Slow Sunday stitching.

Yesterday, John and I went on a coach trip to Minsmere in Suffolk. Minsmere is a RSPB reserve (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and there are always a lot of birds to see and hear, particularly at this time of year. I wasn't sure if I had the energy for the event so I took some hand sewing with me. There is a large cafe that serves delicious food and drinks, so I was well prepared if I needed to rest. We met the coach at Embankment after a calm and stress free journey from home on the underground system. We needed to be there for 7:30, not a time I've been up and about recently but it was good to be behaving more like my usual self. The morning was cool and very hazy. I took a couple of photos looking across the Thames. You can just see the tower blocks further along the river shrouded in mist.

It's also fascinating how the tall buildings can hide behind the trees because of the perspective. I love this part of London at this hour in the morning.

The journey to Minsmere was smooth and quick. We stopped once so we could all top up with coffee. I enjoyed watching the changing countryside pass by.

We started our visit with a cup of tea and a slice of salted caramel and nut slice, delicious. We sat outside in the sun and planned our day. Many of the group opted to go round with the group leader as he would help them see the birds and identify them. We decided to do our own thing. This is much more fun and meant we could amble at our own pace. Our first stop was to try and see the adders. Adders are the only poisonous snakes in the UK. Because of the sunshine they had been emerging from hibernation and this was potentially a time when we could expect to see them. We visited the most likely place but were told that, since the female adders had emerged, the males were busy chasing them through the thick undergrowth. This visit we didn't see a single adder. Never mind there is always next time.

There was a lot of gorse which smells like coconut - delicious.

There was also a lot of white blossom but I can't remember the name of the tree. In the last couple of weeks the trees have opened their leaves, there were daffodils and other spring flowers. It was very warm over the day and we were surprised not to see any butterflies.

As we moved on we were lucky enough to see a Nightingale preening its feathers further along the path. That made a perfect start to the day. We saw lots of birds and had a few new spots. We also enjoyed a very slow walk around the reserve and along the beach. The sea was calm and I would have enjoyed a paddle but I decided against it since the beach here is shingle. I needed to have some sandals or shoes that I could have worn in the water. I'll remember for next time. The journey back to London was fairly quick, made even quicker by me sleeping through most of it. 

Today I had some mending to do. I needed to stitch a patch onto John's favourite jeans. I did that on the machine but the rest of the mending was hand stitching, sewing on buttons and catching down hems. Once the mending was out of the way I got on with stitching the binding down on the Churn Dash quilt. This is now all finished.

I'm really happy with this quilt. It is such a bright and happy quilt. This quilt was created from a pile of churn dash blocks that had been pushed to the back of my sewing cupboard and forgotten about. 

Hand stitching the binding down is always satisfying and it just makes it all look so neat. Having finished the quilt I'm going to read a couple of chapters of my book and then go to bed.

Take care

Lyndsey