Wildwood

Hello......... Last week we went off to a local Wildlife park for a visit. 'Wildwood'   is set in 40 acres of ancient woodland and has native species past and present from the UK.  

It was pretty hard to spot some of them and others were a little camera shy but here's a few of the better pictures from our visit as a little taster of the day.

First up we spotted this lizard and also a beautiful grass snake who was not so keen to have his picture taken.

Then on through the enclosure where the Cranes and Herons were.

Then we came across the Konik Horses in the woodlands

and then the Fallow Dear

and red dear, we looked for the Reindeer and Elk but they must have been hiding, as for the Bison I only managed to get a picture of his rear, which I'm sure you don't want to see.

What I really wanted to see was the Wolves,  the truly wild ones were hidden up in they're enclosure but the park also has two hand reared Wolves who were happily prowling about, too fast to get a picture, but my they were just beautiful.

This year the park has opened a new Otter pool, and we stopped by just in time to see them fed, so amusing to watch them play and such a privileged, these two ended up at the park after a failed attempt to reintroduce them into the wild in the west country.  

 

We were able to borrow the parks mobility scooters, which was great as it would have been a long old way for the wheelchair to be pushed, other highlights for me were seeing the badgers and Polecats sleeping in there dens and also the two Lynx not forgetting the fun filled red squirrel.

While 'L' went off to the play area we had enough time to make friends with this cute little fellow.

Of course we had to exit via the gift shop where I bought these lovely marbles, I do love a marble somewhere around here I have a big jar of them, not sure where they are at the moment, so I guess you could say 'I've lost my marbles' but I'm sure they'll turn up again.

This is my favourite new marble, it's hand made, isn't it gorgeous ?

As for Wildwood if you are in the area it's well worth a visit as for me, I will definitely be going back again.  I've put a link to the Wildwood Trust site 'here' if you fancy having a look.

They are currently trying to raise £50,000 to rescue two bears, who are being kept in terrible conditons. We donated to the appeal while at the park, they are already clearing a area for the natural enclosure you can read more about the plan to rescue the bears 'here'

Clare xx

August Mosaics

Hello......... August was quite a busy month here at the Summerhouse, with a few trips out and about while I took a treatment break. So lovely to be able to go out and about without having to be bundled up in a hat and coat.

As always I had a couple of weeks of feeling a bit better, while off the antibiotics before my symptoms started to flare again, it's strange as every time this happens, it's like my body feels better for a break from the constant antibiotics, just for a week or so before my symptoms start to build again.

I guess it's finding the balance,  anymore than a month without antibiotics and what ever it is I have, be it Lyme Disease of something else (no one really know) starts to relapse.  

So September's here and I'm back on the antibiotics day two and I'm feeling awful stuck in bed in full Herx mode, which is indicative of Lyme Disease.

But at least I got a little break in August.

So August was not as sunny as I hoped but I had a wonderful time. With a trip to the Folk East festival and trips out and about locally.  Lots of yarny goodness to, with Owl making and sparkly flowers. Also we saw lots of Yarn bombing on our travels.

Out in the garden there were hints of Autumn to be found, but the Geraniums, Roses and Fuchsia are still going strong, plus we have so many Conkers on the Horse chestnut this year, some are huge.

I'm still just about keeping up with my new year resolution to do more art My painting for August which I shared in my last post.

As for the Year in books I'm so far behind what with being busy and having limited energy I've not found much time for reading, so I have both July and August's book still on the go.

Plus I've started a new book, with all the weird stuff going on with my health. So three books on the go no wonder I'm running behind. 

I decided on this new book as lately I've been baffling the medics, my Dr no longer knows what is wrong with me. It's either Lyme Disease, or a autoimmune disease (that's yet to be discovered) or something else. Basically I'm falling apart and no one seems to know, so I figured instead of worrying I'll do some reading up.

Well that's about it for August's round up, roll on the Autumn. Joining up with Laura's The year in books

Happy Crafting

Clare x

The last day of Summer

Hello.......... So today was the last day of Summer here at the Summerhouse, yes I know I'm being slightly dramatic, but what I mean is it's my last day in the sun. As tomorrow I'm resuming my antibiotics for my Lyme Disease which make me very allergic to the sun. My symptom's have started to flare again, five weeks without any antibiotics means fevers, joint pains, sore glands, no energy and feeling very fluey are all on the increase again.

So I decided today I was going to make the most of it, I'm not feeling well enough to go to the beach or out and about, so I today I was destined to spend some quality sitting in our comfy old garden recliner and I decided to take my paints with me. 

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to feel the sun on my skin, as I spend most of my time avoiding it, So from the middle of August I was hoping for a few weeks of sunshine, but August sadly proved anything but Sunny here at the Summerhouse but the last couple of days have been just perfect.

As for the paints, I'm on catch up again, this is technically my August picture, I planned what I was going to paint a few weeks back but never got around to it, but it was so lovely to be painting out in the garden today.

Following my usual pacing, a bit of activity followed by a rest to try and make the energy last.

Water colours are kind of perfect for this as I can rest between each stage, gradually building up the colour washes

The picture is of one of the Roses in our garden called Masquerade, which is a beautiful Rose that changes from yellow to orange to pink in the sunshine.

Whilst it was drying there was time for another rest

 before adding some ink detail to the image.

Then a bit more rest, reading in the glorious sunshine, trying to finish my July read from 'The Year in books' (I'm so behind)

It took me the best part of the day ten minutes at a time of painting fun, but I got there in the end. I thought in this post I would explain a bit about how I have to pace my days and crafting to give you a little bit of insight about how it is to live and craft with ME/Lyme disease.

Today was a relaxed pacing day as I'm on my Summer break usually it's stricter with just ten minutes a day to craft.

So Ta-Dah

'My last day of Summer Roses'

As from tomorrow it will be jackets hats and parasol again for me, if I have to venture outside.  So today I've savioured every last ray. (Do you like my new parasol, I got it while at Folk East?)

Before I came inside for dinner I picked a few flowers from the garden to bring a little bit of Summer inside with me.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

The Owl without the Pussycat

Hello...... well today's post is going to have a TA-Dah moment in it, there hasn't been one of them for a while around here. This is my new make for this years Craft Club exhibition. 

The Theme being 'The Owl and the Pussycat'

So it was the perfect opportunity to try out the Lovely Jacquie at Bunny Mummy super cute owl pattern which you can find 'here'  it's been on my to make list for a while now.

First I made two circle's for the owls body, using pretty shades of Stylecraft Special DK from my statsh

It's such a easy and fab tutorial to follow

and quite quickly I had something that was starting to look very much like a owl

I just needed to make a couple of eyes, my owl is going to have sparkly eyes as that's the only white yarn I had, but you can never have too much sparkle !!

I didn't have any suitable beads for the eyes so instead I stitched on a couple of teeny tiny black pom poms

Then all that was needed was a bit of stuffing and some cute little tufty ears, I did make the wings to go on my Owlie but decided I prefered my little Owl just as it was.

So Ta-Dah

my Bunny Mummy Owl.

All I need to do now is either make a Pussycat or just stick with the Owl theme and make lots of owls to sit in a tree together, next up maybe a felt owl.

As for books I'm still reading Philippa Gregory's Virgin Earth, it's taking me a while to finish this one mainly as I keep starting new books.

Linking up with KCCO 
and Yarn Along

Happy Crafting

Clare x

Bank Holiday weekend

Hello......... Here in the UK last weekend was a bank holiday, so as tradition dictates it just had to rain, we were fairly lucky on Saturday as the sun did come out for a while so we took advantage of this and headed off the sand park for a picnic.

Even Mutley had some doggy picnic food to enjoy.

The park was very pretty but unfortunately my little mobility scooter ran out of charge so we couldn't really explore to far. I never did make it to the sand park bit, but my nephew 'L' went off and played there for a while

I'd love to go back there again, and explore further, the park runs right along by the sea

with lots of quiet seating dotted about, it even has it own amphi thearte.

and you can also access the beach, oh I do love being by the sea,  fortunately the rain held off long enough for our little pottle about, but as we got back in the car the heavens opened.

On the way out of town we drove up the hill and stopped off at the new WW1 memorial arch  which you can read more about 'here' .

here's one more shot of the gorgeous yarny Poppies

For we were on a mission, to buy school uniform as my nephew is off to the Grammar School, next week. We didn't have much luck finding age eleven trousers and shirts, but I did much better getting these super cute knitted slippers, just in the nick of time as it's been freezing cold ever since.

Aren't they fab, and super snuggly, I love everything about them stripes yarn, flowers and buttons

I also bought a cardigan in the most gorgeous purple colour made from a amazing yarn which has different colours through it that looks almost like ribbon.

Happy Happy !!  

Not to worry my sister had a bit more success on the uniform front the next day.

As for me Sunday was a day for hunkering down avoiding the endless drippy rain, the perfect weather for a spot of crochet, my latest make for the Craft Club exhibition.

and as for Bank holiday Monday, well just look at it !!!! welcome to Summertime

So instead I focused on my pretty new miniature Rose

which at £3.50 was cheaper than buying a bunch of Roses and hopefully this will last a lot longer.

 then there was more crochet snuggled up under the duvet, I  managed to complete this make over the weekend so more on that another day.

Even Merli gave up on his favourite summer snoozing spot by the pond and opted to keep me company, it's still raining today, come on Summer where have you gone.

Happy Crafting

Clare x