Getting fit the enjoyable way

As promised our cycle ride around the golf course and along the water edge. 

Cams Hall, just before Fareham.

 The creek, looking toward The Castle in the Air pub on Gosport road.

 Hubby, my cycling partner.

 Gosport sailing club

 It's a good path most of the way

 Looking towards the Spinnaker tower

 Farmland just past golf course

 Near Portchester football club, The Wreck, I love this spot. 

 Zooming in on Spinnaker Tower

 The shore by Salt cafe, sadly not open for a treat of coffee and cake. 

The route to this ride is along A27 from Portchester to Fareham, I am loving the roads are not busy at all, but most of the way there are cycle paths. Once we get back to the football club, we cycle home on local estate roads. The whole route is 6 miles and it took just under an hour, but we did stop often to take photo's. The tide was on it's way out, so still not the best photo's. We do count ourselves lucky to live in such a lovely part of our country, being in the south we are warmer and dryer than most parts of UK. I am feeling pleased with myself, I'm getting stronger, I just have to hope my coughing calms down, I don't start coughing until I'm home, so no worried looks from people when I am cycling along.

A new start

Hubby made a weetabix cake, I saw it on someone's blog, I'm sorry I forgot who, daughter provided us with just 2 weetabix to make the cake, she dropped them off with our shopping. Really nice cake, lovely with our afternoon coffee. I made more quiches, this time no meats, I added some fresh chives which lifted the flavours. 

 I have had this ball for years, it's the silver paper wrappers from Easter eggs, it's solid. We only really get silver paper on our Easter eggs, so the ball grows slowly. It's so old, I can't remember when I started it, our girls were still at home.  I have one more wrapper to add, but only after the chocolate is all gone. 

Another good book finished, I am reading on my ipad, not my favorite way, but I do have a good selection of books. This being my 23rd read in 2020.

So I have started Tunisian crochet, I found a video on you tube, I chose this one because of 2 reasons, 

1st you only chain for the first square, the rest are added to as you make it up, I am terrible when I have to make a long chain. 

2nd, it's square and not a diamond edge, my crochet is not good enough to sort edges into straight sides. 

 This was following the instructions and doing square of 10 stitches, it looked good, but the squares are small, and in truth, I never thought I could just start and make a blanket.

So I started again with a much bigger hook, 4.5 and using 12 stitches,  this feels much better, I can see in my mind how I want this to look.  I am using Drops baby Merino, 4ply and adding all the hand dyed mini's from Burrow & Soar, I want to mix two  using the colours shown here.

I am making rows of colour and within each colour section I am adding the contrast colours, just one or two squares per row. 

I think I am going to enjoy this project. 

I was never going to be as productive as last week, I really was on a mission to finish things, so this week is all about learning something new, slowing down and enjoying the start of a new creation. The hardest part I found is making the 1st square on each row tidy and ensuring the 2nd square is placed correct, on my 1st attempt, I had also done a row of pink, but decided to unpick to reuse as I wanted the squares bigger, then I remembered I wanted a photo. This is the only item in my work basket, but I am thinking about starting another pair of socks.
We have been for another cycle ride, hubby took me further away, almost into town, along the golf course beside our creek, 6 miles in total. I have promised to take a camera next time, but the tide does need to be in. I am enjoying being able to to go further away from home, we won't use the car, and we are always out for less than an hour, we both look forward to our daily exercise. The only down side is the exercise makes me cough, and with hay fever around I am already coughing, I worry our neighbours will think I have the virus. 

First trip 2018

New Forest, Hampshire 

We saw loads of these

 Did a bit of this

 Some time on these

We have been away in our camper van, we returned to a campsite we visited last year, loads of other sites were closed to vans due to the wet ground, click on the link above if you want to see more. Both hubby and I commented on how much standing water there was everywhere. It will take a couple of weeks before the ground is back to normal, but on the flip side, everywhere was lush, so many shades of green and beautiful blossom.
I was pleased with our cycling, doing three and a half miles, ending at a tea room, lovely coffee and cake, and then back to the van, it was hot, but breezy, and whilst the hills going up were a chore, going down was just bliss. We stayed on the road whilst cycling, not wishing to get stuck or muddy trying off road, plus it is so easy to get lost and make your journey back far too long.
We are extremely lucky to be so close to the New Forest, it's a perfect place for a couple days break, plus being so big, we hope to go to different camp sites and see much more of the area.
Our van was completely dry, no over winter issues, everything worked, it is set up so all we require is our clothes and food. We take our own food, this time I just transferred some of the stuff from our house fridge to the small fridge in the van.
We are now planning a couple more short trips and then a week away in June, going further up country, we both would like to return to Lincoln, with the possibility of taking our small car as well, to get about once there.
Last night we had a few thunder storms, one at 8pm, a huge storm at 10pm and another in the early hours this morning, again heavy rainfall, our poor grounds will take ages to dry out. The middle storm was spectacular, we sat at our bedroom window watching, we had sheet lighting across the sky from the east, and in front of us over the hill there was fork lightening, which silhouetted the huge tree in the garden behind us.
This morning it's blue skies again, I will have to pop to the garden our lawn is pink with Magnolia petals. We are truly lucky our area does not flood, I hope if you had the storms you enjoyed their show and everything around you is alright.

A finish and loads of growth

Another finish, I stitched this heart a week ago, and was longer in making it up, now Laura has received her parcel I can show it here, I am so glad she likes both items.

 European Cushion is coming along, I am adding to this corner to get a feel of the design, so far just 3 colours, they blend well, not the original shades, you all know what I am like. It's fun.

 Just a couple of flowers from the same part of the garden, 

here they get the morning sun.

Hubby is busy in the garage, humm I think he has a plan for our bikes.

 It must be summer, the big bike is out, we have had a couple of rides, but it has to be sunny and warm.

We have a weekend at home planned, if it is nice then we will pop out on the bike tomorrow. Today we have a farmers market in town, so a visit is planned, at this time of year there are loads of plants for sell.
This afternoon is back in the garden, not alot to do, still a bit early for planting most things, we were told to expect a frost last night but it missed us.
Monday both Fliss and Su will be back home so we should see them and Josh and Sam.

Sunny Monday off

Yesterday we had the day together at home, our visitor did not arrive, so we relaxed in the garden, mid afternoon we were bored, so we popped to a garden centre. I have been wanting  a Jasmin for the corner where we sit, this has a pale yellow scented  flower called Clotted Cream, I have also a Lotus, berthelotii, with a flame red flower which will tumble down the front of the pot. 

I also got some lemon grass. 

 Kev has been making seed cakes for the birds and refilled the worms, so the thugs (Starlings) arrived in numbers, they are not scared of us, two fight over the worms hanging in the tree and throw loads on the lawn, which the masses eat. Later the squirrels were out.

 This morning we went for a cycle ride, not to long, I am still a beginner, we cycled the scenic route to the castle, then walked shore line around the castle and then through the castle grounds, which was full of families. Then we cycled to our local shops for a ice cream, and then cycled home, we were out for a couple of hours, so good excise.

 Dream sample as of last night, can you notice the yellow flower is gone, I broke my rule not to stitch when a good programme is on TV, just one stitch out. So now I will do the 4 blue flower sections and the yellow flower last.

Another nice sunny day here, I have to plant my Jasmine this afternoon, and then some stitching, another perfect bank holiday weekend, the breeze is cool, but in the sun shine we are warm. Both May long weekends have been good, does that mean we are going to have a summer at long last.