August Bank Holiday

It was a dreary and grey August Bank holiday here today so I stayed in and did some drawing.  I harvested my onions a week or two ago and allowed them to dry; we've used a few already.  I know they are a bit small but they are the first onions I have ever grown and I am very pleased that they survived.  Similarly, my leeks will be baby leeks as they are not very big either; I just hope they taste good.

The roof of the shed is now on (yippie).  Its not waterproofed yet but that is the next thing to do after putting the gutter brackets on.  The Engineer is working hard to get as much done as possible before going back to work tomorrow; there is gentle grumbling over the seemingly endless rain but he is making progress buoyed up by bacon and egg butties.

Image from finedininglovers.com

The Teen and I went shopping today; on the list were shoes, a bag and trousers for school and makeup.   All were purchased in a very short time; unusually the Teen doesn't like shopping!

Image from youcopia.com

As for my drawing, I am working on a chilli plant in colour pencil.  A good friend lent me the plant to take along to a weekend workshop where the weather was amazing, the teaching excellent and the food brilliant; strawberries with balsamic vinegar and black pepper, yum.   I am faithfully watering the chilli while I draw.  Now the chillies, being a beautiful red and green, are I have to say, a dream to draw with fantastic contrasts between light and dark.  The leaves on the other hand are not so much fun.  The composition means that I am drawing the underside of a lot of the leaves and although some of them have some dappling on them they are very boring to draw.  Next time I do chillies I think I will just get a handful and draw the fruit and maybe a dissection.



copyright Su+2

Holiday Pictures

We had a wonderful time visiting family in Devon a couple of weeks ago.  One day the Engineer and I went out for lunch by ourselves, leaving the Teen behind to bake and help C in the garden.

We went to the pretty town of Tavistock and after a very nice lunch we walked through the town, explored the market and walked along the canal.   The canal runs through a park which was full of children playing on the play equipment, feeding the ducks or riding bikes and scooters.  As we continued along the canal tow path we went into a quieter area of the town and were very privileged to see a kingfisher flying from tree to tree (sorry no photos); every time we reached the area where it had landed, it flew on, meaning we saw it at least 9 times.  Wow!



Some views of Tavistock

That evening C,D, the Teen, the Enginer and I went to the theatre to see Shrek the musical

Before the performance began

It was brilliant, such a lot of fun.  There were all the crucial lines from the film which we knew very well as when the Teen was the Toddler she watched it again and again, usually at six in the morning with either me or the Engineer sitting sleepily on the sofa with her.  I have such admiration for those who can sing, dance, act and burp on cue (you need to see the film).

The following day it rained and rained so we did something indoors: we went to the aquarium.  Unfortunaly everyone else who was on holiday in the area had the same idea so the place was full of damp adults and wound up children.  There was a lot to see including sharks and glow in the dark jelly fish.  However, my favourite bit was just as we had decided to leave: I walked on ahead and was called back by the Engineer and we watched an enormous turtle swim across a tank that filled a whole wall, he (or she) was magnificent.    We didn't get many good photos as much of the aquarium is in subdued lighting.


One of the tanks of the aquarium

The next day we went to the Eden Project in Cornwall, we have been there several times but it changes on a regular basis.  Again it was full of people, but this was only really evident in the eating areas. 

There were so many georgeous plants to see I can't incude them all in the blog, so below are two collages of some of them.

On our way back home from Devon we stopped off at Monkey World.  Of all the places we visited this was the cheapest and I have to say the best.  Although there were a lot of people there and a lot of children it was quite peaceful; I think this is because the animals don't like a lot of noise.  As you can tell below the lemurs were our favourite, they were so chilled out.  The other primates seemed to enjoy looking at us as much as we liked looking at them. 

All in all it was a good week away.

I even managed to carry on with my rose whilst we were away.  As you can see from the photo below I was sitting in C & D's conservatory.  I am surrounded by flowers from the garden show that C was helping to organise. 

We have been back at home a week or two and I have been painting the shed while the Engineer has been putting on the roof. 
We have been stopped frequently by the rain, but finally the roof is on all except the felt so its not yet watertight and at present is covered by a tarpaulin. 

Traveling and arriving

We were out of the house early today to try to avoid the worst of the traffic on a trip to Plymouth.  We planned to be on the road by half seven and stop for breakfast on the way.  However, time and the Teen don't always function well together so we finally left the house at almost eight o'clock.
The traffic was ok but as its that time of year we got stuck behind quite a few tractors carrying hay or combined harvesters.  It always makes me feel a little thankful when I see this; we need to appreciate our farmers much more.
We stopped at Felicity's Farm Shop in Morcombelake and had bacon rolls for breakfast:

I ate most of the bacon bap before I thought of taking a photo, sorry.

They were freshly made and delicious.  Its take away food so we sat in the seating area behind the shop and enjoyed the amazing view towards the south coast.

 There were some lovely flowers too.

We are staying at C and D's while we are in Plymouth: below are some photos of C's georgeous garden.

These photos don't do the garden justice

Later, after arriving, we all went for a walk in Plymbridge woods along the cycle track.  It was a beautiful evening.

The cycle track runs along the track bed of a disused railway line which runs up the valley and onto Dartmoor.  Part of the railway has been restored as a heritage line which runs for 1.5 miles and is operated by the Plym Valley Railway ; they regularly run steam trains from Marsh Mills station. 

The cycle path continues climbing the valley side and overlooks a beach area on the river Plym where the Engineer used to play as a child.  That evening the area was quiet, the only sound apart from the birds and the rustle of the trees was the "excuse me" of cyclists (who don't seem to know they are allowed to have a bell on their bikes) and the occasional splash as a dog jumped into the river chasing its ball.

After our walk we all went for dinner to the Engineer's sister and brother in law's new house.  Its lovely and we had a wonderful time together catching up as the Teen played with our nieces L & I.  We hope to see them again before we return home. 

Crotchet, afternoon tea and a shed for the Engineer

On Thursday after work I went along to my local Boutique Haberdashery shop for some crochet and afternoon tea.   

We sat in the window of the shop around a table and got out all our work in progresses; there was everything from blankets to elephants and koala bears.  One lady had brought along the same project as me, the granny stripe blanket from Lucy at attic24.  This lady had got further than me and had done the edging but she wasn't happy with it.  After some discussion with Jane, the workshop leader, the lady un-picked the edging and started it again.  By the end of the session the edging was looking much better and she was much happier.  As I haven't reached the edging yet I was able to learn from her. 

Proper afternoon tea

The afternoon tea was lovely, served by the Vintage Tea room which is next door to boutique habidashery.  I had a scone with jam and cream and got a tiny thrill from pouring my cuppa from a beautiful tea pot into an equaly beautiful cup and saucer. 

An enjoyable time was had by all and I have booked myself onto the next workshop.

Unfortunately I haven't got any photos of what the shop looks like inside, but its full of fabric, yarn, quilting tools, sewing, crochet and knitting patterns and anything else you can think of: its just lovely.

While I was out having fun the Engineer took delivery of his shed.  I have to say we were all very excited about it.  The Teen helped with the unloading of the shed but then decided she had had enough.  When I got home I was able to help put some of the walls up.   Its really easy - it just slots together.  Once we had got into a routine it took us this evening to get over half of the walls done.  This will be our project for the weekend.

Several days later:

 

The Engineer's Shed, protected from the rain.

A very long day

Yesterday turned out to be a very long day. 

The Engineer took the angle grinder to the frame of the gate he is building to remove the patina of rust that had built up.  I did the washing and carried on with my rose; I think I am finally getting used to the new paper I am using.  I was using Bockingford 300g hot pressed which I thought was smooth.  That's until I used Fabriano acquarello hot pressed - that is even smoother and this caught  me out, but now I think I am used to it.

Nearly finished

I was drawing on and off all day, stopping occasionally to hang the washing out, put together lunch/dinner or do some gardening.  A productive day really.

The frame of the gate is on the left

The gate frame took most of the day to clean up and we eventually managed to get a coat of Hammerite on it before dinner  (a slow cooked chicken curry).  We then relaxed for a bit in front of the TV before putting another coat on the gate.  The Engineer said he had something in his eye but it felt like it was up under the lid and would probably work its way out if he just relaxed for a bit.  So we went to bed and read our respective books.  We were just settling down when the Engineer said that actually he couldn't shut his eye as the bit of "something" made it too painful.  As he is prone to ulcers in that eye we knew it would be trip to A & E.  Once there (a 15 minute drive) he was triaged and we waited, knowing it would be a long one as a bit of grit in the eye is painful but not life threatening. 
We waited three and a half hours and whiled away the time talking, reading and people watching. 

When we were seen the staff were great: helpful, cheerful and professional.  The Engineer didn't have something under his lid: he had a bit of grit embedded in the front of his eye ball (despite wearing eye protection).  The nurse proceeded to try and remove it but couldn't so called in someone else.  They had a good look at it, told the Engineer that he had made a "proper job of that" and then brandished a needle to take the grit out.  Needless to say I didn't look - I'm not squeamish but anything to do with eyes does make me cringe.   They managed to remove most of it, but there is still a bit left which will need to be removed at the eye clinic on Monday. 

We arrived back home at 3.45am and fell into bed.

This morning we didn't surface until 9.45 when we were both pleasantly surprised by the lack of pain in the Engineer's eye.  It still hurts a bit, particularly in bright sunlight.  We had a leisurely breakfast before putting another coat of paint on the gate.

For lunch, we went out, guess where..........

Yes, Lilys in Wickham.  But we didn't have cake, this time............