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(