Siberian Gold - February Progress

Well February is just about over, another month that has just whizzed by. There is still just about time to show you the progress I've made on Siberian Gold this month. Here is a reminder of the starting point.

This is where I'm at now.Not a huge amount of progress but I'm happy with what I've done.

The second Tiger's face is starting to come along nicely. There are so many colour changes when working in any area on this piece it always takes a while to see significant progress. I wonder what he'll look like in another month.

Cheddar Gorge

Training for the Lakes continued last weekend with a lovely walk round Cheddar Gorge. The weather was beautiful and the paths were muddy so plenty of fun to be had :) It was a really nice route, and I managed to survive not one but three uphill climbs along the way.
First climb was up from Cheddar village through a wooded path, with lots to see along the way, beautiful moss covered woodland and hidden caves.The climb was well worth the effort, the views over the gorge were magnificent.
There were plenty of local characters to see along the way. Back down in the valley there was more woodland walking. Past gurgling streams .... ... and wonderful sunlit walls, with moss sparkling like emeralds in the sun. In the fading light there was time for one more climb, again the views were pretty spectacular. The day ended with sunlight through the trees.... ... and a beautiful sunset over the Cheddar Reservoir.

My parting shot today is something a bit different. Those of a sensitive nature may want to look away now :) If you have been reading for a while you know I have a habit of sharing my walking feet with you. Today I'm going to share the dangers of walking muddy pathways. I slipped over not once but twice for good measure.

The only thing missing is a tail and you would be forgiven for thinking that this is a shot of a hippo after a nice mud bath :)

Shaping Up

My wrist is starting to feel a lot better, but as predicted the stitching rate here has slowed down somewhat.

The new knitted piece is starting to take shape though.

Local Walking - Cycle Route 4

Another rainy day another local walk.

From my house you can walk a big circular route down by the river Avon through the town centre and then back over the river and through farmland. Much of the route follows paths which form part of Route 4 of the National Cycle Network.

I'm not one to condone graffiti (though some of it can be very artistic) and vandalism, but I kinda liked how the spray paint on this way marker looked. The path which runs near the river in town takes you past this 'Millennium Wall' made up on hundreds of tiles decorated by local school children to mark the Millennium. (I will do another post about this wall when I get more time). The River Avon runs right through the centre of town. Plenty of ducks and swans hang out by the town bridge hoping to get fed a slice or two of bread :) A few lucky people live alongside the river.

I liked all of the different roofs and windows in this scene, both real and reflected.

Just as I was about to leave the riverside, it stopped raining and the sun tried to come out. Here she is reflected in the river nestled among some tree branches.

I wonder where my next walk will take me and what I will see along the way?

Demented Caterpillar

The hexagons are starting to come together.

Making the individual rows is quite a quick process but joining them together takes a while. So far it just looks like a psychedelic caterpillar. This one will definitely be a while in the making.

Local Walking - Bencroft Hill

We had quite a bit of rain last week and the grassy slopes of Cherhill were getting quite slippery so I decided to vary my route and do a bit of road walking instead. I'm lucky enough to have some reasonably quiet country roads nearby so off I set.
Even though it was raining when I set out the birds were in the trees singing. Though this picture was taken at 9am the grey skies and bird silhouettes make it look like evening. I wondered what the birds had to sing about on such a grey day but they knew a secret... ... as I turned the corner and hit the country lanes the sun came out. I know some might think that road walking is pretty dull but with hedgerows down either side of the lane you are accompanied by birdsong all the way and you never know what you might see round the next corner.

I love these ramshackle old farm buildings. They are derelict now and all fenced off, due for demolition soon. I'm sure the land will be used for some shiny new houses. I know things don't stay the same forever but it seems like a shame to me. I especially loved this door, and the surrounding brickwork all lit up in the sunlight.
I forgot to take a picture from the bottom of the hill that I walked up. But there was plenty of beauty to see on the way up as the roadside verges were covered in a wonderful carpet of snowdrops. Spring is on the way :) Not a towering hill by any stretch of the imagination but there are some pretty good views to be had from the top none the less. Lucky Cows!
And in the distance a view over to the white horse where I was the other day. Not a great picture but this little cow stood in the dung pile made me laugh :)

It's amazing what some folk have in their gardens. This phone box was filled with garden tools, I've never seen a shed quite like it. It's amazing what you can find when you venture out even just a few miles away from where you live.

Shopping

Don't go in to the local town centre very often, but I took a walk the other day and town was the half way point. I raided the pound shop and came out with this little haul.I'm trying not to spend money, and my goal this year is to destash not increase, but who could resist. Particularly love the giant knitting needles, have no idea if I will ever use them, just loved the way they looked and at such a bargain price I had no will power to resist.

Local Walking - Cherhill

I'm excited to be going on a holiday to the beautiful Lake District in June. Lots of beautiful scenery, fresh air and amazing walking to be had there. I've been so lazy over the winter though and am feeling rather unfit so training starts now.
There aren't really any hills on the scale to be found in the Lakes round where I live, but that's ok, I need to start on small slopes anyway, lol. Not too many miles from me near the village of Cherhill you can take a walk up this hill to visit a white horse that has been carved in to the chalk down.The climb is a nice gentle one for the most part (but still enough to have me huffing and puffing, lol).As well as being able to see the white horse (which is a relatively recent edition to the hill being thought to have been first carved in the 1780s) the hill is home to Oldbury Castle, an iron age hill fort.


Once you get to the top you can wander over, round and in between the ramparts. If you're a big kid like me you can pretend your on patrol, looking out for enemy raiders :) It's nice to think that after all these hundreds of years the hill is still inhabited. I wonder who lives in a hole like this?
As you get to the top you also have closer views of the horse. The path goes right above him, but from there you can't really see much.
Haven't had a shot of my feet out walking for a while. Oh dear my shoe lace is undone, at the age of 33 I still haven't mastered the science of shoe tying yet. ;)

Knitwit

Something new on the needles.Another new (unplanned) project started, doh!

A walk on the Beach

On Sunday I took a trip to the beach. It's been a few months since I've visited the coast so some sea air was well past due. Went for a lovely walk on the Downs at Brean. It was an alternating mix of blue and grey skies.

Here is a view from the Downs across to Birnbeck Pier at Weston Super Mare. As you can see this was the blue skies part of the day.

At the end of the Downs is a Fort originally built in the 1860s, as worries about the strength of the French Naval Fleet grew. It was refortified during the second world war and became the testing site for several 'secret weapons'. This is one of the ruined buildings of the fort. The light was a lot nicer than shown in this shot (still haven't gotten round to reading the manual for the new camera, lol). I also loved this rusty window frame, but it's position made it difficult to get a shot of it in all it's rusty glory.

This next shot shows I needn't have been worried about my bad hair morning the other day. A few hours in a sea breeze makes morning hair look tame :)Before leaving we had a quick stroll down the beach and watched the start of a lovely sunset. The colours were again beautiful, and again my photography was less than adequate. I have to admit that I didn't take the camera out of auto focus mode all day and I was freezing cold by the time the sun was setting (made worse by the giant but very delicious ice cream I'd eaten moments before, lol) so really didn't take the care required to get a nice shot. This one is the best of the bunch.It's way darker than what we actually saw. But lesson learned, more time and effort will be put in next time :)

Granny's Flower

I have stopped raiding the scrap boxes and the hexagons have stopped multiplying (for the time being anyway). They are now sat in a box, having all been sorted and are waiting to be stitched together into a wild and wonderful rainbow cushion.
This one could be a while in the making, there are way over 100 of these things waiting to be stitched together. After sorting them in to some sort of order, I had a few left over. Enough to make a little flower pincushion. There is a dark and a light side, so when I get bored of one I can flip it over for a while and enjoy the other.Although there is less variation in colour and pattern, the dark side is my current favourite but I'm sure that will change from time to time. Stitching here at Angelcat Manor may slow down a bit over the coming days. My wrist is hurting.

I'm such a drama queen, this picture makes it look like I've broken the thing, but really it's only aching a bit and wrapped up in some tubigrip for support :) Have no idea what I've done, only that it's not right. I'm sure I should probably just rest it for a couple of days, but the rainbow of hexagons are clamouring to get out of the box.