Winchcombe, Broadway tower.......and drum roll please.....the teacosy is finished...

The last few days seemed to have passed in abit of a blur, as we have toured around the only thing we could rely on was the fact the weather was completely unreliable, although I must confess we did not have any snow or hail.Luckily we could time our visits according to the weather, so on a rather wet and windy afternoon we boarded the steam train at Winchcombe and puffed our way to Cheltenham and back.It was a very leisurely way to spend an afternoon, so much effort, time and enthusiasm is put in by the volunteers, and the stations are as much to be enjoyed with their new tea shops as the trains themselves, well nearly anyway .

Broadway Tower.

Next sunny afternoon we climbed  Beacon hill, the secound highest point in the Cotswolds,rising to 1024ft [312m],then not feeling tired enough we then climbed the stairs to the roof of Broadway Tower, which on a clear day like we were lucky enough to have, a view of some 50miles in all directions. The tower was not built just  as a folly as such, infact the last residents only moved out in 1972,there have of course been many owners/occupiers since it was built for George William sixth Earl of Coventry in 1799.

On a clear day ,you can see forever.

Waiting for someone to run me a bath.

One of two staircases.

One of the most notable to me was William Morris,designer,craftsman,poet,socialist and champion of old buildings and fine workmanship. He along with several of his artist friends of the Pre Raphaelite period would come and stay at the tower, Morris bringing his family with him, his daughter Mary is quoted as saying of the tower 'The most inconvienient and most delightful place ever seen-to simple folks like ourselves, who could do without almost everything with great cheerfulness. The tower was certainly absurd- the men had to bathe on the roof, when the wind didnt blow the soap away and there was water enough ......but how clean the aromatic wind blew the aches out of tired bodies, and how good it all was ', I envy them their bathtime .



And finally , all parts of my 'garden teacosy' are now complete. The assembly nearly took as long as the knitting and crochet, and of course I added extras!.

Mainbody in basket stitch, with rib liner and knitted tray to add flowers to.

The main body of the cosy is knitted in 2 threads of double knitting and then it also has a ribbed liner, which has to make this one of the most thermally insulated cosies I have ever produced, but teapots do loose their heat very quickly when used out doors.

Several items made for the kitchen, no knitting this time,including a rose printed teacosy,with frilly lace !.

 Once completed it did occur to me that this teacosy is infact very similar to my Christmas  teapot cosy which I made a couple of winters ago.

Modeled by my sister  Jules by another mother !

As worn by the christmas teapot.