This October...

Usually I post my monthly catchup posts on the last day of the month, or the first day of the new month in more tardier months. But I’ve surpassed myself this time as we finished the end of the month enjoying some sunnier days in Porto, which we booked relatively last minute, and I’m catching up with myself and typing this (offline) on our flight back, aiming to publish it when we’re back home.

It’s been a good ten years since we last visited Porto and it’s just as good as we remember. The temperatures were at highest 25 degrees, and so a lot warmer than home. It was good to see the city prospering, and notice what had changed. This time we stayed in the Ribeiro area and so that meant exploring some new to us spots, as well as plenty of steps and ‘hill climbing’ to get back to our apartment.

But before I share more about our trip let’s go back to the start of October, and a long weekend away visiting family in Devon. Once again we were lucky with the weather and enjoyed visits to Hestercombe Gardens, Killerton NT, and our first time back at the fully restored, and finished, Castle Drogo (also National Trust).

ENJOYING THE SUN AT HESTERCOMBE GARDENS

IN THE LIBRARY AT KILLERTON NT

I love the library at Killerton because you can stop and enjoy the books - and touch them too. The last time I was there I spent some time perusing a paisley book, and I found that one again, but this time it was this gardeners almanac which piqued my interest most. Perhaps I’ll dig out some more photos of the books there for another post.

YES PLEASE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THE IRIS RHIZOMES AT CASTLE DROGO

Castle Drogo was magnificent and it was so good to see the refurbishment work complete and the collections back on display. I had a good find in the gardens too as I discovered a trug of unwanted iris rhizomes for sale, and at a bargain price of 5 for £3, so it was very much a case of yes please, thank you very much.

We broke the long drive back with an indulgent night at Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds in a fancy hotel. It was great, and so was the food, although the poor waitress caught MOH’s glass at one point and his red wine went flying, though rather remarkably he stayed red wine free, and I’ve actually no idea how.

Chipping Campden is a great little town with some fancy pants shops, and as we discovered plenty of crockery shops. I left with a second hand flan or quiche dish with the Evesham Vale pattern by Royal Worcester from a charity shop and a vintage Portuguese baking dish. I also persuaded MOH to go for a crystal decanter, so our port this Christmas will be more stunning than usual.

ISN’T THIS GLORIOUS?

Then with the good weather continuing we stopped off for an enjoyable saunter around Hidcote National Trust, a garden which has become a regular stop off point on our Devonian journeying.

AT HIDCOTE NATIONAL TRUST

Back home, we’ve done lots of the usual and mundane stuff ticking off ‘no further work required visits’ at the dentist, though that reminds me I need to book in for the hygienist, which is never as bad as I think it will be.  There’s been sewing groups, patchwork groups for me and darts and cycling for MOH, plus we’ve both been enjoying our Reformer Pilates.

We had a night out in Nottingham seeing Huey Morgan, which wasn’t as loud as we expected, but still a very good night - he’s a great artist and very charismatic with it. It’s the second time we’ve seen him in a small venue, and I’d absolutely sign up to do it again.

We’ve started to seriously think about the design of our garden here, and have had a garden designer around to visit to listen to our (my) ideas and see how they can help us make them work, and how they can make them even better. It’s early days but it’s exciting, and after the summer we’ve just had I desperately need to get the plants we brought with us, and those we’ve acquired since out of pots and into the ground.

Though our olive trees are happy, just look at those olives. I’ve a feeling MOH may be trying to make oil from them at some point soon, or sooner than we ever expected.

My crocheted efforts for the tree dressing next weekend are ongoing - I’ve a few days left to finish my super cute pigs, so they’re ready to join the other garlands I’ve already made, and rather annoyingly forgot to photograph before I left them with the organiser. All is not lost though as I’ll see them on the tree and will remember to take photos then - you have been warned.

CROCHETED PIGS WITH SNOUTS, CURLY TAILS AND GOOGLY EYES

I’ve been enjoying my crochet again so started to wind some of those skeins I’d dyed a while back and more. Of course I quite quickly got into a great big tangle and spent more time than I’d anticipated untangling the mess before finally starting a granny stitch cardigan for myself.

We put our garden furniture away ahead of the first named storm and managed that in a more orderly way so there’s more room in the garage than last winter, so that’s worked well. But it also made me realise that I need to crack on and sew those zipper storage bags I’ve spent the summer talking about. I’ve found a pattern for a much smaller pouch which I’m planning to road test and then road test resizing before I upscale it hugely to get the size I need - watch this space!

I’ve got the next village quilt top ready to assemble and quilt, and I’ve finally assembled, basted and tacked my block of the month quilt too. It was the deal I made myself when trying spectacularly badly to resist adding a new quilt project to my list! That and making progress with my geese, which I’ve also done.

That’s also bad news though as I’ve seen another mystery quiltalong is starting towards the end of November and I’m severely tempted by that one too. I know I’m a hopeless case!

But let’s finish the month in Porto where we did all the things, drank - and tasted - quite a few ports in various port houses (Kopke. Quinta do Noval, Fonseca and Grahams if you’re wondering), ate pinchos, bacalhau cod fish cakes/fritters, plenty of ham and cheese and obviously multiple Pastel de Nata. 

I photographed more doors and tiles than I care to count and picked up a few tins of sardines (both the chocolate and fishy sort) in duty free on the way home.  We even successfully navigated the EES entry/exit scheme, though more easily on the way home, but the queues were loooong.

Portugal, I know we’ll be back - it’s just a matter of when. But first I need to spend time as usual catching up with myself, and reacclimatising to this more seasonal weather we’ve returned home to.

This September...

September once again brought some surprises, and some answers for me too. While I’ve had my hearing aids since much earlier in the year it was good to close out the referral and discover why my hearing loss was lopsided. Thankfully it’s nothing major and I can relax again on that front.

Unrelated to that, but equally pleasing is some planned and worked hard for weight loss, dropping five kilograms since the middle of June, with a more concerted effort over the past month or so has been good. The downside though is the dress I made in August now fits me less well and I need to make some tweaks to it! But I can live with that.

As usual we’ve been out and about taking the bus to West Bridgford for brunch, this time amazingly I didn’t purchase anything at the nearby Gardener’s Market though I did fall in love with these. I feel there could be a purchase in the future, once I’ve worked out where it would best fit, and what size.

PLANTERS BY BOTANICAL INTERIOR DESIGN

There’s been clothes shopping, planned for MOH and an unintended consequence for me - ah well, never mind, though we managed to tie that up with a visit to one of our favourite and newly reopened pubs in Newark and discovered their quirky outside space, and then went for a Thai meal too - a perfect night out!

Our outside patio lights and garage lights have been replaced, and while that’s not great for summer evenings in the gardens it is much better for illuminating our way to the door. They’d all become temperamental, or had stopped working so it’s good to get these sorted. While we were at the house improvements we had a towel rail fitted in the downstairs loo, as when it’s really cold that’s our coldest room, which believe me is far from ideal.

We’ve been to London for a friend’s retirement do, eating in the fabulous Ivy Asia at St Paul’s - and boy what a view, plus the loos were pretty fancy too!

OUR VIEW AT IVY ASIA ST PAUL’S

We stayed overnight in a Travelodge I’ve got my eye on for a trip to the Barbican in November (it passed - I’ll book it again!) and so made the most of our trip to the big smoke. We dropped in unannounced to one of MOH’s darts team’s games, and it was nice to see some more old faces. Then the following morning we headed over to Marble Arch to the Moco Museum for a spot of modern art - it’s fab, a little pricey for entry, but we loved it. We finished our trip with an unexpectedly sunny lunch at Harry’s close to Kings Cross and arrived home much tired-er (and fuller) than when we’d left!

EXPERIENCING THE MOCO MUSUEM AT MARBLE ARCH

There’s also been plenty of making this month, and as I wished for last month I have spent more time at my sewing machine - as I once again fairly last minute decided to make myself something to wear for our trip. I finished my Moth Flint cropped trousers the night before we left, and I’m feeling fairly pleased with myself as I needed to tackle some buttonholes to finish them.

MY TWO TEST BUTTONHOLES

But that’s not all, I finished my charity quilts villages 2 & 3 and have completed the top for my next one - a pink village for number 4 - and if you missed it I posted another quilty update. I’ve also picked up another quilt project - oops! - but it is a beauty…

I went to a workshop and made some wire flowers, but I’ve yet to post more than a picture of those which I’m repeating here. And I went along to the first - and really rather good - Newark Wool Show, of course there were purchases, so look out for those, and details of my new quilt project next week.

This month seems to have finished almost as soon as it had started, and with October just around the corner I’ll have to start to think about packing up the garden for winter - though we have done some prep work for that in the garage, by making a bit more space and sealing the floor. Making the space involved moving our old, large and heavy, but sadly broken, pizza oven out of the garage but not without it giving me hopefully the last bruise it can. It was just a scrape, but one that’s turned my knee many shades of black and blue - and it surely must heal soon! Surely…

This August...

This August has been great, one where the weather has been good enough to not need to worry about if you need a jacket, coat, umbrella etc - well mostly anyway. The end of the month saw a couple of yellow thunderstorm warnings, and boy did they arrive in style, and they brought plenty of rain with them too, which of course we needed.

The thunderstorms were pretty close by, or it sounded like that at the time - we later discovered that we weren’t wrong and were hit by two supercells joining together. I’m not really sure what that means, but I know it was bright as the lightening struck, and it’s the first storm I remember thinking was quite scary. The next morning we discovered that the accompanying rains had brought mud off the fields and one of the roads leading to the main crossroads in the village was a bit muddy!

Earlier in the month when the number of heatwaves were racking up we also had our first experience of sheep escapees, aiding the village cattle (not sheep) farmer to get them out of our neighbour’s garden and back into a field. Not the field they escaped from, but much safer than them patrolling the village and much preferable to the gardens in the village. They are peculiar creatures, and fast when they want to be as we saw first hand!

We’ve been out and about a fair bit too with a lovely afternoon in one of my patchwork group’s garden, with partners and no actual sewing in sight though of course the conversation did include a stitch or two.

We had a tasty meal on the rather elegant Bluebell Railway in Sussex, and I decided to make myself a dress to wear - giving myself a week to do it. I made it, and I wore it but I think giving myself more time would be preferable!

There was also the annual ‘home air show’ towards the end of the month, and the weather had turned so while the Red Arrows were able to give a fantastic display, more of the ‘noisier’ aircrafts were unable to fly, which is a shame - but there’s always next year.

We finally made it back to one of our favourite farm pop-ups at Gelston buying some of their tasty lamb to support our commitment to healthier eating. Though on the way home we stopped off at a relatively nearby cafe to see the Alpacas, and share a scone - so the healthier eating is still a work in progress, though we did share a scone rather than have one each so that’s something.

I was just as much taken by the pompoms strung across the cafe’s outside container seating area, as I was with the perfect view of the ‘mums and babies’ alpaca paddock and it’s residents. I could have spent so much more time watching them, so I’m sure we’ll be back - and the scone was good too!

Our gallivanting hasn’t stopped there though, after sharing my thoughts on the first Rutland Flower Show we were back there in the middle of the month, but it was so hot we didn’t last perhaps as long as we would normally. We’d already decided that we wouldn’t be buying any plants as keeping them alive would be tricky, and I’d lost one of the plants we’d bought earlier in the summer - though I’m hopeful that there’s a small chance it may come back.

I felt for the traders too as they had a job to keep their displays and produce looking fresh - they were all in good spirits though, and the weather did cool a little for the subsequent days of the show. We didn’t leave empty handed though and left with the sensible options of some bulbs to plant in the autumn, so more on those another time.

We finally got along to visit Doddington Hall, which is just outside Lincoln, while their sculpture trail was still on - it finishes this weekend. Again it was a warm day, but one that threatened rain so armed with our waterproofs we saw many, many sculptures, walked around the parched gardens and looked inside the house before having lunch in the courtyard. The volunteers there told us that the house is also good to visit when it’s decorated for Christmas, and from the photos we saw they’re right so I think we’ll be back here later in the year all being well.

Our timing was impeccable with the rain arriving on the short drive home, we arrived back with a very wet car to find that it hadn’t rained at home at all. Most peculiar!

And still we weren’t done. The last weekend of August saw us climb the 198 steps in the church tower in Newark, as part of their Newark Festival offerings, to get some great views over the market place and surrounding areas, learning about the history as we did. It was a great thing to do, and even though I’m not great with heights, I’m glad I did it.

And then on the Sunday we headed back to the tropical garden in nearby Bottesford - I’ve not had a chance to even look at my photos from there yet, but it will be interesting to compare and contrast them to our visit there last year when I get some time.

There hasn’t been a lot of time left for making this month, and apart from the dress in a week project mentioned above my main outputs have been though ‘playing with patchwork and scraps’ which has been the perfect mindful activity required.

I still did find time for some craft related shopping though - you knew I would - but I’ll share more on those tomorrow - let’s hope September is just as much fun, perhaps a little drier and so bring some more time with my sewing machine!