Inspired by Autumn

 Hello Lovelies, 

I've been on a bit of a mission to tidy up this week, putting stuff away and sorting paperwork. 

I think as the garden becomes cold and damp it feels more important to create a calm space to shelter in. Our indoor living space feels the pressure of so many adults using it. It's not toys I do battle with these days but shoes, coats, tech, and never ending laundry.

An Autumn clean, tidy and declutter seems essential for my sanity.

Yesterday I took the afternoon off and went for a walk though...another sanity essential.

It was a dull day but the seasonal colour is getting really good this week.

I couldn't stop picking up leaves.

This scene was all green a couple of weeks ago.

Now there are  fabulous shades of plum

 

and red

Along with the golds and oranges

When I got home I had a little play with all the leaves I had collected. How lovely are these shades and shapes?

The autumn scenes and leaf colours inspired me to get my yarn pegs out.

I'm still experimenting with colour combinations and thinking about what project I want to use them for, but it's great to feel inspired.

I also collected some dried grasses and seed heads while I was out. I love this simple arrangement on my mantel.

It balances well with the houseplant on the other end.

I made this mosaic for inspiration. It's a joy to capture this moment, when so many leaves are fading into a rainbow of beauty and the berries shine.

I do hope you lovelies manage to get outdoors and make the most of Autumn (or Spring) this week.

Jacquie x

A Colourful Start

 Hello Lovelies,

I was out and about early this morning, walking to the shop to get some sandwich supplies to make packed lunches. What a treat the amazing sunrise was. 

I love that we are blessed with creative souls who add fun things to the streets where I live. The little wooden train planter looked extra nice with such a dramatic backdrop.

The dim light was not the best to photograph this great yarn bomb on the post-box but I think you can get the idea. It's to encourage people to help the hedgehogs. I'm so pleased that nobody has messed with this and it's holding up well after being out in the weather for a couple of months.

 

The morning was beautiful and I hung out washing....always a treat in November. You can see the fire pit needs putting away. The boys had friends over on Saturday night, to sit around the fire chatting. Eldest has an old wok he cooks haloumi in over the flames. Lagers and nibbles in the dark garden, watching other people's fireworks. Sounds great.

A few posts back I mentioned about my first house. It go me thinking about it and I looked for some photos.

This picture of the kitchen is all I could find. Aww, it might not look much but this seemed like luxury to my 21 year old self. 

Previous to this move I'd been in a shared student house with damp issues and a cellar head kitchen. Do you even know what one of those is? 

It's basically a kitchen built at the top of the stairs down into the cellar. Ours was literally about 4 feet square. It had a tiny cooker and a sink, oh and there was a sort of lift up counter top which also served as a barrier to stop you falling down the stairs if you stepped back from the cooker too far!

 Gosh I bet you think I'm making this up, but I promise  I'm not. So you can see why a new house, with a fitted kitchen was bliss, no matter how small it was....we did have fun the student house though 😂.

I'm a bit fascinated with small space living at the moment. I love watching videos about tiny houses

I'm not sure I would enjoy all aspects of this way of living but some of the spaces are adorable and the people seem to have a great quality of life, free from a large mortgage or expensive rent. 

Just look at this lovely space,  ideal for one person I think. You can see this video HERE

Don't blame me if you fall down a tiny house rabbit hole though 😇.

Did you notice the blanket Ariel is sitting on? Isn't it lovely. Perfect for this calm interior with a limited colour palette, to create a feeling of space.  

I'm always juggling for space here too. Maybe I need better storage solutions, but decluttering is my main ongoing goal. I cleared lots of stuff out of this drawer today (some to donate and some just moved). I had tried having my yarn on a shelf of my bookcase but it kept falling out and looking messy. I'm much happier with this storage.

 

This afternoon mum and I went for a little drive. We stopped here to admire the view towards the windmill. It's in the centre of the picture with a white cap.

This is the view in the other direction....looking very autumnal now.

I like cows, when they are on the other side of a gate.....hello beauties.

This evening I finally got around to doing something with all the cooking apples I keeping picking up on my walks.

 

Nothing too imaginative, just several apple crumbles for the freezer, and one for now.

Well that was quite a mixed bag of a post. I hope you found at least some of it interesting lovelies.

Chat tomorrow, all being well.

Jacquie x

A Day Out.......With Yarnbombing

Hello Lovelies,

as you can tell by the title of this post there is yarny goodness.

 It's at the end,  but if you can resist scrolling down we can share a refreshing winter walk first...does that sound good?

Yesterday we woke to bright sunshine and blue skies.....perfect for a little family outing. 

We headed off to Clumber Park. It's not somewhere we have visited before and I do love exploring new places.

It's advertised as great for cycling, so we brought the boys bikes.

Once we had parked up  they zoomed off ahead.............

We finally caught them up by the lake..........

I do love the glittery reflections of sunshine on water..............

Clumber is a country estate who's house has sadly been demolished, you can see the outline of where it once stood here............

And there are some interesting pictures of how it once looked HERE.

Today people come to enjoy the grounds and remaining buildings which include this impressive estate church......

By the lake there are odd remains like this Gun Battery..........

It was not for real battles..........

As well as the remains of formal gardens there is wonderful mature woodland to explore.........

They were bathed in sunlight, streaming through the still bare trees.............

Over a little hill we came upon the lake again............we might as well walk around it as it doesn't look far......

When we saw this map we realised that we were just looking down the short top section..........

Oh well, best keep going. Past an  intriguing tin building ...........

And where the water flows out of the lake, over the dam............

Oh, this is the full length of the lake...........you can just see the church spire on the right bank, we need to walk down the left bank to a bridge ..........

The boys were keen to stop for a break, but we pressed on until we were opposite the church. Hot milky coffee for the grown ups, hot chocolate and a cookie for the boys....very welcome.

It took us over an hour to get this far and I must say I was rather glad to reach the bridge......

My growing boys are increasingly reluctant to come on this sort of trip, I'm sure I felt the same at their age.
Thankfully Mr BM loves these places as much I do these days. He studies all he information boards, takes a keen interest in the history and enjoys the beautiful landscape. It balances out the general feeling of discontent coming from the younger members of the family and for that I'm very grateful.

We finally made it back to where we started at the visitor centre and I would have loved to spent more time here.

As you can see it was rather busy, I just took a couple of pictures.........

And headed off in search of yarn. Hubby took the boys back to the car and I promised not to be long.....

The walled kitchen garden at Clumber has gorgeous Glasshouses...........



With beautiful spring flowers...........



 lovely rooms, showing where the gardeners came for a rest in years gone by..........



And a very colourful cow :0)........

Look, she is even wearing stripy leg warmers, wellies and a headband.

Hopefully you can read the information poster about this fun idea if you click on it to enlarge........

And here is what it looked like yesterday. The apple trees have been decorated with colourful knitting and crochet..........

I loved the granny squares..........

I also loved the quirky creatures.

a Tree Frog

A slightly scary snake

Ladybird and worm

Huge mouse

and a pretty sunflower.........

I thought it was a great idea to add interest at a time of year when the apple trees are bare and there is not much to see in the gardens...........

It's such a large area that you really had to get up close to the trees to appreciate the beautiful handiwork on display.

I think the many, many different types of apples were my favourite thing.

So I've made a mosaic of them to share with you....don't they look great...........

I need to say thanks to Lucy, as she posted a link to this event on her facebook page HERE
Enjoy your Sunday Lovelies.
Jacquie x