Midsummer

These are photographs from an evening walk on the longest day. We walked at Ladle Hill in north Hampshire. There is an Iron Age hillfort at the top of the hill and it is also a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest).

The clouds were a bit threatening but although we could see storms in the distance, we stayed dry.

The soil is chalky and there are a many wild flowers including a few very rare ones although I didn't see any of those this time.

The ground was a carpet of wild thyme, chalk milkwort and trefoil.

It was breezy at the top of the hill and even the orchids were bending in the wind.

This was our picnic spot, sitting on the bank facing the sun.

Here we are in shadow form, my son is twelve inches taller than me but if I get him to stand further down the hill we both look the same height!

Somerset holiday - day two

Some views from our walk from Porlock to Bossington and then to Hurlestone Point. The paths were edged with wild flowers.

At Hurlstone point there is an old coastguard station, and idyllic place in calm warm weather but not so pleasant in the winter. Difficult to tell from this photograph but it is right on the edge of the hill, to the left of the railings beside the footpath is an almost vertical drop to the sea.It was built around 1900 and continuously manned until after World War 2.  Inside I could see a large fire place, it must have been a difficult building to heat in stormy winter weather.

Flowers including thrift

and stonecrop were growing in crevices in the rocks

thriving in the harsh environment.

The view of Bossington beach was impressive as we looked back to Porlock on the other side of the bay.

We followed the footpath around the side of the hill

and walked down to Bossington. This very pretty village is managed by the National Trust as part of the Holnicote Estate. It was very quiet and I was able to take these photographs whilst there were no cars about.

There are no modern houses in the village street so I imagine that it has looked very much the same for many years.

The round structure at the front of this cottage is the bread oven and many of the houses have them.

We reached the tea room just in time for lunch.

I liked this little arrangement in the garden "tea thyme". I thought of you, Heather, when I saw it, I know you like all things tea related.

After our lunch we returned to Porlock along a footpath between high hedges. In the photograph below taken from the hill above you can see the footpath on the right winding it way between the fields. A beautiful place to walk.

mini holiday - day one

Last week we spent a few days on the coast in Somerset. I took plenty of photographs and will post a few as I sort through them.

I grew up in Taunton in Somerset so visited this area as a child. It was nice to revisit and I was pleased to find that in many places not too much had changed.

The beach in the top photograph is Kilve which is well known for its fossils.

There is also a lovely tea garden and my husband enjoyed his first cream tea of the holiday.

We stayed in the village of Porlock at the Overstream guest house. This is where I stayed on a walking holiday a couple of years ago and it was good to be back.

In the evening we went to the beach at Porlock Weir. The light was lovely, definitely what photographers refer to as the golden hour.

There are some cottages right on the beach

with a very peaceful view across the bay.

Most of the time the tide doesn't reach to the top of the beach and it was a wonderful natural garden.

A very good start to the holiday.

a day in my life

Today was a work day and I didn't take any photographs so the only picture is the trees at the edge of the garden taken this evening.

We returned from a five day mini-holiday late yesterday evening (I have loads of photographs from that for another post) so today I wanted to catch up and get everything straight.

The alarm clock was set for six as usual and today I dropped my husband at the station and took eldest son to work. I had done some washing overnight and the weather forecast was good so I hung two loads of washing outside even though it was actually raining while I did this! My grocery delivery came as I finished breakfast so that had to be unpacked. I made nut milk from almonds I soaked overnight and then prepared my packed lunch and went to work.

After work I gave eldest son a lift home and we sat down for a cup of tea. I spent some time on my laptop catching up on a few blogs and then made dinner which was roasted vegetables and brown rice.

After dinner, a couple of phone calls with family and then I caught up with the ironing. It was the right decision to hang out the washing in the rain as the weather improved during the day and I got everything dry.

Its getting late now but I think there is still time to look at the wool shade card that arrived a few days ago and to choose the colours of the Lett-Lopi wool I will need to knit an Icelandic cardigan. A pleasant way to end a busy day.

Rams and Yowes blanket

After almost six months of knitting, my Rams and Yowes blanket is finished. I realise that there is no sense of scale in these photographs, it measures one metre squared. I particularly like the sheep although these were the trickiest to knit since the strands of wool had to be carried across several stitches at the back of the work.

The wool is Jamieson and Smith Shetland Supreme Jumper Weight in nine natural undyed shades of Shetland wool. I bought the wool when we were on holiday in Shetland last November and the blanket is a very satisfying souvenier. My ravelry notes are here.

As this knitting project got bigger and less portable I knitted a couple of pairs of socks. Yesterday I tried to take pictures of my feet in the garden.

The purple socks are knitted from hand dyed sock yarn I bought at Wool and Willow in Hay-on-Wye. This is the second pair of socks I have knitted from their yarn and I must remember that they are to be hand washed - I forgot last time and after a few washes I have some very small felted socks.

The second pair are Regia Jacquard sock yarn that I bought in Shetland. I like the delicate colours but apparently the yarn is now discontinued.

I now find myself in the unusual position of not having a current knitting project though somewhere I think I have an unfinished feather and fan scarf started several years ago. I am considering an Icelandic style lopi cardigan - something on bigger needles that won't take quite so long to finish. No hurry though, I am enjoying the planning stage, thinking about colours and designs for a new project.

June

Photographs from the country lanes near home - a snapshot of the countryside here in early June.  Everything is growing fast as if trying to make up time after the slow cold spring. The bracken is unfurling and the spring flowers are being followed by the buttercups, speedwell and cow parsley of early summer.