Lampshade making

Greetings. This week, as well as watching lots of Wimbledon, I have been on a Lampshade Making Workshop. It was such good fun that I don't think I will ever buy a ready made one again. Kits can be bought online in all shapes and sizes and then all you need is a piece of suitably sized fabric (nothing too thick) and you're away. I had an old Ikea lamp with a past its best paper shade, a bit of pink spotty fabric from my quilt stash and ..........

Ta-dah!

One new lampshade. The kit comes complete with instructions or you can just buy the double sided adhesive tape and recover an existing shade. I have my eye on another lamp of ours that could do with a bit of a makeover, so watch this space.

Other things this week include:

Collecting L from Oxford after the end of term. We packed the car and then went for a quick pub lunch here:

This pub, together with the 'Eagle and Child', was one frequented by 'The Inklings' (a writers' group to which C.S.Lewis and Tolkien belonged). We had a peek into the Eagle and Child, which is the more famous of the two. It was very cosy and full of little nooks but extremely crowded, so we crossed the road to the Lamb and Flag instead. I had a Ploughman's lunch, together with a glass of 'Thundering Molly' cider - delish.

Apologies for the reflections on this photo - hope you can read it (click to enlarge):

We had the college punt booked after lunch, so went to collect the key to the boathouse. I love this archway with carvings showing the signs of the zodiac:

The college dates from 1264 and this was their interpretation of Scorpio before they knew what a scorpion looked like:

Not a bad guess I suppose; a bit like a giant woodlouse!

Feeding the ducklings from the punt:

Later in the week we took a picnic to the White Horse and Dragon Hill in Uffington:

Ice cut terraces, known as 'The Giant's Stairs':

Dragon Hill and a bit of the White Horse:

E rescuing a caterpillar from the footpath:

Dragon Hill where St. George allegedly slew (slayed?) the dragon. There is a bare patch of chalk on the summit where the dragon's blood was said to have seeped into the earth. It's also very good for rolling down if you don't mind the thistles at the bottom!

A closer view of 'The Giant's Stairs':

We walked the extra couple of miles to visit Wayland's Smithy long barrow:

....... before missing our turning on the way back to the car park. This added another mile or so to the walk with resultant sore feet!

Strawberry picking at the local PYO farm:

Tayberries! I'd never tried one before - they're a bit like a sour raspberry with a hint of elderflower.

We had such a lovely time that we decided not to pick too much but to do a return trip soon to make jam. Even so, we had enough for ice cream, a strawberry flan and a pavlova! 

Hair chalks! I have never had my hair dyed, so when L&E decided that they wanted to buy some hair chalks, I thought I'd let them experiment on me for a bit of fun. I don't like putting my photo on my blog, so this was my attempt at an anonymous selfie! 

Not too bad - I preferred E's colours running through her plait and L had a rather natty purple fringe. We made quite a colourful threesome whilst out strawberry picking!

Finally, homemade lavender biscuits, using Alys Fowler's recipe from 'The Edible Garden':

Yummy!

That's all for now; enjoy the rest of the week. x