Trevorrick Farm Stay, part one

It was a seven hour long drive on Saturday from where we live to St Issey just outside Padstow in Cornwall.  The motorway was stop start for most of the way and the weather was very hot, but we made a couple of stops so it was bearable.  

Oliver did the usual kid thing asking are we there yet, only about a million times, lol and we had to tell him how many miles left to go every few miles, apart from that he was no trouble and travelled well, as in we didn't need the bowl, if you know what I mean.

As I mentioned we are staying on a farm which is geared up for kids, but it is most definitely a farm.

Each morning the kids get to go round and feed and handle some of the animals.

We got to take the sheep for a walk too

Can you tell this was Oliver's favourite bit!

There are chickens duck and geese free ranging as well as this fella.

This morning It's  Grandad's turn to take Oliver on the morning animal feed and walk so Nanny can have a hours quiet, (and write this blog post), lol.

Later we went into Padstow a lovely pretty fishing port.  We had a walk around the shops and then to the beach.

I think today we are going to find some rock pools, Oliver is desperate to get a fishing net:-)

-X-

Just a bit of this and that chitchat

Many people say it, and we all know that time passes, but seriously, where does all that time go?   

It's not that I've been any busier than normal really, just more of the same old same old but yet another month has flown by in the blink of an eye.

And talking of time whizzing by, can you believe that it will be Bonnie's 1st birthday in just over a week? 

I just love this photo of Joanne and Bonnie, she is definitely mummy's little mini me :-)
(And Joanne looks so young, you wouldn't believe she was 30 last year would you!)

Joanne has just gone back to work 2 days a week, so now I have Bonnie on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.  She goes to nursery in the morning and as it's literally next door to my office, (or as Google informs me, 167 feet), I collect her just after 8am and drop her at nursery and collect her when I finish work at 1.30.  Joanne's work is in the opposite direction so it makes sense for me to take her and they only live around the corner from us so it's all worked out ok. 

I've been taking Bonnie back to her own house on those two afternoons just because it's easier while she is still small, her toys are there and if she has a nap I can put her in her cot, (I did that yesterday and she slept for tow hours!).  Joanne has very kindly been providing me with my tea so at least I haven't had to mess about with cooking for one when I get back home, fair exchange i'd say :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marlene http://poppypatchwork.blogspot had a give away on her blog a few weeks ago and as I was the only one who actually said they wanted to be entered I won by default, lol.  

I'm sort of glad no one else was in the running because look at all these seeds she sent me

I'm going to be sharing some of them with Joanne as she is planning on getting their garden done next year, so we should both have very colourful displays.  Thank you again Marlene :-)

Marlene has also been sharing photos of her houseplants recently, like me she has a spider plant which is producing lots of little ones.

This is mine

My sister bought this for me when she was getting one for herself, I can't remember if it was last year or the year before but anyway it's done really well and is way bigger now than my sisters plant.

I've given some of the little plantlets away but have more again now and some of them are even producing plantlets of their own, so you could say my spider plant is a granny, lol

Marlene has been taking her baby plants to the charity shop, I never thought of doing that before but as I have quite a few this time I might do that once they are more established.

I've only got another couple of house plants, an Ivy, which I have had for ages (and needs re-potting),
and also a smaller one which came from a little bit that was broken off  the larger one. 

Strange how this one is more variegated than the other.

I have no idea what this plant is, when I picked it up in Ikea I thought it was plastic and was surprised to find soil in the pot.  It's been sitting on my kitchen window ever since, it seems to like it there so i'm reluctant to move it.

House plants seem to have fallen out of favour with the younger generation, of my three daughters only Joanne has any, the other two always say that they can't keep them alive, although I have to say I don't pay any special attention to mine, they seem to thrive better the less notice I take.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My reading is still not what it was at the beginning of the year, I keep looking but everything out there looks more or less the same lately.  I activated my Kindle Unlimited again last month and got Anna by Amanda Prowse.  I know I've been very critical of some of her books in the past, I had one on audible some time ago and she was reading it and in my opinion she should just stick to writing, she just doesn't have the kind of voice to make a story come alive or even interesting.

Anyway, Anna was a really really good book, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, it's still available for free on Kindle Unlimited at the moment.  There is a sequel to the book, Theo where we get to hear his side of the story, I haven't read this one yet, I just picked it up from the library this afternoon.

Rather than writing a review I've linked both titles back to Amazon.  Let me know what you think if you read or have read them.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've been doing some knitting, some crochet and some stitching too but unfortunately no photos because I haven't got round to taking any.  To be honest the only finish is the crochet one and I wanted to take a photo of that in it's setting.  I would be showing 'in progress' photos of everything else so hopefully there will at least be a couple of finishes in August.

Talking of stitching, some of you may know that for the last six or maybe seven years I have been running a monthly cross stitch group at a local community centre.  I've been thinking for a while now that I would like to step down from that and so made a definite decision last month to do just that. One of the other ladies has kindly offered to step in and take over, so it will carry on, we have a lovely group of ladies, some of  them have been coming since the very first meeting so i'm glad it will continue.  I feel I made the right choice, what with all my other commitments I just didn't one more thing to be responsible for, I will continue to go and stitch with them when I can, but now I won't be obliged to go if I've had a busy week. 
Two of the ladies, Karen and Annabelle bought me a lovely bunch of flowers and a card just to say thank you, which was a lovely kind gesture.

We are going on holiday on Saturday and taking Oliver with us.  It will give Jenny a break as she has had the two of them on her own for the last couple of months while James is stationed abroad.  He will be back the week after we come home and I think Jenny will be extra glad to see him!

We are staying at Trevorrick Farm in Padstow, we thought it would be more interesting for Oliver as there are loads of animals and things for the kids to do.  It's been ages since we've had a holiday in the UK, I'm really looking forward to it, we have several things planned to do in the week, including a visit to the Eden Project which I'm sure Oliver is going to love.  Fingers crossed the weather will hold out for us.

I think that's about it for my bit's and pieces catch-up.  Depending on time I might try and do a blog post every day while we are away, I've seen how some bloggers have their posts printed into books and I think this might be nice to do for Oliver as a memento of his holiday with us.  If I do though they will just be a quick post on what we got up to on that particular day, but i'll see how shattered I am at the end of each day, this is not going to be a relaxing put your feet up and read a book holiday :-)

And on that note I shall sign off and say see you soon.

-X-

Using what you have

I've had a couple of plain white Ikea pillows stored in vacuum bags for at least three years, maybe longer.  My daughter gave them to me and I did use them for a while but they were pretty boring really so I stored them away getting them out every now and then thinking I would put them in the charity bag, but couldn't quite bring myself to.

Then I had a thought, (I do occasionally have a good idea).  I could crochet a pillow front :-)

And best of all, it wouldn't cost me anything because I had plenty of Stylecraft sitting there taking up space.

I found a tutorial for the pom pom edging on you tube, I think it was a Bella Cocoa tutorial and I love it!

The second one is a bit more muted but again all yarn is from stash.

I think this one needs pom poms too but Mark said it looks ok without, what do you think?

shall I add some pom poms? maybe on the corners?

A bit miss matched but that's ok for where they will be...more about that next time

The back of both cushions look like this

I sewed the crochet front to the pillow cover by hand because I thought it would be easier than using the machine, and it was.

It was one of those projects that just worked and turned out, (for once) how I had seen it in my mind.

Don't you just love it when that happens :-)

Until next time

-X-

In Threes

I don't usually take any crafting to do when we go on holiday, but this time I did pack some knitting, and I'm so glad I did because this holiday was all about taking it easy and my knitting gave me something else to do when I wanted a break from reading.

I had already completed one of  the In Threes cardigans for Bonnie and I loved knitting it so much that found some more yarn from my stash to take with me and made another two.

The pattern calls for worsted weight yarn but I followed other recommendations on Ravelry and used DK yarn and knitted a bigger size.

This is Stylecraft Bambino yarn in duck egg, it's much nicer than the washed out colour it's coming up on here

This one is knitted in a King Cole Yarn

And the third one, which is in a larger size is knitted in a lovely grey Woman's Institute yarn.

I put the button holes on the garter stitch section on this one and I think it looks much better that way.

The cardigan is knit top down so no seaming to be done.

Where the side seaming would be there is a little garter stitch detail, which I think looks quite nice.

I'm so happy with how these came out and that I was able to knit them from yarn I already had, bonus!

I can see me knitting more of these for Bonnie over the next few years, it such a great pattern!

You can find the In Threes Pattern on Ravelry, it's not a free pattern, but it's good value for money because you get many different sizes.

See you soon

-X-

The kids are alright

Thank you for all your comments on my last post, thankfully little Arthur is doing just fine now, he has finished his course of antibiotics and was discharged from hospital last Saturday.  It was confirmed as a Strep bacteria which could have been picked up anywhere as apparently it is airborne.

He was also due his first lot of vaccinations last week but they have been postponed for a couple of weeks as they don't like doing them when the child has not been well.

Our week away was very relaxing, we only ventured out sight seeing one day when we caught the bus to Ragusa, the rest of the time we spent by the pool reading then a walk to the Marina in the evening for something to eat.  It was just what we both needed.

It's not very often that me and Mark read the same books but we read two the same last week,

The '86 Fix and Beyond  Broadhall by Keith A Pearson.

I really enjoyed both these books, (you have to read The '86 Fix first otherwise the second book will make no sense at all)

I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately but I really enjoyed all my holiday reading.

(If you are interested in any of the titles they are all available on Amazon.)

I will leave you with some photos from our holiday to Sicily.

The beach at Marina di Ragusa

Day out to Ragusa Ibla

Public Gardens at Ragusa

Most of the time we had the pool to ourselves, the beach was very nearby so I can only assume that's where people chose to spend their time, which was ok by us :-)

 I did a fair bit of knitting while we were away, I will share that next time.

-X-

It's been quite a stressful and worrying week.  

Little Arthur has been in hospital for 7 days, Oliver has had chicken pox and we didn't think Arthur would catch it, but he did and he developed a high temperature.  When Jenny first took him to A&E in the early hours of last Tuesday morning she was sent home after being told it was probably due to the chicken pox, but she took him back again a few hours later because he didn't seem to be any better.

And thank goodness she did.  I won't go into everything that happened but he was started on antibiotics and anti viral's right away.   It turns out that he had a Strep bacteria, his infection levels were really high at one point, (in the 70's), but now they are down to 5.  

We are just so thankful that Jenny did the right thing in taking him back to hospital when she did, I shudder to think what might have happened if she hadn't.

He came home yesterday but will be kept on antibiotics for the next five days, Jenny will need to take him to hospital every day for him to be given the antibiotics because they are given intravenously.  She said he is much better, I haven't been to visit him because I have a cold and don't want to pass anything on, so I will have to wait a bit longer to give him a big cuddle.

As I said, Oliver has had chicken pox, he's been ok apart from a couple of off days and he did have a lot of spots, but he is better and back at school today.  

Just before that Bonnie wasn't well for a week, at one point the doctor thought she might have measles but thankfully the rash only lasted for two or three days and her blood test came back negative for measles.  In the end they put it down to a viral infection, she is back to her normal happy self now, although this photo made me laugh, she looks rather puzzled at Nanna taking her photo

As you can imagine I haven't been in the mood for much crafting, I haven't done any stitching on Bonnie's Christmas stocking for about two weeks.
 I did cast on a little cardigan but have yet to finish it.  

We are going away tomorrow, to Sicily, just for a week, usually I don't take any crafting on holiday with me but this time I might pack some knitting along with my books.  

I feel guilty for going away but I have asked Jenny if she wanted me to cancel and she said she is fine with me going, I know that Arthur is on the mend now but I just feel guilty not being here to help her with all the trips to hospital and looking after Oliver, I've had Oliver every day while Jenny and James have been at hospital, Joanne will help out with collecting him from school if needed while i'm away because James will have to go back to base in the next couple of days.

I haven't done my usual round of blog visiting this week, If I get chance while we are away I will try and catch up.

-x-