Caravan season is over again

 We were away in the van last weekend, for a long weekend until Tuesday, camping on a site on the edge of the city of Norwich.  It stayed fairly dry, but it was chilly, so we were grateful for the efficiency of the electric heater in our little caravan.  We enjoyed a lovely autumn walk around the lake at Whitlingham Country Park, and saw lots of birds at the RSPB Strumpshall Fen nature reserve.  Monday we went into the city to explore the historic quarters of Norwich. We wanted particularly to see Norwich Castle, after watching a TV programme about its extensive restoration to how it may have looked in the Middle Ages. The programme showed some of the artisans working on the metalwork, handmade furniture, and volunteer stitching groups creating the extensive embroideries.  The most impressive is a Bayeux-tapestry-like wallhanging featuring the story of the former castle chatelaine Emma.  Sadly it is hung so high up on the wall that you can't really see the details.  Interesting to see how colourful the interiors once were.  In the evenings in the van, I was knitting a family of three stuffed seals which will be a gift for my son's partner who really likes seals.

On Sunday morning, we went to a car boot sale (outdoor flea market) near the campsite, and I came across a woman who was selling off all her scrapbooking supplies following an unfortunate fall which had sadly left her with a damaged hand and muscle issues.  So I was able to pick up some paper pads, reels of ribbon, packs of embellishments etc. all for the very reasonable price of £12.

That was our final holiday in the van for the year, we don't camp in the winter.  So today we were out at the storage yard all afternoon, cleaning out the van and prepping it for the winter months where it will sit vacant.  We brought home a carload of contents but there is more to fetch back.

Wednesday night I was lucky enough to have bagged a ticket for the Grand Sumo exhibition tournament at the Royal Albert Hall down in London, the first time sumo has returned to London in over 30 years.  So I travelled down to London for that, it didn't finish until after 10pm so it was after midnight by the time my train got back to my home town.  Due to being an older person, that meant I was suffering for the next two days from the late night, and didn't get much done! But the sumo was great fun, they were absolutely doing everything in the exact same way that they would in Japan so it was just like being back at a tournament in Tokyo.  The prices for seats were extortionate so I was high up in the top balcony, looking down at the wrestlers' heads, but I was still happy to be there.

zoom photo

While I was attempting to recover from the late night, I spent a lot of time just watching journal-making videos on Youtube to learn about this new hobby. That resulted in me creating a junk journal from scrap paper, cardboard, and some fabric scraps from my quilting stash.  I am using the pages to try out some of the ideas that I am learning from the videos.  I really like the idea of creating books, and I like learning about the various paper engineering techniques, but still not really decided how I would use a junk journal.  I mostly type on a PC keyboard and keep digital records of everything, I only really handwrite disposable lists such as To Do lists.

I did finish the miniature dollshouse kits this week.  The larger house is 1/12th scale and the smaller house is 1/24th scale.  I added some wallpaper and a couple of paper rugs to the larger house.

I'm still embroidering the Gail Pan quilt blocks, almost finished the 5th out of 6 panels, it's a long job.  I've been feeling a bit frustrated this week, there are so many projects I would like to be getting on with in various hobbies, but I can't do them all at the same time plus I've been half asleep for much of the week.  DH is saying there are no retirement police who are going to come along and tell me that I am doing retirement wrong.  I've got a couple of friends who have purposefully chosen just 2 or 3 hobbies for their retirement and won't do anything else, but my brain is still like a craft-mad squirrel on a hamster wheel trying to do all the things.  Unfortunately I just don't have the energy (mental and physical) that I had 20 years ago.  But I am trying to stay strong about not ripping projects out of craft magazines any more, unless I realistically think that I will make it soon.  I don't want another paper mountain building up again.