frayed at the edge

A stroll in the garden

Our garden isn't big enough to have much of a stroll in, unlike the garden we visited on Sunday afternoon.  After visiting the Barn, we went a short distance down the road to Sizergh, a fine medieval house.  As we had some time to wait until we were able to see inside the house, we had a long walk round the wonderful gardens

 

we kept getting glimpses of the house

 

unfortunately photography wasn't allowed inside the house, but if you are holidaying Cumbria,  I can recommend visiting Sizergh.

 

This morning we headed off down the road to Stitchin' Heaven.  Malcolm dropped me off at the shop and went off for a day of beachcombing.  I handed over Leanne's House, delighted to have finally finished it (after approx 200 hours work!).  The pattern is available on the website

 

Annie was working on her stunning applique blocks.  She is calling her version of the quilt Baltimore meets Kyoto, as a lot of her fabrics have Japanese patterns

 

when I arrived, Anne had just received a parcel containing a teapot and matching mugs.  If you are having a good day, it is ........

 

........ but if it's a bad day

 

I may have come home with some fabric - I'll show you tomorrow.

 

Fun at breakfast!

Thank you for all your commiserations about our disappointment with Woolfest!  Both Gilly and Thimbleanna left comments saying that we weren't the only ones who didn't think it was as good as previous years.  Never mind, after having lunch in Cockermouth and dinner in Keswick, the next meal we had was breakfast at the excellent B&B.  It was the most wonderful breakfast, with sausage, bacon, eggs, mushrooms and toast.  But as well as enjoying the food, we were also entertained by a young Japanese couple ..... we think they were on their honeymoon.  They obviously didn't speak much English ...... and also obviously hadn't encountered a cafetiere of coffee before, as the boy (he looked much, much too young to call him a man) tried to pour it without having depressed the plunger.  Having been a Brownie and a Guide, I performed my good deed for the day, and showed him what to do.  They started breakfast with a bowl of porridge ..... judging by the face-pulling, I don't think they liked it very much.  Then they had smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, which was fine ..... but he had black pudding with his and she had vegetarian sausage ....... I think they had just ticked boxes on the breakfast menu without knowing what it was!

 

After breakfast, we headed to Lower Sizergh Barn.  There is a wonderful farm shop, crafts for sale, some beautiful (but expensive) clothing, and a lovely tearoom where we only had a cuppa, as we were still full from breakfast.  But the best bit was the farm trail ..... we didn't walk round all of it, but look what we found on the stretch we did walk

 

we then went to ........ but I'll tell you that tomorrow, as there are still lots of photos to share with you, and I haven't yet shown you what I bought in this shop in Keswick (well, I did have all that money that I didn't spend on wool!)

first was this wonderful tin

 

which was filled with mint cake

 

the nougat is for Malcolm, as is the bag of milk chocolate orange thins on the left, with dark chocolate mint thins on the right for me

 

you know that I love to get parcels from afar .........

 

....... and just look what was in this one!

 

you can find the shoes here

Somewhat disappointing!

Oh dear, what can I say?  I found this year's Woolfest to be a bit of a disappointment.  We got there early, so we had breakfast before it opened, and being among the first in the door, I was able to take photos without having someone getting in the way

 

some of the stalls which have been there in past years were absent, and some of the new ones just didn't have anything really exciting on offer!  One major improvement on previous years was that the gents toilet had been temporarily designated as a ladies so there wasn't the usual horrendous queue (there was a temporary toilet outside for the men).  But as always, for me, these were the highlight of the morning

 

yes, I did say of the morning, because we left just before lunchtime. We were going to go for a cuppa, but couldn't get a seat in the main restaurant, or out in the marquee, and when we went to the stall in the main hall, we were told we would have to wait ten minutes to get a cup of tea!  So what did I buy ....... I didn't buy any wool, as I kept thinking of all the wool that I have bought in previous years and haven't yet used (I can't believe I was so sensible!) ...... so all that came home with me was this set of exceedingly cute stitch markers

 

we headed off to Cockermouth for a bite of lunch and a stroll round the town, then took the scenic route to Keswick where we had booked a B&B for the night

 

we were delighted to find that the B&B matched up to the images on its website (if you click on bedrooms, then look at bedroom 1, that's ours)

 

we went out for dinner to a small Italian restaurant.  We were so hungry we had aready eaten some of the garlic pizza bread which we shared for a starter, before I thought to take a photo!

 

for his main course Malcolm had a very spicy pasta dish

 

and I had chicken and bacon risotto

 

both meals were delicious ....... and we were so full, we didn't have room for dessert.  We went for a stroll round the town, and I was able to take some photos which I couldn't in the afternoon because it was so busy!

 

we had a busy day on Sunday before heading back home ....... I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

But to finish ........ fanfare and roll of the drums ......... the winner of the little givaway.  Or, winners, because there are two!  They both forgot the same thing, and when you read what it was they forgot, you may think that they should be punished not given a prize!!  Sarah admitted that while under pressure sitting exams, she forgot her mother's birthday, and Meredithe admitted that when planning their first overseas trip, she didn't just forget her mother's birthday, but her 70th birthday!  I have decided to share the Herdie stitchmarkers with them, and there just might be a little something else in the parcels!