Light Night

Hello Lovelies,
for 10 years now the city of Nottingham has had a Light Night. We have never been before but this year we finally managed to get there. Well, the "we" on this occasion was hubby, eldest and I. the other two boys were not keen to go.

There are events all around the city but we decided to start at the Castle.
Nottingham castle is set in lovely gardens, and many coloured lights had been used to illuminate the plants. The effect was very striking.

HERE is the scene in daylight, just to give you an idea of the setting, as it's hard to see from my pictures.

I loved this wicker Robin Hood statue.

The background lights were constantly changing colour. It was very effective.

So much colour...in February. 

As a lady stood next to me observed..."it's amazing what you can do with a few coloured lights".

From the gardens we climbed up to the castle it's self.

Sadly the original castle that stood on this huge rock overlooking the town of "Snottingham"....yes really :0)....is long gone.

The building that is now here is a museum and on light night there's free admission.

You can't deny it's built in the perfect defensive position, high on a rock with views for miles from it's battlements.

It's slightly dizzying looking down at the streets below.

 Gosh it was chilly up there, the temperature hovered around zero Celsius and the odd snowflake fluttered down.

It's a shame the cloud obscured the full moon.

Here's the entrance to the castle, complete with coloured lights. We did pop inside for a visit...it was warm inside.

Back outside the bandstand attracted our attention.

I loved this dreamy installation with it's suspended umbrellas and changing colours.

As we left the castle we saw the signs for another open attraction. The Brewhouse yard museum is much more my sort of museum than the castle really. It's years since I have been but I recall great room sets that brought an era to life.

Down the hill we went, past a really old pub.

The oldest in England.

There were plenty of people down here. In fact there was a long queue to get into the museum, so we decided to give it a miss on this occasion.

I loved the lights illuminating parts of castle rock.

And the heat from this fire was so welcome.

There was one more place we wanted to see so we climbed up the hill again.

 Every sort of light up thing imaginable was for sale by the castle. I felt glad my boys are past pestering me for this sort of stuff.

It's not far at all from the castle to the Old Market square, which is sporting a huge wheel at the moment. It's only here till March so it was nice to see it as part of the light night attractions.

This side of the wheel was prettier. So many lights.

constantly changing colour.

I did not feel tempted to go for a ride. I think my fairground ride days are over...except for the carousel.

I loved  the look of the wheel though.

And how it brightened up a winters evening.

And I always love to see old buildings with character.

After a while we could stand the cold no longer.

So we headed home for hot chocolate and home made fruit loaf.

We loved our first Light Night visit...I certainly hope it's not the last.
Jacquie x

Is Winter over Soon?

Hello Lovelies,
thank you so much for your comments on my thrifty post. It's nice to see there are plenty of you who feel interested in frugal living too.
Here's a catch up post which includes walking and homely things. I hope you find something to make you smile.

We have had typical winter weather I suppose. The grey days are the hardest for me. So uninteresting and demotivating.

Even fog is more welcome...in fact it's quite a nice change occasionally. It adds a mysterious air to familiar scenes.

 I do like a bit of fog.

The world is monochrome except for the closest objects. Viburnum blossom. Lovely.

Here's the hidden valley....more hidden than usual on this walk :0)

It's looking rather eerie in these photos, but I didn't find it so.

This favourite view was very atmospheric on my Sunday morning walk at the end of January.

I could just make out the farmhouse and it's smoking chimney.

and the church tower in the other direction.

Nearing home I passed a steaming manure heap.

It's always a magnet for the birds.

Dunnock.

I was happy to get home before the fog turned to rain.

The bad weather does put me off getting on with stuff. I tend to curl up with some crochet and a movie. THIS one was great for a Sunday afternoon sob.

Happily the following weekend had at least had one bright day. And the sunlight is beginning to reach a little further into our north facing garden as the year progresses.

 There are spring flowers in the churchyard.

 And crocuses in my own front garden.

The sunshine even tempted me out into the garden for the first time this year.
I found some sprouting tulips in the shed that I forgot to plant in the autumn....so I planted them in the raised bed and I'm hoping they will forgive me.

Clearing away the dead foliage I found green shoots. What a happy sight.

By Sunday the greyness had returned and we forced ourselves out for a chilly whizz around the boating lake. It  was all a bit depressing , but this sighting of a Great Crested Grebe cheered me up a bit.

In the spirit of thriftiness I have decided to use up all the little bits of yarn I have laying about. I'm making a happy, scrappy blanket. No planning, just start making granny squares and see where they take me :0)

 How lovely it is to work with a full spectrum of colours again...such rainbow therapy to combat the winter blues.

As you can see my professed love of winter is waning somewhat. But I do love that we have changing seasons. I'm just ready for the season to change to spring now :0)

Jacquie x

My Seaside Granny Blanket Ta-Dah

Hello lovelies,

my, oh, my, it's been a long, long time since I have completed a full sized crochet blanket. Last year I enjoyed making ( and selling!) quiet a few baby blankets. But in the background were a couple of big blanket projects I was neglecting.

This seaside colours inspired blanket was to be for youngest boy. I began making simple four round granny squares back in 2015 :0)

It was while we were on holiday in Cornwall that year. The colours were picked to try and capture a little of this dreamy colour palette.... and because they are very "boy friendly."

Production slowed as the year wore on. Then ground to a halt.

 June 2016 saw us visiting the beautiful lake district as my birthday treat ( that big 5.0. birthday) . Happily the squares came with me as they were a very travel friendly project.

and the colours seemed to capture a little of the lakeland landscape too.

In August 2016 my squares enjoyed their second Cornish holiday :0)

And still this slooooow project limped along. By the time the pumpkins were on sale I decided to was time to put in a bit more effort and try to get this blanket made by the end of the year. 

By November all squares were made and I had added a fifth round of Petrol. wooohooo.

Then I began the process of sewing them together. This seemed to take an age. It's really just because I didn't spend a lot of time working on it ( and I got distracted by other crochet and craft projects) 

This past weekend I finally finished the border. Today I picked up the blanket and sewed in the few remaining ends. Then I got out the iron and steam blocked the slightly curly border. I love this clever method Lucy taught us HERE 

 Then I took the blanket and put it on youngest's bed.

Yay, it's long enough and wide enough.

 By late morning the rain (which had put me off walking and meant the blanket got finished) stopped and the sun even tried to shine. I seized  the chance to take the blanket outdoors for the traditional washing line shot.

yay, it's been a long time since I got to do this.

 For the edge I tried a new stitch to me. Reverse single crochet ...or Crab stitch. I love the effect it gives.

I love the petrol border too, though I can see it's not the most "coastal" colour. It is a good, dark background that brings out the best in the colours of the squares.

I think this is my favourite way to look at this blanket...to stand back and enjoy the colour and pattern from a distance.

Here are the blanket stats:-

The finished size is 64 inches (162cm) by 44 inches (112cm)...long enough to cover a lanky teenager :0)

The yarn is all Stylecraft Special Acrylic, double knitting weight. Super easy to care for and easy on the budget too.

The colours for the squares are Aster, Cloud Blue, Turquoise, Khaki, Meadow, Silver, Stone, Camel, Lime, Aspen and White.
The joining colour is Petrol.

I used a 4mm crochet hook.

The design is the same as THIS Blanket I made a few years ago. It's a much loved favourite, but a touch small for my grown boys . I'm glad this latest blanket is bigger.

Nice and long :0)

I chose a square I liked and used those colours for the border.

Happy blankets.

It's great to have finally made all three of my boys a blanket now. The other two are HERE and HERE. 

Youngest seems to like his blanket, though it's not that easy to tell....he's a boy of few words :0)

 I doesn't really matter that much anyway as I make them for my own enjoyment and they are super practical too. It will be well used and make me smile when I see it on his bed. 

Jacquie x