A West Somerset Break - Part One

We have just returned from a fabulous four day mini-holiday in beautiful West Somerset. We decided to take this break as a 30th birthday treat for son No. 1 in one of his favourite parts of the country (and ours)! When we go to West Somerset there is only one place to stay and that is at The Langbury in Blue Anchor. This B&B is fantastic, we have stayed in several B&B's, some of which have been very good, but nothing comes anywhere close to The Langbury. The owners - Paula and Nigel, are wonderful people who greet us as old friends, supply us with tea/coffee and cake on arrival, run a spotlessly clean establishment with everything you could wish for supplied, have a vast knowledge of the local area and Nigel cooks the most wonderful breakfasts made to order that fill you up for the day plus gives you his own interpretation of the day's local weather forecast!

The Langbury B&B

The entrance porch stunningly beautiful

The photo says it all, one of Nigel's wonderful breakfasts

And another .... The salmon and scrambled eggs were delicious 

A delightful jug of Springtime flowers/pussy willow/blossom in our room

The weather, it has to be said was not the best.  On Friday it rained practically all day and there was a biting north easterly wind to contend with on Saturday and Sunday, however this did not stop us enjoying ourselves and when we had to shelter from the rain on Friday what better place than the cozy lounge at The Langbury with its lovely wood burning stove keeping us warm whilst the menfolk caught up with some reading and I sat and crocheted.

Blue Anchor beach in the pouring rain

The lovely view from our room through a rain splattered window

Relaxing in the cozy lounge, so comfortable

Looking out from the lounge, even though it was wet and overcast it was lovely to sit and look out at that lovely view.

The Birthday boy catching up with some reading

If it is too wet to get out and see steam trains you sit and read about them instead!

A total of 16 squares crocheted for my rainbow blanket.

The rain did eventually stop at around 4.00 pm on Friday so we decided to go for a walk on the beach, still very overcast and cold but it was good to get out and stretch our legs.

Look out for Part 2 shortly when I will tell you about our day at Watersmeet, Lynmouth, The Valley of the Rocks and Woody Bay on Saturday.

A Day Out In Hungerford

On a lovely sunny Saturday morning we drove to Hungerford. Primarily this was so DH and No. 1 son could view and photograph a special steam train that was passing through. However I love visiting Hungerford and mooching around all the little individual shops there so I left the men folk to go to the station whilst I made for the town.

Town Hall and view down High Street

Antiques Arcade very often featured on TV in shows like Bargain Hunt

Some interesting bits and pieces outside of the Antiques Arcade

View looking up the High Street to the bridge and the town hall

When I had had enough of looking at the shops I wandered down to the canal to sit on a seat in the sunshine and idled my time away watching families feeding the ducks.

After the steam train had gone through we met up for lunch at a little coffee shop called The Tutti Pole. I did attempt to get a photo of it but there was some sort of cycle meet up event going on and I couldn't get a clear photo for all the bikes and lycra clad cyclists that were congregated outside. There were more cyclists inside but we did manage to get a table and enjoyed a lovely lunch.



You can find out why the coffee shop has such an unusual name here, the ancient festival of Hocktide with Tutti Men carrying Tutti Poles is still carried out each year in Hungerford.  


We then decided to get away from the hustle and bustle of the busy high street so walked along the canal towpath towards Newbury direction. What a difference, we had only walked about 100 yards and we were in the peace and quiet of the countryside with just the narrowboats and ducks for company.

Can you spot the dog on the towpath? He belonged to the people on this boat - one way of taking your dog for a walk I suppose!

DH and No. 1 son looking for possible future vantage points for photographing trains

There are very often steam train excursions passing through Hungerford so I am sure we will be visiting again very soon. 

Rooksbury Mill on a sunny morning

We decided to pay another visit to Rooksbury Mill today on a beautiful sunny morning. Quite a lot of activity on the large and small lake today so hope you enjoy looking at the photos. Some of the birds were a bit distant for my lens to cope with but as they are birds we don't see every day I decided they were worth taking for the record, as was the photo of the water vole having a good feed on the bank.

Ratty (Water Vole) feeding on the bank by the stew pond

Two adult Mute Swans (you can just see the juvenile one hiding behind the tree)

Sun shining on the lake

Great Crested Grebe

Spring is here - lovely catkins

and some beautiful primroses

Tufted Duck

A distant view of a Little Grebe (Dabchick) 

Mr and Mrs Mallard

Mute Swan and Tufted Ducks

This robin kindly sat and posed for me

Little Egret

Teasel head

And to finish off here is a photo taken from the carved bench - I am taking a photo from here every month and then at the end of the year I can look back to see how the scenery changes month on month. 

This is the view for March - already it has changed a lot since the photos I took in January and February so it is going to be interesting to view them all at the end of the year.

Crafty Weekend

At the end of every month I usually travel up to my friend Colly's house at Long Eaton for a crafty get-together with a few friends. For one reason or another I haven't been able to make the event since October so I couldn't wait for the February meet up to see all my friends again for a catchup and a good laugh. These days are always lots of fun and in between the chatting, laughing and eating we do manage to do quite a lot of crafting. 


Two of our group could not make it this time but it was good to see Colly's daughter and granddaughter who joined us this time around and made some great progress on their cross-stitching.


Colly, Tammy and I were busy crocheting, all making blankets of one kind or another.

This is the progress I have now made on my coastal ripple blanket (over the halfway point now).

To celebrate my new kitchen being completed I offered to make cake to take along. A chocolate ganache cake and some mini lemon sponge cakes filled with lemon buttercream and lemon curd seemed to go down well with everyone (my diet starts soon)!

Chocolate ganache cake

Tammy trying to hide the fact that she was eating a mini-lemon sponge cake 

Sorry Colly (couldn't resist)!

Colly's granddaughter left us to eat the cake and enjoyed ice-cream instead.

Another productive and enjoyable craft day - thank you Colly for hosting another great meet up.

I couldn't resist taking some photos of Colly's orchids, they never seem to stop flowering and my photos don't do them justice (in my defence the sun was pouring in the window so difficult to take against the light). 

I am working three days this week (instead of my usual two) but will hopefully be back again soon with more of my ramblings. 

Liebster Award

I have been nominated by Winwick Mum (winwickmum.blogspot.co.uk) for the Liebster Award. 

Thank you for this, being new to blogging I have never done anything like this before but will give it a go. This award exists only on the internet and is given to bloggers by other bloggers - find more information here. The basic rules seem to be to answer 11 questions that have been posted by the nominator and then think of 11 questions to ask others. 


I am not very good at this sort of thing but will do my best to make it interesting for my readers so these are the questions that Winwick Mum asked:-


1.  If you were down to your last £5 what would you spend it on?

Hmmm, this one got me thinking. It would very much depend on the circumstances but I guess it would be some cheap but nourishing food to keep the family fed (pasta etc.) until hopefully more money miraculously appeared from somewhere.


2.  What is your favourite thing to eat?

This one is easy - it has to be lasagne with salad and garlic bread.


3.  What was the first film you ever watched at the pictures?

Hard Day's Night (The Beatles). I was taken to see it by two of my Great Aunt's who I was staying on holiday with at the time, not sure what they made of sitting in the cinema with lots of screaming fans but I was very grateful to them for taking me.


4.  If your house was on fire, what one thing other than family members and pets would you save?

My childhood photograph album.


5.  What, other than your children, is your greatest achievement?

I guess it would be winning the best case study award when I was awarded my Diploma of School Business Management which came as a total shock to me.

6.  What did you want to be when you grew up?

This is really boring and certainly dates me but I wanted to be a shorthand typist. I couldn't wait to get a typewriter. I received one from my Great Uncle when I was 16.


7.  What word would other people use to describe you?

Easy-going (sorry is that two words)?


8.  How many WIP's do you have at the moment?

Too many to count (although some of them probably count as UFO's and not WIP's).


9.  What is your favourite yarn/embroidery thread?

Budget: Stylecraft Special DK.
Luxury: Rowan Lima.


10. What tool could you not do without?

My iPad (does that count as a tool)?


11. What was the last magazine you bought?

Simply Crochet (I don't buy many magazines these days but the poncho pattern in an edition of Simply Crochet a little while back took my eye).


OK, having answered the questions I am meant to pass the award on by thinking of eleven questions to pass on to other bloggers. Having not belonged to the blogging community for very long I am just going to choose a few people whose blogs I have enjoyed reading - there is no obligation for you to participate if you don't want to, I don't want to put anyone under any pressure. I am happy for you to answer the same questions as above.

The House With The Blue Door
Stitchery Nook
Life By The Sea
Stitching Dreams
Bunny Mummy
Tales From A Happy House

Inspired

I have always been someone who gets inspiration for my crafting from others, I am always more productive if people around me are creating wonderful designs and since joining the blogging community at the beginning of the year I have been inspired by photos that others have posted on their blogs.


Firstly I would like to thank Carol from Stitching Dreams - for years I spent all my spare time doing cross stitch embroidery but completely lost my stitching mojo after my Dad passed away almost four years ago. Carol stitches the most gorgeous Christmas ornament designs and she described how one of the ornaments she had stitched had special meaning for her. The design included a cardinal which made her feel close to her father who passed away last year.  This resonated with me and I suddenly had a strong yearning to stitch a robin. My Dad was an avid gardener and over the years he made friends with several robins who became very tame as they watched him digging the garden and even feeding out of his hand. Without further ado I gathered the materials needed, found the design that I was looking for - it needed to be an authentic looking robin and I knew I had the perfect design, I just needed to search through hundreds of charts to find it!  

I really enjoyed stitching this design and thinking of my Dad while I was stitching it and hopefully my stitching mojo is here to stay so thank you so much Carol for giving me the kickstart I needed to get back into my stitching. Here is the completed design ready to hang on my tree next Christmas.

This design came from an old copy of New Stitches magazine

Having made a renewed start to my stitching I hope to become productive once again - I have far too much stash tucked away not to stitch again for another four years! I think I will start off with small designs until I get back into it the flow - I am sure my Christmas tree could do with a few more ornaments next year. This is just a very small and varied sample of designs I have stitched in the past.

Secondly on reading Cathy's blog (The House With The Blue Door) I was inspired to crochet a mandala - there were lots of these being crocheted all over  Blogland last year for Attic24's Yarndale exhibition but being busy with other projects I didn't get around to making any then. However seeing Cathy's lovely Spring inspired design I decided it was about time I had a go. These are surprisingly addictive and after making a visit to my local Yarn shop and selecting some lovely cotton yarn I came home and starting crocheting and ended up hooking three of these creations. Thank you Cathy for providing the inspiration for me to try out something new.

Little Spring Mandala (made-in-k-town.blogspot.de)

Petals and Puffs Mandala (bunnymummy-jacquie.blogspot.co.uk

Magical Mandala (sarahlondon.wordpress.com)

Having had a bit of fun this last week with some new creations I need to get back to finishing off some of the projects that have been put on hold. I think I will be banned from buying any new yarn/stitching materials until I have used up some of my huge stash and finishing off things that I have abandoned taken a temporary rest from.


One more bit of crafty related news - I have been asked by my local yarn store to teach a crochet class, really looking forward to this challenge.