Friday Natter!

Family dramas abound this month, can’t say much but I had to go to Wales last weekend, not good. But life goes on whatever.

The wedding of my youngest son is rapidly approaching now. I am rehearsing my reading and trying very hard not to over dramatise the word “woe”. It’s in Ecclesiates, 4,v 9-12 , but you need the King James version to find the word woe! I love the idea of people needing people, it’s apt for my family at the moment, well for all of us. Don’t know where I would be without my fellow bloggers.

I still don’t have a hat, I may go hat less this time. At least I persuaded Mr E he needed a new shirt and tie, well I went out and got him them.

And as if that is not quite enough stress, Mr E decided he needs a new to him car…. All I want to say on that score is that it is not a good idea for a sales person to keep vanishing when selling a car, nor to to focus on features within a car which are unusable/inappropriate to the purchaser.

Enough- knitting, virtually none, sewing ditto. But I can tell you about my quilting class. And it turns out that sometimes a poor workwoman can blame her tools. Or that the 1/4 inch foot I was using that I assumed was supposed to wobble about like it has done since I first attached it, is not supposed to wobble about at all, just needed tightening. What a difference.

I even persuaded Mr E to help me change the needle, I know high time I changed it after 6 years , but scary. I got the old one off with ease but for the life of me couldn’t see where to put the new one. Fortunately for me MIL had shown him on numerous occasions as she was a prolific dress maker. And what a difference a new needle made too.

So the border fabric is attached and I am doing the quilting bit now. I reckon learning to quilt is like learning to drive. Terrifying when you haven’t a clue what you are doing, wonderful when you acquire the skills and highly enjoyable when you just sit down and do it. Please tell me it will be like this….

My tablet has gone off for repairs, back next week, which will make it easier to read all my favourite blogs, so sorry I haven’t been able to comment as much as usual.

There is more I could tell you about, but it’s early days still.

So to finish, no lovely pictures of things I made, but a rather jolly

Lion. Isn’t he just gorgeous.

So what are your plans for the weekend? I shall be hat hunting I reckon . Do please join in the natter.

Be Happy,

Cathy

 

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Yarn Along, June 2019

It seems ages and ages and ages since I was organised enough to do a Yarn Along post, shame on me. Without further ado,

I am absolutely loving The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I am about half way through. So far we have an idyllic picture of student life, with an undercurrent of menace. It’s well written and beautifully plotted and I am savouring every word.

When I stated before that I had used up all my stash of leftover yarn on the crochet blanket I made for a homeless charity , I was of course slightly fibbing. I had nearly three balls of yarn leftover from a jumper in Sirdar crofter yarn, which is enough for several projects and therefore does not yet qualify as leftover scraps of yarn. So far I made some fingerless mittens with it and now I am knitting some legwarmers. I shall send both off to the homeless charity too, in the hope that it cheers and warms someone.

I am joining with Ginny for Yarn Along

Yarn Along {June}

June Windows- 2019

It’s the first Tuesday in the month so it’s time for joining in with the Window photo challenge hosted by Wild Daffodil

Here are the windows which caught my attention in May.

I love stained glass windows in churches, this however, is natures’ own stained glass, I just loved the new green foliage colouring the clear panes of glass.

We were having lunch in Shepton Mallet and I fell for this window display.

Did you spot the windows opposite through the window?

I just had to capture the mosaics on the window sills of the library opposite the restaurant.

Aren’t they wonderful?

Hope you liked my little selection, which is your favourite?

 

 

Field of Gold.

Buttercup field May 29th 2019

Buttercups and the North York Moors steam train.

My favourite field at its best. I wonder does anyone else have a favourite field or is it just me? This one has so many memories- walking dogs, playing Swallows and Amazons with my best friend, falling out of trees ( I have the scar still), sledging in the snow and rolling Easter eggs, a tradition that I now do with my sons and their children. The Costa beck runs through the field, where the tree line begins in the train picture. Many a paddle , many a stick thrown for dogs. One year swans nested on the river bank, even the cows were scared of them.

A field of gold, a field of golden memories.

Friday Natter!

The days are just whizzing past and I seem to be in a permanent rush at the moment. The Quilting class is tomorrow. I took Kate’s advice and re arranged my blocks.

Much better. I took my time I sewed carefully, and the blocks became rows. Then I went on too long and Big Mistake. I stitched row one to row two . Then I saw what I had done. I should have stitched the bottom of row one to the top of row two. But I stitched the bottom of row two to top of row one. Oh no.

I couldn’t face undoing the whole row, as I was scared the fabric would fray too much. So hasty re-arranging employing row nine to the top to become row one. It’s ok but I prefer my original arrangement.

Lesson learned, and I guess when the border is added no-one but me will ever think it was better before. I have gone with a dusky blue for a border and a cream for the back.

It seems I can concentrate for about two hours and then I need a big break.

Mr B and Ms G are to be married in three weeks time. They safely survived their hen and stag dos, always a bit of a relief to know your son didn’t get left tied to a lamp-post somewhere. I have my dress, so just a hat, shoes and bag to go, unless I wear the same ones I wore for my other sons wedding, but it seems wrong to not have a special hat at least for each. I think I used the same bag for both, and I reckon I could use the same shoes as I wore for Mr J’s nuptuals. It seems so wasteful to have all these different outfits, which I know I may wear again but probably not much. And certainly not the hats. I can’t see me in a headband though. And I shalln’t wear that fascinator again that I wore for Mr J’s.

The garden is doing great. Thanks to the stirling work of the gardening chaps we are still on top of it all. The bluebells were wonderful but are just finishing now, I leave them to die right back which means lots of other wild flowers get a chance. Mr E seems to think they are weeds, till I pointed to some goldfinches enjoying the chick weed. We have a bluetit family in the nest box by the honeysuckle, gosh the parents work hard to feed the babies. Papa is looking quite scrawny and rather tatty at the moment- he could do with a good bath.

I am knitting a bit but not much, the knitting urge seems to have left me for the moment. No idea why.

I am trying to think if I want to continue at the quilting class. I tend to think not. I will have been shown how to do the things I wanted to learn- rotary cutter, adding wadding, binding, borders etc. The teacher is less good on  the quilting side, but in conversation with a lady at the psychology group I go to, she kindly volunteered to help me…. And I have several projects for which I bought materials etc but never tackled for lack of knowledge and I am inclined to think I should get on with those first. Oh decisions, decisions.

So , what are you up to this weekend. I really should spend some time cleaning the house, well maybe not..

Do please join in the natter. Your comments are the best bit.

Be Happy,

Cathyx

May Books- 2019

I appear to have read a lot this month, and some very very good books indeed. Heartily recommend them all. Here they are.

Joanna Cannon- The Trouble with Goats and Sheep- I am probably the last person on the planet to read this. I found myself miles from home and in urgent need of a book, so a dash into the nearest charity shop turned this up. I really enjoyed it. The long hot summer in the Uk in 1976, two girls looking for God and Mrs Creasy, and secrets behind every door. The story was good but it was the language I absoloutely adored.Picked entirely at random..” the room…looked as if someone might have served it into the house with an ice cream scoop. Even things that weren’t pink had a mention of it…”.Or ” When Harold became annoyed he could fill a room with his annoyance”. If you haven’t read it, then do. it’s good, and if you have read it, what did you think?

Kate Ellis- Watching the Ghosts- another who dun it set in York, with fictious place names, and Detective Joe Plantagenet. A most enjoyable read.

Jojo Moyes- Me Before You- I am probably the last person to have read this good book. Essentially a poignant love story between a severly disabled man and his rather unconventional carer. Tissues were needed.

Ian McEwan- Amsterdam- This book is a Booker Prize Winner which the Sunday Telegraph describes as “A Psychologically brilliant study of heartlessness”. Indeed the two main characters are not likeable at all- one a journalist who stoops to the gutter and the other a selfish composer. They get there come uppence! A good read.

Lucy Clarke- You let me in- wow this really is a page turner and lots to get your teeth into. Some twists I saw, some I didn’t, I found myself thinking about the whole plot days afterwards. I shall think very carefully should I ever be tempted to rent my house out on airbnb. It would make an excellent book group book. Loved it. Very skillfully crafted and written.

Rose Tremain- The Colour- I really enjoyed this book. So good, I took my time and savoured every part. The colour refers to the colour of gold. Set in the 1860s in New Zealand the book tells the story of a migrant family from Norfolk, England. Their attempt at farming and the pull of a gold rush. Now this will sound totally ridiculous but it had never occured to me that people who emmigrated to New Zealand faced the same life choices as the early pioneers in America- how to build a house, provide warmth and food, care for animals, learn about the natural world. Nor did I know of a gold rush. Totally recommend this book.

So these were my books in May. Have you read any of these, what did you think. Have you read any good books you can recommend please? I love the ones that are recommended to me through this blog, you have come up with some real corkers, so thank you.

Wednesday Walk

I did this walk last week with a friend. It’s a walk that must be done in May for the most wonderful display…

Head off down the lane past the little church called St Gregory’s Minster in Kirkdale, between Helmsley and Kirkbymoorside.

Cross a couple of fields and into some woods alongside a beck.

Beautiful bluebells await you in a wooded valley called Robin Hood’s Howl. But what we came for was

This absolutely incredible display of wild garlic. I reckon there is 1/2 to 1 mile of this wood. We were lucky enough to spot a deer run through the trees just in front of us. I had been hoping for unicorns, but a deer was nearly as good.

And a quick question, can anyone identify this flower. My friend thought it was know as Granny’s Bonnet.

Have you been a walk through woods full of wild garlic?