March travels

 There has been some sewing going on this month - mainly quilting Red Manor House, but I also have new cushions on my dining room chairs. My RSC blocks are cut, but yet to be sewn.

However we have been travelling this month and first up was a long weekend in Cornwall leaving on Friday morning. First up was a visit to an old friend of Philips in Liskeard, then on to Charlestown. This stunning harbour has been used in many films and TV series (some listed here ) but most notably to my mind Poldark.

It was a great place for lunch and we also found some nice craft shops and a very well stocked antique shop. Lucky to have such a nice sunny day too.

The next day we visited first Fowey. It was cold and windy so we didn't see it at it's best!

Here I was looking across the river to Polruan.

We decided to drive on to Menabilly Barton and parked in a field with this lovely sign.

We took a gentle stroll down to Polridmouth Bay (past the milk churn) which is unspoilt and quiet.

Menabilly is well known as being the home of Daphne de Maurier for some years. After her husband died she moved to nearby Kilmarth which is used as the setting for The House on the Strand which I very much enjoyed reading while we were away.

On Sunday we visited The Eden Project which I had been very much looking forward to - and was not disappointed. Being March the gardens were still looking wintry although there was a good display of spring flowers around the domes.

I loved the Rainforest biome - we were greeted by these lovely little  Roul-roul partridges which were introduced to the dome as a pest control. They scratch the soil and eat any bugs and are especially fond of cockroach eggs evidently. The original small group has multiplied until now they have no idea how many there are in the biome.

They scuttle around making them difficult to photograph.

The Mediterranean biome was not so spectacular but again I am sure it will be later in the season.

The weather changed on Monday and we had some rain at times. We stopped in Bodmin and were just in time to watch the annual St Piran's Day march. These people at the head of the march were followed by all the local schoolchildren waving their black and white Cornish flags.

And finally we visited the stunning - but stark- Castle Drogo.

However, inside it is beautiful and must have been very comfortable. It was built between 1911 and 1930 and is the last castle to have been built in Britain. Lovely gardens too!

I hope you have enjoyed this little visit to Cornwall as much as I did.

A last post for February

 I have mostly been quilting Red Manor House so no sewing to show today. And it has also taken me, mostly, away from my sketchbooks. However a couple of things to show. I added the watercolour of a (it seems we have at least three) wagtail to one of my sketchbooks.

and I finished the pencil drawing of same wagtail.

You may remember that last year we visited Taunton Minster to see The Moon.

Last week we visited Exeter Cathedral to see Gaia - The Earth.

Gaia rotates and is much bigger than The Moon. Both spectacular and well worth viewing. The blue lighting in Exeter Cathedral was also stunning.

Have a good week and I will see you again in March!

Friday Night Sew In - February

 Many thanks to Wendy who has been out and about having a great time! for getting us all together again. You can pop over to Wendy's blog here to see who else took part and what they were up to.

I had a fairly lazy afternoon looking at a couple of DMTV videos to get some sketching/painting ideas. I then worked on this little sketch of Waggy the pied wagtail who has been visiting our feeder recently. Now he may not be the most exciting bird - and it turns out there are three although they only come to feed one at a time - but despite all the tasty treats I have been putting out these are the first birds who have stopped to feed. So we are really excited. There are plenty of birds around especially in the trees in the park at the front of the house, but not having any trees in the back garden there is no where for them to perch and check that the coast is clear before feeding. We shall be planting a tree this spring!

Anyway, back to my pencil sketch - it is not finished but I am happy so far.

I must admit to 'cheating' and tracing the outline but then I am doing a series of these and don't want to spend too much time fiddling around getting the basic shape right when I want to concentrate on the technique. Here are a couple of pictures from earlier in the week.

This was my first water colour attempt - not enough water I felt.

I was much happier with this one.

I also had a go at an oyster catcher on an previously painted sketchbook page. He is pecking around in some seaweed in case you wondered!

I spent the evening working on my Red Manor House. The quilting is coming along nicely - and quickly too.

That red sashing will need quilting when I have finished the flying geese. I looked high and low a couple of weeks ago for the stencils I use before starting the flying geese and had given up. Yesterday afternoon while looking for the fabric I want to use for the #sipteaandepp Winter Mystery SAL, which I am way behind on, lo and behold, there were my stencils! No sign of the fabric though haha. Oh well, it will turn up sometime.

Have a great week everyone.

Friday Night with Friends

February already! Where did that month go. We have had a variety of weather over the last month, most of it grey and damp with the odd sunny day tucked in. And so here we are again linking up with Cheryll for a stitchy evening with friends - you can see who else took part and what they were up to here .

I spent an hour Fiday afternoon with my watercolours. A couple of years ago I bought a delightful little leaf printed sketchbook (which so far is too precious to work into haha) and it came wrapped in a small piece of leaf printed paper. I immediately stuck it into one of my sketchbooks and have finally felt inspired to work into it. The result is this little short eared owl. And before you ask, you can only see the ears evidently when the owl is on it's guard!

Those black feathers around the eye look a bit too eyelashy to me but they are pretty true to the photograph that I was working from so I suppose they will be OK.

I am not sure yet if I will paint that white paper above it's head or just cut it away. A decision that could take a while!

On to Friday evening and I stitched down this months RSC hearts onto their background. Pink this month and I think these are looking pretty.

So that's it for now. Linking up with Angela for Scraphappy Saturday