Post Comment Love 23-25 September

Welcome to this week’s #PoCoLo - a friendly linky which I co-host with Suzanne, where you can link any blog post published in the last week. We know you’ll find some great posts to read, and maybe some new-to-you blogs too, so do pop over and visit some of the posts linked and share some of that love. If you were here last week it was great to have you along, if you’re new here this week we’re pleased you’re here.

The Queen’s funeral on Monday was full of pomp and ceremony as we expected, and we watched most of it before heading out for a walk in the afternoon. It was quiet locally even though there were people about, and it was good to get out and stretch our legs. That’s something I’ve been doing more of recently and it’s really good for the soul, as well as physically and thankfully the troublesome toe doesn’t prevent that happening either.

We’ve definitely been having more autumnal weather here in South London, but yesterday the sun was shining and warm so wanting to make the most of it I headed off to Greenwich Park for a walk. I didn’t have plans much more than though, though when I’m out walking on my own I enjoy popping on a podcast to keep my company. One of the more recent ones I’ve discovered is Stompcast with Dr Alex George who speaks to guests while walking around a park - yesterday I listed to his conversation with Scarlett Moffatt as they walked around Regents Park - and the idea of the recording is to encourage more people to get outside for an hour a week (the podcast is broken into three episodes so you can listen to them to match your walk, or stomp).

As I headed to Greenwich Park they were in the Rose Garden at Regents Park and so, I thought I can do that too. It’s not a part of the park I visit regularly, and on the way I spotted a statue out of the corner of my eye, one I don’t remember seeing before. On closer inspection it’s a Henry Moore and has been on display in the park between 1979 and 2007 and then again since 2011, so there’s every chance it’s been there when we have, but until now I hadn’t spotted it. It always amazes me how we may not see things until we’re ready to do so.

Have a great week!

STANDING FIGURE: KNIFE EDGE, HENRY MOORE

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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.

A weekend away with one eye on the news

Last Thursday we headed down to the South West to visit family. The journey is often full of traffic on a Friday with many people leaving London for the weekend, and no matter what time of day it is we often get caught in queues we’d rather not sit in, so our new-ish tactic is to travel down the day before, stopping somewhere along the way. A long time favourite stop is Lyme Regis, and that was our plan for the Thursday afternoon all being well with the traffic.

This time the traffic cooperated, the weather less so. At times it was almost impossible to see through the short, but heavy downpours and the majority of the cars around us slowed significantly to cope with the conditions. Not all, but most and we arrived shortly after lunchtime despite the Sat Nav’s best efforts to have us stranded after being unable to reroute around a closed road. The diversion didn’t look that helpful either, the arrow pointed back the way we’d come and after that we weren’t sure, so we headed towards Bridport and then along the coast instead.

It was a grey day in Lyme, and our plans were to get lunch and have a bit of a wander. The cafe we chose for lunch offered some alternative pasty fillings - chicken and chorizo for me, and minted lamb for MOH, both tasty and on the spicier side. People arriving in the cafe started to arrive in varying degrees of wet weather gear, and more noticeably wet wet weather gear. So instead of heading for a wander around the Cobb, which while wonderful is more exposed than we wanted to be, we tried something new and followed the River Lim Path to Uplyme.

The path starts in the town where you walk past colourful cottages and then heads inland following the River Lim past old mills and through a wooded valley. It’s about 1.5 miles in total and is really well signposted. The advantage for us, and others on the trail, was that not only was it beautiful but the woodlands provided some shelter from the rain. There is a pub at Uplyme and a bus route which you can take to Lyme Regis, but after a brief pause we headed back on foot. As we reached the town again the rain got heavier, and so our first thoughts were to get to the car and into the dry. We’d seen on the news at lunchtime the announcement that the Royal Family were heading to Balmoral and quickly caught up on the most recent news before heading off to Chard and our B&B for the night.

Chard is less than thirty minutes from Lyme Regis, and I’ve since discovered is the southernmost town in Somerset, and one of the highest towns. It’s other unusual feature is a stream running along either side of Fore Street, and given the downpour that we got caught in while looking for somewhere to eat that evening it also had one down the paths too. We arrived in our chosen Indian restaurant much damper than we’d been all day despite it being a relatively short walk from where we were staying, and where we were when we heard the sadly anticipated announcement of the Queen’s death by Buckingham Palace.

I’d chosen to stay in Chard due to its proximity to Forde Abbey, a house and garden we’d not visited before. The house is home to the Mortlake tapestries, and has hosted Cistercian monks, was implicated in the Monmouth Rebellion and more recently was the backdrop to the Hollywood adaption of Thomas Hardy’s 'Far From the Madding Crowd’ which I’ve not seen.

The gardens started with the walled garden which framed the house beautifully. As you’ll see, unlike in Sandwich (where we didn’t manage to eat a sandwich), this time we were able to find chard growing in Chard, as well as some giant pumpkins!

CHARD IN CHARD

The wildflower ‘swirl’ (above) was a really nice addition to the more formal and traditional aspects of the garden. There was also a Bog garden with gunnera leaves easily 5ft tall, and the Centenary Fountain which celebrates 100 years of the Roper family at the property, reaching 160ft into the air. We caught the first display of the day, and had been warned to check the wind direction so managed (by luck) to be on the right side of the lake. Unlike the two people in the swing seat on the right in the picture below. They got a little wet, shrieked quite a bit and learnt that an umbrella over their legs didn’t provide much respite.

It was a great place to visit, and thankfully we were lucky with the weather (and fountains) so arrived in Devon relatively dry.

On Saturday we headed out again, heading over to Anstey’s Cove and the Bishop’s Walk in Torquay following the walk along the coastal path, where I snapped these views, before retracing our steps and heading down into the Cove for lunch. These are the views you expect of Devon, and it didn’t disappoint. In fact it did so much more, and you wouldn’t have thought that two days could be more different, but we were very grateful.

On Sunday, we were due to go to a car show but that was cancelled out of respect to Queen Elizabeth. So instead we drove over to Tiverton and spent some time exploring Knightshayes with it’s post-war garden, 19th century parkland and Gothic Revival house. The thing that struck both MOH & I was how green and lush the countryside looked, and how different to the parched landscape we’d become accustomed to in our part of South London.

It had plenty of our favourites - topiary for me, and cannas for MOH. As well as another walled kitchen garden. We’d stopped at this National Trust property once before, it was back in September 2014 so I’m not surprised MOH didn’t remember, and we didn’t go in the house that time either. Looking back at those photos some things have understandably changed, and there’s scope for me to do a ‘then and now’ post as well as a look inside the house looking at the ceilings and decor in more detail. But what ceilings, for many years they remained covered with a false ceiling concealing their beauty - imagine discovering those!

We ended our weekend by breaking our return journey with a stop in Marlborough, another favourite spot of ours with its long high street full of shops and with parking right down the centre. We used to say we had a regular cafe in Marlborough as it was one of our often stops on the way to Devon, but that sadly closed a few years ago. There are plenty of others to choose from though so we haven’t stopped visiting.

This time we noticed a new farm shop and cafe had opened just along from where we parked. And so we stopped here for lunch - a giant veggie sausage roll and the biggest slice of coffee and walnut cake. I’ve a feeling that the Eversfield Farm Shop could become our new favourite there, and it’s a fantastic looking period building too.

We left there full, and with some supplies from the farm shop too. Then we headed over the road to pick up some slightly more ordinary every day groceries before another couple of hours in the car home. Travelling there on a Thursday, and then back again on a Monday definitely improved our journey traffic-wise, and meant we had more time to explore a wonderful part of the country.

I’m also planning to make my own version of veggie sausage rolls, I just need to source some puff pastry!