A relaxing weeks holiday

Last week we were away on holiday. We like to holiday in the UK and this week our destination was Derbyshire. We wanted to do some walking but also have some visits. The only down side was that we didn't have internet access all week so no blog posts or keeping up with the blogs I follow. We all have smartphones but at times and in quite a lot of places the network coverage was dire. It was fun being unplugged for the week.

The main map shows Derbyshire and the surrounding counties whilst the little insert shows where Derbyshire is on the map of England. We stayed in Buxton which meant we were in the peak district but not in the National park. 

The weather at the beginning of the week wasn't very good, with rain on and off for all of our journey north. The traffic was also heavy since it was the Easter weekend and we had to stop several times for Scamp to have comfort breaks and a little walk. Whilst driving Scamp slept in the back of the car with Richard. Kathryn and Olly joined us much later in the evening as they had been working all day.

Easter Sunday started cold and damp with hail showers every so often. We went out for a short walk but we had already decided that Sunday was a rest day. Kathryn went out to photograph the hail.

The great part of the cottage we stayed in was the deep window ledges in the main room They  were perfect for sitting and stitching during the morning. Normally I have a daylight bulb for stitching as it makes it so much easier to see what I'm doing but the light was perfect and I got a fair amount done.. 

Monday was a day for exploring close to home which was a good decision since it had snowed and there was more forecast. 

The snow cleared very quickly in the town and most of it fell up on the hills.

Later that evening when John and I walked to the top of Grin Low there was still some snow around but mostly the ground was very boggy from the melt water.

Tuesday was a shopping morning in Buxton and in the afternoon we visited the tram museum at Crich. We loved the old pub which had been taken apart and boxed up for a number of years before moving to its location in the museum. It also served good ale and the tea I had was great

I realised as I started writing this that most of the pictures of the trams are on John's camera but here's one I took. The trams and trolleybuses all work and you get to ride on them. The rails don't go that far but it makes for a fun experience. It shows how old I am that I can remember the trolley buses in Wolverhampton when I was young.

The view up the line with the overhead cables. and the rails.

Over the course of Tuesday Scamp got wet three times and although we dried him well and kept him warm he wasn't well overnight. With lots of care and attention he perked up quite quickly but I carried him a fair amount on Wednesday to rest him.

On Wednesday we visited Peveril castle and Castleton and we had planned lots more walking. Scamp went with us to the castle and enjoyed the exercise but later in the day he and I stayed home whilst the rest went walking. This was a good opportunity to catch up on a little stitching, reading and lots of cuddles with Scamp.

Scamp is really funny when you take him out as he is constantly checking everyone is there. You can see him doing the head count and if someone is missing he starts his search. If the party is splitting into smaller groups you have to tell him or he gets stressed.

The keep of the castle is one of the smallest in England but the view was good.

Being so open much of the stone has been damaged by the weather.  This picture is weird because at times it looks like the stone is sticking up but in fact it has holes in it.

The church in the village had these lovely boxed pews

and this really effective Easter garden. 

Thursday was our trip to Lyme Park. For those of you who enjoyed the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice (all 6 hours) Lyme Park was used for the exterior of Pemberley. 

Because we didn't have internet access we hadn't checked opening times and unfortunately the house isn't open on a Thursday at this time of year so Kathryn was disappointed. They were doing a behind the scenes tour which she went on instead. Whilst Richard, Kathryn and Olly went on the tour and looked round the garden John and I took Scamp for a walk in the park. The weather was gloriously sunny and warm so we had a lovely time. Scamp enjoyed running off his lead and getting lots of strokes from other visitors.

Kathryn and Olly had to head back to London in the early evening as they were both working on Friday. It made me, John and Richard sad to wave them goodbye and Thursday evening was rather quiet.

On Friday we went hunting waterfalls, viaducts and tunnels. We also enjoyed a pub lunch, with John and Richard enjoying the ale. As the driver I was on soft drinks. The waterfalls weren't huge but they were delightful

The water was used by a cotton mill for the various stages of the process. There was a lots of ruined building still standing and the pounds where the water was held back or released as needed. 

We climbed up and then followed the water downhill.

Later we stopped at Monsal Head and looked down on the old viaduct before walking down to it.

I took this shot from the viaduct looking down.

There are also disused tunnels you can walk through

The tunnel was lit although the light go out at dusk A path had been laid where the trains would have run.

Coming out the tunnel at the other end the rock had brickwork in it giving it a strange appearance.

Scamp had a great day especially as he was back to his happy healthy self. In the evening he was all ears and ready to go as we discussed where we would go on our next holiday. We also took some time out to remember my mother whose birthday fell on April 1st. We had a glass of wine and toasted her memory, talking about the fun times we'd all shared. She would have loved Scamp.

All too soon our week away was over and yesterday we packed up and travelled home. Today has been a catch up day with washing and ironing and tomorrow is back to work for me and John. Richard had to work today. Scamp has been reunited with Picasso who was cared for by Lucy for the week. He's been demanding attention all day. Lucy had been very stressed one day in the week as he wouldn't come in when she let him out so he had to stay out whilst she was at work. Today I've been doing a little slow knitting but I'll tell you about that tomorrow.

Thank you all for the lovely comments from the blog hop last week and I will reply over the next few days.  I also hope you all had a peaceful Easter. I'm going to knit another couple of rows before bed time.

Lyndsey

Just hand stitching left

This morning was very cold and there was still some snow on the cars. I'm reliably informed it started snowing at about 1.30 this morning and at times was fairly heavy but by this morning it had all but gone. That's generally the story of snow here in London. Anyway I had a plan to finish the quilting on the baby quilt and snow and cold wasn't going to stop me. I settled at my machine and kept on going until the last of the quilting was finished then I added the binding. I still have ends to sew in as well as stitching the binding but that is all handwork so I can make myself comfortable with a good movie on the TV and just stitch away.

This was a great pattern for using up a load of scraps plus you can just about see the wave pattern quilting which I did for the first time. The quilt will go in the wash once I've finished the hand stitching as the air erasable pen I used to mark the quilting lines hasn't fully erased. Picasso also came running in from outside earlier and left muddy paw prints on it. I was in a rush to take this photo as Picasso has been trying to bite the binding clips, so I apologise for the angle.

I was really pleased to receive these clips from Richard this Christmas. They are making stitching the binding much easier and I'm enjoying not stabbing myself with pins.

Having trimmed the quilt this morning I left it neatly folded on a chair whilst I went and prepared my binding. When I finished that and was ready to attach the binding I found that Scamp had taken over the quilt and made himself comfortable including hiding his rawhide bone under it.

Scamp wasn't pleased when he got told to move. Both Scamp and Picasso seemed annoyed that I was sewing and Picasso decided to keep a very close eye on the goings on at the sewing machine.

Picasso can be very helpful and had just picked the bit of fluff you can see from the needle. 'Humph you're purrfectly hopeless at keeping this machine neat and tidy. I don't know how you'd cope without me..ow. Remember I'm watching you'

So lots of hand stitching this evening. I've been working on the christmas tree cross stitch. I decided to continue working on the sky so that the stitching I'd completed was worked down from the top. I do have to admit I'm bored of stitching in blue.

I'm really pleased with the progress of this piece but I must put some work into the millennium sampler as this is one of my goals for the year and preferably the first quarter of the year.

This week I'm only in work for three days so I'm hoping to get some of the quilting done on the nine patch quilt. So far January is looking good. I should have a finish by the end of the week and if I'm really lucky I should be able to finish the 9 patch.

I'm linking this post with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching Why not visit and see what everyone is doing.

Lyndsey

A walk and lots of slow sorting.

Although rain was predicted the day was dry and quite bright so we rang Tony to see if he wanted to walk with us. We planned to start at Wimbledon common which is only 10 minutes away in the car and then do a circular walk taking in one of the highest points in the area  as well as Putney Heath. I'd already started sorting and organising scraps and it must have affected my brain because I totally forgot the amount of rain we've had recently and so didn't put my walking boots on. 

Scamp was really happy to be out walking, well running in his case. He bounced and ran for the whole 4 plus miles. He wouldn't even stand still for his photos.

Although it was dry it was still very cool so Scamp wore his coat as his fur is fine and short. It was late afternoon as we were walking so the sun was starting to set. As I looked behind me I saw the sun reflected off the buildings. 

Turning back to our route I was in time to get this shot of the sunset

When we got back to the car park the cafe was still open so we all enjoyed a hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows. Scamp was miffed to only have water. He had enjoyed running through the mud and puddles so his paws were mud encrusted. By this point he was very pleased to be wearing his 'Top Dog' coat.

Back home and having cleaned Scamp I went back to my organising. By the time I finished I had 3 neat piles of 2 1/2 inch squares and 5 inch squares in the plastic bags. All the 5 inch squares are children's fabrics from the various baby quilts I've made and some fabric I was given. The next job is to sort the cut squares by colour.

This pile of fabric and the three full plastic pots are the remainder of my scraps which I need to deal with when next I have time. Hopefully that will be Tuesday evening.

This getting organised really is exhausting. I went through my fabric stash and also through all my ongoing projects, making sure everything was in order. When I went through my stash I used the questions - do I still like and/or love it?, do I have a use for it?, is it part of an ongoing or soon to be started project? There were several pieces of fabric that were put into the bag to go to the charity shop. I made several discoveries including that I don't need to buy any white solid fabric for a while and I took the opportunity to hunt out blue fabric for this month's RSC block which will have to wait until Wednesday to get made.

I have work on 4 days this week but on Tuesday  I'm in Reading so I will get some hand stitching done during the train journey. Otherwise it could be a quiet sewing week. The weather is also supposed to go a lot colder at the end of the week and they say we will get snow. 

Anyway bedtime. Have a good week.

Lyndsey

A bit of this and that and an ouchy

I hope you had a great Christmas. Ours was very enjoyable and very peaceful. We had younger daughter and her boyfriend Richard for Christmas day plus their dog Buddy. Scamp likes him but is a little worried that Buddy may squash him.

He made himself comfy on the couch and settled down for a nap. They'd taken him for a long walk before they came over so Buddy would be tired and so wouldn't be so bouncy. He's a mastiff labrador cross and weighs in at 40kg and could possibly grow a little bigger as he isn't yet 2 years old.

Apart from this picture I didn't take any others as I was too busy enjoying myself. In the evening after dinner, we played some card games and Articulate. We were all cheating like mad and my sides ached from laughing so much.

On boxing day we went for a long walk with Scamp  The London Plane trees down the one side road on the way to the common had all been cut back to the old wood to stop them getting too big for their situation.

The bark of the London Plane is very odd. It comes off like scales and as you can see in the photo the bark is one colour and then you get patches of various shades where the bark has fallen off at different times.

Over Christmas I packed my sewing machine away and I've been working on the Christmas tree cross stitch. I will continue to work on this until twelfth night. I completed all the sky on the one side as this was easy to work on whilst watching TV. I have also counted across the left side for the sky so I can now do some work on this. Before I start that however I need to add the gold star, then I can just work across the rows and not have to worry about counting the stitches. There are some stars to back stitch in the sky but that will be done later on.

Last night I had been doing some stitching and having put my work down on the coffee table went off to make a cup of tea. When I sat down a little later to enjoy my tea I felt this intense pain at the top of the back of my thigh. I slowly lifted myself up as I realised that I had dropped my embroidery scissors in the chair and they had stabbed me. I pulled them out and through my jeans applied pressure for a short time before I went to the bathroom to inspect the damage. Two small wounds showed that the scissor blades had been open but fortunately they only have fairly short blades so they hadn't gone in too deeply. Also they had caught the seam on the pocket so had to pass through several layers of fabric which also helped reduce the depth of the injury. It is still red and painful and I'm being much more careful with the scissors this evening.

Tomorrow I'll be getting the sewing machine out, well I will so long as Richard has finished putting his lego model of a ferrari together. At the moment there are lots of teeny tiny pieces of lego over the table. There are over a thousand pieces so it should keep him busy for ages.

I'm linking this post with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Lyndsey

Great Sunday stitching.

Today has been a good stitching day with some machine work and some slow stitching. On Saturday evening I stitched the quarter square triangles and trimmed them. The trimmed pile looked so neat and tidy. I also cut the sashing ready for stitching this morning.

I managed to get the sashing attached and the rows put together. I also stitched together the outer borders.

Tomorrow I will add the inner bordesr and hopefully add the pieced outer border as well. I'm hopeful this will be a completed top by Friday. 

At the start of today I had a neat pile of hexies. 

This afternoon whilst watching Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version with Colin Firth) I stitched this block together. As I hadn't put the machine away I sewed the block to the backing fabric. Here's all the blocks with the brown one in the middle.

I was going to make extra blocks for this quilt but I decided to leave it with the 12 blocks. Now I need to decide on the colour for the sashing and then there's the borders to think about. Sometimes John complains that I seem miles away when I've been sewing but all I'm doing is trying to visualise the blocks with different colours next to them. I think I'll have to surf through my stash to see if I have anything suitable.

Scamp usually sits on my lap when I'm stitching but today he snuggled in his basket. I got him a new pillow for his basket as the old one was all flat. He would spend ages pushing the old pillow around trying to make it more comfortable. With the new one he turned a couple of circles and then settled down for a long nap.

Picasso tried to push him out of the basket but Scamp wasn't giving way. Now that the weather has turned cold Picasso isn't keen on being outside but he doesn't know what to do with himself in doors. All summer long he's a very active cat and then he has to slow down for the winter but it takes him a while to get used to the idea.

I'm linking this post with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching Go and take a look at the projects being worked on this week. 

Lyndsey

A hair cut

The 3rd of November and I've managed to do some stitching each day which is making me very happy. I started the day by cutting the fabric for my kitchen curtains. I also had the lining to cut. The fabric was already folded along its length and this meant it was a quick job to measure the length and cut using my trusted rotary cutter. The lining was a different matter. The fabric was on a roll at its full width and so I had to fold it in half lengthways in order to make it more manageable to be able to cut it.

I soon had a neat pile of fabric ready to be stitched. I had other things to do today so I'll start work on the curtains tomorrow.

I needed to visit the fabric shop. I was short of a fabric to make the binding for my turtle quilt and I also wanted the header tape for my kitchen curtains. This gave me an opportunity for a little exercise as the shop is about a mile and a half away. So a win win activity, a walk of about 3 miles and I got the fabric I needed. 

This afternoon Scamp was booked at the groomers. This photo was taken on the 3rd October and is the most recent photo I had of him. As you can see he is a little shaggy and of course his hair was even longer with the extra months growth. In fact his fringe was so long he could hardly see out from under it. 

Scamp dragged me into the shop so he obviously wanted a good bath and he seems to prefer to have short fur. He really does look a little cutie and much younger with short fur.

Before he went into the groomers we took a walk along the Thames. There have been some very high tides recently and the path was very muddy and slippy. The walk helped to add to my milage so I was feeling very happy and Scamp was nice and calm for his grooming session. 

When we got home our older daughter was visiting so tea and chatting was required after which we  drove her home. By then the evening was getting on and I wanted to watch a programme on TV and do some hand sewing. A great way to finish up a good day.

Tomorrow I plan to start the stitching on the curtains and cut and attach the binding to the turtle quilt. If I have any time left I need to make some blocks for the rainbow scrap challenge as I'm getting behind. I also need to catch up on some housework.

Lyndsey

A little slow stitching

At last a day of being able to sit and do a little stitching. The fault for lack of stitching lies not with too much work but with two relatively small family crises. One is now resolved but the other will take longer. However in between life in general, work etc I can sew again. Yesterday I settled comfortably in my chair with Scamp on my lap and worked on this block for 'It's a dogs life' quilt.

I should be able to finish this tonight. Yesterday was so relaxing and as a result I'm expecting to get a lot more done today. Once this one is finished there is only one more before I need to piece the remaining blocks and stitch it all together. 

I have also completed the baby quilt but haven't posted the finish photo yet

Scamp was under very strict instructions not to sit on the quilt. I chose a stripy fabric for the binding. I used a jelly roll for the ribbons on the quilt and the bindings came from the same roll. I cut the strips in half and alternated the colourways. I love the way it looks. The ribbons were quilted in stripes and the background was a large meander.

I have some housework to do and teaching preparation but then I have some sewing to do. I have a summer skirt cut out and ready to go. In typical UK style it's raining at present but it is still warm so I'll get a fair amount of wear out of it before the autumn weather really sets in.

A couple of weeks ago John, Tony and I went walking. Every year our church does a walk in support of the Children's Society and we were checking out the route. It was a 10 mile route but I took Scamp with us as he loves long walks so long as he has regular breaks. The route was out in West Sussex so we traveled by train, another favourite adventure for Scamp.

 On the walk we went under the Ouse Valley viaduct. This is a fabulous victorian structure that was built in 1841 to carry the London to Brighton railway line over the river ouse. It stand 96 feet high and has 37 arches.

For me the most amazing bit was when we stood underneath the viaduct and looked along its length . Instead of each pillar of the arch being solid, to save bricks it was built like this.

This picture shows the detail at the top of the arches and the balustrades a little clearer.

At one point we walked along a path through the middle of a corn field. Now many years ago as a child or teenager (it is that long ago I can't remember) I heard a song from a musical which said 'the corn is as high as an elephant's eye.' I was confused because I'd only seen corn that was shorter than me. Walking through the field with corn on either side of me, that was definitely taller than me I suddenly realised (oh so many years after the event) that what we children had called corn was in fact wheat and the corn referred to in the song was maize or sweetcorn. Der that made the song make more sense.

The walk also took us past a reservoir and nature reserve and we ended at a little cafe where we enjoyed homemade scones and cream. Even Scamp was catered for with dog biscuits provided free by the owners.

I'm linking this post with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching It's very odd coincidence but she's been appliqueing a corn stalk. Go visit and find out what folks have been doing. Have a good day

Lyndsey