Sunday musings

More brioche anyone?

I am really enjoying playing with brioche stitch.  It's challenging yet doable and results in such beautiful patterns.

The thing I'm working on now is called the Alex scarf and for this I'm using Rowan felted tweed DK in purple and beige.  The pattern involves lots of increases and decreases but is fine once you've got the pattern into your head.

My LSR (long, slow run) with Asthma today

I'd love to be writing that it was as good as last weekend but it wasn't!  Why not?  Asthma, that's why not!  I've been fine all week as the weather has been warmer but yesterday the temperature plummeted and this morning was very cold, with a biting wind.

I knew it was going to be a tough run when I got up and sounded like Darth Vader.  Even Mike noticed that my voice was very gravelly first thing.  There was no point in whingeing and feeling sorry for myself so I just had to deal with it.

This is what I looked like for most of my 15 mile run.   It may look odd but it helps warm the air before I take it into my lungs.  Of course some of the villagers commented that I looked like a highwayman or worse.

Why is it than when it's windy I always seem to be running into the wind, even when I've changed directions?  LOL!  Anyway, it was an undulating/hilly route and it took me 15 minutes longer than last week.  Never mind, it's all 'time on my feet' which is a very important part of my training

When my runs are difficult I always take more photos so here they are:

A herd of deer, startled as I ran past them

Witches' Brooms in the bare branches of Birch trees

Catkins in the hedgerow

Beautiful carvings on the Lych Gate at Beckley church

Mud pattern on a lane - a leaf, feather, stingray?

After the snow

After the snow comes the inevitable melt.  As the ground is already sodden from all the rain we've had over the last few months this has resulted in more squelchiness (I don't care if it isn't a real word!) in the fields with flooding in the lower areas.

This fox is now a regular visitor and the horses pay little or no attention to him as he goes about his business.

The ladies with beards of hay!

I took the next few photos on my 15 mile run last weekend.  The weather was vile when I woke up with pouring rain and a strong wind so I delayed my run until late morning.  This was a good plan as by then the rain had abated and the sun was shining although the wind was still quite strong.

Ditches with water overflowing from the fields

Time to get my feet wet

The acid-yellow flowers of gorse shone in the low light

It was a good run at a good pace and I was relieved not to have too many Darth Vader moments!

Rye in the sunshine

Having been 'stir-crazy' whilst the snow was around, Mike and I took ourselves off to visit the pretty little town of Rye.  It's such a lovely place to potter around with lots to see and excellent coffee shops for refreshments.  The streets are narrow and many of them still have cobbles which are not easy to walk on, especially on the steeper slopes!

There was a secondhand book fair on and I came away with 6 wonderful poetry books by poets I didn't know and Mike found some interesting books on music so we were both happy.

We took a walk through the churchyard of The Parish Church of St Mary, a beautiful stone built building with a lovely churchyard.  The sun shone on the gravestones and this beautiful tree caught my eye.  Just look at the peeling bark.  I'm pretty sure it's Acer Griseum, aka the paper-bark maple.

The other things that caught my eye were these 2 wonderful canopies over doorways.  The first one is Cap Gris Nez (which literally translates as 'grey nosed cape'), overlooking the harbour.  I've walked past it many times but never noticed the beautiful mermaids before.

Cap Gris Nez

Mermaid detail

The next one belongs to The Tower House, a property available for holiday rental.  I think they used to offer bed and breakfast some time ago.

The Tower House

2-colour brioche

I've finally got to grips with using 2 colours in brioche stitch and so I completed this swatch showing different techniques.

The lower section is just 2 colours in plain brioche stitch.  Then the diagonal section is called 'syncopation' where the colours are reversed.  I think it's quite effective.  Then the final section shows increases and decreases to create a sort of fern pattern.

It looks quite different on each side:

The light side

The dark side

Now it's time to start a 2-colour scarf.............

Bread

I'm not quite sure why I've started showing photos of my various breads but what the heck!  Here we have San Francisco Sourdough bread which is one of our favourites.  It's from a book we've had for ages and refer to frequently.

It's not for the faint-hearted as it takes a week to make but it's well worth the wait as it tastes amazing, toasts well and keep for ages.  The dough quantity is enough for 2 loaves so I always freeze one for later.

San Francisco Sourdough Bread

A beautiful texture!

More snow, some brioche & crochet news

Around the garden and the land

In the space of a few days we've gone from a sprinkling of snow to several inches and then a melt:

A light sprinkling

A generous covering like a cap

Melting and looking like a beret at a jaunty angle!

On Thursday morning the view from the bedroom window was like this:

Now you see it - the mown path is clearly visible

 By Thursday evening it looked like this:

Now you don't!

The beautiful tree is one of the many oaks we have on our land and we call him the Ent Oak, courtesy of Tolkien.  When we moved here 11 years ago 2 large lower branches had been cut off and some of the wood piled underneath for the wildlife.  This little wood pile is home to hundreds of insects and fungi and I love the way the ivy climbs up the tree trunk.

But look a little closer and you might see someone special - the face of the green man.  We bought him years ago and this seemed the perfect place for him, peeping out from the ivy, often going unnoticed but lifting our spirits when we catch sight of him.  We call him Treebeard (from Lord of the Rings).

One of the ponds, frozen over

Snow blown against a tree trunk 

The plake with what looks like an island of snow on top of the ice

A fir cone peeping out from its snowy canopy

Tea in the garden anyone?

Esther & Kizzy

Kizzy's always first out of the shelters and getting impatient!  She is really old and has a thinnish coat so has to wear a neck cover as well as her blanket in really cold weather

Esther's more laid-back and patient, with a thick coat like  a fluffy teddy bear.  She's a Haflinger, a breed that originated in Austria so she is good in adverse weather conditions.

She's such a Barbie-girl with her flaxen mane and tail!

Phew, brekkie at last

Time to play 'push the bucket around' for a while

Now for some fun doing what horses love to do - roll!

I'm going down

First you rub your face in the snow on one side

Then you start your roll to the other side

Wheeeeeeeeeee!

A few more rolls backwards and forwards then it's time to get back up

Have a jolly good shake

Then back to the important business of eating hay in the field shelter

The wild birds

The bird feeders have been a hive of activity.

The ducks wait patiently below for seeds to drop from the feeders

Other smaller birds watch and wait their turn from the safety of the hedge.

Brioche update

I'm now starting to learn about 2 colour brioche.  It took several attempts to get the order of knitting into my head and I ripped my swatch back twice before it suddenly clicked.

The light side (the right side edge is uneven as I think I've slipped stitches when I shouldn't have!)

The dark side

I'm just going to practice this a bit more before I move on to shaping then it'll be time for a scarf for me.

Crochet news

There was much excitement yesterday when I received an email from Jane Crowfoot telling me that the parcel of yarn should be despatched later this week.  I know the Crochet Club doesn't start until the end of February but I'm really excited about it!  I still haven't started my overlay crochet cushion as I've been so absorbed in knitting brioche but I have to get it finished before then.