A red storm alert!

On Friday morning John and I left London for a weekend away at our favourite hotel in Somerset. Our drive from London was good but I was rather concerned that there was a red warning for high winds and rain in the area on Friday night and Saturday. Two years ago when on this trip we got stuck on the side of a hill for a while due to unexpected snow. When I say unexpected I mean there was no mention of snow on any weather forecast and we had travelled in our small sports car. Being a small, soft top, two seater car it is very light and so not great in snow. A weather forecast warning of high winds and heavy rain is different and so we used the big saloon car. We also bought things to do as we knew we wouldn't be venturing out on Saturday. The journey to the hotel was good and it didn't start raining until we were at the hotel. We stopped off at Stourhead as I'd bought tickets to their Christmas lights. We enjoyed the walk through the grounds and the way the lights had been set up. Here are some of my favourite photos from it.

Before we left Stourhead we purchased 5 cyclamen plants for the garden at home. By now it was very dark and the wind was also increasing, so the drive to the hotel along narrow country roads wasn't very pleasant. Whilst we were getting ourselves organised to go down for dinner John's phone went off very loudly and it was an emergency alert for very high winds in the area. My phone went off slightly later as we are on different providers. As the evening progressed the wind became louder. Lying in bed trying to sleep was very difficult and so everyone was very tired the next morning. The wind was still very strong and we decided a relaxing day at the hotel was in order. We read, chatted and I got quite a bit of knitting done. Having had a really relaxing day I have to question why we don't do it more often.

On Sunday morning we headed for my favourite quilt shop. I needed some thread and I was also looking for some fat quarters. They had their exhibition of 12 inch quilts running. The theme this year was 'bucket list'. Some of the quilts are for sale and will be auctioned with the proceeds going to the local hospice. About 5- quilts were on display.

These last two are my favourites, especially the green woodpecker

This parrot is such a happy, cheerful bird. 

The journey home on Sunday was very slow due to incidents on the motorway and the poor weather conditions. I was pleased to be home.

The next three days at work are going to be busy but hopefully I will have some time for stitching. Next weekend I want to start the quilting on the dinosaur quilt.

Take care

Lyndsey