WOYWW 502–Scarf Embellishing

I know we always say this, but I can’t believe yet another week has passed… Half way through January already!

Remember last year I was working on some embellishments for the striped scarf I had knitted? I decided it was high time I finished that project so over the past few days I’ve been working on making the fringe and adding the felt and crochet embellishments. So far I have completed one end, and this is the result.

The other side.

Detail of fringe. You can see that I have incorporated the felt balls I made with crochet chains. I had made some white balls which I didn’t think I would use but in the end I decided to use them, and I added a bit of embroidery on them with wool scraps.

Detail of some of the embellishments.

Embellishments and fringe.

Closer detail shots of the fringe.

I also attached a few crochet chains further up the scarf, with felt flowers and leaves attached, and the whole effect has been to soften the bottom edge of the scarf.

The little blob on the end of each felt ball on the fringe is a crochet chain loop, through which I am planning to attach a tassel. If I don’t like the tassels I can always take them off again – the little loops look quite nice on their own!

Now all I’ve got to do is repeat the process on the other end.

Kitties

They’ve both been using the cat tree again lately, which is good. I was beginning to think I’d bought a large expensive piece of junk.

Lily exposing her tummy.

We had another session with them in the garden the other day and Lily was quite happy playing and just sniffing at things and running around, but Ruby spent the whole time going round the edge looking for ways to escape. We had to keep her under close supervision the whole time. We took them out in the late afternoon when they were hungry, in the hope that this would get Ruby in, but we had a terrible job with her, and she wouldn’t even be enticed with Dreamies. In the end I fetched the birdie toy (you can just see it in the above photo) and this proved irresistible, and after a while my hubby managed to get her in.

We got Lily in first, and I shut her in the house, out of the kitchen. I went through to check on her because she was crying, and she was sitting up on the flat kitchen windowsill looking out, desperate to know where her sister was.

As soon as we got Ruby in, I chased her into the house and she went into the flat. Lily didn’t see her at first but still went on gazing out of the window, and I called her and said “Ruby’s here!” and she immediately leapt down and went straight to her and kissed her – she was all over her and her relief and love were palpable! It was sweet to watch, and I wished I’d had the camera handy. She really worries about Ruby, but we wish she would just tell her to behave and be done with it – but we all know that Ruby never listens to anybody!!

This is what I’m always threatening Ruby with, when she’s naughty!!

Other news

No sourdough this week, but I made ordinary seed bread in the bread maker. I also did a roast chicken on Saturday which was delicious, with lots of nice cold meat to follow (easy meals!) but I was so wiped out on Sunday after all that effort that I spent most of Sunday morning in bed while my hubby went off to church on his own!

I’ve not been too well this past week, with a lot of fatigue and headaches so I’ve been trying to rest as much as possible, and have also been working hard on sessions for my Bible study group which resumes again tomorrow night. I’ve been learning a lot recently and designing new sessions and am excited to share what I have learnt with the group. The sitting room is a mess and will definitely need to be tidied up before the evening!

We’ve got the plumber and the roofer coming at the end of the week – the former to service the boiler and check out a possible leak in the downstairs loo which always seems to be damp, and also to fix my boiling water tap that has been leaking for ages, and recently caused a major flood in the kitchen. The roofer is coming to fix a leak in the flashing on the lean-to at the back which is causing some dampness on the wall. Oh the joys of living in damp old Devon… It’s much damper by the coast than where we used to live, further inland. Always something to fix on older houses, isn’t there. Hopefully none of these jobs will prove major.

Outing to Hope Cove

Yesterday we went with our friends from the walking group to Hope Cove on the South Devon coast. In all the years I have lived in Devon (all my life bar the first two years) I have never been there! It is such a pretty place. Judge for yourself.

Our friends had been there many times, and took us to their favourite haunt, the Cottage Hotel.

We had hoped to sit on the terrace to drink our coffee but there was a strong sea breeze and in spite of the hot sunshine, it was really too cold, so we sat in the bar and were served with several cafetieres full of the most delicious coffee – I drank 4 cups! We decided to stay put and have our lunch, and explore afterwards. The food was more than excellent, and very reasonable too.

The place was quirky and fun. On the way to the bar we passed several interesting things, the first being a small snug made like a ship’s cabin, with a porthole showing a famous ship that had gone down, all in 3-D so it looked as if you were actually looking out of the porthole.

As is usual in hotels, there were various display cabinets with goods for sale, but here, these objects were a bit more unusual. This cabinet contained a selection of antique silver objects.

In another cabinet housing various vintage objects, I found this lovely Art Deco tea service.

A beautiful specimen of coral.

On a shelf in the corridor was this attractive glass globe vase full of shells.

The bar, which was made out of half of a real boat!

Beside the bar was this framed photograph showing the actual boat used to make the bar.

In our area of this informal dining area was a lovely laser-cut map of the area, cut from two different types of wood.

Before lunch I went for a wander and a little exploration and found the formal dining table laid up for the evening meal. Both this room, and the bar where we ate, had magnificent views out over the sea.

As we left the hotel I took this picture looking out over the sea.

The beach, seen from the hotel terrace.

The sea wall.

The most adorable little Methodist chapel.

Just inside the door was this decorative but functional display of hooks! I thought the shapes they made were so attractive.

The chapel.

The acoustics were amazing and we all sang a couple of hymns together. I think it is lovely that this little church is called “Hope Methodist Church.” It was so beautifully maintained, and spotlessly clean inside, with fresh flowers.

A gorgeous house with balconies.

Hope Cove is on two levels. The roads between are very steep and narrow.

An intriguing old door.

What looked like a couple of beach huts on the cliff just above the lifeboat station.

Lovely sandy beach!

The village square, complete with the obligatory seaside shop, selling buckets and spades, flip flops and all the paraphernalia associated with seaside holidays, and bringing back so many memories of childhood spent at the seaside, when it never seemed to rain.

Now the delights of the village began to reveal themselves. It is a village full of quaint old thatched cottages, some going back many hundreds of years.

In this square, all the houses seemed to have at least one animal perched on top of the roof, made of straw. Apparently this is how the thatchers sign their work! I love this first one with a mother duck and her babies.

There is even a rabbit!

A pheasant and an owl. Pheasants are a common motif on thatched windows.

An adorable little narrow street, passing between some ancient cottages.

A more grand residence, but still sporting its thatched roof!

Roses round the door! What more could you ask?

I love the rough texture on this ancient piece of thatching.

The tiny village hall. I  love the little picket fence in front.

Finally, a group photo. From behind!

Visit to Lytes Carey

Yesterday was the Big Day when we went up to fetch our new kittens. As we did when we went to view them a few weeks ago, we made it a day out, and as before, we visited a National Trust house, this time the delightful little Tudor manor house Lytes Carey, very much smaller than Barrington Court, and very intimate, and one could imagine living there! This house was furnished, with a variety of furniture and artefacts from various periods of history.

We had lunch at the Podymore Inn in the village of Podimore (Podymore is the old spelling) – a delicious meal – we both had one of their speciality pies. We also had a starter, and I had a pudding as well – really pushing the boat out on our day out! (Extra diet days to follow this week!)

Here are the pictures of Lytes Carey.

There is a quite beautiful little chapel.

One of two framed Latin manuscripts in the chapel. I thought the script was very beautiful.

Moving in to the house proper, this is the Great Hall.

An inner courtyard.

The drawing room.

Spiral staircase leading to the upper floor – my hubby went up but I wasn’t able to get up there, so I looked at the album of photos of the upstairs rooms, where there are four-poster beds and beautiful plaster ceilings.

Some beautiful antiques.

An ancient herbal.

Unfortunately the final three photos have got corrupted so I can't upload them:

A pretty hydrangea just coming out, beside the front door.

We were told to look out for the topiary of the peacock with the Mohican!

The place didn’t stay open very late, so we had tea outside the tea room (it was packed as a great party of people had arrived) and I ate a huge slice of cake! After this I felt absolutely stuffed and didn’t eat for the rest of the day!

We had a bit of time to spare after this, and had a look in the shop, and then made our leisurely way over to pick up the kittens.