Easter holidays

A Postcard from April 2026

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Hello there! I hope April was kind to you. We have been blessed with some truly beautiful sunny days with blue skies and they have meant the gorgeous spring blossoms have been looking fantastic. From my own back garden, to walking down the street and visiting a university open day with Son number 2 this month, the one constant has been floral colour and it’s been spectacular.

An azalea in my back garden
Beautiful cherry blossom on a street I walked down
Stunning blossom at Keele University

So here’s what I’ve been up to last month…

Easter Weekend

The month of April kicked off with Easter this year and it was a lovely weekend for us. Eldest set aside some time from his studies to return home and we were able to spend a good chunk of time together which was lovely. We had a family meal (finished off with a gorgeous chocolate cake made by my Mum – Grandma’s Easter cakes are legendary in our household!), we got out for a lovely walk which included some very seasonably appropriate coffee! I made up some cute Easter jar lids for table decorations. The pattern is by @blossom.and.yarn on Instagram and was so easy to follow. This little collection of bunny ears worked up very quickly.

Another University Open Day

One sunny Saturday, I found myself back on my old stomping ground of Keele University with Son Number 2 who is considering it for his next step.

Keele has a very special place in my heart. I spent 3 of the happiest years of my life in this place and have lifelong friends and three very special young men in my life as a consequence of my time there.

I’m not sure if Keele will be his first choice for where he wants to study, but it was so lovely being back there briefly.

Vitamin Tree!

My word, I do love being out in the greenery of nature. We are blessed to have Dunham Massey, a National Trust property in our area and we made the most of the sunshine last weekend to pay it a visit. We got there relatively early in the morning before it got too busy and it was so lovely to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the place.

Big news!

I have been bursting to share this news… last week it was announced that I am going to be a guest designer at The Crochet Sanctuary! My appearance will be in October 2027 – so there’s a bit of time before then. Although I have been designing for over 5 years, this is the first time I have ever done anything like this – so it’s all very exciting!

If you are interested in coming along to join me and everyone else that weekend, you can book onto the weekend here: https://www.crochetsanctuary.co.uk/product-page/october-29th-31st-2027-774-per-person-50-deposit

A visit to Stockport

Early in April, I popped along the M60 to Stockport to visit a fantastic independent yarn shop called Manchester Wool & Yarn! It’s run by Gareth, who I met for the first time at TexStyle festival in March. We chatted then and he invited me to come and visit him in his fab yarn shop to record an episode of Making Stitches Podcast.

I have to confess that despite living back in Manchester for almost 6 years, I haven’t visited Stockport since my return. It was a place we often went to for a mooch around the shops when I was growing up, but it had fallen off my radar of late. I keep seeing posts about the vibrant independent shops which have sprung up in the town centre, and it was high time I returned!

It was lovely to actually see Manchester Wool & Yarn in real life after seeing so many of Gareth’s social media posts! It really is a delightful shop, packed full of beautiful yarn and lots if gorgeous hand dyed skeins created by North West yarn dyers.

Do please pop in if ever you are in that neck of the woods – it’s so nice.

And as for my podcast chat with Gareth, that came out last week – you can listen to it here!

Podcast news

The first podcast episode I released in April featured the amazing Anna Nikipirowicz, a hugely talented crochet designer, who is passionate about crochet, mosaic crochet, Tunisian crochet and embroidering on crochet too.

You can find her episode here.

And, of course there’s Gareth’s episode too! (Link to listen if above).

That’s all from me for this month, thanks for stopping by!

If you have a bank holiday weekend in your part of the world this weekend, I hope you enjoy it!

Lindsay x

A postcard from April 2022

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Quarry Bank Mill at Styal

Hello there and welcome to this latest Postcard from April – if a little late! It’s a teeny look back at what I got up to in April and as spring has sprung well and truly round here, it meant spending a lot of time out in my little garden.


Where we live we are surrounded by streets and roads filled with trees. I believe the local town planner back in the 1930s believed that there should be a tree planted for every person who lived in the district, so we have him to thank for all the lush greenery around here.

One of the side effects of having so many trees about is that they drop their seeds in autumn and as I discovered last spring (our first in this house) those seeds produce dozens and dozens of tiny seedlings in our pebble driveway. This is just one handful of seedlings picked during about 10 minutes one afternoon – there are approximately 124 seedlings there. I reckon in total I’ve pulled up at least 200 – which would have left me with a jungle or even a forest between our front door and the pavement! It’s no trouble really and rather therapeutic, although they can be hard to spot against the pebbles, and are easy to miss.

Fence panel painting before & after (left panel is painted, right panel isn’t)

Also in the garden, I decided that this year, it was time to give the fence panels a treat. Thankfully the previous owner had left a partially used pot of fence paint, so I was able to set to work straight away once the mood took me. Once I ran out of the original stuff, a quick trip to the local DIY shop had me back to work. One day over Easter weekend I managed to paint 15 fence panels. I was a little tired that evening!

I also thought the shed could do with a treat, despite painting it last year, it was looking a little tired. So that got a coat of paint too along with a new trellis and a new honeysuckle which I bought from the local allotment which was having a plant sale. It’s more than doubled in size since this picture was taken!

Birthdays

There were two birthdays in the household in April. One was a big one as Eldest turned 18 – eek! I have no idea how that happened. I’m just mentally preparing myself for the fact he’s going to be leaving home (all being well) in September to go off to University. Not sure how I’ll feel when the time comes….

Another birthday I celebrated last month was the 2nd birthday of Making Stitches Podcast – but more on that later….

Psyduck (minus his tuft of hair/feathers)

I was invited to a special 21st birthday party last month too. Special in that it was 2 years late. A very good friend of mine has a lovely son who turned 21 in April of 2020, at the time a party had been planned and of course lockdown happened so he had no celebration at all. In fact his parents only managed to deliver a cake to the driveway of where he was living and sang happy birthday from the car, before driving home.

Unlike certain other people, he didn’t have a party….. that was until this year, when, two years later than planned, family and friends were able to get together for a better-late-than-never celebration. Oh, and the amigurumi I’m holding above is Psyduck (a Pokémon character – in case you didn’t know). This young man was a huge fan of Psyduck when he was younger, so I made him one – albeit with out the tuft of hair he’s supposed to have because I left it to the last minute and forgot to in the rush! But the recipient was happy and the party was a great night.

Easter holiday trip out

We are very fortunate to have a few really great National Trust properties close to where we live. One of those is Styal Mill near Manchester Airport. Our great friends and neighbours across the road were going for the day, so I took youngest along with me (the other two were otherwise engaged) for an Easter treasure trail and picnic on a lovely warm and, at times, sunny day.

We hadn’t been for a few years – it’s so easy forget what’s down the road isn’t it? But I’m so glad we had the invitation to join our friends. The kids had fun and ran off some energy whilst learning about the industrial revolution and leeches (on the tour of the apprentice house). It had particular resonance for my young man because the mill was actually used as a location for the filming of the new CBBC drama Dodger, which he had very much enjoyed watching.

The grounds were looking gorgeous and the picture of spring with tulips galore and azaleas too – the rhododendrons were just about to explode into colour too.

A trip down to London

As mentioned before, Eldest has his sights set on University for later this year, and last month was invited for a look around one of the Unis on his list. I tagged along so I could see where he might be disappearing off to. Blimey, universities have moved on a lot since I was at one! The services and support are so much more sophisticated than I can remember, which certainly put my mind at rest as a slightly anxious parent. Another positive of the day trip was plenty of time for hooky on the train!

Podcast Update

In podcast news, as well as celebrating 2 years of Making Stitches Podcast, I released a couple of new episodes. Episode 42 was ‘Crochet-tastic’ and packed full of crochet chatter featuring a conversation I had with Hannah Cross of Hanjan Crochet and another with Amanda Bloom formerly of Little Box of Crochet and now from Cosy Life Boxes about her amazing fundraising efforts for Ukraine with her ‘Blanket of Hugs’ for Ukraine appeal. You can find a link to the episode here.

Hannah Cross of Hanjan Crochet (l) & Amanda Bloom (r)

Episode 43 was bright and colourful (if you can do that with sound) and featured the lovely Clare Albans from Hello Hooray Blog about her creative journey from music teacher to hand-embroidery designer and small business owner. Last year, Clare was able to open her own bricks and mortar studio and haberdashery shop thanks to a Kick-starter campaign. You can find a link to that episode here.

Clare Albans from Hello Hooray Blog

And that’s just about it from me for this month. I have been working on a few crochet projects behind the scenes but I hope to be able to share them with you very soon, and I’m still working on up-coming episodes of Making Stitches too.

I hope you have enjoyed this little look back at April in my world and that it hasn’t been too boring for you! I hope you’ve had a good month too.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and until next time, bye for now!

Lindsay x

Sunday Postcard #25 11.4.21

~ Making Stitches ~ 7 Comments

Hello! I hope you’re doing ok. It’s been a funny old week hasn’t it? The last one of this stage of UK lockdown and the news being dominated by the death of Prince Philip. I can’t imagine what it must be like to lose your partner of more than 70 years. My thoughts are with the Queen and her family.

Closer to home, we have tried to make the most of our Easter holidays in spite of a mixed bag of weather. As I looked out of the curtains after midnight last night – it was snowing here in Manchester!! No sign of the white stuff this morning though. Here’s a little look back at our week…

Easter cake

We had such a lovely Easter weekend last week, the weather was kind to us and the eased restrictions meant that we were able to spend time with loved ones who we hadn’t seen for too long. To celebrate, my Mum made this yummy cake! It was delicious!

Easter Monday walk

Despite a forecast of snow and ice, we woke up to more stunning weather on Easter Monday and made the most of the sun with a walk around fields near our home. Little did we know, the snow and cold weather would still be heading our way…

Snowy treasure trail

Lymm Cross

Last summer, we went on a treasure trail around the centre of Manchester as an activity to get us out of the house amid the severe restrictions we were facing. During the recent months of lockdown I have long wished we could do another one, as there are several within easy reach of where we are in south west Manchester.

On Tuesday, despite the grey skies and the drop in temperature, we paid for and downloaded another treasure trail – this one for the nearby village of Lymm in Cheshire. It took us along paths we had never visited before and taught us a little about the history of the place. In spite of the snow and cold, it was a fun afternoon!

Slittern Brook

We were glad of the hot drink back at home though!!

If you fancy a go at a treasure trail yourself, you can find them here. (This is not an advert! We just enjoyed it and thought you might too).

Bridgewater Canal in Lymm

Latest project

This was supposed to be finished by Easter, but life and lack of room in my brain to figure things out have got in the way of creativity. Hopefully, she will be making an appearance soon!

Reacquainted with an old friend

Tatton Park

On Friday morning we headed into Cheshire to visit a place I haven’t been to in years – Tatton Park. Unfortunately we were too late to book to visit the gardens, but we did get the chance to wander around the deer park. It was lovely, in spite of sibling bickering and a passing snow shower!

The aviation geek amongst us was even able to watch the planes taking off from nearby Manchester Airport and passing overhead.

New garden delights

Cherry plum (Prunus)

One of the joys of seeing a new garden wake up for spring is the delight of watching new things appear. Just two weeks ago, this small tree was simply a tree with new red leaves, now it is covered in the most beautiful, perfect, white blossom! It’s definitely a keeper!

It’s been fun to be able to get out and potter about in the garden. I was also able to get my brand new lawnmower out for a spin and potted on a few seedlings. Fingers crossed the threat of frost passes soon so I can actually plant them out in the garden soon!

Second National Trust visit of the week!

Footpath from Dunham Massey to Little Bollington

So yesterday we managed to get into our favourite and nearest National Trust property- Dunham Massey. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t great and we were only able to get a parking entry for late in the afternoon. We managed a short walk in the park and then out towards the village of Little Bollington before the rain and sleet came!

Heading back into the park

We didn’t hang around for long once the sleet arrived – it looked set to stay (and it did). Never mind, it was a nice trip out to see some green space!

That’s all from me for this week, I hope the coming seven days are good to you. A couple of our household are particularly excited about the prospect of going clothes shopping next week before returning to school. I think my standards have dropped since Covid first started because I’m not bothered about clothes – it’s yarn shops I want to get into!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lindsay x

Sunday Sevens #79 16.4.17

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Happy Easter Sunday to you. I hope that however you are spending it, you are having a happy time. We have enjoyed some gorgeous spring sunshine this week, although today the sun has abandoned us as things are looking rather murky and misty at the moment.

Here’s this week’s Sunday Sevens…

A return to the Med Steps


Our trip back to the U.K. as well as other things have got in the way of me climbing the Med Steps of late. On Sunday I had absolutely no energy at all, I think it’s a combination of a couple of very busy weeks and hay fever kicking in (which is unusual for me), but after a very lazy morning I hauled myself up the Med Steps and felt much better for it.

I’m supposed to be doing the Med Steps 5 challenge next month and according  my training schedule (aka Mr Postcard) by last weekend I should’ve been doing twice round. I didn’t, so the jury’s out on whether I’ll be able to manage 5 times round this year…

The Steps are looking very spring-y with wildflowers blooming all over. On my walk back down the Rock, these apes were putting on a good show for the tourists near St Michael’s Cave.

Easter holiday fun


We’ve been doing a tour of Gibraltar’s parks this Easter holiday, first Commonwealth on Monday, then Europa Point on Tuesday… we went back again the next day too! I didn’t eat ice cream on every visit… I promise 😊.

Raising the roof


Mid week saw a bit on excitement on Queensway as traffic was given a front row seat to a very delicate operation. The roof of the one remaining gatehouse at the entrance to the Dockyard was lifted off so the structure could be dismantled and rebuilt on another location nearby. The contractors hearts must have been in their mouths as they watched the roof raised and swung round to another place after over 100 years in the same spot.

Lent Crochet


I made a pledge to crochet a square every day through Lent so that I could create another blanket for the Sixty Million Trebles project. The project aims to raise awareness and funds about the plight of refugees around the world through crochet. My pile of squares was getting bigger but would I succeed in completing the blanket by Easter Sunday?? I’ll have to let you know next week.

Five minutes of peace…

On Good Friday morning I found myself in town, quite early on, killing time before picking up a Little Postcard from an activity. I think it was the first time I had actually been alone (apart from the Med Steps trip) since school broke up for the Easter holidays (barring the shower and trips to the loo – although they invariable involve a knock on the door from someone). I thoroughly enjoyed my coffee with my crochet in hand watching Main Street spark into life around me.

More peace and quiet…


Later on Good Friday I got the chance to go back up the Med Steps, and this time I managed it twice round for the first time this year! I’m so pleased with myself, it’s a bit of a milestone to cross and I didn’t feel half dead at the end of it, so potentially I could have done some more had time allowed. Now I feel a lot less anxious about the Med Steps 5 Challenge which is fast approaching next month. 

This picture features a photo from each circuit of the Steps. I noticed this pretty honeysuckle was out on the road back down the Western side. It looked so pretty, sadly it had no noticeable perfume, but perhaps it comes alive in the evening.
Lunch with a view


Yesterday we enjoyed beautiful spring sunshine. We went round to Catalan Bay and met some friends for lunch. It’s at times like this that we are reminded how lucky we are to live here.

Thank you so much for stopping by, and hope that the coming week is a good one for you.

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins blog

A day trip to Ronda, Andalusia 

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Ronda is a small city in the mountains just an hour or so inland from the Costa del Sol. On our trip along the coast last week, we decided to take a drive inland and up the steep winding mountain roads to explore this fascinating place. I have visited several times before but it was a first experience for the rest of the Postcard family. We were blessed with clear blue skies and warm sun, and the old town centre was looking it’s best for us.

As you can see, the town centre sits astride a deep river gorge which drops 100 metres below (not a great place for vertigo sufferers) and is dominated by the rather misleadingly named Puente Nuevo (or new  bridge) which was completed in the 1790s.

On each side of the bridge, the buildings line the gorge, holding tightly to the edge. Imagine washing the windows of those! Not for me thank you!

  
Aside from the beautiful old New Bridge, the main tourist attraction, as in many Spanish towns is the bullring. This one is thought to be one of the oldest in Spain and holds a museum dedicated to the ‘sport’ and its history as well as to the Matadors as well.

Not being fans of bull-fighting we chose to sidestep what was on offer here and walked past it onto the gardens beyond and the most impressive view.

A hop, skip and a jump through the small gardens and you open out onto a viewing platform and balcony which isn’t for the faint hearted. But my, the views are stunning.

The buildings down below looked so far way!

It’s only when we were a short distance away and looked back to see where we’d been standing that we realised what we were standing on…. very little! Holy moly I wouldn’t have been so keen to lean on those railings and poke my camera lens through had I seen this first – probably for the best!

Then we headed across the bridge…

… which was thronged with tourists (apparently Easter is a very popular time to visit Ronda)…

…and pootled along the road taking in the beautiful architecture.


I hope I’m not boring you here, but those who are familiar with my blog will know I’m rather partial to old buildings!

Just get a load of these gorgeous old windows and doors with their wonky shapes and well worn appearance. Check out this pair of door knockers!

We ended up in a beautiful square with more than its fair share of churches. It so happened that we arrived dead on midday and all the bells in the various steeples started chiming. Each one was louder than the next as they fought to out do one another! It sent the roosting swifts flying out of the eaves of the old church roofs in panic. It was quite a thing to experience.

  
 

It was so pretty – and noisy!

  
  

Our return to the bridge and our carpark in the more modern part of Ronda took us up some lovely alleyways. Presuming they were too narrow for traffic, imagine our surprise as we were forced to jump out of the way for a horse and carriage which was coming towards us carrying tourists! I didn’t catch that moment on camera as I was too busy grabbing children and hauling them out of the way!

  

This building caught my eye, it’s a hotel – isn’t it beautiful?

  
I had been really looking forward to visiting Ronda again, and it didn’t disappoint. We spent a few hours there wandering about and getting a bite to eat. Ideally it would be a perfect grown-ups only weekend away destination as not only are there many interesting museums to explore, the countless shops we walked past on our way from and back to the car park looked really worth investigating. Little legs were feeling the strain though, so we though it best to make a move back to our home for the Easter holidays before the complaints got out of hand. Perhaps one day…

  

I would highly recommend a visit – there’s so much to see. My only advice if you aren’t a fan of heights – don’t look down!

  

 

Sunday Sevens #25 3.4.16

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Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series created by Natalie at Threads & Bobbins. It features seven photos from the past seven days, if you fancy joining in pop over to her blog to find out more.

The joys of a kids club 

And relaxxxxx! This week, we took advantage of the school holidays and drove along the Costa del Sol to just beyond Marbella for a fantastic week. We stayed close to the resort for most of our stay as it had many of the things we needed, a park, an indoor family pool, peace & quiet, easy access to the beach for walks – and best of all, a kids club. 

Most days, one or two of the little postcards decided to partake in the entertainment it had to offer for an hour or so, and twice, yes, twice all three spent an hour there AT THE SAME TIME! That mean time off for Mum & Dad – hurrah for holiday!
 

Nocturnal chess 

Also on the resort is this giant chess set, it really captured the imagination of our youngest and we had regular chess matches under the tutelage of our eldest (I haven’t got much of a clue about chess I’m afraid). The nocturnal one we played on our second evening was the most exciting for the littlest grand master.

Beach walk

 

We were blessed with beautiful weather – what better thing to do than have a leisurely stroll along the beach. It was so nice. Only one child fell into the sea (fully clothed) so I see that as a victory.

Dragon blossoms

 
Very close to where we were staying there was a beautiful tree covered in a blossom which looked like little dragons. I have never seen anything like it before – it was just beautiful and against the deep blue of the March sky, it was stunning.

A trip into the mountains   
We didn’t stay put completely at our holiday base for the whole duration of our stay. We ventured out to the shops at Marbella and on Wednesday took a drive up into the mountains to visit the beautiful town of Ronda (more on that coming soon).  It was so nice to escape to a place so totally different to what we’re used to. Long winding roads climbing up through forested areas and past rock falls, the valleys stretching out below us and huge birds of prey circling in the skies above. It reminded me a lot of holidays to the Highlands of Scotland (apart from the weather – sorry Scotland).

Crochet on the beach 

  

Ooh get me with my holiday nail polish! Well, as you can see, so far this week I have filled my cosy stripe blanket sized hole with two new projects. A rainbow coloured scarf and a magenta amigurumi dinosaur. The latter began life on the beach this week after the happy news that a friend of mine delivered her healthy baby girl this week. Will I get it done in time to give to the new arrival before she takes her driving test? Watch this space!! 🙂

Sunset on our last night…  

 
We are safely back home in Gibraltar now after our lovely Easter break away from home. We didn’t really stray that far, you can actually see Gibraltar in the picture above (which was taken from our resort). If you follow the horizon from the left of the shot, the first ‘lump’ (apologies Gibraltar) is the Rock and our home. We did give her a wave regularly to remind her we would be returning soon. And here we are, another week done, another family holiday to look back on and it’s back to school tomorrow. 

It’s a milestone for me, because our littlest postcard begins 5 days of full-time school tomorrow. So for the first time in almost 12 years, I will have five full days per week, child-free. Imagine that? I guess I’ll have to do a bit more crafting then… Until next week, have a great one!