Spinners

I thought it was about time I posted some video of Steve spinning!

Fixing the drive band

Practicing treadling

Spinning

He also gave Em a spinning lesson when she was last home from China.

Now she's gone back and we all miss her like crazy! But we know our children have to spread their wings and at getting on for 30, she needs to see the world! Most people would go to France or somewhere else for their first trip abroad, not Em! After meeting her first Chinese boyfriend while at college, China was her first choice of foreign soil!

This week, the south west of England has jumped a season, going from winter straight to summer!

We took a trip further west this weekend.....................for a very special lady

During this last weekend, my Mother-in-law turned 81! She deserved a something special, so we paid her a special visit!



I took these for fun, on the way down. Not far from Jamaica Inn. Yes the one named in the classic!

She celebrated our visit with an icecream. I think she's saying 'cheers'!



Can't remember what they were all looking at!

It was great to have DD#1 and our Son-in-law with us too! We had a great time looking at the tall ship in the harbour. 

I was great to be back by the seaside!

It was a great day! Great food, great company, a great reaction to a great surprise!

Because we had a few hours in the car and for the majority of the day, we sat and chatted, I was able to get a substanual amount of knitting done. I am making the Stripey Noro Messenger Bag by Deborah Cooke. I am knitting with some Noro I won in a raffle a couple of years ago. But I am not doing the stripes, I wanted it to be completely Noro! I only started it yesterday afternoon. I just have the flap to finish and then the sides and strap to do. Then I shall felt and line it. I know it's mostly stockig stitch, but it meant that I could chat and knit.

Just a quick note...

There was a heavy dew last night and by the time we were out for a walk, the mist was rising. I love these bright, not too cold mornings! Today we donned our walking boots and wandered across the fields. Here are some of the images from this morning's walk. Hope you enjoy them! The venue was the same as yeasterday. The route, just a little different.

Spring is here indeed!

Happy Wednesday

Just lately, due to lack of time to walk together during the week, Steve and I have taken to getting up earlier and walking before work. This morning was just lovely (but not long enough!).


This was part of a walk I did with a friend yesterday. We walked through the fields to get to the same point, but today time was precious. For those fibery people amongst you, I thought you would apreciate the following group of pictures, taken just feet from one another. We also saw a fox bounding across a field, but I just wasn't quick enough with the camera!

There is a great history to the farm where the alpaca were.

We didn't really go far enough for you to see the oldest part of the buildings properly, but the tallest gable, which you can see behind the conservatory is from a more ancient time. It is a private home and farm, so I am not going to name the property this time.Having researched the history of the site, I have discovered that it has quite a past! For anyone living in Somerset, you might even be able to guess where it is!


The first written evidence for the place goes back to 579! In 1539-1707, it was owned by The Duke of Somerset, Sir Edward Seymour, brother of the famous Jane Seymour, who of course married King Henry VIII. Sir Edward Dwyer, and Elizabethan poet also owned the estate at one point, as did the Thynne family of Longleat (famouse for it's free ranging lions, and now a thenme park). For those of you who enjoy classical novels, Henry Fielding, the author of Tom Jones, was born here in 1707. From the late 1700's it passed into the hands of several gentleman farmers including Thomas Hawkins, the palaeontologist who discovered fossils of the ichthyosaurus.


In the 1830's a large part of the main buildings including the chapel, were demolished, but by 1830 it was looked upon as the best farm in Somerset and employed over 40 labourers, growing wheat, dairy and beef cattle, and sheep.

SPRING!!!

Last Sunday was such a beautiful day weatherwise!
We took a drive over to Selworthy Village. You may remember, I wrote about this a while ago. It is not far from Dunster (which, if you are a fan of Agatha Christie's Hurcule Poirot, theTV series, you will have seen, I'll take some photos the next time I'm there).

The village is beautiful and owned by The National Trust. It is right on the edge of Exmoor National Park. Some of the scenes you can see on here this time, you would think you were miles from civilization, but actually, this is not the case! We were always within a mile from the nearest house.



You may remember that I have posted pics of these lovely cottages before.



This was the woods at the start of our walk.

Land uses change. For the past 18 months, volunteers have been working to restore the walls and hedges that have marked boundries and have allowed nature to flourish in their cracks. We hadn't walked very far before we noticed this bracket fungus on one of the trees

Then we looked up and saw this!

The tree is pretty dead, although it did look as though new spindly shoots were sprouting form it.

The woodland, known as Holinocote (once spelt and pronounced Hunecot) was mentioned in The Doomsday Book.

There are a number of interesting stone features as the spring runs its course down the hill. One is a bridge that marks a junction in the paths. It has a cutout at either side. So presumably the water comes down as a torrent during inclement weather. There is another pool higher up which directs the water in a certain course.

It is a pretty long, but not too steep a rise up to meet the coastal path. On the way, you pass through a memorial garden where clumps of daffodils were beginning to flower and a hut (although no in our photos, we did see it) stands as part of the memorial.

Carrying on up the hill, Steve made me stop and took the following!

While stopped at this point we heard the distant yaffel of a woodpecker, we saw some evidence of its drilling on some of the trees nearby, but the holes were not good enough to show you and the tree was very dead!
On and upwards again and we could feel the breeze coming over the top. It had been so peaceful and still in the woodland. There were just the occaisional bluetit or greattit calling, whilst hiding away from us.


Selworthy Beacon

 Then suddenly, we were at the top! Some of the tracks up here had, it is said been used by Canadian tanks during WWll, I could imagine some of the terrain being a battlefield up on the moor.
Selworthy's Beacon has exsisted since the sixteenth centuary wars with Frane and Spain.

Just a few more views from the beacon.  If you zoom in, you can see South Wales and Weston-Super-Mare acoss the other side of the estuary, depending on the direction of the photo.

Unless you know, this just looks like any other country track. However, as we turned the corner and began the downhill stretch, we could hear (and Steve could see...) two skylarks! They have become quite rare in the UK now, mostly dueto modern farm practices. It was just great to hear them!

Next week, there may not be a walk report, as my Dad, once again is coming to stay. But now the weather is getting warmer and we have seen more of the sun, hopefully it won't be long before we are able to get out on the tracks again!

More Yarn Please!

Signs of Spring? Well, there are suddenly plenty growing in neighbours' gardens, but these were a surprise from a friend. I only wish you could smell them! I left them shut in the kitchen, as it's cooler there during the day and when I came home, the scent almost knocked me over! Enjoy the sunshine in the flowers! We are told to stare at yellow for a while if we are feeling depressed during the low light levels of winter.

Better late than never....

I had a present from my daughter for my birthday (last November), a luxury manicure. I wanted to save it for a school holiday as when I am working, nail polish wouldn't last 5 minutes. SoI thought Christmas would be a good time. The first day of the holidays arrived and my appointment, hm, but so did the snow! So all was cancelled! Then spring half term arrived! Hooray! No snow! So I had my lovely hand treatment! The best bits were the massage and wax treatments! The hardest (for any knitter, I would think) was to sit for 20 minutes and not do anything with my hands! The results were and are (I'm trying to keep up the good work with hand creams) amazing! Thanks Jin and Jim (her DH)!



Lovely hands!

Today, DH and I came back from work to find the following on our kitchen table!

What a great surprise! We were served English muffins with burgers inside. Meat for DH, a veggie burger with egg on top, for me! Then My favourite chocolate covered ice lolly for desert!

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Coldharbour Mill

                                                              

Yesterday, DH and I went to our favourite yarn mill. The objects of the visit was to buy more yarn, have lunch and go for a walk. However, the yarn purchase will have to wait :(


At Christmas time, the leat for the water wheel froze as did the pipes in the mill building. So on the weekend when there should have been a steam up and we were meeting an old friend there for lunch, the whole complex was closed! They couldn't even open the cafe as there had been a burst pipe in that building too!

To show you the mill's setting (wouldn't mind living there!)

Today when we visited, the cafe had been reopened after the ceiling that the water from the burst pipe had brought down had been fixed. Today in the lovely sunshine, the mill race was flowing beautifully, but the yarn shop is still empty and being dried with dehumidifyers! All the lovely yarn has been ruined because a toilet pipe two floors up had burst! It ran through the cafe, but ended up in the shop on the floor below!



Uffcombe Village. Water from here was diverted into the mill race to power the water wheel, before the days of steam power.

The walk was a great sucess! The weather as I said earlier was just wonderful! Bright sunshine, but fresh feeling. Many spring flowers were blooming, such as snowdrops an chrocuses and tiny daffodils.

New camera and The Levels

These are the pics that I promised last time, but they wouldn't upload! I just went for a stroll locally and experimented. I am quite pleased with the sharpness of the results and hope you agree.


Sunday, we did our usual  afternoon walk. We have been trying to get down to the levels all winter to witness the starling murmeations. Yet again, we got it wrong! Em was on her way back from London, so we had a deadline to be home for. Had we been able to stay just a few minutes more, we would have seen them, they were just flying in as we drove onto the main road home! However, I did take some photos.


The history of the levels, as the Somerset wetlands and reed beds are known, is anceint. There is a walkway, built by neolithic man, some 6 000 years ago that was found close to where we walked. The Romans harvested peat, this practice was carried on until very recently/ Origionally, the black material was cut and laid in the air to dry, before being used as fuel.


At present, you can see the reconstruction of a couple of Celtic round houses next to the car park. These would have been a great teaching resource for local school visits, had the site not been closed by the council. (I will climb off mt soapbox now)


The peat was laterly gathered for compost. However, now it is deemed to be detrimental to the ecology of the wetlands. Certain areas look as though the peat has been harvested, but on a much smaller scale. Most people now use more ecofriendly compost, such as that made from shoddy (otherwise known as dags, or the skirt of the fleece which id often the dirtiest, containing plenty of  'vegetable matter' as I heard one pocaster call sheep droppings lately.




There are bits of machinery all over the place, ready to dig out the black peat to mantain the ditches!




The levels is a super area for wildlife. This swan was finding so much food, it nearly toppled over!

 

All the way along our walk were tranquil pools where the rain had filled the man-made peat voids.



The reed beds attract many rare birds, such as bitterns (11 pairs bred here last year), there was even a single pair of Little Bitterns recorded last year, the only pair to breed in the whole of the UK! We also get several types of warbler nesting in the reeds. Each winter, the reeds have to be cleared to a certain extent to keep the pools from filling with vegetation. This also improves the habitat for rare moths found on the site.




The path through the reserve is the site of a disused railway.



New Camera!

Sorry I haven't posted here as often as I would have liked recently.

This is mainly due to the fact that I've had my Dad staying for a couple of weeks. There are problems, but much too much to mention here! He is home for the moment and I am on half term! So I am enjoying a bit of me time for a couple of days!

We still plan to walk on Sunday afternoons. So I should have a report for you on Monday. Especially as I now have a new little camera of my own, thanks to Dad!

Steve had a birthday last Tuesday and he now has a new library! I gave him a book on one of his favourite subjects, railway history. My Dad gave him a whole set of HD Westercott's walking guides. They were written back in the 1960's or so, but he had already owned the walker's handbook, written byu the same person, but used until it fell to bits! So now we have many other places to explore! It will be a bit like Micheal Portillo's BBC series where he takes the train and uses a rather ancient Bradshaw Guide, written back in the day when Sherlock Holms and Dr Watson were solving crimes! So as you can imagine, a few things have changed!

Firstly, the camera, I have tried it out, here are a few of my results:
Having trouble loading............. I will post asap

Rained off!

Sorry to everyone who was expecting to see some pics of our Sunday walk this week, rain stopped play! Next week will be slightly different because my Dad is coming to stay. We are collecting him the day after his birthday, but he has invited us out for a birthday meal. You never know, there might be some pictures of a meal out with the birthday boy/father!

As you know, another of  my passions is knitting. I have been using alpaca blended with BFL (blue faced Liecester) and marino, just lately. I had no idea of its history in Great Britian! I thought you might be interested in this..................

I have just been watching a TV programme, here in UK. It is called Great British Railway Journeys ( shown on BBC 2, series 2 episode 3).(this programme will beavailable at www.bbc.co.uk/iPlayer for the next 7 days from the date of this post! The presenter, ex MP Michael Portillo, took a trip round Yorkshire, stopping off at Saltaire. There he visited a mill where flax was origionally produced. This was until the owner, a Sir Titus Salt discovered the alpaca! Take a look at this letter:
http://www.saltairevillage.info/news-00004-thewinningpost...

When you have read that, take a look at these pics!
The last 2 of the mill, contain alpacas!
http://www.eriding.net/media/saltaire.shtml

We were not the first to see the importance of apaca fleece! I was very excited by this find!

Another Hill Walk

Today's walk was slightly different, in that Brean is a big tourist area. Our other walks so far, may be visited by holiday-makers, but are slightly off the beaten track. Brean Down is the last of the Mendip Hills before you reach the Bristol Channel Our path today was well worn and defined without being way marked. From the summit Bristol can be seen in the distance, along with the Severn Bridge, which is a gateway to Wales.Looking inland,you can see right over the Levels.



Looking towards the beginning of our walk



If you look between the two larger buildings, you can just see the steps that have been cut into the rock for walkers. You can also see the zig-zag path where the steps continue almost to the top of hill. Once you reach the top, there is a walk of about 2 miles.
Looking inland, both Brent Knoll and Crook Peak are visible. Below, in the centre is Brent Knoll. In the distance to the left, is Glastonbury Tor.



Looking inland towards the Levels

 We visited towards late afternoon, otherwise we would have taken a shot of the fort, right at the end of the headland. The fort was built back in the 1850's under the rule of Napoleon 111. It is one of four forts built to protect the Bristol Channel from invasion from the French. Although well armoured, no shots were ever fired from the fort. However, at 5am on July 6th, 1900, there was a huge explosion .  Gunner Haines had fired his rifle into the ventilator of the  magazine of the large No. 3 gun,resulting his death. One wonders what led him to do such a rather stupid thing! 



Looking towards Weston-Super-Mare

 If you zoom in on the picture above, you can see Weston-Super-Mare. You can clearly see the old pier, to the left. In the centre is the new pier, the old one burnt down just over 2 years ago, follow the coastline along to the right and you will see the the wheel. It is owned by the same company as the new pier and was built as an extra attraction while the pier was being rebuilt. My Dad was staying with us just before the fire and we visited the pier the day after. Dad had become very excited when he realized how close Weston was by train, he said he remembered as a boy, rollerskating down the prom and visiting the pier! The reason for the fire was given as a fault in the fish and chip bar on the board walk. The smoke from the fire could be seen as far away as Bridgwater and even further afield!

Looking across the Bristol Channel to Wales. Zoom in and you can see The Millennium Stadium (rugby)in Cardiff.

The sunsetting over Brean Sands

Then we had a quick dash back to the car park which closes at 5pm. If you don't get back before closing, there is a £75 fine to retrieve your car!
Where to next week?