Survived.

 But now my head cold is coming out in earnest and I am getting through tissues like an express train.  Tam has gone out for food - curry house not answering phone though . . .  A very quiet day at the Fair today, but Bargain Hunt were doing some filming right in front of my stall and one of their group asked if he could stand in my spot so he could give directions to the Expert Tim Weeks, who was hiding behind a very tall bookcase and had to leap out to surprise his blue team.

Ooh, a different angle as they have my stall in the background.

Moving along my stall - the Ukrainian saddle is now a piece of Folk Art and is staying with me for the moment, as is the old grain scoop to the right.  The two goat yokes sold (gone to Ireland), and the two German studio pottery chickens - the cockerel had a fabulous soft pastel glaze.  The Jack-in-the-Pulpit Bavarian glass vase also sold, thank heavens, as I worried about breaking the top off the spire every time I packed it!

Tea here.  A lovely spicy chicken kebab and salad instead.

Nearly face-planted myself today . . .

 I seem to have an infection which is  involving my balance - leaning forward is NOT a good idea today and several times I just caught myself from falling forward - not a good idea going face-first on concrete.  Turning sharply not a good idea either.  

Despite people telling me I had lovely things, most of them are still with me!  The blue bowl just to the right of the Green Man sold though and I have a lady who took my phone number reference the John Calver plate behind it.

I  have Tam AND boyfriend J helping me tomorrow, and also my good friend Pam.  Hope I am feeling better but have the feeling I will crash on Monday .. .

Here is Pippi showing you what paper bags are really for . . .

I am about to demonstrate what a bed is for! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

 . . . and ready to go.  Just having a cuppa and some breakfast and I need to be down on the showground for 7 a.m. and can't leave until 6 p.m.  Have Keith's stock in the car and his mobility scooter.  Tam will bring him down later.

Pippi in full "look-at-me" yowl!!

Bug-wise - a slightly productive cough, nose needs blowing now and again - inclined to think it is tree pollen.  I will forgive the trees their pollen as if you ever stand under one in bloom, you will hear the tree absolutely thrumming with bees (our huge old Sycamore was yesterday).

I'll check back in on Monday, which will be a Rest Day here!

They're driving me mad, I tell you!

 The Baker family that is.  Many years ago when I was in my 20s, my dad told me his aunty used to run the Post Office at Princetown, up on Dartmoor (not a good place to be on a cold foggy day!)  I have remembered that for nearly 50 years, and think I may have cracked it, finally, except I can't tie sub-postmistress Rebecca Baker (born 1868 in Plymouth) up with the rest of the Baker clan in Plymouth and I haven't found her at Princetown either, but near Exeter.  My goodness, I have gone through so many permutations it's like doing Algebra and I was always hopeless at that!

Blackthorn blossom on my walk yesterday.  Note the sunshine (back to grey and rain today).

I loaded the car this morning for the setting up at Builth Antiques Fair tomorrow.  I just hope I will be well enough to do it as I have little hints which suggest I am coming down with a cold (best outcome) or Covid - I'm praying it's not the latter.  I have had a little grumble of a headache a few times (and I never get a headache normally), a suggestion of a sore throat, and a tickle in my lungs earlier on.  I slept in the - very comfortable - new bed last night, and hope whatever I have goes away - the thought of Keith coming down with it is not a happy one.  I still have my sense of smell and taste though and a Covid test I took earlier on was negative.  If I can't do the Fair, Tam may have to do it for me - it's £185 for the pitch for the weekend and it would be good to get some sales to cover that and help us pay the bills besides.  Positive thoughts please.

Greater Stitchwort.

Oak trees are about to put out their first leaves.  That's Cilmery in the distance.

Of course, last Saturday I stupidly forgot to take a mask.  I put a smarter jacket on and left my red jacket which had a mask always in the pocket at home.  As we were stood so long waiting in the lunch queues, I could well have picked up a bug then, though Tam's OK, so perhaps I touched something infected.

A beautiful wild Gean (Cherry) tree in full bloom beside the lane.  One of many at the moment.

I shall try and keep you posted anyway.  I know I worry if a blogger I follow goes quiet, especially if you know they are off colour to start with.  Have a good long Bank Holiday weekend.

What came home with me

 I was actually fairly controlled . . . So many beautiful colour combinations appealed.  Tam was more frugal still (she and J are saving for a house of their own) and just bought one skein to knit a hat with.  These are my choices.  Sarah from Sussex may be responsible for one decision!!

I love these colours and this was in the reduced bin - only £10.

I love this combination of colours. Socks I think . . . 

Ta-dah - I just couldn't resist this gorgeous colour yarn and it is SO soft.  I know Sarah knits socks with the John Arbon range and they had so many delicious colours on their stand.  

The colour in the bottom right photo is the yarn I bought.  I should have looked at the pattern on the day as it needed 2 mini skeins of a different colour for the inner brim.  I looked up on line to choose these, and found that with postage (that was £4, a little steep) this would cost me over £16!  So the brim will be the same colour, plenty of yarn in the skein for that.  I had to buy circular needles too - had some but when we were moving I hardened my heart and got rid of my wool stash and extra bits I thought unlikely I would use . . .

Another year until the next Welsh Wonderwool, but if you live in the North of Britain, there is Yarndale in the Autumn, at Skipton in Yorkshire.  

I forgot to take photos of the bevy of books and lovely x-stitch kits I got from my dear friend G in Dorset.  She knows what I like!!

Here is Pippi in harness and lead.  I CANNOT let her outside without it, as yesterday she had me horrified when she shot out of the gate and up the lane.  Yes, Tam, of course I chased her - she was heading towards the road.  I yelled her name in desperation and she obviously got the note of panic in my voice, and stopped dead and turned.  Phew.  Yesterday I tried to put this outfit on and got my hands torn to shreds.  Today she was a bit more amenable (though it took a while) and I walked her round indoors until she got the hang of it.  Then we went out around the garden.  It was a bit like taking a fish for a walk, with leaps and lunges, but she can at least go out like this until she calms down a bit.  Lulu keeps close to the house wall and planters and is more worried about Outside.  They are like chalk and cheese . . .  Cat flap currently on lock, for the sake of my nerves!

Right, I have a 2 1/2 day Antiques Fair on the showground this weekend, time to get myself SORTED.

A Day Out at Wonderwool . . . photo heavy!

 

Crafting has been one of the things to largely fall by the wayside since we have moved.  I got rid of ALL my wool stash although I kept all my various needles and crochet hooks.  Anyway, Tam had suggested we go to Wonderwool this weekend - it's just down on the showground and it has been many years since I last went (although Covid did get in the way too).  

I knew it would be very busy there by the queues of cars waiting to get onto the showground which were backed up right out of town.  We went in via Co-op and then around the back by the castle so we were on the main road through - the queued up cars had to join this road.

A big stand here for various types of looms - as you can see, lots of interest.  As an impatient Aries, I think warping up would finish me off!

This was the Baavet stand - they sell duvets and pillows which have pure wool linings. As you can see, the stall was bulked out with cushions, lamps and for some reason, jewellery too . . .

Colourful needle-felted pictures.

Skeins of different yarns everywhere.

Some lovely examples of what you could make from them too.  Such a pretty lacy shawl.

More needle-felting - beautiful landscapes here.

Mixed media textile pictures too.

Another idea for weaving on small frames.

The Ukrainian stand - those rugs were SO soft.

Tam and I were very taken with the beautiful x-stitch designs on these smocks.

It had to be done!! A crocheted hexie sheep.  

I liked this tapestry kit, but didn't look for the price as I didn't have £50 or so to spare.

Leicester Longwool sheep.  There were several pens of different breeds throughout the stands.

I'll show you what came home with me in my next post.  Going back to bed now (I've been awake since 4 a.m. and downstairs 2 hours now . . .)

St Nicholas Church, Norton Canon

 

A beautiful Medieval church with a late 13th C tower.  A rebuild in 1716 was sympathetically done and all the 13th C windows of the Medieval church reused, even the grisaille glass for the N Transept window and SW windows of the nave.  Muggins here overlooked the grisaille glass - only got the heads up this morning, reading my Pevsner for Herefordshire.  But in my defence, I just came across this little church when looking for another!

The 13th C tower with a splayed plinth and pyramidal roof.  You can see the mark of the earlier roofline across one of the lancet windows.

Pevsner mentions a Norman capital in the porch . . .  I was too far away to do it justice.

A very unusual base to the font, which is also 13th C so from the original church.

The Reredos and Pulpit are both Jacobean.

Quite the oddest looking church organ, which was originally powered by young boys pumping a lever (!) but was later electrified, although not until 1998 when it was restored!!

I know this is difficult to read, but I took a photo because the name Carless is a reasonably unusual one and I only recognize it from our old headmaster at Junior School, whose name was Carless.  Of course it leant itself to being changed to Careless. . .

How's that for an unusual name - Gadurgis?  Never come across that before, and his brother is Asa, also unusual.  Sadly, he drowned in NZ.

Beautifully carved capitals.

A subtly worked and coloured banner worked by the ladies of the parish.

Mrs Christiana Carless was careful to look after the poor of the parish in her Will, leaving the not inconsiderable sum of £250 to clothe the "most deserving aged Poor."

It would seem that this was an entrenched habit although John Greene clearly thought that preaching Sermons was more important than feeding the desperate!

These really pleased me, being 13th C stone coffin lids with a floriated cross design.  These were discovered during the rebuilding of the church.  

So, although I didn't go looking for it, I was delighted to have found this little church and can recommend a visit if you are in the area.  

This morning we have a visit to the Parkinsons nurse and then I must get back to the nearly all yellow bedroom and try and finish off the wall (though having moved furniture, I can't quite reach the top now as can't get the ladder close enough.)  I also desperately need to keep going in the garden especially as we have sunshine.

Kittens are wanting my time too - Pippi keeps yelling that she's on the ironing again, LOOK! and Lulu just wants me to throw one of her balls for her.  I have started letting them outside now.  You can see the difference in their characters out there.  Quiet Lulu (a worrier), stays very close to the house wall, climbing in and out of the planters and going behind them.  Her sister, on the other hand, took a look up the side of the house and then decided she would march straight out of the gate and keep going!  Twice she's been out and twice I've had to grab her before she disappears boldly down the track!

At least they're good when they're asleep . . .