Two tours

Yesterday we had the preview of our Exhibition at Astley Hall Coach House Gallery, Chorley.

A beautiful space. We each introduced our work with a few words and had a fun time with our invited guests.  Here's my corner.

 In this picture from Left to right, Jenni Ripley (3pieces) Elizabeth Rayton (5) then two and a half of Mary Holden's

 Mary's full works here,

 Brenda Smales' work then around the corner to 

 Gill Yates' print based works,

 Here's the showcase..in bad need of a re-organise which I'll do some time soon.

 On to the retrospective section..more of Elizabeth's,

 Yvonne Downing,

 my work to the left and Gill's work to the right.

 Margaret Kay's 'Pool at Le Jardin Majorelle'. 

I've missed a few but I'll get them on another day.

 Here's a long view of the whole space. 

Me again 

 and I hope you'll forgive this one. Its all part of trying to be less self conscious..and makes me realise I haven't lost as much weight as I thought!

It also looks stiff because my husband takes so long to take a picture I'd got a bit tired of smiling.

Now a tour of last weekend when we should have been in Paris. We couldn't go, but look at these pictures. 

I know where I'd rather be? 

Lunch at Chesters by the River at Skelwith Bridge.

 then we drove to Elterwater village and walked back towards Skelwith Bridge along the river.

Just enjoy, especially the Herdys under the trees.

Update: Just watched' Countryfile' on BBC and there was an item on Herdwick sheep. Farmers lose 70p per sheep on the fleece. It costs more to shear them than they can sell them for, so they may be a sight which will disappear.
Beatrix Potter was a great champion of the Herdwick.

 The doors to the workshop at the Lakeland slate company.

 Then home via the Windermere ferry

 past Belle Isle.

Better than Paris.

Learning Curves

The long gap between blog posts is due to two events.

The first is a small break away in the Lake district with old friends and one new.
This one in particular won my heart.

The delightful Dylan. I wish he was mine.

However, being The English Lake District......

.......we had rain.
In fact overnight when we were there the level of Windermere rose by four and a half feet. That's a lot of water..millions ...no billions of gallons apparently..according to the Guard on the Haverthwaite Steam Railway who seemed to be an expert on these matters.
Bear in mind there is a hosepipe ban at the moment.

But we had fun and enjoyed some wonderful cheeses which we bought in Cartmel and ate on the 'beach' at Flookburgh, while avoiding the marsh underfoot.

The other event..quite momentous in my life, was the acquisition of a new laptop. Not just any old laptop...a Macbook.
Yes, we have a bare patch on the sitting room carpet and spending all that money on a little gadget is making me feel guilty but I think I'll put the little silver beauty over the hole when we have visitors and they may not notice..what do you think?

Of course I am not familiar with the Mac system so its taken me a full week to dare to transfer my photos (can you believe I had 13,000?)  and to work out how to resize them and edit them and blah de blah de blah.....my son (who is a mac-o phile, or should that be macanista?) has just given me a quick lesson in iphoto. He came from downstairs where my husband is working on his reports and needs lessons in iphoto too.

My son outlined the differences in our needs..'You see Mum, I tell Dad and he's a complete novice, and listens, and then I come to you and tell you....but you're clicking all over the place like a giddy child '

He shows me something and then I forget and he says'I just showed you that'.So I have to explain the difference in our brains..his is like a sponge and soaks up and retains everything he wants it to, while mine is a pumice stone where a bit of new stuff sinks into the holes on the top, but mostly drips off the sides.

So..here I am on the wonderful in so many ways Macbook.There are two three and four finger scrolls on the track pad...ooooohhh!!!  I love it too much and I worry about that.

Last monday was my 59th Birthday.  I had a nice day...I went to the Grand opening of the 'improvements' in the village.
I have to hold my hand up and admit that I was wrong about the Parish Council and the path through the woods which has upset me so much is nothing to do with them.
 Its complicated. Suffice it to say there are two projects on the go in these parts, one I love and one I hate.

You may, if you read my other blog, have seen the new gateposts.
They have been much altered and are beautifully carved with the stages of metamorphosis of a butterfly so again I jumped to the wrong conclusion and prejudged them. They do still have the 'Jurassic Park look in silhouette, but its generally not that bad. Here is the culpritt  artist doing another one along the route around the 'Lodge' .

Finally...I didn't want to do a blog post until I had a bit of actual textile content to show. 

Well another first...a frame purse.

What a fiddle.

I don't know if there will be any more of these. I didn't even get the flower in the middle.

My plans are in tatters.

 Two pieces of my work have been accepted into the West Lancs Open in Ormskirk, which starts next week.

These are the ones:

'Evolving'

and these:

'Unfurling'

Now I've made my first Macpost. 

Thirty two years and two days

Thanks for all the comments on the previous post. People say my husband is very patient.
I say he gets a lot of practice.
Thirty two years and two days have passed since we tied the knot.
We went away for a few days to my favourite place on earth so far...the Lake District.
How could you not love it? Even in the rain. Look at the colours in this wall. Click any of these pictures to enlarge them.


They even have a better class of Grafitti...this is the only grafitti we saw mind you.


We stayed in the best B&B I have ever stayed in but I'm not going to tell you where it is because its almost always full and I don't want to increase the competition. (It number 2 in the trip advisor list of B&Bs in Keswick if you really want to know.)

I was in heaven at breakfast time eating their home made granola on Greek yoghurt with honey and raspberry coulis.

They even left a bottle of wine and a card in the room for our anniversary.
Absolutely lovely.

The weather was not great but we only had one actual soaking on our way to the pub for a meal, we survived.
According the TV news, the campsite flooded and had to be evacuated. Its right on the side of the lake.

Obligatory gratuitous Herdwick shot.


We planned a trip on an Ullswater steamer.




We were going to get off halfway up the lake and walk to the top, but there was too much water in the lake and the jetty was mostly submerged, so we just had a round trip.
Watching the different ways people enjoy the lake was fun.
These sailing boats were pure Swallows and Amazons with beaming children in charge.



We walked up to Aira Force, more spectacular than ever with all the heavy rainfall .


Thursday was the annual Ambleside sports, not to be missed. A traditional event with a few modern touches..


set in the valley below high mountains.
What more scenic competition arena could there be?
Natural 'props' for the competitiors!
Fell runners disappeared over this mountain at intervals during the day, all ages, all classes, some much older than me and some considerably younger.

They all came back too.
The main race is 9 miles.

The most Traditional local event is Cumberland and Westmorland wrestling.
Men in tights...loose ones...and heavily embroidered velvet 'centrepieces' compete in unfathomable bouts of wrestling...best of three falls.

They begin with the traditional costume competition. The pants are embroidered by wives and girlfriends. I wanted to grab one and take a photograph of his 'embroidery' but they stayed in their own area. Besides , it might have been misconstrued.
Here are two of the best ones.(I'm talking pants here)


The one below won the embroidery competition and here he is weighing in for the bouts, which went on all afternoon. As far as I could tell weight was a big advantage, but technique played a very big part.

Once again all ages competed. This is how they start..the 'tek owd' ....apparently.(For southerners that means' Take hold')

There were two TV personalities there...Rory McGrath and Paddy McGuinness who were filming for their show about unusual British sports.

The wrestling went on all day, but at the same time there were fell runners starting off, cycle races, running races around the track and each event had a different commentator all talking over one another.
Just as the cycle race was about to begin, the next event was suddenly due
'The hounds must leave at a quarter to two', so the cyclists had to be held up.

This was the very best bit.
The hound trailing.
Earlier, someone ran over the mountain or fell with a rag soaked in aniseed and paraffin and left a trail for the dogs to follow.
Suddenly the dogs are brought into the arena...you hear them first howling and barking and yelping with excitement dying to be off.

Its serious stuff and there's big money to be made so the hounds are all marked with a colour to show they started the race in the arena.

This is a VERY short video of the start..I cut it off too quickly but you get the idea.I had no way of knowing the start of the race was imminent.



They disappear over the fell and there's nothing for a while.

About 45 minutes later the noise begins as the first hounds are spotted on the fell, through binoculars. The owners scream and whistle and shout for their dogs to encourage them to run faster and beat the rest, the dogs hurtle down the mountainside through bracken scattering sheep , and arrive in a flurry of excitement wagging everything they can and dive into their reward.



What a fun day out . Add to that the exciting prospect of getting your car bogged down in the field and its a day to remember.

(I have just found a video clip of the day which shows a bit of everything and gives you a taste of the hectic atmosphere if you want to have a better look here)

Followed by a posh meal out and then a walk around Tarn Hows just before dark. What bliss.
On Friday it was time to come home and we went via Grasmere. There was a wedding at the Church. A lovely setting.
(I didn't take this picture.My husband did)



Further on in Ambleside I was sent out with the F&B swatches to match this woodwork colour.


I can report it was exactly as I had guessed...'Blue Green'.

I hope you have managed to stay awake up to here. I am well aware that not everyone wants to read about Cumbrian holidays but this blog is also my diary so I hope you'll forgive me.

I came home to a pile of lovely comments and e-mails(JP I can't find a way to answer your comments) and an acceptance for 'Sparkle' Contemporary Craft and gourmet food fair in November in Teddington.
Exciting.