Our holiday to England was in October 2013. Here is part 2. Part 1 ended in the Lakes District.
We headed south to the Cotswolds. Along the way, we stopped at a village called Great Budworth in Cheshire. We stopped there as my mother and father in law went there in 1980 and there is a photo of my mother in law next to these stocks. Little did she realise, that 33 years later, her son and her grandson (whom she had never met and would have been her pride and joy) would stand at the very same spot.
Stocks at Greater Budworth
We did a walk in the Cotswolds from Upper Slaughter to Lower Slaughter. I admired the well maintained stone walls through out the area.
Stone wall in the Cotswolds
These cyclamens were growing under a tree in one of the National Trust homes we visited.
Wild cyclamens
We headed further south through Painswick to Somerset. I just loved these cute sights as you walk down the street.
Door knocker
A tiny window set in an old stone wall
We stayed a lovely little B+B and this was the door to our rooms.
The red door
I must say, I was fascinated by robins. The robins of our nursery rhymes always held my attention -- and to see them flitting around and hearing their call. I finally managed to capture this one.
A Robin
My favourite sheep
The autumn colours were just happening, and this was in a National Trust garden.
Autumn colours
We stayed at another B+B at a small place called North Brentor, in Dartmoor. This is the view from the B+B. Way in the distance in the picture, is a thatched cottage. The moors are just behind and can also be seen from the front door.
View from B+B
The weather here was foul-- it rained and rained and was windy. When we thought it was clearing, we went for a drive and drove over the moors. That was a silly mistake, as the fog just rolled in and we could not see a thing. We did drive over the moors again on our way back to London-- and it was a clear day and the view was spectacular. The foggy day reminded me of the Hounds of the Baskervilles--when we got back to Sydney, I found the book on the bookshelf and read it again. Interestingly, it was also set in October .
The Moors
We did a day trip to Port Isaac. I had not realised that this is the village where they film Doc Martin. It was picturesque.
Port Isaac
View near Port Isaac
Who can resist taking a photo of weeds?
We had a lovely holiday in the UK and I hope that we will be able to do another in the not too distant future. I will live in hope of that happening!
Now back to craft. I have not had much progress on my craft front-- but there has been some progress.
1-- I was doing an applique scene to be framed, and was contacted by the editor of Homespun to see if I was working on anything of interest. I showed her the photo of what I was working on-- and now it will be published in the January Australian Homespun magazine. Currently, I am writing up the pattern-- a tedious process. Unfortunately, I cannot show you the photo just yet.
2--My daughter has moved out and we have re arranged her bedroom. I am making a quilt for the queen sized bed. This will take ages-- as there is a lot of EPP hexie flowers, and I have heaps more blue flowers to go. I have now completed the larger hexagon flowers and am now making the small hexagon flowers-- I think I need another 36 of them! So it will be awhile before the quilt will be on the bed. I have collected a lot of blues over the years-- and am determined to use as much up as possible. Will do a border with the remainder blue fabrics.
Hexagon medley in Blues
3--I have been painting some buttons for the framed work-- painting them in different colours to see which colours work best.
I have also designed a new bird cut out-- and tried it in this colour combination.
Handpainted Bird brooch
Thank you to everyone who visits my blog. I would love it if you do leave a comment. It also gives me a chance to visit your blog and read about your crafting life. I have made some lovely friends by doing this and we email each other regularly as well.
Take care.
Yvonne
