Iridescent green

I'm not normally a fan of bright things, but I saw this fibre when I visited the Wonderwool Wales festival yesterday and had to have it.



Now I bet you're thinking "that's not bright", and the dark bits of Shetland aren't, but it's blended with silk, and the Shetland is a very very dark green, and the silk is the same shades but lighter. There were more versions in different colours, and I had to be restrained from buying all of them! The fibre is from Freyalyn's Fibre, her shop is empty right now as she's still at the festival, but it will be updated when she get's back.

When we sat in the sunshine enjoying lunch, this little guy came to say hello. His colours (why are beetles always boys in my mind?) remind me of the fibre I'd just bought. I can't wait to spin it up.

A weekend of contrasts

I've spent the weekend visiting a friend who lives on the outside of Cardiff, it was a weekend of contrasts, and a reminder that moving away from a city doesn't mean the end of doing all the things I love doing in cities!
We had amazing Chinese food, and then wandered around looking at amazing architecture.




Today we drove to Barry Island before I had to head home, it was busy, but it felt good to be walking around in the sunshine feeling the sand beneath my feet for the first time this year.
I even braved the chilly March Atlantic and got my feet wet.

Spin spider spin...

Or actually, maybe not... if I was a spider I'd make very few webs.
This latest yarn has taken me ages to spin, it's a blend of merino, silk, nylon and real silver strands in a luminous blue.





So blue, it's nearly impossible to photograph, throw in the silver reflecting all the light and this was the best I could manage.




As a finished yarn though I love it, nearly 2 years after I started spinning I feel like I'm getting to the point where I can make the finished yarn I could see in my head. Good job really, as there might be more spinning in my future....

Anyone want a party ring?

Yet again I spent the first weekend in March helping out with the High Peak Marathon this is my 7th year helping with the event, and my first time manning a check point for several years.
I met up with some old friends from uni, and we spent the night crammed in to a tent up on Bleaklow catching up and appreciating some of my Mum's homemade wine.
We eventually decided some sleep was in order, as the first runners start coming through our checkpoint at about 4am....

Having already run over 20 miles we welcomed them to our wild west themed checkpoint with offers of Party Rings , most seemed a little confused, though not nearly as confused as us when we saw a team emerge out of the mist accompanied by a collie dog (who seemed in better shape than most of the team!), I think they eventually finished in a time of about 10 hours, that is one fit dog!



Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures as the mist rolled in as the dawn broke, making everything rather grey looking, however plans are already afoot for next year, any suggestions for our theme?
The lone ranger would like to know!

Now with even fewer coherent sentences

I possibly shouldn't be trying to write this now as I just had a tooth extracted, my mental state may be somewhat questionable...

However, we can but try.

As you may have noticed I have a bit of a thing about churches, it's not the fact that they are a church so much, as the architecture, and that they are places of extraordinary beauty.
No churches survive from the time of this cross, but even it has a simple beauty, something about the proportions and the setting speaks to me.



Some of them are just plain magnificent, and come complete with a crypt.






Others are far more traditional, yet still have there own unique features, this screen is just fantastic.





We often plan a day out and then visit a church as part of that day, mostly with the help of this book, we definitely didn't pay £140 for it, and I'm fairly certain you can get it from somewhere, but if not there are probably other equally good books.

I'm now off to work out what I might be able to eat tonight.... the answer could well be, not much. I knew I should have found time for lunch before I went to the dentist, even if it meant eating in front of a class!

Up on the moors

I've spent the last week in the the North York Moors National Park, for the most part February is a horrible time of year to be in the countryside. After the harsh winter we've had everything is very grey, brown and dead looking.
Some things were still beautiful though.



The dogs met their first grouse, much to our amusement as Gwen tried to chase one through a pond and emerged dripping in pond weed.


Not everything is grey and brown though, the first signs of spring, some Snowdrops.

A sign of things to come

There might be chance to do rather more of this in the future...
Earlier this week I handed in my notice to leave teaching, it was starting to make me unhappy again, and no job is worth that.
I'm heading to WAles to live with Mum and Dad for a bit... I'm trying to work out if I can turn the things I love in to a living.
The future is sounding exciting!