A year and a day..

Since my last post. Oh. Dear. That’s rather a long time! However I’ve been busy, promise. Just not on anything terribly crafty, or at least not very much. The little boy is now a big boy and has just celebrated his very first birthday. He is a wonder and a delight.

Here he is enjoying his first train ride on the Bluebell Railway in East Sussex last weekend. So he’s pretty much been keeping me on my toes and the only bit of weaving I have to show for my year is a little bit of inkle weaving. Yes, dear husband gave me an inkle loom for my birthday (I rather like the pattern of birthday looms, feel free to keep it up darling..) and here is the result of my tinkering:

Rather nice and so easy to start with. If I was learning to weave again I would start with one of these – it really is stripped back weaving and you get results in no time at all. Albeit narrow results.

BTW the spots on that surface have now gone – hurrah! Replaced with slick mosaics in a lovely grey. I managed to reign in my plans for a wild worktop based on it not being everyone’s cup of tea, including mine.

Same time next year?…

Beamish Reliability Run 2010

I completely forgot to post this! It was only when looking through the photos on my phone that I remembered.

Back in June Ivan and I went up north to visit his family and also to take part in the Beamish Reliability Run which is a vintage car rally. Now, Ivan’s parents happen to have a 1931(?) Rolls Royce which usually gets to go out for a tootle at family weddings. They even brought it all the way down to Cornwall for our wedding back in 2003 – about 500 miles, albeit it was on a trailer. It’s a very special car indeed and is absolutely THE way to travel!

The rally took us around the north east countryside over a distance of 150 miles or more and considering the age of the car, performed impeccably without a hitch. They obviously built cars without ‘built-in obsolescence’ and all the rest of it in those days but then it is a Rolls.

Ivan and his Dad with the Rolls at one of the stop off points. Don’t they look alike?!

Ivan’s Mum looking terribly glamorous and photogenic as always.

Me travelling in style in the back seat.

I should probably mention that we all decided to get into the spirit and, as you can see, dress for the era. We thought everyone would but it turned out that only two car loads of people actually did so we felt slightly overdressed at lunch! It worked out well though as Ivan and I won a prize for the best dressed couple!

I do have more pics of the fantastic scenery on the other camera so I may well do another post on that soon.

Parham House

Mum and I took a trip to see Parham House which is just outside Storrington in West Sussex. It’s only up the road from where I live so it’s very handy for a bit of pleasant escapism. Except that we got there quite late and by the time we had wandered round the garden and had platefuls of cake etc in the tearoom we didn’t have time to go round the actual house (which is amazing) – in fact they were just bolting the door as we walked up to it but never mind! We promptly fell about laughing in the courtyard.

 

Although it doesn’t look it, it was actually raining but well worth a wander.

The little house built into the brick wall is in fact a child-size Wendy house. It’s all scaled-down and when you go inside, the doors are tiny and the ceilings are really low and there was a little inglenook fireplace inside. It was lovely, it even had bedrooms upstairs but I got a bit stuck on the staircase as it was so narrow! It was all very Alice in Wonderland.

Family

Yesterday we surprised my auntie with a family lunch for her 60th birthday. I only have a little family. Here’s a pic of me with my Granddad who is 86 this year and not doing too badly – he plays bowls these days and still does his own garden. A few years ago he taught himself to play the guitar and started touring pubs with a folk band. He also plays chess competitively and used to be a keen golfer. He’s pretty eccentric and as sharp as a button.

Brighton

This weekend we had the pleasure of having Ivan’s youngest sister to stay for the weekend. The question was, how do you entertain a 17 year old on a rainy Saturday in Sussex?

Answer: Take her to Brighton!

First stop was the Pier for amusements, fish & chips and rides! There was one ride called the ‘Mouse’ (no idea why!) which looked quite innocuous but soon turned out to be of the white knuckle variety because of the way it flung your carriage around really high above the sea.

Before…

 

During…

 

 

Next stop was the shops, then the Royal Pavilion, a hot chocolate break and home via some bizarre house boats.

Littlehampton

Recently it was Ivan’s birthday so we tootled off to Littlehampton on the south coast for a day of pebbles, fish & chips, and sunshine. Ah and lovely it was too. The sight of the sea is such a great leveller, you can’t beat it!

Happy new year

Yes I know it's a bit belated but we've been away for a week... without internet access - good heavens!

We visited Ivan's family in the North East and a good time was had by all. We ate, drank, played in the snow, walked dogs, visited family and friends, went skiing, took photographs and even talked weaving with his aunt who I have to blame for getting me into weaving in the first place. Happily, I might add.

Very early on new year's eve we took Ivan's sister who is studying photography at college to Hartlepool where there is a disused cement works by the beach. It's a very strange and eerie setting but great for photography and she got lots of great shots. I don't have a camera, I just use my mobile so my pics are very amateurish in comparison but here are a select few.

The scale is vast and everything is falling down and decaying, the atmosphere is so surreal with an eerie sense of danger but it's peaceful at the same time.

Anyway, back to there here and now. Ivan's aunt gave me some spare cottolin to weave with and old copies of Handwoven, Selvedge and the Journal so I've been leafing through those at any spare moment.

Plus we brought home my warping board - yipee! Looking forward to getting that on the go again especially as my mum asked for a scarf for her birthday next week. The challenge is that she has asked for me to incorporate black into it and I'm slightly struggling with colours at the moment. Hopefully the new magazines will present me with some inspiration!

Goodwood Sculpture Park

I managed to steal my husband for an hour so we scuttled off to a sculpture park at the Goodwood estate near Chichester in West Sussex (on the south coast of England).

We'd never been before although we had heard good things about it. It was really impressive - it was set in a few acres of woodland and all the sculpture was very modern and interesting. Also it was all for sale, so if you have a spare £500k you could treat yourself to a piece of art for the garden!

Here are some pics. I love seeing sculpture outside, seeing it interact with the elements and be seen under outdoor light. Hope you've got good download speeds!

This one was stunning with the chrome bouncing all the light around.

This elephant sort of thing was so realistic (at least for an elephant missing a head) - there were in fact two, this is the baby and the large one was about 25ft tall.

These guys were funny.

I wouldn't like to get too close to this one - the main body pivots in a strong breeze and in a light breeze the smaller part spins too. Very hard to capture on my camera!

A pig field next door.. too early for the pigs maybe.

This white one was huge - about 15ft tall and it had a really milky texture, it looked amazing as the light caught it.

Thriller night

It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark

Under the moonlight, you see a sight that almost stops your heart

You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it

You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes

You're paralysed

Darkness falls across the land
The midnight hour is close at hand
Creatures crawl in search of blood
To terrorize y'alls neighbourhood

The foulest stench is in the air
The funk of forty thousand years
And grizzly ghouls from every tomb
Are closing in to seal your doom

He he he! I'm waiting for some photos of my husband too - now he really was scary!

Lyrics from Michael Jackson's "Thriller"

Dashing to Dorset

My husband is working on a film in Dorset at the moment so this weekend as he just had Sunday off, I went to visit him. We stayed at an amazing B&B in Burton Bradstock - a little village on the coast. I've stayed in a few B&Bs before but I wasn't quite prepared for this one!

The house was built in 1902 during the Arts & Crafts movement - the interior was so sympathetic and tasteful. Stupidly I didn't take any photos of the house but this is their website - Norburton Hall. It was such a lovely treat!

I did manage to take photos of the coastline - which is Jurassic. Wow, you couldn't look at a rock without seeing ammonites and fossils. They were everywhere.

I love the texture and the layers. Knowing that they were millions of years old certainly gets you thinking too!

Lovely to see Ivan, lovely trip away.