Summer holidays

Summer Craft Challenge 2016 Part 7 

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Day 43 : Saturday 20th August


I made up for the crafty inactivity of our journey home last Friday by cracking open my watercolour paints. I’d intended to take them on holiday with me but forgot to pack them! I missed them… I also managed to finish a very small rainbow scarf for Littlest Postcard too. 

Day 44 : Sunday 21st August

Another day, another new project… This one’s for Middle Postcard (apologies little man I can’t think of a better pseudonym for you). He chose the yarn and asked for a winter hat. Having failed to find a suitable pattern online I’m making it up as I go along… Let’s see how this turns out 😉

Day 45 : Monday 22nd August


It’s beginning to look less like a big blue & green boob and more like a hat. Hurrah for that! 😉

Day 46 : Tuesday 23rd August

It’s finished! One completed bobble hat = one happy Little Postcard.


I’ve had loads of fun working on this – can you guess what it is?

Introducing Llanita the Gibraltar Yarndale sheep. Llanita will soon be jetting off to the yarn festival in Skipton, North Yorkshire, known as Yarndale. Along with hundreds of other handmade sheep, she will be auctioned off to raise much needed funds for Martin House Hospice. 


Baa!

Day 47 : Wednesday 24th August


A day at the beach in Sandy Bay meant portable crochet was required. A few circles were hooked up on the sand.

Day 48 : Thursday 25th August


If sewing name tapes into school uniform counts as craft, then here’s what I was doing yesterday. So far, with three new sets of school uniform for three Little Postcards all going to new schools, I have sewn in 13, just a gazillion left to do!

Day 49 : Friday 26th August


Back on Day 12 of this challenge I tried, and failed, to have a go at free-motion machine embroidery. After posting my failed attempt on Instagram the lovely Karen at Wakeymakes, Shiela at Sewchet and Laura at Holly’s Kitchen came forward with great advice. 

I am now the proud owner of a special presser foot for the job and know how to drop the feed dog on my machine to it doesn’t chew everything up. What has now become evident is the fact it’s not as easy as it looks…. Practice, practice, practice is required. I’ll keep you posted, but it could be some time before I produce anything worth showing so please bear with me.

Another Dino


Do you remember the little Dino I made back in Part 2?  Well the little baby boy he was made for arrived safely and this little chap has moved in with him so I can show him to you now (his Nana reads this blog so I had to keep him under wraps).

That’s it for this latest week of my craft challenge and it’s the penultimate one for me as the school gates reopen in Gibraltar on 1st September. Thanks for joining me on my crafty journey through the school summer holidays. 

Summer Craft Challenge 2016 Part 6

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Day 36 : Saturday 13th August


I know I’d only been working on this blanket for 8 days when I took this photo but there’s an awfully long way still to go!! I have crocheted every day so far and have used a complete ball of white wool edging the circles so far. As one Instagram and blogging friend Wakeymakes pointed out at least I’ll have good memories of the different locations where I’ve made all of the squares 🙂

Day 37 : Sunday 14th August 


Time for a spot of slow Sunday morning stitching at breakfast time…

Day 38 : Monday 15th August


It was the turn of the Little Postcards to be crafty on Monday morning with a pottery painting session at Gallery Thea in Southwold. This effort was a lighthouse, just like the one at Europa Point, by the Littlest.


Did you know that Monday was Granny Square Day 2016? Here’s my contribution to the collage blanket collated by @suregal27 on Instagram. I only had a few colours with me on holiday so I used the colours in my current blanket WIP. 

Day 39 : Tuesday 16th August


A new chunky wool project was begun on a boat on the Norfolk Broads. We hired a day boat and chugged around the Broads for about six hours, it was really lovely. I have run out of my white wool for my blanket WIP (cue : shock, horror, teeth gnashing) so I had to start something new that was portable. Littlest Postcard saw this rainbow wool in a wool shop last week and asked me to buy it and make him something. He’s getting a scarf if the wool lasts long enough…

Day 40 : Wednesday 17th August


We loved it so much at Rendlesham Forest last week that we made a return trip. We had a lovely woodland walk and I enjoyed a quiet few moments of crochet while Littlest Postcard enjoyed the adventure playground. 

I was also able to collect our pottery productions from Gallery Thea, they had rushed our painted bits and bobs through the kiln in time for us to pack them and take them back to Gibraltar with us. Littlest’s lighthouse came out really well 🙂

Day 41 : Thursday 18th August


One last pint of Adnams Spindrift sitting on the South Green in Southwold on the last night of our holiday.  We’ve had a wonderful two weeks here and are sad to be saying goodbye…

Day 42 : Friday 19th August


No craft today I’m afraid, for the first time this summer craft challenge I haven’t picked up a needle, hook or brush. This was our last glimpse of Blighty as we flew home to Gibraltar (I think we were near Southampton when I took it). Eleven hours door to door, we’re a little jaded, normal service will be resumed tomorrow…

A postcard from Walberswick

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Earlier this week we were joined by six other members of the Postcard family and took a short trip across the River Blyth from Southwold to Walberswick. For the princely sum of £1 you can be rowed across the river, but we were traveling in such a large group that we opted for four wheels rather than two oars to get there.

It’s a picturesque and peaceful spot popular with families who were out enjoying a bright summer’s day.

Walberswick is famous for something other than being pretty…. crabbing. It’s the home of the World Crabbing Championships after all, so we thought we’d have a go.  Armed with bait (bacon), a crabbing bucket, net and several crabbing lines we set off on a crabbing adventure.

After a long wait with our lines, we got a nibble, we got 3 or 4 in fact but each time we tried to pull the line up and out of the water the crab let go and plopped back into the water. Eventually, one of our party waded into the shallows and scooped up the ultimate prize in the net… a crab!!!

A neighboring family had much more success with a multitude of crabs, fish and even a bucketful of jellyfish. 

After Crabby the crab was returned to his home, we walked back towards the village centre – there are crabs everywhere round here!

And we ended up in this gorgeous little place nestled behind the Bell Inn. It’s called the Barn Café.

I had a gorgeous lunch of locally bred pork pie – delicious!

In the loos of the neighbouring pub there were crabs there too!

After lunch a short stroll took us into the village centre with its lovely village green.

Ooh it’s so pretty here with thatched cottages and gorgeous little gardens.

There are a few small shops selling local crafts, cakes and souvenirs.

We really enjoyed our trip to Walberswick- it was a treat for all the family.

We even brought a crab home with us!

A postcard from Southwold 

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Unless you are completely new to this blog, it won’t have gone unnoticed that we are currently on our summer holidays at Southwold in Suffolk. It’s a beautiful English seaside town which has loads of charm and character. 

It’s famous for its beach huts, lighthouse, beach and pier as well as the Adnams beer which is brewed locally. Mr Postcard grew up quite nearby, so Southwold has been a regular venue for day trips for us many times over the years while in Norfolk and Suffolk visiting his family. This time, however, is the first time we’ve actually stayed in the town. 

I thought we had probably seen all that it has to offer in the 20+ years we’ve been coming but I was wrong, one and a half weeks into our stay we are still finding quaint alleyways and new places we have never seen before. 


Would you like to join me for a look around? 

Southwold Museum

The little museum seems like as good a place as any to start… Manned by volunteers and open for just two hours a day it holds all sorts of relics from the towns past.

From figureheads from boats to fossils and mammoth teeth.

It has all sorts of bits and bobs relating to the town’s past, this little display was connected to the town’s tailor which is still operating as a clothes shop known as Denny’s. Whether they’ll make you a three piece suit out of tweed in this day and age, I’m not sure.

There were also lots of items relating to the religious life of the town with fragments of stained glass windows from the church of St Edmund’s which was close to a direct hit by German bombs during World War II.

Church of St Edmund’s

The church is home to Southwold Jack, a figure who strikes a bell with his sword. He was once part of a clock and chimed the time. He is an emblem for Southwold and even appears on the bottles of beer produced in the town.

It’s a beautiful big church…

There’s a fair amount of needlework on display here; in the choir stalls…

And in all the pews.

Riverside & harbour

Beside Southwold lies the River Blyth which offers the town a natural harbour. Here you can catch a ferry (rowing boat) across to the picturesque village of Walberswick on the other side.

It’s a really beautiful spot. We took a walk along the riverside on evening on a quest to find somewhere to have dinner. We were lucky enough to see a seal swimming in the harbour.

Along the riverside lie many black huts belonging to the fishermen who work these waters.


After a very pleasant walk we found ourselves at the Harbour Inn and enjoyed a lovely meal outside with the Little Postcards as the sun went down.


The Sailors’ Reading Room 

The Southwold Sailors’ Reading Room is a really special place. It’s a kind of club for sailors but it’s open to the public to visit for free. It’s filled with photographs of sailors from years gone by and photos, paintings and models of their boats too. Cameras are not permitted inside, so I can’t show you the interior but it really is worth a visit. 



Lighthouse

The town is dominated by the Trinity Lighthouse. Nestled in amongst the terraced cottages and next to a pub, it’s open for visitors to climb the many steps to the top to look out across the sea and coastline.

RNLI

The RNLI has a strong presence in Southwold. In summertime there’s a lifeguard station and all year round there’s a lifeboat station, manned as always by brave volunteers. There’s even a museum dedicated to the great work these amazing people do and have done over the many years they’ve been on duty here. 

On our first day here, we were lucky enough to see a display by the local lifeboat and the larger lifeboat (below) from nearby Lowestoft. As you can see, hundreds of people turned out to see the event from the cliffs and the beach as the lifeboat crews staged rescues of surfers, a fishing boat crew and swimmers.

The town 

The town of Southwold itself is beautiful. It’s filled with many independent shops including great food shops, a big favourite of ours was the Two Magpies Bakery (my waistline will testify to that fact!)


Behind the town lies the common complete with it’s two striking water towers, and also currently, the circus.


There are so many beautiful buildings lying up alleyways and tucked away off the beaten track.

Oh, and there’s a brewery here too… I think I may have found a new favourite tipple 😉

If you should happen to be in this neck of the woods, I would really recommend a trip to Southwold. We just can’t help keep coming back for more…

Sunday Sevens #44 14.8.16

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We’re still on our summer holidays in Suffolk and have had a really lovely week. The weather has been kind to us most of the time and we’ve been able to get out and about a lot, here’s a few of the things we’ve been up to:

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside…


I had the prom to myself on my Monday morning run. It meant I could ogle the gorgeous beach huts without feeling too self conscious. I have long been an admirer of these little wooden huts in all their gorgeous rainbow colours…

We’re going to the zoo, zoo, zoo


We had a lovely day out at Kessingland Africa Alive Zoo near Lowestoft. The sun shone (most of the time) and we saw loads of lovely animals. Two of the bravest little Postcards got to hold millipedes at the minibeast presentation. Apparently they tickled… Needless to say I was too squeamish to attempt such a thing 😉

Paddling


We got up bright and early one morning and almost had the beach to ourselves. We had a few hours there before heading off to do other things. One of the joys of staying close to the beach has meant we can have several shorter beach trips rather than committing to a whole day there. 

Transport Museum


As one of the Little Postcards is an avid fan of all things public transport related, we often pay a visit to the East Anglia Transport Museum at Lowestoft when we’re in this part of the world. There are trams, trolley buses, a steam train, buses galore and a steam powered road roller. 

Manned by enthusiastic volunteers the museum is an interesting day out for young and old alike (even those of us who don’t get over excited by such things 😉 ).  It’s really well maintained and the collection is constantly being added to and restored. A great favourite for us was the ‘Half-decker bus’ which was designed to hold more passengers than a single decker but still be able to fit under low bridges:


The staggered seating areas were like small train compartments and really cosy. The central corridor led to both upper level and lower level seating. It was a really ingenious use of space – shame this is the only example of this kind of bus still remaining today.

The Cathedral of the Marshes


The church of the Holy Trinity at Blythburgh is striking as it rises above the marshes of the Blyth estuary. Known as the Cathedral of the Marshes, a church has stood on this site for 1400 years. It has a stunning carved wooden ceiling with angels running the length of the roof. The cemetery is a wildlife sanctuary which is maintained in such a way as to promote both the plants and creatures which live there. We always stop and pay the church a visit on the way past, it’s really tranquil spot. 

Rendlesham


We headed to Rendlesham Forest for a lovely woodland walk on a very sunny morning last week. It is such a beautiful place, one we have never visited before. It was the site of a series of famous UFO sightings in 1980 and there’s a specially marked out UFO Trail you can follow to see where the sightings were. Aside from the extra terrestrial side of things it’s a really lovely spot.

For the love of lemon bonbons 


There’s a lovely old-fashioned sweet shop here in Southwold and we have found ourselves drawn to it a couple of times. I have reaquainted myself with the delights of the bonbon on this holiday, rhubarb and custard flavour were very nice but my all time favourite has to be lemon… Yum!

I hope the last seven days have been kind to you. Thank you very much for stopping by!

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series featuring seven (whoops eight again this week 😉 ) photos from the past seven days. It was created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins blog, check her blog out if you want to find out more.

Summer craft challenge 2016 Part 5

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Day 29 : Saturday 6th August 


Making circles while sitting outside the Red Lion at South Green in Southwold. We drank Adnams Spindrift out of plastic glasses in the evening sun, the perfect end to a sunny summer day. 

Day 30 : Sunday 7th August


Another Adnam’s beer to accompany my circle making on Sunday evening. I am on holiday and I’m supporting the local brewery so I think it’s a good thing… food miles and all that 😉 Slowly does it with this blanket…

Day 31 : Monday 8th August


Making the most of a few spare moments before heading out for dinner by squaring a few circles.

Day 32 : Tuesday 9th August


Early morning on the beach and we were lucky to have much of it to ourselves. While a major feat of civil engineering was begun (a sand fort with double walls) I set about on my first pink circles for my current blanket project.


Back at home with a cup of tea in the late afternoon, once the cloud rolled in and made the beach a bit too cool the cross stitch beach huts made another appearance. 

Day 33 : Wednesday 10th August


Making a few more Fondant Pink circles while sitting in the driveway of our holiday cottage waiting for Little Postcards to wake from their hire car slumbers… Silence was golden but it didn’t last too long 😉

Day 34 : Thursday 11th August


A spot of evening crochet before heading to bed 🙂

Day 35 : Friday 12th August


Time for a colour change on a picnic in Rendlesham Forest.

And finally…


Do you remember the crochet wreath I was working on last week? Well it’s finished and has arrived at its new home so I can reveal it in all it’s glory now. I think it turned out ok 🙂


A postcard from Liverpool 

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Last week we took the train to Liverpool to visit more friends who once lived in Gibraltar but have since moved back. I have been to the city a couple of times before but not since being a teenager so for me it was almost like visiting a new place as so much has changed.

We arrived at Liverpool Lime Street station in plenty of time to meet our friends and then headed off to explore. The buildings we were met with from the start were imposing and grand.

Although all was not as it seemed… Liverpool Central Library appears old on the outside:

And stunningly modern on the inside. This is an atrium with the Wow-factor! 

I had such a ‘proud Mum’ moment (not) as the Little Postcards gazed up admiringly at the beautiful glass dome above and said “Oh look up there you can see the seagulls’ bottoms!!!”

Moving on… down below in the heart of the library’s atrium were paper sculptures:

Poor old Julius Caesar was a bit under the weather.

These are two of six large sculptures created by students at Birmingham City University to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death.

Our friends then took us into the children’s library…


Have you ever seen a kids’ library like that?? It was just amazing. As well as a lime green and purple colour scheme, ramps and neon lighting it had loads of comfy seating areas where you could just curl up with a book and read. There’s also a stage and events are held there during the school holidays. What a great resource for the children of Liverpool.

Next stop: Liverpool Museum with it’s pterodactyl skeleton waiting to great one very big pterodactyl fan. We were all blown away by how large it was! Glad we weren’t around to see the real thing!!

Another highlight was the aquarium, where the Little Postcards were able to find not only Nemo, but Dory as well.

There was even an exhibit featuring the current fixation in our household… Pokemon.

I know it’s not real but this spider moved when you walked underneath it… urghh!

After visiting the museum, we walked through the newly developed Liverpool One area to reach the River Mersey.

These fantastic barges can be hired to sleep in!

On the river side we found these ‘Love Locks’ which are placed on the chains to symbolise everlasting love and in memory of loved ones who have died.

Away from the Mersey, we walked into Albert Dock. 

The Victorian buildings are very atmospheric even though they are filled with shops and restaurants.

I can’t send a postcard from Liverpool without mentioning the Fab Four. This Beatles mosaic was created using more than 1,5000 jellybeans. It’s displayed in the window of a sweet shop in Albert Dock.

After afternoon tea at the Tate Café we headed back towards the city centre.

We passed the iconic Liver Building and the International Slavery Museum, that’s somewhere I’d like to visit on a future trip to the city.

Back through town and past the Radio City Tower to Lime Street Station and our train back home.

Our time in Liverpool was short but we had a great time. It’s such an interesting city with so much to explore, we must return before too long to discover more…

Sunday Sevens #43 7.8.16

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It may be our summer holidays at the moment but we’ve packed a lot in this week: three train journeys, two big cities, two woodland walks and two trips to the coast (one on the Irish Sea, the other on the North Sea).

All aboard!

The Abbotsfield Park Miniature Railway is a must-do destination on our stays in Manchester. Myself and my brother were regular visitors to the Sunday-only train track and it’s grown in size over the years. 

Manned by enthusiastic volunteers who charge just 30p each for a ride around the circuit of track. It’s great value for money and really good fun. I may have to borrow some children when mine are too old to be interested in it any more so I can still go for a ride 😉

Sale Water Park

I’ve not visited Sale Water Park in years so we made the most of a dry sunny afternoon and headed there for a waterside woodland walk. 

Another train trip…


Monday morning meant another train trip for us, this time it was a short hop over to Liverpool to visit some friends (another family who once lived in Gibraltar and  have moved back to England with work). We had a fantastic day out visiting museums and seeing the sights. The trip deserves a whole post of its own so there will be one on its way soon.

Dandelions


I’ve not blown a dandelion clock for years. It was 12 o’clock apparently. The Postcard family did their bit for dandelion propagation at the local park.

A trip to the beach…

It’s August, we’re on our holidays – let’s go to the beach! We drove to Formby Point National Trust on the Lancashire coast to see the sand dunes and red squirrels. It was rather windy and we got well and truly sandblasted. My face was tingling hours later! We had a lovely walk though through the pine forest and it stayed dry so I’m not complaining.

A long journey 


On Friday morning we were up with the larks and off on the next leg of our trip. Mr Postcard checked Bunny into his health farm and flew to join us the night before. 8am saw us in central Manchester catching the train south & east. By late afternoon we’d finally arrived in beautiful Southwold our home for the rest of our holiday. 

RNLI Lifeboat week

The RNLI celebrated lifeboat week off the beach at Southwold yesterday. The local lifeboat crew was joined by the one from nearby Lowestoft and rescued surfers, swimmers and fishermen from peril in the dramatic display. The great weather brought crowds to the beach and the promenade above to watch the spectacle. What an amazing job these hero volunteers do. 

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins blog. It gives bloggers the chance to link up and feature seven photos from the last seven days. To find out more about it, pop over to Threads & Bobbins for more info. 

Until next time, thanks for stopping by 

🙂


A postcard from Cheshire

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Last Saturday, we made our now traditional annual trip to Marbury Park in Cheshire for a picnic and woodland walk. I’m a huge fan of the Cheshire countryside, having grown up nearby and enjoyed many trips into the lush green countryside as a child.

Now, every summer when I come over to visit my parents, we make the trip to Marbury on a dry and hopefully sunny day for a chance to wander through the woods, look at nature and for the Little Postcards to collect many sticks.

Marbury Park is part of the Northwich Woodlands so there are loads of beautiful trees to enjoy, from baby fruit trees planted near the ranger’s office to mature beech, oak and birches. It really is a fantastic place for a wander and even though we visited on a Saturday it wasn’t too busy.

The park path takes you through the woods to the edge of Budworth Mere, a home for much wildlife.

We stood and watched the ducks and coots paddling about and other birds further out diving down into the water for food.

This swan family with two cygnets were lovely to see.

Budworth Mere looking across to Great Budworth Church
The countryside here is just so different to what we are used to in Gibraltar. It’s so vibrant and green. I love it… 

Another tradition of ours is to try to stick coins into this tree stump on our walk. There have been quite a few Gibraltar coppers sunk into this over the years, yet there never seem to be many there…. 

The woodland walk eventually joins the banks of a canal before opening up into fields and then looping back to the starting point.

This lovely bright butterfly was enjoying the nettles as we past. Despite many warnings, two of the Little Postcards got stung and dock leaves needed to be found to deal with the casualties.


After a picnic lunch in a nice grassy area close to the car park (which we had to ourselves for most of the time) and several games of football, we got back into the car and headed homewards via the picturesque village of Great Budworth, who’s church we saw from afar across the Mere.

You see those stocks in front of the church? Sadly there was only room to put two of the Little Postcards in them and not all three! 😉

Throughout the village was a Scarecrow Trail. We had a go at finding some of them ourselves.

St Mary & All Saints Church, the beneficiary of funds raised by the scarecrow trail

Would you like to see some of the scarecrows? Clearly an awful lot of thought and effort had gone into making them all.

Scarecrow baker with a 90th birthday cake
The theme for many of the scarecrows was the Queen’s 90th birthday celebrations.


Beefy, the beefeater
This scarecrow soldier had had a bit too much to drink!
 
Of course, you can’t have a birthday party without the guest of honour…

‘Lizzie’ with her corgi
Aside from the scarecrows, Great Budworth is a really beautiful place to visit. We have driven through many times on our way to Marbury Park, but this is the first time I have ever stopped to take a closer look.

This building is so lovely, it even has hearts built into the brickwork!


What a great use for a disused phone box: a book crossing point.


After the excitement of the scarecrow trail, it was time to head to our last destination, Great Budworth Ice Cream Farm…

There was such a great choice of flavours, but I had to go for my all time favourite; chocolate. 🙂


It tasted as good as it looks.

And here are the lovely ladies we need to thank for that fantastic ice cream… moo!

If you want to read about our trip to Marbury Park and the ice cream farm last summer, click on this link: Daisy chains, buttercups & damsel flies I promise that I took different photos this year even if a a few look very similar 😉

Summer Craft Challenge 2016 Part 3

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Day 15 : Saturday 23rd July 


A new project and a new location… Saturday was our first full day in Manchester and the first day of our ‘summer holiday’. As all loose ends had been darned in on my ongoing WIP before I left Gibraltar, it was time I cracked open a new ball of yarn and got cracking on my next project. This is another gift, but I have almost two weeks to complete it so no pressure 🙂

Day 16 : Sunday 24th July


Sunday’s crafting session was a family affair. I continued with my crochet I started the day before and two of the Little Postcards began their summer sewing projects. One is of landmarks in London worked in cross stitch, the other is a football tapestry worked in long stitch.  

Day 17 : Monday 25th July


Flower making on a cross country train to visit special friends who used to live in Gibraltar 🙂 …. Who now live in:

Spotted this gorgeous crochet sign in the restaurant we are dinner in – isn’t it gorgeous? 🙂 It has pride of place at the top of a community notice board.

Day 18 : Tuesday 26th July

We had such a busy day out having fun with friends that the only crafting I managed was just before bedtime. I sewed these two little flowers together which I had crocheted on our train trip the day before. Not much to show I’m afraid but a brilliant day was had by all, Mums and children alike 🙂

Day 19 : Wednesday 27th July


Another train journey – this one taking us back up north to Manchester meant time for leaves to go with all those flowers made on the southbound journey. Once the leaves were complete, this little pile of #woollyheartsforyarndale got their ends darned in and a few buttons attached. They’ll be winging their way to Skipton very soon 🙂

Day 20 : Thursday 28th July


My wreath base is complete. I just need to add the flowers & leaves.

Day 21 : Friday 29th July


I cracked open my summer holiday cross stitch picture today. It’s a lovely summery beach scene, so the big question is – will I finish it be the end of the summer? Or more likely by the end of the decade? I’m a bit slow at cross stitch as a rule, time will tell… I have never stitched on coloured Aida before and I found stitching blue thread on blue material made my eyes a bit funny even in bright daylight. The jury’s out on whether it’ll be a success or not.