Newcastle

After attending the wedding reception recently in the Slieve Donard Hotel, I thought it would be a good idea to show you a bit more of Newcastle. Other things got in the way and I'm only getting round to doing it now. Better late than never, eh?

Newcastle, County Down, the lovely little town where the Mountains of Mourne sweep down to the sea. It is about fifteen miles from Rathfriland to Newcastle. There are several ways to get there, including a very scenic route through the mountains, but the most direct route is through Castlewellan. Going this way we pass the Lough Island Reavy reservoir.

Newcastle is a thriving holiday resort with several caravan sites, hotels and bed and breakfast establishments. There are many cafes, hot food take-aways, restaurants and ice-cream shops. On a good day it's a great place to visit. Unfortunately there are a limited number of good weather days for visiting Newcastle! Sometimes it can be very blustery and cold but isn't that the way with most UK seaside towns?

Rain or shine, the husband and I usually make a weekly trip to Newcastle; more often during the summer months.

We aren't really interested in the touristy things like these swan boats.

These are situated in a park that is built at the side of the Shimna River just before it empties into the sea. It isn't a very big river, as you can see. Most of the time that is. When there is heavy rain or snow melting up in the mountains, it swells considerably.

We like to walk along the promenade and just take in the sights; see what everyone else is up to. Here are some pictures taken as we walked along the promenade one evening this summer. This first one shows the highest peak in the Mournes range - Slieve Donard.

A second plane - the red one didn't mysterially turn yellow!

There is a simple stone memorial on Newcastle North Promenade to commemorate another flight. In 1910 Harry Ferguson made a flight along Newcastle beach to win the £100 prize offered by the town's Sports Committee for the first powered flight over a minimum distance of two miles. His first attempt ended badly but he persevered and, eventually, according to a contemporary newspaper report, flew a distance of almost three miles along the foreshore at a low altitude varying between 50 and 150 feet.

Water sports are also popular.

Is he playing a guitar?

There's yacht sailing too. You can see the wee harbour at the right.

Another really big attraction for tourists in Newcastle is the Royal County Down Golf Course, regarded as one of the best in the world. It is frequented mainly by Americans and is host to golf tournaments that attract the Who's Who of the professional golf world such as Tiger Woods and Tom Watson. The golf course is situated next to the enormous neo-gothic Slieve Donard Hotel. Some famous guests of the hotel include Charlie Chaplin and Desmond Tutu .

Now comes the big confession. One of the main reasons for the husband and I heading to Newcastle is the recently opened Base cafe. It stays open late all year round, something that very few other cafes do in our locality. It is very small but has a seating area in the basement that is very comfortable.

As we're normally in Base in the evening we take hot chocolate rather than coffee. It is the best hot chocolate I've had anywhere.

The art work was accidental! But it really pleased the person who made the hot chocolates as well as pleasing us. So much so that I took pictures of it!

So that was Newcastle. Our local seaside town. Hope you liked the quick, though rather belated, tour.

A Little Make

I made a card for my mother-in-law using a crocheted flower. It's a pink; in fact it's a pink pink. She liked it so much that she asked me to get it framed. There's a picture framer in Rathfriland so I was able to get the job done for her. I want the frame the same colour as the centre of the flower so the framer's wife painted the frame the same colour. She also painted the inner mount which is just visible.

I think the card looks really well now in its new frame. It was so hard to get a photo without a reflection. Impossible actually. Maybe I should have asked for non-reflective glass but I didn't think of it at the time.

The flower is crocheted using Drops Safran, a 4-ply cotton, using a pattern from the book 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet.

For those who asked about the tapestries that are being made for the Big Weave in the Mournes, here is an update. Over the next two years the tapestries will be exhibited in various venues across the Mourne area. When the Mourne Mountains Landscape Partnership programme finishes it is likely they will be housed in community spaces....yet to be decided! Thanks for all your comments on the Big Weave.

All the very best until the next time.

The Big Weave in the Mournes

On Friday the Big Weave in the Mournes came to Rathfriland. The exhibition and demonstration was held in what used to be the Bank of Ireland building in the Town Square. This lovely old building has recently been refurbished and renamed Chandler's House. This isn't just a random name for the building; before being used as a bank there was a candle-making business located here.

Anyway, back to the Big Weave. Basically there is a group of weavers making their round various small towns so that local people can see how the Mourne Tapestry is being constructed and also so local people can actually take part in the weaving.

Of course, I had to have a go at the weaving. There were pictures to show us what we were trying to achieve. By the way, that stunning crocheted table cloth was just draped there as something to set other bits and pieces on!

Here is the picture of the section that I worked on.

I worked on the sea part to the bottom left hand side. It was great fun weaving the mix of blue and green wool around the warp threads. Two people can work together on each section of the tapestry, one from the front and one from the back. I only had time to do this little bit.

There were some small hand looms to try out your weaving skills if you didn't want to do any on the main tapestry.

What really got me excited were these little peg looms. They are so incredibly easy to use and also incredibly fast. It would be possible to make a bag or table mat in a very short time compared to crocheting the same thing.

There were some examples of items made on the peg looms. Aren't the colours gorgeous? You can weave with strips of fabric as well, as I learnt when I was trying it out. The looms come in different widths so it is possible to make something much wider than these examples.

This is something I think I will have to take up. So many ideas just rushed into my head all at once! A rag rug is something I'd really love to make. I was so excited by it that I went home and brought the husband to see too! The looms are available to buy online but they would also be very easy to make. So that's a wee job for the husband now that the gardening chores will be taking up a lot less time.

There were also some landscape applique type wall hangings in progress. Have a look at what I mean.

Those are lazy beds running in rows in front of the cottages. This is another craft I'd love to get involved in but the class is held on a weekday afternoon which, unfortunately, doesn't suit me.

So, will you be reading about my finished weaving projects soon? I think you just might!

Bye for now.

Dhaveena's Blanket Finito

First of all, let me welcome my new followers. And let me thank everyone for their lovely comments on my last post about Rathfriland. I didn't reply to every single comment but I read and appreciated them all.

Today I was working from home; an arrangement I'm mighty glad to avail of as it saves me a lot of wasted travel time. So for lunch I had half a toasted soda farl (I didn't make the soda farl so no credit there) and a boiled egg (I didn't lay the egg but one of my hens did so I deserve a little bit of credit for that). While the egg was boiling I dashed out into the garden, lifted the last of the baby turnips and delved into a potato bed to glean enough potatoes for tonight's dinner. The egg was ready by this stage so I couldn't pick any beans. The lunch was tasty though very simple and quick to make. If you don't keep your own hens, and it is at all possible for you to do so, then I can highly recommend getting some. Having your own eggs is hard to beat. My son was with us a few days ago and I invited him to help himself to some vegetables from the garden, including the beans. He took me at my word for, when I went out after eating lunch to pick some beans for dinner, lo and behold there were only three pods left! Enjoy your beans son! I noticed that there were more tomatoes ready to be picked and lots more sweet pea but that had to wait until this evening.

You probably don't remember me telling you about Dhaveena's blanket. It seems like a long time ago since I started the blanket but I haven't been crocheting it exclusively all this time; there have been other things started and even finished in the mean time. Well, I'm very pleased to say that Dhaveena's blanket is now well and truly finito. Have a look at a few photos first and then I'll give you some details about it.

The yarn is Stylecraft Special DK 100% acrylic in Pale Rose (pink) and Meadow (green) plus Stylecraft Extra Special DK 100% acrylic in Spring Marl (pink and green mix). Using a 4mm hook I needed seven balls (100g) of the Spring Marl and three balls each of the Pale Rose and Meadow. The blanket is made up of three-round Granny squares, joined as you go. There are seventeen squares across and twenty five squares down. That's a total of four hundred and twenty five squares! There are five "Granny" rows round the blanket, in the Spring Marl, to make a border. Then there's just a very simple chain and picot edging, using the Meadow, to finish it off. The blanket is single bed sized; I didn't measure it exactly. Since there are four hundred and twenty five squares there must have been more than twice that number of ends to sew in. Not quite, as I crocheted over the starting end of each square and cut it off. That means there must have been about five hundred ends to sew in! That's what happens when you make such small squares but the finished result is worth it, in my opinion.

This blanket won't be given to Dhaveena until her baby brother or sister is born and I give him or her the blossom shawl and little matching cushion. Ah!! I've just realised I didn't show you the filler I made for the cushion. The cushion cover that I crocheted is about 10" square but I couldn't get a small enough cushion pad to fit it. So I just decided to make one. I bought some fabric; as close a match as I could get; cut it and sewed almost the whole way round, turned right side out, stuffed it and then closed the gap. Here it is.....

The colours in the first photo are really weird for some reason. That's more than you bargained for -two finitos in one post - a blanket and a cushion.

By the way, look at the size of this bee that I spotted on one of the dahlias. It isn't a honey bee of course; it's a bumble bee.

I had to hold the flower to stop it waving about in the breeze.

On the subject of bees, last night the clearing boards were put into our bee hives. This means that when the bees move away from the honey into another part of the hive they can't get back to the honey again. After a few days all the honey frames should be clear of bees. Then we can extract the honey! We've that to look forward to at the weekend.

Hope you all have a good weekend whatever you have planned.

On the Hill

What about some photos and details about the place I live? Well, it's a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland, called Rathfriland. Actually I live in the countryside about a mile outside of the town. We moved here on the 16th of March 2007 and I remember it snowed the next day - St. Patrick's Day.

As far as I am aware, Rathfriland is the highest town in Northern Ireland. It is built on top of a hill and, for this reason, the town's full name is Rathfriland on the Hill. I think it's a great name! I use it any chance I get; for example, when ordering from online shops.

Let's take a walk and I'll show you what's to see round here. My neighbour has this gorgeous foal with its mother. They're in a field at the corner of the road.

In the field across the road from the mother and foal there are potatoes growing. As you'd expect, there are a lot of farmers here growing potatoes.

This other field of potatoes, across the road in the opposite direction, is still in flower.

When the potatoes are lifted they are kept in and transported in these wooden crates. I remember years ago my cousins spending time digging potatoes by hand. They mitched* off school to do it (tut tut!!) and were paid a very small sum for this back-breaking work. All potatoes are now lifted by machine. Except the ones in my garden of course - that's still done the back-breaking manual way! At least there isn't a field of them - just some raised beds.

* Mitching school is what we called playing truant. Don't know if that term is used elsewhere.

As you can see, some of the potatoes go to making Tayto potato crisps. The Tayto factory is in Tandragee, not a million miles from here.

I digressed there - let's continue the walk to Rathfriland. These wild flowers are growing at the side of the road, at the bottom of the hill (just past where the foal is kept).

Now we have to start the climb up a very steep hill that takes us into the town. My car can only get up this hill in second gear; just to give you an idea of how steep it is. The road is also very narrow and (before reaching this part) very windy.

 There's a good view of the Mournes on the left.

This is the view to the right - just small fields belonging to the neighbouring farms.

Looking back down the hill you can see across to the Dromara Hills.

Here's the Mournes again.

 The honeysuckle is still flowering; I love its heady scent.

This wild rose blooms every year on the wall of an abandoned barn along the side of the road.

Now we'll carry on up the road.

This cat was lying sunning itself on a wee lane off the road. It wasn't too pleased at me spoling its afternoon siesta.

Now I'm going to let you into a big secret. There are roads from Castlewellan, Ballyroney, Banbridge and Newry/Loughbrickland (these become one road on the outskirts of Rathfriland) that are all steep ascents into Rathfriland. The road I'm showing you is the only exception. It is one of the steepest roads into the town until you reach the water tower and at this point the road starts to go down hill again into the town. You can see it in the picture below; you head down hill to the fire station.

If you look back from here you can see the road rising up out of Rathfriland and then it drops steeply down.

The Heritage Trail points out one of the famous people from Rathfriland; Captain Moonlite, the infamous Australian bushranger, hanged 20th January 1880.

This notice indicates where Chief Magennis stronghold was located. The castle has long since been destroyed and there are only a few stones left here. There are still Magennis families living in the town.

As I said, we're standing at the water tower here but it's hard to see it. So here are a few pictures of it from outside the town.

I always think the monkey puzzle tree to the left is trying very hard to look like the water tower.

Do you like our brand new, shiny Fire Station and tenders? Would you like to hear why they are new? Because fire tenders are sometimes left without being driven for some time, but must always be able to start, they are left connected to a battery charger. This is what was done with the old fire tenders in the old fire station. One night there was a fault with the battery charger and a fire started. There was no smoke alarm in the old fire station (!!!) so the station and tenders were all destroyed by the fire. Hard to believe? I'm afraid it's true. Thankfully the fire station has been rebuilt and we have these new fire tenders. The part time firemen in the area do a great job attending fires and rescuing people who have been involved in various sorts of accidents.

We just turn the corner at the fire station and that's us into the town. There's plenty of shops and services even though it is such a small town. My favourite shop is, of course, the wool shop. The husband regularly frequents the hardware store and my dad is pleased that we have a shoe mender in the town. Actually I'm also very pleased we have a shoe mender. He is one of the part time firemen as well as looking after all our shoes and boots. He does a really neat job and can make adjustments and dye shoes to boot (ha ha!!). I've even seen people taking broken pushchairs and various straps and things that need mending and he always seems to be able to help out. Another digression there. Let's get on.

The town has a square with a disused market house. A market is held every week in the square but not in the market house.



At one end of the square is this lovely old church which has recently had some (very necessary) renovation work done on it. There are seven other churches in the town as well this this one. In front of the church there is a Clock Tower with a War Memorial.

This is the other side of the market house.

Now we'll head out of the town towards Castlewellan, passing the road to Hilltown. It's only about three miles to Hilltown and from there you can go on to the Spelga Dam.

There are wonderful views of the Mournes from here.

Just in case you were wondering, most of these photos were taken on the same gloriously sunny day day but some were taken on various other days.

The town is surrounded by many, mostly small, farms. Some of the farmers keep cattle, some sheep, some are arable farmers. The fields are very small compared to those you would find in other places. Of course, some of the farmers do a bit of everything and even work away from their farm to supplement their income.

Time to head home again. There's a lovely stone cottage, long since abandoned.

Brambles are growing where the roof should be.

Calves can be very nervous to start with but they are also inquisitive and they soon give in to their curiosity and come for a closer look.

What about another view of the Dromara Hills?

Back home and a walk round the garden reveals the many butterflies and bumble bees about.

I'm very fond of this buddleia; it flowers later than the usual purple variety.

Well that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed my wee introduction to Rathfriland on the Hill.

Thanks for all your comments recently, especially on the garden. I have to make it clear that the husband does the majority of the gardening! I do all the preparing, cooking, baking, freezing and preserving. And I do a bit of gardening when I can get the chance.

Best wishes for now. Come back again soon. We are planning to extract honey this weekend and I hope to be able to take lots of photos of the whole process. And I have finally got photos of my finished blankets so there will soon be posts about them as well.