A productive week!

I am joining with Amy from Love Made My Home again for Five On Friday.


This has been a wonderful week with the weather improving so much from what we have been used to of late. Unfortunately I have had to work three days this week so time has been limited to get out and about. How I coped with full-time (and more) work I just don't know! It does frustrate me now when we have beautiful sunny weather and I am stuck inside, however I made the most of the time I have been able to get out and have been for a walk in the evenings on my work days.


1.  As you can see I have managed to keep up with my 10,000+ steps a day throughout the week and am now on a 13 day streak, hopefully today will make it 14 days. My poor DH - I have been dragging him out during the evening if I am short of my 10,000 steps, sometimes he will oblige, other times I am going out on my own for a boring walk around the local streets.

2.  One evening we went for a walk around our local nature reserve - Rooksbury Mill. We go here fairly often but the scene changes all the time. Lots of signs of Spring this time around.

This is the second year we have seen swans nesting here, hopefully a successful brood will be hatched.

Lovely cowslips with the evening sun on them.

We stood and listened to this thrush sing for ages, such a beautiful sound.

3.  I paid a visit to the Garden Centre on Sunday to buy some more pots and plants to add to the ones I purchased on my last visit and then had a busy time potting them up. I planted the seedlings I showed you last week but as yet nothing is showing, I keep inspecting them daily hoping for signs of growth.

4.  On Bank Holiday Monday we visited my Mum and went out for a walk around my home village - always a pleasure as it brings back so many memories of my childhood. Unfortunately, it did turn out to be the one gloomy day of the week and as we walked rain was threatening all the time and we just got back to my Mum's before it poured down.

One of my favourite spots, it is always so peaceful here down by the stream.

I love this old barn.

A view of my beloved downs with the racehorse gallops in the foreground.

Hollowshot Lane, I have walked along this path many many times over the years.

A view of the far end of the downs from Three Corner Firs

You can see that rain is not far away now.

Couldn't resist taking these beautiful bluebells growing on the edge of a garden.

5.  And finally, some indoor relaxation time, I hosted our craft group meet up on Saturday and we spent the day crocheting, laughing and eating! I completed week 2 of the crochet-along that I am taking part in as well as working on my next charity blanket.

Week 2 CAL, all four squares now on my blocking board

Charity blanket in progress, this one is taking me longer than usual as I am busy with the CAL as well.

I have just started Week 3 of the CAL

I hope you have all had a wonderful week. Have a lovely weekend and I will see you all again next Friday. Please go and visit Amy's blog where you will find links to more Five On Friday posts.

More walking, more crochet!

What a glorious week we are having. We have been having above average temperatures for this time of the year and it has been beautifully sunny with lovely clear skies. 


This weather inspires me to want to get out and about so on Tuesday we decided to go to my lovely home village to see my Mum and to go out for a walk.


Again, we took a route that I have walked many times over the years and this one brings back very happy memories of my Dad as it was one of his favourite walks.


Firstly we set off up Half Path, you can see by the width of the path that it is very well named.

This path leads up to the playground with its lovely view of the downs. Even growing up seeing this view every day I still love it and never tire of seeing it.

This bottom part of the playground is going to look super in a few weeks time, it has been planted as a wild flower meadow and is spectacular through the summer months. I will return and take some photos of it in its full glory later in the year for you to see.

From here we walk past a field with these lovely horses and then go down Shepherd Steps, when I was young these were quite steep steps cut in the hillside, now they are shallow concrete steps which at least don't get muddy in the winter but are almost too shallow and believe it or not I find them more difficult to climb (or is that my age telling here)!

At the bottom of the steps we reach Hollowshot Lane and you get a lovely view up the long mile to the downs. This is racehorse territory and these fields form part of the gallops that the horses train on. 

If you look carefully at the photo below you can just make out the race horses on the gallops.

We didn't have enough time to walk up to the downs today so we made our way along Hollowshot Lane. 

White violets have always grown along this path at this time of the year.

Here are some more lovely views of the downs. I worked at the Home Office Wireless Depot which was situated right underneath the aerial on top of the downs for four years in my youth. I don't think I really appreciated at the time what a stunning location it was. I used to look out of my office window and see deer running across the fields, masses of yellow hammers sat in the hedgerow and lots of other wildlife. I really did do some work in between watching all this activity though!!!

Continuing with our walk we reach Three Corner Firs, here the route divides and you can walk on towards Plantation Farm or take a sharp left turn and walk along Dell Path back into the village.

However, before turning back we stop awhile to take in this view. I wonder if bluebells still grow in the woods on top of the hill, I must take a walk next month to find out.

My DH taking in the view.

Well on we go, there are some splendid views from Dell Path looking back towards the racing stables.

I hope this weather continues, it is not difficult to want to get out and about when it is so warm and sunny.


The walking is really helping with my weight loss, I lost another 3.5 lbs this week which makes 10 lbs in total. I am really in the zone with my eating and walking at the moment so long may it continue. 


Now onto the crochet - the first part of the Stylecraft Waterlily CAL was published on Tuesday so I gathered all my supplies and was ready to start when we returned home after our walk. What beautiful colours are used in this project.

This is what the finished design will look like.

I have completed two sections of the first release, I have two more to go and then I will need to wait another fortnight for the next part to be released. I haven't blocked these pieces yet, will wait until I have crocheted the other two and then block them all together. I am loving it so far apart from sewing in all those ends, that is quite a marathon on each piece.

I will be back soon with more waterlily updates and hopefully more walking adventures.

A walk down memory lane

We had to visit my Mum today to do a couple of jobs for her and as it was such a beautiful sunny day we decided to go out for a walk around the village. Please forgive me a bit of nostalgia but I was born and grew up in this village and although I don't live in the village any longer my Mum and sister still do and I work in the village so it is still very much home to me.


Before we ventured out on our walk I couldn't resist taking a photo of the crocuses in Mum's front garden, they looked simply stunning in the sunshine.

And now for the walk, we started off walking down Love Lane - oh my goodness, I have walked this path so many times down the years.

I have always loved these old cottages at the bottom of the lane.

And into North Street, another street that has special memories as my old Primary School was just to the right of these cottages in the photo below - the school has long since been demolished and is now at the other end of Love Lane but I have many happy memories of passing these cottages on the way down to the river or up the lane across Strokins Meadow (in the days before it was built on) with Miss Ramsay, my old Infant teacher, who used to frequently take us on nature walks.

We then walked across the river and along the footpath to the main road where this house has always fascinated me, you wonder why it hasn't collapsed over the years.

Then a sharp right through the Churchyard and past the Church where I was christened, went to Sunday School and was married.

As you can see the Church is having some work carried out on it at the moment to try and protect it for future generations.  


The next part of the walk is at its best at this time of the year, down by the stream and over the bridge across the lake and as you look to the left you suddenly see a mass of snowdrops growing across the other side of the river. We have enjoyed the sight of these flowers so many times over the years and they never fail to lift my heart.

We then made our way onwards to another favourite spot, Gailey Mill. This was one of the village's four working mills back in the day. It is so beautiful here at any time of the year and my boys used to enjoy paddling in the stream when they were small - special memories. The water here is always so clear, a truly magical spot and so cool and shady in the height of summer.

The mill has seen better days but it is good that it is still standing, it is all part of the village's history.


Across the road and you can see the lovely downs, my Dad used to love walking on the downs and I accompanied him from the time I could barely walk and he used to end up giving me a piggy back home because I was too tired to walk! He passed on his great love and vast knowledge of the countryside to me - how I wish I could have just one of those days back. I used to work just underneath the TV mast you can see on the top of the downs at the Home Office Wireless Depot many years ago when I first left college. I worked there for five years, it was a joy to go to work with that view every day - happy times.

We then made our way back along the village street to the lane where I used to live.

This was the part of the walk that I had been waiting for, my Mum moved from the 16th century cottage where I was born two years ago and I hadn't been up the lane since she moved. The cottage is being renovated inside but because it is listed not too much can be done on the outside and I couldn't wait to see what work had been done and what it was looking like now.

The answer was not a lot. The roof has been retiled and some of the brickwork redone, a replacement window and a burglar alarm installed but it looks as if it is no where near finished, the lawn was full of builders rubble and my Dad must be turning in his grave at the sight of his vegetable garden that he cared for so passionately over so many years. 

Our walk was almost over, just up the lane, over the playground and back down Half Path and then we were back at my Mum's house.


I hope you can stand one more photo - my Mum's amaryllis that we gave her for Christmas is looking stunning on her kitchen window sill and I couldn't resist taking one last photo.