Ta dah – crochet baby blanket

On our recent train trip to Penzance I started a baby blanket for a colleague who recently had a baby boy.

Good progress was made on the trip and afterwards – except I ran out of the light blue yarn.

 

I hunted through my stash and no I didn’t have any so – do I buy 1 ball on the internet and pay £1.79 for the yarn and £2.25 for the P&P.  I wasn’t going to buy a load of yarn to get free P&P or pay over the odds on certain auction sites. 

I then found to my amazement that the school outfitters, less than 2 miles away that also has a small wool and haberdashery section, sells Stylecraft Special DK – I was so pleased.  It’s slightly more expensive per 100g at £2.15, than I pay online but I can just go to the local shops and pick up a ball, support a local retailer, have the yarn straight away, have a hooky natter to shop assistant.

 

They came to my rescue and over the holiday weekend and I finished a lovely blue gingham baby blanket for baby Joe.

 

 

MummyHen X

Darent Valley Walk - part 2

The weather this May bank holiday was gorgeous here in Kent.  Another walk; this time from Lullingstone Country Park (bottom of the picture near Castle Road to Farningham High Street and back - a round trip of around just over 6½ miles.

 

Past Lullingstone Castle and the Roman Villa – we took SonnyHen here years ago when he was doing the Romans at primary school. It has a beautiful mosaic the downside is its now £6.20 per adult.

 

Up the hill (it’s a steep one)

 

to get the beautiful view of this mid 19^th Century 9 arch red brick viaduct crossing the valley

 

Down the hill into Eynsford village – it was packed with people sitting on the grass outside the pub.  We turned left into an appropriately named lane

On to Farningham – passing these Jacobs sheep

 

Unfortunately it’s not a circular walk unless you want to walk along the road!! to back along Sparepenny Lane.

There is a castle ruin on the way – Eynsford Castle built in 11th century – it’s free to have a look round, but the entrance is across the valley and over the river.

 

Back along the river towards Lullingstone passing these Highland cattle - I've been visiting Eynsford for over 20years and there have always been Highland cattle in the meadow along Lullingstone Lane.

 

It’s a gentle walk mostly on the same level – we didn’t need to go up the hill but the view made it worthwhile.  Burnt a few more calories, enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine - it's free to walk.

 

MummyHen X

Planting

Like with the weather I’m a little late in planting, our garden isn’t large and with part of it given over to My Girls this doesn’t leave much room for planting veg in a secure place away from chicken beaks.

 

Strawberries in hanging baskets

 

Seeds in tins or plastic bottles - these will be transplanted into old wine boxes, troughs, plastic boxes and tubs once the seedlings are big enough.

 

We did manage to plant up flowers in hanging baskets

 

 

These auriculas come up year after year with very little attention but wow what lovely colours

 

 What do you plant in your garden?

MummyHen X

Darent Valley Walk

Another lovely walk yesterday

After a busy week a few hours in the fresh air looking at the beautiful Kent country side was just the tonic.

 

Having walked up the opposite side of the valley a couple of weeks ago we decided to talk to the White Cross; starting at Shoreham along the river to Lullingstone Castle up the ridge to the White cross and down the hill back to Shoreham – should be around 6 miles.

Walked across fields that looked like they were really struggling with the cold weather we’ve had of late.

Passing vineyards,

 lavender fields - these will look a gorgeous purple in a few months

 

hop strings,

 

 

following the meandering river

 

 

to Lullingstone Castle, home of the Hart Dyke family (comedienne Marinda Hart is related). 

 

We turn here walking up the hill to the golf course, down to the Lullingstone Country Park visitors centre – it looked very nice but didn’t go in – they charge for parking!!

 

Onwards along Castle Farm Road passing a mysterious stone monument (more on this in another post) hidden in the bushes,

 

the White Cross, 

 

 

views down to Shoreham,

 

 

the Kings Arms pub – we did stop for a swift pint and a lemonade before heading home.

 

 

MummyHen X

Train journey – back home

On the breakfast menu at the hotel was my very favourite - eggs benedict; which is a real treat.

On the way back to the station a number of vintage buses and coaches from a bygone era pasted us.  It was a ‘running’ of the Cornwall Bus Preservation Society; a real shame we were not staying longer I would have loved a trip to St. Just on one of these buses.

 

On route we came across a golden post box – remember these from the Olympics; this one is for Helen Glover who won gold for rowing.

The train back to Paddington was very loooong 6 hours due an engineering works diversion.  We sat on the other side of the train to get a different view – the sea wall at Dawlish

 

Any way we made it back home to my lovely comfy bed.

 

MummyHen X

Penzance

We didn’t sleep that well – the bed was lumpy and very hard. 

The upside was the weather was just perfect – the sea was calm the wind low and the sun shone.
 
We went for a walk firstly into the Morrab subtropical gardens –

 it was lovely to see flowers out and leaves on trees, as most things in my garden are way behind this year.  Pretty bright colours and really green glossy leaves. 

 

I spotted this delightly deli - I resisted temptation but its very MummyHen.

We then walked down to the promenade and walked to Newlyn – fish shops, boats, marsts and a faint view of St Michaels Mount.

On the way back we stopped for a cup of tea and slice of cake  - a caravan had been converted to sell tea coffee cakes light snacks – sitting outside watching the world go by was just lovely. 

 

But time was short as we were having lunch at the rugby club - the main purpose of our trip was to watch Cornish Pirates and Jersey.  Jersey lost but DaddyHen seemed to enjoy himself – apparently the beer was excellent!!

MummyHen X

Train journey

We had a lovely time – I didn’t take my laptop so wasn’t able to blog.

 

Haven’t been to Paddington station for a long time – it looked different to what I remember – or maybe I look at things differently now that I’m older??!! Statues of Paddington Bear

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

 

a striking three faced clock(!),

 

a really lovely balcony window - this just looked so out of place,

tonnes of iron work

 

Five hours on the train is a long time to keep occupied, I took your advice and did a variety of things to make the journey go by in a wizz; people watching – there are some very odd people in this world – the drivel people come out with?!?!; looking at the scenery; there is some really lovely countryside;

 

crochet – decided to start a blue gingham blanket for a colleague that’s just had a new baby. 

 

MummyHen X