Homeward Bound....

Via Ashbourne, for tea and cake in the St John Street Gallery - some lovely bits and pieces, including paintings and prints by names such as Barbara Rae, and Donald Hamilton Fraser. Of course, we also oohed over a couple of lovely quilts draped over the mezzanine level - we are crafty types, after all. A bit of a grey day, as if to remind us that our holiday was coming to an end.

A pretty little building on the main street.

To Helen's house, which is always a joy for us too infrequent visitors. Mr H had provided several different pizzas with exotic toppings - my new favourite being pear and St Augur cheese, which was just delicious... Haven't made it myself yet, but I will! The best thing about going to their house is doing the wander round... What's changed? Where's the new artwork? How are the chickens?! So, lots of sighs of delight and enthusiasm from me and Karen...!

One of Helen's beautiful artworks on the wall...

Amongst so many other lovely things, a new print on the stairs, some zany sculptures by the boys, and a chance for me to see Karen's gorgeous lap quilt, made for two special 'H' birthdays last year...

One of Helen's beautiful vases, and a gorgeous print by Helen Rhodes.

Cat, crochet, cake and yet more chat - just in case we hadn't managed enough whilst we were away.

And, next morning, before we left, a last look around at all the lovely things, little still life groupings, assemblages, and the chickens. Until next time...! xxx

One of Mr H's fun pics.

Walking in Wirksworth...

Perfect place for a lunchtime stop.

A couple of weeks ago I headed off to Derbyshire to spend a few days with my two inspirational gal pals... We've done this for the last few years - getting together in the depths of winter to stay somewhere interesting, and to do a bit of creative thinking, doing, and exploring. This year we stayed in Wirksworth, and we all took wool, crochet hooks and knitting needles, with the intention of doing a bit of wooly creating in the evenings.

This has been ripped out and started again three times now... I'm not very good at knitting!

We rented a house through Airbnb, which came complete with a resident, three-legged, fluffy ginger cat who required feeding, and attention, and who probably couldn't believe his big, fat, jammy luck that Karen was staying - the softest of soft softies when it comes to cats. She always obliged by scratching those 'hard-to-reach, right there, under my chin', places for him, made particularly tricky without one of his back legs... I do believe she'd have been happy to pop him in her commodious, floral shopping-bag, and whisk him off to join all the others she'd left behind at home!

Of course, the reason we go away for a few days is because it's lovely being somewhere new, and seeing everything with fresh eyes. Within moments of stepping out to explore, the morning after arriving, we were noticing all sorts of interesting things.

A piece of fencing just round the corner from where we were staying - great colours.

A father and daughter we met en route into town...!

Lovely Delicatessen filled with bread, cheese, olives and other tempting stuff.

Proper shops.

Great name for a chemist shop - B. Payne & Son!

Better-than-usual barber.

A junk shop so crammed with stuff we left for fear of causing damage!

The houses are sturdy, stone-built affairs, piled up higgledy-piggledy on the slopes of the town. In the distance the hills are topped with the skeletons of trees waiting to be clothed in the new season's green.

Pretty little house squeezed into a gap - I wonder how far back it goes?

...and Helen made us each a little wreath as we wandered around the cobbled streets.

Catching up, as the year ends....

A few weeks ago there were butterflies and bugs taking shelter indoors, like this Small Tortoiseshell. I left it there for a couple of days, and then thought it perhaps needed to overwinter somewhere a bit more sensible - like the shed - so out it went. Poor thing looks a little raggedy round the edges...

Low golden light in the afternoon followed by some beautiful sunsets, made for some lovely yellow highlights on the trees.

This was taken on a walk with my niece who also, lucky thing, got to wear the jumper I knitted (since it looked dreadful on me...)

I was so pleased with myself at having finally knitted a garment (hats and scarves don't count) and in the process learning how to follow a pattern, shape raglan sleeves, do increases and decreases, and to use mattress stitch to join it all together, and so on... But the yarn was quite a heavy one, and the neckline, which should have been a loose roll neck as can be seen by the middle picture, got wider and wider as the days went on, until it was hanging off her shoulders, while the sleeves drooped longer and longer... It was all so promising, but it didn't quite live up to expectations, and it has now been unravelled ready to be made into something less challenging!

I did, however, make my niece a hat while she was here. That I can manage! In fact, if my other niece should want one, she only has to say the word!

We decorated the tree, and the hall, ready for all the festivities - with my niece's help. The Gorgeous Girl didn't manage to visit before Christmas, and since the tree is one of those things she and her dad always do together - while I go around harrumphing and being a bit Scrinchy (a Scrooge/Grinch composite) - tree decorating was a slightly melancholy experience this year! It did (and still does) look rather lovely tho'.

The weather wasn't particularly festive in the lead up to Christmas, although there was one chilly morning, when I walked down to the meadows to take some photographs of the swans - the grass crackled with frost, and the leaves looked as if they were dusted over with icing sugar.

Cressing Temple...

One of my brothers is reading about the Knights Templar and asked if I knew Cressing Temple, which is mentioned in the book. I didn't, but since Sunday was a beautiful day we decided to go and have a look. The fact that it was hosting a craft fair was a bit of a draw too, but in the end we enjoyed looking at the ancient craft of barn-building much more than the modern day stuff, although there were demonstrations of crafts which have been around as long as the barns have been standing.

It looks like a little hamlet on approach, but it's only when you get into the space that the enormous size of the barley and wheat barns can be appreciated.

Dating from 1200 and 1250 respectively, the two main barns are vast cathedral like spaces, and they simply dwarf everything inside and out.

A figure perched on one of the beams gives a sense of scale...and gave me the heebie jeebies.

There are also various outbuildings which once housed the forge, the wheelwright, the granary, and farm equipment. Floors dip and rise, leaving you feeling a little giddy, and the timbers are worn and stippled with woodworm holes.

Pig-weighing machinery.

The equipment inside, long since abandoned, might not be as ancient as the barns, but suggests what has gone on here for many centuries.

Then out into the walled garden - its colour somewhat muted now, at the end of summer. It's filled with apple trees, hazelnuts, medlars and grape vines, and scented plants which just have to be touched and sniffed, and their names were duly noted down for our own garden, like these two - the curry plant and cotton lavender, which I'd like to add to my growing collection of silver-leafed plants.

I also discovered this year that we have Sweet Woodruff in our own garden, so I plan to save and dry some of the sweetly-scented flowers next year to put in with our clothes. 

This covered seating area, built in just a day using the same skills as for building barns, was a recent addition to the garden - the cross beam reads 'Grow Beauty In The Garden Of Your Mind'. Hear, hear.