Echoes of a Dream

We're back

A very quick post to say that we're back and that we had a wonderful time in Wales. The weather was amazingly good - there was a bit of drizzle on one day but most days we got down to the beach. The house we were renting was a 5 minute walk away.

Ofcourse, we ate far too much what with the gourmet lunch at the Sloop Inn and cream tea at a local farmhouse where I wanted to steal this lovely creature:

He was just gorgeous and loved being stroked and petted. The children swam and made sandcastles:

and I spent the whole week reading Gone With The Wind! I managed a few rows of Tom's tanktop but that's all. I was so gripped with the book. However, we did manage to watch a couple of films in the evenings such as The Magnificent Ambersons by Orson Welles (so butchered by the studio that I could hardly follow the storyline) and an Indian film called Heat by Deepa Mehta about partition which was excellent but slightly harrowing. The children got on wonderfully and we did manage to get a couple of child-free hours to ourselves in the evenings when we put the world to rights and looked back over our collective time together.

We came back yesterday afternoon and feasted on crab and mussels that we'd picked on the beach a few days ago. I cooked them in some wine and butter and garlic and that was our supper. Afterwards we played scrabble and pretended that we were still on holiday because I knew that this morning it would be back to normality with a vengeance. The fridge needs cleaning and now it's half empty I really can't ignore it. The car is full of sand and sweet wrappers and needs hoovering and as for the washing well lets just say that I can't dilly dally on the computer any longer. I'll be back very soon...............

I'm off a-crafting

Back in February I booked the children and myself on a craft camp in July and suddenly it's July and it's today. I don't know if I've been complacent because it's virtually on my doorstep or what but it's Sunday morning and I haven't packed or dug out the tent or all the other paraphanalia. Thank goodness Tom's at home because I know he'll get us there and help us pitch up. My sister and her three arrive at lunchtime and then we're off in the late afternoon.

So much to do before I go. I have to do my share of a wholesale food order I do with some neighbours, fill out our forms for a village show that we enter each year and send them off asap, finish off the madder dyeing and ofcourse, decide what I'm actually going to do on this craft camp. There is so much to chose from - stained glass, basket making, stone carving, green woodwork, felting, leather work, instrument and bowmaking, workshops for the children too. I know what I don't want to do so that leaves me with the leather workshop. I think I'll go for that and try and make a few Christmas presents. Rohan wants a leather wallet, I need a new purse, someone wants a belt. Not terribly ambitious I know but useful. I'll see what the tutor has in mind too. Otherwise the stained glass sounds interesting.

I'm going to take the dyed fleece with me and my drop spindle and maybe do a bit in the evenings around the fire. Then at least I'll have done something useful with the stuff I dyed. By the way all the food is provided so there will be lots of time to just sit and be - or card fleece in my case.

In true English fashion it's raining and I hope it will stop by this afternoon. The weather is supposed to be very hot especially midweek - oh good the compost loos will smell nice! I think we may come home for one night to get some sleep and to have a decent wash NOT you understand, to check my e-mails and my blog for comments, although I may just do that!!

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Didn't we have a lovely time

Well, didn't I make a great hooha before I went off to the Gower. No excuses. I was just plain crochety. I did get some lovely e-mails and comments though. Thank you soooo much ladies/friends. It's what I say all the time: there is such a lovely supportive community out there and it's so nice being part of it.

Well, we/I had such a great time. The weather was amazing and the our campsite was really nice. The Gower seems to be a well kept secret. Well some of it anyway. Further down the shore Oxwich Bay was heaving. (Sorry about the mark on the photo above).

Our beach is approached from the campsite and is all downhill and a very hot and tiring walk back. (The pic only shows half of the walk). Therefore not many people bother to go down to it which is great for those that do! It's pretty vast anyway so everyone has lots of space.

Tom had borrowed a boat so he and the children footled about on that and swam a lot. I read and read and read which was BLISS. I never get the chance at home to really pour over the papers or get into a book so I read the weekend section and the arts&crafts section of the Telegraph cover to cover (I took ones from the previous two weeks that I haven't managed to read). I love reading reviews of books that I will never get around to reading. I'll never read 'Colour Bar: the Triumph of Seretse Khama and his Nation' for example but I was really interested to learn about this amazing man who was called the founding father of Botswana. The Dangerous Book for Boys is logged in my mind for future presents and I found out about Jane Juska and the poet RS Thomas. I know it's a bit lazy just reading the reviews but what's a girl to do. I would love to read more but I know that I just don't have the time these days. I can't cram everything into a day as it is. I try and read in the evening but just end up nodding off.  So instead I read about what's out at the moment, what's recommended. It's quicker and easier and ocassionally I will come across something that will interest me enough to take on holiday.

Of the books that I took with me I managed to finish Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Well, what to say about it? I enjoyed it, found it a bit long and I HATED the ending. Why didn't he just stop with Corelli coming back three years later and he and Pelagia living happliy ever after? I couldn't believe that Corelli would see her with a baby and just assume the worst and not ask anyone in the village to confirm his suspicions? I just didn't get the last few chapters - thought they were unnecessary. I couldn't understand the point of them getting togther at 70. I was cross and I nearly threw it into the sea. There that's what I thought of it. I didn't get around to reading Meera Syal but I must as it's supposed to be very good.

We came back yesterday evening and I was greeted by two parcels. One with the knitting wool that I am going to dye and the other with the dyes. I ordered indigo, weld, fustic and I already have madder. Before Thursday, when the dyeing is supposed to happen I have to wash my fleece, wind the wool into skeins on a Niddy Noddy and then mordant everything. I'm getting really carried away in my head about what I can dye. I've washed and shrunk a blanket and I might dye bits of that too. Meanwhile the digital camera is making horrendous noises and won't work - I think it's got sand in it! What to do?

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Thank you for your helpful comments about the cat. I think it was out of proportion because I used a felted jumper for the head and it expanded when I stuffed it. So it seemed even odder with the smaller body. I'm going to keep it as it is (last pic) and do the arms and feet ... or maybe .....???

Sun, sea and reading

How do you write a post again when you wrote it yesterday, saved it as a draft, went to eat your dinner and came back and Typepad was down. This morning it's disappeared.

Oh well, it's 8 o' clock in the morning and we're off camping after breakfast. We're going to the Gower (peninsula) in Wales until Sunday. I hope the weather is going to be HOT as I want to sit on the beach all day and read....and doze...and maybe play the odd game of cricket and rounders too. I went round the house trying to find something to read yesterday and I went through everything - Thomas Hardy, John Fowles, Graham Greene, Carol Shields, Andrea Levy, Amy Tan and so on but I wasn't inspired by anything. I don't know what reading mood I'm in currently. I know I already have three books on the go but I got fed up with Clear the Clutter and I need a break from William Morris. So I'm probably going to take these:

Maybe I'll dump Timeless Simplicity and finish The Magic Apple Tree first. Sorry I'm in an odd mood this morning and losing this sodding post doesn't help cos I'm doing this all in a rush now.

Anyhow, I did start a cat from a pattern in a Japanese craft book yesteday but I just couldn't get the body to work. It took me about four attempts to get to this stage. Do other crafters/bloggers do this or is it just me!! I look at their creations and I'm in awe - do they get it the first time round or keep at it until the finished creation is perfect (in their eyes)? Here's the first attempt:

That's the original body on the left from the pattern. I thought it was too small so I made it bigger.

Then I changed the face but I'm still not happy with the body. So I enlarged the pattern and changed the fabric.

Threads hanging out all over the place and I've just pinned the arms on. I still think the body is too small. I dumped it last night as I just didn't seem to be getting anywhere. I'll come back to it next week and see what I can improve. What do you think? Could the body be a bit wider and maybe not so long?  I'd love some feedback.

Infact talking of feedback why not click on the Comments below this post and say Hi. I'd love to hear from you. I think I'm going through what every new blogger goes through after a while. Is anyone reading this stuff, am I saying anything worthwhile, would anyone miss me if I didn't do it....

Yeah I'm in a strange mood this morning and looking at the grey sky isn't helping. See you on Sunday.

PS I've changed my mind about the books. I'm taking these instead:

A nice way to end......

The children went back to school this morning and although I loved having them at home for THREE weeks I so enjoyed the peace and quiet this morning. Infact, I walked back from school and I was so shattered coming up the hill that I lay on the sofa for ages (actually I staggered through the door and slumped on it) .I just had to do something to notice that I had the house back to myself.  It was going to be a morning finishing my other two lambs but I'm glad I slumped - it was more relaxing.

We finished the school hols in a really nice way with our little trip at the weekend. Amber and I visited some of the Indian cloth shops near to where my parents live and I got some really cheap linen to make some trousers. I love these shops - the colour, the cloth, the smell, the strange looking mannequins in the window and the bartering that goes on between the older ladies. After that we saw a sign for threading for £2.50 so we thought we'd try it out. I am a convert. I can never pluck my eyebrows again not when I could have them done in seconds for that price. I wish I could explain how it's done but I can't. All I know is that the lady had a reel of cotton thread in her hand, the end of it in her mouth and the middle of it on Amber's eyebrows. She whizzed them off in seconds. I went home to my Mum wowing about it and all she said was 'What are you going on about? Women in Indian do that all the time'. I thought I'd made a new discovery!

Anyhow, the museum was amazing. This weekend people were living in the houses just as they would have been lived in in about 1920-1930. It was an amazing insight into a time gone by. Most of these houses were inhabited by coalminers (very poor), coal pit owner (much better off) and other labourers. Since the museum opened (about 20 years ago) a lot of people have visited that used to live in such houses so they have passed on their history. In one house for example a lady visiting told that she had lived there with her mother, father and eight brothers and sisters. They lived in a back-to-back house which had one room downstairs and one room upstairs. She said that they only had two chairs around the table which Mum and Dad used. She and her siblings sat up the stairs to eat. Upstairs the room was sectioned off with a blanket. Mum and Dad had one bed, the two little ones slept in a chest of drawers and the other 6 slept head-to-toe in the other bed. It does make you think doesn't it. Makes you feel quite humble. Actually it made me come home and clear a lot of clutter - it seemed sort of obscene living as we do. I've posted some pics on flickr - it's called a museum but it's really a little town with all the original shops, houses, cinema, coal-pit, pub and canal running through it. It's a really interesting place to visit.

Finally, here is a pic of my latest lambs started at my Mum's and finished off this afternoon.

Now that school has started I have a list as long as my arm of the things I want to make. I also have to think about my next project at school. I only have the one class this term and I want to try and rag rug with them. I'm also supposed to be running a doll-making workshop for some parents which I need to organise. Time is going to whizz by at this rate.

We're back ....

I feel like I've been away for ages. We've had a great break. Devon was lovely. We had really good weather and the rented cottage was excellent. We had time on the beach, a cliff top walk, many games of scrabble and I even finished two books I had on the go. There was lots of eating ofcourse and I probably should go on the e-diet (maybe I'll wait till after Easter weekend and all those easter eggs).

On the way down we did manage to stop off for some wool and I was like a child in a sweet shop when I saw the discounted basket. I bought some yellow and brown for dolls hair, a green for a felted bag, Amber bought the heather colour to knit a hot water bottle cover, the red is for some mittens I want to try in Felted Knits and the blue will be another felted bag. I had many more skiens than these in my arms but I was very good and restricted myself to 10 - still I only spent £29! Not sure when I'm going to start my knitting frenzy as knitting is something I do more off in the winter when I can sit by the log fire.

When we got back yesterday the house was a TIP. We had left a friend painting the place and two others to build some shelves for us. So we spent most of the day tidying up. We'd had carpet fitted in our attic rooms and I took the spare stuff they left and fitted it in our bathroom. I think I must have been a carpet-fitter in a previous life because it wasn't a bad job.

This morning the sun was really shining and it was warm. So the boys and I went for a walk and I took the camera. It's amazing what you notice when you have a camera in your hand. I took some photos of our surroundings which I've put on flickr if you want to have a look. Meanwhile, here is a photo of one corner of our house.

We're all going on a summer holiday ....(well, a mini break over Easter actually)...

You know the song don't you by Cliff Richard from the film 'Summer Holiday'? The only resemblance between our trip to Devon and his tour of Europe in a London bus being......ummm. OK, there's no resemblance but I always sing this song whenever we go away anywhere. So I'm flitting around the house packing, cleaning, baking the odd cake and singing my song cos I can't wait for tomorrow. It'll be a break from routine, sea air, lots of walks, time to sit and read and actually play games with the children without one eye on the supper, a chance to pop into the fabulous old toy/book shop in Honiton where you know you are all going to be tempted by old annuals and 1st editions of children's books, a walk along the beach, a cream tea somewhere, fantastic fish and chips in Budleigh Salterton (aka God's waiting room). A lot to pack into four days and this is supposed to be a relaxing break.

On the way down we're going to pop into Coldharbour Mill to buy some of their lovely wool. They have such nice colours and it's very reasonably priced (about £4 for 100g). I want to make this hot water bottle cover and maybe this bag. Before I go here's a pic of the latest blanket offerings. I am slowly using up that blanket and this time I decided to sort out my knitting needles so I made two rolls and a crochet hook holder. The rolls are quite chunky but (as a friend pointed out) they feel substantial and the needles don't flip out of them.