A trip to Burton Agnes Hall

Last Friday was a lovely day, I met up with an artist friend of mine who I haven't seen for 10 years since she moved to Devon and it was lovely to meet her little boy who was but a baby bump all those years ago.
Very appropriately we decided to spend our day at Burton Agnes Hall because my friend used to spend many weeks there as the artist in residence and as soon as we stepped out of the car she experienced a whole whoosh of memories & emotions.

We had a quick look in the courtyard area & gallery before a picnic in the grounds, then we went on the house tour. It has been a few years since I was in the house so it was great to see some things I recognised and some new contemporary artworks.

As soon as you get going into the Great Hall you are faced with this Elizabethan painting of 3 sisters. The one on the right in mourning is the sister who they say haunts the blue bedroom or The Queen's Bedroom as it is known.

The guide gave us the full story of how she was attacked on her horse in a nearby village by highwaymen & robbed, I won't go into the full story but she wanted to be buried in the house, otherwise bad things would happen and bad things did happen whilst she was buried outside. She was dug up (more than once) and now her head is behind one of the panels to the right of the fire in the Great Hall. There's certainly something in that room which makes the hairs stand up on the back of your neck!
Onwards and upwards to the Long Gallery on the upper floor. Great view of the gardens.

Over the years I've taken lots of pictures at Burton Agnes so this time I took some pics of things I hadn't seen like these spooky looking puppets.

This is a beautiful tapestry by Kaffe Fassett of the gardens.

Some contemporary art / furniture, this lovely wooden cabinet with drawers and the trees on top.

Some nicely patterned ceramics and interesting art.

Did I mention Bob came along, we went around the gardens next, he loved it.

The gardens are spectacular, there's the Elizabethan walled garden filled with flowers, fruit, vegetables & herbs. There are the coloured gardens with the giant board games & the maze. We played the huge snakes and ladders and I managed to hobble around the maze which I'd never been in before, mazes freak me out a bit.

Here are some of the pictures, sorry if this is getting boring, I'm indulging as I don't think I've done a Burton Agnes post before.

Lastly, this ball thing floating on the pond, the rainbow reflections had us mesmerised as it bobbed and changed colour in the breeze.

It was a really wonderful day, great memories and lots of inspiration to feed the creative soul.

August - Robins update

Over the last month or so, the other male robin who I called Imposter Robin has also disappeared from the scene, like Robbie did, leaving just Ruby. She's not completely on her own because in the last fortnight 3 youngsters have emerged from hiding in the bushes.


They really have got huge appetites and it's easy to tell when it's feeding time as there is so much squeeking outside.
Ruby has been very good bringing these 'kids' up alone and when they are all hanging around her squeeking she dishes out the food quite equally.
She's starting to look a bit ragged though, she must be exhausted bless and she's molting.

On that picture above she seems to have lost her tail feathers overnight and it makes her look quite small and I think she's feeling a bit vulnerable.


You can see on the pic below, yesterday, she still had tail feathers.

Here are some pics of the babies, I think they are bigger than Ruby now, I didn't manage all 3 on the same shot but they're very cute and friendly.

I fear I may have to stop putting the food out now because I was stood in the garden this morning and a mouse ran in and I'm very concerned about mice returning to the attic as they freak me out.

Bob has been to Bridlington

Sunglasses at the ready, Bob has had a little trip out to Bridlington for some lovely veggie food & coffee.

This has been one of my few trips out recently and we managed to park quite near the door so I didn't have to walk far.
Our destination was The Little Organic Bakery & Crema espresso bar at No. 12 Wellington Rd,

Here we are sat in the gallery bit looking through to the outside eating area waiting in anticipation for our food.
Wow here it is, a beautiful black olive tart, herby nut & cheese roll with some delish salads.

All washed down with a Yirgacheffe pour over, absolutely lovely and great to catch up with the wonderful Wheelwright clan who run this place.

Happy hooking!

It seems I'm not the only one who has been indulging in a bit of hooky this week, wool & hooks have been seen on the Green Rabbit blog! Where there's a lovely looking, woolly green rabbit in the making.

http://greenrabbitdesigns.wordpress.com/2012/07/27/playing-hooky/

I managed to finish the lovely Happy Flower Decoration from Lucy's blog.

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/happy-flower-decoration.html

I started another one in different colours.

Then I whizzed up a simple phone holder to try some new colours in stripes.

And now I'm trying something a bit more fiddly on a small hook with cotton thread, a necklace which was a free download from here, the wonderful Making Spot website.

http://www.themakingspot.com/

I think I may have dropped a few stitches as I'm not sure it's going to fit so it might end up as a bracelet or a trim for a jumper.


Have fun if you're hooking this weekend too!

No proper baking for a while!

It's that time again, when the aga is on it's last legs before needing a service.

I've been struggling to cook things for about 3 months due to it's maximum temperature being only 130 degrees C. And, whilst it would seem a good time of year to turn it off as it's summer, it's always a difficult decision because our landlord has not provided any other oven facility! 


So, it went out last night because the temperature had actually dipped to 90 degrees because the wick is so sooted up and all it's good for is meringues! Because it's such an ancient, converted aga, even when it's serviced I'll be lucky if it hits 200 degrees.


Anyway I shall have to make do with this camping ring and my microwave.

Hence, no proper baking or cooking of pies for a while until I have it back on in Autumn, if I can hold out that long. I will try and cram as much salady stuff in the fridge as possible in order to try and eat a bit more healthy over this time.

Make a wallet from recycled Has Bean Coffee bags

The new red & white Has Bean coffee bag/envelopes which the weekly subscription of beans arrive in are so much more practical. It actually fits in my small post box which the jiffy bag never did and I always had to be in on a Saturday morning to take delivery. They're less packaging and less waste and they look very smart too. Here they are displayed by Bob the Bunny.

As some of my readers will know, I like to recycle and I like to stitch and create things. 
This got me thinking, as I was about to discard the last few weeks bags, could I make something useful out of them.
I know, a tiny wallet to hold the loyalty cards of some of my favourite cafes.
I chopped up the bits of bag with the HB logo on which would make the outer surface of the wallet.

I then stitched some of these bits together, overlapping and using a zigzag stitch.

I was working to create a rectangular size of about 21cm x 9cm and here it is, I also zigzagged around the edge for neatness.

Next you need another rectangle the same size for the inside, I found this coffee themed oil-skin fabric.

With wrong sides together, stitch with a zigzag all around the edge to join the 2 pieces, exposing the right sides. You can see below that inside I have stitched a little red pocket to hold my loyalty cards.

The design of the wallet will be to fold over the right hand side with a small flap and then the left hand side will fold over that and close with a snap fastener, as you can see on the picture below.

Here is the finished wallet with a little embellishment on the front.

The inside, to store those precious cards!

And finally the back view.

Plastic bags & packaging with nice designs on are very versatile to chop up and stitch to recycle into something new.

This might turn into an occasional series of "More Than One Use for a Has Bean Coffee Bag", you have been warned!

The Vulcan flies over Driffield

This post is purely to remind myself of what I saw this morning.


I was feeding Ruby the robin just after breakfast when I looked up and saw a huge, interesting looking military plane soaring up over the trees and coming right over the house. It wasn't very high so I could clearly see all the camouflage markings quite well. The shape of the plane was very distinct.
Rather annoyingly I didn't have my camera to hand, even though the plane wasn't going very fast, unlike the fighter jets, by the time me and my bad foot limped for my camera it had just gone.


I looked it up online and the shape was looking like a Vulcan. Well given that there is only one remaining flying Vulcan I thought it can't be, but like I say, the shape was distinct.
I wondered if anyone else had seen it.


It wasn't until the afternoon when I did some more internet surfing that I found these Flickr pictures and this has confirmed my siting in the Yorkshire area. Thanks to Keith for posting these and putting me out of my misery.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akandbdl/7596460972/in/photostream/

I looked to see if there were any air shows today, could it have been attending but no I drew a blank.
Then I found this which explains the Vulcan heading north over Driffield, it was going to Sunderland to do a fly past for the Queen today as part of a delayed Jubilee celebration.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/queen-elizabeth-II/9408398/Vulcan-bomber-performs-Diamond-Jubilee-tribute-to-Queen.html

Sorry to be such an anorak but I get really excited seeing things like this in the sky!

Works in progress & new brooches

It's the Driffield Show today and I won't be able to go this year with my foot, I haven't been for 3 years, didn't realise it was that long but the weather is looking a bit dodgy today with potentially heavy showers this afternoon so I'm happy to be inside doing something creative.


I have a few projects on the go. One is my version of a vintage linen, crinoline lady. I have a couple of tablecloths which were charity shop finds with the crinoline lady designs and I was really annoyed with myself for washing one too vigorously and holes have appeared in the antique cloth. So I thought I'd have a practise and maybe make my own.


I found some designs online and bought one of those embroidery transfer pencils.

I traced the design and ironed onto my fabric, and set about stitching. I'd forgotten how therapeutic it is to do this sort of painting by numbers with embroidery silks.

Here is the finished thing and I'm quite pleased as a first attempt, I think I'll have the confidence to stitch a tablecloth when I find the right one. This test piece will probably turn into something completely different.

Next on my WIP is a bit of crochet. I found this wonderful Happy Flower Decoration tutorial on the lovely Attic 24 blog, a must visit blog if you've never been and you love crochet.

http://attic24.typepad.com/

Lucy from Attic 24 writes a tutorial in such a way that it's a pleasure to follow and even I can understand and create something quite delicious out of wool.


The flower is done and next I'm working on the stem and those pretty leaves.

Finally, here are some of my mixed media textile brooches, some of which are finished and on sale in Gallery 49, Bridlington & in my Folksy shop. I've been inspired with my vintage & antique postcard collection when making these, particularly those silk embroidered cards from the first world war.

Once I've created the 'mini postcards' and embellished with beads & silks, I then mount them on felt, cut to size, back them and finish off with a pin.

Here are a couple of my favourite ones finished.

All packaged and ready to go. I like making these but they do take a long time as I deliberate for hours which colours, beads, silks & trimmings go best together.