Of presents and dwagons

I had to nip on here quickly (I'm supposed to be practising FME today) to show you what the postman brought me this afternoon.

My friend Dilly St George sent me a parcel and as she is a princessy croco-dwagon she decorated it with princessy stickers! I knew Dilly was sending me a present because she blogged about it here but I didn't go and look because I wanted a surprise.

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When I opened the envelope this is what I found,

A lovely sparkly box and a very pretty, sparkly pink card - well it has to be pink from a princess, doesn't it? The box is decorated with skeleton leaves and glitter but it was hard to get a good picture in the bright sunshine today.

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Inside the box, wrapped in a tissue which I think maybe Bob T Bear had isshooed was this lovely soft, pink, pwincessy brooch,

It is absolutely lovely, Dilly, thank you very much and thank you too to Mummy for helping you make it. If you'd like to see how Dilly made the brooch please do have a look here. Dilly's mummy had a great idea to get the shape!

Inside the card Dilly had written me a special note. I'm glad to be your friend, Dilly, you are a very special 'wagon :o). Oh, and, I love your self portrait Dilly, it's great!!

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On the subject of dwagons, we did see one or two on our travels thro Austria.

These chaps were waiting to be adopted and taken to their new homes (some of them were only babies and were having a little nap!).

If you look very carefully at this photo of a beautiful Austrian house you can see one of Dilly's friends peeking in at the bottom.

I think this beautiful rusty sculpture is just pretending to be a dwagon. (Oh, It's got a bit stretched, oops!)

And, unfortunately, these dwagons are being a bit rude as they are spitting water everywhere in a fountain in Innsbruck!

Oops! This is a better pic, the previous one was blurred. Well I was in a moving carriage at the time!

Well, I had better get back to my sewing. See you all later and thank you again, Dilly for my lovely present. I am going to wear it when I go to the Festival of Quilts next month.

Catching Up 2

Our weekend trip to Northumberland seems a long time ago now. I hesitate to ramble on about it here but we did see some lovely things that you might be interested in.
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Our first port of call was Beamish, an open air museum giving a glimpse of life in England in the 1800s and early 1900s. On the day we visited 900 schoolchildren also had the same idea!! Over 30 coachloads! Apparently it was part of a music project in conjunction with the Sage Gateshead. Actually, apart from the fact that we couldn't get into the sweetie shop!, it was great to see all the children. They were having a great time singing and dancing with the musicians in the museum.



These children were passing the time waiting for a tram, singing and dancing. Even the lads!



The museum has recreated a street from a town of the early 20th century with houses and shops that you can look round. The sweet shop was a great hit!



This and the following 2 photographs are of the Co-operative store selling fabrics and haberdashery.







The site is large but trams and vintage buses are available if you tire of walking - as we eventually did!







This lovely stained glass window is in the staircase in the music teacher's house.





surprisingly the music teacher's house had three bedrooms - but no bathroom!



My Nan used to wring out her washing on a mangel similar to this. This specimen looked as though it was for industrial use!



And finally, a present for Dilly! This beautiful wagon (dragon) graced the bus and tram shelter.

Happy St George's Day

St George is the patron Saint of England and has a reputation as a dragon slayer. If you look here you can read what some children in Kent have found out about this famous man. (Dilly, you don't need to worry! You're right! He didn't slay any dragons! Yay!)

Happy St George's Day, everyone!

PS The window is in Thriplow Church.

Did you have a good day today?

We were threatened with snow showers today but, as usual, the weather forecasters told fibbies and we had a lovely sunny day - mind you, the wind was pretty chilly!

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As it was such a gorgeous morning I thought we should get out into the fresh air so we popped out to our neighbouring stately home, Belton House which is owned by the National Trust. As we are members of the National Trust it doesn't cost us anything to go in.

This is the view of the house after you leave your car in the main car park. (Thank you to my DH for letting me borrow this photo from his camera!).

This is the view of the rear of the house from the parkland.

This avenue leads Eastwards away from the house and its daffodils are still in bloom.

We headed towards the lakeside walk and passed this beautiful Weeping Willow with its luscious green foliage just starting to come out. If I say so myself, I like this image with the path snaking away to the distant gates. You can see what a lovely sunny morning it was today.

While a lot of the daffodils were going over this cheerful group still look pristine.

I don't know whether you can tell from this photograph but I was looking down into this little dell which is just at the back of the large lake in the grounds of Belton House. A few years ago the lake was inaccessible but the National Trust have improved the access and it is now possible to walk all round the lake.

Part of the restoration of the lake has included the reclamation of this boathouse, which is now looking beautiful but which, for the moment remains cordoned off. Records kept in Belton House show that this was originally built as a fishing platform where the landowner and his guests could also socialise. The boathouse looks beautiful now, although I am sure that it is still on an angle and not quite upright!

The beautiful leaded light windows have been restored and I love the patterns on the walls.

The roof is described as being tiled in a "fishscale" pattern. Not easy to get a photograph when you're only 5'2"!

The sun was sparkling beautifully on the water.

This photo was taken from the side of the boathouse. Not many trees in leaf yet.

Now I know why they didn't used to let you walk round the lake!............................ Dragons!!!!! Dilly will be pleased! ;)

No woodland walk would be complete without a few gratuitous texture photos :)

And finally,

luscious peeling paint on a roller!

Oops! Just a couple more!

My DH took this lovely tortured tree

And I've had a play!