A Finish, Finds and That Treasure!

First the finish.  I decided to use the second batch of Collinette yarns up as granny squares.  This actually turned out larger than the other one here.

Tully has dognapped this one too.  She's a right little minx when it comes to anything snuggly.  Mind you she is allowed to be at the moment.  She ran into one of our blackthorn bushes after a bird and managed to puncture her eye.  Trip to vet and lots of drops.  She did look a little manic at one point with one widely dilated luminous green eye but all the lotions and potions have worked and she is doing fine and still has her eyesight.  Just!

Do you like the jumbo tassels?

A few of the beach finds.  I love the squared off or rectangular rocks from the beach, the extremely thin oyster shell that shines and the baby scallop shells.  Probably not very exciting to some of you but when you have manicured beaches like we have here it's lovely to find Mother's treasure.

On one beach there were only shells.  No sand at all just crushed shell.  The bright yellow ones are lovely and I may just put them in a jar of their own.  And can you see it?  The treasure??  My Spanish gold???  

Ok I know its only 20 cent piece but it is gold colour and from Spain.  I did have John's heart racing for a while though.  

And don't you just love the variety of colours in the simple limpet? 

And a fab rock.  I do hope I'm not the only one who has things call and need to be brought home.  I know a lot of places ban it and I can understand very much why!  (Those are centimetre squares, not inches!)

Back at home I found this little nest on the drive on the way out the other morning.  All twirled in moss and horse hair.  As we drove out there were Jackdaws outside next door eating eggs so it was probably them that also pulled the nest out.  I hate corvids and spend a lot of time discouraging them from nesting in our garden.  The garden birds have priority here!!

A quick look online and it seems to be a Chaffinch nest.  Prettied up with feathers on the outside.  None of the bits I put out though, that's usually taken by the Sparrows and Goldfinches first.

And the bat box swarm seem to be (bee ha ha) settling in well.

John's off fishing today and I'm going to make a list of things I must do.  Doing them is something else though.

Have a great weekend! 

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Sit and Staycation to Ireland

We don’t really take our dogs on holiday with us but we have taken them to Ireland a few times now.  Well this is Ellie’s first Dogliday really.  Why Ireland?  The travel is quite short and you don’t need doggy passports.  They do lots of cottages that take dogs.  They have fabulous open spaces up mountains and on empty beaches.  Mainly they have a very gentle climate that usually involves cloud and a bit of rain.  With dogs and a car that is the best option! 

When we arrived they were having unusual weather up to 23C and it was quite hard work even just to stop for a coffee or loo break.  Is there shade?  Can we let them out? etc but by the Monday everything was back to Ireland’s finest sunshine and showers, perfect for long walks and visits out for the humans too. I don’t think I have ever seen so many and such a variety of tractors in quite a small area ever before as the farmers were all working really hard to make haylage before the weather changed.  Right before our eyes green fields became stripped to gold and black wrapped bales appeared all over the place.

Making friends.

Exploring rock pools.

Just ensuring every inch of the beach is used at full speed.

Some of the huge cliffs along the coast.  You can just see the fence on the top right, that was about shoulder high on me.  Needless to say the dogs were safely in the car at this point!  Chris actually went down there via the far end and he was so tiny.  If I'd put one of those photos here you wouldn't be able to see him!

And the water was very clear.  That isn't shadow it's down to the bottom.  We saw a large pod of dolphins too but none of the photos came out clearly.

And a day later in the same spot a nice little swell came in and Chris managed some surfing which made his trip.  This actual break has quite a reputation and he had shown us some videos of huge waves here, really scary stuff but it's what Chris has done since before he could walk!  I'm just so happy for him that there was a wave, even if not of the huge variety, and there was only him and one other guy, it can become so crowded when the surf is good. 

Some of the locals chilling out.

Those cliffs!  Yes the Cliffs of Moher.  I have a bit of a bug bear about these.  It's all cordoned off and you have to pay to walk to them and look.  The visitor centre is just full of the usual plastic tat they call crafts.  (There were dozens of 'craft' shops which are actually just gift shops.  I've only ever found one genuine craft place in Ireland!) It's not the money, €6 each, but shouldn't landscape be just that?  Can you imagine not being able to see Lulworth Cove or most of the Jurassic Coast without being herded and charged?  A manmade attraction maybe, but nature? Just my thing I know.

Perfect doggy days.  Tully now has her swimsuit on.  She it a very good swimmer but she can be rolled around a bit when there is surf and Ellie also tends to try and run over her all the time!  This photo is showing the art of anticipation of the ball being thrown and trying to steal it before that happens.

And of course all that leads to complete satisfaction.  Unfortunately a still photo doesn't capture the fact that these three spent a lot of their sleeping time still running along those beaches, legs still going nine to the dozen!

Thank you for reading this far, I have a couple more photos to show later including the Spanish Gold!!!  And yes Benta, you were quite right, the person who lived in the house in the previous post would have been christened Edward but is better known as Father Ted.  You can go there for afternoon tea even though it is a private house but we were too early and I don't think the owner would have dressed as Mrs Doyle.

Back to a bit of work now the internet is actually trying to work!!!

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So Who Lives...

...in a house like this?





Answers on a postcard.


Not the best photo I know. It was taken on a camera and then I took a photo of the camera screen with my phone and sent it as an email. Left all the iPad connectors at home!


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Some Excitement from Dale

This week saw the launch of Dale and Ian Rollerson's new e-mag Threads In-fusion.  A very exciting quarterly magazine delivered to your in box.

Also this week they launched a new monthly club called the Silk Fibre Club where you have a parcel of silk goodies delivered to your doorstep!  Could anyone ask for more.  Information for both of these can be found on Dale's blog.

You will also find information about the Italian holiday next year should you wish to come and join us playing working hard with lots of ideas and materials in the Italian sunshine.

And just to add a photo as I don't like photo-less posts, here's a little 12 inch panel I made a while ago and have only just stretched and mounted ready for framing.

It's on a background of Thread Studio slushie bought at Ally Pally embellished onto felt and added throwsters waste etc.  Silk rods, stitching and beads added afterwards.

Can't wait to see what the framers make of this one!

Have a fab weekend!!


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Still Ne'er Clout Casting

It's now June and this is our Hawthorn, almost reluctantly opening a few of it's flowers.  Normally it's managed to carpet the lawn with petals and the rose is taking over by now.  I guess this is one May tree that is definitely feeling the lateness of the year. Jumpers and socks are stil to hand. 

We took the dogs for a very blustery walk up to Win Green on the Bank Holiday.

We can see it from almost everywhere around here as it is the highest pont on the Cranborne Chase (910 feet). It's only a couple of miles from the house too but we had never actually been up there.  The view is 360degs like this with a little clump of beech trees on the top.

This week I handed in the Chatelaine.  I know they won't be shown until 3rd August but I thought I'd rather it be there and safe than here and forgotten!

The port tube had a bit of a makeover.  I quilted and beaded the damask to make the cover and the inside is just plain.

It took a while to work out the hanging hook but thanks to John's odds box in the garage and a Dremmel I managed it.  Very pleased over all.  (Sorry just realised you can't actually see that the lid lifts with a hook underneath to hang the chatelaine from. )

The Dorset Art Fair is on this weekend at Kingston Mauward, Dorchester so I think we will have a nice trip over to there later to see what they've all been up to!

But I've just been outside and I think John is having a bit of a play with his girls first!!!

Have a great weekend.

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