BBQ sauce

The girls came for the day on Wednesday, which is always a special treat for me.

It was overcast and not a very nice day so they made a large batch of BBQ sauce... it was definitely Hubble bubble toil and trouble in the kitchen, especially when one bottle of Worcester sauce decided it would like to splash over my top and trousers plus the floor! [quick washing machine to the rescue]

We now have enough bbq sauce for the summer and beyond.

Then the games came out [ we love playing board games ] before going to lunch at the Toby Inn. Much to our disappointment it had no tables, so a quick rethink and a visit to the Hungry Horse was just the ticket.
We had hoped to take the girls out for the afternoon, but it was spitting with rain and cold so we watched a movie.. RV one of our favourites.

Tennis and binding

Washing and shopping upto date after our Yorkshire holiday, so spending the afternoon watching the tennis from France and sewing down the binding on my latest quilt.

Nadal is two sets up and looking in great form. Hanfmann his opponent 

Barnard Castle and local area

We went for a drive through the moors towards Appleby where they hold a large horse fair and the travellers were congregating in huge numbers. We saw a number of pony and traps on the roads.

Banks and banks of bright blue bluebells

My plants from the honesty table near the village hall.

Stone walls and pretty signs

St Barnard Castle

Barnard Castle founded in the 12th century

Need to diet for this gateway!

Eggleston Hall

We spent a morning walking around Eggleston Hall Gardens and Nursery, described as ‘The Jewel amount the Hills’ it certainly lived up to its name. The plants were soo well kept and there were many I would have liked to buy. The garden trail is a series of stones with numbers painted on them, we found it hard to follow the numbers and just wandered about. There is a secret churchyard with the remains of a ruined chapel dating back to 1612. Two enormous trees were growing up through the long lost roof, quite spooky but beautiful somehow. A famous replica of the Angel of the North stands in the corner of the nursery. A hot chocolate for me and coffee for CJ in the delightful cafe made for a great end to the visit.

I see the sea

A little out of order as we did this trip a few days ago, time does funny things when you are on holiday, we travelled to Sunderland across the vast moorlands. After lunch at a Harvester Inn we drove to Seaham for a walk along the sea front. It was a bit chilly so we did not stop for long.

Travelling the lanes

Today we set off to travel the narrow lanes to Tan Hill, where there is a cafe. As we approached the top of the climb there seemed to be a LOT of vehicles parked and we were told the cafe was closed as they were filming Vera, a detective series on TV. The views were incredible in every direction, including a lonely Alpaca sitting in his field.

Having missed out on a hot chocolate we stopped in Sainsbury’s for lunch, which was very nice, plus they were having a sale of clothes and I bought a skirt and two tops for just less than £20!

Also while in the store I saw the same saucepans we had been using in the rented cottage, which I had remarked were so nice to use... needless to say we now have two new saucepans and a frying pan. We always seem to buy something strange when on holiday.

The cottage

Stone built the cottage was we think originally two houses as there are the remains of a second staircase and the floor levels do not match, in fact it has steps up and down to every room and some low doorways [Chris has already found these!]
On the ground floor we have a sitting room with log burning fire, formal dining room [I’m using it for my lap top to do some research] kitchen with all mod-cons and smaller dining area. Upstairs [very steep stone stairs that take some climbing] two bedrooms and a luxury bathroom on two levels.

The cottage is on the green with two houses on our right and the church, two houses and the pub on the left.

Yorkshire Dales

Arrived in Romaldkirk where we have rented a house for a week. Two doors away on the left is a Resturant pub, two doors away on the right is a delightful church.

Chris had arranged for a Range Rover course this morning so I wandered over to the church not expecting it to be open, but to my surprise the door was open and I went in to look around. 

A little delving and I discovered St Romald’s “The Cathedral of the Dales” rector in the early 19th century was Reginald Bligh cousin to William Bligh of Mutiny on the Bounty fame.

Beautiful stained glass for windows and the remains of Hugh Fitzhenry Lord Bedale [1305] made for an interesting visit. 

A rain shower stopped for a brief while and we took an evening walk ‘around the block’ this is a lovely quaint very old village.

Tai Chi

A new adventure for me. I joined the U3A, University of third age, a couple of weeks ago. There are lots of groups teaching or helping with very subject under the sun.
A life time ago I took part in a 30 minute taster class for Tai Chi and have often thought I might enjoy  taking classes but never really found any.
Today was the day, up early to attend my first lesson at 9am. We started with 15 minutes of warm up exercises, then an hour of Tai Chi. I wondered how I would cope with my two replacement knees, but I managed to cope and really enjoyed the lesson.

A quick lunch and then off for a another first for me, along with my nails Gelled I had my toe nails gelled. It was all so soothing I could easily have fallen asleep.

Glass workshop

A friend and I spent the morning on a glass workshop. We both had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for. It turned out to be a case of designing a picture on a piece of clear glass with other pieces of glass from tiny pieces to large pieces we had to cut up.
The teacher was well prepared and gave us lots of choice, in fact almost too much choice, it was hard to decide on a theme. Clare choose a poppy theme while I went for a fish. We also had time to prepare another piece of glass and this time we both choose flowers.
The glass has now gone for the magic to start in the kiln and we will get them back in about three weeks.

Why do we do it?

I have quilts to work on, housework needs attention, packing for a holiday etc etc. But I suddenly had the urge to do a jigsaw!  A few weeks ago I bought two brand new 1000 piece jigsaws at a car boot sale for £5 thinking they would be nice to work on next winter.

My Happy room is often used for craft and quilting meetings, so no way I can use the table for working on jigsaw. Luckily I have two large cutting mats and having measured that the completed puzzle will fit I started putting the pieces together... now I cannot stop. I walk into the room to just switch off my main computer and think I’ll just put in one piece, an hour latter I am still finding pieces.

Three cheers for retirement and the time to spend as we wish.

Crochet project

My experiment with using the colours of my new bedroom curtains to make a crochet blanket seems to be working OK. The background colours of Parchment and Stone are regularly repeated, together with the two green colours. I'm almost half way, so may take it on holiday to complete it.

Crochet blanket to match bedroom curtains.

Messy wall to Family Tree quilt

Where there were once odd pictures, some even sellotaped to the wall, plus crochet circles to cover holes from a once wall hung TV, a clock hanging on a piece of ribbon etc etc there is now one of my favourite wall hangings .  Some years ago I reproduced family photos onto fabric using my home printer and fabric especially prepared for printing. It was all a bit haphazard and I guess I would make it more organised if I ever did it again.

Tidy desk and wall hanging quilt

A few close ups of some of the photos. I would love to hear from anyone related to me.

My maternal Gt Grandfather born in Cow Lane Northampton workhouse

My parents newspaper Wedding announcement

My Dad a keen tropical fish keeper and breeder.

My paternal Gt Grandmother

Part of my family tree

My maternal Grandfather, fondly remembered

My paternal Gt Grandfather

Mum and Dad's wedding. Guard of honour by St John's ambulance holding the wooden rods from stretchers.

My maternal Gt Grandmother