Towards the end of last week I went
to Weston-super-Mare to see my aunt and uncle. We were going there for a brief visit
on the way to Taunton to visit my brother-in-law and his girlfriend, as we
wanted to make the most of the journey.
This aunt is the one for whom I’m
making the Glastonbury Blanket, so I brought my squares along with me so that
she could see the progress. I didn’t plan to do any crocheting on this trip as I
knew I wouldn’t have time, but along with the blanket squares I did bring a
wool needle so that I could catch up on those pesky ends.
I only managed to finish off 6
squares while we were away (7 colours each, so 42 ends!) but at least now my ‘finished’
pile outnumbers my unfinished pile of squares.
I’m thinking of putting myself on
a crochet ban until the rest of these ends, and the Mumbles Ripple’s ends, are
all sewn in…
Speaking of the Mumbles, I’ve
reached a section where I’m so happy with the way all the colours look! I haven’t
done it yet, but I plan to write out the colour sequence so that I can use it
again if I make another oceany ripple…
As well as the blanket for my
aunt, I also took one of my favourite plants to her house. You can’t take any
plants (or seeds, or earth, or many other things) to Australia in order to
protect their ecosystems, so all of my plants will have to be rehomed. I love
this succulent in its teapot. I love the way the colours and shapes work
together, and I also love that this little plant was so so tiny when I potted
it here, and look how big it is now! I hammered a nail through the bottom of
the teapot a few times to create drainage holes, so that’s why it’s sat on a
plate here.
On Friday we had a day out from Weston,
to another National Trust place. I might write about this separately, but I feel
a bit like this is becoming a National Trust blog at the moment!! After we had
finished our visit we went to Cleveland for a quick walk and a look around.
We walked through a park with its
little miniature railway,
Then we walked all along the promenade
as far as the pier. There is a tea rooms on the pier that I thought sounded
fun, but you had to pay an entrance fee to the pier as well so we didn’t go on
it this time.
On the walk back we popped into
Beach Pottery. This quirky little place had a garden chock full of weird and
wonderful garden ornaments, Hindu inspired Gods, dragons, statuettes, pretty
much everything you could imagine really! It was a little surreal to wander
through it all…
Inside there was a large
selection of studio pottery, practical and ornamental ceramics, posh mugs and
the odd cushion. With a move to Australia now firmly on the cards, I’m
currently extra obsessed with our British wildlife, and had been wanting a
little puffin-something. I fell in love a bit with some ceramic puffins, but
they were far too expensive…
 |
| Lovely puffins by Chloe Harford, glazed and amazed. |
Then I found some others that
were much smaller and cheaper, but had slightly familiar look about them. When I
got home I checked, and indeed the style was familiar – I have this lovely
ceramic seal that I bought many years ago from a little gallery in Cornwall. I loved
it straightaway as the character of the seal has been captured so wonderfully,
and it turns out that the puffin is by the same studio!
 |
| I love my grey seal |
The studio is based in Cornwall,
and is called Animal Friends – which makes for a lot of results when you’re trying
to research it on Google! It was started by Biddy Picard in 1977, but was taken
over in 1980 by John Parkes and Barbara Pilkington, who had previously been
helping out on a temporary basis. They produce a range of birds and animals,
each individually hand-crafted.
 |
| With her new puffin friend :) |
Growing up with grey seals and
puffins around the coast, it makes me very happy to have these two to bring to
Australia with me :)
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