My Birthday

Last Sunday was my birthday, we went out to Amberley Working Museum, they had an industrial trains weekend. All the little quarry engines came out to play, some were the engines that used to work in the chalkpit carrying lime to the de Witt Kilns. Most of the engines were diesel, one was electric with a huge box full of batteries and there was one steam engine. The Museum has been busy with improvement and repairs and now that funding has been granted for the restoration of the De Witt Kilns further work is underway. Still not much knitting being done, more reading Last night I even picked up my cross stitch! I hope you have a lovely weekend, Monday is May Day Bank Holiday in the UK. Jane x

Books

During the Easter Holidays I spent my spare time reading as well as knitting. I have enjoyed three Elizabeth Chadwick novels, I couldn't find The Conquest for this photo. I have also been reading more of the No1 Ladies Detective Agency stories. My wrap has grown to nearly its full size and I have decided, when its finished, to crochet on at both ends a very pretty edging which I found in a book my parents gave me. It is by Nicky Epstein. It is full of the most wonderful edgings for all sorts of projects. Looking at my photo the wrap looks grey but it is infact a deep purple plyed with a creamy white. I hope you have a lovely week. Jane X

"Dorset is beautiful where ever you go" Part 2

Our trips out this week have included, Athelhampton house and Gardens which are beautiful and have many echos of Montacute and Barrington Court, but Athelhampton is privately owned. Lulworth Castle which was fantastic, it was destroyed in 1929 by fire. It was then rescued and roofed and stabilised, so you can see three floors from the ground floor. One of the towers has a steel stair case to the battlements which give 360 views of the castle lands. Later the same day we visited Lulworth Cove, we even tackled part of the coastal path to Durdle Door. The views were stunning.

We also visited Barrington Court for an Easter Egg Hunt then on Easter Saturday we went to Corfe Castle and later the same day we boarded the steam train to Swannage which was brilliant. I love steam trains despite being born after Dr Beeching wielded his axe on the railway. We visited a wonderful chocolate shop which hand makes all sorts of chocolate including the dairy-free variety. So Em did very well this Easter despite her dairy allergy. I bought the dairy-free bunnies as substitues for the Cadbury's egg she won on the Easter Egg hunt. Easter Sunday we went to Lytes Cary Manor and Easter Monday we visited Coldharbour Mill, Uffculme. The mill has some beautiful wool. Today we came home to Sussex with Ali. I hope you have a lovely week Jane x

"Dorset is beautiful where ever you go"

The title of this post is a line from a song sung by the Yetties and pefectly sums up the County of Dorset. Sunday afternoon we visited Tintinhull Gardens N.T. The gardens were beautiful, the tulips and magnolias were in bloom. Em took her sketch book with her to practise single line drawing of organic shapes. They will be doing more in art lessons at school after Easter. The pond in the photo was full of fish and lots of tiny tadpoles hiding in the clumps of iris. On Monday we went to Bath, to the Jane Austen Museum. It has a display of costumes of the period and tells the life story of Jane Austen, which was fascinating. We walked around the Royal Crescent and down the shopping streets. Tuesday - we visited Athelhampton House, it is a beautiful house and gardens, which we enjoyed discovering. I hope you have a good week. Jane

Dorset Here We Come!

We're off to Dorset, we've packed everything including the kitchen sink! I hope to post during the week but that depends on the time available and broadband connection. We've plans to visit Bath and lots of our favourite National Trust houses. I've packed some knitting and crosstitching and a couple of books to read. I hope you have a good week too. Jane x

Recovery

This week the theme has been extreme tiredness from the cold/flu bug, I have been at work but exhausted by 8pm and asleep in the chair. Spring is really waking up the flowers in our garden and the pots outside our back door are beautiful, even on gloomy days like today its as if we've trapped a few sunbeams. The cowslips are forming a beautiful clump just behind the terracotta birdbath. The Polyanthus and Daffodils together with a little purple Wood Anemone brighten up the base of the wall. Further along the border the ruby coloured Helleborus are almost finished flowering but the pink Bergenia (Elephants Ears) are just beginning to flower. Our garden is small, only 15 foot long x 20 foot wide, but I try to have something in flower or colour foliage all year round. The last photo for today is of the camellia at the end of the garden against the garage wall. I planted it as a small cutting approximately 9 years ago, It is now just about 5ft tall and looks beautiful. The photo doesn't do the colour justice, but then I was playing with my old camera! Tony took one earlier in the week with his camera and the colours are much better. I have finished my shawl and it looks lovely. I think I need to crochet or knit an edging so I'm on the hunt so a suitable pattern, any ideas please? I have started a wrap in a beautiful mauve yarn which I bought from a table sale, 50p for a 300g cone. I decided it would be perfect for a lacey shawl I wanted to knit, but oh dear, the yarn is slightly fuzzy so if I made a mistake it was very difficult to undo as it knotted its self up! I decided to knit it up in stocking stitch and then crochet a fancy border. Hopefully it will be lovely for a summers evening to keep off the chill. I have also just cut out the pattern for a shirt in a mauve liberty print cotton lawn, so I shall be doing some sewing this week. I hope you have a happy week, we are on the downhill ride to the Easter holidays so three days of school, a parent consultation day then an INSET day - yipee! holidays. Jane x

Mothers Day

We spent Mothers day at Nymans National Trust House and Garden. It was a beautifully warm sunny day but I was not feeling very well from my cold, so I'm dressed as though its six foot of snow. The gardens were full of plants in flower: Daffodils, Camellia, Magnolia, Fritillery and Rhododendrons. We wandered at our leisure admiring the views and then chose a bench in the sun to picnic on. It was a lovely day, just what a Mummy needed - sunshine and flowers. I hope your weekend was good too. Jane x