Five On Friday

Five On Friday time again and as usual I am joining with Amy at Love Made My Home.  


It has been another busy week and once again I am apologising if I haven't visited your blog and left some comments, I am still endeavouring to catch up and I would like to thank everyone that has left comments on my posts recently.


So what have I been up to this week:-


Firstly I finished my latest charity blanket, this one is again part of SIBOL (Sunshine International Blankets of Love) and will be donated to a local residential care home at Christmas.

I have now made a start on my next one, this one is made using the Maybelle flowers and making them into squares, I am sure I will be sharing my progress on this sometime soon.

Still on the crochet front I have also joined many hundreds of crocheters in honouring a well known crochet designer - Marinke Slump (known across the crochet world as Wink) who very sadly lost her battle with severe depression last year. In her memory a crochet-along (CAL) has been created, this CAL was the last thing she was working on at the time of her death and a group of friends decided to finish designing it - it is called Last Dance On The Beach and comes in three different colour ways. I have chosen Dance in the Rain, beautiful colours are used in this kit and this week I crocheted my practice tension square and the first square which was released on Wednesday. I have three more of these squares to complete this week and then it will be back to my charity blanket until the next square is released.

Yesterday was a lovely day, we combined some retail therapy with a lunch out at the Brigadier Gerard at Horton Heath where they have the most bright and cheerful floral displays.

We followed lunch by taking a walk in Stoke Park Woods (I apologise if you are tired of bluebell pics but I couldn't resist taking yet more, my excuse is that it is in a different wood from last weeks pictures)!!! 

Please go and visit Amy's blog where you will find links to more Five On Friday posts.

A Mixed Bag

I seem to have so much to show you today of events over the last few days. Sorry I know this post is going to be picture heavy but hope you will stay with me. We have had a few glorious days with bright sunshine and frosty mornings where you just want to get out and walk in the countryside.


The first such day was last Thursday so we set off to St. Mary Bourne, I am sure regular readers will recognise some of these views but the great delight this time was the River Bourne. It has been a dry river bed since the end of May last year but the water is now flowing again, a welcome sight.

Two weeks before when the river bed was still dry

 

What a difference two weeks make!

Now for a change of activity - over the weekend I completed the second of my charity blankets, this is another Sunshine International Blanket of Love which will be donated to a local residential care home.

You might remember me showing you these squares on my blocking board ready to be joined. I have tried a new way (to me) of joining this blanket using the continuous flat braid join which I have to say I really like and now I have got the hang of it I will definitely be using it again. It is great to be able to join the whole blanket plus crochet the edging without having to break the yarn and sew in those dratted ends!


Blanket number 3 is in process but I will keep photos of that back to show you next time.


Yesterday dawned another cold and sunny day so we set off for Hedge End where there is a big retail complex. Because of my weight loss I needed some smaller size clothes (how great is that) so we spent the morning shopping and spending far too much money before stopping off at one of our favourite eating places, the Brigadier Gerard at Horton Heath for a delicious lunch.

Having eaten far too much what better way to walk it off than go for a walk in Stoke Park Woods on our way home.

And finally (you might be relieved to hear) we get to this morning where we enjoyed a walk around our local patch.


I love the sunlit tangled branches on the tree below and the crocuses and snowdrops in the park were beautifully displayed in all their glory with the sun shining on them.

I hope I haven't bored you completely so if you are still here many thanks for reading and viewing my blog. Until the next time .....

Happy Days

This last week has been a very happy one. We have been out and about enjoying walks in our lovely part of the country and also indulging in a couple of meals out.


I am going to share with you some of the highlights of our week and hope you enjoy the photos.


On Friday we needed to make a trip to the M&S superstore at Hedge End, now I am not a great lover of going shopping, but when we go to Hedge End we try and combine it with a meal out in a lovely pub we know down that way - the Brigadier Gerard at Horton Heath.


As we pulled up at the pub we were stunned by the beauty of the floral displays, in particular the tulips - such a wonderful riot of colour.

The food was excellent, with my Slimming World weigh-in in mind I chose a seafood salad which was delicious and my DH chose a beef madras. However I couldn't resist one of their lovely cappuccino ice creams but did syn count it so hopefully not too much harm done.


I am sure our walk in Stoke Park Woods on the way home probably helped as well. Thirty plus years ago we lived adjacent to these woods in our first home as a married couple so decided to re-visit old haunts especially as it is bluebell season.


I did show you some of the photos from this walk on my last "Five on Friday" post but here are a few more. We were so lucky to see the roe deer, she didn't seem too worried about us and only scampered off for cover when we got quite close to her. We also loved watching the thrush breaking open a snail, we used to see them do this all the time at home but they are a rare sight these days.

I feel a bit guilty because we also went out for a meal on Saturday as well, this time just to a pub a little way out of town which is situated on top of a hill. Each year the swallows return to this location and again we had fun photographing them as well as enjoying another lovely meal. I also couldn't resist taking photos of the owner's Airedale as he peeped out of the back of a land rover, he looked so sad as much to say "why am I stuck in here".

We have also been back to St. Mary Bourne twice this week for more walking, we are lucky that this village is only 5 miles from home and it is so nice to get out of town and enjoy the countryside. I love the cloudscapes in the first three photographs below. 


It was lovely to see the family of ducklings, at first I only spotted Mum sat on the bank beside the stream and it was only when I looked again that I spotted the ducklings around her. They then took to the water giving me an opportunity to take more photos, they did swim off very quickly though so just took a couple of hurried snaps.

We are loving our walks since I took semi-retirement at the start of the year, it is great to have time together to explore and we have taken more notice of how quickly the countryside and nature changes from week to week. I achieved my 1 stone weight loss last week, only a tiny fraction of what I need to lose but that was my first milestone, I am sure the walking is helping so we plan to keep up with the exercise. However I will be working for three days this week so will have to wait for Friday before we can venture out again.