Month: December 2020

Sunday Postcard #17 27.12.20

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Hello there! I hope you have had a decent Christmas – it’s been a strange one hasn’t it? Just like probably everyone else, we had a quiet one seeing limited people, but it was nice nonetheless. Now it’s the countdown to the end of the year and all that 2021 will bring – good things I hope!

Here’s this week’s Sunday Postcard…

Del Boy…

Last Sunday as Littlest and I popped out for a walk to deliver the last of our local Christmas cards, we were stopped in our tracks by a certain yellow Robin Reliant belting out music and shouting happy Christmas messages to bemused looking passers-by! It was quite a sight!

A Manchester Bee for our tree

As I picked up the last few last minute gifts for Christmas I happened across a fabulous selection of stalls in John Lewis in the Trafford Centre called Curated Makers. It’s a cooperative of local makers who create the most lovely crafts of all sorts. I treated myself to a Manchester bee for our tree. You can find Curated Makers on Instagram.

A pre Christmas walk at Dunham Massey

When we first arrived in Manchester in the summer I imagined that we would be regular visitors to our nearest National Trust property ‘Dunham Massey’ however because I didn’t have a National Trust membership at the time and because of lockdown that didn’t happen until this week. I treated us to a NT membership and booked for us to visit the deer park and gardens. It was wonderful.

The grounds were decorated for a special after dark Christmas experience but we enjoyed it in the daylight.

It’s such a lovely tranquil place and was managed so well by the staff and volunteers to be Covid safe. We will be back again soon if we can.

Christmas visitors

When we first moved into our new home in October, we bought a bird feeder for the back garden. It’s been rather unloved by our feathered friends so far but this week there were sparrows and thrushes fighting to get to the seed! Word must have got out that there were tasty treats available! I look forward to seeing many more birds in future!

Finished for Christmas?

‘Christmas Eve’ blanket from The Crochet Sanctuary

Did I finish my Crochet Sanctuary Christmas CAL in time for Christmas? Sadly not, but I am on the final part, so I’ll take that as a win! I’m hoping I can manage to get it finished before the end of the year if I possibly can.

Happy Stitchmas in podcast news!

On Christmas Day morning the latest episode of Making Stitches went online. This extra long bumper Christmas episode features several different makers sharing their ‘Stitch Stories’ from 2020. Among my guests were Eleonora from Coastal Crochet and Lisa & Lynda-Rose from the Crochet Sanctuary as well as four Making Stitches listeners who spoke to me about how their crafts have helped them this year.

You can listen by searching for Making Stitches on your favourite podcast app or just Google Making Stitches.

Thank you Eleonora!

Eleonora is top middle of the above mosaic

My lovely blogging friend Eleonora from Coastal Crochet published the most amazing blog post today all about Making Stitches! I’m utterly thrilled and chuffed to bits that she did this for me. Do please have a read…. you can find it here.

Eleonora’s Instagram post from today featuring Eleonora in a rather lovely red coat on Christmas Eve!

And that brings this week’s Sunday Postcard to an end. Thank you for stopping by. Do take care of yourself, and I’ll be back again soon. Happy New Year when it comes.

Lindsay x

Sunday Postcard #16 20.12.20

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Hello there, thanks for stopping by. Before I begin this Postcard, I just want to say that I know this coming few days is going to be difficult for many people this year more than ever. Following the announcement yesterday of even tougher restrictions in parts of the UK, many people’s plans have been left in tatters.

I’m really sorry if you have seen your Christmas plans reduced or even cancelled, or if your work situation has been rocked even further after this turbulent year. I don’t know what I can say or do at this point other than say you are not alone, even if you are physically isolated. Do reach out if you need someone to talk to.

Now to the usual tripe! Apologies that this year I’m not sharing uplifting photos of the blue skies and seascapes of Decembers gone by in Gibraltar… my location has changed this year to a rather greyer but no less friendly and happy Manchester in spite of everything that’s going on. Here goes…

Final flat pack delivery

Finally after almost 2 months of living in our new home, our final furniture delivery of 2020 arrived a couple of weeks ago. Eldest now has a desk for his homework and I have a bookshelf for my crafty books – hurrah! That means several more boxes have been unpacked. They are getting less and less!

Keep on running!

My Couch to 5k training is continuing. I’m pleased to say I have now passed the point at which I stopped last time. Having a training buddy with me is a huge boon and makes us deliberately schedule in our runs, plus now we can hold a conversation most of the time too, so it feels like less of a chore! I snapped a brief bit of sunshine on one of the morning training sessions last week.

A Postcard birthday

We had a family birthday earlier in December – it gave me the chance to bake an old fashioned Victoria sponge with buttercream & jam filling. Yummy!

Christmas lights

There are some super examples of Christmas decorations in the streets near where we live now. I am planning on taking the Little Postcards on a nocturnal walk to see them as soon as we get a dry night! I love Santa in the camper van and this house (below) has Santa projected onto an upstairs window complete with “Ho ho ho!” sound effects!

More baking

It’s just as well I’m running at the moment – there’s been a lot of cake-age going on Chez Postcard lately. Middle Postcard has been having to do his Food Tech lessons at home so last week was Swiss roll. The last time I made a Swiss roll I was at school!! It turned out alright. Although I would have preferred jam as a filling to chocolate spread – the chef had the final choice naturally.

Model making

In addition to baking there’s been model making on the go too. This is a waterfall which had to be produced for an end of term geography lesson. Hours of work went into it, I’m still finding paint splatters in the kitchen!!

Empty Malls

I had to make a trip to the Trafford centre last week for a couple of Christmas bits. The joy of living close by means I can be there when it opens and before the hoards arrive. It was a successful trip and I was able to leave just as it was getting busy.

Crafty bits

I got some very unexpected happy post this week… this pack of Scheepjes yarn and a super case of Knit Pro crochet hooks. I recently renewed my subscription to Simply Crochet magazine which had elapsed this year while we were moving about from house to house. I had received the magazine for several years while living in Gibraltar but as an overseas subscriber I never received a subscription gift. This time I did! Woo hoo! What a treat – thank you Simply Crochet!

Strictly Crochet…

Wasn’t the Strictly Come Dancing final glorious last night?! In the words of the great Craig Revel-Horwood, it was “Fab-u-lous”. The only problem was I had to keep stopping my crochet to give the dances my full attention! I love that Bill & Oti won – they were my favourites after Caroline & Johannes left.

So what was I working on whilst watching Strictly? My Crochet Sanctuary Christmas blanket CAL. Will it be finished by Christmas this year? Who knows? I’m trying though… I’m over half way…

Don’t look too closely at the unorthodox bobbles near the top… I did one bobble row 4 times because I kept miscounting it and getting it wrong, so when I discovered later on that I’d missed 3 bobbles a few rows back I couldn’t face unraveling and added them afterwards. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone!

Podcast News

Agnis Smallwood – weaver & educator
(photo credit: Joanne Crawford)

Last Friday I released another episode of Making Stitches Podcast featuring a weaver called Agnis Smallwood. She spoke to me about how she first got into weaving, her enjoyment of passing the skills of weaving and other crafts onto her students and how she found colour inspiration in her lockdown veg patch. You can listen by searching for Making Stitches on your favourite podcast app.

And that brings this Sunday Postcard to a close. It’s been a funny old run up to Christmas, and my mind keeps being taken back to the many Christmases we enjoyed in Gibraltar. We may not be there right now, but it will forever stay with us, just as our Christmas tree is reminding us.

Wherever you are in the world, I hope you have a peaceful Christmas and are able to find joy in these coming days.

Take care,

Lindsay x

Sunday Postcard #15 6.12.20

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Hello there, happy Sunday to you. Wow, we’re in December already. I heard someone describe this year as the fastest and longest year of all time and I have to concur. It’s been a strange one hasn’t it?

Although all the signs are that we are on the countdown to the end of the year and lots of Christmas lights keep appearing, I can’t say I’m feeling too festive yet – are you?

Here’s this week’s rather short Sunday Postcard….

Fresh start

So, around this time last year I embarked on a Couch to 5k programme and made good progress until life got in the way on put paid to it. Recently though I’ve been giving a lot of thought to starting it up again. In the meantime, I’ve been doing quite a bit of walking locally with a very good friend of mine (one of our walks was by the River Mersey a few weeks back which featured in a recent postcard). Then out of the blue she asked if I’d like to join her with doing couch to 5k? That was the incentive I needed. I got my trainers out of the box and we are 3 runs and 1 week in already. I’m desperately hoping I make it further into the programme this time!

Frosty starts

We had frost this week and slippery pavements and icy puddles. Winter is officially here! It was remarkable in our house because it’s the first time Littlest has knowingly experienced ice and frost. He spent his first Christmas in the UK visiting grandparents but after that we decided to stay at home in Gibraltar over the festive period, meaning our UK trips would only happen during the ‘warmer’ months of the year. (He’s desperately hoping he’ll see snow at some point before too long).

Needless to say the crunching leaves were a huge novelty for him, and for me too to be honest. I’m loving watching how the seasons are changing, it gives a real rhythm to life in a way events always did when we were living in Gib.

Festive yarnbombing

Some of the local churches where we live are putting on a festive yarnbomb. They have been looking for volunteers to knit and crochet angels and for those who can’t knit or crochet, they’ve been asked to make peg dolly style angels. They are going to be adorning lamp posts very soon.

Never one to be able to turn down a request to get my hook out, I’ve abandoned my Crochet Sanctuary Christmas CAL this week and been making little Christmas angels. They will be flying off to a lamppost very soon and hopefully make someone smile.

Clear blue skies

Yesterday was a busy day in our local town, it was the first Saturday post lockdown number 2 and also the day of our monthly artisan market. The traders (most of whom are crafts people and others who produce their own edible products) have had a rotten year, so we headed down to join the very long queue to get in.

Last night we enjoyed some gorgeous local pies for dinner and a couple of Christmas gifts have been ticked off the list. I forgot to take a photo of the market – which was run expertly and safely – so this is the photo of the sunset taken at 3pm (yes, that’s right – 3pm) as we headed back to our car. Not sure we’ll ever get used to these dark afternoons and evenings again!

That’s all for this week, I hope this one has been a good one for you all things considered. I believe it’s been rather cold and wet back in Gibraltar while we experienced ice and some sleet too. We’re certainly missing those Gibraltarian mid winter evening sunsets!

Take care and have a good week. Thanks for stopping by!

Lindsay x