do you mind if i knit

Another few weeks on Skye would have been lovely!

And these were some of the views on the first evening, of my week away on the Isle of Skye.

Hello ........ a week is never enough for a break away is it? Two weeks is always a better amount of time, not that I wish to sound ungrateful.

As I was putting an empty plastic bottle in the recyling after returning home, a saw there was a little bit of water left at the bottom, and I found myself thinking "this is water from Skye, because this is the bottle I filled from the tap in the cottage I was staying in". I feel like I'm still half in Skye.

It was a working holiday. During the day I would work on paintings, and in the evenings I worked on my sculptures.

This all took place in the cottage you see in the photograph above, which had the perfect spot and gorgeous views. In the end wall of the cottage (on its left), was a huge picture window, and from that window I could see down in to the valley and out to sea, it was idyllic. The website for the cottage has some fantastic photos of the views in its picture gallery, which you can see in the link here.

The cottage itself was lovely, clean, welcoming, no fussy decor, modern and just right, and I felt extremely at home there. In the photos on the website, it looks like it's very isolated, but it's not, there are other houses dotted around so you don't feel vulnerable, but there aren't so many houses that it feels crowded. The link to the website for the cottage is here. Looking at the calendar of availability, it's very booked up, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are return visits.

Skye has dramatic landscape, wild even, especially this time of year. I like the wildness and the drama, it's impressive and awe inspiring. I didn't explore the island much because I was working most of the time, I stayed mostly in the North West area, and stretched my legs each day with a walk along the cliffs in the late afternoon, rain or shine.

One of the things I love about the landscape is the effect of the huge rolling skies, and the dramatic changes always taking place. Clouds appear, sweep over the landscape and then sunshine bursts through, it constantly shifts. It's a challenging landscape which makes you feel small, this is the sort of holiday that is the complete opposite of sunbathing on a beach.

I was on Skye before the tourist season had started, so many shops and cafes were closed. Before I left, I made an appointment to visit Shilasdair Yarns, where all the wool is hand dyed with natural products. They have a website here.

Anyone who loves yarn will understand what a delicious treat it was going to the Shilasdair Yarn shop. It was the equivalent of going in to an old fashioned sweet shop for a child.

I bought some skeins of 4-ply to knit my little diamonds, for the blanket I'm making. And I have to admit, although I have no need of more yarn to knit another garment, I bought enough DK wool to make a striped dress, which I haven't photographed yet.

The photo above is one I took just before setting off in the car to return home. My Shilasdair yarn is sitting on the window seat of the picture window in the cottage, the window I sat in front of to knit occasionally during my stay. The drive, rather than being seven hours long, was eight and a half hours long going to Skye, and the same coming back, with only two breaks either way. Exhausting when you're doing it entirely on your own. Still, my stay on Skye was worth it, and if I was offered the opportunity to return any day soon, I'd jump at the offer.

Righty-ho, I need to get back to work. Cheerio.

Vanessa xxx

 

 

2012.

Hello! Is it really 2012? Is it? Happy New Year!

I've been creeping around, feeling hibernational (which isn't a proper word, but I think you know what I mean). I can't get my act together at all. D'you feel the same? I'm sure I'm not alone.

Hugo and I spent a lovely five days in Spain with my parents over the Christmas period. It felt very short. We see Hugo's parents all the time, as we all live in the same town, but I only see my parents once, at most, twice, a year, and the rest of the time we make do with skype.

We had a really lovely time. And each morning we woke up to glorious sunshine. Sunshine is not guranteed where I live. Where I live, a day of sunshine is like winning the lottery.

Whilst we were with my parents, we went on a couple of walks into some dramatic countryside.

I love the countryside around where my parents live, it's so familiar to me, I've known it since my early childhood. Whenever I return, I feel totally at ease, like I'm going home.

All the orange trees were laden with fruit. Ripe, ready to be picked fruit. Beautiful.

Olive picking had been and gone, so the trees were largely bare, apart from a young olive tree we came across, which was covered in the most glorious multi-coloured fruits.

It was so beautiful, I almost felt protective of that little olive tree.

The olives look a little like beautiful beads, don't you think?

I think all these pictures speak for themselves really, don't you?

We returned from Spain for New Year, notably the celebrations of some dear friends heading off to live in New Zealand. The dress code for the meal wasn't bow tie and long dresses, it was "lifestyles of the rich and famous".

So I went as Lady Gaga in her meat dress. You can see how she looked here.

Don't ask me how I thought of doing this, I honestly don't know.

I did my best to copy Lady Gaga's outfit, unfortunately I couldn't find a straight haired platinum wig, I had to go for a curly 3 euro effort.

Doesn't that meat on my feet look realistic?!

To try and keep the outfit as authentic as possible, I didn't wear my glasses, so I spent the evening looking at a blurry world, and as a result, feeling not quite there.

Also, wearing photocopies of meat, stapled onto a bin liner, is not really the sort of costume you should sweat in, or sit down in, because both those things cause it to disintegrate fairly rapidly. Still, the costume seemed to be appreciated by everyone there, especially the hosts, who were the people I wanted to make the effort for.

Hugo went as a public school boy protestor, complete with false teeth.

I would have taken photos, but I felt a bit out of sorts because the costume was fragile and uncomfortably hot and sweaty, I couldn't see very well because of not wearing my glasses, and that seemed to affect my hearing (though the music was very loud), and to cap it all, I suddenly realised that the people at the party (quite a few who we didn't know, and were quite exceptionally drunk at the very start to the evening) might expect me to be a flamboyant, outrageous and entertaining person, (because of my costume), and I'm none of these things. So, I actually felt intimidated by my own costume, would you believe.

Hugo stayed on at the party till 4 in the morning, but I left earlier at 1 am, as I was not only tired, but tired of being a Lady Gaga imposter.

As I traipsed home unescorted, I did feel a bit uncomfortable having to walk through a group of drunken young lads who were a bit vocal towards me. To them I must have been just a piece of meat.

And on that note, I shall wish you all a happy start to a happy new year, and may 2012 be a fantastic year for you, and I look forward to sharing it with you.

Love Vanessa xxx

 

JAM PACKED journey.

Hello! Would you like to go on a little journey with me? I'll try to make it as interesting as possible, if you do fancy sauntering along by my side.

I've been away on a wonderful holiday, back last Wednesday evening but unable to do last Friday's post because of a deadline for work.

It's only when I saw that I had 266 photos to download from my camera a couple of days ago, that I did a quiet gulp and thought, oh dear, I really did take lots of pictures, oh dear. And I really have been through each one and selected and cropped and cleaned them out so they download to your screen more quickly.

Don't holidays seem like a surreal dream when they've gone? Our holiday could have been a puff of smoke vanished into thin air, so it's nice to have photographs to prove the lovely time we had, was a solid reality, not just a nice dream.

Our holiday started with flying to Toulouse in France, where we were met by my parents, who had driven up from their home in Spain. This three day trip in France was a gift from my parents, a holiday within a holiday so-to-speak. Very generous of them to invite us along with them don't you think?

Toulouse is known as the Rose City, isn't that beautiful? The brick that many of the buildings are made of have a rose hue to them.

We only had a few hours in Toulouse before we set off on our journey to the Cathar region, but we did manage to have a walkabout, and being a Sunday, came across a market. It was somewhere between a car boot sale and a clothes market.

I found these treasures above, and at 2 euros a pair, one pair came home with me.

After a couple of hours we sped off towards Carcassonne.

Having a couple of small encounters on the way.

Miniature Wire Haired Dachshunds, also known by as Teckels!

As we own two of this adorable breed, coming across this little family of seven Teckels made my day.

And then later, after lunch, we encountered animals that spend a lot of time in the water.

In France they are called Ragondin, and that translates into the English Coypu.

No they're not giant sewer rats, which was our first thought! They're more like Ratty from The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame. (Ratty lives on a river bank).

We threw the remains of the bread from our lunch to them, and watched as they slowly swam about, clasping the bread in their paws and nibbling at it daintily.

We were fascinated by their whiskery faces and their perfect little hand-like paws. We tried to ignore their tails.

Our first day of the holiday and we'd encountered a Sunday Market, a pack of Mini Wire-haired Dachsies, had a lazy lunch of bread, cheese and tomatoes whilst sitting on the bank of a canal, and also encountered Ratty..............................

And then we were off to see this!

Carcassonne!

Doesn't it look like something out of a movie!

I liked Carcassonne, it's beautiful, and the streets are very clean, you don't have to watch what you tread on in Carcassonne. It almost stood out for its clean streets alone. But of course there's a lot more to it than that.

There is Carcassonne Cathedral, with its magnificent stained glass windows.

And there is Carcassonne's Castle, with its interesting history of being restored.

On the way in to the walled town, the first thing to catch our eye were these horses wearing their ear protectors, lovingly crocheted, pristine white.

I have to say at this point, that it was HOT. We experienced temperatures of up to 35 c on our holiday, and when your home weather is habitually cold, these temperatures can make you feel very .......... lazy! I was more like August temperatures, not September weather. Still, it was lovely to be able to wear summer dresses without having long-sleeved t-shirts underneath, and cardigans on top, and boots, and socks, which is my usual way of dressing.

I thought the castle was fascinating, and there were good explanations about the building and its restoration. It was special to be able to walk the ramparts, which had been reconstructed. It was hot, so I don't know how much historical information my fried brain actually absorbed. Enough to enjoy myself, and find the film at the start of the tour very interesting. I find it's the same with most historic bulidings that are either ruins, or have been partially restored, and don't have the paraphernalia of every day life like furniture and cooking implements of the period in place, it requires imagination to try and picture what it might have been like when first built. I always try to make it come alive by thinking about the people living in a place at the time. Often there isn't much to help with forming these pictures, just empty buildings. This is where the film at the beginning of this particular tour was of great help.

After the castle, there was the wandering about Carcassonne. With a bit of window shopping, which was a little taxing for my Dad and Hugo.

I love to have a wander, an explore, and it's always a rewarding thing to do in France. Things are done beautifully, the light is soft and works so well with the milky colours so beloved by the French.

My Mum and Dad like to explore too, stop here, stop there, buy bread, find a shop that sells cheese, locate a nice spot with a view, (in the shade), for a picnic lunch. Lovely. So we all got along very well, had a very jolly time.

But next! Next was walking up to ruined Cathar castles. If you'd like to know more about these castles there's a good short explanation of their history here.

I thought you might like to see our starting point before walking up to Queribus castle.

I tlooks very forbidding don't you think? And very high up too?

The walk wasn't as bad as we initially thought it was going to be.

Lovely views!

And as you do, on we went to the next castle, Peyrepertuse Castle, much more forbidding looking.

We walked up the side of the castle that was in shadow, thank fully.

And again, the walk was surprisingly not too bad.

My Mum is almost 69 years old, and my Dad is soon to be 70 years old, so I think I'd be forgiven for being proud of how well they look in the photo above, especially after having climbed quite a difficult slippy path to the very top point of the castle.

The view was magnificent from the top!

But I tell you, once we walked back down, and found a cafe where we sat outside in the shade, we all sat in silence drinking our ice cold drinks.

We felt tired.

And the next day we drove the nine hour journey back over into Spain and my parents house.

But before I leave France, here are a few pictures for you, we have to have a few more wandering about photos.

A wonderful, wonderful holiday!

On returning to my parents house, we flaked out. We did very little. Mostly eating good food, drinking good wine, sat on their top terrace relaxing.

Whilst sitting on that top terrace, I worked on the Sarah London Scarf I'm going to be doing the pattern for soon. I've made one version, and I'm now crocheting it again in a wider version, to see which I think works better as a scarf, before I write the pattern down. When I've finished the second version, and decided which width I prefer I'll crochet it again to ascertain yarn amounts and write the pattern down.

Before I go, here are some photos from the Spanish town my Mum and Dad live in.

That's Hugo kayaking in the photos above.

And the crochet scarf in the first picture, at the beginning of this post?

That's the first version of the Sarah London Scarf I'm working on. My projects go everywhere with me!

It was strange returning home, it felt like we'd been away for a long time, and things seemed familiar yet unfamiliar.

I had a very, very nice surprise waiting for me in an email message. Whilst we were on holiday, I won Stephanie's fabulous giveaway! What a wonderful thing to return to, don't you think? Stephanie has sent me the pattern I said I liked, and a parcel is on its way, so I shall tell you all about that in another post. There's nice special yarn involved too.

I am now ready for a beer, and I'm sure you are too! See you on Friday!

Vanessa xxx

 

 

Lake District Loveliness.

Hello! here I am, as promised, and now I don't quite know where to begin. There's so much to show you, so much to see, and of course, like everyone who is excited by a holiday they've just had, I want to show you EVERYTHING!

I will try to curb my enthusiasm, a bit.

Above is the view from the bed, where we stayed on our holiday, (four nights). There's a website here (if you go to it you'll understand why I'm reluctant to write the name of it on my blog, we guessed it's a reference to a song by the B-52s, because the place is off the B52 road).

Quite an amazing place don't you think? To build it was a feat of endurance. On the website, the owners talk about the whole ordeal.

The views were wonderful, and we did like "The Shack" very much, though having experienced living in this sort of architecture, we think we may well be more "Antonia's Pearls" kind of people, we stayed in one of her beautiful cottages in Cornwall last year, her website is here. Antonia had done the cottage exquisitely, and all the appliances, and the shower, worked..............

To be able to rent a property like the Shack did feel like a real privilege.

We seemed to have done a lot in the six days we had away.

One of the things we did was put the car on a ferry and took the five minute journey to the other side of Lake Windermere, which was quicker than driving round on the road. Plus, Hugo loves anything to do with boats and water.

So being in the land of The Lakes, we had to go on the Steam Yacht Gondola.

Ooooohhh the ride was lovely and smooth! We glided along as though we were in the air, not on a Lake, it was beautiful. I stayed inside, admiring the elegant interior and looking at the view, feeling lazy, whilst Hugo, (and I'm just guessing here, because he disappeared for the entire journey), went and ogled the steam engine and waves passing by.

The engine was beautiful as engines go, not that I'm an expert, it just looked very nice and shiny to me, and seemed to power us along exceedingly well. (!)

Our accommodation was about a mile from Beatrix Potter's house Hill Top. We visited when we were last in the Lake District about four or five years ago, and I wanted to see it again.

The experience of walking round her house, gazing at all her things, mostly left as they were when she lived in the house, is strange. I love her little books, but Beatrix Potter was an extraordinary woman. She did a lot for the local community in her time, bought many farms and then gave them to the National trust, which is maybe one of the reasons the Lake District is relatively untouched by developement, and such a beautiful place to visit. She is famous for her books, but the good things she did are not very well known.

We had a day trip to Salts Mill.

I last visited this place about twenty five years ago, and it's changed quite a bit, with lots of shops inside it. The cafe was excellent, we both saved our napkins with the drawings of Little Booge by David Hockney printed on them.

A short stroll through the streets surrounding Salts Mill, brought us to the wonderful sight of this cool as a cucumber cat, with his steely-eyed gaze. (Could have been a girl I suppose).

There was a visit to Holehird Gardens, which had some beautiful greenhouses sheltering a magnificent collection of Alpines.

There's something about Alpines, their flowers are so tiny and delicate, they demand that you bend down and examine them closely, and they are so perfect looking, I'm always in awe of them.

The Bobbin Museum, (link to a short film about it here), which sounds about as boring as it can get, was actually absolutely fascinating. We loved it.

Now I don't know about you, but I'm fascinated by Otters.

They are mesmerising to watch, they play all the time, unless they are asleep or eating, and they make lovely squeaky sounds. And they are very, very cute looking.

So when we saw the sign for otters along with the sign for the Lakes Aquarium, there were no ifs and buts about it, we had to go and see them for ourselves.

And we weren't disappointed, the whole thing was fantastic. We were a little unsure about the otters being held in a great big building, but once we saw the areas they have to roam, we just sat back and enjoyed the spectacle of those happy little otters.

Ducks diving for food was another sight, it's not often you get to see ducks swimming under water is it?

And there were Marmosets too!

That's Hugo's hand gently placed against the glass, which produced the result of one of the Marmosets having a good look, then realising Hugo's hand was a bit odd looking. He slowly disappeared behind the log, leaving just his front paws resting on the top of the log, Hugo could see his little beady eyes staring back at him from behind the log. The little chap then slowly raised himself on to the log, and did a slow motion sideways step along the log and off it.

Apparently Hugo wanted to communicate with the Marmoset.

There was a little journey on the steam train.

Where I did my impersonation of Miss Marple, and admired the view.

I admired the upholstered seats too. I love these old trains, they're stylish without even trying.

And last but not least, Crookabeck Angora Farm. Mary breeds Angora goats, very friendly goats, I might add.

I got to hold a nine-hour old Herdwick sheep lamb! He was so new to the world, he hadn't yet developed his baa properly (or he was just terrified of me and couldn't let out a single squeak).

That was a special moment. Sadly there are no photos, I was too busy holding the lamb!

We went to visit the farm with the intention of sniffing out yarn, specifically wool from  the Herdwick sheep.

Herdwick sheep are the breed of sheep Beatrix Potter revived after they had fallen out of favour with local farmers. Apparently each farm now has to have a percentage of Herdwicks amongst their flock.

I visited Crookabeck farm with great hopes of finding some Herdwick sheep yarn to buy with some Birthday money I had been given, and I wasn't disappointed. I bought seven balls to knit a cardigan. But the photos of that yarn will have to wait for another time.

I'm pooped, I'm all holidayed out and I'm off to relax. Cheerio! Love Vanessa xxx

 

Barbara Hepworth, sculptor extraordinaire.

Hello, I thought I'd have a bit of escapism today, (escape into someone else's world) seeing as the wind is whipping round the house making whoo-hoo-hoooooing sounds, and the windows are dark, and it would be nice to step out of the histrionic weather into a peaceful place. I think I just heard a scratching at the back door..................... Never mind, I've lit the wood burning stove, turned on all the lamps, made a cup of tea, and it's as cosy as a rabbit's burrow in here (I imagine bunny burrows to be very, very cosy). Lovely.

Thank you for all your lovely comments on the photos from my last post, so glad you enjoyed them. I mentioned in that post that we'd been to the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St.Ives when we were in Cornwall, and we loved it.

I hope the poor people in Cornwall who are suffering from the terrible floods are o.k. St.Austell is one of the places affected, and we were staying in the village next to it, Charlestown, whilst on holiday last week, they haven't been affected there. I'm thinking of those people in distress, their lives suddenly ruined by flooding.

And on a happier note, I feel I should mention the happy news of Prince William's engagement to Kate Middleton (or Catherine as she is to be known from now on), because I just want to mark it on my blog. I think it's fantastic, they're so sensible and cheery, and come across so well don't you think? Hugo is already bored to tears by the media coverage of it, but I'm afraid I'm quite fascinated by the whole thing! They just seem to be a safe bet somehow, you can believe their marrige will last, which is a cheering thought.

Anyway! Barbara Hepworth, that's what I was meaning to talk about! I wasn't very familiar with her work before we went to the museum. I'm sooooo glad we did go, it was fascinating. On arriving at the museum we walked through her indoor studio, housing a few 'placed' sculptures. Such beautiful work, and powerful, it's very difficult to really explain their aura unless you're standing next to them.

Then we went out into the garden, which was the exciting bit. Huge sculptures positioned between the trees and shrubs, and it wasn't a big garden.

For me the most intriguing bit was her studio in the garden, which was left just as though she had popped out for lunch.

I don't know about you, but I find artist's studios fascinating. Seeing where they create can give you clues about why their work is as it is.
To see the work coats of Barbara Hepworth, and maybe her assistants, left hanging on their nails, spattered with materials they worked with, is very real.

I spent a while gazing at it all, ready for the ghost of Barbara Hepworth herself to walk in and resume chiselling at one of her pieces.

And this must be where the great artist took her tea breaks on a fine day, whilst she chatted to a visitor or cast an eye over her sculptures she'd placed in the garden.

The visit has really stayed with me.

We were fortunate that there weren't many other visitors, I imagine in peak season it gets very crowded and difficult to see things properly. I think it's the sort of place that benefits from only a few wandering about.

I left with a strong impression of a powerful personality behind the work. The sculptures are very powerful themselves, and beautifully made, which I always appreciate in art. If we return to St. Ives, I'd like to go back to the museum again.

Just before I go off to my Wednesday night knitting group, I must show you this crochet blanket I saw in a shop window in Falmouth, Cornwall.

It's gorgeous don't you think?

I took a close up, to try and understand the stitch pattern used, which I think works beautifully.

I haven't worked it out yet, but I think I have an idea of how it goes. When I work it out, I'll let you see the pattern.

And I'm very aware that I've been very neglectful in not doing the pattern for the Sarah London Scarf for you, below. I'm ever so sorry about this. I know some folks want to crochet it as gifts for their loved one's for Christmas, so I must make doing the pattern my next priority.

Well, I must be off, off to knitting. Cheerio! Love Vanessa xxx

We've been in Cornwall, and it was FANTASTIC!

Hello! LOVELY, LOVELY, LOVELY to see you! Really and truly! We got back from Cornwall at the weekend, the lovely Cornwall, the beautiful out-of-season non-crowded Cornwall, where we spent a week resting (a bit, actually we seemed to cram in a lot), and recuperating. I still haven't caught up with my bloggy friends, all your lovely messages, the post, etc etc, you know how it is when you return from a holiday, everything hits you at a hundred miles a minute, mainly real life. Phew.

We really needed that week away, a week of escapism, and it didn't disappoint. We had lovely days out, exploring, eating good food, marvelling, but the icing on the cake was the GORGEOUS cottage we rented. See the true-to-life photos here. It made such a difference to return to the cottage each night, knowing that we were going to be cosy in front of the wood burning stove, living in beautiful surroundings. Antonia and David have other places to rent out, which I would love to stay in too. Their website is exquisite, just like their properties, which you can see here. Their website will make you drool and dream.

This is the only photo I took inside the cottage, because each morning we were dashing out, and photos were forgotten about, but the link above gives you an excellent idea of what the cottage was like. I had to show you this lamp shade, which I was fascinated by. A sea anemone lamp shade, which sort of sums up Antonia's imaginative and considered approach to the decorating. We could feel the thought that went in to everything, from the toaster, to the mirror in the bathroom, the original works of art on the walls, to the welcome pack sitting on a beautiful wooden board on our arrival. Very special. And whilst I love my own home, I wouldn't mind being back there right now!

It's quite difficult to know where to start picture wise, in this blog post................... well, let me see, what was I taking photos of mostly?

The boats and their colourful buoys were a joy to behold. Infact, I could do with returning to Cornwall and it's coastal towns and villages just to draw and paint the boats and buoys.

How absolutely joyful a colour to have your boat painted, bright turquoise!

And you know something? Things were positioned so very nicely! The triangle shape created by these three boats is a gift, pictorially speaking.

 

Yes, those boats and their buoys were a joy, I wish I'd taken more photos now. Well, as I say, I need to return to Cornwall.

I thought the buoys above looked like an art installation.

We didn't just prowl round harbours, me snapping away with my camera at boats and the buoys tied to them.

We did a bit of visiting of various must-sees. We had high expectations for the Eden Project, but were astonished to find ourselves disappointed by the in-your-face preachiness of the information everywhere and the ice rink, which we were baffled as to how it fits into the eco-friendly theme. I won't go on about the other things.

We loved the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, what a splendid place that turned out to be. There was a special exhibition about lighthouses and the lives of the keepers. I find the human side of history especially interesting. It was fascinating to learn about the lighthouse keeper's lives before everything became automated, and the keepers became redundant. There was a cabinet displaying some of the crafts, such as knitting, drawing and making ships in bottles. I love all that sort of stuff.

We had tea and cake in the cafe overlooking the harbour, where there were some multi-million pound luxury yachts berthed. Those boats are astonishing and fascinating, even if you try to imagine the wealth behind them, I suspect that probably isn't even half the reality of the riches, influence and power of these boat owners. One was called "Steel", and we mused that it might be owned by a steel magnate.

One of the things we participated in, was the 'sail a remote controlled boat'. That was FUN, and it didn't matter if you lost control and bashed into another boat. Ahem.

The man over-seeing the proceedings had to turf me off my remote control, in the nicest way possible, but firmly.

I'd love to be able to say we had sunshine all week, but we didn't, that's something we're resigned to expecting when we holiday in the United Kingdom. We were given some half days of sun. Usually rain in the morning, sun in the few hours left of the day after lunch, but largely there were full sunny days to be enjoyed. Weather reports are important when it comes to holidays, aren't they?!

I like to think of this sort of weather as 'atmospheric'.

Atmospheric when you're warm and dry in your car.

The sunny days were glorious. Isn't the British countryside spectacular in the sunshine?

We had a rollicking old time driving around the country lanes with their high hedges either side of the road.

What else did we do?

We went to St.Ives and had a lovely time wondering around the lanes, going into galleries and shops (yarn shops!). 

We visited the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St.Ives, which was quite simply wonderful. It was so fantastic, I plan to give it a post all of it's own some time.

Then there was the Tate in St.Ives, another place worth visiting. The cafe was at the top of the building, and of course a coffee and cake stop was made. I loved the menu cover, with the silhouette of a cup and saucer formed from a detail of an Alfred Wallis painting. Love his work.

We treated ourselves to lunch (the very much cheaper alternative to the evening meal), at Rick Stein's seafood restaurant, which was nice, but totally out-shone by lunch at Jamie Oliver's Fifeteen restaurant.

Fifeteen is perched on a cliff, with spectacular views, and we were given a window seat!

I took some photos of the view for you.

Well dear readers I'm going to scoot off before this becomes a list of holiday activities. I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into our holiday. It's lovely to be back with you, so cheerio till Wednesday. Cheerio! Love Vanessa xxx

 

Turkish egg cartons are beautiful.

Hello and big thank you for your welcome home, it's so nice to have your welcome homes!

Hugo won't be home in time to cook supper this evening, before I go off to my Wednesday night knitting group, so I'm on my own culinaryily speaking. Hugo will ask me what I ate for my supper when I see him later on, and he'll expect the answer to be "cereal". Well I'm going to surprise him by saying I actually cooked something for myself tonight. I'll tell you at the end of this post what I made all by myself.

Hope you can wait till the end to find out what I cooked for myself.

Anyway! The content of this post today is going to be egg cartons and only egg cartons. Turkish egg cartons, the like of which I have never seen before.

I took these photos in the market I told you about in my last post. The gentlemen egg sellers looked on in amusement as I photographed their stacks of eggs, but seemed to understand more when I showed them the photos on my camera screen.

I've never got as excited about egg cartons before.

Egg carton excitement for me, has only ever reached the dizzying heights of delicate blue duck eggs nestled in a washed-out green egg box.

These egg cartons got me so excited with their colours, I got that tense stomach thing going on. If Hugo had tried to drag me away, (which he knew better than to try), I would probably have been a little snappy with him.

Who would have thought these haphazardly stacked cartons could have been a feast of colour for the eyes?

Who would have thought they would turn in to 'art'?

Even the elastic bands holding the boxes together produced a beautiful contrast.

And I ask you this, do you think they would looked half as effective without the bright white and toffee brown coloured eggs, punctuating the mellow yellows and hot pinks, the mild turquoise and dusky greys and pinks?

The eggs do add a nice contrasting dimension.

Love the colours above.

  Hugo just came home early, ready to cook something for me. I said I'd just eaten. "You can't just eat cereal" was his reply. "I cooked for myself" I said jauntily. "Oh really?!!!! What did you make?" "Porridge!" I said, followed by a loud triumphant cackle. "Atrocious" was Hugo's reaction.

Well, I hope you were suitably dazzled by the egg carton colour display, and are now thinking about egg cartons in a completely new light!

I'm off to knitting now. I'm working on the sleeves of the dress I'm knitting, very exciting. See you Friday dear readers. Love Vanessa xxx

Turkish Delight!

HELLO   HELLO  HELLLLLLLOOOOOOOOO, LOVELY  LOVELY   LOV--ER---LEE TO SEE YOU! Ever so lovely to be back amongst you all, I feel quite excited now I've got the bit between my teeth, now I've crawled out from holiday world, back into bloggy land. Many, many apologies for not returning to you sooner, there is quite a good excuse, which I'll mention later, but in the mean time, HELLO dear readers, lovely lovely lovely to see you, and fantastic for me to be back in the land of the living.

Just before I left you to go on holiday, I think I was a bit mono-syllabic. Very short sentences was all I could manage, I was so cream crackered, and full of a nasty cold, which I took on holiday with me. I'd been working very hard, and apparently I was a bit prone to being on the verge of tears all the time, according to one pal.

But we shall leave that behind, and just fast forward to our WONDERFUL holiday in Turkey, the two blissful weeks we had (despite nights spent coughing over the first week. Me coughing, Hugo having to listen to coughing, poor thing).

Our two weeks in Turkey was enabled by Neilson, who runs activity holidays. We were based in a resort called Teos. And it was really very nice. So nice, I wouldn't mind being back there, sitting on that sun lounger, knitting, which is the activity I did most of on our activity holiday.

I did do some windsurfing, which we have proof of in the above photo. And some waterskiing, and kayaking. All the activities were included, which felt very good indeed, especially when it came to the waterskiing, which is usually an unaffordable activity.

Would you like to see a very exclusive photo of me waterskiing?!!!! Yes? NO?!!!

Well how about this, I'll show you Hugo sailing, in the following splendid photograph first: You can just see Hugo at the back of the boat, he's "helming", looking like a very cool cucumber in his cap and sunglasses.

I may not look cool in the next photo, but I am waterskiing, in a manner.

Here you go..........

The smile was very fixed, yes.

I'm making it look as though our holiday was full of activity, aren't I? Well, Hugo's was, he barely stood still, what with all the dinghy sailing, kayaking and more dinghy sailing. I was left on my sun lounger with my knitting, feeling very peaceful, and getting more and more addicted to the sun lounging, whilst watching all the activity playing out before me on the water.

This photos with the bright tablecloth was taken on one of the days we tore ourselves away from the resort and ventured into the villages and towns in the area.

My knitting accompanied me on all these outings, much to the enjoyment of the local women and men. It was almost a way of bonding with them, because there were huge, warm and encouraging smiles when they saw my knitting.

The market above was very much a local working market, not there to attract tourists. That's the sort of market I love.

Everything plastic your heart could desire above.

Despite the look on the face of the man above, the stall holders actively encouraged photos to be taken, and I obliged them, even though I was much more interested in taking photos of the lentils and tomatoes.

Would you like to see some more photos of lentils, and some lovely tomato photos?!

 

 

 

We rounded off our exploration of the market by finding a place to rest our feet at this cafe, under a tree, filled with local people.

Our Turkish language skills consist mostly of that universal language, sign and mime language, and after pointing at dishes and drinks people were consuming on other tables, we tucked in to this:

Mmmm,    mmmm,     mmmm,   it was delicious. A sort of filo pastry wrap, containing feta cheese and cooked spinach. It was very moreish.

I think I'm going to have to finish for today, it's getting late, and I haven't washed up the supper stuff yet.

All the other adventures will have to wait.............. probably for a rainy day, when I want to look back on our sun filled holiday and do a bit of dreaming. Plus, I do know that lengthy reams about my holiday could get pretty tiresome.
I'm sure you'd like to know what goodies I bought though, wouldn't you? Well, another day for that too.

It is good to be back with you. The week after getting back from holiday was all about trying to adjust to real life again, plus I was plunged straight back into lots of work. My illustration work is in an exhibition starting this coming weekend, and there's been quite a bit of preparation to do. It's all go, go, go. Right, must be going. Lovely to see you again. See you Wednesday. Love Vanessa xxx

Snappy snaps.

Hello dear readers, just popping in to say hello, and share a bit of this and that with you. You were all so kind with your comments on my last post, wishing me well, which acted a bit like some nice medecine, cheered me up no end, thank you so much. I still feel a bit under the weather, but am on the mend I think.
Now on to the subject of my holiday in Spain, or maybe I should say, back to the subject! Gosh, it feels like a long time ago, when actually it was just over a week ago I returned. It all seems like a surreal dream now, and not so fresh in my mind. I also have lots of crafty stuff to show you, which I'm itching to get on to. So rather than making the holiday snaps thing a chore for myself, (and as a result of it being a chore for me, probably a bit tiresom for you), I'm just going to show you a selection of photos, and in no particular order, just images I like, as they come.

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
The majority of these photos were taken in the region of Rioja, in Northern Spain. It was a six hour drive to get there. Rioja is a region dedicated to making wine, and we visited a couple of Bodegas, and got to try a couple of their red wines. Visiting Bodegas isn't something that would normally be on my list of things to do, but my parents thought it would be interesting, and they were right, it was actually great fun, and very interesting. We had the most wonderful time, it was very kind of my Mum and Dad to take us on that little trip, and we all had a ball, enjoyed ourselves enormously.

I now know how to sniff my wine, take a sip and roll it around my mouth, swallow, then swill the wine around my glass, sniff again, and take a second sip, swallowing straight away. The lady told us you should never judge a wine on your first sip. I don't know about you, but I think the smell of red wine is heavenly, sometimes nicer than the wine itself!

Well, time is lurking at my shoulder again, telling me to hurry up and finish, because I'm well enough to go to my knitting group tonight, and as I haven't been for three weeks, (and have missed not going), I don't want to miss tonight's meeting. Cheerio! Love Vanessa xxx

We had a wonderful time!

Hello! Fantastic to see you again!
I know I said I'd be back on the 23rd, but it's always the way isn't it? You come back from being on holiday, and BAM, you're thrown in at the deep end of busyness, so I'm sorry for being a little later than planned in my return. Thank you so much for all your lovely messages wishing me a good time on my holiday, some I read before I went away, some on my return. What a nice way to begin and end the holiday!
It' good to be back in the swing of things, and I'm loving being able to get back to blogging. Hugo and I had the most idyllic week in Greece, and I was a bit tearful at leaving that idyll, as we climbed on the coach that was taking us to the airport.

The first thing I did in those limbo land moments of arriving home, was drink a cup of tea, and then do some dead-heading of plants in the garden. That did a lot to anchor me back in the real world. I then felt ready to get straight back into real life with gusto, renewed vigour and happiness. It's very tempting to wallow in the dream of holiday memories, and feel blue about it, but I find I'm much happier thinking about all the wonderful things I've returned home to, so much more positive, and a lot easier to make that transition from holiday mode, to home and work mode.
So, I'm feeling great! We had a wonderful week in Greece, and now I'm home, I'm looking forward to showing you a few snaps from our time away.

Gosh! Where on earth to start?!
Well, the above photo shows the view from the terrace where we ate our breakfasts, some lunches, and most of our suppers. Not a bad view hey?!
The holiday we went on was a package with Neilson, and it was basically a sailing holiday, with a tiny bit of sight seeing. We'd not done this sort of holiday before, so hadn't a clue as to what to expect, that's why we only booked one week. Testing the waters, so-to-speak. We'll definately be going on one of Neilson's holidays again, it was superb. Lovely and friendly staff, great teaching, unlimited access to equipment, gorgeous pool, good food. Our experience with Neilson was so good, I'd definately recommend them without hesitation. One of the nice things was, although it was an activity holiday, we were assured that relaxing by the pool was a valid and guilt-free activity! I participated in the activity of relaxing by the pool quite a bit. Accompanied by my crochet, and some nice chats with fellow holiday makers, who were intrigued that I should be crocheting by the pool. I have to say, not only were all the staff a lovely bunch of people, but the other people on the holiday were really very nice too, and we all got along extremely well, without encroaching too much on each others space.

As I say, relaxing was considered an important activity, and I took it seriously, whiling away a few hours in the shade, by the pool, a pile of yarn on the table beside me, happily crocheting away. (My pile of wool was a great conversation starter).
I stuck to blues and greens for my crochet squares, it felt very natural, and satisfying, to be working in those colours, as I sat next to the gorgeous, sparkling, electric blues of the swimming pool.

I didn't spend the entire time glued to a chair, I did do some windsurfing. It had been about twenty years since I last hopped on a windsurfing board, but I  re-discovered the fun. During the course of the week, I learnt to use a harness, do a beach start, and also went on the tandem board, called the Gemini. I'd never encountered a windsurfer where two people could stand, with two sails on the board. It was very fast, and fantastic fun. I was on the front sail, and my instructor, Paul, was on the back sail. And honestly, those things can go fast, fast, fast. I don't have a photo of me on it, but if you click here, you'll get the gist of what it's like in action.

The resort we stayed in was situated in Porto Heli, a three and a half hour bus journey South of Athens. The small town of Porto Heli isn't much to write home about, but there were islands we could access easily by boat, and they were very pretty.

My favourite of the two islands we managed to visit was Hydra.

Hydra was a small, bustling town, the streets paved with what looked like slabs of marble. It was very picturesque, and quaint. After a short walk to the viewpoint in the photo above, we had a delicious lunch of Greek salad and Calamari, sitting in an open air restaurant on the waterfront.
I practically lived on Greek salad for the whole week. Greek salads come with a slab of Feta cheese perched on the top of tomatoes, cucumber,raw onions and green peppers with a sprinkling of olives. The tomatoes were juicy red, like no tomatoes taste here at home. I could not get enough of those fresh, succulent salads, and in the heat, they were the perfect food.
I love it when eating healthily is so tasty!

After lunch, we wandered through the little back streets of the town. We didn't see many cars, I don't think they could drive easily through the narrow streets. There were carts parked all over the place, and we saw things being transported around the town in them, pushed by young men.

There's a recurring theme in all our journeys, whether at home in England, or abroad in a foreign country. Cafes and tea rooms. We always search out a charming place to sit and have a drink, and a nibble. The small back streets of Hydra had plenty of charming bars, but we skipped the modern style cafes, and sniffed out the two places we thought looked like the local's haunts, that is, the places with the toothless men eating and chatting. The bar in the photo above was our first stop.

How could we resist sitting on a balcony, with blue painted pots, stuffed with bright red geraniums, lining the top of the wall surrounding the terrace?

Hugo said the man sitting on the table next to us, tucking into a slab of Feta cheese and Calamari, was missing most of his teeth. Lack of teeth in the punters has to be a good sign, don't you think?!

Matching blue painted doors has to be another charmingly good sign.
Those blue doors! I've never thought of myself as being a fan of blue, but this turquoise colour had me fixated, especially when contrasting with the intense hot red of the geraniums. I started to obsessed with the hot red and turquoise combination.

On most of the buildings around the town, there was this grey and white colour combination. The window frames on the houses were all painted in this lovely soft grey, which softened the bright white of the buildings, and took the edge off the bright sunlight.

Aren't those curtains pretty? The effect of these pretty white curtains, on the room they're shading, must be to diffuse the light, and create delicate patterns on the floor, I imagine it's lovely.......................

Then after a bit more wandering, we found this wonderful place for another drink. Got to keep hydrated haven't you?!

We were the only customers.

No toothless men here. Was that a good, or a bad sign? In between glugging my beer, I was free to wander around taking photos. That red and turquoise combination, I love it!

Here's a great example of how some old battered tin cans suddenly become the most charming thing in the world, by virtue of a lick of paint.

And here's an example of one of the many sleeping cats on Hydra. A little cat doorstop.
And those floor boards! Painted in the special soft grey we saw on the window frames, they're so elegant.
There were a lot of cats on hydra, and they all looked very slim.

And a little bit moth eaten.

One evening we took a water taxi ride to the island of Spetses. Very pretty it was too. We had a meal there, our only meal out of the week. Some of the restaurants had delicate displays of fish in their windows. It was this, and the fact that this restaurant's seating was on an area reaching out into the water, that swayed us to pick this restaurant, with it's blue check table cloths. More Greek salad and Calamari!
There was one thing we found strangely difficult to get accustomed to, the constant blue skies. Hugo would open the curtains of our room each morning, and exclaim, "another blue cloudless sunny day!" We're just not used to that at home, so we could never quite believe our luck at having yet another sun filled day.

Here you go, some more red and blue for you!

This wasn't the restaurant we ate in, but it gives you an idea of how the seating area of the restaurants stick out into the sea.

Unusually for me, I didn't really do any shopping! Well, I did window shop, but I didn't buy anything, very unusual, I have to say.............. But then we didn't encounter a yarn shop! Things might have been different if we had!

I might have bought a pair of these slippers, if they had had the colour and pattern I liked, in my size. I found myself concluding that maybe I could crochet my own slippers, inspired by the sorbet colours.

We didn't see gardens full of flowers, but when we came across a flowering plant, the colours of the blooms were always stunningly bright. The intense sun does bleach out colour, so I suppose the flowers have to compensate for this by being bright. The flowers were like little fire crackers, just glorious!

Because we were staying in the same hotel for the entire week, our interaction with other people was fairly limited to Brits, rather than Greeks. A lot of our time was spent sailing, or relaxing by the pool, so on this holiday, we got to know very little about the Greek personality. The little we saw, they seemed like a very relaxed people, in very stark contrast to the British. Normally we like to go on a holiday where we try and integrate a little more, but it wasn't that sort of holiday, and the language barrier is enormous! We noticed that all the foreigners who weren't British, were speaking English to people, in restaurants and shops. So it seems that English is the Greek's second language, which made life that little bit easier in terms of communicating.
We appreciated this display of humor!

As a final salute to our week in Greece, I'm just going to drop some last photos into the mix of this post, to wind it up.............................

Aaaahhhh................. Sweet memories................... Happy memories! We left thinking we would love to do a similar holiday next year, for two weeks, rather than one. We can but dream and hope!

It is nice to be back, even though this week seems to have been manically busy. When I've had a free moment, I've been adding to this post, bit by bit. One thing that I'm desperate to do is catch up on all your blogs! I've missed visiting them!

So, today is Friday, just can't believe it! I'll get back to my five day a week posting habit on Monday. I've actually got loads of things to show you, I'm quite excited! Have a wonderful weekend my dear readers, and I look forward to seeing you again on Monday evening. Take care. Love Vanessa xxx