Weeks 15 and 15a

Weeks 15 and 15a

Sorry to go AWOL, I've been a bit busy.

To begin at the beginning. Week 15 turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. The lecture we were expecting was cancelled, but as the essay really was finished, printed, bound and ready to hand in, I couldn't take advantage of the extra time for last minute revisions. So I handed it in, both paper and electronic versions (that was the challenging bit), drank coffee, and grabbed a quick tutorial/feedback on the crits. I found it demoralising at the time, but when I'd calmed down a bit, got a good night's sleep, and reread the comments, they weren't too bad. I am less sure of what I'm doing than I was a month ago, but I think the staff would think that was a good thing...

By that time, however, we were bracing ourselves for The Visit. It was Mr & Mrs Cheese Minor's 10th wedding anniversary, and they celebrated with a couple of nights in Berlin. Which meant that the little guys celebrated by coming to stay with us.

I'd spotted that Winchester City Mill, which is one of the VHC's favourite places, was having a milling day, so we went to have a look. This might not have been a good idea on the Sunday before Christmas, but the local buses  were remarkably quiet, unlike the park and ride. We bought  flour at the mill, and made bread the next day, before heading to Mottisfont for their Nutcracker trail. 

As we expected, the little guys loved the trail, especially the automata - and the ice cream (!) in the outdoor cafe. (Wensleydale and I opted for tea and cake.)

And on the third day, we headed for the Winchester Science Centre. Unfortunately their Christmas show in the Plantetarium had finished, but the little guys were quite happy with the usual one, plus plenty of time to explore the science exhibits. The cafe is good too - some of the best sandwiches I've had, and very generously filled.

You may be surprised to see no mention of Manor Farm in this itinerary. We had planned a visit, but Babybel didn't want to go!

After the little guys went home we needed time to recover, so we were glad to have no more social engagements till the 26th, when Babybel ran her first Boxing Day race with her mum and dad - 3 km in 20 minutes 'without stopping'! She wasn't first, but she wasn't last either, and she was so proud of herself!

The quiet time allowed plenty of time for sampling trees/hands/branches. (Second left is the beginning of a branch, whatever you think it looks like!) I've also been researching some artists recommended by my tutor, who seems to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of contemporary art. 

I also made some Christmas ornaments. I came across this lovely idea too late for this year, but I worked out if I started straight away and made two ornaments a month, we could have our own Advent Bough next year.  So next year the fortnightly ornament will replace the weekly book - I just hope it doesn't fizzle out like the books did. This is the last book, a variation on the palm leaf book I made earlier. 

 

For the ornaments, I chose a colour scheme of red, rust, yellow, dark blue and cream - which is not a good idea when you want to make Christmas trees like this. As it turned out, I didn't have enough suitable green buttons, and barely enough cream ones, which is why my tree is an odd shape. I have a lot of buttons, but I was surprised how many of them were shank buttons, which wouldn't work.

I made a couple more ornaments, as you can see, from ideas here and here. My intention is that they will all be different, more or less.

We have a few more quiet days now until New Years Eve when the soon-to-be Spanish branch of the family ( that is, soon-to-be family, they are already Spanish...) are coming over for a few days. Then we hit the ground running again when term starts again. Must get more rest!

Little things

The little guys had the week off school, so that although we had a day off grandparent duty on Monday, on Thursday we looked after them all day - exhausting, but fun. Babybel (who is definitely not a little thing any more, she is growing like a sunflower) had a hospital appointment in the morning, which precluded any long trips. (Not a serious problem, just what in my day was called a lazy eye, which has improved enormously.)  

The hospital is conveniently close to the ducky place, so we went there to feed waterbirds and ourselves, followed by a trip to Finkley Down, which is conveniently close to Daddy's new work-place, so we could meet daddy after work, and admire the big trucks arriving, much to the VHC's delight.

Given that we had Monday off, I don't have much to show you - a bit of knitting and three books of the week. That may sound impressive, but two of them are very simple - we realised on Thursday that paper and pencils would fill in the time spent waiting for daddy, so granny has found a small pencil case and made two little pamphlets, all to be kept in the car for future use. 

The other book was a bit more complicated. Earlier in the week I came across a few A5 sheets of hand made paper I don't remember buying, and decided to use them for a book. 

I didn't want to fold the paper, so decided on a stab binding. I vaguely remembered seeing instructions for such a binding with a fold over cover, but couldn't find them in my numerous books. I finally found them in Shereen La Plantz's 'Cover to Cover', found and cut some suitable card for the cover, punched the 72 holes required, selected some unsuitable fibre for the binding, tracked down a needle with an eye big enough to take the unsuitable fibre, (not easy) and sewed up the book. 

It doesn't look much from the outside, but the unsuitable fibre looks OK when you open the cover.

Odd bits of knitting have also taken place. In some cases very odd, like this experiment in felted shibori, which is about to get some beads. (Yes, I know what it looks like.)

I won't tell you what Wensleydale said this looked like, but I pointed out to him that:

a) it is far too big and 

b) it would not be fit for purpose because of the holes. 

In theory it is another 2ply vessel, but longer and destined for more determined felting.

And finally, I decided the previously knit vessels need a bit of colour. The little one was dipped in Quink, the bigger one in something called Prout's Ink, another forgotten purchase, which managed to be both very glutinous and very drippy at the same time. And it smells like the brown shibori looks. Not recommended, even though I like the result.

I nearly forgot. One thing this week was 'really big', as the VHC would say. Winchester Discovery Centre is showing Grayson Perry's 'Walthamstow Tapestry', so we pottered out to see it. Very impressive - it fills the entire wall of the gallery. I especially loved the colour, the patterns, and the birds and flowers, apparently inspired by batiks. And the 'birth' and 'death' sections involve quilts - there's a man who knows his textiles. 

It"s been a tiring week.

There's been knitting - a scarf finished, a scarf started (the VHC made it clear that he wanted a scarf too - 'a boo one'), some trees, and a small experimental vessel. It's 2" tall, and the same diameter, and I think it's cute! Useless, but cute.

There was the Contemporary Textiles Workshop, wherein we did things with lace. We made collagraph plates to use with pasta machines (as you do) and printed them...

and some of us made book covers. You can see what a good collection I have of not very nice lace. 

The cover looks a bit better painted, but is a bit bright for my taste. I think Markals might be called for.

And some book of the week making. Not, as you might expect, using the book cover I made in CTW (I'm waiting for the paint to dry.) Not using the Visual Marks challenge cover, which is still awaiting assembly. Instead I came across these, and adapted them slightly to use up an old file envelope and some of the lined paper we seem to have infinite supplies of. (Can you spot the deliberate mistake?) The photographs are a bit misleading, it is more mauve than purple.

It has become my 'to do' list. I'm already onto the third page.

That all may not look much, but I feel knackered (I suspect I am going down with a cold). 

I also made an unexpected discovery. About 25 years ago, when we moved into this house, long before I started using computers, I bought some printed address labels.  And then they disappeared. After a desultory search, I assumed I'd thrown the envelope away by mistake and hand wrote everything.

This week the drawer under the envelope drawer, in which I'd put them, stopped closing properly. Eventually I got the grabber - a sort of opposable thumb and finger on a stick - in order to poke around behind it. (The drawers are difficult to take out and require girding of loins, stiffening of sinews and summoning of blood.) 

There were a lot of envelopes down there, some greetings cards, an application form for a car licence - and my address labels.

We have been talking about downsizing, so they were bound to reappear. Mind you, we have been talking about downsizing for years...

We survived!

The trees across the road, however, didn't. Literally 'across the road', as you can see. One came down early on Christmas Eve morning, and others were left leaning at nasty angles, and were taken down.

Fortunately no-one was hurt, though neighbours lost their land lines, and the street lights are (mostly) out.

Also fortunately, it happened after we had taken the little guys home, as I think they might have found it a bit scary - although the VHC would have enjoyed watching the trucks and workmen.

We had a good time while they were with us - some duck feeding, 

some card making (we hope to get all the glitter out of the carpet by next Christmas), some 'Snowman' watching (scary to realise that when we first watched it with her daddy, he was about Babybel's age), 

and an abbreviated trip to Mottisfont because they were closing early because of the wind.

We did manage to attend the Snow Queen's Ball, which Babybel adored - dressing up in pretty things and dancing, what could be better? The VHC, on the other hand, was a bit overcome, and preferred to keep his opinions under his hat.

Speaking of his hat, does it remind anyone else of 'Rocky Horror'?

After all that excitement, it was good to have a very peaceful Christmas Day on our own, before getting together with the little guys and their parents on Boxing Day. 

It has been pretty quiet since then as well, which has meant I've been able to get on with the Chairman's Challenge. 

I found the bottom of one of the bathroom curtains in the stash, which wasperfect  for a backing, and several bits of red, black and silver for a patchwork strip down the middle. It is all just pinned together for now, and it's a dodgy photo anyway, but hopefully you get the idea. 

The plan is to add a few stars. This is the first. I knew there was a good reason for keeping those painted twigs from a bunch of dried flowers...

All should continue quiet, weather willing, until New Year's Eve when we get together with the other half of the family, plus the Spanish contingent, who are coming over for a visit. Weather willing!

I hope all my UK readers have also escaped the worst of the gales ((and anyone else who's had bad weather) and that you will continue to do so, as more is predicted here.

Bag and Baggage.

This is the bag. The VHC has taken to a little Christmas bag I made for his sister, and it has proved quite useful for carrying the things hè likes to take around with him. Like juice, and Thomas books, and other essentials. This was going to be a Christmas present, but I think he may get it early because it makes granny and granddad's life easier. The handle is like that because it is adjustable as one grows. I made it fairly quickly yesterday morning, with bits and bobs from the stadh.

The baggage, on the other hand, was not quickly made.

I could go on at great length about everything that went wrong, but I won't, because almost everything that could go wrong did. And if it did go right, I changed my mind about it...

It is some of the velvet which I roller-printed after the last CTW session. It was going to be a Dorothy bag, but after I found Alysn Midgelow-Marsden's instructions here for 'spice bags' it became this, although the techniques are different to hers. 

Much easier to construct, I thought, no setting in of bases or channels for pull cords. And the instructions were clear and it was indeed easier to construct - if I hadn't had to deconstruct it several times...

Still, I like the result. Totally useless of course, but a good way to show off a bit of stitching.

The other thing I finished this weekend was a third and final (?) blanket. I forgot to photograph it before I washed it and as I'm unwilling to wrestle it off the drier to repair the omission, you will just have to imagine a large, dark blue, square woolly thing. As I finished it half way through the last episode ever of 'Borgen', (sob, sob, weep, weep) I had to find some more subtitle-reading knitting, so I started something very slightly smaller.

Socks. I have too much sock wool, although not as much too much as I had Shetland, so Saturday nights,  for the foreseeable future until I get bored, will be sock knitting nights. Assuming there are subtitles to read, although 'The Bridge' seems to be returning in the New Year. Worth watching if you missed it the first time, and even if you didn't.

This afternoon has been spent wrestling with a Christmas tree (him) and with present wrapping and card writing (me). Soon to be followed, I hope, by a cup of tea and a mince pie. I am generally of the Scrooge persuasion at Christmas, but some things I like - mince pies, trees, and school Christmas concerts. We went to one of those last week, and have another at nursery this week. Can't wait!

Is this a series?

If so, it's still a very experimental one.

The two at the bottom you have seen before, but without stitch - they also appear top right with one of their new siblings. The little one, which is now finished, was relatively easy to stitch into, but I discovered a drawback to making longer ones. I can get my hand inside and stitch right down at the bottom of it, but I cannot finish off the thread. I did think about cutting the cylinder down to a more manageable size, but decided it was better to perfect the art of very neat finishing off on the right side. Or leave dangling ends. 

The one with the black top is destined to become one/all of my 'Visual Marks' pieces, the response to the black and white drawing. I have plans for the colour piece, but they involve a lot more work, so may not happen.

This is the design for the cylinder. With great skill by sheer chance, I made a mould for the vessels which has the same circumference as the length of a piece of A4, which is very convenient. After discovering the drawbacks of a tall cylinder, I've reduced the height to about A4 size too. It remains to be seen if I can fasten off ends at that depth...

The marbled one is very experimental. The original cylinder, made with abaca tissue and bandage, was very soft, so I tried adding an extra layer of fabric, and this bit of marbled muslin fell out of my stash. I discovered that adding more glue to thin papier mâché makes it go very soft, so it was a bit of a struggle getting the extra layer on, but it did suggest that future cylinders could be deliberately distorted.

I'm not sure what is going to happen to it next, but one problem opportunity I shall have to explore is dealing with the area where the fabric overlaps, which is much more obvious with patterned fabric than with plain.

Half term next week, so life will be a little hectic in Cheese Acres. Babybel has planned the programme, and Granny and Granddad have fallen into line. The VHC is a little too young to make his opinion known as yet, but he is working very hard on getting this talking thing perfected!

Things can only get better?

A slightly more cheerful week this week, although my insomnia has been particularly bad. But I slept well last night, the sun was shining when I woke up, and we had already planned a Sunday saunter. It was the last day of the Kathakali exhibition at the Discovery Centre, so, unusually for us, we ventured out at the weekend.

We thought the Discovery Centre opened at 10 at weekends, so we postponed our morning coffee till we got there. Bummer. It doesn't. And the Theatre Royal, which is our fallback coffee bar for such occasions, was closed too. As was the cafe across the road we've never been in.

But the new icecream parlour on the corner, which I have walked past and drooled at, was open. We resisted the icecream, but had lovely coffee (locally roasted), even nicer cheesecake, friendly and helpful service. And the reflections on the base of the table were fascinating.

I think the library cafe may have lost some customers. 

At 11, when the DC does open, we drifted along to find it was open but the Kathakali exhibition wasn't, yet. Bummer 2. So we went upstairs to watch 'Close Protection' by Graham Gussin again. 

We found it was well worth seeing twice - new ideas came out on a second viewing. (If you visit that link and read the description, although it seems like pure art speak, having seen the videos, it makes sense!)

When we went downstairs the Kathakali exhibition had opened, so we did manage to get a look at that. Wonderful vivid costumes with lots of bling, as well as more everyday dress. It made me want to visit Kerala, and see some Kathakali dance.

That was actually our second textiley trip of the week. Now the VHC is in nursery full-time, we have a little more time to ourselves in the middle of child minding days, and there is only so much shopping you can do. So we have been looking for places that are near enough for us to get there and back in time for the school/nursery pick up. This led to a second visit to the National Needlework Archive. (Only taken 4 years!) The main exhibition was of panels from the Quaker Tapestries. As I have made clear before, I'm not always a fan of representational embroidery, but this was different. Of course it's essential, given the nature of the subject matter, but the panels are beautifully designed and made, and the story they tell is fascinating. And there is an additional poignancy in seeing such a celebration of peace in the spiritual heart of the former Greenham Common Air Base. The women of peace got in in the end!

We also looked at the Country Wife, which who is under conservation there. When we went 4 years ago she was wrapped in bubblewrap and being saturated with nitrogen to debug her, but she is now lying down, being prepared for conservation. If you pay £2 extra admission, you get to see her and hear a talk about the conservation process - which is how I know why she was all wrapped up 4 years ago!

That was Thursday - Friday was the first session of this year's Contemporary Textiles Workshop, for which I have been repeating myself all summer. This session was about pattern - we had a Powerpoint talk (that's a first!) before trying a little pattern making - 

geometric collages

and geometrically based drawings.  In case you can't tell, this are my inept attempts at Escher-ish tesselations. (Actually I'm quite  pleased with them, and I'm thinking of trying one of them out with some transfer dye and a bit of poly satin...

I thought the collages looked like canvas work, so I set out to translate the green and purple one into stitch. I spent a lot of time faffing around with different threads and sizes, then got going with this.

Er - can you spot the deliberate mistake? Bummer 3.

I'm not going to unpick it now, I haven't got enough of that wool to start again, but I may try to do it properly at a later date. 

Two more pages

and probably the last of my repetitive metalwork.

On the left, an experiment to find out if you can foil wire mesh with Bondaweb. Answer, yes you can, but it's patchy and it doesn't look like it would stand up to wear. On top of that is some beading, inspired by Sandy - although I didn't hang mine on a spring. (Good idea though, and I have got some springs...)

On the right, samples from some of my attempts to patinate copper and brass metal cloth, involving vinegar, heat and patinating fluid, but not all on the same piece. That might have been too exciting. 

I'm not completely sure which was which - the one at the top was definitely patinating fluid, and I think bottom left and the two in the centre were the gas cooker, which means the others were vinegar. Balsamic or malt didn't seem to make a difference, and the results were - let's say 'subtle'.

All I need to do now is make the cover. I have some ideas for that but this weekend is mostly devoted to a VI Birthday Party tomorrow, for which I have made 4 dozen muffins today, and will be making some sarnies tomorrow. Yes, the VHC is two!  

Repetition, again.

After my less than exciting efforts last week, I've managed to come up with a few things I like. 

This is more Evolon, coloured with transfer paint on one side and metallic paint on the other, then soldered.  Still a learning opportunity - I attached it to the red fabric before I soldered it, and some of the gold paint was transferred to the fabric. It didn't look bad, but I decided to cover it with some of the worm-like strands of cheap purl I bought when I was doing City and Guilds, and never used. Yet more stashbusting!

For some reason it makes me think of military uniforms.

This is a photo I took at the  ducky goosey place on one of our twice weekly visits.

I used an app called Griditor on the photo, printed it on Evolon treated with Inkaid clear, which made it a little stiffer, chopped it up with the soldering iron, and sewed the bits down on somthing which feels a bit like leather but probably isn't. Oh, I had previusly treated the 'leather' with bonding powder and copper foil. I tried several experiments with foil today and this was the only one that worked, the others were - shall we say 'lacking in sublety'? Even another attempt with bonding powde, on Evolon in this case, came out much too heavy.

Another photo - this one was of a shelf of books, believe it or not. The app looks like Decim8 but might have been something I've got on Big Mac, I can't really remember.

It's backed with wadding and hand dyed cotton. I cut out some areas with the soldering iron and then machined it down. Quite a lot of machining has been going on for someone who professes not to like it, but you will notice that it is not free machining.

And finally, two old aquaintances revisited. I decided the soldered buttons could be improved, and fortunately the little metal template I bought from Art Vango on the assumption that it was meant to be used with a soldering iron had two petal shaped holes just the right distance apart...

The caterpillar like thing on the righ is the holes from the unsuccessful soldered holes in Lutradur experiment, just strung at random with red beads in between. It feels lovely and is very drapy. No idea how I could ever use such an idea, but a least the holes weren't wasted.

Speaking of caterpillars, the VHC and his big sister are due to descend on us tomorrow, so little in the way of needlework will be done until we return them to their doting parents - unless Babybel brings hers.

The good and the bad.

Good thing 1.

I managed to complete a special request from Babybel, for her school float in the local carnival.

These are a unicorn tail and unicorn hooves. Obviously. Not sure about the hooves, but her daddy thinks they will be OK.

Good thing 2.

We went into Southampton to see the exhibition 'Uncommon Ground' at Southampton Art Gallery. The sun was shining, the traffic was relatively light, there was plenty of parking space, and the exhibition was good. What we saw of it. 

Bad thing 1.

The Gallery now closes at 3 p.m. (and doesn't open at all on Sundays, when it used to be busy) so we had about 45 minutes, which meant we managed a room and a half before they threw us out, very politely. I expressed my disappointment, very politely, because it isn't the staff's fault. I just wish the city council realised what an excellent gallery they have. 

Good thing 3

We were delighted to discover a herd of rhinos has invaded Southampton. We spotted five, and photographed 3. 

Bad thing 2.

All the photos I took turned out blurred. Every blooming one. And the ones of the Spitfire artwork on the Solent University building next to the gallery. (Well done, Solent! Don't get me started on the city's neglect of the Spitfire connection while spending £££££ on a Titanic museum.) But I digress. 

Either my little camera is packing up, or letting the VHC experiment with it was a bad idea. Or both. It seemed to have been set on macro, which I hadn't done, but maybe the VHC had.

Good thing 4.

A friend had recommended the Art House Cafe, which is just across the road from the Solent Uni building.  We used to like the Gallery cafe till the council in its wisdom closed that too, but the Art House is a more than equal substitute. Good coffee, good cake, and the main meals looked good too. 

On the whole the good things outweighed the bad, so it wasn't a bad day. And we have an excuse to go back and have lunch at the Art House, in between visiting the gallery again in the morning and photographing rhinos again in the afternoon.

Keep calm...

And carry on stitching.

This has been one of those weeks.

As far as I can remember, Sunday was O.K.

On Monday afternoon the VHC's daddy got a phone call from his nursery to say he wasn't well - and he wasn't, breathing very unevenly and having crying jags, despite doing his best to be his normal cheeky cheerful self. We looked after Babybel while daddy did emergency doctor and chemist visits, and arranged to take over care the next morning when the VHC would normally be in nursery. Fortunately he recovered very quickly from what seems to have been a throat infection with added tummy upset, and after a good night's sleep, and a morning of quiet play and lots of 'duddles' (cuddles) he was well enough in the afternoon to go out and feed some fish.

(The ducks didn't get much of a look in, as the fish are very determined.)

On the way home, we heard that mummy had had a phone call from school to say that Babybel had fallen off a climbing frame. So we looked after the VHC while mummy and daddy did emergency hospital visits and a broken wrist was X-rayed and strapped up. 

Their other granny and granddad have taken over today, but we're on duty again tomorrow, as Thursday is our usual day. We just hope there are no more dramas.

So today, a little embroidery has been restful and therapeutic - together, at the moment, with a little Allegri. Bliss!

This is the embellished piece, with added Cretan sttich, and turned into another book. Wensleydale has claimed this one for a diary.

And here's one I made earlier - the book, but not the embroidery. I had decided that my summer homework -  ’Repetition', if you need reminding - was going to be moslty sketchbook based. 

But then I came across this little (about 20 by 6cm) book, made ages ago from the offcuts from something else, and those coffee stained pages said 'repetition' and 'stitch' to me. 

And in the small hours of one insomniac night, when I had finished the book cover and desperatey needed some embroidery to do, I found some aida, pinched a  pattern from Gay Eaton's book on Wessex embroidery, and started what in any other circumstance would have turned into a bookmark. Amazing how  therapeutic a bit of simple, repetitive stiching can be.

It doesn't look like the coffee marks, but there are non-coffee pages, and I have a piece of fabric framed up and awaiting some eyelets before it gets added to the white page you can just see. 

I wonder what excitement tomorrow will bring?

It's half-term...

so it must be 

Manor Farm. This is the first time the VHC has been old enough to participate properly - including feeding the wack-wacks and chick-chicks, although he wasn't interested in feeding the four legged animals. Fortunate, really, because it isn't allowed.

He watched Abigail the cow being milked with great concentration - but I think he felt rather disappointed when the end product was given to the calves. He is very fond of 'juice' - his word for milk.

Babybel enjoyed herself as well, mananging to wangle being the first to get a go at milking, which she adores doing. 

When not visiting farms in the rain, I've been having a sort out, in the course of which this materialised. It is a piece of marbled silk, which I think I made on the C&G sketchbook course about six years ago. (Other people marbled paper for their sketchbooks, I marbled fabric.)

I've been looking at the work of Leonora Carrington, and I think it's had odd effects on my psyche, because I began to see all sorts of bizarre little figured in the marbling. (Perhaps I like her work because of my odd psyche.)

I forgot to take a 'before' picture, but the section on the left has not yet had any stitch.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with it when it's done, but it's fun to work on. I put a backing cloth on it, thinking of adding some Trapunto and Italian quilting, but now I'm not so sure. Watch this space.

Amazing!

A sunny Bank Holiday weekend - although it is beginning to cloud over now. I hope the weather has been good where you are too.

We don't usually go out on Bank Holidays - if I tell you that our visitors hit the tail of the traffic queue 9 miles from here, you'll know why. Fortunately our visitors, and us, know how to get where we want to go    and avoid the M3, so we did make a special trip on Saturday.

To have a picnic and see the choo-choos - and have a ride on one too. A small one, as you can see. 

Unfortunately Babybel wasn't very well - a virus generously given to her by the VHC - but as you can see, the VHC had recovered sufficiently to inspect the engine carefully. He was even allowed to sit in the cab of the Eurostar 'University of Southampton', miniature version. 

Since then, we have stayed resolutely at home. Wensleydale gave the ivy on the front of the house a hair cut, and I sat in the back garden and finished this, 

which started life like this, then met iColorama and some printable fabric.

I like it.

What I don't like is the virus which the VHC has kindly shared with us, too. He is a very generous little boy!

To Wales and back again.

While Babybel and the VHC are away, granny and grandad can play.

We had a quiet week in Ceredigion, which was relatively new territory to us, although we approached it via the Elan Valley, which is one of our favourite places. As you can see it was a little snowy.

We explored Aberystwyth, and its cliff railway - tatty but fun, and the view from the top is stunning.

 We visited Strata Florida Abbey - I am developing a thing for Cistercian Abbeys, they are always in such amazing places. And there were tiles! 

We went to MOMA Wales in Machynlleth (which I can neither spell nor pronounce). The gallery is well worth a visit, both for the art and the building.

And best of all, so good we went twice, was seeing red kites being fed at (pauses to look it up) Bwlch Nant yr Arian Forest Centre. The best free show in Ceredigion, and the bara brith in the cafe is good too, though not free. 

I even did a little embroidery, though half of it will be taken out again when I can pluck up the courage.

Although it was a bit cold for a holiday and the weather could have been better, I feel much fitter than I did before we went away, and ready to face Babybel and the VHC tomorrow, who will no doubt tell us all about their holiday in the depths of Suffolk. Well, Babybel will: the VHC tends to limit his conversation to 'choo-choo', 'copter' and 'juice'. Primarily 'juice', which is what his great-grandfther used to call 'cow juice'.