24 hours

Snapshots from the weekend - a brief visit to the coast.

Moss, who is back to her normal (almost) bouncy self  'wearing' a mudpack set of black boots... she smelt 'delightful'!

Bluebells nodding in the brisk breeze on Saturday afternoon - their fragrance whipped away before I could smell it, will have to wait for a less windy day...

St Helen's Church, Overton - one of the oldest churches in Lancashire thought to originate around 1050 - 1140, depending on which wall you look at with evidence of both Norman and Saxon architecture.

A heron tentatively dipping a toe into the estuarine waters - it was incredibly choppy with spray breaking off each little wave.

We walked around Bazil Head (a small farmed peninsular) where the coastal defences are huge boulders piled up against the land preventing erosion during stormy weather. Someone with a sense of humour created this ....

With my back to 'Stone Face' I photo-ed the view - Himself and Moss ahead of me of course.

Further round, in a marshy inlet there is a fine line where the land starts and the sea ends with the fence as the marker, although it does appear as if the sea breaches that manmade barrier on a regular basis.

All around the headland were small red place names - obviously a community who love and care for their little headland on the edge.

Then as the sun began to set, we watched four hares loping around the fields below us. We could make out two male and two female and although there was no boxing or chasing, there was definitely a platonic group happening as they grazed in the lengthening shadows.

In the morning after breakfast and a dog walk  (wallowing, stick hunting, mud puddling, sniffing and running. Insert any or all listed ...) we packed the van - with a list of chores to be done we returned home to make the most of Sunday afternoon.

Hope your weekend was a good one 😊

Where did the weekend go?

Why is it a four day weekend seems to slip by as fast as a two day one? 

No, I don't know either, however I do know that we must have filled every last second with something and you know that old adage ...I'm going to work for a rest?? Well, I think that might be what I've planned for the rest of this week!

Friday evening kicked off with an picnic (of fish and chips) eaten outside alongside one of our favourite picturesque canal banks near Gargrave. With Eldest and his lovely girl we watched an amazing and unexpected display of hot air balloons as they drifted through the sunset. We were surrounded by cowslips, violets and early bluebells. Moss was of course more than happy to throw herself into the canal at a moment's notice and was a little disappointed when it was time to eventually leave however within  a few seconds she was racing up and down following interesting scents and hunting down sticks - happy dog. 

Saturday was rather good too - we set off for a walk in Skipton Castle Woods to find the sculptures. Himself and I have been before and now that there was a new willow sculpture of a stag, we decided that we'd take Eldest and GF to show them too. It was such a lovely day, a bit fresh to start but soon warmed up and despite it being a bank holiday and warm(ish) and sunny(ish) it was surprisingly quiet. The town centre was busy but still quieter than I have seen it in the past. The woods did not disappoint and nor did the new stag. Most enjoyable. 

Eldest's GF has been delighted by all the lambs in the fields but has never had the opportunity to bottle feed or cuddle a lamb, so I messaged a friend who has rare breed sheep and goats and asked it there was a chance for a bit of lamb cuddling action and the answer was yes! So off we went and held and tickled the cutest (and tiniest) Ronaldsay lambs we've ever seen then spent a very happy time scritching and scratching Golden Guernsey goats and goat kids.

Sunday we had my folks over for tea and cake and in the afternoon we went off looking at the lambs in the fields - the fields are liberally sprinkled with lambs around the village, from the tiniest little long legged lambs to the mini sheep sized lambs full of bravado as they charge around the fields in little groups.

By Monday it was back to Himself and I so we decided to jump in the van and head off to the Dales for a walk. Himself chose Littondale and we easily found parking above the isolated valley. Once again we were surprised how quiet the roads were and how few folk were about despite again the sunny and reasonably warm weather. We dropped down on to the side of the valley and walked up to the head of it, crossed over and back down on the other side. There was a cutting breeze that seemed to find its way through all clothing however, when the sun shone it was gorgeous. We stopped in a dry limestone riverbed for our lunch and found a sheltered and warm spot. Lunch was piping hot mushroom soup, cheese and pickle sarnies followed by chocolate eggs - what a treat! Moss of course found a pool of water and played 'dipping for sticks' as she stuck her face in and blew bubbles in the rather chilly water. (what a strange dog!)

The last stretch back up to the van was a bit of a pull as it was from the valley bottom (in the far distance in the main photograph) up to the crest of the hill on the left. In all it was over six miles and we hardly saw a soul. 

Now, Tuesday, I am wondering what happened to our extended weekend? I know we stuffed it full and made the most of every minute but it still seemed to vanish in a flash!

How was your long weekend?

Did you manage to make it linger and feel like a holiday?

or did it fly by in a blink of an eye!?!

Monday doing what it does best - being a Monday....

Monday morning meanderings whilst waiting ....


For the washing machine to finish the final spin.

For the 'smart meter' man to arrive .

For my mug of tea to cool enough to take the first slurp.

For Youngest to let me know when I can collect him and his girl from the train station.

Thought I would share our weekend escape but need to give a bit of a back story first......


Two weeks ago in a moment's lapse in concentration, Moss spotted some children who happily (and quite innocently) yelled out - look at the doggy! Said doggy trotted over to say hello.......straight into the path of a car. Said doggy then bounced off the bumper, rolled beneath the front and had her paw squished beneath the tyre.

I never saw or heard any of this as I was about to put my boots on so Moss and I could go for a walk, my son and his lovely girl were first on the scene and scooped up a bruised and bleeding dog. She was carried back over the road where by now, I was there and grabbed her bleeding paw, shutting my hand over tightly to reduce further blood loss while I pressed and poked the rest of the dog to see if anything else was hurting or broken. Then out of nowhere our neighbour (who is a vet) arrived and between us we bandaged and checked over Moss. Meanwhile Youngest had got his car ready and we bundled in a very sorry and bloodied dog and headed off to the veterinary surgery.

Anyhoo, one sorry dog with comedy patchwork foot and bruising and one rather large (but deserved) vet bill later, we brought her home. The parting instructions from the vet - who looked young enough to have only left senior school last week - keep her quiet, gentle exercise for ten days, no swimming etc……. Youngest and I looked at each other and both thought ‘yeah right - you don’t know this dog!!!!’

Fast forward to this weekend - her stitches are the dissolving kind, she has had the all clear from the vets, had all her medication and was now suffering a seriously large bout of cabin fever. Moss was at bursting point and was beginning to bounce off walls. 

Youngest and his girl did their best with lead exercise and entertainment while I was at work, however Moss has such busy feet and a busy head that she very quickly got bored with ‘ill health’ and needed some serious play time.

So on Saturday we took her (and us!) in the van to Glasson and spent two days playing in the sea, walking along the canal, ‘falling’ into mud and puddles, following paths and exploring new places.

Bless her, by Sunday afternoon she was tired and a little stiff but you could she loved every minute. As we prepared to come home - a chilly breeze struck up so we wrapped her in her duvet, gave her some chews and let her sleep all the way home - happy happy dog indeed!

It is so easy to blame the children who called her - even though they did not, 

it would be so easy to blame the car driver for not seeing the dog - but it was not her fault (despite her driving off at break neck speed as soon as she saw Youngest hurtling down to scoop up his dog), 

it would be so easy to say ... she's never done that before - but you can't put the onus on an animal. 

It was our brief lapse in concentration that caused it and despite what could have happened - fortunately it didn’t and we are so so very lucky that Moss got away with just bruises and a patchwork paw……. 

Back to the here and now, the ‘smart meter men’ (two of them) have landed, they have drunk the tea I made them, they seem to be 'heeing and hawing' over the placement and the vintage of our existing meter, the power is off and I am waiting for the confirming call from Youngest to say he and his girl are finally on the train.

Moss wants to watch the ‘smart meter men’...

Not because she is being a guard dog,

not because she is interested in what they are doing,

no, they are both working right next to her big bag of dog food …..🤣😂

In at the deep end

 Go on, I said, let me fix it for you ... I really would love to. You'll be doing me a favour - I need my hands to be busy and I love doing that sort of thing....

It took a couple of weeks of gentle (ok persistent but gentle) persuasion to be able to prise this jersey (well you lot would call it a cardi but a jersey is a jumper is a cardi to me!) and bring it home. It is a well loved lamb's wool super soft favourite of a dear friend of mine and I'd seen that she'd already made a couple of repairs and that another hole had begun to appear.

I brought it home and started to un-pick the stitches so that I could see what I was working with and soon found that there were many mini repairs all over the body of the jersey. It was like doing textile forensics with the differing coloured thread revealing many layers of repairs to this beloved item of clothing.

Every time I turned the garment over, I found another mend or another hole. So, I decided to start with the smallest wounds and work my way up the the major one on the left under arm.

I kept going, building up my courage and practising different techniques - good old fashioned darning, Swiss darning, boro-esque stitching, patchwork, applique, freeform, pseudo-Dorset buttons and 'wing-it'.

Each evening, after we'd eaten, I'd switch on my anglepoise lamp and stitch another hole closed, avoiding looking at the large one on the arm until apart from a worn thin area that I was going to weave over, I had no choice but to tackle the arm. In the end I took the scissors to it and just cut away all the threads and wool then picked up each tiny stitch and sewed them to prevent any more unravelling.

It was then a matter of finding a soft but strong fabric to patch from the inside and applique stars and tiny stitches to strengthen the knitting. Strangely enough, once I'd got over my reluctance to repair this particular gaping hole - it turned out to be my favourite mend.

This afternoon, after three weeks, I completed the final mend - the woven section on the left front, took the photographs and folded up the jersey. Both relieved and bereft it was now completed. It can return home tomorrow. I shall miss it's company!

This was an act of rebellion against the tide of the throw-away-society as well as an act of kindness to a friend who does so much - thank you x