Burnby Hall Gardens - summer day out

I hate to say isn't it hot but I sometimes reach the tipping point of too hot to do anything, a bit like too cold to do anything in winter, it really slows me down sitting at the computer. Yet again the house of extremes is making life unbearable right now, because the windows don't open the heat levels are building day upon day. You wouldn't think it would get as hot as it does with the gaps under doors and windows but it has and the stuffiness and lack of air movement is uncomfortable. I have been shutting curtains, which I'm loathe to do as I need the light to work, but it will keep a bit of the mid day heat out. It's actually cooler to make the effort to go out but I've got lots of work on so that's not always possible but I did sneak a lovely trip to Morrisons on Friday as it's air conditioned in there, how sad is that!

Also managed a very nice day out last week as there's not much on the horizon with us for holidays this year. We went to Burnby Hall Gardens in Pocklington, of all my 11 or so years in only living about 14 miles from Pocklington I had never been. I've always wanted to go as its lakes are famous for having the National Collection of Hardy Water Lilies. 

Had we visited on a day with wall to wall sunshine all the water lilies would've been open but it was one of those warm, windy, sunny and cloudy days so the lilies were hiding a bit. It was still a magnificent sight and lovely to wander around.

I don't often have a lot of flower pictures to show on the blog but I went a bit mad capturing some interesting specimens.
I love the ones with an interesting structure, the globes and sea holly are particular favourites.

Below was a variety of white poppy but I couldn't find the name tag, reminded me of a fried egg!

Beautiful, happy marigolds and the largest working rocking horse in Europe.

Half way round and time for the tea room, lots of very yummy scones and cakes, this was my cake, a very lush dark chocolate orange cake.

Refreshed and on to another interesting part of the gardens, a Victorian Stumpery. Similar to a rockery the Victorians created these horticultural oddities by arranging upturned tree roots into artistic formations. Partly for the beauty of the wild plants which will grow amongst the stumps and partly for wildlife to move into.
There were tree carvings included in this stumpery.

I will finish with just a few stuffed animals in the museum which is within the grounds. I'm not sure what I make of stuffed animals generally but ancient ones do have a certain curiosity. 

A very pleasant day and calming for the soul.

Beaded bracelet from a friend & a new kit I'm working on

I've had a couple of nice pressies this week for no reason other than I just have some lovely, thoughtful friends. A very tasty parcel of American sweeties arrived from one friend and I'm doing a good job in demolishing those before they melt in this humid heat!

Met up with another old friend and she makes beautiful and very complex beaded jewellery and she had made me this little beauty.

As for me well I'm just putting the finishing touches to a new craft kit, it's going to be the Vintage Caravan Lovers - craft inspiration kit.

It centres around some rubber stamps I had made from my caravan drawings.

I'm quite a fan of using rubber stamps in unusual ways and it struck me this could be a very versatile design for creating mixed media pictures or pieces of embellished fabric for use in crafts as well as the traditional stamping on stationery.

The kit will have all you need to get stamping, it will also have some of my printed vintage camping fabric, natural cottons, linens and embroidery floss for sewing, some paper items and a small mystery bag of embellishments. I will include a little idea sheet to help the creative process and then hopefully people's imaginations will take over and lots of lovely caravanny things will be created.

A busy weekend for me

It's quite unusual these days for me to do something Friday night, Saturday and Sunday, but it was just such a weekend.

Friday night I went to the Moonbeams Festival at Wold Top Brewery.

I think I may have previously mentioned that one of my favourite groups were playing, the Peatbog Faeries, and this was my first time seeing them live.

Here we are just as the sun was setting heading into the big top stage and we caught the act prior to the Peatbogs, another Scottish group Breabach who were very good.

Shame about the quality of my photos but they are purely to remind myself of the fantastic evening.

Top photo below is Breabach followed by pic of Peatbogs.

They were absolutely brilliant and everything I hoped they would be. I'm putting a link to their closing track on the night, if you don't like Celtic fiddle, pipes, techno trance music then probably best you don't click the link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkhHVzCBhRs

Super evening, a magical little festival and a very late night.

Saturday and lack of sleep meant for a later trip to York than planned for the Ukulele Festival. Arriving at 4pm meant I'd pretty much missed all the action in the street and I would've been too tired to go into the evening for the uke open mic sessions in the pubs.

Still, I managed a nice snack in The Attic and this is the view from there into Kings Square.

Sunday was the Sledmere House car boot sale, it's usually very good for vintage and antique finds so I decided to make the effort. Oh dear, I'd only been there for about 20 mins when it decided to chuck it down, what a shame for the stall holders some of which were prepared for the rain, others just left their stuff to the elements.

The quality of stalls and items was not nearly as good as previous years and with the weather quite a few packed up at lunch time so it was all a bit disappointing.

Very little Hornsea Pottery this year, only really saw this which is a design called Seasons from about 1991.

Busy week ahead, new projects on the horizon.

Moonbeams Music Festival & ukulele brooch

Tonight and tomorrow is the Wold Top Moonbeams Folk Festival up at the brewery at Wold Newton. For some months I have been helping with all the design and artwork for the promotional material, banners, beer labels, beer mats, t-shirts, leaflets, camping and parking passes, tags etc it's been quite mammoth and kept me busy.

I'm delighted to say that I've been invited on the guest list to go and see one of my favourite groups who I haven't seen live before. This is great because it means I don't have to go to the festival and camp, I don't do camping. Instead I can just breeze in and watch the Peatbog Faeries, I'm taking Bob, the Peatbogs are a wonderful trad Celtic band from Skye. Here we are watching them on Youtube, should be pretty wild!

Another big local musical event tomorrow is the York Ukulele Festival which I was hoping to go to but sadly something has come up and I doubt I will make it.
Shame because I've been making myself a new felt, ukulele brooch based on my little white uke. Anyway I shall wear it at the gig tonight instead.

So many things on this weekend and so little time to stretch myself around. It's also the wonderful stately car boot sale at Sledmere House on Sunday, always worth a rummage.

Have a good weekend whatever you are up to.

Free shipping at Spoonflower today until 2pm UK time

I should’ve done this yesterday but hey better late than never.

If any readers are interested in buying Spoonflower fabric they are offering free international shipping for just 24 hrs and that runs out at 2pm UK time today.

As well as my designs, featuring the vintage camping range, there are some wonderful and unusual fabrics by loads of great designers. Remember the import tax and Royal Mail handling fee when it comes into the UK.

http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/peppermintpatty

Here are some great fabrics I found on Spoonflower. The 3 pics below in that lovely vintage style are by a designer called Peagreengirl.

This cute design is by Inktreepress

Yellow bikes at Tour de France Grand Depart

You've probably heard that Yorkshire was hosting the Grand Depart for the Tour de France this year and now we've reached Sunday evening it's clear to see it has been a huge success with bigger crowds than I think they expected.

The race was whizzing through York this morning and we ummed and aahed on Friday evening as to whether it would be worth getting up at the crack of dawn to try and see some action. The road and travel reports were giving the impression that most of the route areas would be in lock down for the 2 days so we decided to avoid and watch on telly. Lets face it, I don't like huge crowds and I would not have managed to get to the front to see anything so I think it was the best decision.

Instead we had a lovely stroll around York on Saturday evening to look at the trimmings although I have to say it didn't look as well decked as Harrogate. Here are some of the pics I got, unfortunately I didn't walk by Cliffords Tower and on TV today it looked lovely with bunting around the top.

I did enjoy the aerial views on TV showing many sights I recognised.

The bit that annoys me is over enthusiastic spectators getting in the way of the cyclists, patting them and running alongside, Grrrrrr! Just get out of the way and let them get on with the job.

So pleased the weather was kind and there's been a real buzz all week.

Back to reality and it's chucking it down here this evening :(