29 October: Wednesday Walk 2

Happy Birthday DGS 1!

This week's walk was another favourite, on the Northumberland coast, from Craster to Low Newton, pub lunch, and back. It was a beautiful clear sunny day, though those woolly hats were needed again.

The sea sparkled correctly, the waves had nice white tops, and the sand was wide and emptier the further we walked from the pub.


In places various types of seaweed had been cast up by the tide; this colourful tangle of weed lay on an interesting sand pattern -

Dunstanburgh Castle was a popular place for many people to visit on a sunny autumn afternoon. There were lots of people enjoying the fresh sea air, and many photographs taken -

We returned to tea and our first slice of Christmas cake this season.

4 September: Hamsterley Forest

We took our cameras for a walk in Hamsterley Forest. We saw lots of wood ant nests, and a spider's funnel web, as well as deer footprints (that probably isn't the correct technical term) in the mud. There was a bit of this deciduous woodland -


And some of this conifer plantation -

And lots of bilberries and bracken along paths like this -

And even one of these -

But there were lots and lots of flowers, and most of them were in pink-to-purple shades. There were heather, knapweed, rosebay willowherb, burdock, thistles, and foxgloves. We also saw a few ox eye daisies, buttercups, ragwort, some harebells and silverweed, a patch of eyebright, and a single viper's bugloss (isn't that such a wonderful name!).

There was also a small area of these orchids - probably common spotted -

And as the camera was focussed on this scabious, a bee arrived -


Some red clover had large flowers -

And there were some umbellifers with intact seedheads -

We had a lovely walk, and were home in time for tea.

11 August: Photos as promised

You probably don't really need to see knitted dishcloths, but here are the knitted boxes that have been felted in the washing machine -

The two dark ones, top right, are a nesting pair. So far I haven't made the smallest size, as the middle size, about 4.5 inches square, seems to be the most useful. (Very Buddhist.) They are posing for their photo-call on the garden bench, as the two at the front were still damp from the wash.

And here is part of the knitted creature - a section of the body in the stripe pattern described yesterday. Well, actually, not quite in the pattern described, as it went a bit haywire with the balls of variegated wool being close in some colours. So let's just call it a random stripe pattern now, eh?


This stripe with slip stitch looks as if it might be promising for socks, should any more be required. The sock drawer is fairly full at present, and the low boredom threshold has been passed as far as socks are concerned for the time being.

Perhaps a Mark 3 string bag?

26 May: Lazy

This is just instead of replying to comments in the comments box.

The photo of Mont Orgueil castle was a lucky shot - one of those times when you can't see what is in the viewfinder/display screen because of the light. I hadn't noticed the row of houses below the castle, but would have tried to include them if I had, as the contrast in scale and colour is brill.

It does resemble a photo I took of Durham Castle earlier in the year - here it is if you want to compare. (That is actually Pizza Hut, and Pizza Italia in the foreground, not houses.)

Cat update - poor boy has an over-active thyroid, a bottle of tablets to take for a month, then more blood tests. Quite common in the older cat, apparently. Most likely outcome after the tablets is surgery. Still, it's slimmed him down considerably. Wonder if I could get mine revved up a bit....

Bit busy this weekend, as the bathroom re-modelling starts on Tuesday.