Home to Egglestone Abbey via Thornsgill Wood

The weather today was absolutely beautiful, so warm it felt like a summers day.

This was the wood we stumbled across yesterday and promised ourselves that we’d visit it again today.

The path led us through the woods whilst hugging the stream on the left.

It was so beautiful and the scenery was stunning. We walked for about 30 minutes.

We walked up to the abbey but unfortunately the gate was locked. It’s free to go in but obviously with the Covid epidemic they are discouraging visitors.

Woodland Diversion

Hubby was off work today and my shift finished at 10am so we decided to get the shopping over as quickly as possible and then go for a nice long walk.

We took a route that we’d never walked before which should have brought us out at the Abbey but unfortunately ended up in a farmers driveway so made a quick detour back the way we’d walked instead.  On our way we had noticed another bridle way so had a quick look to see what we were missing.

It turned out to be a rather pretty woodland path with a little stream and lots of wild garlic and wood anemones lining the way.  As we’d already had quite a strenuous walk we will go back tomorrow. I can’t wait to see what else we’ll see . Every time we go out we discover something amazing. It is so magical.

Wild garlic and Wood Anemones  

Getting to grips with a little crochet

I have knitted all my life . I literally cannot even remember learning and was reading patterns as soon as I could read, making clothes for my dolls.
Crochet came a little later but was when my brother still lived at home and he left when I was about nine, so crochet has been a large part of who I am too although I didn’t really begin to love it until I started teaching it when I had my shop.

I started this pretty little mat a few days ago and it made up so quickly. The pattern is from the cute and easy flowers book by Nicki Trench and is one of my favourite go to books. It has some gorgeous patterns for mats, blankets, bunting and lots lots more.

Garden catch up and crochet

We both have the weekend off so we decided to make the most of the dry weather. We had another walk down to the river because yesterday we spotted a mink catching fish and darting around having a thoroughly good time. Unfortunately mink prey on water voles which isn’t good but they are very pretty creatures.

When we got back I went shopping and then we did a bit more gardening.

It’s looking even more tidy now, all ready for some pretty bedding plants if ever they arrive in the shops.  Can you spot the bee in the middle of the flowers above? You might need to zoom in.

As I like to pack as much in to my day as possible I also did some crochet from Nicki Trench’s book Crochet with flowers. I’ve made a lot of these gorgeous mats. They are so useful. I will finish it tomorrow time permitting.

I made this rainbow for the window a few days ago to show our support for the wonderful work the NHS are doing during these awful times.

A short walk from home

Hubby finished work at midday and I was scheduled to start at 2.30pm so we had a short window of opportunity and decided to have a picnic.

We sat on a fallen tree by the river Tees and ate crab spread sandwiches and drank coffee from our flask in tin mugs. It was beautiful.

The weather was like a warm summers day and we watched wagtails landing on the rocks and ducks swimming past. It was so quiet with hardly a sole around.

We are so lucky to have such stunning scenery literally 5 minutes walk from our front door particularly when travelling isn’t allowed. It makes me appreciate where we live even more than usual.

Easter Monday

It’s not felt like Easter this year as we don’t seem to have had the same work/play divide. I worked Saturday and Sunday so had to make do with yesterday and tried to push as much as I could in to my only day off.

We decided to go for a lovely long walk to Lartington via the local woods and then walked back dropping in to Deerbolt wood on the way home. I even saw a lamb born in one of the fields which was the highlight of my day.

Once home I did a little bit of crafting. I crocheted these sweet little blossoms from a pattern on
Attic 24 and stuck them to a branch I took from the woods. I was so pleased with the result. It’s just so pretty and reminds me of Spring.
I hope you were able to make your Easter special xx

Garden Tidy

Over the last couple of days the weather has been glorious. We decided to take advantage and ventured in to the garden.  Since we moved nearly eighteen months ago our neighbour has very kindly looked after both sides of the garden.  He’s done so since the previous owner was ill so he just continued.  Anyway when hubby decided to move here permanently this Christmas we said we would be able to do our own garden and this was our first opportunity of keeping to our promise.

As you can see it had become a little neglected but after a couple of hours work it started to look a  bit better.

 The little row of plants are actually primroses.  There were some shaggy looking clumps so I broke them up and made lots of small plants.  If they survive they will look beautiful next year and eventually I will be able to split them again.  Plants for nothing, brilliant.

A local spring walk

Firstly I must apologise for being away for so long. So much has happened and I don’t really know where to begin. It’s probably best to carry on as normal and not worry too much about the passing of the last two years. Yes it has been that long and I’ve missed it so much in that time.

 Unfortunately due to the lockdown we are only allowed out of the house to exercise once a day and only around our local area. That being said we live in a beautiful area and are lucky to have some wonderful countryside on our door step

Eggleston Abbey

We have been making the most of the lovely weather in between work. We both work in our local supermarket so as key workers we are working long hours which is great on pay day but not when the weather is so lovely.  the other downside of course is trying to stay safe when we are in such close proximity to customers but we can’t help that unfortunately.