A Visit To The City

We woke up to a wonderful sunny morning today and decided to visit Salisbury, the main purpose for this choice was to visit Lakeland so that I could buy some new kitchen paraphernalia to use in our new kitchen (when it is finally finished). We parked in the central carpark and walked into the city beside the river. Spotted a water vole but it was too quick for me and I didn't manage to get a photo. You will have to make do with a mallard and a moorhen instead!

Walking into the sun made taking photographs difficult so had to wait until we crossed the river to take a couple of views.

As we were passing a market greengrocer's stall I couldn't resist taking a photo of this box of peppers, the colours looked fantastic in the sunshine.

Once across the river we arrived at Lakeland where I am afraid I spent far too much money but am really pleased with my purchases and now cannot wait for to start using everything (only another couple of weeks). We struggled to carry the three very large and heavy carrier bags back to the car but made it eventually. There are still a few things I need to buy but they were out of stock so I feel an online order coming on.

After getting the main business of the trip out of the way we still had quite a lot of time left on the carpark ticket so decided to go for a walk by the river to the water meadows.

We will take another walk out to the water meadows in the summer and take a picnic with us as it was a lovely spot but too cold to sit for long today so we decided to motor out of Salisbury and enjoy a pub lunch on the way home. 


I will be back with more "ramblings" soon.

A Hotchpotch post

It's been a good week.  Two days at work on Tuesday and Wednesday followed by a couple of days at home.  A bit more sorting out and clearing my kitchen before the contractors arrive next Monday. Our new cooker was delivered today and the rest of the kitchen arrives tomorrow morning - goodness knows where it is all going to go until they are ready to install it all!

I have been a lucky girl this week, I have received two bouquets of flowers. One from my husband, who thought a vase that I had removed from the kitchen and put on top of my bureau for safe keeping needed some flowers in it. My friends from our monthly craft group will recognise this vase, they gave it to me for my 60th birthday in October.

The other bouquet was from my youngest son as a thank you for securing tickets for him for his favourite NFL team who are playing at Wembly later this year.  Obtaining the tickets from Ticketmaster turned out to be a bit of a nightmare so it was great to know that he was appreciative of my efforts!

I do love having flowers on display and they certainly brighten the place up.

I also finished my DH's scarf yesterday, he is really pleased with it and has christened it already.

Today we have been walking at another local nature reserve, this time Anton Lakes which is only a mile from the town centre but attracts quite a lot of bird life and is pleasant to go for a quick stroll when you don't have too much time.

This time we did see a kingfisher. Unfortunately I only had my wide angled lens on the camera so I didn't manage to get a photograph of it. My DH did take this photograph of an adorable little wren though which I really like.

Well that is all for this time, I hope you are enjoying reading my blog as much as I am enjoying writing it. Next week is going to be very busy with the kitchen installation but hopefully we will be able to get out and about somewhere and find something interesting for me to point my camera at.

My love affair with crochet

What is on my crochet hook at the moment?


Well I confess I am a bit of a serial starter and currently have three projects on the go. I haven't had a lot of time lately to spend on my crochet but hopefully now I have more time I can achieve more.


First of all I am making this gorgeous coastal ripple blanket designed by the lovely Lucy at Attic 24.  If you haven't already discovered her blog please go along and have a look, she is definitely the Crochet Queen and produces really creative and stunning crochet.  You can find her at attic24.typepad.com.  I just love the colours of this one, they just make me want to go to the coast and breathe in the lovely salty air.

The ripple design is so relaxing to do, I can sit and ripple while I watch TV as you only need to count to four to crochet this pattern. I have to confess that I have ordered the Cottage Ripple pack as well so will be busy rippling for some time to come!


Next on my hook is a puff stitch scarf. I am not sure about the colour but was looking for some lovely soft wool that feels comfy when it is being worn and I found this wool in a small shop in Sidmouth when we were on a mini-break in Devon just before Christmas and decided I would give it a go.

Here is a close up of the puff stitch, despite the wool looking as if it could be scratchy it actually feels incredibly silky and light.

Finally, I am crocheting a scarf for my husband, this is it at the halfway stage, he has requested a long extra wide scarf. I am hoping to crack on with this one as it sounds as if the colder weather is on its way and he will be wanting to wear it. Again I have chosen a smooth soft yarn which feels as if it will be very comfortable to wear.

Hopefully I can update my blog with some finishes soon.


Thank you for reading this post, I am really enjoying my adventure into Blogland and will be back with another post soon.

Starting out on my blogging adventure

Hello.  
I have been tempted many times to start a blog but decided I didn't have time to update it on a regular basis.  However, having opted for semi-retirement at Christmas and now only working two days a week I feel the time is right to join the world of blogging.  Please bear with me as I get to grips with how all this works.

Over the Christmas holidays I found a new place to go and explore.  This is a local nature reserve called Rooksbury Mill and consists of two large lakes, some ponds and a stretch of the River Anton.  We visited fairly early one frosty morning when the light was really good for photography.

My first visit was with my son who has been there several times and always seen a kingfisher on his visits. Unfortunately we didn't see one on this occasion but having found this place I will certainly be visiting again.

There was quite a hoar frost which covered these leaves and the top of a bench in ice crystals.

We did see some mallard, tufted ducks, swans, moorhens, coots, dabchicks, long tail tits, great tits, bluetits, wrens and some very friendly tame robins.

Since this first visit I have been back again twice more, once with my husband and again with my son.  Still waiting to see that elusive kingfisher and also the otter which makes appearances on occasions but I did get to see a bird I have never seen before which was a firecrest (similar to a gold crest but with a vivid orange crest instead of a yellow one) and is, together with the gold crest, our smallest british bird.  Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a photograph but my son did manage a quick shot which he has kindly given me permission to use on this blog.

I have a very busy week coming up, we are having a new kitchen installed and they are starting work on it next Monday so my days off this week will continue to be filled with sorting out all the cupboards and packing away things we still want and getting rid of some of the items we no longer need or are well past their best (we have been married for over 34 years and we were given some of the cookware as wedding presents). New kitchen = new cookware!


I hope to be back with another blog post very soon.