A Derbyshire life…..local walks and events and some crafty stuff
We are not very good at identifying wildlife - birds, butterflies, wildflowers are all pretty much a mystery to us. We don't let it put us off though and we are getting better at it and it doesn't stop us from appreciating the pretty and peaceful nature reserves. This time it is the turn of Theddlethorpe dunes nature reserve on the east coast in Lincolnshire.
During our recent holiday to Suffolk the (mostly) dreadful weather forced us to spend a day in Norwich. Obviously we really went there to see the cathedral, but as we parked in the John Lewis car park it would have been rude not to go in and buy something :). We did make it to the cathedral though and it really is very impressive, both in it's architecture and age. This year we have visited two of England's ancient cathedrals; Canterbury and Norwich. It would be difficult to pick out a favourite as both were equally interesting days out; in Canterbury we were unexpectedly entertained by a young choir from America and in Norwich we managed to tag onto a tour of the cathedral which was very nicely done and very informative.
Another quick holiday crochet effort. This time it's a flowery brooch. Inspired from 'Crocheted Flowers' by Jan Ollis, I adapted the antique rose pattern to match the yarn and fabric available (yarn left over from a hat, and organza from a bunch of flowers) to make this pretty brooch. It was a bit fiddly, but I was pleased with the final result.
Crochet is such a portable craft and baby items are perfect for being small and achievable things to complete on a holiday. Combine this with a plethora of babies and it makes a homemade gift for a new baby very do-able. Hence the following array of hats, bootees and bear.
Credit where credit is due; the lilac hat and all bootees were based on a pattern from loopy love. The delightful boy hat is from LisaAuch.com. The bear from Crochet Now issue 2 and is the kit from the magazine.
After a flurry of barn conversion related admin and anxiety over the past few weeks we were able to (almost) forget about it and unwind and relax during our holiday over Spring Half Term. Typically we were holidaying in the coldest area of the country for that particular week on the east coast of England in Suffolk and then in Lincolnshire. On the west coast they were basking in 23°c heat whilst we had a miserly 11°c fresh (ie cold) north wind, with occasional showers to add to the misery. However, we were undeterred and intrepid and visited Minsmere nature reserve in Suffolk and spotted a Bittern, marsh harriers, muntjac deer and the Spring Watch TV crew setting up for filming. Can the film crew be classed as 30 days wild? I'm going to take it as an official wild sighting.
This deer was so unconcerned about the human visitors to Minsmere I had time to faff about wrestling my camera out of my bag.
This rather blurred (but entirely authentic) image is of a bittern at Minsmere. An actual bittern. I was so surprised I nearly missed it in the viewfinder.
Another peaceful place to visit for nature and wildlife is Dunwich heath and beach.
It's a beautiful day so am trying to get the baking out of the way so that I can go out to play in the sunshine. The sourdough loaf was started last night and left in the fridge overnight to continue to prove slowly. It's starting to get a little too warm to leave it out in the kitchen overnight, although it might have been ok last night as there was quite a hard frost this morning. Anyway, the bread has been baked and is cooling nicely in a bread bag. Sadly, my cake hasn't been quite so successful and might be a complete disaster. We were eating breakfast whilst it was cooking and I could see a bit of a bluish haze in the room; a CAKE BURNING sort of blue haze. The problem is that I decided to use the microwave as a convection oven and it has a bit of a fierce heat from the top of the oven and I didn't think to put some foil over the cake until it was too late *sigh*. The marzipan and mincemeat cake has finished cooking and it is not looking at all appetizing. I'm not giving up on it yet - the top can be sliced off and the whole cake turned upside down. If it tastes burned it will go in the bin and I'll make another, but not yet......
Mincemeat and marzipan cake in the recipe book
My sorry effort......
After surgery 😀
I've not been at all organised today. We have family tea and the bread isn't going to be ready on time and the cake looks like it will be a bit warm. It's cooling by an open window in the hope that it will be set and edible by tea time. As for the bread, plan B was required. Fortunately I have some sourdough fruit bread in the freezer, very much in the Blue Peter style of "Here's one I prepared earlier". This is undergoing some defrosting on the warm oven. Whatever happens with tea, it certainly smells really nice in here.
orange raisin flapjack
*Family tea update* The cake should have been lemon raisin flapjack but I didn't have any lemons so it became orange instead. It has a flapjack base which is cooked for 3 mins in the microwave. you leave this to cool while you make the cakey topping from eggs, sugar, raisins, melted butter and orange juice and zest. This is spread over the flapjack base then baked for about 20 mins. It was a bit soft and wobbly when it came out of the oven but it set when it cooled. And it tasted fab😀. The bread came out nicely, but has been divided up and taken away by the kids so I'm afraid there's no photographic evidence.
Today has been a lovely, relaxing sewing day in the company of nice people making nice things. A glow of niceness is surrounding me. It has also been a productive day as I'm making the most of these sewing Sundays to makes some finishes to things started a long time ago. This time, I'm working on a quilt top that I completed at least 2.5 years ago. It's a scrap quilt who's mission was to use some left over blocks from another quilt, so these form the centre of the quilt. The rest of it is made from a load of half square triangle blocks that I made from piles of scrap 5" squares bought at Nottingham Patchwork Group. This part was an experiment for me in scrap quilting - ie making a load of disparate squares of fabric which just don't go together at all, to look absolutely fantastic and beautifully coordinated. I was really pleased with the result, especially the way that the colours transition around the quilt as I laid it out to colour blend from reds and greens, to blues and then browns, and so on. The only trouble was that when I had finished I just wasn't keen on the centre blocks compared to the outer scrap blocks. The passage of time works wonders though, because now I really like it. I must have just looked at it so much before that I got quilt fatigue. Anyway, today's objective was to layer up the quilt with the backing fabric and the wadding, first cutting the backing fabric and joining it together to fit. I was a bit frugal when I bought the backing fabric and it was only just big enough so hopefully I've got it centred properly. I thought it would take all day to do that, but it only took the morning. It was really nice to be able to do it on tables rather than lots of grovelling around on the floor, which has been my usual modus operandi. After lunch I started the quilting and since I'm quilting it simply I think I should be able to finish it the next time I have a sewing Sunday. Mind you, my next sewing Sunday is a workshop so I will end up with yet another thing to finish - you start some, you finish some :)
A blog diary of my creative life in Derbyshire with crochet, quilting, knitting, embroidery, textile art and baking......and barn conversions
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