Jubilee jaunt

 We were able to get away this week in the caravan for our first proper outing of the year.  It was very pleasant, we headed down to a big-but-quiet site near Hereford that we visited on a short break last year.  A few teething problems with the van: a cracked cap on our water butt, the grill wouldn't stay lit etc.  So the van is going back to the service engineers on Monday to have the grill and the water pump pressure switch looked at. Hopefully that's not going to be too expensive but apparently to replace the thermostat on the grill, you have to remove the entire oven which at £70 an hour labour costs is going to hurt. The weather was pretty variable: cold most nights and alternating between showers and hot sun during the days. Luckily we had both overpacked so were well equipped for the various climates.

We had some nice countryside walks, including one around the perimeter of the Malvern Hill that the Worcester Beacon sits on.  This walk was labelled 'Moderate, 1.5 hours' but turned out to be both confusing (lots of backtracking) and much more strenuous than we expected, especially the long haul back uphill at the end.  So it took us an hour longer but was probably very good for burning off some of the excess calories I always seem to consume on holiday. I can walk a fair way on the relative level but I'm no good at all going uphill. 

I dropped into Doughty's Fabric Warehouse in Hereford and also their haberdashery shop, but didn't buy anything. I think I'm a bit sated after going to Paducah. We revisited Hay-on-Wye, famous for its secondhand bookshops, and where we found the Hay Festival Week in full swing so we had a walk around the pavilions.  DH did well in the bookshops but I didn't find much this year.  We walked around the historic town centres of both Hereford and Ledbury, full of quintessentially British architecture particularly lots of wonky half-timbered black and white houses.  We saw some lovely gardens at Brobury House, and at Little Malvern Court. 

Ledbury

The ancient church in Ledbury was furnished with dozens of beautifully handstitched

tapestry kneelers, many featuring local scenes.

Hay on Wye from the castle viewing platform

The Black & White Museum in Hereford

Hereford street

Little Malvern Court

We had dinner here but disappointingly the dining room is

in the modern extension to the rear

Little Malvern Court seen across the extent of the medieval fish pond.

In the caravan, I was knitting on my Aldi boucle mint green t-shirt and finished one sleeve and made a good start on the second. I was also knitting on the shawl that I bought the pattern and cotton yarn for in Paducah, plus I made a start on the stamped caravan design tea towel embroidery.

So not a lot of crafts at home this week.  I am still plugging away on Month 12 of the Australian BOM which has so much stitching required. Meanwhile Month 13 has shown up and is sitting on my desk as a visible reminder. 

DS is home for a visit and we took him over to Coleman's Craft Warehouse, the only decent craft / art shop for many miles which is unfortunately closing down due to losing ground to online sales during the pandemic. They are having a 33% off sale so DS bought some art supplies. I got a few scrapbooking supplies and also a half metre of this cute upholstery weight tapestry fabric which will be good for bag making.

The beast (machine quilting frame) has not progressed much further since we were away this week.  I've got two of the poles mounted and am just trying to get the brackets onto the ends of the other two poles.  Then I will be able to load a fabric sandwich and have a practice.  I've ordered some cones of Superior Threads King Tut which is what I used successfully last time on top, with Bottom Line in the bobbin.

DS was pleasingly impressed with the transformation of his room, likening it to an Air BnB level of comfort which is praise from him. He half jokingly asked why we hadn't done it while he was living with us, inspiring me to try to whack him since he had always flatly refused to let us. He doesn't seem to mind that all his remaining stuff is packed into our attic. I think he feels that he left that stuff behind because he didn't want it (so why are we keeping it in our attic I ask myself...).  Eventually if he gets his own home, not rented, then he will be able to go through the boxes and see what he wants to take.

I am spending time this weekend emptying out and shredding the paper files from many of my past jobs and past pensions, now that several are consolidated into the new pension provider.  As a hoarder, I am finding this job quite difficult because my brain keeps shrieking "but what if?????" but realistically the jobs are all more than six years ago and the pensions are all transferred.  I'm keeping a couple of papers from each just with scheme numbers and so on. It's odd to revisit the hiring letters, notes from interviews, records of performance reviews, samples of work - things that at the time felt incredibly important and now are just dusty memories.   It all feels like a very long time ago.