More holidays

 After our week in Cornwall, we all headed off to Lucca, in Tuscany, for a week. Lucca is a walled medieval city, and the walls are incredibly thick and fortified. You can walk or cycle around the top of the wall around the entire city (4km). Or you can take a horse and carriage. And stop the bicycle-gelati guy for a gelati on the way.

 The Guinigi tower is a bit of an icon of Italy, and it is a spectacular view. The trees that grow on the top are really quite large.

 

 The garden at Palazzo Pfanner. We really enjoyed both the garden and the palazzo, well worth the visit.

This walled garden was just around the corner from our apartment. It was lovely and private, with its windows looking out to the street. From the street, it just looked like any other building.
Lucca was a fabulous place to spend a week. Our apartment was expansive and lovely, there were playgrounds nearby, the kids had a great time and were fussed over everywhere, the food was spectacular (as always). I learned more about the intricacies of ordering coffee by visiting the local cafe every day, and indulged in a holiday favourite of cakes for breakfast. When can I go again?!

On holiday

We've been on holiday. The first week was spent at Tintagel, exploring some of the nearby Cornish villages.

Highlights for adults - seafood, local pubs, coast walks.

Highlights for kids - tractors towing boats, crab pots and dragon poo (don't ask).

Visually, the place was inspiring: herringbone stone walls, tapestried wildflower cliffs, monochrome quilted beaches.

Normande

We recently spent most of a week in the lovely town of Barneville, on the Normandy coast. It was sunny, warm and generally delightful. We visited the beach each day - and the boulangerie! B managed to turn up to our accommodation covered in croissant crumbs, which set the tone for the remainder of the holiday. The beach was what I think beaches should be - enormous, empty, windswept, with shells and seaweed and stuff for beachcombing. But the tides were something else - when the tide went out, it went out for miles.

We became market groupies and visited towns according to when their markets were running. We also visited a fantastic family run calvados & cidre business, ate lots of seafood (especially mussels) and had a nap nearly every day. The perfect holiday!

Norwegian Wood

We've been on a jaunt to Norway the last week. It was very very beautiful, and B was delighted to travel on planes, trains, boats, buses and all manner of transports. He also led by example in attaining ultimate relaxation.

New but vintage

So as previously stated, I bought some fabric at the V&A exhibition, some of which became a dress for my niece. Some became a dress for another girl-baby-to-be:

Same pattern, this time in 'Coral' with same lining. Excellently cute pattern.

I had a day off yesterday, again with both boys busy at work/nursery, so spent the day gardening/sewing/preserving artichokes. I finished this:

which is the shirt from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing, in fabric by Michael Miller. And yes, he does now have matching shirt & shorts :) Poor child. I have to say, I didn't much enjoy sewing the shirt and it isn't especially tidy around the collar, but it does look fantastic on, especially now that summer is about again.

Times a changing

So it turns out I haven't blogged since March. Which is in some ways surprising, both as I was sure I had posted more recently, but it turns out these were all imaginary posts, which are fairly common, and because in April & May we were back in Australia getting married. Which, as you can probably guess, took some small amount of time and organisation just prior to the event, and some celebrating just after. For those that couldn't be there, we had a fantastic day with glorious weather and lots of family and friends to celebrate with. These pictures give you and idea of what it (and I looked like). One of my favourite things of the day were the flowers - the florist (Cristina at Flower Flower) was absolutely brilliant and made something I love without me knowing what I wanted! And I love how they look on the cake my wonderful mum made.

A view of Christmas

Christmas: Isle of Wight with old friends and new friends. Yes, it was as much fun as it looked :)

Hope yours was too. Happy New Year

Yet another jaunt away, this time to France - Brittany, Normandy and the Loire.

Mont St Michel, in the lovely misty sunshine. This place was a revelation, just spectacular.

The Loire chateaus were pretty impressive. This is Chenonceau, built over the Loire itself. There were beautiful floor tiles throughout Chenonceau, but I particularly liked these; they were very worn in the centre of the room, which I think really added to their charm. The Chenonceau kitchen, as it was in WWII, when used as a field hospital. The coal range was amazing, but difficult to photograph. The copperware just lit up the room - the room was full! Chambord - incredible architecture, including a central double spiral staircase. We spent the last night in Ver sur Mer, in Le Mas Normand, a gorgeous B& B. We had a little farm outbuilding, decorated so beautifully. The colours and fabrics were gorgeous - this is just a taste of the quilts on our bed.

After all that, we came home and had a party to celebrate the end of the harvest season with our friends in the late autumn sunshine. Everyone bought home grown or home made goodies, and we supplied home brewed refreshments - what more could you want! I certainly can't think of much :)

Prague

A few weeks ago, we went for a short jaunt to Prague. It was a bit spur of the moment, so I hadn't really thought about it much, but it really took me by surprise. Prague was so beautiful, and I really could have spent longer there.

Baltic beauties: The sequel

Ok, don't forget Tallinn! Man, this is the place for history. Our first lunch was in a medieval merchants house with the whole medival thing going - earthenware crockery, ye olde language, staff in costume. The old town was amazingly well preserved, but the new town was very generic. Anyway, the old town is a bit maze-like, and there were some lovely little shops hidden away. There were a number of shops/stalls advertising knits or handknits, but while they might have been traditional in their colourwork, they were clearly machine knits. Some were very nice (S bought some lovely flip-top mittens with a flip-top thumb as well), but they weren't what I was after. Then I saw a shop that looked more promising, and there were these gorgeous things:

The top pair are knit flat and seamed (you can see the seam in the top one), which I think means that the colourwork was knit flat, then seamed, then a heel and toe added on. Maybe? Anyway, they are lovely! Just a bit too big, but I had to have them (they were the only pair).

The second pair I didn't do a good job of photographing - the lacework is lovely, and more prominent. But I love the little cuffs! They had these in this yarn, and in a similar yarn with dog hair knitted into it! I think it was knitted in rather than spun in, from what I could see.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a cosy winter wearing some of my favourite souvenirs!

Baltic beauties

So, a post or so ago I mentioned that we'd been away. Most excellently for us, two of the major conferences in my field were in Helsinki and Tallinn this year and even more excellently, I had some research accepted for presentation and absolutely excellently, the company agreed to fund my trip. Which meant a nice long visit to two places that we hadn't been but were most definately on my list, at a pretty reasonable price. While much of my break was taken up with work-related business, they were both excellent conferences and I was intellectually refreshed and professionally inspired, which is really what these things are all about in my opinion. And networking, which I did pretty well (for me).
So anyway, Helsinki:
Gorgeous; clean; design and function; craft and creativity; the cleanest port I have ever seen; salmon. I managed to find a great yarn store called Oy Menita Ab (I think!), on Korkeavuorenkatu 20, in the city. They didn't speak much English, but who cares- they had lovely yarn displayed in such a beautiful way. There must have been every colourway of the Drops Alpaca and some other Drops yarns, Rowan yarns and some beautiful Finnish yarns. I bought two balls of Pirkanmaan yarn in beautiful blues. At the time, I had baby in mind, but now its home I think it might have to be some colourwork for me - maybe Selbu Modern?

Down at the waterfront there was a daily market with good food (mostly), and crafts (some junk, but mostly good stuff) - woodwork, leatherwork (mostly reindeer) and knitting. Tables covered in bright, handknit socks (for about 12 euros a pair). Lots of people knitting (even if they were selling other things). A lady with gorgeous handwoven things (out of my budget but so beautiful). The stalls changed each day - just after I ran over to the yarn shop in my lunch break, I saw a stall with spectacular hand-dyed yarn in it. Unfortunately, I decided I had used up my yarn allowance, but took a card. The lovely stall holder told me that his wife dyed the yarn with natural dyes, and she had an online shop and would ship to the UK. Her website is http://www.riihivilla.com/, and it really is worth checking out. She has the most gorgeous mitten kits - if I was a mitten wearer (or knew one!) I would have bought one there and then!

Away

We've been away.

It was excellent. It was sunny. It was a combination of work and play, but still fun. There was yarn and knitting (not by me). I'll tell you more when life calms down a bit.

Welsh Adventure

Sorry about the delay in posting...things just seem to be getting away from me! But a quick post about our recent little holiday in Pembrokeshire. It was ace. We stayed right on the beach in Broad Haven - the view from our room was spectacular (so good, I didn't take any pictures! Oops). It really is a glorious part of the UK, and we had a lovely 'wind down' time. Then off to Bristol to say goodbye to a friend, which was good fun (and included sunshine! Amazing!).

One of the most interesting places we visited was Castell Henllys, a recreated iron age settlement. It was very cool - and they had yarn (see picture above)! There was a lady weaving (well, talking to other visitors when I was there), and they made amazing blanket/cloak things (second picture below - odd picture I know, but the only way I could edit it not to have people's faces in it). The looms were all made by hand - it was fascinating. Also, they were cooking and had woodworking tools out and all sorts of things.

Also, requisite bump picture - me at Tintern Abbey.

Thanks to Riggwelter for your very kind offer of a catch up for coffee - unfortunately, I didn't get your message until we got home thanks to computer gremlins, but maybe next time!!

Spain - the final episode (I promise)

Ok, last installment of Spanish pictures, as there is knitting & all sorts of other stuff to write about, and I am sure you are all sick of this. Today - Cordoba & Madrid.

Cordoba was very pretty & very very hot. The mesquite was spectacular. The newer Christian part was much less cool, but the Moorish part was incredible.

It was enormous and beautiful and well worth the visit.

We went to some palaces, which were also lovely, and had wicked gardens with them - not quite as beautiful as the Alhambra, but lovely on a hot day nonetheless.

If you ever thought those Spanish fans were an affectation, think again. They are a life saver. If you ever go to Spain in the summer, buy one as soon as you land - you'll love it. Also, you can learn to make a cool noise with them when you open and close them, and the local women in the towns give you a little nod when you use it. Mine was just a cheap one, but there are some gorgeous ones around - mostly in the hands of locals, rather than in the shops though.

Madrid was great - a proper city full of living & working & stuff. Not touristy at all. Not a whole lot to see, but still good. The Prado had some lovely stuff (excellent Heironymous Bosch paintings!) Somehow, we didn't take any pictures, except of this yarn shop. We stumbled across it, and I was allowed in if I didn't buy anything (oh!). It was unbelievable - so many colours & weights & colours! Apparently, you bought it by weight (you chucked your required hanks on the scale there & added it up - just like at the butchers!) Seemed to be very reasonably priced. If you ever want to go there, it was on one corner of the main square where all the Inquisition stuff happened (your travel book will tell you what it is called, I'm sure).

Anyway, I guess I have had to revise my view on Spain. Prior to this trip, I hadn't really enjoyed our Spanish travel. Now, I'd recommend it. Even the food. Especially gazpacho & Espanol tortilla. Mmmm.