Walking East Stoke's lanes: January 2026

It’s been a few months since I shared pictures from walks around our village, and that’s because somehow they haven’t happened and I’m not really sure why not. But anyway, the photos in this post are from two separate outings, both of which were to the pub in the next village!

We were fortunate with the weather, and although it was cold - we were wrapped up warm, it didn’t rain. In fact it’s been such a while that we walked back from the pub in the dark, and it’s darker much earlier in winter isn’t it?, that we forgot our super-beam torch. Thankfully it was more dusk than dark and the lights on our phones were sufficient. But to avoid this unpreparedness in future we’ve added a square rechargeable torch to our keyring!

There are some beautiful vistas here, and looking back at these photos I’m wondering why we don’t get out into the lanes more often than we have been, something to work on for this year I think.

Pausing at the bridge over the A46 to take a peek at the ongoing roadworks - they are ahead of schedule, which is good news, and the road is due to open earlier than planned. Let’s hope that also reduces the amount of traffic, and speeding traffic, though our village.

We turned off and headed along the bridle path which runs alongside the A46 on the southbound side. It was full of bullards, rosehips and catkins. The last time we walked this path it was decidedly autumn, and much different to our winter jaunt.

A couple of days later, with our heating broken and in need of some respite we headed back to the pub for Sunday lunch and a much needed warm-up. Our challenge though was to gauge how many layers we’d need for the walk, and then in the pub and of course for the walk home. In the end I ditched my thermal top for normal clothes, and was perfectly fine - but the thermal went straight back on when we got back.

Winter, especially chilly days, does bring some gloriously clear skies and the photo below is a favourite of mine. It’s one of the trees I find myself particularly drawn to, and therefore seem to photograph a fair bit, and a fair bit more than some of the others - though it’s easy to see why isn’t it?

And I do like a Nottinghamshire sunset, they can be pretty spectacular and you just know that I have several on my phone, don’t you?!

Thanks for joining me for this update, if you enjoyed this post you may also like to see all of the posts in this series.

This January...

It’s just about still January, which this year hasn’t felt anywhere near as long as it has previously. I’m not sure why that is though, but I sure am grateful. Maybe it’s because we’ve been keeping ourselves busy, who knows.

The dishwasher which had a blip last month is now fixed which is great news. I can’t tell you how much I don’t miss washing up! Thankfully it was an easy fix, but also a worrying one. The cause of the burning smell was the plug which the engineer can only surmise had worked its way loose and was arking. When we saw the state of the plug we were glad we’d stopped using the dishwasher, but now with a new plug on the dishwasher and a new socket we’re fully operational, well dishwasher wise anyway.

The heating, which while it’s now working, still isn’t fixed. The engineers spent two days here at the start of the month with the result being the part they needed wasn’t in stock. There’s been issues getting the part, and hopefully it’s now arrived as they’re due back to completely resolve whatever is wrong early next week.

Of course, like it does, the heating going wrong happened at the coldest time of the year and we didn’t have any heating when there was a dusting of snow on the ground. We do have two fan heaters and they helped a lot in short bursts at a time, but heating our double height in places kitchen diner wasn’t really an option.

Wearing layers, adding more and more covers to the bed in a reverse kind of Princess and the Pea arrangement and planning meals to cook slowly in the oven were all tactics we used, and worked in their way - and hopefully, as I say, it will be fixed for good shortly - I’ll leave it at that for now I think, but there may be more here at some point.

It’s not all gloom and doom though as I’ve spotted that our snowdrops are starting to appear, and they’re such cheery plants that I can’t help but smile when I see them.

We’ve been out and about including taking part in our village’s Community Speedwatch team in the hope that something will be done about the traffic speeding through the village. There was a concert in Nottingham to see Biffy Clyro, who I’ll admit hasn’t been on my radar before and probably is unlikely to become a regular listen for me.

We ended the month with an evening in Newark trying two new-to-us pubs as part of the annual Beermuda Beer Festival. We tried beers we wouldn’t usually drink, including a sour beer that was thick with fruit and looked more like a fruit shake than a beer, which MOH described as ‘the strangest beer he’s ever tried’. I spotted a Space Invaders table top in the first pub, and I haven’t seen one of those for a long, long time; it brought back memories as we used to have these at home at times, which admittedly not everyone does.

I decided to make some small changes here on the blog, which I’m sure you haven’t even noticed. Previously the categories I used, and are displayed at the top right of my blog were Living, Loving and Exploring, but I felt they were no longer right for me. As you’ve probably just glanced up there, they’re now Living, Loving and Making, which feels a much better fit for my content.

My Christmas wreath is still up, and still going strong and I’m not taking it down until it’s looking worse for wear. MOH mentions occasionally that Christmas has gone, but as I point out not on our back door, not just yet anyway!

I have indulged myself with some end of year nerdiness, sharing posts recapping and reflecting on 2025:

• That was 2025

• Quilts of 2025

• Other Makes of 2025

• My top 10 posts of 2025.

We’ve even ordered those new sofa’s that we saw in Bruton back at the start of December. They won’t arrive until around April so our next decision is what colour paint to use in the lounge - the current favourite is Dibber by Farrow & Ball which will look great with the sofas, but looks less great with the builder’s white, so we’ll probably aim for something a bit softer, but possibly lighter than the suggested Slipper Satin which has been dubbed ‘dull mushroom’ here - you can see why we’re not so keen, can’t you?!

January always brings the Newark Quilt Show and I’ve been back there looking at the glorious quilts and perusing the supplier’s wares, and even picking up my Christmas present from one of them. I’ve plenty more gorgeous quilts from there to share, so do look out for those, and for the scrappy rosettes I made at one of the workshops there.

I’ve gone full steam ahead on a new way for my scraps too. This year I’m aiming to make my scraps into houses, and they really are the cutest to put together.

After an instructional blip I now have a stack of houses and a stack of roofs, which I need to marry up. In fact part of the fun of using my scraps in this way is choosing which to use together. It really is the small things.

I’m still thinking about and finalising my quilt plans for this year, along with the other makes that I want to make sure get onto the list though I expect to share my plans in the next few weeks. I couldn’t wait to share my new picnic rug though, I’m just so pleased with how it turned out, especially as it started from humble beginnings with a random scrap pack and a bit of an idea.

I still have one final charity quilt and one final mystery block of the month to go, and I need to get going with both of those as I’ve not started either yet. I’d been so good at keeping up with my stretch project and my own blocks but I haven’t yet been able to get myself back on track. I do wonder if it’s partly as once the mystery blocks are done, then the real work of assembling the quilt top begins and I think that will be a big task, let alone actually finishing the quilt completely. I’m also toying with the idea of going ‘off piste’ with the assembly, and I guess deep down I’m thinking that if that final block isn’t done then I don’t need to consider the next steps. Don’t our minds play tricks on us at times?

But anyway, I will get there and I will finish the final charity quilt in my stretch project and my own block. I already know that I won’t be signing myself up for quite so many charity quilts next year, though I will still make some - it’s just that there’s so much more I want to make, even if not all of them take the easy route. More on that soon I’m sure.

If you want to read my ramblings from previous monthly updates then please check out my ‘This is’ series.

Essex Linen kisses, a colour wash picnic rug

When I shared my quilt plans for 2025 I said a quilt that wasn’t supposed to be there had crept onto my list, and it was these scraps in a random scrap box from Helen Steele that made their case very well!

When I ordered the scrap box I wasn’t sure what would arrive, or how much - I knew the weight of the pack but in real terms I was unsure of how much fabric that actually was. When it arrived I fell in love with the bright colours and quickly made a plan for using them, working out that if I cut them into 3 inch squares I’d make the most of what I had.

It wasn’t until June though that an idea started to form, and along with the gold specked charcoal Essex Linen that I’d ummed and ahhed about I started to lay out the crosses, or kisses as I prefer to call them.

Liking what I saw I started to sew my blocks, which are inspired by Quilty Love’s Plus Squared quilt, and I needed to do this while the design was fresh, or else who knows what I’d have sewn to what!

It wasn’t long before I had a series of blocks made from nine smaller squares, and that’s when I got a real idea of the size of the quilt - and it was smaller than I’d imagined.

But I knew with some sashing and borders I could extend that, a bit - but I didn’t want to lose too much colour, so I decided to break up the sashing between the blocks with a pop of colour, and it’s amazing how much difference this made even though I was still only visualising this part in my head.

By September, and with a narrow colour wash border which echoes the colours of the kisses closest to the edge now also added, the quilt top was completed.

And that’s how it stayed for a good few months. Having got it this far, and already falling in love with it the truth is, I didn’t want to mess it up. I knew that I wanted to straight line quilt this, but I wanted to practice my straight lines - in fact it wasn’t until January this year when I practiced using the adjustable guide on my Dresden Buttercup charity quilt, that I felt it was time to finish my picnic rug.

In the interim I’d deliberated about the colour of the backing, I’d bought some plain ochre cotton but that didn’t work even though I loved the colour. Feeling that it needed a brighter colour on the back I ordered some orange and apple green cotton, again I loved them both but chose to use the green, and for nothing more that it perfectly matched the greens on the top of the quilt, and also because I was hoping that any grass stains would show less! Well, you’ve got to be practical haven’t you?

Now when’s the picnic?

Using the guide, and having practiced using it, meant my quilting lines were straighter than they’ve ever been. I used a variegated Aurifil thread called Spring Prairie which matched perfectly, although at some points so much so that I couldn’t quite see where I’d sewn, but now that it’s done it was definitely the right way to go.

The metallic gold binding is from Frumble Fabrics and as soon as I saw it I knew it would be the perfect match and the perfect way to finish this quilt which will be our picnic rug.

I can’t wait for the weather to improve and give this its picnic debut!