel items are much more my cup of tea these days. Breathe seems to be after this pattern, and I’ll be looking out for it from now on. I haven’t had a chance to read much of it yet, but it looks really good, with lovely photography, interesting features and ideas for things to do.

So, buying Breathe led me to try my second new thing of the weekend as one of the short features in this issue suggested a typography walk as something fun to do. This is exactly what it sounds like – grab your camera, head out side and find and snap as many interesting examples of typography and signs as you can. I love to take photos and I do like interesting signage and typography, so this seemed perfect. So, when S and I headed out for lunch today I brought along my camera. I wasn’t really expecting to find much just in our local area, but I found about 10 good examples of typography within a short distance of our flat.

 

 

 

This was really good fun (well to me it is anyway!), and I think is a great way to be a little more observant of your everyday surroundings, including the kinds of places you see week after week and don’t pay much attention to.

Stay cosy x

 

Cornwall 2016

I’ve just returned from a beautiful holiday…

S and I spent a week down on the Cornish coast and loved it. There is so much to see and do there…

Secret gardens to discover…

Unusual plants to admire…

little coastal towns to discover…

history to soak up…

beaches to paddle on…

and sunrises to bask in…

It was just great! I can’t wait to go back again next year!

Chepstow Castle

Hey there…

I thought I would share another set of snaps from my recent travels in the West Country (see my post about the Bristol Balloon Fiesta from the same trip). Whilst we were in the area S and I also spent a morning at Chepstow Castle

Chepstow is just over the border in Wales. It’s a ruined castle, which, if I remember correctly was originally a Norman castle with later Medieval additions.

I know ruined castle’s aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if you like this sort of thing then Chepstow is great. Maybe it’s a bit unusual but I love looking around ruined castles. Family holidays when I was a child usually involved a trip to at least one ancient monument – my Father being a big lover of history and in particularly ruined castles. I guess he’s passed that on to me too! There’s just something so evocative about a ruined castle, especially if you know a little about British history (which I flatter myself that I do) and apply a little imagination to thinking about the people who would have once inhabited these places, and what their lives must have been like.

I’m also a bit of a romance novel fan for some light, escapist reading, and Barbara Erskine is a long time favourite of mine. Her novels are often partially set in the past and often based on real historical figures who owned or lived in some of the UK’s medieval castles.

 

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta 2016

I am so excited to be sharing a blog post about this with you, because this event is becoming a real highlight of my year. Some of you, may have heard of the above annual event which takes place at the Ashton Court Estate on the outskirts of Bristol. Up until a few years ago, I’d never heard of this event although I can’t think how I had missed it for so many years!

For those of you who don’t know, the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is an event held in August every year, spanning a weekend where hot air ballon-ists from around the world gather to launch mass ascents. What is a ‘mass ascent’, you may ask? At 6am and 6pm on scheduled Fiesta days, the balloonists gather together in the Fiesta launch area, inflate their balloons and head for the skies! This can mean over 100 balloons taking off together during the same hour. The mass ascents are combined with a fun-fair, various entertainments (I believe some baby-racing took place, though S and I being childless don’t go in for that sort of thing for obvious reasons) and stalls selling food and drinks throughout the weekend.

I absolutely love this event. S and I went last year too, and vowed to return as often as we could to marvel at the spectical of these beautiful balloons in flight. We’ve just returned from this year’s event, so of course I had to share some photos with you.

This year’s event was a little tense – there were problems with the evening mass ascents on several days- the balloons were unable to go up because of the weather conditions – high wind speeds and too much cloud cover prevented them.

Sunday was the final day of the event and our last chance to see an evening ascent. We crossed our fingers and headed over to the site in good time arriving not long after 5pm to choose our patch of grass. The balloon pilots gather for a pre-flight briefing before each planned ascent – this is where a final decision on whether to go up is made, dependent on weather conditions. The crowd on this occassion was certaintly waiting with bated breath! Once the decision is made, the crowd are notified using a smoke signal – yup, a smoke signal! A pipe near the launching area gives off red smoke for no ascent, yellow or orange for partial and green for a clear mass ascent.

Well, we were in luck – the signal was green, the balloons could go! One balloon is sent up first to do a final test of conditions. Provided everything is satisfactory up above, a klaxon sounds and the mass ascent begins!

I can’t really describe how amazing it is to see all the balloons take off, but as you can see, I did take a lot of pictures! It’s also quite fun to see the tethered balloons inflating on the ground, but really nothing beats seeing them glide up over the horizon, silent and serene except for the occassional blasts from the burners.

All I can say is, if you can, go – you will love it!

 

 

In and around Hampstead

This time I thought I’d share a little bit about a day out S and I had in London. We often think that there are a lot of hidden gems in London. Places to visit that tourists might overlook and that we as London inhabitants probably forget or never hear about. So, I thought it would be fun to tell you about a visit we had to Hampstead this weekend. It’s one of my favourite areas of London for wandering around. And it’s not just about the famous Hampstead Heath or and the view from the top of Parliament Hill. There’s a lot more to Hampstead.

The main reason for this little wandering was for me to have a chance to try out a new camera. I’ve been lucky enough this week to snap up a new-old camera in the form of a second hand Canon Eos M compact system camera, in virtually mint condition. I wanted to take it out for a spin, so came up with the idea of a walk around Hamsptead to visit some of my favourite haunts.

There are some lovely back streets and side streets, which seem to have hardly changed since Victorian times. If you like old street lamps, street signs and forgotten little churches with overgrown graveyards carpetedin flowers, you’ll be in heaven here.

When the weather is as gorgeous as it was yesterday, it’s enough for me to just roam the streets – I don’t need anything more to make me happy!

However, if you are after some more of a destination, and a little bit of culture for your day out then there are a few National Trust properties in and around Hampstead. We happened upon this one, Fenton House.

We didn’t go in on this occassion, but just peaked through the gate.

However, it’s now on my list of London places to visit, so I’ll hopefully be returning there soon.

The final destination for our morning out was the Hampstead Pergola. The Pergola is sort of part of Hampstead Heath, but is a little bit away from the most popular spots on the Health. You can find out more about it, and a map here.

It’s a beautiful spot to visit on a summer’s day, and yesterday it felt positively mediteranean!

It’s truly a beautiful spot to sit and lounge, soaking up the sun. There are plenty of benches where you can sit and take in the view and enjoy the site of the occasional rose peeping out from between the stone columns.

That’s all for now, but I promise to be back with a crafty catch up soon. Hope you’ve enjoyed the weekend, whatever you’ve been doing!