The bacon butty walk

A couple of weeks ago we decided to walk from the barns to Codnor Park reservoir to get some fresh air. It's a walk that goes down the fields, across the steam railway, along the coach road and then onto Cromford canal and then to the reservoir. It is a nice walk, not dramatic, but nice and it harks back to our industrial heritage. The weather started off sunny but we just reached the bacon butty van at the reservoir when the heavens opened. There was no option but to have a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea whilst sheltering from the rain. Well, I have to say it was the best bacon sandwich I've had in ages, and the cup of tea hit the spot as well. The Waters Edge bacon butty van has featured in Derbyshire Life magazine and manages very well without advertising but relies on word of mouth and facebook recommendations. After the rain we turned around and rushed back to the barns before the next deluge.....and almost made it in time.

The reservoir at Codnor park has become a favourite gentle stroll and bird watching venue. At the moment there are many baby water fowl including swans, moorhen, mallard and coot. Checkout my instagram feed for photos. 

Crochet Octopus for babies

I wanted to make a gift for a new baby and happened upon an article about crocheted soft toy octpuses (octupi?) for premature babies. Apparently the babies take comfort from the spiral tentacles as a replacement for the umbilical cord. Fortunately, the baby in question was born safely and on time, although clearly I could have been a lot better prepared! The octopus only took an evening (and a bit) to make so we wrapped it up and delivered it to the new parents straight away. Baby's big brother (aged 2) really liked the new octopus so we went straight round to the wool shop to buy a different colour and after another evening wielding a crochet hook we have a brother octopus to 'Holly' octopus. We will drop him round later today. I really need to get better at facial features on these amigurumi toys because the expressions on the faces makes such a difference to the finished toy, so whilst I was not completely happy with the eyes and mouths on the octopuses, time was of the essence. Also I'm in the middle of 2 cushion covers, one tea light jar cover and a hexagon quilt so I have to become quicker at finishing things.

The octopuses are made with 100% cotton yarn and washable filling so will be perfectly safe for babies and are washable. I used Wendy Supreme luxury cotton DK and a 3.5mm hook. These are such a good gift for a new baby, but clearly a great gift to a premature baby so I'm going to find out if our local neonatal units have a similar scheme.

Crochet Ferris Wheel Coaster and Tea Light Holder

I cracked.......I couldn't help myself. My crochet addiction just got the better of me and I had to rummage in the storage container for my stash of wool. Fortunately, it wasn't buried too deep and I only had to climb up one layer of boxes.......Anyway, I found some remnants of the axminster wool used for my circular doily rug and the heart and flowers bunting, chose a pattern and got started. I found the ferris wheel coaster pattern on the boys and bunting blog which I discovered after reading Simply Crochet magazine. The pattern is perhaps not a beginner pattern but would definitely be suitable for someone who is ready to progress past granny squares. It has bobbles and crochet cables (front post double crochet) so there is plenty of surface texture. The tea light holder pattern I made up with a bit of playing about. I made so many of these for homemade Christmas presents a couple of years ago that I could remember how to do them, and then added some bobbles since I had just been doing these in the coasters. I'm still finishing off a second tea light holder but I need to find a jar exactly the same size as the original as I'm using this as a pattern. Hopefully this won't prove to be more difficult than the actual crochet!    

Crochet coasters and tea light holder

Chocolate and Banana Sourdough Muffins

 I ran out of time to bake bread this weekend and my sourdough starter had been sitting in a warm kitchen and really needed some urgent attention so I made some speedy chocolate and banana muffins. The recipe is from Vanessa Kimbell on the bakery bits website and can be found here.  Even in our pathetically small cupboard of a kitchen, they were relatively easy to make and if the proof of the pudding is in the eating, they were all demolished at family tea so can be declared a success.

Hardwick Hall - more glass than wall

I love where we live, not specifically our temporary rented hovel, but our bit of Derbyshire. It has many attributes but one of them is that it has stately homes all over the place. Today I dashed out to Hardwick Hall - it's only maybe 10 miles from where we live - and it was such a beautiful afternoon and we are members of the National Trust so it's easy to pop over for an hour. I took some really nice photo's of the herb garden in all it's loveliness but have just accidentally deleted them. Oh well, I will just have to pop over again another time and take some more. I did manage to salvage one of my photo's but I've a feeling that I've taken this very view before. One thing I didn't know about Hardwick was that it was featured in Harry Potter as the outside of the Malfoy mansion. When I saw it in the film I thought that it looked very much like Hardwick Hall!

Crochet baby blanket

I haven't any of my own home made offerings to show, but can share the crochet glory of a daughter. She did all the crochet hard work but needed a bit of speedy joining up by me to be able to gift the baby blanket at a baby shower the following evening. There wasn't enough time to do the edging, so it has been given and taken back to complete the finishing touches which may also include some little flowers if the baby is a girl. The photo doesn't really do it justice as the colours have a lovely fresh spring look. I have to say that the best bit about this blog post is that (at last) I have an offspring who has persevered with learning to crochet!

Sutton on Sea.......and relax

We have just had the most relaxing couple of days at the seaside. We managed a little bit of light exercise, a swift pint at the pub, lots of sleep, a trip to the cinema and some sitting around reading and fiddling with new phones. It really could have done with being a longer break but 2 nights away has been marvellous. The exercise part of it included some gentle walks by the sea where there is a lot of digger activity on the beach. Nope, not giant sandcastles, but a lot of beach nourishment. I have always thought that 'beach nourishment' was a strange term for pumping a load of sand from offshore and piling it up on the beach for sea defences, but that's what it is called. It certainly feeds my strange fascination with big diggers which I will share with you in the video below.

It's all about bricks....

At the moment my life seems to revolve around bricks, physio, and work. On the brick front more specifically it is talking about and cleaning them. If that sounds a bit of an obscure reference, see our barn conversion blog. I do manage a bit of speed baking and cooking for meals but there isn't really time or energy to experiment or photograph. Just cook and eat. Which is absolutely fine, but doesn't give me much to chat about. On the textile and woolly front there is absolutely nothing to talk about because I'm not really managing to do any of it except for a bit of half hearted hexagon sewing. I've really lost my sewing mojo. I'm not worried about it though because I know that there is a time and a place for it all, and now is not the time. I have been doing quite a bit of interior design research in preparation for having a new home, someday, maybe even this year......as mentioned previously, see our barn conversion blog!