A View from a Brew

Another beautiful morning. I was up early again today 6-30a.m. I don't close the curtains at night ,when Summer comes along . I like to be wakened by the light and get up early and enjoy the day . For the third day running I've breakfasted in the garden ,by the pond with the sun on my back . What could be nicer .This is what I see as I'm sat there .
A View from a Brew ( for international readers to me a brew is a cup of tea )

Buddah enjoying the sunshine from behind the Geraniums .

Look at these . Thousands of baby spiders they had just emerged . They were running up and down one of the canes in my Sweet Pea tubs .

Another Poppy has opened . This time it's the pale one . I love the deep burgundy centre

A bit of knitting. I've finished my third Elsewhere jacket . This time it has three quarter sleeves and is a nice addition to my Summer wardrobe.

I've started the wind down to the holidays . We go away on Wednesday and all the jobs are done apart from sorting a projects bag out to take with me I can relax. The weather seems to be hotting up now so it looks like we are going to have plenty of sunshine . I spoke to the man from the site we are staying on in Devon and he said the forecast was good.

We've finally come back down to earth after our windfall of Thursday . We've decided to put the money in our fund for a new caravan , with what I've saved already we can now get a much newer one .
This is the last post for May . I may get one more post in before we go away . We are off to the Midland Hotel knitting group again tomorrow so there may be some photos of Morecambe Bay to post .

Still Here.

Yes I'm still here, after the trauma of last week . Thank you to those who got in touch .I posted a thread on a couple of Groups on Ravelry and the response was amazing, so much support from people I've never even met. Anyway I'm not going to dwell on it , it's gone now . I'll just have to be a bit more vigilant in future. We've been away this weekend to do the Border City Steam Fair. What a disappointment . I didn't even take any pics. I'm can't even be bothered to go into detail about what I thought of it . The only good thing was I managed to make these lovely little socks for my hols . Three pairs in three days that shows how not busy we were . I made them with just one 100grm ball of my Summer Sundae range of yarn and three 25grm balls of contrasts .
A simple basket weave for the turquoise ones .
A sort of cockle shell design for the lemon.

And a cabley one for the lilac.

They'll be ideal for wearing with sandals or crocs if it's chilly .

The yarn and the patterns for the socks will be available at Woolfest next month . As will the yarn and patterns for the socks I posted a few weeks ago .

Only six more days to go then we'll be in sunny Devon .Can't wait . We are meeting up with several people from Ravelry and going to their knitting groups. Plus a visit to John Arbon again at Coldharbour Mill . I've got 9 kilos of yarn to pick up from him . The caravan is all packed and ready on the drive . Can I go now please ??????

I saved something nice for my last pics . I love poppies and these pretty ladies showed their faces last week . I have a very pale pink variety as well but they aren't out yet .

I nice close up . Aren't the colours stunning.

Ah! well back to work . I may get another post in before I go away .

P.S. We got some great news tonight . We've beeen paying in to our local football team's sweepstake for about eighteen months now and tonight when the man came round for our monthly payment he brought with him a cheque for £1000. We'd won the first prize in this months draw. Yipee !!!!!!! Certainly makes up for last week .

A Big Dissapointment

No pictures with this post as what I have to tell you doesn't have any .

I am getting ready to attend a steam rally over the coming weekend and have to get all my stuff ready . As I will be taking all the other crafts I can only manage to take part of my hand dyes so this afternoon i decided to sort out what I was going to take with me.

I haven't touched the boxes of wool since I got back from Wonderwool Wales , a bit lax of me i know but I've had loads of other crafty things to do , so I thought I'd do a mini stock take as well . This is where the disappointment comes in .When I checked all the yarns I've discovered that I have had six skeins of wool stolen from my stall during Wonderwool weekend worth £54 . How am I so positive ?

A. All sales are recorded . None were missed .

B. I knew exactly what amounts of each colour there was as it had all been dyed especially for Wonderwool .

C . Most importantly, I know definitely that I did not sell any of this particular yarn over the weekend .

I am very upset and bitterly disappointed that a fellow knitter or knitters ,as the case may be , or anyone could do such a thing . I work hard at my little business and £54 is a lot of money to me . Perhaps somebody out there is reading this blog and knows what they've done and I hope their consciences are pricking them hard . The yarn won't do them any good as it was ill gotten.

I have been doing fairs for over 16 years and this is the first time anything has been stolen from me and it grieves me to think that now I've got to be extra vigilant ,even at wool fairs .

Sorry it's a bit of a miserable post but that's how I feel .

Bit more Knitting , Hawthorn and passing on skills

Where has this week gone . I just realised I hadn't blogged for over a week . I've been busy with all sorts of bits and pieces to do with the business . Helping Papa Bear with his blog , which he is coping with quite nicely . I've made him some reminder cards so he can do it himself without me standing over him . May is one of my favourite months because of the Hawthorn blossom. I had a long walk all by myself last week , well Meg was with me and I noticed that there were quite a few Hawthorns standing alone . This was like a huge fountain.
This a the only one in a glade of trees .

And this was all by it self as well . The wind was blowing and it was warm so the perfume from them was quite heady . I wonder why such a sweet smelling blossom is thought of as unlucky if taken into a house other than May Day eve .?? Can anyone enlighten me .?

Another jacket . Now I've had a few messages about my knitting and the fact I don't put enough info about the things I knit Sooooo.

Pattern is Elsewhere : A Ravelry download

Yarn :Paton's Jet

Weight : Aran

How's that . It took me a week to knit and is very easy.

Another Elsewhere .

Yarn : My Own Hand Dyed Merino in colourway Happy Hippy .

Weight Aran . All these jackets are for my holidays to Devon in two weeks time .

This picture I am very proud of . On Saturday DD came for a visit and I was showing her all my knitting projects . After a while she said she thought she should do some knitting so I found her needles and wool and off she went . I had taught her as a little girl but she had never shown a lot of interest . Anyway she was able to cast on and start to knit. I was so pleased . I only have one daughter and it feels nice to be passing on my skills to the next generation. I've found a simple pattern and some wool so she can have a go at making a jumper for her friend's little girl . Hopefully I'll be posting a pic on here :0)

Of gardening and knitting.

I've been busy again knitting a new jacket. I got the pattern from Ravelry and it's the first top down I've done . It's all in one piece and no seams . It was a dream to knit and only took me ten days to do .
I got a lovely shawl pin from my tame Woodturner to finish it off . There's another on the needles , this time in blue.
Been planting as well . Tubs of sweet peas .

and a new perennial bed outside the back door . There are a few Forget me Nots left to go to seed for next year . That's my bit of the garden done . Papa Bear takes care of the veg . You can see them here on his new blog

Here are a couple of pics of last night's sunset.

Aren't the colours great.

I've also been doing another load of dyeing . This time for Woolfest . Pics to follow .

Time for a rant.

I wish to have a rant .I've just been sitting in the garden , in the sunshine , having a coffee . I'm surrounded by Forget me Nots , Wisteria, Mexican Orange blossom, early Honeysuckle and Clematis. Great you may think all those lovely perfumed flowers wafting on the breeze. WRONG !!!!! All I can smell is the strong artificial perfume of next door's washing . They must have used a gallon of fabric conditioner in their wash . I don't use the stuff prefareing my clean clothes to smell of fresh natural air instead of some manufactured smell .

Gardens, Faeries, Magazines and Credit card fraud.

The weather here this past week has been very up and down. Last Saturday it was gorgeous so me and Papa Bear decided to do some gardening . I weeded all the rockery and thinned some of the Forget me Not out as it was smothering some of my other plants . I love the big drift of blue in the Spring though. I planted a couple of plants about 12 years ago and just let them get on with it . This year has seen it at it's best .
This is what greets me at the back door and there's a lovely perfume as well . After taking this I thinned these out as well . My Auricula's could be seen then.
Next I tied up a patch under the Magnolia tree and was sure what to do with it . It's quite a shady little glade . So what likes shady little glades then ???......
Faeries and elves of course . So now " There are Faeries at the bottom of Our Garden "
I'm quite pleased with it and you never know the real thing might come calling :0)

A little bit of fame. Preston S'N'B are the featured Knitting Group in this months The Knitter magazine . Sarah , one of the members, organised it and five of us had our Garments featured .

I had my Rainbow Socks featured .

On a bit of a down note yesterday I had a call from my credit card company to let me know someone had got hold of my credit card details and had been having a spending spree with it . I couldn't stop shaking when he told me . Anyway he went through all the sales that had appeared on the statement and I was able to tell him which weren't mine . It is now sorted . He thinks they got my details from a certain popular book selling website as I had inadvertently left them on there . He'd been in contact with another customer and that was the common denominator . So lesson learnt ,I'm letting you know how easy it is . From now on I will be uber cautious about where I shop online and make sure my details aren't stored .

A little lighter note . I went for a walk with Meg yesterday , along the railway walk and coming back I saw this . It looks like it's been snowing doesn't it ? Well it's an enormous patch of Ransoms ( wild garlic ) . I've never seen so much . It was all along the banking and smelt really strong. For once this week it was warm but windy but today we are back to some rain again. Lets hope the old adage " A wet and windy May fills the barns with corn and hay " holds true .

Posh Venue for a New Knitting Group

Me and Papa Bear went out last night with The Mogs

to a new knitting group in Morecambe . The venue was .... Here . The Midland Hotel . How posh is that !!!!!?????

The weather was horrendous ,as you can see . Me and Amber getting battered by the wind.

I've been wanting to see inside the hotel since it reopened after being refurbished.

See just to prove I got in there . This piece of rock was served with the coffee .

This is one of the original Eric Gill fresco's .

This is part of another

These pics don't do it justice.

The mosaic on the ceiling above the spiral staircase.
Unfortunately it was quite dark.

Art Deco seats in the foyer.

Seahorse mosaic on the floor.

This was as far as we could go . There was another fresco upstairs but only residents where allowed up.

It was a lovely evening and a big Thank You to Alison for setting it up . It's going to be a regular group , meeting on the first Monday of the month . We will definitely be going again.

A Mayday / Beltane walk through the woods.

May day / Beltane greetings . The first of May already . I got up early this morning to wash my face in the morning dew just like in the poem

The fair maid who , the first of May

Goes to the field at the break of day

And walks in dew from the hawthorn tree

Will ever handsome Be .

Well I don't know about the handsome bit , but I've washed my face in the morning dew on May Day for as long as I can remember and my skin is blemish free and there's hardly any wrinkles ( who needs Oil of Ulay ).

As it was a gorgeous morning with the Sun shining brightly we went out for an early walk. We decided to go to Brinscall Woods somewhere we hadn't been for years . We used to go a lot with our other dogs but after they had gone we stopped going.

So grab a brew and come with me for a walk through the woods on May Day .We started at the lodge at the back of the baths at Brinscall.
Meg went wild when we let her off the lead . All the new smells put her nose in overdrive .
Bluebells in bud.

Strolling along the bank of the Goit . This is the water supply for Bolton.

This young Collie was on the other side of the bank puzzling out how to get to Meg.

One of the bridges.

"I'll take one of you , while you're taking one of me "

This is the leet for when the Goit is in full flood.

The gorgeous Meg posing

Looking up to the canopy.

Meg again amongst the Bluebells . they are not quite out yet so I think another walk up there is on the cards for next week .

Some that where out.

Up until the 1930's the land where the wood is was habited by a small community of farmers but when the Water Board acquired the land for a water supply for Bolton , the people where cleared off . These buildings are all that's left to prove that people lived here.

They are stables and byres for the farm animals.

There's been another big clearance, since last we were up there , all the pine trees have been cut down and this is allowing the native broad leaf varieties to grow .

Meg had a whale of a time but got very muddy.

So DH had to give her a quick wash in the beck . She was not very pleased as she hates the sound of running water.

On our way back we went past Johnsons Hillock Locks on the Leeds Liverpool canal and saw this lovely narrow boat moored just by the lock.

A close up of the sign on the back of the boat . I wonder if they sail up and down the canal selling there wears . That is something I've always wanted to do . What a life .

This is the view from their back door .

I hope you enjoyed the walk as much as we did :0))
It's raining now :0(