Visit to Kew orchid festival

Over the last weekend I experienced computer problems and it has finally died. The good news is that I now have a new Think Pad. My son set it up for me and even choose a great front screen picture from my photo collection. Everything is working perfectly and it's great to use.

Winding back to last weekend, John and I visited the orchid festival at Kew Garden. Sunday was very wet and by the time we had walked to the Princess of Wales Conservatory from the car park we were rather wet. However the conservatory has ten computer controlled climate areas and it was nice and warm, and we dried off quickly. The conservatory is a complex structure of interlinked glass houses that provides 10 different climate zones. The orchids were spread across the different zones depending on the needs. This year the festival was showcasing orchids from China but there were orchids from across the world as well. In China, orchids are a sign of the coming of spring.

During the festival the Lunar New Year will occur on 17 February. The year of the snake ends  and the year of the horse will begin. I liked this snake getting ready to leave . Both me and my new grandson were born in the year of the snake. I am a water snake and he is a wood snake.

We came across a dragon, he looked very majestic.

He was surrounded by orchids.

Carp were circling over the next pond. The purple orchids were very pretty 

and this monkey was sitting keeping guard of this delicate pink orchid.

I also got diverted from orchids for this flower

and these weird flowers which looked like they had been bought back from a distant galaxy by the Enterprise. I really liked them.

Beautiful delicate flowers,

and a giant panda.

Loved the pretty faces.

The yak was fun and had a lovely woolly coat

I enjoyed the colours and the markings on the petals.

We had fun finding the various animals and also watching the joy on the children's faces when they found them.

A tiger up a tree.

At the end there was a horse ready to welcome the New Year, the year of the horse.

As we walked through I also enjoyed seeing some of cacti.

We headed to the café next for a coffee and a cake. As we left the café it was still raining and it continued for the rest of the day but it was worth getting wet for the orchid festival.

Take care

Lyndsey

A good week.

This week the weather has been a little kinder in that it hasn't rained every day and it was getting warmer, but this weekend it has gone decidedly chiller. Never mind I'm going to enjoy the sunshine whilst we've got it. As always the week has been busy but things have been moved forward.

I finished the baby blanket I was knitting. This was to use up the remaining yarn I had left over from knitted a blanket for our grandson. I decided on a basket weave pattern with a white border. The blanket finished at 27 inches square and it still needs to be blocked. This will be a donation to Little Village, a charity local to us that helps parents with young children.

I've been working on the last frog stitchery but I haven't got very far. I need to sort out some more green embroidery floss but I know I've got more in my thread boxes. I've also been hunting in my green fabrics to create the blocks to complete the quilt and looking in my scraps for green fabric for this months Rainbow scrap challenge. 

I finished the quilt top from the January rainbow scrap challenge but I need to go through my fabrics to see if I've got anything suitable for the back. This is also a donation quilt.

Having put the quilt top together I went for working at a smaller size. I painted the wooden bed I'd got in the dolls house white and then set about making a duvet and pillows. I had some small pieces of liberty tana lawn with a small print and this was perfect. I sewed it all by hand and used some light weight wadding.

Not perfect but good enough for me. I'm currently considering making a small quilt for the dolls house.

On the first day of dry weather this week, my son and I took our dogs for a long walk. We'd been sticking mainly to roads whilst it was so wet but they like to run free in a large open space. Once off the lead Missy looked for a puddle and found a lovely muddy one. She had a great time rolling in the mud and splashing water and mud around. Interestingly most of the water and mud comes off her quite quickly but she still had a bath when we got home.

As we walked the dogs we spotted a few daffodils braving the weather.

The crocuses were doing much better but they were in a more sheltered position.

I have started work on the quilted jacket but I haven't taken any photos at the moment. My grandson aided and abetted by my son had been playing with my dressmakers form and some of the measurements had been altered. I had to spend some time getting all the settings correct.  On a bigger scale I still need to make up my older daughter's dining room curtains. 

Tomorrow John and I will be going to the orchid festival at Kew Gardens. Afterwards we'll meet up with the rest of the family for a walk and lunch. I've got my fingers crossed that it will be dry and sunny. I'll tell you about the orchid festival tomorrow.

Take care

Lyndsey

Wild Kingston and stitching.

Friday is usually my fun day, do some sewing day but today I had a work commitment in the morning, however I had a plan. Once I'd finished my morning meeting I would be free to go shopping. Quickly winding backwards to the morning I didn't need to be there until 9:30 but John and I arrived early so we could go to a delightful coffee shop near work. They serve the most delicious almond croissants and it's been ages since we last treated ourselves. A great way to start the day. The meeting was interesting and when it was over we headed back to the car so we could go into Kingston upon Thames. This is one of my favourite places to shop. From where we parked we needed to walk across the town to the first shop we wanted to visit. On the way we found a new public art exhibition by artists Gillie and Marc called Wild Kingston. It features ten wildlife inspired sculptures that are intended to help stimulate discussion about conservation. We didn't see all 10 sculpture on this occasion but here's what we saw.

I really liked this next one.

I had to take a photo from each side of this one. I love that he has his tea or coffee cup at the ready.

The small children were enjoying stroking the tortoise.

We only saw 5 of the sculptures so I will need to track the rest down. The exhibition is running until July 2026 so I have time to get photos of the rest.

When we got home I wanted to get the frog stitchery I was working on, finished. It's taken a little while but here it is completed. I love having a Friday finish.

I have one last stitchery to complete and then I can start work on making the blocks.

Tomorrow John and I are going to Minsmere nature reserve to do some bird watching. I've consulted the weather forecast and it is predicting a lot of rain. Fortunately the reserve has a good cafe and also quite a number of hides where we can shelter from the weather if needed. We are going by coach so at least I don't have to drive. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some dry weather over the day.

I'm linking my finish with Finished or not finished Friday at Quilty Girl. Now to get the last block stitched.

Take care

Lyndsey