Well, that was May ....

Can you believe that we're into June already? We're half way through 2018; where has the year gone? I'll stop now as I'm sounding very old! Well, white rabbit and all that. May was nice enough - E finished her uni exams before her friends, so she came home for a week which was lovely. She has now gone back to celebrate with the others and Hamish and I are missing her. I feel I should apologise in advance for what will be a rather photo heavy post. There are lots of things that I would like to remember, so do feel free to whizz through if you get bored!
R and I went to see the NT Live production of Macbeth. As seems to be the case these days, it was done 'with a twist' and set in a sort of post apocalyptic world. It was very good, but one of these days, someone is going to do something really radical and actually set it in Elizabethan times and period costume!

I met up with my friend, S, at the Botanical Gardens in Bristol. This place is a little gem, situated across The Downs and with its own little car park. We were escorted around the gardens by a very friendly cat and then, when we had taken our fill of the plants, the cafe did a very nice coffee and vegan brownie!

 We then walked into Clifton and had a yummy lunch at 'Thali:'

 Whilst browsing through the charity shops, I bought a £4 footstool. I've since had an Annie Sloan moment and it is now sporting rather fetching Old White legs. 

I am currently embroidering a new cover. It will take me a while, but should look rather colourful. I do like the green top, but I'm not really feeling the golfing motif! I am feeling rather frugal though - apart from the £4 stool, the material came from a car boot sale, the threads were from a charity shop and the paint was a left over tester pot.

Whilst I was in Bristol, the British Hen Welfare trust were having a re-homing day. When the hens are a year old, the farmers send them for slaughter and the BHWT save as many as they can find homes for. R rescued 2 which were in a rather sorry state. We always get our hens this way, and given a bit of TLC they are soon feathery and beautiful again. They had a rather exciting ride home in Bridget the Midget as I had our other car! One other problem was that as soon as we got them, we experienced a mini heatwave. It was lovely seeing them gazing up at the blue sky and spreading themselves out in the sun. Unfortunately, they had few feathers to protect them, so whilst I was inside with Hamish watching the Royal Wedding (glorious wasn't it?), R was outside rubbing Factor 50 into the chickens' bare butts! 

 Our local chilli festival. I bought some ancho chillis  and R bought some honey - not very vegan I know, but he got chatting with the bee keeper and then found it difficult to extricate himself without making a purchase! We're not that strict anyway.

 I trip to the garden centre with Bridget - we didn't think it through!

 The antiques fair at our local showground:

 A 'paint your own Delft pottery' workshop at our local museum. This was fun, but far harder than I had imagined. We drew our designs onto squares of paper, transferred them to the tiles with carbon paper and then practised using the brush on more paper - so far, so good. Unfortunately, as soon as the brush touched the unglazed tile, the surface sucked all the paint up and it was really difficult to control. I started off with much more detailed designs but ended up simplifying like mad! Here are my pre-fired tiles:

 A couple of years ago, E did a week's work experience at the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth. Rather than drive back and forth twice a day, I decided that it was easier for me to just hang around the historic dockyard for the week. I developed my own little routine - drop E off, have my morning cup of tea in the boatyard cafe, thoroughly explore one aspect of the dockyard, have my packed lunch in the small porter's garden, do a little embroidery in said garden, have another little potter and another cup of tea and then collect E and come home. I LOVED every minute and R was insanely jealous. He had never been and was desperate to go, so using some Tesco vouchers, we visited again this month.

 Jelly fish spotted in the harbour:

 My special Porter's garden - it is quite secluded, quiet and sheltered from the sea breeze. It also sells plants, so for 50p I bought a tiny buddleia.

Whilst she was home, E took the 'Bob Ross Challenge'. For those of you who don't recognise the name, Bob Ross was an American painter who had a TV series called 'The Joy of Painting' which can be found on Netflix. He had the most soothing voice imaginable - so much so that his programme should be prescribed for insomniacs! E decided that she wanted to do one of his paintings, so a quick trip to the Works for a canvas and ........:

 Ta- Dah!

 I have just about recovered from having the living room floor covered in an old decorating sheet for most of a week, and am trying my best to ignore the oil paint on the sofa!

Rhubarb and ginger jam:

More kayaking, this time with E:

 Finally, E and I dropped in on Bath on our way back to Bristol. We had a 'treats day' - E chose some tea from Tea Too and an oil burner and some essential oil from the Body Shop, and I bought my treat at 'A Yarn Story'. I chose a skein of Hedgehog Fibres sock yarn in the Bollywood colourway and a copy of West Knits book number 3. We were very happy bunnies!

Well, that's all for May; I hope you had a good one. I'm just off for a swim and then, weather permitting, the gardening calls. Wishing you all a wonderful June.

Toodle pip for now. x

Clearing the Camera!

At the risk of being terribly British and talking about the weather ....... what a scorcher of a Bank Holiday weekend we had! All was going fantastically well, until we woke up one morning and no water came out of the taps! It turned out that there had been a problem at a water treatment works and the water had to be cut off whilst it was dealt with. As it was an emergency, we had no warning and so no opportunity to fill kettles etc. Luckily, huge tankers began touring the area to supply us with the necessary, but given that it was a really hot day, they ran out rather quickly. I don't normally have much to do with bottled water, but a trip to the supermarket was called for and, naturally, by the time we arrived home with 8 huge bottles the supply was back on, so they're now cluttering up my larder! 

Anyway, I suddenly realised that my camera was getting rather full, so here is a quick run through what we've been up to for the last few weeks. In no particular order ...........

More decorating. This time E's bedroom. She used to have a cabin bed that she had been complaining about for a while (too near to the ceiling so she couldn't sit up now that she's bigger, and too creaky!). So we took it down, I painted her room and shampooed the carpet, and tomorrow her new bed is being delivered. As she's at uni, she doesn't know about any of this so, hopefully, it will come as a nice surprise at the end of term.

 Ducklings in the garden:

 A drive through Burnham Beeches for lunch with a friend......

 ...... and then a walk through the woods to find Bluebells:

 Sock knitting with my yarn bought in Antwerp:

 A purse making workshop at a nearby farm. It's now my 'parking meter purse' - all £ coins go in here for when I'm visiting E in Bristol.

 L came home for the weekend and we went for a walk and a picnic up Beacon Hill. Here's the view of Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey) from the top:

 Loving L's charity shop Converse trainers! 

 There were cowslips galore:

 On the way home, we drove by Sandham Memorial Chapel and decided to pay a visit. This is Stanley Spencer's 'Holy Box', containing his famous war paintings. He worked as a medical orderly in Bristol and Salonika and his paintings show the everyday routines of the soldiers. No photography was allowed inside the chapel, but it is well worth a visit. Whilst we were there a man was reading war poetry aloud. Both my girls studied WWI poetry for AS English Literature, so many were familiar to us. Even so, Rupert Brookes' 'The Soldier' had me sitting there trying hard not to cry.

 A trip to our local theatre in the evening:

 To see this. There were only 3 cast members playing all the parts, and they were brilliant.

 L has a kayak that she bought when living by the river in Oxford. Now that she lives in London, 'Nitwit', as it is affectionately known, lives in our shed. She had an outing on the Bank Holiday - L and R did most of the paddling, but I did have a little go. Well, there are only 2 paddles and my role was chief picnic bringer!

 

Floral goodness from the garden. These were my Tulips from Amsterdam. We bought a mixed bag of bulbs and initially I thought that they were all red.....

....... but then:

 

The Wisteria is flowering. It smells beautiful, and as I type the scent is wafting through the open window.

A few years ago we bought a Magnolia tree for the garden. Sadly, every time it made some attempt at growing/flowering the deer ate it! Over the winter, R added a barricade of netting and look!

There is just the one flower mind you, but it's a start and I'm thrilled!

Hostas before the slugs!

...... and it's blossom time! Blossom against a blue sky is one of my favourite sights. That and yellow Rape against a stormy sky, but sadly I don't have a picture of that!

Finally, my finished 'Dotted Rays Shawl' by Stephen West. I really loved this pattern; there was just enough detail to keep me interested, but also lots of garter stitch making it ideal TV knitting:

Well, that's my camera clear. I think that it's cooled down a bit now, so I'm off to do a bit of weeding. Enjoy the sunny weather while it lasts. I tapped the barometer today and it swung towards rain, so I have my fingers crossed for a good old thunderstorm this evening. Another of my favourite things! Enjoy the rest of your week.

Toodle pip for now. xx