To town and back

Hello.

These photo's were taken last weekend on the one day that it didn't rain last month. Well it seemed that way here in North Yorkshire.
We're on our way to town, (when I say town; there is nothing like Boots or Next, just a butcher, chemist, bakers, Co Op, etc that kind of thing. More like a large village but it's the nearest we've got. It's about 17 miles away.) the sun is shining and life is good.
We enjoy making this journey most Saturdays. Simple pleasures.

In the middle of the speeding fuzz you just might make out the village of Askrigg, nestling in the middle of the valley.

Can you see the little hill in the distance?

This is my favourite hill.

I love the little group of trees on the top. I could be wrong but I think it's called 'Lady Hill', I'll have to ask Weaver of Grass, she might know or her husband, the Farmer.

The little village of West Witton. As you can see this is a long linear village.

This is the return journey later the same day. We're coming home on the 'back' road at the other side of the valley.
We like this road. It's especially useful in the summer when the main A road, is used by tourists and bikers. We get LOTS of bikers! They love the loooooong windy road that takes them from the A1 right across the country to the Lake District. Unfortuately the road doesn't always like them, but we won't dwell on that.

The village of Carperby.

The sunshine has certainly gone now.

Still beautiful, but a little more brooding.

Breathtaking scenery

between little stone villages. This one is Askrigg where parts of All Creatures Great and Small were filmed.

Almost home now. The only other vehicle on the road is the local Dales bus. This one had a maniac driver. We thought we'd tuck in behind him as the road from here gets narrow and windy. We thought we'd let him meet any oncoming traffic first since he was bigger than us. But... We couldn't keep up with him! I'm just glad I wasn't one of his passengers!

Hope you enjoyed a little winter wander in the Yorkshire Dales. Nice to get back home in front of the fire.

Till next time.

Fi x

Crochet, crochet and cushions.

Hello my lovelies.

Well the weather hasn't improved in the slightest since my last post. Still very dark, windy, wet and gloomy, but do we care? No, that's just more reason to stay snuggled up at home with some cosy crochet or snuggley sewing.
This little surprise parcel did brighten my day though!

Look at this pretty lavender bag from Hen. It smells wonderful and was very unexpected but greatly appreciated. Thank you very much Hen you made me smile from ear to ear.
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Time to share what's been keeping me occupied indoors this week.

I had an order for two little bunnies from The Balancing Kiwi

So they've now been posted off to there new home.

I've completed these two Union Jack cushion covers. I had the fronts made weeks ago but had gotten to the boring bit of putting the backs on and left them draped over the end of the attic bed since then.
I think I might have to keep one of these for myself, I do like the three different ribbons on them and one day I do hope to have a sofa in the kitchen for them to go on. One day! (I have been saying that for the last two years!)

And lastly I've enjoyed snuggling beneath my 'Accidental Blanket' whilst adding more rounds.
It's getting quite big now.

You can see I've just started a round of yellow. It is taking a long time to get right around now though.
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Well that's all my crafty news so far this week, I think it's time I went and lit the fire in the front room ready for child #2 coming in from school. It's hail stoned about 6 times so far today in between the rain! It's amazing how wet a 14 year old can get in between the school bus and home!

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Keep cosy.

Love Fi x

Keeping Cosy

Hello from a very wet and windy North Yorkshire. Rain, rain, rain. There has been rather a lot of it this week. The children's school and college both had to close on Wednesday due to the awful rain and flooded roads; not surprising really as they are both over the border in Cumbria. My heart goes out to those poor people whose homes and businesses have been flooded in Cockermouth and Workington. It brought back memories of 2007 when Hull and the surrounding area was badly flooded.

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Back then we lived in Beverley which is about 7 miles outside of Hull. I can remember being at work, it was a Monday morning and although I worked in a very busy branch of M&S, the place was deserted. It was raining heavily outside, I could see from the doorway that the gutters on the buildings across the street were overflowing and the drains in the pavement seemed to be bubbling up. It was very eerie and quiet in the usually bustling store, but at the time apart from it being very wet outside we didn't really know why. Then news started to trickle through; colleagues began phoning in to say they couldn't get into work because the roads were starting to flood. Then the water started coming into the store! Water was dripping from the ceiling lights and in the stock room water ran freely down the inside of the walls, computers and stock were hastily moved away. A radio was turned on upstairs in the office to keep us up to date with the flood warnings and more and more staff left mid shift to try and get home while they could.

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I only lived 10minutes walk away from the store, so stayed and finished my shift. I was surprised when I left to find my husband waiting outside for me with an umbrella. Firstly because he didn't usually come and meet me and secondly because he was using an umbrella which I'd never seen him do before. We crossed the road and turned down the next little street and then I knew why he'd walked to meet me. We had to wade the rest of the way home, the water being mid shin deep. I held on tightly to him, and asked why he hadn't come in the car but at the corner of the next street I could see for myself the main road was completely flooded.

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Back home we watched the water rising in the little ditch that ran along the lane at the bottom of our garden, luckily our garden sloped up towards the house so we were OK. My parents weren't quite so lucky; I felt so helpless when my mum phoned to say their garden was completely flooded and they were watching the water rising up the door step and lapping at the door frame. My dad had tried to block the air bricks around the house to stop the water from getting underneath and coming up through the floor. Luckily the water didn't come into the house, but they still needed humidifiers and a large fan to dry out the floors and air space underneath it. They did lose items in the garage which did flood. They still counted themselves very lucky.

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Up until a few months ago there where still static caravans parked in front gardens along the main road to their house. It's taken nearly 2 years for some peoples homes to be habitable again.

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So back to our little corner of the world, wet and windy but nothing too bad. Only one local road impassable but that's clear now. So the best place to be is indoors, all warm and cosy in front of the fire.

With a spot of knitting.

It's not really my thing knitting but I enjoyed doing this.

Have you guessed what it is yet?

BIG, BIG CLUE!

TA-DAA!
A tea cosy with little bobbles around the bottom.

Keep dry and cosy.

Fi x

Knit and Stitch

Hello Ladies, look where Karen and I went today. The Knit and Stitch show at Harrogate. Just a few piccies as there was far too much to see and touch and stroke and oo and ah at to take photos. Sorry but we only had 7 hours!
A bit of a show stopper, a life size sailing boat completely covered in knitting. It was surrounded by knitted pebbles and sea creatures.

We managed a 15 minute lunch break hear in this beautiful theatre at the center of the exhibition halls.

A very blurry shot of the Wensleydale Longwool stand.

Not quite sure what this is but we were allowed to photograph it so I did.

Beautiful hand made note books.

Well that's it as far as photos, many of the stands did not allow photographs and to be honest it took the pleasure out of the day having to ask each time if you could take a photo and then being refused. So I'm afraid that's your lot.

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I do have a couple of pictures of my own latest project to show, but you'll have to pop back again to see them next time.

I'm off to soak my tired feet.

Love Fi x

Sunday

Hello, I'm sitting in the passenger seat of the car clicking away with my camera.

We're popping over to Richmond from Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The sun is shining and it's good to be alive and outdoors.

Would you like to see?

Okay then, not a lot of photos and even fewer words.

Past the barn with the big doors

As usual, the road to ourselves

Bolton Castle in the distance

Left to Reeth in Swaledale or straight up for Richmond. This part of the journey reminds me of Cheddar Gorge.

This is the return journey, notice how the weather has changed

Askrigg

See the mist and low cloud in the distance, must be nearly home!

Home, sweet, misty, wet, home.
Isn't it beautiful?

Cake, Pimms, Cake.

Hello all, come and settle yourselves down in front of the fire.

Tea?

You can have the one on the left as it's stronger and I'm a bit of a one-dip girl.

Cake?

It's fruit cake made at our local deli and tastes delicious.

Right, now you are comfortable I wanted to share this lovely gift basket with you.

Isn't it beautiful?

This thoughtful gift is from Karen over at Milkchurn Cottage. On Friday I 'helped' in her pretty shop. Well, I'd like to think I helped. I'm not sure that I was much help really, but sometimes it's just nice to have a bit of moral support isn't it; someone to chitchat and keep the queue distracted until it's their turn.

Hmmmm...Pimms! You should have been there. Really! You must all come next time! Karen was serving Winter Pimms and Christmas cake at her late night shopping event and I must say, it was scrummy! I'm not a drinker really, which has mostly been a bit of a curse socially, but I did like this.

Look! All the things I like! Lots of pretties, lots of pink, lots of ribbon, a beautiful embroidered cloth and a lovely basket. I wouldn't have put anything different in if I'd done it myself.
Thank you Karen, I really appreciate all the thought that went into this gift, but you really shouldn't have. I'm very glad you DID, but you really didn't have to!

P. S. Okay, okay. I'll come clean. There was something else in the basket that I didn't photograph. You'll remember I mentioned Christmas cake?

Well...there was Christmas cake too... 4 pieces...one for each of us.
AND I ENJOYED EVERY ONE OF THOSE PIECES!

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Fancy an outing to the pretty village of Kettlewell (think Calendar Girls) next time?

See you next time then.

Fi x

HAPPY HALLOWEEN