A bit of this and a bit of that ....

I have had a very busy last week but nothing of great interest to write about, but I have continued to take a few photos of my activities. 

I am writing this just before I watch the Festival of Remembrance from the Cenotaph, when the Queen will lay a wreath on behalf of the nation and Commonwealth.  I always get choked up by this as my father was in the Great War and World War 11 and I remember those who never came back.  He didn't arrive in France until March 1918 and was demobbed in March 1919 but he went through the second World War manning the East Coast defences in Frinton.  Not glamourous but he met my mother during this time, and though everyone thought he was a confirmed bachelor, they married and hence I am here.  I wrote about him in this blog.

I have been working on 'land conservation' at Chester Farm over the last few weeks and the weather has been amazingly good to us.

This was taken just before the rain poured down!  Luckily we were on our way to our lunch break in one of the barns.  We were clearing the Holm meadow and building up 'walls' of wood to stop dogs (and people) getting into the undergrowth.  The contractors have started work around the farm buildings and have pulled down the corrugated barns and silos and opened up the site to build the new visitor centre.  Work cannot start on the house yet as they have discovered there are bats roosting /hibernating, so they have to be left until they fly off sometime soon - hopefully!!  Bats are a protected species in the UK.

On my Monday Nordic walk we walked by the river in Irthlingborough Lakes and rounded a corner to see this sight.

We thought it was rubbish blown up by the wind, but on closer inspection we realised what they were

A grey heron and white egrets

It was a thrilling sight as we hadn't seen so many egrets together in one place before.  While we were watching the heron lazily flew off.

Yesterday the 50+ Adventure Club had an outing to watch Northampton Saints play rugby and initially I wasn't going, until I heard that they were playing Gloucester in the Anglo Welsh Cup.  My younger son was born in Gloucester and we lived in Gloucestershire and South Wales for 25 years so my family have always supported Gloucester.

Come on you Cherry Whites!!

It was looking good -

but by the end the result was against us - Saints 19-13 Gloucester.  C'est la vie!!  However this was a family occasion for me as my son, grandson, brother, sister and brother in law were all there and when I was parking my car I saw my niece with her children.  Her youngest was playing in an Under 9's mini-rugby competition and at half time the teams paraded round the pitch - great excitement from these youngsters. 

In the meantime I have been very 'crafty', though most of it cannot be shown as it is Christmas related.  However I have completed my latest piece of embroidery.

Goldwork

I bought this as a kit in 2007 when I went to a Royal School of Needlework one day course and it sat around until I thought I should finish it.  My embroidery teacher suggested that the pattern would look better on this emerald green dupion and though the emerald green doesn't show well in the photo, she was right as usual!!  I am going to make it into a box lid when I can find an appropriate box.

Oh Deer!

I ticked off another item on my invisible 'Bucket List' the other weekend!  I went on a Deer Walk.

That might sound very boring, but in the UK at this time of the year the 'rut' is going on in herds of deer and I have never seen it before.  I have seen it on nature programmes on TV but never live, so this is what we were going to see.  I was excited!!

We met in Bradgate Park in Leicestershire and for our morning walk we walked up to 'Old John' which was quite hard going, passing the remains of the Elizabethan house which was the ancestral home of Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen for 9 days, before being executed. 

The little 'huts' are litter bins!!

 

Old John with the war memorial on the left of the photo

After a short break and a look at the 'map'

we walked over to the War Memorial and so back to the start for lunch, passing some very old, but still living mainly oak trees.

A legend says that when Lady Jane Grey was executed the tops of all the trees in the park were cut off and there are some very old and gnarled ones.

A Ranger joined us in the afternoon and we went into the private deer sanctuary hearing the 'bellowing' of the stags all the time, as indeed we had in the morning as well.  Luck was on our side though and in a clearing in the woods we came on a small group of Fallow Deer Does with their Buck (Fallow Deer have bucks and does, Red Deer have stags and hinds) who was a splendid example.

Fallow Deer have palmate horns

I should apologise for the standard of photography.  They were in dappled woodland and at a distance.

A very noisy buck

There was a buck close by who was making our buck very worried protecting his 'girls'.  Eventually there was nothing more than to lock horns and fight it out.

The interloper ran off and our 'Buck' had his wicked way with one of his females - and though I managed a very blurry photo as proof, I am not putting it on here!!

Meanwhile there were some Red Deer close by with a huge stag in charge, but unfortunately I couldn't close enough to get a good photo before he ran off.  I did get this one of a young adult and a doe, with Fallow Deer on the left.

Nearly a 'Monarch of the Glen'

We were able to get close to our Fallow Deer as the buck was more concerned about his rivals than us!

A wonderful walk.

A quick update on the parking area that was finished after 3.5 days and I am really pleased with it. 

Now to tidy up the garden!!

The Mini Mania for October has finished and it has been quite controversial - Joseph's Coat.
My first effort was literal -

Only about 8" high

 

but after a think I decided on this

Roughly 10" square, I used Invisible Machine Applique, which is a technique I learnt after attending a workshop given by Dawn Cameron Dick.  Brilliant technique!!

Now to see what we have to do in November.

At last it's started!!

The workmen arrived this week at last, brilliant. 

But how did this all start?

At the beginning of May a car parked in front of my house and stayed, and stayed and stayed  for seven weeks.  I contacted the police to see if they could get it removed, but they said that it was fully taxed and therefore it could not be removed and the owner lived in the "vicinity".  In the UK if your car is taxed you can park in front of anyone's house unless the kerb is dropped to allow access or there are any other restrictions.  I had none of these in front of my house so they couldn't help.

However, I did discover that the car was due to have an MOT test and this meant it would have to go to a garage for testing and while it was away I parked my car - SORTED!!  It was driven back to my road and parked further up though.  I couldn't risk this happening again so I decided that I would turn my front garden into a parking area and have the kerb dropped at the same time.  This takes time (five weeks) as a licence is required from the County Council and the builders had to contact FIVE service providers; gas, electricity, water, cable TV, telephone.

But at long last they are here and working

Lovely son cut down the hedge and knocked down the wall but hedge
is sprouting in the meantime!

Path being dug up

Digger making short work of the stumps

They arrived on Wednesday morning just after I had got out of the shower and I greeted them in my dressing gown.  They moved my car for me and ever since then I seem to have been making cups of tea and providing biscuits but the work is moving on and they have been so polite and helpful.

A digger in the front garden!  Oh little Will would love this.

 

Getting there

 

The 'Terram' has been laid

 

More hardcore required

Well today they have finished the pavement and the tarmac is laid, but the parking area is still ongoing.

I will update as and when.

Meanwhile on the crafty side I went to the re-opening of a local craft warehouse, Colemans and bought this unusual crochet 'fibre' just on a whim!!

I decided to make a bowl and though I found it quite hard on the fingers it did not take long to make.  It felt as if I was using 'raffia', but the amazing thing is that at the end you spray it with water to shape it!!

 
 

The finished bowl

Anyway, Mini Mania for October beckons; anyone know how to make 'Joseph's Coat'?  I have seen many variations so will have to gamble which one is right!!

Zoo time

It has been a fairly quiet week and I have actually had some time to myself.  However Tuesday was my normal 'Will' day so my sister and I took him to Hamerton Zoo.  When we arrived there were two coaches in the car park with 90 children and their teachers and helpers and we were concerned that they would be noisy and in our way, but we hardly saw them, so they must have been very busy doing school work!

This is a lovely little zoo, with a mixture of lemurs, meerkats, gibbons (very noisy) hanging around, a large wallaby enclosure, cheetahs -

tigers, both white and Malaysian -

 

Will thought it looked like his cat at home

some Reindeer -

A Reindeer stag 'wrestling' the fence!


 and circling low overhead was a Red Kite.  It swooped down into the zoo and had something in its talons that it took into a nearby tree.  I grabbed my camera but unfortunately it had the sun behind it so not a good picture -

 We didn't think it was any of the animals that had been caught, but there was a great deal of food lying about, including dead day old chicks being fed to small carnivores.

I haven't been 'pot washing' of the finds at Chester Farm lately but we did clean some bags up that have been dug up in the last month.  The contractors are now on site preparing the new car park and visitor centre so this is last minute archaeological digging.  I was lucky enough to wash this, complete with the 'Maker's Mark' on the rim.

 

The whole piece

 There was a good piece of Samian Ware also with the Maker's Mark in the centre, so the experts will be able to name the maker.

Maker's Mark in the centre

 

I loved this piece though I am not sure what the figures are - elephants perhaps

Could that be an elephant's trunk on the left?

and this small pot would have been quite dainty.

I have finished my Christmas bauble at last and though it is not perfect I am pleased with it -

It is called the 'Emperor'  but I think it looks like Peacock 'eyes'.

 I still have another kit to make up but that will have to wait as I must get on with my embroidery.

Murder...... !!

In my last post I mentioned that I was organising two activities for the 50+ Adventure Club and so the other Friday I was in Loughborough at the Great Central Railway for a Luxury Murder Mystery evening.  We assembled on the platform where the first part of the play, set just after the Second World War, was enacted and then onto the train and off we puffed, pulled by a steam train.

 

 

As you can see from the photos we were in Pullman carriages and what luxury they were; like armchairs!!  We had a five course meal, served by lovely staff, when the train stopped at a station and all the time the 'players' were going up and down the train answering our questions and queries.  Some of the diners were in period dress and I did think about this but I couldn't find the trousers that I wanted as 'Oxford bags' so I must have sent them to the charity shop!

Anyway the next big outing was here at Alexandra Palace, and I went with two friends and we had a brilliant day.

 

They did lead me off the straight and narrow a little when we stopped at the Spellbound Bead stand and I bought two kits to make Christmas baubles.  What made me do that; I have never bought a kit like this before, let alone two!!  Madness.

I have started one

'Emporer' bauble ready to go

The first part

It took me ages to get one completed so I was pleased with this

and only another four to make -

I had hoped to complete this project in a weekend but I think it is going to take a little longer!!  I will keep you posted.