Hampton Court Palace

Whilst in London we went to visit Hampton Court Palace - originally built for Cardinal Wolsey who was a favourite of Henry VIII from 1514 and then in 1529, Henry VIII himself moved in. Then Sir Christopher Wren (architect of St Paul's Cathedral),  the most famous architect of the time, designed a wing for William III and his wife Mary in the 17th century, with much of the original Tudor palace being destroyed. Amazing to be surrounded by so much history, wandering the King's chambers....the kitchens....the gardens.

It was a gloriously mild summer's day - lunch outside in the sunshine in February - almost unheard of!!

We also took a wander through the maze.....planted sometime between 1689 and 1695....of course the hedges have been replaced, in the original layout, many times since!

London

I had a lovely weekend in London recently catching up with friends........

On Friday I took a wander along the South Bank....past the London Eye and the British Film Institute, to the Hayward Gallery where I went to see the David Shrigley Exhibit - which was a lot of fun - check out his website and you'll see how his quirky sense of humour translates into various art forms - drawings, objects and animations. 

Then I went to take a few photos of A Room for London, perched high on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall. The project, installed by Living Architecture who ask some of the best architects in the world to design houses that you can rent for a holiday in a variety of places around the UK, is a temporary installation for 2012. 

Commissioned following an architectural competition, the "room", designed by David Kohn Architects, looks like a boat that has been washed up out of the Thames on a large wave. It is called the "Roi des Belges" after the riverboat in Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness".

It looks amazing - with only 2 people able to stay per night and a number of nights each month set aside for musicians, authors and artists to engage in public events, the nights available to the public sold out in 20 seconds! 

Luckily for me my friend Karen managed to get a booking and she and I will be spending a night here on the 3rd of June!! Can you imagine how excited we were when she managed to make the booking last year!

Can you imagine how excited we were when she realised that we would be staying on the day of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pagaent on the Thames, when the Queen, on her Royal Barge will be surrounded by 1000 other vessels on a 7 mile journey down the river. The river which we will have a perfect view over.....

Off the Needles

I finished the cowl I was knitting whilst on the train to London last weekend.......which is just as well as it was for one of the friends that I was going to visit. I did however have to find some buttons for it and of course, where better than London to do a little button shopping.

I went to Cloth House on Berwick Street in Soho where I found the perfect buttons....a great colour to match the green of the cowl, the right size to fit through the holes in the lace knitting and with little curved edges to give them a little "je ne sais quoi".

Hopefully it will be nice and cosy for Karen's up and coming dog-sledding trip in Finland.

On the needles

Friends were home in the US for a trip over Christmas and I was gifted a lovely ball of Madeline Tosh Merino Light on their return. It's a shade called Terra Verte. I spent a while on Ravelry looking for some inspiration and finally came up with the Tilting Tetris Cowl - I am of course not knitting it because it look's like Doctor Who's Tardis - simply because I liked the pattern.

I am happily knitting away on my new needles - my first pair of Knit Pro straight needles. I ordered a pair of 4mm, 25cm long needles for knitting hats and scarves and I must admit I am enjoying the lightness of the needles and the smoothness of the wood.

The House

I've been in my house for 18 months now and I will admit that whilst some progress has been made....it's been slow and I want to get more done!

The kitchen hasn't made much progress in months although I have had the sink unit reinstalled and a door hung - how nice it is to have a kitchen door! 

The hall cupboard no longer has a door (that one was used for the kitchen) so I have had some shelfs installed and created a small coat hanging/shoe storage area. 

I started stripping all the doors so now I have semi stripped doors all over the house! 

Last weekend I bought some new towels and things for the bathroom.....so now I know that I want to paint it grey and white to replace the hideous mustard colour that the previous owner left.

I love the "Chalk Town" pattern from Marks and Spencer so much that I also bought bedding the same!

Little Pip Acorn Cap

A spot more knitting has been done! That's 2 finished projects already this month.

This was a lovely pattern to knit - it's Little Pip's Acorn Cap from Kyrie Mead over on Ravelry. I bought the pattern last year some time but this was the first time I knit it up. I used Artesano yarn - 50% wool, 50% alpaca in a lovely dark orange colour. It's size 18 months to 6 years and made for the same little girl that I made the owlet sweater for. 

5 Years ago

5 years ago I sat in the cusp of the blog world.....then I took a dive in....

I can't believe that this little space has lasted 5 years. I am sure when I started out with that first post on the 28th of January 2007 that I thought I might keep it up for a few months. But no, 5 years has passed and this space has continued to be my journal, allowing me to record my wanderings and all the woollie that has taken place, but much more than that - it has allowed me to make connections with so many great people, to learn new skills, use my craft to spread hope (Craft Hope - pop on over - project 16 has just launched)  and has in many ways opened up the world to me (through the blogs of others!) So I just wanted to say a big thank you to all you blog writers and blog readers out there for the continued inspiration, the friendships made, the crafty swaps engaged in.....and the opportunity to remember what I was doing in any given month for the last 5 years! 

There have been some woollie and some wanderings going on this month.....I promise...

I made an Owlet sweater from Kate Davies' lovely pattern....in fact I made 2 from one 400g ball of yarn. It's much greener than it looks in these photos - early morning winter light however bright it might seem, is not that great for taking photos.

I bought the pattern just before Christmas and by the 29th of December I had finished an 18-month size sweater and a 6 month size sweater. They knit up so quickly and best of all as they are knitted in the round, minimal sewing up. I think it took almost as long to sew on the 32 buttons for eyes as it did to knit.

In other woollie our Wednesday night knitting group ran a knitting and crochet class at the DCA in Dundee on Sunday afternoon - 12 people went home with new skills! Good day all round. My photo was used to publicize the class (not a picture of me you'll be pleased to know, but a photo I took).

 It was funny to see it in leaflets and on posters!

Wanderings have not taken me far this month.....a trip to Edinburgh for dinner at L'Escargot Blanc to celebrate a friend's birthday - and a great meal was had - it was their mystery menu so you don't know what you are getting but it was a great 3 courses. We had crostini with poached pear and goats cheese as a starter; a speciality from Lyon for the main course - a pork gayette - sort of meatball made of pork meat and pork liver; followed by Ile Flottante (floating island) for dessert which is a minimally cooked meringue which floats on a bed of creme anglais - light and delicious.

I've taken trips to the beach, to knitting group in Newburgh, to Dollar Glen with the National Trust where I spent the day happily playing in the mud......but with glorious sunrises and sunsets from my window - it's been hard to drag myself out!

Beautiful Winter's Day

It's funny how people always say it rains a lot in Scotland (see the little YouTube video in my last post for a classic example). It's true it does rain quite often, but what often surprises people is that it tends to rain more in the summer than it does in the winter. Often in winter we have cold, bright and sunny days....the sort of days where you know you need to drag yourself outdoors into the cold to stare up at the bright blue sky and to soak up some much needed sun. 

Today was one of those days. So instead of staying indoors and stripping paint, I went out to for a walk to the beach with a friend. We were walking along the shore and the tide was high  so there wasn't a lot of beach to be seen but it was still lovely to be out. 

As we reached the point and turned south, I noticed 2 large birds of prey flying overhead. At first I thought buzzards, but then I realised that they were huge! Amazingly, it was a pair of sea (white-tailed) eagles. These are the 4th largest eagles in the world and used to live happily all over Scotland, but the were hunted to extinction in 1918. Since 1975 there has been a planned reintroduction project in Scotland, starting on the west coast, but since 2007 they have been reintroducing the birds to the east coast too. After some research, I think that these birds were released in 2009.

I have never seen one before so today was special! We stood and watched for around 20 minutes as they circled overhead and stood on the pine trees watching the horizon.

I was in awe of their majestic grace - just look at those wing tips!

New Year Resolutions

I don't often make New Year Resolutions....so taking the lead from Simple Lovely's lovely blog I have a few things I will try to do more of and a few things I'll try to do less of - oh and one formal resolution!

OK, lets start with the resolution - that one is to give up coca cola, diet coke, coke zero and to limit my intake of any other fizzy drinks full of sugar. I've moved over to sparkling water at work/home and soda water and lime when in the pub.

The things I'd like to do more of include: run; knit & craft; see friends; eat fruit & veg; DIY to get my house into shape; read more books; watch more films at the DCA cinema; hill-walking; raise more money so this is built in Dundee (that's a work thing but also something that will be amazing for Dundee); volunteer with the National Trust Conservation Volunteers.....

The things I'd like to do less of include: eating sugar/cakes/sweets; getting stressed;  buying clothes (I have many as my drawers will suggest - of course - this didn't last long as I managed to buy 2 tops yesterday - but that's it for a while!).

Must share this with you! A friend from work sent it to me and it's fab. We've been spending quite a lot of time thinking about Scotland's design heritage in recent weeks and Pringle is one of the best - 195 years of Pringle being celebrated in this cheeky little YouTube video....

2011 in Food

Touring the UK, France and Spain this year.........eating local produce, trying the local delicacies.....finding out that there are a few things I just cannot stand no matter how often I try them - coriander and celery being examples. Other things beginning with "C" I do love - cake! And I had some amazing cake in 2011.

Boy - France has good cake!

2012 - I want to learn to take better photos of food (one of my favourite things) and I plan to quit drinking coke! 2 days in.......hoping the headaches will disappear soon!