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.

Doc Martins surgery, Pencarrow gardens and finally finishing a book.

Doc Martins surgery.

Pencarrow peacocks.

Grounds map.

Cottage garden flower bed.

 Cornwall was a delight, shame the sun seemed to have tired it self out before we arrived , but he did manage to put his hat on a few times and smiled down on us. We were staying on the North Cornish coast near Camelford, so we travelled up and down the  coast locally , calling in at Port Isaac, Boscastle, Tingagel, Padstow, Bodmin, Camelford it self and a lovelly stroll around Pencarrow gardens.

 I actually managed to finally read a whole book while in Cornwall, it was Katie FForde, the wedding season, it was light summer holiday reading and perfect just for that .

The flowers are now completed for my teacosy, but cant promise not to change my mind with regards to colours before completion, and now am off to Winchcombe to see steam trains , apple trees , and more vegetables .

Permaculture gardens, handling grief and dancing swallows.

I have just returned home for an over night stay, then back on the road to Cornwall.

The view across the Torridge from Tapeley Park.

Tapeley House.

  Each August I return to Devon to celebrate my youngest daughters birthday, this year she would have been sixteen.

On this trip we decided to make a vist to Tapeley Park, it is situated on the old Bideford to Barnstaple road, at Yelland.

Their Permaculture Garden.

Perennial Vegetables

Unusual Edibles

 The house dates back to the 1310's, it is mentioned in the Doomsday book as Tapelia, Hector Christie the current owner and his family have been there since 1855.

Hector like so many of us, did not during his youth appreciate the beauty of his family home and inheritance, for a while he turned his back on society and lived a hippy lifestyle.





   With age and the dawning of responsibilty, he has now firmly taken the reigns of responsibilty and put Tapeley Park back on the tourist map.

Most of the hippies have now left, the house and Italian gardens are well on their way to being restored, the walled kitchen garden is very productive and there is a fine adventure playground in the woods for younger children to discover whilst on a walk through the woods.

The Herbalist

Organic gardening.

Compost and manure.

   Several of the outbuildings have been opened to the public showing the mixed history of the site, there is a cafe in part of the historic house, which has a patio with a spectacular vista of the italian gardens, looking down over the valley towards the lake


All of which were lovely.But not the reason for my trip, I had heard that as well as the restored kitchen garden, and a 'green house build' for less than £700, they had also trialed a permaculture garden, and I was very excited to see what it was like.


And in truth.......it was rather.......full.The garden is bordered by large trees, which rather than shading the plants seemed to enclose them in a sense of security. There were lots of little grass paths running through the garden and plants and fruit trees in every direction you looked. All the beds were mixed, except the soft fruit bushes which were covered in nets and shared with chickens.

The Forest Garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wild and crazy, but definately working, the garden was brimming with fruit,vegetables and a few flowers.

It was amazing to see so many plants growing together in each bed. My photo does not do the plants justice.
If you are at all intrested in permacultural garedning, it is definately worth a visit, it does reenforce any beliefs you may have that you can grow a huge diversity of plants in a relatively small area and grow enough to keep a large family and probably their neighbors.

On the 10th August we made  our way down to the 'Daisy' project to plant some trees and have a birthday picnic in honour of our Daisy.

GF BBQ

New hedging plants.

Some of last years.

Sisters sunbathing!

Silver Birch

Next years job.....clearing the stream.

saplings.

Water Iris

Last years water Iris, growing so well.

Luckily for the first time since her passing ,we had splendid weather for her birthday tea. After the planting had been done and we had eaten our birthday tea, we were able to sit back and watch the swallows dancing, it was truely spectacular and a very magical end to a very beautiful day.

The field is now full of wildlife, as we sat,there were too many butterflies to count and although the wild flowers in the meadow were pretty much passed, as you walked through the culm grasses you kept stumbling upon little floral beauties, a true treasure hunt.

I dont think I will ever get used to the sudden and shocking death of my baby, I know she was no longer a baby, but to me all my children are still my babies, what ever their age. But spending time away from the house doing something positive on her birthday does seem to help in some ways,  I was delighted to find the purple [Daisy's favorite colour] wind flower with a pink butterfly [Daisy also loved butterflies...which was the seed that lead to the Daisy project] at a small shop in Torrington just before we left for the feild. It felt so right. All in all , it was a near perfect day, and the swallows were the icing on the cake.

The knitting too has progressed, I have now finished all the flowers for the top of the teacosy, leaves next followed by the cosy itself , more photos to follow .

New bathroom blinds and the 'garden' teacosy pattern reveal......

A day of rain is not to be wasted, as my husband set about decorating the bathroom, I thought I would quickly make up some new blinds, nice simple ones.

We dont really need curtains in our bathroom as we are not overlooked by anyone, but I do like to have some fabric at the window, bathrooms can with all the tiles seem rather cool rooms .

The room is being painted lilac and antique white, the tiles are white so I have had a look in my fabric cupboard and found a fabric with lilac flowers. The fabric is rather 'country' so I thought I would add a gingham trim. Ginham always looks fresh and I thought it would make the flowery fabric look a little less Country shabby chic and a little more modern.
 Next for the pelmet frame I have recycled some old skirting board, making them into an 'L' shape, this then enables me to screw in some old cuphooks which I will be able to hang the blinds from.

 I do love my staple gun, it is a fab tool and is always in use, I have stapled the pelmet fabric to the top of the wooden pelmet, once this has been screwed up the pelmet will then hang over the front covering my old  skirting board.

 To hold the blind stiff to the width of the window , I insert a peice of dowel top and bottom.

On the back of the blind I have stitched curtain rings 8" apart so I can thread a ribbon through, when the ribbon is pulled up it will gather the blind to the desired length.

Then I tie the ribbon off in a big bow.

Next the pelmets are screwed in place and the blinds are hung, they can easily be altered to the desired length, and when you want them dropped, just undo the bows.

And now to my 'garden teacosy', my next knitting project which I have just got ready for my holiday.

The pattern book.

The pattern.

My choosen wools.

 And now am off to find a few other little projects to take too , just incase of wet weather !.