Bimbling on the North Bank

 What a palarver to get these photo's uploaded onto here. Still haven't worked out what's happening, will have to look into it further. Thought the computer was up the swaneee, then the mouse, a new mouse didn't make any difference. Broadband is pants in this area, so slow. The main problem was first photo uploaded ok, then the second one appeared with a cross in the bottom left hand corner and wouldn't upload at all. So I had to close the page, and open a new one up to upload second photo, and repeat for third, and so on. Then some were loading at the top and some at the bottom so had to jiggle them around with the mouse to put them in the right order. Tried loading in HTML, that didn't work. Anyway, stop moaning it's done now.

The night before last we had a lovely sunset. Normally I would rush to the church and snap a few pics before it disappears over the horizon, but I looked out of my back window and saw that the fluffy clouds were picking up the red glow. I read about this trick somewhere, don't shoot directly at the sunset, but look in the opposite direction to see what it is reflecting off. It turned the trees at the back of my house red once, but these clouds look quite stunning. I love watching clouds.  

 

Right, where did I go for a walk yesterday. I drove over the Humber Bridge to the north bank, and parked at North Ferriby. These posters were dotted about everywhere. I wondered what they are trying to save North Ferriby from. An alien invasion perhaps, or maybe Japanese knot weed, or maybe the village is being eaten up by giant slugs. I looked at the website. To put a load of waffle into a few words, basically they don't want anyone messing with their lovely village. They like it as it is, and want to keep it that way. I think it's aimed mainly at planners. Fair enough I suppose.

I walked alongside the main A63 for a short distance then took a left turn down Brickyard Lane, heading for the Humber Bank. These unusual flower heads caught my attention. Don't ask me what they are called, most of the flowers were white.

I walked alongside the waters edge for a while, this is part of the Trans Pennine Trail, I have walked along here before. The bridge is in the distance. I found a very convenient massive washed up log to sit on and had a bite to eat. Today's sandwiches are French brie cheese with spinach.

A bit further along is Welton Clough, a huge lake with a sailing club and outdoor pursuits centre, though no one was out on the water today.

I then headed inland up Common Lane, towards Welton. I was ambling along minding my own business when this cheeky chappie on a bike stopped and asked me if I was doing the Wolds Way long distance path. He told me he likes walking, which is handy for him as he is a postman. We were talking for ages, and had a good laugh together. I'm glad he stopped to talk, now I have a new friend and he's called Steve the Postman.  

I stopped for ten minutes in Welton, beside the pond next to the church. I have been here before, it's a lovely village, but I was a bit sad to see that the pond looks pretty murky. It needs a good clean up.

Out of the village I headed for Welton Dale. I have been on this path before, it's a lovely walk when the sun is shining. Through the gate, there is a wood on the left and steep open fields on the right.

That's the direction I am heading,

and this is looking back. The weather has stayed dry and warm, a great day for a stroll.

Eventually the Dale goes into a wood and comes out on a concrete road. I turned right, then right again and walked along the edge of a field of corn. The busy bees were hard at work.

It was a glorious day, the sun was shining down on me, I was very lucky. When I reached the end of the field I joined another concrete road which was the long driveway to a farmhouse hidden in the trees I had just passed. The landscape opened out into Welton Wold. On my right was a field where a crop of peas had been harvested, and in the centre appeared to be a patch of blue flowers. I went to have a closer look. This area had been marked out by white sticks, obviously designated to be left standing after the crop had been collected.   

What an amazing sight, hundreds and thousands of busy bees, all going about their business. Ducking and diving into the flower heads. Wow, how fantastic. I did try and capture a few in my pic, but nigh impossible the speed they were going.  

After that I joined the road and walked towards Swanland. Time was getting on and I have been to Swanland before so I did a right turn just after this sign and bypassed it, and went back to North Ferriby.

Lucky for me there is a shop where I treated myself to my favourite ice cream, a Magnum. A quick drive back over the bridge and I was home in half an hour. Not a lot of miles covered due to me stopping to chat. 9.2 miles total. Today was a bimbling day, and enjoying the countryside.

How do you like my shades, cool eh! Can't see much out of them though, due to my short sightedness, ha ha. Never mind they were free. I found them in the grass as I happened to look down when I was stepping over a boggy bit next to the river. They are like new, not a scratch on them. Always look down, you never know what you will find.  

We've had some rain today, quite heavy downpours, no need to water the veg tonight. A second sunflower has appeared, one plant has sprouted nine flower heads, chuffin heck, they will look good when they open up. If they grow any higher I will have to look at the flowers through binoculars.

Toodle pip.

Short and sweet

Hi there. This is going to be short and sweet. Is anyone else having problems loading pics, because I am struggling. I can't position the curser to where I want them to land, they are all over the place. I usually load them one at a time, in a line down the middle, but they are appearing anywhere. All out of sequence. I've given up, which is a shame, because I've had such a nice day out walking, and wanted to post about it tonight. I am going to have to stop before I blow a gasket.

The problem is on the big computer. I will give it another try tomorrow and if it is still not working I'll see if it's any better on this small computer. I'll get back to my sewing. Sorry about the blip. Catch you tomorrow.
Toodle pip 

Many hands make crafty work

That was a nice start to the week, a Monday morning Chat and Craft  group at the Village Hall. It's only two minutes walk from where I live, a very convenient location. It's close to the Post Office so I popped in to pay my council tax as well, and have a nosey at the posters on the notice board. We had a break for coffee and jaffa cakes, must remember to take my own sugar next week, as we had to borrow some from another cupboard in the kitchen. A small fee of £1 was payable to cover the cost of Ann's leaflet printing and the refreshments, and the small charge for the use of room.

We were six in total, so what was everyone doing? Sorry, can't remember everyone's name, but to my left was some very intricate embroidery work going on.

Opposite me was a lady knitting a warm wooly winter skirt.

On my right there was some sketching going on.

At the end of the table, measuring a piece of knitting, is that enough?

And on the other side of the table was some more sketching.

I added some more squares to the patchwork. In the early stages this can be transported anywhere to work on. Preparing the squares beforehand, you only need a needle and cotton and a pair of scissors. Put it in a bag and Bob's your uncle, easy peasy craft work to take with you.

Someone mentioned ironing the seams to the darker squares to get rid of the problem of transparent fabric. It wouldn't work with this because of the way I stitch it. The seams go flat. Right, I'm off to carry on with this, the weather is a bit crazy so I'll stick around here today. A quick visit to the mobile library a bit later, and that will be my lazy Monday taken care of.

Toodle pip

Busy stitching

Hello, how has your Sunday been? The garden got a good soak last night, apparently there was a big thunderstorm but I didn't notice it, when my head hits the pillow I'm a gonner. It's been mainly dry today, apart from a couple of short thunderstorms, then the road outside turned into a river. I've been getting on with the patchwork squares, there are four ready now.

Well I thought they were all ready. When I did the green one top left, which was the last one, I noticed that the plain green fabric wasn't very thick, so I put two layers on those squares. Then I noticed that the cream fabric also wasn't very thick and I can see through it to the seams at the back. So I cut a slightly smaller piece and put it into the back of the square on the left. You can see it gets rid of the problem, the one on the right hasn't had an extra piece and it looks a bit amateurish. So now I am going to have to do the same with all the plain squares. I shall have to watch out for that in future. The next plan is to put some plain squares around them using a different colour. I shall keep adding to it untill it is big enough. Still not sure what it is going to be.  

Can you see my one sun flower peeping out from behind a leaf. There are quite a few buds, just need them to open up now. I've measured it tonight, the middle plants are seven feet tall, from the decking to the top. I had to put extra canes to support them at the back, and I've tied a rope right across from the door on the front of the garage, to the wooden shelving at the other end. It's been a bit windy at times, but they seem to be holding out. I think now I should have planted them two to a box, well I'll know next time.

My dinner tonight. The usual, ha ha. Steamed broccoli, carrots, broad beans, spinach, courgette, radishes and swede. Topped with mushrooms. Fantastic, I never tire of this, could eat it till it comes out of my earholes.

My food for the reast of the day was as follows. Bran flakes and a banana for breakfast. A nectarine and some grapes with a small yogurt, for elevenses. Two toasted crumpets for lunch. A toasted teacake for mid afternoon, to keep me going till dinner at 6.30pm. Mug of coffee first thing this morning, and very weak dilute juice during the day. Not sure if I will need anything else, I am pretty full. Might have a slice of toast later. 

Tomorrow morning there is a crafting club starting at the village hall. I'm going to see what it is all about. I'll take a bit of sewing with me. 

Toodle pip. 

Mishmash post

Hello, a bit of catching up to do here. First off, I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't want to bother with the new fangled Googlie profiles, and join circles. Thanks to Compostwoman who directed me to her post about it, and included a link which gives instructions on how to get out of it. I will copy it here in case you want to opt out as well. Going back to your blogger profile.

Talking about food, we aren't actually, but some food always sneaks in here somewhere, ha ha. I was reading about Sue's little adventure of getting into juicing food, and it has prompted me to increase my own intake of raw vegetables. I don't have a juicer and don't plan to buy one, but I am quite happy to mash my veg into a pulp in my Kenwood mixer, which hasn't seen the light of day for many years. The reason I don't use it very much is that the quantities needed to make a good mishmash are far too great for one person. I have another smaller gadget which makes smaller quantities. Also to minimise washing up, which I hate, I'd rather not mess up more pots than I need to.

Yesterday the Kenwood came out, ok let's give it a go. My collection of healthy greens. Watercress and cucumber from the shop. Broad beans, runner beans, and courgette from the garden.    

Stick it in the pot, and whizzzzz.

Then what did I do with it? To save washing up, I ate it straight from the mixer bowl with a spoon, nothing added. It was mighty nice, peppery from the watercress, and each mouthful was satisfying knowing there was no crap in it. I'm going to have more meals like this.

Last night was the opening of the exhibition at the Arts Centre, Janet came with me. There was free drinks and nibbles, and presentations to the winners. No prize for me, I didn't expect anything, knowing how high the standard was likely to be. It was nice to see my name in the programme, and to be able to chat with the other artists. Here is the first one, called Reclaimed. I like the way they have hung it at an angle, and it seems to fit in well with the others on the wall.  

Here is the yellow one, called erm, Yellow. Don't like the position of this one, too low down, easier for people to touch. They have also put the wrong price on this one. It's ridiculously high.

And this is the one they didn't hang. There was a cock up. Garden was entered as a pair with Yellow, because they are a similar shape and from the same car. The judges decided they only wanted Yellow, that's why the price is high, it is for two pieces. How chuffing annoying, they have rejected the best piece. What do they know anyway, I like it so it is good. Oh well, it's back on my living room wall.  

On the way home there was a beautiful sunset, I drove a different way hoping to get a good shot of it. I wanted to get the chemical works in the foreground, but there wasn't a good vantage point, and the sun quickly went out of sight over the horizon. This is the best I could do.  

Janet was waiting for me in the car as I scrambled up a mucky bank. She took a photo of me with her phone, which I think is pretty good. Nice composition.

I'm plodding on with the patchwork, still not decided what it is going to be, several ideas floating around. I ought to be out walking really, too much to do, too little time. Have a nice weekend.

Toodle pip.

The gas man cometh.

Well the gas man did indeed cometh, but he didn't create havoc like this gas man did....ha ha

He did a good job. He understood that I was not going to have a smart meter fitted, and didn't try and talk me into it. We had a long discussion on all the ins and outs of it. I had the small computer on and was able to back up my reasons for refusal to have one by showing him the web sites I had been reading up on. He explained that my meter needed changing because of how old it was. It was made in the sixties, and refurbished in the eighties, and I needed a new up to date version which would be easier to read. So out went this old one...

and in went this modern one. Definately not a smart meter.  

They don't call them gas men any more, as you can see from the customer checklist, they are now called Smart Energy Experts. Fancy name, eh! My expert was a qualified electrician. Now that the dual fuel is an option they have to work on gas and electricity meters. My reading is set at zero, the meter will still be read in the same way, either by the meter man who visits, or by myself. It will make it a lot easier, I could never understand those dials.

If anyone else wants to know more about smart meters, and is not sure if they want one or not, take a look at stop smart meters then make your mind up. There are a lot of reasons not to have one. Don't be bullied into it if you don't want one.

This will have to be a short post tonight, I've been out to the Arts Centre, and have run out of time. I'll catch you tomorrow. Toodle pip

New fangled, my posterior !!!

I am a little bit baffled about these new Google Profiles that I see popping up everywhere. When I try to comment on some blogs I get a different box open up, different to the norm. It asks me to create a Google profile, but I don't want to, I have a blogger profile, is that not enough, why would I want another one? The consequence of that is I don't comment on those blogs which have this new fangled way of doing things. I don't like new fangled, I am used to the old way. I don't want to get involved in other peoples circles, or recruit others into my circle. I don't want a circle at all. I am an independent blogger, I go where I like, I read other peoples blogs and they read mine, that's good enough for me. I don't want to be joined at the hip, afraid of missing out on the gossip, that's not my style.

I also keep getting hassled by Yootoob. I am registered on there because it's the easiest way to get my videos onto my blog. I made up a name for that account, but now they want me to change it to my own name. I don't want to, I like my made up name, I know it's me, that's all that matters. I am getting fed up of being bullied into changing it.

Anyway, that's got that off my chesticles. Not a lot to report tonight. I've been doing more sewing, done some litter picking, watered the veg garden, and had a bath, haven't I been busy. A man is coming from British Gas tomorrow to change the electricity meter. They rang me eventually when I couldn't be bothered to ring them. I told them on the phone that I didn't want a new fangled Smart Meter, because it says on the paperwork that I don't have to have one. If he brings one, I shall tell him where to stick it. I don't want my electricity supply hooked up to a computer, don't want them spying on me. 'Oooh look, she's switched the kettle on'. Nosey beggers. The old meter has worked perfectly well for the last 17 years, I want to keep it.
Toodle pip     

More sewing while it's raining

Good morning. It's a bit murky outside, I've had to put the desk light on to see the keyboard. Funny old weather we're having. I walked to the Post Office this morning to put my samples in the post box. Test completed, now wait for the results. I must say, and I hope I am allowed a little brag here, that everything that came out looked exactly like it is supposed to. Ooops too much information there. It just proves to me that the less processed food, and the more vegetables and fruit you can eat, with small amounts of dairy, eggs, pulses, nuts, and fibre, is the best diet. Suits me fine anyway. 

I decided to carry on sewing yesterday. It rained all morning and I always have indoor hobbies to keep me occupied. I finished the first block of squares and made a start on the next one. I am a bit limited to colours, as I don't have a lot of cotton remnants, but there will be enough. Not having a big choice means you need to be a bit more creative, having a lot of choice takes longer to decide which colours go together. I like the idea of using up what you have. I still don't know what this is going to be, it will come to me eventually.

Someone asked yesterday if it would be quicker to sew the pieces together with a machine. Yes, it probably would, but......I hate sewing lots and lots of short pieces together on a machine, all that stopping and starting.  I am one for tying all loose ends off. When you think of how many knots that would be, I would get sick of doing this. Also, you get much more accuracy where the corners meet if you do it by hand. If you sew strips together on a machine, there is always the possibility that by the time you get to the end, the corners of the squares don't match up, even though you might have been quite accurate in your measurements.

Here is the first sunflower peeping out from under the foliage, ooooh, I'm a new mum, ha ha. I've been along the row and counted how many heads I can see, twelve in total up to now. Some of them don't appear to have a flower at all, but one plant definately has four flowers. They are way above the height of the garage, I don't need them any taller, just want the flowers now.

I love the small pinky flowers on the potatoes.

Looks like the courgettes have taken off, love the yellow flowers. I know you can eat them, but I just like looking at them.

There's going to be masses of runner beans. They've been a long time coming, but ready any day now, and there will be some for the freezer.

My lunch yesterday was one chopped onion and four big mushrooms cooked in a little sesame seed oil. Two eggs added and scrambled, add a dollop of wholegrain mustard and some pesto, served on a bed of rocket salad, and Bob's your uncle. A few minutes prep time and you have a quick and tasty snack. Twas loverley.  

Right, it looks like it is brightening up outside, so I must get on. I have a mound of pots to wash, it's gotta be done :o(. Toodle pip.

Lets start quilting

Is there anybody out there, or have you all gone home. OK, I surrender, is it safe to come out now. Didn't she cause a big kerfuffle, that Nellie doesn't mince her words. Still, when she gets a bee in her bonnet about something, she just lets rip. Ha ha, you gotta give her credit for her plain speaking. The daily page views went through the roof, there's steam coming out of the monitor as I type.

Now, where was I, oh yes, this was yesterdays dinner, and todays lunch. This meal was made without cooking, it's chopped raw vegetables. Carrots, broad beans, cucumber, radishes, mixed nuts, and sliced mushrooms, on a bed of rocket salad. I had some of the Tesco dips with it. It was gorgeous.

I fancied doing a bit of sewing today, and started a quilt. I'm not really sure what it's going to be, if it takes too long to make I might make something smaller out of it. I don't really need a bed quilt so I might make a cushion cover, or a cat bed, I don't know, I'll see how it goes. Sew some squares together and see what happens. I thought the squares would be easier, not too much brain power needed. Might do a different shape after this one. Squares are alright to start with. So, cut 25 x 3inch squares out of paper.

Then cut 25 pieces of fabric, bigger than the squares to account for the seams. I used a coaster as a template.

Press the seams with a hot iron.

And sew them together in strips, then join the two strips.

Use tiny stitches, and press the seams flat.

Well that's a start. I will make some more of these 25x3inch pieces in different colours, and join them together, and stop when I get fed up.

Tonights dinner steamed veg again, time to attack the cauliflower. More broccoli, asparagus, radishes, broad beans, and two yellow courgettes. The mushrooms I quartered and cooked them in sesame seed oil, wholegrain mustard, and pesto. It was wonderful, I am stuffed.   

It has rained for the past two nights, but I am still having to water the veg from the tap because it is still quite warm and the rain is evaporating. The wind is getting up so there might be more rain tonight. I'd better get on with the job before it gets dark.
Toodle pip.
Kate, if you're reading this, push a bit harder, we are all waiting.