Category Archives: Norfolk

Trips around the Norfolk countryside

Searching for Reasons to be Cheerful…

I have to admit to having to look really hard this week for any cheerfulness at all! It’s entirely weather related, and I’m sorry to be so feeble. I haven’t coped at all with the heavy layer of cloud which has been sitting on top of our little corner of Norfolk, my mother describes it as being inside a Tupperware box with the lid on…

But this morning, hooray… after a gloomy start the clouds started to break…

and as the weather lifted, so did my spirits…

and of course there are reasons to be cheerful!

The very first one must be the wonderful response that I had from my last post about Team Hannah which you can read in the comments there. I know Hannah has been very appreciative and if you go to the Team Hannah website you will see the amount raised is moving steadily up, although there is still along way to go. Its very uplifting to find out how many kind and caring people are out there.

I’ve been beavering away making Christmas decorations for the Pick’n’Mix Makers Market which is not far away now, and as part of my stall I have bought a Christmas Tree, which is …whisper it….up my studio with decorations on it!!!!! In November!!! Very scary! I’m not going to frighten you with pictures of the tree, but just a little peek…

Coming on nicely I think, and out on my walk this afternoon there was holly…

and ivy…

…so I’m really getting into the spirit of things!

Out in the garden, there are still a few brave plants doing their thing. the Welsh Poppy…

…and these little blue flowers which normally flower in late Spring whose name escapes me for the moment…

…and the Eden rose.

This isn’t a rose I would really recommend as it has these spectacular heavy blooms on spindly weak stems so it’s very droopy, and the roses easily rot in wet weather. but they do last for ages as a cut flower, and it’s trying awfully hard to do its stuff at the moment!

I also found this dear little bird feeder in our little market town this morning which I hope the birds will discover soon…

…and it cost £3!! I couldn’t believe it!

Well I’ve certainly exceeded my three reasons this week, and I haven’t even come to the one which cheered me up no end last night. I won something!! Such a surprise. Wendy over on 1st Unique Gifts had a giveaway draw, and despite having 72 participants, I won one of Wendy’s brilliant clocks. And it’s SO appropriate!

Isn’t it great!

So what are your Reasons to be Cheerful this week? Can you share them so that if like me, someone is having fit of the winter glums we can visit your blog for a little happy moment. Just add yourself to the Linky at the bottom of this post and then we can find you, and if you don’t have a blog do join in via the comments. I love to hear from you…

I’ll leave you with another beautiful Winter Sky…

See you soon x

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

Silent Sunday

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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Pick ‘n’ Mix Makers’ Market – The Event

After all the excitement of the last month I’ve suddenly skidded to a halt. And it’s a very good thing, as I can now spend a week sorting out and gathering my thoughts and making decisions about where I go from here. And, AND…I might have time to do something other than needle felting!!! Crochet, perhaps or some knitting! It’s been really hard to look at some blogs as I’ve been suffering from yarn envy, so I’m looking forward to a bit of a break! And I have to revamp the Folksy shop which has been closed because of the Market, so look out for new things appearing later on in the week.

But I promised to tell you about the market. Firstly, I have to confess that despite taking lots of photos, the one of the Planet Penny stall was too bad to use so this one…

is courtesy of Catherine Daniel, whose stall you can see further on in the post, thank Cathy!

But there were so many lovely stalls to look at…

I was next to Celia Hart, of Purple Podded Peas fame, with all her lovely prints and cards…

…and opposite Sasha, and her colourful menagerie of handmade toys…

On my other side was Suzanne of Heart of Glass with a sparkling array of stained glass…

At the far end of the hall was the lovely Emma of Emma Mitchell Designs. I can never resist buying something every time I see Emma, but this time I have a special commission which I will tell you about another time!

Then Lisa of Bobobun, to whom we are indebted for all the organisation for the event…

and Ruth, of Glory Days, one of my favourite shops in Norwich…

…and I’m terribly in love with that teapot!

There was fairy loveliness from Sara of Wildwood…

and then the twin temptations of Fiona’s High Fibre wool…

and Daisy Boo’s amazing Coffee Shop Corner…

Warm Stilton and Walnut Scones for breakfast…well, you’ve got to, haven’t you?

I also fell in love with a wonderful ceramic take on patchwork, as created by Catherine Daniel…

Kit bought a gorgeous piece…

And what did I buy?

Well, I tried to be sensible, but I will be going back to Catherine….Can you see that wonderful ceramic bunting above? But in the end I bought this heart…

…and this heart…

and two little books from Celia which seemed to have been made with me in mind…

Gosh, this is a long post! If you follow the links you’ll find some of the other lovelies I didn’t get time to photogragh are mentioned in other blogs if you want to get the full flavour of the day.

And it was a good day, for my first foray into the world of Makers Markets, it was fun, and successful…

…and now I’m very tired…

Must share the nest two pics though. Yesterday was quite bright and sunny to start with, sunbathing took place… But it clouded over, stared to rain and got SO cold..I had to light the wood burner…

As you can see, Higgins hasn’t managed to persuade Henry it’s possible to share the mat! Definitely hangdog…

Edited to add…The next Pick’n’Mix Makers Market is coming up on November 26th and you will find we have lots of lovely Christmas pressie ideas under one roof! Click on the poster on the side bar to find out more!

Hope to see you there x