Creake Abbey

August is awash with family birthdays and, in an attempt to find somewhere different to source gifts, I had a jaunt up to Creake Abbey Studios to see what I could find.   Very little, sadly, in the way of gifts - there is a small courtyard with maybe five or six shops and a huge food hall with lots of lovely looking grub, but the choice of gifts wasn't totally suitable for what I wanted.

Feeling a bit disappointed, but noticing a sign to "abbey ruins", I decided to go for a walk instead and was immediately excited to see proper ruins!   All too often, abbey ruins mean a couple of crumbling walls, but this was the real deal.

 

This place is a real find and I don't remember ever having seen anything about it in tourist info?   When Finn and I head off to Burnham Overy Staithe for a walk on Holkham beach, we actually drive past Creake Abbey, although it's set well back from the road which would explain why I've never seen it before.  I'm thinking next time we head to the beach, we're packing a picnic and stopping here for a break on the way home.

Tada! "Einstein A Go Go" Laptop Pouch

There has been a distinct lack of "tada" posts lately - that doesn't mean I haven't been making anything, it's just that everything I've been making is for other people - birthday or Christmas presents - and I don't want to put pictures up before the recipient sees what I've made!  

This laptop pouch is the first thing I've made without a pattern - I used the quilted bag template and tried to work it out from there.  The fabric is a sample sent to me with an order I recently made through Mode Fabrics in Hong Kong - at first I was perplexed as to what I could make with geeky robot fabric, but Amanda has a work laptop which came without a case.  Perfect match!  

Alnwick Rose

I am very lucky with my garden - both with the shrubs that were in residence before I moved in, and with the plants that Mum and Dad have helped me choose since.  That's not to say that everything has worked - but, being a gardener, you learn quite early on to have no sentiment with something that's clearly wrong.   There's no point nurturing a plant if you really don't like it!  

One of the best value shrubs I have is the Alnwick Rose, which I bought on my Northumberland jaunt with Amanda back in February 2007.   It was originally planted in a pot in the garden of my cottage in Hardley Street - those gardens were communal and we each had our own patch, but which wasn't exclusively for us. And, at that time, I was quite nomadic so all my plants were in pots and could be easily transported.

However, once I moved to Norwich and had a garden totally of my own - how many other people wait forty-two years to have such a luxury?! - Mum insisted that we take it out of its pot - which to be fair, it had completely outgrown - and plant it in the soil.   Scary stuff.   And since then it has thrived to the point that I have to keep giving it a haircut as it is trying to escape into Geoffrey's garden next door!   It's enormous!   Mum was here last week and made her usual garden inspection - stand by your beds! - and announced that the Alnwick Rose could NOT be left like this for one more year.  So I have my instructions and this winter, it is going to be cut back to just two feet tall - it's currently nine or ten!   All being well, it will then not be quite so leggy, but should be much bushier - hopefully still with the amount of flowers it has each year.  

If it all goes horribly wrong, I can see another trip to Alnwick Gardens on the horizon!

Lilies

Autumn has come very early - I think probably because we've had such a long and fantastic summer.  So it now feels a bit gloomy - it's starting to get darker early in the evenings, we're all back in coats and sturdy shoes, and the colour is draining away from the garden - apart from a few odd gladioli which have appeared from nowhere.   I took these photos of lilies back in July - they last for so short a time but more than make up for that with their brilliance while in flower.

They're also reliable for providing a burst of colour each year and never disappoint.  The garden has been rather overgrown this year - it's been mostly too hot to get out and work when I need to - but I'm planning on a major haircut for the garden over the winter, which will hopefully give these beauties more room to shine next year.  

A Shoal of Ganseys

For our summer outing with Knitters with Attitude, six of us headed off to Sheringham on the Norfolk coast to a knitting exhibition at the Sheringham Mo Museum.  Although knitting was involved, it was basically just a jolly for the girls to get away from their menfolk for the day and cause madness and mayhem around Sheringham and Cromer.  In fact, I'm wondering whether we'll ever be allowed back in the Museum, or the wool shop in Cromer for that matter?

Over seventy "ganseys" (or "guernseys" - fishermen's jumpers) were on show around the museum, decorating the lifeboats and the exhibits.  

The jumpers all showed off different patterns and they were special to the fishermen that wore them, showing family symbols - marriage, how many children, etc, etc - in the intricate patterning.   This wasn't just for decoration, this was for practical reasons too - if anyone had been washed overboard, the victims could be identified by their sweater pattern.  

One thing that really struck us was the unfinished ganseys - these were started for fishermen who had, before the jumper was finished, died.  It was considered bad luck to finish the jumper and give it to someone else - so they were just abandoned.   It was also considered unlucky to have a green jumper - the ganseys were generally knitted in navy, cream, grey, stone, although I'm happy to report a rebellious red was on show too.

The museum is really cool actually - there's plenty to keep people occupied, with individual little "stores" laid out where we all got a bit sentimental for the "olden days" - one store repaired umbrellas and this led to quite a rant on my part that everything is so disposable nowadays that you wouldn't even THINK of repairing your umbrellas, you'd just bin it and buy another.   What has the world come to?!  

It wasn't all doom and gloom though - the names of the lifeboat crew had us in stitches.  I'm very pleased to report that a Long and a couple of Farrows were part of the crew - but I have never heard of a To Ra Ra Bombdeeay as a name before - I rather like it!

This one really captured our imagination - the pattern is called "flags" and was so intricate that we wondered whether it had actually been knitted by hand or machine.  Jury's still out.   But we spent quite a bit of time in front of it, trying to work out the pattern for ourselves.

There is a gallery around the top of the museum and we could then see all the ganseys laid out over the benching and decking of the boats.

On the gallery, there was an educational corner set up - with a couple of computers showing the history of the ganseys, plus a lot of samples of the patterns, so you could work them out for yourself - if you had the patience.   I loved the fact it was pretty hands on and inclusive.

So feeling inspired and not a little daunted by the prospect of making a gansey, we headed off to the shop where knitting books and wool were procured - it will be interesting to see at which point the first gansey (or socks potentially) is revealed to the monthly meeting?   If at all!

So a KwA outing would not be complete without a trip to a wool shop and a yarn squish - and, with that, we headed off to Cromer - ostensibly for lunch at the Rocket House, but not without a trip to the wool shop first.  (And, indeed, after lunch too!)  

As part of the 100 year First World War commemorations, Cromer churchyard had sown thousands of poppies around the gravestones - and it was beautiful to see in the sunshine.

A lovely, educational day out for the group and we really need to plan more, ladies!

Birthday - 47 again!

August is the month of long school holidays, sitting in the garden, seaside trips, ice cream, fish and chips, harvesting summer fruit and veg, and, most importantly, my birthday!   I like birthdays, although I don't particularly like the thought of getting older, so I have decided to suspend time and, forever more, will be no more than 47 years old.   I liked 47 so much, that I have decided to stay there!  

This year, the Knitters with Attitude had a jaunt to the seaside at Sheringham and Cromer (to be written up in a separate post as there were a LOT of photos!) and, because it was my birthday, I acted the spoilt brat and decided what we were doing and when!   The power!  

The weekend started off well when I was presented with these beautiful flowers by some of my work colleagues.  Oh, and chocolates too.   And, because I'd rubbed blisters on the way to work - why, oh why, did I wear new heels on my mile and a half walk to work? - I rang Amanda in desperation to ask for a lift home - which also saved me having to carry home half of Kew Gardens!   (Amanda, weirdly, gave me the best part of a pea and ham quiche too - but apparently that was not a birthday present.)   And, then when I got home, I found the most enormous gift bag in my recycling bin - it was a day of surrealism clearly - and when I opened it up, I had a fab Cath Kidston flowery rucksack (which you can just about see on my shoulders in the picture above) from Rachel.   Lovely.

I am very good and always save up my cards and presents for the 2nd, even if they're given to me early - so, early on Saturday morning, I opened up a fab parcel of prayer flags - I reckon I have about eighteen metres of flags to get up in my garden and I can't wait.  Unfortunately, I've had to so far because, despite my best efforts, I really couldn't erect them on my own and, every time I've had someone over to the house, the weather has been shocking.   Watch this space for the prayer flag story .....

Mum and Dad gave me a toolbox - which I had specifically asked for.  I'm starting my new sewing course in September and all the other ladies have toolboxes to keep everything neat and at hand.  For my first two terms, I've rocked up looking like a bag lady with everything in carriers, so now I will be in the gang too.   Mum and Dad also gave me some spending money which, no doubt, will go on fabric or wool.

The celebrations continued for a few days actually - Shannon presented me with Yoda at our knitting group on Wednesday ... and love him, I do!  If I don't get a Yoda hat for Christmas, I will be mightily disappointed!

And Mum also celebrates her birthday the same week as me, so she was dutifully sung to (although not necessarily in tune) and presented with a birthday cake.  I love the fact that she's holding the cake while winding wool in this photo!

Dead Parrot

Last year, the Monty Python team announced that they would be doing a live farewell gig at the o2 Arena in London this July.  Predictably, tickets sold out in seconds.   I had been really keen to get tickets for Andy - as the show was to take place on his birthday.   Because demand was so high, five more shows were rolled out and, again, tickets went too quickly for me to get any.   Big disappointment, but tempered with the knowledge that the last show would be broadcast (mostly) live on TV and in selected cinemas around the country, so we would get to see it.

Fast forward to July this year and we had a fab surprise while sitting outside the Anchor in Stanwell Moor on a sunny Sunday afternoon.   UK Gold, the TV channel showing the gig, had commissioned three designer/ sculptors to build the Norwegian Blue dead parrot which would be used in all trailers for the gig, before heading around the UK on tour.   Those three sculptors had built the parrot in the barn of a local farmer - in Stanwell Moor!   Not only that, but those three sculptors were sitting outside the pub with us waiting for the transporter to turn up to take their precious cargo to the South Bank - and we got to see it all and have a beer with them.   What a privilege!

The builders then dashed off to their respective cars to follow the truck and set up the installation at the South Bank.  Just an excellent afternoon and caused hours of merriment and mirth and dodgy old Monty Python reenactments all evening!