Finish & Start:: Five on Friday

Hello there, a few recent finishes and a walk today. I thought I'd try a Five on Friday post today and see if anyone is interested in joining me. I still remember when Tricky used to host these on Fridays. It was always fun to see who'd joined in and go visiting new blogs. 
The first two photographs were taken at Knit & Natter in the week. I'm knitting a shawl now and reading 'Five Little Pigs' by Agatha Christie for the Read Christie 2025 Challenge  I may not read every month's book choice, just if I can get the book from the library in time. 

1) Finish:: Crochet baby blanket, intended for a charity make but... it's still at my house at the moment!
The bold colours are Rico baby cotton dk Grey blue, Mustard, Red, Plum and Blueberry. The cream is Stylecraft Bambino dk Clotted Cream. 
3.5mm crochet hook
The Ripple pattern is in this book I missed off a few inches in length. The border edging I made up my own, as I didn't fancy the scalloped fussy edge in the pattern. 
My edge has 2 plain cream edges, top and bottom a blue yarn to fill in and straighten the edge. Then 2 rounds in different colours and another round of slip stitch. 

2) Start:: Put the kettle on and make a cuppa. This is the photo that went on the church Facebook page to advertise the coffee morning
(My cat mug, Mark's Land Rover, Johnny's Guitar mug)
This week I started going to 'Movement To Music', it was a lot of fun. There were routines to 'wake up your brain' first, stretch out your muscles, help balance and general just 'move to music'. We finished with a cuppa, chatting with the next group to arrive for Line Dancing.  

3) Finish:: Holy Island by L J Ross - for the December bookclub read. A murder mystery with pagan ritual killings. My copy was on Kindle, generally I go with the cheapest, World of Books or Kindle. 
The reviews on Goodreads were quite poor but as it was for the bookclub, I felt that I should read it. I was hoping that the sisters could've resolved their issues, but overall I thought it was a good story. It's the first in the series of DCI Ryan Mysteries. 

4) Finish:: Another book for the bookclub, this time it was my choice. I borrowed this one from the library. Shay, the main character, cares for her parents and looks out for her adult children, typical of my generation. There are several stories interwoven, unravelling dramatically and resolved at the end. I enjoy reading Milly Johnson's books, there have been several of her books chosen for the bookclub. 

5) Finish:: A walk with Angus, at a local beach. The water is a long way out but thankfully it's not all grassed over with muddy dunes. Angus loved running up and down on the sand. He paddles quite happily without going in the main sea. It was a cold day with plenty of frost about.
Sadly the last two photos, the sun shone through the camera lens. The pathway leads you from the carpark to the sand. The sea is visible to the eye but lost in the glare. 
 

Thank you for visiting today. 

What are you making at the moment? 
What are you reading? 
Until next time, have a good weekend x

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Christmas Break part 2

Hello there, thank you for visiting me in blogland last week. It's been lovely to visit your blogs and read comments left here too. Today I'm sharing a few photos of our walk over the Christmas break. On New Years Eve, after lunch, we drove to Lincoln with Angus. It was cold but dry, perfect for a nice crisp walk. Bundled up with warm hats and gloves, we met Johnny and his girlfriend at Hartsholme Country Park. We kept Angus on a lead as he would've been in the river on one side of the path, or the boggy stagnant water the other side. Both would've been muddy... why do beautiful fluffy Goldies like to get muddy and look a right mess? 

We'd been there two years ago, meeting Nat and his Fiancée for a walk. It was Summer back then, so it looked completely different. Apart from the glorious warm sunshine, there had been wide open grassland to walk on, alongside the water. Everything looks different in warm sunny weather. I remember we were waiting for their car to be MOT and some parts replaced.
After that walk we'd taken a brief trip to Hobbycraft, I'm not sure that I've been to a hobbycraft shop before. In typical yarn lover fashion, I headed straight to the yarn section and purchased 3 balls of Women's Institute DK yarn. I found it a quite thick, course yarn. I crocheted with some of the yellow yarn to make a scarf but later donated all 3 balls to my Mum. Since then I've been better at not buying random balls of yarn. I'm trying to stay focussed on using up yarn that I have in my stash and only buying what I need to make something specific.  

Back to the New Years Eve walk, we kept to the paths, along the lake and woods. At one point we took a turn that took us back onto the main road. Without a map we decided to go back the way that we came... we were not lost! Ha ha. 

We had a nice afternoon talking about birds, ducks and swans. Johnny's girlfriend has done some studies on the feeding habits of the swans. It's shocking that people still feed ducks with bread, despite being asked not to. You may remember that I talked about feeding ducks on this post. The duck food recipe that I took back then, was from the Canel & River Trust website. 
It's simple to make: Oats, birdseed, sweetcorn (or peas) and lettuce (shredded). Mix it all up together and feed the ducks crowding around you. I usually carry some birdseed in the car, though I need to buy  more as it's all gone. 
I once fed some ducks in a car park walking through to the shops. People were queuing to pay at the ticket machine. Suddenly the bridge area over the river was swarming with ducks eating birdseed. A man and his dog waited patiently to cross the bridge, oops!
The ducks were very happy as I disappeared, it didn't feel right that day to stand and watch. 

I'll leave you with some swans in cold water, Brr!!
Cold water swimming, or Wild Swimming is all the rage at the moment. It's good for circulation, mood and skin health etc. But it's not for me. 
How about you, do you like cold weather days? 

Take care and have a lovely weekend x
 

Christmas catch up

Hello there, dusting off my blog with a little update of recent activities. Happy New Year to you all. 

I don't really do New Year Resolutions, however if I were to, I'd aim to be more present with less scrolling. I'd list plans to read, bake and craft more with some home organisation thrown in too. 

Crochet Baby Blanket:: using up colours (purchased with birthday money). I've enjoyed using Rico baby cotton yarn. I purchased some cream acrylic yarn, to separate the bold colours. Just crocheting the border now. 

Photos from Instagram::  celebrating my anniversary last year, library books to read - some for the Summer Reading Challenge - I do this every year (six books over six weeks). Knitting all the greens. Birthday card poster from my parents. Covid back in January, first time. Baking for the WI Horticultural show. 

Finishing Books:: the last book in the Fairacre series by Miss Read. I'm taking a break this year from the Miss Read books. 2025 I'll will be reading the Monthly Book Club choice and one Agatha Christie book - either from the 'Read Christie 2025' challenge on social media, or one of my own AC books. Plus either library books or my own books.  

Family games:: Buzzer round challenges on the PS 2 
The system is old now for modern digital TV's, so it freezes a bit. 

2024 Advent Knit-a-long:: with the Victoria Methodist church - found on Facebook. A Star Table Mat.

2023 Advent Knit-a-long:: Noel table mat. The plan is the same as above, a short reflection and instructions for 4 rows of pattern. 

Reindeer Plant Holder:: A Christmas gift from younger son.

Reindeer thought lost:: found in the loft. Both on the kitchen windowsill.

Christmas Jigsaw:: Mark is busy with this one.

Rainbow Cardigan:: Knitted for the WI charity donation for Rainbow Babies.

Crochet Dog Paws:: crocheted for the WI Christmas Tree, part of the tree festival in the village church. 
The paw prints are stiffened with PVA glue.

Angus:: with his noisy squeaky Giraffe, don't be fooled by the cute face... it's a noisy toy! 

Church Nativity Scene:: knitted by one of the members. This is on display each year, it's a lovely tradition. 

Church Advent Calendar:: children take turns each week to light one of the 4 candles. The centre candle is lit on Christmas Day.

Church Christmas Tree:: beautifully decorated at the coffee morning.

Town Christmas Tree:: in the Market Square.

Mini Christmas Tree:: in the Bathroom

Off to do a little crochet now, this time is important to me. Daily knitting or crochet, time to unwind and relax. Until next time, bye for now. Thank you for reading, I'll be visiting your blogs this week. 

The Dambusters - Five on Friday

Hello there, hope you are well. Cold germs have lingered too long in my bungalow. First me and now my husband. If it's not coughs, it's catarrh... just fed up with it now. I've not been knitting very much lately, I need to get back to it. I crocheted some flowers and leaves, whilst on holiday - to make a brooch for the next WI competition. I need to start putting it together with some buttons for the flower centres. I've bought some felt for the backing and a brooch pin. I'll put it together and show it next time. 

Back in April we all went over to Hope Valley, Derwent Water in Derbyshire. We took Angus and Johnny, Nat took Ellis and her parents.  The weather was dry after lots of rain, lots of chat and a very good walk. We had a coffee back at the café before leaving. We stopped for some fish & chips on the way home. 

  

1) Gathered for the walk - plus me holding the camera. 
We walked around the lower part of the reservoir, starting at the Dam. It's the place where the Dambusters practised for their mission during WWll 

2) The Dam - such an impressive Dam.

3) Angus - on the lead due to the sheep around and some main roads along the walk.

4) Village under the Derwent Water - the tale of the lost village is sad (photo: random people sat down). To build the reservoir, meant flooding the river valley, sacrificing the village. The people were rehomed nearby. In very dry years, the houses can be seen beneath the water of Ladybower Reservoir. 

5) Reservoir and Sunflowers seeds for the ducks - I took sandwiches and a few snacks for us and some sunflower seeds for the ducks. 

It was about 120 miles round trip to Derbyshire, the walk that we took was 7 miles. I'm not sure that we'd visit again, unless we were staying nearby. It's a lovely calm place, beautiful countryside with a vast amount of water. 

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