Planet Ruby Starrs

There was a promise of sunshine before the next bout of bad weather took over the Easter weekend so we got ourselves together and we had a lovely little wander along the river from Gainford to Winston - hoping for lunch in the pub but it was all a bit over the top, proper meals like, no bar snacky lunch type menu so just a coffee and pop and back along the river.. We had also hoped for a circular route but were thwarted as at every bridge to cross the river to be able to walk on the marked footpath was either closed or led to private land NO ACCESS!  there were alot of NO ACCESS signs actually but the path meandered took us up on the road to avoid trespassing and it was mostly still a pleasant walk. Dr Fred contemplating the Spa waters.. We came across Gainford Spa - pretty little well by the river and also some nice millennium stone work to commemorate village areas and woodlands.  Apart from the road walk bit it wasn't busy we only saw a couple of other people the whol...

This weeks UFO finished.... I started this knitting in about 1998 - it was going to be a fringed coat - Why I have no idea, and somewhere as I had knitted up the back, divided for arm holes, and was about to go over the top and back down again I obviously decided I didn't like it so much.  It was as patterned above and then I had done circular flower type blobs with embroidered stems - it wasn't looking good!!  I think I was trying to rescue something I just hadn't thought through, so it got bundled away needles wool and all and stashed until I was looking for wool to knit an Icelandic jumper and it re- emerged... I kept revisiting it and it traveled through our various house moves... Finally almost twenty years later I had another look at it.  The dimensions were wrong, as it had been intended to be a coat the back was very wide - too wide for a cardigan or jumper back but not wide enough for a back and front!!! In the end I unpicked the embroidery and I pull...

We've been down to the big city of birth again, to be reminded about why I don't live there any more - the good reasons to go are are good friends, two gorgeous grand daughters and family I miss seeing, but no lambs, no hares, and quite a lot of noisy traffic!!! Yes it is great to spend time with old good friends and see the family - albeit 20 minutes with my ever busy son - but I find myself feeling quite comfortable with not actually living there anymore and that is made easier by the fact we now live so much nearer anyway.  its only about an hour down the dreaded A1 but very doable.... so I can now have the best of both worlds! We caught up briefly with people I haven't seen since before Christmas and then the main event (apart from seeing grand daughters) a West Yorkshire Playhouse visit to see Kneehigh theatre present ''The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk'' an interesting play about Marc and Bella Chagall and their  lives in Russia through the revolution. ...

LAMBS!!! I was beginning to think that when the sheep that were living in the shed over the wall were about to birth they were being shipped out and taken elsewhere to produce and then stashed somewhere warm and leafy so we were not going to enjoy lambs over the wall.... Then we went to Leeds for couple of nights and came back to dozens of lambs - really very cute with lots of black faces... need I say more.... Spring is here - for today at least.

We have just returned from an intrepid tramp around the moors and (ex) forest of Stang, just on the border of County Durham and Yorkshire!!  We can see this hill from our house so felt it warranted an explore.  This was another of Dr Freds slightly misleading walking tours... he did warn me - he said it was a hill but not a big one - that's ok... he said yes its very windy but we will mostly be on a path through a forest so we will be sheltered - that's ok... there is a crag with a path to the trig point and then a path back down to the road making it a nice reasonable easy sheltered 5/6 mile circular walk and we will be able to see our house from the top. (except we forgot the binoculars so we had to guess). non existent forest Off we go... christmas cake and teabags at the ready - the wind was quite wild as we left the van heading for the forest track... the track was there but alas the forest was no longer!!! There were 15 trees a little way along, but that was the sum...

Had a great day today sewing with two friends.   Its really inspiring and motivating working in a group, swapping ideas and looking at other peoples work.  One friend is making an apron and is using applique for the first time.  The final piece is looking really nice, fantastic for a first time. My other sewer in arms is making a colourful background for a wall hanging and is playing with manipulating fabrics and laying pieces together with plain and pattern fabrics, some overlays and different textures.  the colours are lovely and I'm looking forward to seeing it develop. Me - all I managed to do was cut out three elephants to embroider for the first segment of my american quilt - but not much else ha ha too busy gabbing and sticking my oar in with unsolicited advice and ideas - I will bondaweb the elephants onto some nice garish (hopefully) gold lame and then embroider them with bright Indian colours and add beads and sequins to make them very colo...

My pals and I went for a snowy walk by the river at Barnard Castle, it was very splendid, quite cold and the snow flurries meant we had to keep moving but it all looked pretty spectacular, a bit like Narnia and we kept expecting Mr Tumnus to appear.   hard to tell but it tis blizzarding in this picture Its a lovely place to wander down by the river,even when the weather is bleak and mid-wintry, it will look fantastic once the greenery arrives especially with the wild garlic and bluebells.  It makes up quite a bit for not having the beach so nearby. After a couple of hours battling the elements we felt we had earned lunch in a cafe so we wandered back by the castle and up the high street to try a different cafe in our quest for the best cafe in Barney.... this one scored a very satisfactory 8/10 and served delicious soup and scones just what we needed on a wintry day. there was alot of water under the bridge..

Finally we are connected to the internet and interestingly I have nothing very interesting to post ha ha!  We used a company called Quickline and they proved to be very efficient and seem in the first instance to have delivered exactly what they said they would but I'm not so sure....- Dr Freds very happy as he has got Spotify back in his life - next I need to sort out the tv and landline but hopefully its all coming together quite nicely. We had family visit for the weekend include a young person who was all knowledgeable about internety things and helped me sort out the tv - and showed me how to test internet speeds as I'm not convinced we are getting what we were promised!!! It may necessitate a phone call tomorrow - why is technology so complicated! beautiful lichen on fallen tree Fortunately nature continues to deliver - we had a great walk around the Stanwick Iron age fort - very muddy and quite perilous in places but it made it an adventure - we had afternoon te...

I decided to make a commitment to finishing some UFO's - unfinished objects...When I was packing up to move I kept finding interesting stuff I had started and then got bored off or for some reason run out of motivation... This quilt is one I started when we moved into Togston almost five years ago- its hand pieced using diamonds and squares and a mixture of mostly cotton green fabrics, some started as curtains and clothes and I ended up buying a bolt to add some extra pattern and the backing.  It took me many many long winter nights in front of rubbish television first cutting out the diamonds from old christmas cards and then tacking the fabric to each individual template and then sewing approx 500 pieces together. the quilt is  about 75 inches square and then after all that work - I just didn't like it at all any more!!! I think I just got bored with the colours and endless stitching... any way it got shelved for the next rainy day! It went to live at...

Originally posted from my mobile.but it didnt seem to work for everyone so I have reposted it using a friends wifi... What a difference a day makes... from pure blue skies on Sunday to leaden grey snow filled glaringly white landscapes.  The snow has a beauty in itself but for me its too monocrome.. too silent... too clean...Its only fascination lays in its rarity - we don't get snow like this often and all I can say is I am glad to be observing it from a warm safe place and not battling through it like Dr Fred....  stuck on the dreaded A1 having had to abandon the idea of lectures today.. hopefully he'll make it back in a timely safe fashion (he arrived eventually). The novelty of snow doesn't last long for many.. we are not set up to deal with stray flakes let alone continuing blizzards the roads are chaos and the pristine lines dont stay clean for long.  The accident stats start to pile up and supplies run out bring on summer is my war cry from me warm ...