A beautiful morning for a walk in the countryside

Who can resist a walk in the countryside on a bright sunny November morning?  I certainly couldn't.


Our walking activity has slowed down just lately for various reasons so it was so good to get out in the fresh air and sunshine.


We chose one of our favourite locations and set off with camera in hand. One thing we noticed was how many holly berries there are this year - is this the sign of a hard winter to come?


I will let the photos do the talking and hope you enjoy them.

Thank you for visiting if you have made it this far. Have a great weekend and I will be back with another blog post soon.

Sorry - I have been AWOL

Many apologies to all my followers - I have been AWOL for a little while and have been very lax about replying to your blogs as well. Life has been very busy just recently, I am not sure why but time has been getting away from me and I am falling behind with everything. However, now school has broken up for the holidays I hope to get back on track shortly. I have been busy crocheting my charity blankets plus the Last Dance On The Beach crochet CAL (I will do a blog post about these sometime in August). If you are still around and following me I thank you for your patience and I will leave you with a few photos from a walk we undertook yesterday, some views of my garden plus my latest crochet project. 

Crochet jellyfish - made for a special little girl to match her pink bedroom

Just a quick post but at least now you know I haven't disappeared completely, hope to be back very soon. Thank you for visiting.

Five On Friday

It is time to join Amy at Love Made My Home for another Five On Friday post. I know I say this every week but I just don't know where the days are going to at the moment, it is frightening that Friday comes around so quickly and I haven't achieved as much as I had planned to do in the week. I don't seem to have much time to blog at the moment or visit other blogs but I am determined if nothing else I will do a weekly round-up for Five On Friday. Please forgive me if I haven't replied to some of your blog posts, I will endeavour to try harder in future!


Well, what have I been up to this week - really it boils down to the same as most weeks - work, walking, crochet with a couple of other bits and pieces thrown in.


1.  On Saturday we ventured to Salisbury to see Flying Scotsman, arguably the most famous steam train in the world. As my regular readers will know my DH and DS1 are big steam fanatics and this day had been eagerly awaited when this locomotive made a return trip to this part of the country. I decided to accompany them, mainly I have to say, because it was a miserable day but I still wanted to get some steps in. My goodness, did we get some steps - rather than motor to Salisbury we decided to go by train and it is a fair distance from home to the station, plus walking around Salisbury and then the return walk home (in torrential rain) all added up to well exceeding my target. Salisbury was absolutely packed with lots of mad steam lovers as was every bridge and vantage point on route. I would love to travel on one of these excursions and have a meal in the Pullman carriages but at £200+ I don't think that is ever going to happen!

2. I didn't have to work on Monday so we took advantage of a beautiful afternoon to walk the Forton Loop in Longparish. This walk is interesting as it takes you through varying landscape (from village street, meadow land, common land, agricultural land to woodland). It seems to be an excellent year for wildflowers which are growing in profusion at the moment.

3. Tuesday and Wednesday are working days for me but I did manage to do some crochet - progress was made on my interlocking ripple blanket and a couple of this week's pattern release squares have been completed on the Last Dance On The Beach CAL which you can see displayed on my blocking board.

4.  I am enjoying my garden but am waging a war against slugs and snails attacking my lovely Marguerite plant. As soon as the flowers appear they are being eaten. Just before taking this photo I have had to cut off several flowers that have been damaged beyond repair. They have also taken to nibbling at my Ice plant leaves as well but seem to leave everything else alone. Any advice as to how to deal with this pests will be welcome! 

5. I work on a Thursday every other week but this week was a 2 day week for me so another walk beckoned. This time we started off in the village of St. Mary Bourne, I have shown you many photos from here in the past but this time we covered new territory for us (although I walked these paths many years ago with my Dad). The walk took us from the village up to Cold Harbour Farm and then on through the fields eventually arriving at the tiny hamlet of Wadwick before heading back to SMB. We are so enjoying our walks in our glorious countryside and spotting the changes as the weeks go by - long may we continue to be able to do this.

Well that is it for this week. I hope you all have a lovely long Bank Holiday weekend (UK) and that the weather stays kind. See you next week for another Five!

A mixed bag!

The days seem to be speeding by at the moment, I cannot believe it is the end of another week and time to join Amy at Love Made My Home for Five On Friday.


I haven't really done anything terribly exciting this week, mainly due to the unpredictable nature of the weather we are experiencing at the moment. Tuesday was a glorious day but guess what - I had to work that day so didn't really get to enjoy it.


We did manage to get out on Saturday and enjoyed a lovely lunch at one of our favourite pubs - The Vine at Hannington and then enjoyed a walk over the delightful village green and out into the downland countryside. It was a real treat to see and hear skylarks, a bird that seems to have declined rapidly in recent years.

As you might remember we had the garden refurbished late last year and finally I had the chance to get to the Garden Centre to begin buying some planting and containers to turn it from a blank canvas into what I hope will be an enjoyable space to sit out and enjoy when the warmer weather comes. It is early days yet and there is still a lot more I want to achieve but at least it is a start - the little collection in the photo below cost me an arm and a leg so cannot buy too much at a time.

I am trying to choose mostly plants that attract bees and butterflies and I was lucky enough to be given the planting container below with butterfly friendly seedlings. I planted it up last weekend and already the growing rate has been amazing. It is indoors on a windowsill at the moment but will go outside to join the other pots when danger of frost has passed. If any of you know any plants that can be container grown that are good for attracting birds, butterflies and bees please let me know, I am very much a novice at this so any tips will be useful.

I have been mainly been entertaining myself by reading and crocheting this week, this is my latest charity blanket underway.

There are a lot of colour changes in this one so it might take me awhile, lots of those dratted ends to sew in!


Well that is my five pics for this week. Please pay a visit to Amy's blog where there are links to lots more Five On Friday posts.

Catching Up!

I am not sure where the time keeps disappearing lately but thought I better have a bit of a catch-up on my blog and also read some of my favourite blogs out there - I do apologise that I have been slow to respond with comments but will try and make amends today in an attempt to get back onto an even keel. 


Well, what have I been up to over the last week or so? Mainly working, walking and crocheting but before I get to that I promised that I would keep you up-to-date on whether I managed to lose that vital 1 lb to get that longed for 4.5 stone award. I am pleased to say that I did reach that goal and received by certificate. Onwards and downwards now to get to 5 stone.

As my regular readers will know I am attempting to crochet several charity blankets this year and last week I completed a special one which I am donating to raise money for Ronald McDonald House in Southampton - a home run completely on charity donations where relatives of seriously ill people can stay to be close to the hospital where their loved ones are receiving treatment. This cause is very dear to an old school friend of mine and she is organising a fund raising event for this very worthwhile cause so I hope this blanket will go a small way towards helping her in her aim. 

I did show you a few photos of thatched cottages on my last Five On Friday post from a walk we recently made around the village of Longparish. However I did take several other photos so thought I would show you some now. The walk was a new one for us called the Forton Loop. We were so lucky that we chose to do this walk on a perfect sunny Spring day which greatly added to the pleasure of walking in such a beautiful location. 

The start of the walk takes you through a lychgate before walking through the Churchyard ...

to the second lychgate which was apparently provided to rest coffins from the hamlet of Forton

before glancing back to the pretty Church.

On through the meadow with views of Middleton House in the distance ...

before reaching the pretty hamlet of Forton with its chocolate box thatched cottages and seeing this delightful horse and cart.

This was our least favourite part of the walk, the footpath takes you straight across the middle of a ploughed field, luckily it had been dry but not something I would like to undertake in wetter conditions.

The footpath then leads up onto a common

and along an area known as Cutty Brow.

Couldn't resist taking a photo of this teasel.

We have almost reached the Middleway where a group of beeches are a stunning sight

Now that is what I call a woodpile ....

Walking through the beech trees

before admiring the far-reaching views from the Middleway.

We then turn off the road again ...

and cross the old Sprat and Winkle railway line (long since gone) ...

and follow the Broadney path back to Longparish.

The birds enjoying the 'pickings' from a newly ploughed field.

Spotting a Comma - our first butterfly of the year!

Good Friday dawned another bright sunny and warm day - time for another walk, our first walk of the year where I didn't need to wear a coat. This time we were accompanied by our eldest son and chose an old favourite - the Riverdance Walk - again around the village of Longparish. I have shown you photos from this walk before but this time I have tried to choose some different views for you.

Pointing the way ...

Daffodils growing by the little stream - love the reflections in the water

A stunning oak tree, it won't be long before it greens up.

Another delightful chocolate box cottage.

Lots of people out walking on such a lovely day.

Celandines - Spring is here!

Don't know if sheep sitting down means the same as when you see cows sitting down but next day the weather was horrendous - how can two days be so different?

Longparish House sat in stunning park land.

On this walk you criss-cross the river many times.

Upper Mill

My son crossing one of the many bridges after walking through the water meadows.

Another view of the River Test.

View from Lower Mill towards the weir

Passing the entrance to the trout farm (on the homeward straight now)!

Looked up and spotted these unusual chimneys.

Our last crossing of the Test - love the sunlight reflecting on the water

We are incredibly lucky to have so many lovely places to walk in our part of the world, I am hoping we can keep fit and active so that we can try out many new walks and enjoy our old favourites for a long time to come.


I will try not to leave it so long before posting again, over Easter we have had torrential rain and heavy winds - not really conducive to getting out and about in the countryside so I have been busy working on another charity blanket which I will show you next time.