Beginnings

First thing this morning

When the early morning mist cleared, the first thing I saw was a flock of several hundred rooks descending on the horses field.  They are most welcome as they aerate the ground with their big strong beaks in their search for grubs and they sift through the horse poo eating all the worm eggs.

The first 4 photos were taken through glass so may appear a bit cloudy.

Rooks

Our next visitors were two beautiful cock pheasants.   They have the most amazing colours in their feathers.  It's still the open season for shooting them so they have taken refuge on our land where they are safe from men with guns but not necessarily safe from a hungry fox.

A brace of pheasants

This young moorhen was very brave and came right up onto the patio while I was sitting reading the paper!

Ooooo, I wonder what's in there?

On my way back from feeding the horses this beautiful lichen caught my eye.  I love the contrast of the frilly grey/green one against the furry gold/ochre.  Seeing something so beautiful makes me want to capture it in embroidery so I've started scribbling in my notebook.

The beginning of my Brioche project

This is my progress on the Jacki scarf.  I think I've got the pattern in my head now so it can be my TV project.   This Artesano alpaca yarn is wonderfully soft to work with and I love this deep teal colourway.

The start of my long runs

This morning I ran 12.5 miles which was my first run over 10 miles for a few weeks.  I was very wheezy on the hills thanks to my asthma and felt incredibly tired afterwards - not superhuman after all then!  Hopefully I'll buck up a bit in the coming weeks.

And she's off!

This year is going to be all about pushing myself out of my comfort zone and trying things I haven't done before.

So here are my starter projects:

Knitting project ready to start - the one-colour Jacki scarf in brioche stitch, by Nancy Marchant.  This is going to take quite a bit of concentration so definitely not a project for TV viewing, at least not until I've got the increases and decreases in my head.  The yarn arrived today and I will be casting on tomorrow.

Crochet - the overlay crochet cushion that I wrote about back in October but didn't start as I had lots of Christmas projects to get through.  That will be my lunchtime project as it uses fine thread and so I need good light to do it.

Embroidery - I'm about to start a batch of little samples to mount on one of those box canvases with deep sides.  The samples will be of anything that catches my eye and will be embroidered as and when I find something suitable.

Patchwork - I've sorted out lots of fabrics to play with for a 'crazy patchwork' cushion cover.  I won't be starting this just yet but I want the fabrics ready and waiting.

Painting - Mike's got me doing paint effects on some of the plain frames he's bought for his paintings.  I love doing this!

Running - I'm getting right into my latest training schedule and it's a tough one.  If this doesn't make me faster then nothing will!  I do, however, still seem to be having a few problems with my breathing so it's off to see the asthma nurse again.  Today was 7 miles at marathon pace which is not easily done on my hilly routes.

Gardening - at last the rain has abated so I can get out there and do some tidying.

Mike and I went mooching around a secondhand bookshop yesterday and I pounced upon this wonderful book of knitted lace.  The fly-cover may be tatty but the patterns are lovely.  The author, Marianne Kinzel, was born in Austria but she left her home country in wartime to settle with her husband in England.

Inside, there is this beautiful dedication.  I do hope that our country still provides a haven for those in need.

Flicking through the book reminded me that I must show a photo of a knitted doily thingy I made for a Christmas present but that will have to wait until another time. 

Today I went to church to dismantle my tree.  It still looked so pretty and even when I added it to the pile of trees in the churchyard waiting to be recycled, the little confetti snowflakes and their glitter still glinted and gleamed.  My crocheted snowflakes have been packed away carefully for future use.

As there were only a few of us pottering around in the church I took the opportunity to take some photos of designs that caught my eye.

Terracotta and blue tiles

The tiny stained glass windows above the main feature window

The flowers are different in each set which I hadn't noticed before

One of several proud lambs around the chandelier

Ethereal faces

Glorious brocade fabric

1 January 2013

Happy New Year everyone!

The weather today has been wonderful with a beautiful blue sky highlighting the bare branches of the trees.  I often take my camera with me on my runs and today I thought I'd upload some of the images that caught my eye.  I ran 5.5 miles at a good pace although I huffed and puffed up the hills - it was then that I remembered that I hadn't used my asthma inhaler; oops!

This first lane has dried up considerably since I ran along it on Christmas Day when it was just a sheet of water pouring down the whole lane.  Today there were just a couple of rivulets on either side.  I love the way the sunlight shines on the wet tarmac.

Blue sky showing the bare branches of trees and hedges in stark contrast

I had to take a photo of this tree as when I ran past the other day there was a tiny kitten curled up asleep in the hole.  It must have been one of the many feral cats that farmers keep around to fend off the mice and rats.  It was like a scene from Tolkien but sadly I didn't have the camera with me then.

Gully full of leaves with water run-off from the fields

View from up high

Rolling fields and trees

Big bales of hay wrapped up in plastic jackets!

A tangle of coppiced chestnut stools

Ploughed fields and copses

Rolling hills with a young vineyard in the lower right of the foreground

I am incredibly lucky to have such countryside to run through.  I'd really like to go for a run off-road but everywhere is saturated, if not flooded, so I shall have to wait until it dries out a bit before I venture through the fields.

Brioche anyone?

No, not the scrummy bread, brioche stitch!  I've decided to take myself out of my comfort zone and try lots of new things so brioche stitch is the start of my adventure.  I'm using instructions from Nancy Marchant and she is very thorough and easy to understand.  This is my first little sampler and I really enjoyed making it.  

The knitting is so warm that Mike has requested a scarf already.  I think I'll need to concentrate really hard on the pattern he's chosen as it has lots of brioche increases and decreases but it will be a good challenge to start the new year.  

He's chosen a lovely deep teal colour of Artesano alpaca chunky which will pick out a colour in his tweedy gloves (yet to be made from yarn in my stash) and his tweedy cap so he's going to be very co-ordinated!

Brioche sampler

Speaking of bread, here are the loaves I made earlier today to freeze for the next week.  Just plain white loaves, good for sandwiches and for toasting.  Below them is my leaven, bubbling away nicely, which I'll be using tomorrow to make a sourdough bread to go with soup.  It really is soup weather at the moment; all dark, rainy, dreary and very windy.

2 little loaves to freeze for future use

Leaven bubbling nicely

Strange skies

Which brings me round to the strange skies we've had in the last day or so.  This was taken at first light; a pretty peachy glow amidst grey clouds.

About 15 minutes later it all changed - the clouds came lower and filled the valley and everywhere took on an odd glow.  I don't seem to have captured it very well though.

As I watched the horses this beautiful fox cut across.  He was a fine specimen with a lovely bushy tail.

A Christmas holiday project

I had intended to decorate my pottery swan with shells.  Well I am easily distracted and so that changed completely when I found some handmade paper in a shop when we went into Hastings just before Christmas.  We bought 2 sheets so Mike had a painting project and I had my own piece to play with.  Mike did his painting on part of his piece and didn't like the texture it gave him so gave me the remainder.

Excellent; more for me to play with!  At first I thought I might draw on it and so I searched through my sketchbook to see if I had any doodles that caught my eye.  As always there were lots of heart motifs that drew my attention, but also many different birds.  I love folk art and am always drawn to this sort of image.

As I searched I heard a robin singing outside and that was it, I started doodling birds singing.  Then I drew a heart around one and I found my theme - "with a song in my heart"

I couldn't find just the right image until I remembered a traycloth that mum had embroidered when I was a child.  I rummaged around until I found it but he was a bit to fancy for what I had in mind so I played around with it until it was just right.  The original had a much fancier tail and lots of decoration on his body.  It came from a magazine called 'Needlewoman and Needlecraft' which was a wonderful publication from the 1960s and 70s.

I had thought that the paper would just be a mount for the finished embroidery.  That was, until I discovered that I could embroider it direct onto the paper.  I spent ages trying out different cottons/silks and stitches.

What fun!

Then it was time to cut out the heart shape from the paper and start embroidering.

I had a plain little round wooden frame that was just the right size.  I mounted the heart on a background of dark blue pastel paper then all I had to do was decorate the frame.

Plain frame

First, I painted different layers of paint onto the frame.  I tried positioning the lettering in many different places and finally settled upon the inner circle of them frame itself rather than around the heart.  I used pen and ink to write it.

Then I distressed the paintwork and added some highlights here and there.

But it still needed a little something extra.  I considered adding some folk art motifs around the edge but then it occurred to me that the music should come out of the heart and settle on the frame.

So here he is, singing his little heart out and brightening a little space between 2 of Mike's paintings in the hallway.

Happy Christmas everyone (now with added Den!)

Christmas morning started well with us watching the animated version of Father Christmas, released in 1991 with music by someone very special - my husband, Mike Hewer!  Now I'm off out for a run before the day gets into full swing (wearing red and white stripey tights and a sparkly Santa hat to keep up my tradition of looking very silly at this time of year).

Our Christmas tree 2012

Here's our Christmas tree bedecked with an eclectic mix of some of our favourite ornaments collected over many years.  Lots of them are handmade by me and or mum.  All of them have memories attached.  Although I put up the majority of the decorations around the house by myself, it's always been a tradition that Mike and I dress the tree together which makes it extra special.

This year we had to buy a new stand as the old one had rusted away.  It has a large reservoir for water to keep the tree fresh for longer.  It didn't take Tinker long to suss it out as a new drinking bowl!

Tinky drinkies!

The weather may not be very festive (ie blowing a gale and raining) but I managed to dodge the showers when we first got up to take a few photos of plants and shrubs in flower so here they are:

This little Parahebe has been flowering for months

Bergenia (aka Elephant's ears)

Primula vulgaris

Helleborus foetidus

Vinca major 

Viburnum grandiflorum (smells divine!)

Last but by no means least we have the beautiful Helleborus niger, aka the Christmas Rose partly because of the time it comes into flower and partly because of a folk story.  The legend was that a young girl had no gift to give baby Jesus and when her tears hit the snow, the flowers sprouted where they fell.  It isn't actually a member of the rose family and belongs to Ranunculaceae so is related to the buttercup!

The pure white flowers are so uplifting on dark days.

A very Happy Christmas to everyone who reads my blog and extra big hugs to those of you who find this time of year challenging for whatever reason. 

I'll leave you with this photo of Den sporting her new hat/scarf.

A festive Everton supporter