Category Archives: Nature

Needlefelting by the Fire

Here in North Norfolk we seem to be clinging on to our Indian Summer, although it’s been good to light the woodburner once the sun goes down. It’s very poignant, I’m very much a Spring person, and struggle a bit with approaching Winter and I’m finding capturing little moments with the camera a really good way of being more positive about the clocks going back next weekend.

It does mean that sometimes I have to be a bit adventurous to get the shot I want. The Silent Sunday picture this week involved clambering round quite a lot of mud and through dead stalks to get at that last surviving sunflower. Higgins thought I’d gone quite mad and dug all four little legs firmly in the ground when I tried to tow him behind me, so I had to do it with a dachshund tucked under one arm into the bargain!

I’ve been needlefelting this week. With the Pick’n’Mix Market just a short month away I’ve been working on more Christmas decorations making Sputnik Baubles and I’ve had lots of fun with the colours. I said in a previous post I’m working on all-year-round colours, rather than a traditional palette, and I’ve been surprised how jolly and clown like my creations are becoming…

…and you can sort of imagine them orbiting Planet Penny can’t you?

(Now I’m feeling ashamed because I realise just how long I’ve had those wooden hangers waiting for me to creatively cover them!)

After last week’s Handmade Monday I had interest expressed in a tutorial for the Crochet Fairy Lights which you will now find here. I’d love to see if you make them!

And talking of Handmade Monday please make a trip over to 1st Unique Gifts to say hello to Wendy and to find out what other exciting bits of making have been going on over the week.

Finally thanks to everyone who took part in the Reasons to be Cheerful Linky. I hope that now you know about it you’ll be looking for your own little sparks of happiness to share for for the next one which is scheduled for Thursday. When clocks go back next weekend, we’ll need all the cheering up we can get!

See you soon x

Tripping the Light Fantastic!

I can’t believe it’s Monday again, the days are galloping away and I’m scared to look at the Christmas Counter on the side bar! And we’re still having glorious weather here in Norfolk. (I apologise if this isn’t the case where you are, honestly, I’m not gloating!)

We went off to make the most of it the other day, if you’ve seen my Silent Sunday post, you’ll know we went to the coast. I always take my camera, I always take loads of photos – as you’ve probably noticed – but I never tire of the view, the colours, the light and freshly washed feeling in the air. I hope I’m not repeating myself with all these photos!

We went in the afternoon this time, so the tide was further out…

…and you can see there were lines of the most beautifully coloured seaweed washed up on the sand.

We had seen a parasail bobbing above the dunes as we drove up, and it turned out to belong to a dune buggy wizzing round and round on the flat sand left by the retreating tide…

This was our special beach when I was a child, and in all the time we spent there, we never saw a seal, but now we can expect to see one or two on every visit. I spend ages trying to get a photo, and usually end up with an expanse of water and what looks like a speck of dirt on the lens, but I think this time you can see it’s a seal..

…or perhaps not! (If you want to find out about when Higgins met a seal, he wrote about it here! He got much closer than me!)

The seagulls were slightly easier…

…although even they were determined to make a swift get away!

Talking of swift get aways, where’s Higgins going…?

I just love this photo, low flying dachshund!

This time we rather ambitiously decided to climb up and walk back along the dunes, which was slightly hair-raising. Higgins went first, running furiously and sliding back and so needing a hand under his bottom for a helpful boost, then me, in much the same condition (with less running and more boosting…) and then Tim, heroically preventing the three of us from slithering back down to the beach!

Meanwhile, it’s Handmade Monday again, and I’ve been experimenting. With Christmas coming up I’m obviously doing the obvious in the way of decorative items, but I’m also working round the whole idea of pretty decorative bits and bobs which, like puppies, are not just for Christmas. After all, I’ve had my heart and pompom bunting on the dresser for ages, and my origami ball is hanging up in the centre of the sitting room just because I like it. I love fairy lights, and have them round the mirror, but I decided it would be interesting to see if I could make them just a little bit more Planet Penny.

I have an interesting little basket of Blue Faced Leicester yarn which I dyed in order to make the Sophie Digard inspired scarf a while ago…

… and thought it might be fun to play around with the colours and make my fairy lights flowery…

Unfortunately, they are really hard to photograph!

I then moved on to another set of lights, this time with lemony yellow bulbs, so I made the flowers with little yellow centres, and they also look really pretty…

especially when I tried them on my wire tree.

It would be lovely to know what you think? Shall I write a pattern/tutorial? I could sell one or two sets in the Planet Penny shop perhaps, for non crocheters. They could go anywhere, being battery LED they’re very safe.

And finally, a further flight of fancy took me back to my pompom maker for a bit more fun…

(and you can also see I’ve been buying pretty things from Vanessa, don’t you love her ‘thank you’ card?)

Phew, I think that’s all I’ve got to say for the moment! Don’t forget to pop over to Ist Unique Gifts for the Handmade Monday Linky where you’ll find lots of other lovely things going on!

See you soon x

Dungeness

We might live in a small country, but it’s amazing the huge variety of landscapes Britain manages to pack in. When we first travelled to the South Coast from Norfolk, I loved the winding roads, the hills, the woods and the green-ness, (although I’m suspect the locals trying to get to the M25 curse those winding roads!) But you don’t have to travel very far along the coast to find an altogether different landscape, wild, harsh, mysterious and beautiful.

I’ve wanted to visit Dungeness for a long time, especially once I had heard about Derek Jarman, and his garden, so I was very excited to find we had a trip organised, with steam trains!

I took lots of photos, so I’ll mainly let them do the talking. I hope they give you a flavour of what a magical place it is.

We’ll get the nuclear power station out of the way first!

Prospect Cottage, Derek Jarman’s home…

It’s privately owned, so you can’t go in the garden, but just stand rather conspicuously on the road with your camera!

I wasn’t quite close enough to for the poem on the end wall to show up, but if you love poetry, you can find it here.

It’s incredible how anything can grow here, and the wonder of the garden is how attuned it is to the landscape. For every gardener who has desperately tried to grow something tropical in a cold windy garden this is a triumph of going along with nature, finding what grows naturally, and mixing it with driftwood, rusty metal and flints and stones, and without boundary fences letting merge seamlessly into it’s surroundings…

Thomas bought me a wonderful book…

..which beautifully describes how the garden came about, with such fantastic photography it made my efforts seem a bit feeble…(but it didn’t stop me from trying!)

It’s amazing what get’s washed up onto the shingle!

There are two lighthouses, the old one…

and because the shingle has built up over the years and made this one too far inland there is a shiny new one…

We walked down to the sea…

(We could still see the power station!)

There was a mysterious tumbledown building surrounded with rusty fences and barbed wire…

…and everywhere brave little plants doing their best to bloom in these harsh conditions…

…and we even found an Open Studio to visit…
Where the artist has a novel approach to recycling his paint brushes…

Then off to the train…

…where we had to make a difficult decision. Is Higgins…

a dog…or a bicycle?

Ummmm…..

The train ride was great, but noisy and Higgins wasn’t too impressed.

…and spent most of the journey with his head firmly wedged between our shoulders to block his ears!

I found a lovely little train I would have liked to bring home…

Such a pretty colour!

Phew, a long post, and there’s a certain amount of hovering going on which suggests it’s a mealtime, so I’d better sign off.

If you still haven’t seen enough, have a look at this great little blog….where you’ll find another Dungeness fan!

See you soon …x

A Nature Walk…and a Ta-Daaaa…!

Did you go on Nature walks when you were at Primary School? I can remember being marched along the pavement in a crocodile, hand in hand with my best friend, collect leaves and nuts for the Nature table. All my memories seem to be Autumnal, I’m sure we went at other times too.

Higgins and I went for a walk yesterday which turned into a nature walk, although I did all my collecting with the camera. I’ve just been turning them into a mosaic and I liked it so much I though I’d share it with you…

It’s amazing just how much there is to see in quite a small area of countryside.

And the Ta-Daaa? Well, I’ve finished the Boneyard Shawl, which I wrote about here (and that’s despite making all those pompoms!)

I really love the colours…

and it’s lovely and soft and snuggly…

I used 4 balls in the end so it’s quite a good size…

Although I don’t what it was with the shaping, it must be me…it looks a little like a sting ray!

One of the compensations of the end of the summer is going to be having an excuse to get all wrapped up in knitting!

Well, the prickling of the hairs on the back of my neck tell me…just let me have a peek… yes, as I thought, I am getting a HARD STARE…it’s walkies time again.

I’d better get the lead …
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Blossoming…

There’s a LOT of blossoming going on at Planet Penny at the moment.

Still running to keep up, and apologising for not announcing the results of the Easter Cup and Saucer draw, I am very pleased to say that it was won by Teje, of Nero’s Post and Patch and the cup and saucer have been very cosily packed in LOTS of padding and are now winging their way to Greece. I hope that Nero allows Teje to enjoy her coffee in it, although I suppose at a pinch he could have dog biscuits in the saucer! Do go over and say hello to Teje and the handsome Nero, and have a look at the beautiful Garden quilt that Teje has made.

Young readers are blossoming too…

Who would like to see my younger grandson, reading Daddy’s book?

A definite little blossom!

And if you go to Thomas’ blog, you’ll find that there will soon be exciting books for older boys too, (hopefully you will forgive a little maternal pride creeping in at this point! )

We had a little blossoming at the last meeting of our local Knit and Stitch Group too, when I did a needlefelting class, and we ended up with a delicious plate of felted fairy cake pin cushions…

I hope once the holiday weekend is over – and I’m not wishing it away! – I will have more blogging time, so please forgive this being a little short and sweet. Thank you to all the knowledgable gardeners who identified the weed as Coltsfoot. I now know to eradicate it on sight!

If you want a little Eastery fix, have a look at the Indie Quarter where you will find a Planet Penny Alpaca Bunny with some friends.

I shall be having a grandson fix, as the boys are coming tomorrow for the Easter Weekend so I will be back next week when all is quiet and the chocolate has been eaten! I hope you all have a happy and sunshiny holiday break with family and loved ones, and I’ll see you soon x

Oh my gosh, it’s April…

…and I haven’t been here for AGES! so sorry, it’s always the way isn’t it? There’s either nothing going on and all the time in the world to write about it, or all sorts of interesting stuff happens and there’s no time to spare AT ALL!

Hope every one is enjoying enjoying a little sunshine at last, although it’s certainly been chilly here in North Norfolk. I love this time of year, especially that fleeting moment when the trees are dressed in tiny vivid green leaves but the tracery of branches is still visible against the blue sky. Full of promise for the months to come.

I have at last managed to spend a bit of time in the garden but it’s mostly been spent making cunning plans to keep the small four legged one out of the veg patch.

He,of course is convinced of his helpfulness.

If you’ve been visiting for a while, you will remember the veg garden crisis last year, when Higgins was a pup.

So I’ve been plotting ways of keeping him off the raised beds.

The trouble is, he has taken to using them as a way of increasing his stature in the world when shouting at passing tractors and bicycles and hurtles down the garden before leaping into the middle of the bed. I was happy when we found a dear little picket fence with just the right dimensions to enclose the bed…

Higgins was elsewhere when we put it up, and arrived to inspect it just as we finished.

He trotted round and round the outside on top of the sleeper…

…grizzling about being thwarted, and getting faster and faster until suddenly BOING! he went straight up in the air, and came down in the middle of the bed…where he was stuck…!

Like Tigger, his bottom is most definitely made out of springs….

So, no seeds sown yet, just more plotting…

I was wondering about a trampoline?

In the meantime, I’m trying to identify a mysterious plant which appeared uninvited under the polytunnel once it got warm and cosy. Maybe you can help?

I’ll be really grateful if someone can tell me what it is. I hope it’s not edible ‘cos I’ve pull it all up!

I’ll be back very soon to share some exciting news, until then…

xxx