Out and about

What a difference 10 days can make with the weather in the UK.  Mid April I went on the 50+ Adventure Club Spring Walk and lunch and I can say that MUD featured very heavily.  We had been advised to dress appropriately, so I had my 'wet weather gear' on - waterproof trousers, heavy walking boots and gaiters and of course my Nordic walking poles and did I need all of them!!  We set off across the fields through this avenue of Poplars - why had they been planted like this - no-one knew.

 

Across a field of lambs and ewes - aaargh!!

The going had got stickier and stickier until we came on this towards the end

Notice the man on the left against the hedge - well that was the path that I took, except my right foot slid down the little bank and I found myself on my knees in the mud!!  I couldn't get up, partly because I was stuck and partly because I (and some of my companions) was laughing so much.  Eventually I was hauled to my feet but thank goodness for my weatherproof clothing.

We carried on walking and were told that we were on top of the tunnel at Blisworth.  We came down to the entrance

 

and were lucky enough to find an HPP (handy passing person) to take a group photo.  This amazing tunnel is wide enough to take two narrow boats and when it was originally built the horses towing the boats were taken over the top while the boatmen lay on their backs and using their feet on the roof of the tunnel, pushed the boat through!!

 

... and so to Sunday lunch

Note that in these previous photos hardly a leaf on the trees.  However within a few days the temperature soared, I was in a short sleeved t-shirt, my garden beckoned and I was applying the sun cream!!  Then just as quickly the sun disappeared, but it did leave the hedges sprouting and blossom appearing.

A friend, L, moved to Spalding in Lincolnshire 18 months ago (was it that long ago?!) and invited me to lunch.  It was a showery day but the sun was shining as I drove out to the Fens and it still leaves me amazed at how flat it is.  This has a down side because there is nothing to stop the wind that comes from the East, namely the Steppes of Russia, or so my mother always said if we went for holidays on the East coast!!

However L took me off to see Ayscoughfee Hall and my mouth dropped open when I saw these .....

 

 ...just the most amazing yew hedges, that have grown together, into what reminded me of a cloud formation.  All the trees are interlinked and take the gardener about two weeks to trim at the end of the summer plus this hedge  ...

We decided they are sea serpents all in a row!!



 We walked though the hedge

to the front of the Hall

and had a quick look round the house.

The Spalding Gentleman's Society

I must go back another time and spend more time in the gardens.  We just got back to L's house before the heavens opened.

With regard to sewing/crochet/smocking /embroidery etc, well I do have projects on the go but nothing worth reporting at the moment, so will show them at a later date.

I have been out regularly on my electric bike and have even gone to Higham Piecemakers group meetings on it.  However I was already 'dressed' to go out Sunday morning when I discovered I had a puncture in the front tyre, the electric one!  I found a cycle kit, complete with tyre leavers and a puncture repair kit, looked at it and put it away again!!  I had no idea what to do!!  Son number 1 phoned me "What would happen if you got a puncture while you were out cycling?  Call the AA?"  (Note to overseas readers this is not Alcoholics Anonymous but the Automobile Association or roadside assistance).  I said "Of course not, I would ring for a taxi to take me and the bike home!!"  I DO NOT MEND PUNCTURES AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD!!  Why not - well I have no rubber gloves so my hands would get dirty!!  Truthfully the bike is too heavy for me to lift; so I would take it to the bike shop which is what I did the next day, on my new bike carrier.  This was easy to put on the car and I got the bike up with some difficulty because of the puncture, however the clamp that locks the bike tight did not seem to work, but I managed to drive to the shop where a nice young man went to lift it down.  When I told him the clamp was not working he asked "Have you unlocked it"? I hadn't, so there was another lesson learned. Never too late in life to learn something new every day and boy, am I learning!

What can you make with a tea towel?

If you have been following my blog you will know that it's that time of the year when Higham Piecemakers have their grand reveal of the 2017 Christmas Challenge.

Well, we were given a tea towel and in line with the BBC Great British Sewing Bee, had to turn it into something else and NOT dishcloths!!  On TV they only get a short time but we were given three months, thank goodness.

I thought long and hard over Christmas and had a brilliant idea and mentioned it to the family who immediately fell about laughing!!  That would be the second challenge - wiping the smiles off their faces!

So the tea towel -

I unpicked the hems

 ruled the lines

and started counter change smocking

The first part completed.

Two years ago I went to Yarndale and for some unexplained reason I bought a pack of tweed offcuts and this gave me the idea for the next stage of the process but what I had wasn't going to be enough for my idea and I needed more. 

I was very lucky to find a metre of very inexpensive and the correct weight tweed.  Thank goodness for the Internet and soon everything was in place for part 2.

A good match

After talking to a friend who is an experienced dyer, I chose Procion dyes from this company.  With my heart in my mouth I started the process and was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was and it now looked as if my idea would actually work.  Sorry there should be a photo here but I tend to forget when I am busy!!

Part 3 - next I needed to cut up the tea towel into four but before you even put a pair of scissors to counter change you must secure it, so two parallel sets of machining lines were made vertically and horizontally, and then it was cut.  The tweed offcuts were cut up and a paper pattern found

Pockets from offcuts

(are you getting an idea of where I am going??!!)

a jacket!
 

The next part was actually more tricky than I expected.  I had to line it although the pattern was for an unlined jacket and there was great deal of matching which I don't think was entirely successful but here is the finished item -

Goodness I do look fat

 try a side view

....  much better

I think that I could have made it a size smaller but on the whole I am very pleased and the jacket will be worn.

If you want to see what the rest of the group did with their tea towels go to the Higham Piecemakers blog page.

Easter jottings

I shouldn't really be writing this on Easter Monday morning because I had booked to go out on a gentle bike ride with a group at Stanwick Lakes, but because of the weather forecast and the torrential rain we have had that has caused flooding, it has been cancelled.  I am very disappointed.  If, and it is a big if, the weather improves this afternoon I might go out on my own.

However on a brighter note, on Saturday my son invited me to Cambridge for lunch. Brilliant I thought, I can arrive early and do some vegetable gardening, weeding and planting seeds and my early potatoes! No such luck; it was cold and damp and all we managed to do was clear the raised beds ready for planting when the weather warms up. 

Looking good

BUT I was absolutely horrified when I saw this bed -

last time I was in Cambridge this was a bed full of  growing broad beans and now it is just weeds and everyone has been eaten by something!!! I couldn't weed because I am still hoping they will sprout, but I couldn't see the plants!

The purple sprouting broccoli was in a similar state

but it should recover.

I had been told that in the afternoon we would be going to church to do the Easter garden but this was postponed until very late afternoon because of this -

and when we arrived at the church it was closed after the funeral, in preparation for Easter Services.  However we were admitted and the children helped with the garden for Easter Sunday.

They did a lovely job

I wandered around the church, where both of my grandchildren who live in Cambridge, were baptised.  Both baptisms were held as part of the morning family service and there was a German film crew at one of them.  We never did see any footage.

 
It was a lovely family day especially as we all went out for a meal afterwards.

I did promise to show you my Easter 'eggs' made for my four grandchildren -

 

The children have loved them but it may be because I enclosed some money in each wrapped up egg!!  Such fun to make.