A Jaunt, an Anniversary and a Quilt

Well, we took our germy selves off to the east coast last week for a few days with the flimsy excuse that it was our wedding anniversary and we thought some sea air would help chase the grotty cold and cough germs away.  You know what thought did?  It thought wrong but at least we did have a lovely week and the weather was kind to us.  

We stayed at a little place called Kessingland in Suffolk in a compact and bijou bungalow on a small private site.  The owner lived just around the corner and let us in and made us feel so at home from the get-go.  The bungalow was metres away from a footpath to the beach and the everchanging skies were beautiful.

DH took a photo of our anniversary cards - 8 years wed and never a cross word!  Well, hardly ever ;-)

There was lots of inspiration in the patterns in the dunes and the edge of the sea.

We didn't go very far as energy was decidedly lacking but we did take the bus to Lowestoft (why drive if you don't have to?).  Here again there was plenty of inspiration in the sand and groynes.

On our last day and our wedding anniversary day we took another bus into Southwold.  The bus driver spotted hubby's camera and told us to go to the harbour instead of the pier end of town as he thought we would get better photo opportunites.  He wasn't wrong, although we had to play dodge the very heavy showers and had to shelter in the pub, twice!  It's a hard life!

I hadn't exected to see this style of shed here.  You get similar black boarded buildings in Hasting but they are twice the height to dry the fishing nets.

This little shed on its raised up blocks really appealed to me and made me think of  Scandinavia.  The little windows are draped in nets.

I'm sure I can use this text somewhere.

Since we've been back we've both got worse with our coughs and 2 trips have been made to the doctor's, returning with antibiotics of the strongest order.  I think today, finally, I can sense a bit of a turnaround and I can actually speak without collapsing into coughing.  DH is still making a fair amount of cough-y noise but he is improving.  We have to be better for tomorrow as it's Mothering Sunday and we want to fetch Mum from her care home.

I havn't been completely idle this week while I've been stuck at home.  I've been working on the back for the Take 20 quilt top that I have been making with mum's pinnies etc.  I decided to carry on using the vintage fabric for the back so that the quilt will effectively be reversible.  So, I have made 30 blocks, some of which have had to be pieced as I didn't have big enough pieces of fabric left.

Above are 2 squares 15" x 20" which the whole back will be made up of.  I am pondering whether to cut the blocks through and rejoin them combining different colourways to break the big chunks of colour up, but that may be a step too far.  The beautiful hand dye is by Maggi Birchenough.

This is the pile of blocks waiting to be ironed and then designed into a quilt back.  I think I may have to use a room at Stitchcraft Studio to sort out the arrangement as our bed isn't big enough and I don't have any floor space that size either.  I can hire a room there for just £5 for 3 hours so well worth it.  Once I have everything ready I am going to get Trudi Wood to do the quilting as it is way too big for me to cope with.  The quilting will break up the solid blocks of colour so maybe I won't fiddle about with it.

I think my fat quarter drawer is a bit revealing:

Liking blues?  Moi?  I think I need to have a dyeing session and get some reds, oranges and yellows in there!  Obviously this is not the only fabric I have, larger pieces are stored elsewhere.

As I said earlier, it's Mothering Sunday here in the UK tomorrow so if you are lucky enough to be spending time with your mum have a lovely day.  If you cannot be with your mum I hope you can enjoy happy memories of good times past. 

I Blame Facebook!

I seem to spend more time on there and then get drawn into following links and by the time I've caught up with the blogs I read, another evening has gone and I havn't blogged.  Even when I go through the day thinking 'I must blog this when I get home' it slips through my fingers and another day passes.  So, where were we?  

I seem to remember I was telling you about our trip to Iceland and Norway.  Iceland was an experience all round, such a different exotic country (not in the tropical sense but in the 'I've never experienced this before' sense).  We have visited Norway before but went to some new places this time.

First on the agenda was the city of Alesund on a very wet and breezy day.  We took refuge in the beautiful parish church which has a wonderful fresco.  Our visit was perfectly timed to enjoy a short organ concert which sadly I can't show you as it won't upload.  If you click on the link to the organist's page you can select several snippets from his CD, not least Bach's Toccata, one of my all time favourite pieces.

Our second port of call was Olden which we had visited several years ago.  This time we took a trip out to the Briksdal Glacier and were extremely thankful that we had chosen to take a tractor/gator ride for part of the trip up the mountain rather than attempting to walk.

 The Gaters were manufactured by John Deere, a company we are very familiar with in our rural part of the country. 

 After we left the transport we had a not inconsiderable walk to reach the viewpoint for the glacier and were treated to the sight of some impressive rocks that had been left behind as the glacier shrunk.

This is still quite a distant shot of the glacier which was still impressive.  It has many colours within it and many wonderful cracks and shapes.

The glacier used to extend way down the mountain but is now reduced to this restricted size although it does go back further into the mist.

You can see why we didn't walk up, although some from the ship did!

 And yes, we got very wet going past the waterfall!

Our last port of call in Norway was the beautiful Stavanger.  Adjacent to the berth where we docked we could see the Stavanger Konserthus.  This modern building created fascinating shapes and reflections.

The most beautiful part of Stavanger is the old town where people still live and work.  

 

The town is almost dwarfed by the close proximity of cruise ships.

Back on board ship the cruise winds down with the traditional march of the chefs which gives everyone the chance to thank the guys who provide the excellent food during the holiday.

On a personal level I had to thank one particular crew member for saving my life.  

It sounds dramatic and it was very frightening but this wonderful man, Clay, the headwaiter, appeared out of nowhere to help me when I made the mistake of talking and laughing while I was eating and started to choke.  A colleague had already tried to help and failed and Clay took over and swiftly and calmly freed me of the obstruction.  Not only that but he gave me good advice to help me through the next few hours while my throat calmed down.  I am eternally grateful and would love to meet him again at some time in the future.  Thank you, Clay.

Lindisfarne and Friends

As promised this post is mostly about our visit to Lindisfarne, a precious and magical island off the coast of Northumberland which is cut off by the tide twice a day.  We were really lucky in that the tides were right for our visit and we were able to get a bus from Berwick which left us on the island just before 11 in the morning and came back for us shortly before 7 in the evening.  We have been to Lindisfarne twice in the past including a week spent in a cottage 9 years ago.  If you click on the link above you will find a wealth of information about this beautiful place which has an ancient history that is almost tangible.

First things first, as we got off our bus we were met by Julia and her husband who we know through blogging.  Julia loves working in mixed media but she is also a very talented digital artist and I would love to live near enough to have some lessons from her ;o)  Speaking of mixed media, Julia spoiled me totally with some beautiful gifts that overwhelmed me with her generosity and also her skill.

This beautiful cutwork is called 'Lovers' Knot'.  It is a Celtic knot, which is very appropriate for a visit to Lindisfarne, and Julie has skilfully cut out the negative shapes to leave this intricate shape.  It has beautiful beading too and rests on an interesting piece of organza with a thread running through it.  It is in fact framed but I had difficulty photographing it in its entirety due to reflected light.

Not content with giving me the Lovers Knot Julia also gave me this pretty bag, distressed sheers and felt brooch and another beautiful knot that I am going to use in the sketchbook I am making with Carole.  Thank you so much Julia for your beautiful gifts. 

So what's the first thing you do when you meet up with friends?  Go for a cuppa of course!  These sparrows were amazingly tame and came to Keith's hand for crumbs of cake.  I'm afraid we ate the cakes before I thought to take any photos.  Suitably refreshed we headed out to Lindisfarne Castle which is a National Trust property.

The castle was originally an Elizabethan fort but was converted to an Edwardian home by Sir Edwin Lutyens.  I had not been familiar with Lutyens' designs before but I liked the simple lines of his furniture and architectural motifs.  There was lots of inspiration in surface patterns and textures.

Standing apart form the castle and protected by a stone wall is the Castle garden which was designed by Gertrude Jekyll, who worked in conjunction with Lutyens on many gardens.

Considering its proximity to the sea and its relatively exposed position the garden had a beautiful array of plants in flower.

I think this plant above is fennel and I was struck by the delicate fronds and the movement made by the lines of the stems.  I'm sure this could be interpreted in stitch.  There were lots of beautiful poppy seedheads too. (I've lost the photos I took of the patterns on the seedheads). :o(

These delicate harebells were growing out of the parapet around the castle terrace.   You can see it was a bit of a showery day but that just added to the atmosphere.

The sheds in the photograph above are made from upturned boats that have been cut down and doors fitted to the 'front'.  There are more down on the foreshore that are used by local fishermen for their fishing tackle.

Once the causeway reopened Julie and Keith headed off for home and DH and I took a walk down to the beach for a quick beachcomb.  The tide was well on its way out and the clouds were quite low down on the mainland.

As I wandered about the beach I could hear seals 'singing' in the distance.  It was a most haunting sound.  I have been trying to find a sound clip on You Tube but I can't find anything that approaches what we heard.  We could see the seals just the other side of the small island you can see in the photograph above. 

The shingle beaches gave me several sources for potential future design work.

Having spent a day on Lindisfarne again we are now thinking that we really should go back again for a proper visit.  Maybe we'll see you there?