Rainbow felt weekend

Felted pouch weekend from start to finish and assisted at several times by the cats! Love the end result! I put a piece of silk in between the  roving to make it that bit thicker. Simple embroidery as the sewing machine was being very naughty with tension and a button.

Baskets are starting to look good. this is my new basket with lots of little pockets around the outside so it should look magnificient.
 

This pot is real hotch potch of what caught my eye at the nursery so hopefully it won't clash too much.

Some of the crafty cats have an outside afternoon snack, mainly to keep them out the kitchen whilst I was felting! 

Hmm hello summer and a pretty petunia!

Food for the soul

 Sometimes you just need to get away from the hustle and bustle and craziness of life even if for only a few hours. We came up to Coaley peak on the most perfect of May evenings to just sit and still our souls and simply look. We didn't even bring the dogs as we just wanted peace, but we did both feel very guilty about leaving them behind! We were on the top of the Cotswold escarpment looking over the Severn Vale and above is the view South to Cam Long Down.

The view is just amazing. You can see right the way over to Sugar Loaf mountain near Abergavenny . If you have binoculars you can see the Severn bridges, Oldbury Power Station and Sharpness Docks all along the river Severn snaking it's way though the landscape.

The patchwork fields looked simply beautiful and the sound of the tractors silaging and the land being worked seemed right too. it wouldn't look like this if it wasn't farmed. I grew up in this kind of landscape and I used to love peeking in the hedges to see the bird nests and walking though the summer hay fields..aahh such memories!

 You can see the Malvern Hills too, they dominate the view north west, their distinctive ridge back dominates the landscape for miles. I once heard they are the tallest mountains if you head due East until you reach the Urals...? Maybe?

This little section of the cotswold way has the nympsfield long barrow and hetty peglers tump too. Perhaps ancient man thought it was a good place to bury their dead with a view. There is Uley Bury hill fort too so this place has been inhabited for a long time.

It did us both good to drink it all in and watch the sun go down, readying us for jumping back into the fast pace that life seems to try and sweep you along at these days. I'm feeling tired with life a little and this was a welcome little break.

Happiness in little things

 Learning to make wrap bracelets

Cherry Blossom and blue skies

 Dog walks in sunshine

 New rescue hen who needed an emergency home

 Grey cat love

Blooming blue in the garden

 Rolling on spring grass in the sunshine

The fluffiest, nicely groomed, silky tail ever...... that won't keep still for a photo to do it justice!

Bodger owner of tail for being such a happy little cat.

Lots of little things to be grateful for experiencing this week. Happy Friday everyone!

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Where did March go?

 I can't believe it's been a month since my last post? Where did the month go? But it was full of little happy moments!

I felted the project bag which is already in use on the coffee table, twice at 40 degrees produced a nice felt.

I made my sister a heart wreath as she started coveting mine and this is her photo of it proudly displayed in her kitchen

Finished knitting the sock for my spring wreath. But as you can see from the photo below it needed to be wider as it's pulled too tight and you can see the ring beneath it.

I chose the colour yarns for the flowers and leaves assisted by Indiana. Luckily I had just the right colours in 100% wool.

Lots of fun knitting the flowers and leaves, (this is before felting). And then.........

Ta-dah!!!!

This was ready for the official first day of Spring on the 21st of March but only because I cheated and used pins to attach the flowers...ssssh don't tell anyone!

 Close up so you can see the cheaty pins!

Hung up in pride of place..how lucky is that fit? Not sure it's a raging success but as always I learnt from it. Notes to self.....knit the sock wider and felt the flowers at 60 not 40 and learn to crochet as crochet flowers look better than knitted ones!

We have also been down to what counts as the seaside for us.....Severn Beach and the  Severn Estuary. This is the new bridge the Second Severn crossing. 

Severn beach was once the Blackpool of the West and sadly it's all gone. It's a local joke these days but it once was a thriving resort that the Edwardian's and Victorians  and right up to the 1960's that people flocked to.

There is something still magical about old seaside places and something so very British. I can't explain but I'm sure you know what I mean.

This is the original suspension bridge in the murky distance.

We visited on one Sunday as a wet and windy dog walk. Although Moushka wasn't allowed in the sea as it's also VERY muddy. She is looking longingly at it with David.

We walked up to the Salt marshes to listen to the call of oyster catchers and see what other birds were about.

And the yellow of the lichen really stood out on this dull day

And the sea is making a small sea forest from branches by sticking them up in the flood defences.

We came back the following weekend on our bicycles when we were having the Spring tides on Equinox weekend. I have never seen the tide out so far, it felt like you could walk across to Wales. It is one of the highest tidal ranges in the world and to see it empty like this and then imagine a 10M tide filling it....that's an awful lot of water!!

We had a good cycle about through the nearby villages of Northwick, Old and New Passage and came back for coffee and cake at the Cafe, completely voiding any good the cycling had done us! Oh well!!

So my Happy Friday is recalling my Happy March and it's not quite over yet!

Many thanks to my sister Julia for this bit of woolly happiness that arrived in the post! I'm calling her Myrtle and she is guarding my stitch markers at present.

Please pop over to  http://planetpenny.co.uk/ to spread the happy Friday vibe!