Back home from Vienna this is how every day starts for me.
I had to prepare for Woolfest with much making.
Here’s my stand.
Woolfest is a super event which I’ve done four times now. I’d decided that this would be my last time and I think it was a good decision.
It was very, did I say, very hot. I didn’t do as well as usual with my wares , but I still enjoyed it. I met up with lovely Aileen Clarke and her family for a meal , and I stayed in the usual gorgeous B& B in Cockermouth.
I worked on the garden and it did its thing.
Towards the middle of the month we visited my dear and very close cousin who had just discovered she was ill.
My Mum and I visited her and had a lovely afternoon. I took lunch, which she said was all her favourite things.
She gave me a Birthday Present but also gave me a little Flower Fairy fridge magnet of the Sweet Pea fairies, which she said reminded her of the two of us when we played together as children.
For my Birthday I received from various people, an obelisk , a passionflower plant and a large pot to put it in with a mini obelisk to support it.
At the end of the month we went to stay in the Cockermouth B&B that I’d been in for Woolfest.
It was so nice I wanted to go with B .
We stopped in Ravenglass en route and had a ride on Ratty the little train.
I pointed out to B that many people have romantic wedding anniversaries in The Seychelles or Paris, and we were on a little steam train in the Lakes.
But we both agreed we were really enjoying ourselves even when the heavens opened and we had to dive for cover at the station in Dalegarth, and then make sure we got into a covered carriage for the journey back.
During the stay we ate at the beautiful Kirkstile Inn, and the fabulous Asparva, Turkish Restaurant in Cockermouth. We visited Lanercost Priory where I lit a candle for my cousin and wrote her name in the prayer book.
We went to fabric factory shop near Carlisle and took the scenic route back,
On the way home we called into Grasmere where a friend of Bs was giving a little pre- concert concert with the new ground ‘Stir Ye Girls’, in the Storyteller’s garden.
There’s Taffy Thomas, the storyteller on the bench. The sun beat down, the music played, people walked by, some popped in for while.
Lovely.
AUGUST
At the beginning of August my cousins Grandson got married and my Mum was invited.
I got her suited and booted, and made sure someone would keep and eye on her all day, and took her to the wedding.
As we arrived the close family was having a huge group photo in the garden.
She was quickly gathered in and scooped up
We picked her up several hours later and she’d had a lovely time.
In the thick of it.
My cousin was able to enjoy the wedding, Fortunately.
Two weeks later I was able to visit her at home for the last times to say goodbye, although she didn’t hear, and she died on the day we set off for our holiday to Lyme Regis.
She had the most perfect death, in her own beautiful home, with her daughters and husband around her. In my life she was my role model, as she was in her death.
So we had a bittersweet Summer Holiday but I needed it. My Mum was grieving alone and I felt guilty, but my son visited her and I phoned every day , as I do.
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| Our view |
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| remains of a cream tea |
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| lovely Lyme |
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| Fossils on the beach |
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| Evening on the esplanade |
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| A beautiful house. |
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| More fossils. |
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| Our apartment was once stayed in by Jane Austen . This would have been the same view. |
Lovely lovely Lyme Regis.
I felt refreshed and able to brace myself for the funeral which in the end was beautiful.
As deaths always do, it provoked the looking at many old photos, so I’ll end August with this beautiful picture of my Mum on her wedding day with my cousin as her littlest bridesmaid in 1950
SEPTEMBER
Thankfully I didn’t have too much work to do for Yarndale as I’d made far too much for Woolfest and had plenty left.
So I had time to have another go at sourdough..with better results.
I stitched a bit of Autumn Glory.
We had a trip to Conway to take my Mum to visit my other cousin, her brother.
It was a scorching day and we walked the walks and had a lovely time while she was visiting.
Also in September our new U3 A started and I joined the walking group, the drawing and the table tennis . I’m hooked on table tennis!
I saw this on the first of the walks. Summer on the floor.
Then came Yarndale. A great success but still my last one!
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| All the knitted teddies |
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| My stand |
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| I made a brooch into a hairslide |
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| This lovely lady had dyed, spun and woven this amazing wrap. |
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| New haircut, and colour. It’s longer now! OCTOBER The month of my Mums Birthday and my Dads anniversary. We had renunion of Bs university friends in Alnwick |
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| Northumberland sunset |
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| Can you tell what it yet? |
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| Yes! |
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| Beach at Low Newton |
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| Alnwick tree house |
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| Alnwick tree house |
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| Everyone |
We had to shoot back home for my Mums 92 birthday and take her for lunch.
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| Family birthday lunch. |
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| Mums actual Birthday. |
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| Last few from the garden. |
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| I did a little felt class for U3 A The I tootled over to Halifax in NOVEMBER to do a class at Anne Brookes super Shed 76 1/2 I got very excited about her floorboards! |
And the ‘shed’ is lovely.
It was a super day and the class was delightful.
The rest of the winter months passed by in a blur of buying Christmas presents..for my Mum to give. She gets so worried about it and nothing anyone can say or do will stop her. I did my best.
This year I’ve read 27 and a half books, made about 300 brooches, and taken up table tennis.
I’ve lost my lovely cousin, who could have predicted that?
I’ve gained many new friends via the U3A.
Some good, some bad.
Here’s to 2020.
