Please ring the bell

There’s been a couple of things that have led me to post about Hunte’s Garden this week. Some friends are currently in Barbados and visiting this garden was one of my ‘must do’ recommendations, then later in the week after my Access Bars session I was reminded that Hunte’s was probably the most spiritual garden I’ve ever visited. At the time I think I wrote it took my breath away as I descended into the midst of the garden, but in truth it had me at the entrance.

And it’s those photos I’m sharing today while I process the full experience of the treatment session I had in town yesterday. I’ll share more about that in a separate post soon, so look out for that to find out more about it.

Hunte’s Garden is the first garden we’ve visited where we’ve needed to announce our arrival, though at Bosvigo in Cornwall there was an entirely self-service entry process. And so, we picked up the bell to say we were here.

Our taxi driver had been plenty of times before of course, and was more than happy to sit and wait and enjoy the garden too, while we explored this way and that, up and down and round and round, and even while we enjoyed a small rum. And it was easy to see why even though we hadn’t even scratched the surface of what we were to find.

The garden was full of curios, vistas and the most amazing plants. I remember feeling quite overwhelmed as we stepped down into the main part of the garden, a feeling I’ve not previously experienced so strongly. If you said to me I could visit again tomorrow, I’d jump at the chance - though I might negotiate a little on exactly when that visit could take place, as we already have plans for tomorrow!

The weighbridge above has certainly travelled a distance, and I’m sure has a rich history and somehow doesn’t feel out of place here - though I’ll have to admit I had no idea what it was when we first saw it.

The experiences this week have reminded me of how I felt when we visited back in December 2019 - it’s definitely true, you remember how things make you feel, and even looking at the photos those feelings resurfaced. I’ve more photos to share, but in the meantime if you want to see more of the gardens here’s some posts I’ve already shared:

• A rum with a view of the garden

• Tropical loos in Hunte’s Gardens

• Dining with faded elegance.

Oh, and before I finish you’ll be pleased to know our friends have been to Hunte’s too - I’ve seen their photos on Facebook. I’m waiting to see if they’ll be going to Fish Friday at Oistins, which was my other ‘must do’. Hopefully they’ll enjoy both recommendations just as much as MOH and I did.

My cross stitch marathon

Next weekend it’s the London Marathon and it still seems strange for it to be held in October, rather than April. It changed during the pandemic, and next year will return to its more usual spot in the calendar. I’m not running, and most likely never will - I can see it’s an uplifting experience, but it’s also 26.2 miles which is a long, long way.

My various craft projects are also like marathons, some much longer than others. It could be they take a while as there’s so many on the go at once, who knows. But doing all of one thing doesn’t really appeal, and so with projects that work ‘on the go’ and those that can’t I’ve realised over this summer that I have a new category - hot weather projects. I haven’t picked up a crochet hook for a couple of months, the idea of having wool in my hands or a blanket growing on my lap didn’t really appeal. Over the summer I’ve done more colouring, which has been a joy, and once again picked up my cross stitch.

I last picked this up in 2014, which is a while ago - and its twenty year anniversary, but I put it down again relatively quickly too as to be honest I was struggling to see it properly! Now though my eyes (and most likely my contact lenses) are working much better so this summer I’ve made much more progress than before. Though you’ll see there’s still about half left to do.

I love the bright colours and the detail that goes into each rose, each often using four or five colours, and I’m pleased with the progress I’ve made. It’s never easy picking something up again, but that is also part of the challenge I think, though this time I realised that while I did have the original pattern and two many-folded photocopies, somehow I was missing one of the colours, which is why not all of the ‘flowers’ on the wallpaper are complete. I’m lucky to have mentioned that to my mum who had the colour in her supplies and knew just where it would be too - amazing!

I’d have been completely lost without the thread key though, the symbols on the chart at times perplexed me and I came quite close to drawing them onto the packs - though not all are in cellophane packs, so that would have thwarted my plans! As well as making some progress it’s gained a pouch for the embroidery threads which is much more pleasing than a plastic bag.

I’ve also realised that these photos show that it has been abandoned for the past week or so and is looking a little more crinkled than I’d like. My plan is to try and get back into this for some afternoon sewing spots, but if I don’t then I must remember to remove the embroidery hoop before setting it down for its next pause.

The progress might not look the greatest, but it also included unpicking a section from my last attempt. I ummed and ahhed about if I should, or if I could work around my earlier mistake but I realised that it would interfere with the alignment, so out it came.

MOH regularly asks what it will be, a question which quite honestly is entirely futile. After 28 years I’m just about half done, but I’m hoping that at some point it will be finished. Which right now seems a lofty ambition! Making it into a cushion cover (the original plan and pattern suggestion), seems a very long way off and not part of my plans just yet. I’m just pleased to have made the progress I’ve made this year and to add it to my list of projects underway.

Deliberation lies ahead

If you’ve been here for a while then you’ll know that I’m a fan of scrappy patchwork quilts, and may even know that I had a grand plan to make my own using fabrics from my stash. As it turned out, progress has been slow - it’s been on the go since 2017, but as the saying goes you can’t rush a good thing! Or that’s my excuse anyway.

Over the Christmas break of 20/21 I picked it up again, the delay had been cutting the cream fabric which surrounds the coloured blocks, and once that was done I’ve been plodding through making up the blocks. The pattern says twenty blocks, but I’ve decided to make more i) for practice, ii) because I’d already sewn more when I realised and mostly because iii) so I can make sure the quilt fits a double sized bed.

This week I finally met the target of my forty blocks. Some are better than others, but overall even though I say it myself, they’re pretty good.

So having reached the target, I’ve stepped out of my chain sewing comfort zone and I’ve trimmed all the blocks so the final cream piece can be added on all four sides.

The next few stages are ones which create some offcuts. Hating waste I contemplated what I could do with them, but as I have no need for even more new projects they have gone into the bin.

Now I’m ready to square off the blocks. I’ve practised this next step on my wonkiest blocks, with the ones where the seams were not quite aligned. And I’ve surprised myself - this was my first sewing project for a long time, and since I started putting the blocks together I temporarily broke off to sew masks for both MOH and I during the early stages of Covid.

I’ve got fifteen blocks that are trimmed, so that leaves 25 to go - and then the deliberation and procrastination can start as I’ll need to decide on the layout for the quilt top, and exactly how many blocks I’ll use and the subsequent adjustments needed for the rest of the pattern.

With any luck, and a good wind behind me, I could actually have a quilt top in the not too distant future!