Living

 

This is one of my favourite walks.

The best time of the year...I think...is May when the wildflowers create

blankets of pink, white, yellow and other colours.

This picture was taken at the same time as the one I use on my header.

It was taken a couple of years ago when I took both of these photos.

The walk is from Caerfai Bay

around the Saint David's peninsular to

Porthclais

So many have commented on the picture that I have used as the header.

If you look carefully you can see

the convent of St Non's in the background

along with its little chapel (which is a delight to enter)

St David's mother is said to have been born in a cottage nearby.  The ruins are nearly visible in the picture. There is also a spring which is said to have healing properties!

It is such a lovely walk.

I am so sad that I can no longer do it!



A couple of weeks ago my mother was staying and we revisited so many favourite places.

One of them was Abereiddy with it's ruined cottages

abandoned,

so legend has it,

after a plague hit the area

We wandered around the corner to the blue lagoon

which was as beautiful as ever

There were a group of 50 first year geology students from Leeds University there.

All in their hard hats and listening to their lecturers.

I have to say that

we were very disappointed

when we stood aside to let them pass,

as they could get along faster than I  could,

that few....

if any even acknowledged us...

let alone said...

thank you.

One of their lecturers, however, stopped to chat and explain what they were hoping to acheive.

It was truly a wonderful place to be

on such a beautiful day!

We went a  little further around the coast to
 Porthgain....
the place where the material, that was quarried
 in Abereiddy,

was loaded on the boats

Now, unfortunately, it is just a shell of what it used to be ... but the harbour still remains

I have to say that I am feeling rather down this evening as we had a visit from 40 of our neighbour's cattle on Thursday.

They broke over the hedge in our back field....

luckily only about 10 of them came into the garden

but they have made a lot of mess!

My lawns are not what they were when I was able to mow and look after them....but....

It still upsets me....

This is just a small part of the area that they covered

These are some of the culprits

captured in the yards until they could be moved

I'm sorry that my blog has ended this way tonight

but

It's just the way I feel.......



Time Out!!

 

This has to be one of the most peaceful places....

I come here when I want 'time out'.....

This is where I came this afternoon.

I love the drive here especially

in the winter when the

twisted oak trees

show off their branches

to those who pass by and take the time to look!

I have tried but really can't do them justice!

I hope that you are able to see what I mean?

I arrived and walked through the gardens,

sat on a seat......

and looked up through the trees

It seemed strange to see the lichen hanging off them

Further on I spied another tree.....

this one had been felled and aleady other life was taking over

It was good to have some time to wander and to reflect...........

Then...I came home and looked at my garden.....

The magnolia stellata in the corner is blooming and looks lovely

I really need to get somebody to help me move the white one.....

as it is suffering from being so close to the hedge.

But......

Wait a minute........

who do I spy in the corner behind the magnolias?

Is it....?


Yes....... it surely is.....

Anne Boleyn!!

So called because they knocked off her head in the garden centre.......

and it had to be stuck back on!!

Looking round the garden I spy another little girl

Probably praying for someone to come and sort the garden..... if not the gardener...... out!!?

So ...a brief resume of my day....

A glorious, sun-shiny day!

For those who have asked and been wondering....

Hubbie put his foot stool higher

so that, with the chair being higher, he could 

put his feet up in comfort.

Of course...his little tootsies didn't touch the ground when he was just sitting.....

so he added a bar to his foot rest......

What can I say????!

To finish...and to bring my blood pressure down a little.....

 I want to go back to the place I started....

The lovely oak tree that you see.....is the tree in the corner of in the picture of my favourite place











The Story of Two Chairs

Actually, this isn't one of them but it sits in my hall and I think it's so pretty

that I wanted to show it to you.

I embroidered the tapestry seat cover for my mother quite a few years ago.

I have done a lot of tapestry work for her over the years...

more chair seats, cushions, pictures etc.

In fact I would often be making something for myself and a birthday or something would be coming up and she loves tapestry so much...

I would give it to her!

When she was staying last year she said that she had 

told my brother

I was to have anything tapestry after her days as I had worked it.

I never expected that!!

Nor did I expect her to bring this chair and say that I may as well have it now!

I do hope that she is enjoying my enjoyment of

 owning it now while she's alive to see it!

***********

I digress..the purpose of this blog was to share with -you a rainy...very rainy

Bank Holiday Monday morning.

I was on my computer......

 scanning in pictures of my voluntary work in India

(I may share with you sometime -  if you'd like?)

.....when I heard this appalling noise...

I investigated..

and found................

Chair One

He had decided that his favourite chair was difficult to get out of and......

he was going to do something about it!

He also decided to put wheels on it so that I could get it out to clean under it.

Very thoughtful!!

Finished article!

Proof of the pudding......

Notice the abandoned tools!

Chair two

I asked V to buy me

a secretarial chair so  that I could sit comfortably at the kitchen table.

He had one for himself a while ago and it's so handy for turning around to the cupboards....

and to be able to adjust it's height

More comfy too!

He told me he had one in the shed where he does his wood work but it was covered in wood dust.

***************

The story behind the chair is that

V saw it at a car boot sale and liked it. 

He was talking to my daughter's father in law at the time who said he liked it as well.  He walked away and V bought it!

Apparently daughter's in law saw it sitting proudly on top of the landrover as V drove home and muttered

'I hope it rains!'

************************

So V brought it in this morning ... having brushed off most of the excess dust.

I have vacuumed it, brushed it and scrubbed it with a toothbrush and small scrubbing brush

It's very comfy

I would like to cover it but need some ideas.

I imagine the seat could be done with a cover with ties?

The back....should it have a cover that goes over the top and covers it completely...if so..

how do I do it??

There's a wealth of tremendous talent out there to try and tap into......

HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!






Today I'm joining
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On to The Next

Well...hubbie's jumper is finished so I can go on to knitting my own cardigan

By the way...I decided on the red coloured wool.

I think because I liked it when I saw it on the front of the pattern

I also want to start on some tapestry now that it's lighter in the evening and I can put my frame in the garden room!

I bought the tapestry of the sunflowers

because it reminded me of a course that I went on in one of the colleges in Oxford.

When we had time off a couple of us went to the botanic gardens there

and I have never seen such an abundance of different sunflowers!

They were tall..and short

yellow and brown and all sorts of other shades!

Unfortunately

I didn't take a picture of the sunflowers to show you

but

I can show you a picture of me in front of another border!

The tapestry of the sunflowers I finished last year and got my husband to make me a frame

for a firescreen.  The frame is made from the wood of trees grown on our farm!

He is cross with me as he says I gave him the wrong measurements......

Whether I did...or didn't is not the issue

(actually I didn't!)

But I think it would not have looked right in a frame that just fit the tapestry!

Anyway...I leave it to you to judge!

and...yes...I know that it's a bit off square

(first thing I saw)

but the man who framed it did it as a favour and I just couldn't complain....

when I saw it straight away...

...and he was looking at it so proudly!

I know...I was a pussy cat and, normally, I would have asked for it to be done properly!

I also did a long stitch tapestry of poppies (as a bit of quick relief) for a friend who loves poppies



So...what now??

 I have several canvases that I have bought over the years....

 and am not quite sure which one to start on.

I have to say  I do prefer trammed tapestries as they seem more hardwearing and, also,

it can be easier knowing which colour is which!

I will look a few out these next few days and make my mind up....

or....

perhaps...

we'll see..........!

***********************

As a follow up to my story on the rabbits............

Guess what I saw on the front lawn today??

Yes I think you could be right.....

Lets just take another look

Yes...definitely...it's them again!!

and finally....................

just to finish.......

I met a friend for coffee after I finished physio on Saturday

and couldn't believe my eyes

Happy Easter!!



 

Good Friday

 

I have no photos for this blog and don't usually try to put my views on anybody but I just had to share today with some of those who have become my blogging friends over this last week .. when I have discovered meeting new friends

This morning my cousin and I took my uncle (who has alzheimers to the Good Friday service at the Baptist Church he has attended for over 50 years.

He was a deacon for years and now is a Life Deacon

It just shows his sweetness that

when others show what is under the surface ..when they have no control over what they are saying..

he apolgises for being a problem and asks how others are!

So today we took him to church...

He hardly recognises me or his daughter but asks if we are OK.

Others there (who had worked for him when he was manager of a national company)

came up to say hallo...

but he didn't know them!

In the service there was the Lord's prayer

He joined in loudly and with confidence.

When they sang 'Blessed Assurance'

he joined in and sang without reading the words!

At the end they sang 'The Old Rugged Cross'

again he, who remembers a little and knows only a few..

Sang the words... (in fact he turned around and spoke them to me 'with feeling' before we even sang them)

...strongly and with great feeling!

I WAS IN TEARS!

A man many would look at with pity (some with scorn)

as he stumbled along on his walker.... 

asking..where he was ...in the chapel he had always attended....

yet

his deep love and abiding passion

shone through

Thank you Les!!

 

HOW HIGH CAN A RABBITT JUMP!!!

This is a question I asked the man at the local garden centre a couple of weeks ago!

You see....

I love the little critters

Honest I do!

I love to see them in the back field playing around

Even on the back lawn ...eating the grass

It's when they decide to come into my garden to forage that I get......

Now....let me think of a word.......

INCENSED!!!

I'm not sure that's strong enough!

I'm sorry if I'm offending you who love rabbits...

What I'm trying to do is find a middle line..

hence the question!

I haven't managed to do much in the garden for the last few years

and what I have done is mainly  from a wheelchair

It's really lovely with the raised beds that we put in when we built the house

I can manage much better

This picture was taken after I'd been to the garden centre

before I had finished and tidied it up

But I thought it was looking good

********************

That was before the bunnies decided I had provided them with a special treat!

Everytime the flowers grew back on the pansies

or the leaves on the hebe

They were there again!!

I don't have any pictures as I was so upset

************************* 

So.......now......

I'm in prevention mode

Can't do anything about those dang rabbits

 I need to see what I can do!

******************

Last year I bought a pure white everlasting sweet pea that

I thought would look lovely growing up the trellis

I brought it home, hid it behind some pots to protect it and...when I went to plant it the next day....they had nibbled it at the roots...not only that...

the rabbit was...

still there!!!

Mind you it made a hasty exit!

I planted it anyway (last summer) and a couple of weeks ago or so.....

 a couple of fresh shoots.....

how could I protect it?

I decided to cut the ends off a money box

 that I had bought for one of my grandchildren

and surround it with mesh and sticks

so the rabbit couldn't dislodge it

My husband asked why I had a tin with a £50 note on it in the garden....

 I told him I was trying to grow some money! 

As the plant grew I added another tin...only ones I could find were from

my grandson's baby milk!

I have added more and more and...so far.... it's OK

I think I'll keep them at the bottom even when the plant gets high enough for them not to eat!

How high can a rabbit jump??

The other thing I noticed is that I have some high pots under the garden room window and they don't seem to have got in them.

Trouble is....

that ...when I sit in the garden room...

I can't see them or the colour! 

I have

spent a lot of time, when in plaster,

Sitting there with my leg up.

************

I decided to buy some new high pots that I would put on the other side of the patio where I could see them.

Hence the question!!

How High Can a Rabbit Jump?

He didn't know

I bought the pots

He delivered.......and placed them where I told him.

I sat in the garden room

and said...'move them a little to the left'

'no... bring them forward a little...

etc...etc'

as one does!

It looked just right...

so I filled them ready to put in some nice colourfull plants....

********************

A friend called and I was explaining my stratedgy to her...

she pointed to my raised borders...

AND SHE SAID

HOW FAR CAN A RABBIT JUMP!!

........................????

I am linking with


 



THOUGHTS ON KNITTING

Thoughts on Knitting

First of all...thank you so much for the encouraging comments that so many have made. 

I so feel part of a community.

I didn't know that there were so many people who enjoy what I do

I find it quite exciting meeting you all!

I really enjoy knitting and knit my first jumper when I was about 12.  It was in royal blue with a cable down the centre front and back.

I have found over the years that I really enjoy the challenge of knitting the Aran patterns.

As I mentioned in my first blog, my mother was staying with me last week.

 

She, too, is a great knitter and, in the war, used to knit her dresses and coats

I thought that you might enjoy this picture, taken before the war, of Mum with her younger brother.  I think she is wearing one of the many dresses that she knitted!  As an aside, I am scanning a lot of early photos from my mother's photo album and so enjoying learning from her who is whom.  I think all too easily we don't ask and then it becomes too late! 

My mother brought with her last week a mohair cardigan that she had made over 20 years ago and it still looked good on her!!

I really regretted all the mohair jumpers and cardigans that I had knitted and given away.  I wonder how many others feel like I do?!



I'm at 'that stage' again.  You know....you find the wool you really like...find a pattern that will go with it.....knit day and night as if you had a deadline to keep...and then......the dreaded time...you have to make it up!

I don't know if you are like me in this but I can really enjoy knitting and then comes the time to make it up and there is excuse after excuse.  I have been known to give away all my knitting..(and wool is expensive) because I just don't want to do it!  I have even told my aunt (who did all sorts of knitting for Save the Children) that I had been given it for her to sell.... confession time!!  She died not so long ago having raised over £50,000.00, in 20 years,for Save the Children! Mind you it wasn't just my left over wool that made the money but many other things including picking daffodils for sale .....the Local paper printed an article on the 'Daffodil Lady' (I just felt I had to put that in in case you thought that it was all my unfinished articles!)

I have made a promise to myself this year that I will not start another garment until I have sown up the last one I have knitted....very hard when there is so much I want to do!

I started the year finishing off knitting a cardigan in the most delightful shades of blue (Escape by Sirdar)  It was so beautiful and really my colours but I gave it someone who needed it more than I did....besides it gave me the chance to start another! 

I discovered 'Crofter' by Sirdar, in January, and the Fairisle look is very good!  I had started knitting myself a cardigan and then went up to the Midlands to see my mother and she really liked it.  Mum used to make the most delightful true Fairisle jumpers and cardigans when she was more able.  I have one somewhere.  I'll look it out and put it on here sometime.  Anyway, I ended up unripping what I had done and making her a jumper with my wool.  She is really delighted with it.  Someone at her Bridge club asked her if it was authentic and she said ' Well it's hand knitted'

I also made her some fingerless gloves with the remains of the wool....gotta keep her trendy!!

Here she is wearing it when we took a drive, last week, to Caerfai Bay (near St David's)

When I finished that jumper I had new wool to make myself a cardigan but my husband told friends, who came to lunch, that I never knitted him anything(by the way I have and can show the photos to prove it) so I started the jumper above..  I have to say that I have kitted a lot of chunky wool in the past but have really not enjoyed knitting this wool.  Have any of you experienced the same?  When I had finished the back I thought that it  was too long for him so I ripped it out and started again...oh joy!  Now I only have to sew the jumper up and pick up the neckband and I am so longing just to leave it and start on my cardigan....the wool is waiting!...will I finish this one.....?

Which wool do you think I'll choose....the mainly red or the mainly blue?

I just can't wait to start...also I enjoy knitting DK wool!