Queen of the Castle

 

Some friends of Tam & Jon's went to this castle last weekend.  It is Clifford castle, which has quite a history. Ahah I thought, I have finally caught it open (instead of finding out afterwards I'd just missed it).  It's only open a few days a year, and the rest of the time you can only admire it from the lane.  Yesterday was the last day it was open until May.  Above is the entrance through the Garrison.

Ivy-leaved Toadflax romped over the walls and there were many wild flowers to be seen.  A real haven for wildlife, especially those plants who enjoy a limey environment.

This is the entrance to the Gatehouse, and you can see the rebate for the door and the slot for the portcullis.

I love the way that nature had reclaimed the castle (now that the ivy had been removed).  You can see how Wallflowers came to be named.

Inside Rosamund's Tower.

Looking across to the Black Mountains.

Common Vetch.

I sat and daydreamed inside one of the D-shaped towers.  It was so warm and sunny and I had to drag myself away.

A pretty little apple orchard  near Glasbury.  Note the huge balls of Mistletoe.

Dandelions and Ground Ivy.

The castle, as many did, held a strategic position beside a crossing point in the River Wye on the Welsh border - with Wales being on the other bank.  Back in the day, the motte was surrounded by a flooded area and a moat of 10m deep to the West.  There was probably a wooden castle here as remains of post holes were found on the motte.  In 1067 William fitzOsbern (Earl of Hereford) owned the site and the marcher earldom it belonged to.  His son Roger inherited on his death but rebelled in 1075, and lost it to his b-in-law, Ralph de Tosny.   It gets the name Clifford from 12th C inhabitants of the castle, who held it for the de Tosny's (Normans with lands in France).  Local landowner Walter Fitz Richard married into the family (Margaret)  and took the name of Clifford and their daughter Rosamund, a notable beauty (her name is thought to derive from the beautiful red and white striped rose, Rosamundi.)  About 1174 she was dangled for the delectation of King Henry II and he rose to the bait and took her as his mistress - the "Fair Rosamund" who was the love rival of his real wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine.  So, Clifford is quite a romantic place and you can imagine my musings as I sat and basked in the sunshine.  

Their son Walter did well in life, playing an active role in Marcher politics, although that also included joining a major rebellion against Henry III in 1233 and in 1249 must have been the talk of the town when he defended his privileges as a marcher lord by forcing a royal messenger to EAT a letter from the king, complete with wax seal the size of a dinnerplate!  The male line ended with him and a certain John Giffard abducted Walter's daughter Matilda, and forced her to marry him around 1270.  The castle passed by a succession of marriages between marcher lords and heiresses until it reached the Mortimers.  Around the time of Owain Glyndwr it was still habitable, but fades out of history after that.

I was so pleased to have finally gotten to visit it and only regret that Keith and I didn't get there together.  The current owners have made a big commitment to its preservation and I have to say, it was a delightful visit - compared with how ivy clad it was in the past.

Malvern - and Bank Holiday Hailstones!

 Up at 5 a.m. to go to Malvern.  My friend Pam offered to drive me, so I was happy to accept.  It was already raining when we set off and the forecast for rain at Malvern was spot on.  I got quite damp walking round (Pam and I split up as we walk at different rates, browsing).  The outside stalls were down by half, if not two-thirds and nothing really amazing.  I bought a few things, then a well grown Spirea japonica for Tam - 3 times the size and cheaper than the one she was looking at in the garden centre recently, and found a gorgeous little vintage painted wooden rabbit for Rosie, and treated myself to a lovely transfer print Olde Foley Ware bowl.  Two pieces of china have gone from the dresser shelf to justify one coming in.  Not quite the Swedish Death Clean yet, but I have to have sort through my china.  Fortunately the hailstones (which I forgot to mention yesterday) didn't arrive until I was back indoors, but then chucked it down.  Not what you want in April.  

I loved this painting of a tree in blossom - which looked better in real life.  At £285 though, it stayed put!!

Not even remotely tempted!  Now, if you are going to paint a horse, at least paint one worth the effort, and not this ewe-necked, straight-shouldered, croup-high, bucket-headed animal!  No Way could I live with that on my wall!!

A nice old hand-quilted probably Welsh quilt.

An unfinished use-up-your-scraps quilt top.  I think it was £35.

Twister pattern cushion.  I did this design for a table throw. Only prettier fabrics. 

Corner of a studio pots and glassware stall who is there with nice things each time.

A selection of stuffed corvids for your delectation.

Possibly the worst item of taxidermy I have ever seen - perhaps it was a manky fox to start with!

I was intrigued by the headless, armless Madonna? and the copper "baby-case"? at the back!

I should have zoomed in on the little items with moss and tiny eggs.  They were pretty.

The square box front left contained a lovely old vintage wooden cube jigsaw which had I think 6 different jigsaws, depending on which way you turned the cube.

Tam's Spiraea japonica.

My Olde Foley Ware bowl with deliberately blurred panels in between the design.

Rosie's rabbit.  I couldn't resist.

Now I am home so will catch up on the washing up and do very little for the rest of the day.  L. Whale into the vet for 9 a.m. so no hanging around tomorrow morning either.  I hope they can remove the claw under sedation, as they hoped, rather than knocking him out completely.

A wonderful Easter Sunday walk

 

It's such a LOVELY day here, I decided to go out for a much longer walk, and to take the route which had a challenging (as in 3/4 of a mile of it!) hill which climbs the valley side and takes you from190m above sea level to 310.  It is especially a challenge for me as a chronic asthmatic, as 8 years ago I was told I had the lung capacity of an 80 year old.  I imagine it's worse now.  Anyway, the photo above shows me approaching the old school house, now a family home.  This was about a mile and 1/4 in to the walk.

Starting to climb up the steep hill, with many a pause for breath and to drink in the beauty of the woodland and views.

Nearly at the top now.  Stunning.

Above, the edge (in our direction) of the Epynts.  

I won't name the farm, but isn't it a divine spot?  My water supply (spring water, a named spring) comes from the hill behind here and it is over a mile from the house.)

I am so lucky to have this beautiful scenery on my doorstep.

A few bluebells in the base of the hedgerow.  Such a bright blue.

100 minutes walking, 13000 or so steps and 342 calories burnt.  Also my blood pressure, which I hadn't taken for months, and frightened me at 175/85 a few days ago (it was first thing in the morning though), has come down steadily (140s yesterday) and was an amazing 116/83 today!  Blimey.  Just shows you how walking is good for you - and good for the soul too.  Like meditation.  I measured it with a length of thread on the map - 1" to a mile - and it worked out 5 1/2 miles!  Blimey, furthest I've walked for a while.  Doing it all over again tomorrow (only on the flat) as it's Malvern Fleamarket . . .

I guess I should have stayed in bed . . .

 . . . the day seemed to be starting well.  I slept until 6 a.m. and got up, refreshed.  I went down to get the paper and started the Llanelwedd railway line walk at 10 to 8 a.m.  It was lovely to be out so early.  Then I came back and began measuring and cutting the components for the blocks.  That went well. I sewed a whole pile of them together - great.  Ironed the seams open and started on the first whole block and managed to get both halves upside down/back to front/whatever.  Screwed up anyway!  Swore and - stupidly - decided I would have a break and do the one little reverse L-shape piece of wallpaper.  So I carefully measured, came downstairs and cut the L shape, before realizing I had cut it out back to front - as I had turned it over to pencil the cutting line on the back.  Sh*t!!! So then it was a bodge-it job - use the piece I had cut on the longer drop, and a short piece which more of less matched (ahem) under the sink.  I've often said, if I had a brain I'd be dangerous.  Today seems to prove it!

Yesterday I rested up, watching YouTube programmes.  I had the heated throw on and slept several times, as I had been awake from 12.30 a.m. until 5 a.m. overnight.  The cold kept me awake as I had a hanky stuffed up one nostril and had to breath through my mouth.  I drank lots of water, an took Panadol,  but still felt a bit shivery.  It was lovely looking out onto the bank, with the Magnolia and both the Pieris glowing in the gloom of the rainy day.  A green blush is spreading through the trees and under canopy, though the Sycamores are fully out. 

After mucking up with the wallpapering, I decided it could wait and I would have a dash up to Aldi to get veg (needed), and a few other things.  That relieved me of £18, and then £17 in Tesco, so a very cheap week. When I got to Llandod, I parked up by the lake and did a quick walk around it.  It's only 1 Km but all the steps help.  

Now it's rest up time. I put some beef in the slow cooker earlier on for a casserole and of course I am having carrots and broccoli with that!

Cracked it!

 Yesterday I had another occasion to utilize my new-found Desperate Technology skills (go me!).  I had clearly pressed something which had come in an email or similar - I remember trying to click out of something and then the most bejeebers effing annoying popup popped up, purporting to be from McAfee, telling me that I had 7 viruses, and heaven knows what else infecting my computer.  Every time I moved the cursor over to try and message Tam on Facebook, the pop-up popped up and blocked it.  So I texted her - she would fix it on Tuesday.  I wasn't going to wait that long, so noted the words in the link it had up and googled them, and found out how to block it.  Hooray!

I

In fact, double Hooray, as I decided I would take my brain to task and crack the block - thanks to Shirley, Morning's Minion, gz, JennyP and Lizzy and Debbie and everyone else who encouraged me.  I then realized what I had done yesterday - I couldn't understand it as I had been able to make this block  when I tried out the William Morris Heritage quilt block.  Of course, I had started cutting out both the larger and the smaller pieces for the 8" and 6" blocks, and taken two of the 6" 1/4 square triangles which did NOT match the 8" half square triangle!  Some of you probably realized this and were too kind to say!!  Gormless, that's me :)

Anyway, note the quite good points in the middle.  I shall do some more tomorrow, if I don't feel too rough, but I have gotten Rosie's cold - hard to escape after she stuck her finger up her nose and then did the same to me!  So far, a bit of a runny nose.  Let's hope I have had it before and my daily Vitamin D will stop it getting to be bad, though Tam said it wasn't anything like the one they all had a few weeks ago which came with a high temperature and shocking headache. 

I haven't been into town at all today but imagine there will be lots of mobile homes parked up on the Groe car park overnight as it's Good Friday tomorrow and they will have made an early start.  I passed a convoy of them when I was driving back from Aber on Tuesday.  If Billy Blue Eyes is down for Easter, giving you a wave.  We'll have to meet up for a cuppa in town sometime.

Before my nose began running, I pulled the aged seed stack from out of the corner where it had been overwintering, weighted it down, and have put the well-grown runner beans out there to acclimatise.  

I also trimmed the Wallpaper in the guest bedroom, and have stuck one short piece in under the sink.  Next bit is a back to front L-shaped bit, so I've left that for the moment.  

I changed my bed this morning and so have a clean bed to fall into tonight.  Right, off to read one of the last JD Kirk novels.  Will have to wait until the new one is written before I have another sent my way.

 

Primroses and today's walk - oh and another quilt block doing my head in!

 

I need to get these smaller pot sorted out and moved as they look a mess here and need organizing more stylistically.  On the left is the Magnolia stellata, flowering beautifully now it has minimal pruning. The gardener here before we bought the house always pruned in autumn, regardless of whether that was right for the particular shrub or not. The two Pieris are looking lovely too.

Just to give you an idea of the Primroses here, a few pictures, but they still don't do them justice.

I did a two mile walk this morning to try and clear my head, which is still not in quilting mode, and I am now going nutso over the NEW quilt project, so will get Alex to show me where I am going wrong, though it occurs to me that if you have a half quarter of 5 1/4" to be matched to two quarters of a 5 1/4" block, then sewn together with a 1/4" seam allowance taken off both small triangles, then they are going to end up smaller than the width of the half a 5 1/4" quarter?  Should they be cut from a larger piece? Or is it me?  I am close to abandoning any sewing as clearly my brain is so addled now.  Am I really SO stupid?

Below: reads 5 1/4" and 4 1/4", then 4 7/8" and 3 7/8" for the two different sized blocks.  Again, this is cutting tiny little triangles out and yet Morning's Minion advised against doing the quarter square triangles that way with the last abandoned quilt.

Anyway, this is along the old railway line, so wonderfully FLAT! 

It's beside the Wye all the way - sometimes nearer, sometimes not.

Then this afternoon, MORE expense.  L. Whale had to go to the vet with his sore paw, and as I suspected, the nail WAS split/broken and causing infection again (why didn't they spot that first time round?)  Anyway, he has antibiotics and painkillers, and we managed to break the cat carrier trying to get him reluctantly back in.  So on top of the operation he has to have next week (£91), I have to pay for today's treatment AND a new cat carrier (just ordered).  April is proving to be a hellishly expensive month.  Oh, and the new navy sheet I ordered was delivered today, and is black - and I checked and had ordered black (by mistake obviously).  So am keeping it to go on my bed and have had to order another.  Sigh.  I had to pay for the Antiques Fair too (just short of £200) . . .  I hope it will be a good one. Then it's Malvern Flea next Monday . . .  I need an outing!

I was very glad this morning when I didn't have to be up at 6 a.m. in order to drive to Tam's to babysit (have to be there before 8.45).  Rosie has had a nasty cold and is teething and it's been so hard getting her to sleep.  Yesterday I had to take her out in the car (I have the spare car seat) and get her to sleep that way.  I was very relieved when Tam got back early from work (4 p.m.)

She sent me home via Devil's Bridge on a new route, which takes you along the cycle route beside the River Wye and it was SO beautiful, as it's shallow and stony there, and there are little islands covered in Gorse in full bloom.  I wish I'd taken a photo. The road goes on through Pontrhydfendigaid, so not far from Strata Florida.  The road takes you through beautiful upland scenery too, looking across dun hillsides of moor grass, interspersed with upland grazing and conifer plantations.  The road is VERY bendy - doubling back on itself at times.  Slow and steady is the order of the day.  Devil's Bridge had opened for the season and there were still quite a few cars in the car park as I drove past.

Right, apologies for lack of brain and once again NOT being able to work the block out - made two but they are not 8 1/2" blocks and they are too bad to share.

So glad I made my meal at breakfast time (meatballs in tomato/onion/peppers/courgette sauce) and there's enough for 3 meals, so will freeze one portion.