We've had 3 family birthdays since my last post. Lots of family time, fun, laughter and happy memories in abundance with plenty of homemade birthday cake. Can you ever be too full up of cake?
Quite a bit of time has been spent enjoying some outdoorsy countrysidey things....
A flask of coffee and cake late afternoon at a local beauty spot, just because the weather was nice and it seemed like a good idea to have a wander round and see some natural beauty.
A visit to Staunton Harold Reservoir, free to enter and only a small car parking charge for the whole day. Lots to see and enjoy, more lovely walks and a really nice play area for children too. There is also a small garden nursery at the Staunton Harold estate to browse and purchase some reasonably priced plants.
it's home to the sailing club, great fun to watch them out on the water enjoying themselves.
DH celebrated his birthday and we had a nice wander around Barnsdale Gardens. Do you remember the late Geoff Hamilton, he used to be on Gardeners World, this is his garden that has been kept going by his brother and family and is open to the public. There is also a small nursery here where you can buy plants too. Due to the hot weather a lot of the flowering plants had already been at their best.
It's so close to Rutland Water Reservoir and Nature Reserve that we just had to have our picnic by the waters edge there again like I did for my birthday but at a different area this time.
This sculpture is by Alexander and is called the The Great Tower, and sited here in 1980.
The plaque adjacent to it reads :-
Mankind is capable of an awareness that is outside the range of everyday life, my monumental sculptures are created to communicate with that awareness in a way similar to classical music. Just as most symphonies are not intended to be descriptive so these works do not represent figures or objects.
What does it make you think of when you look at it?
I have had some time with needle and thread and the Best in Show sampler is completed. This will be given to the winner of our local Horticultural show in September for them to keep. It's turned out ok, just need to find a suitable frame for it now. (Thanks Jo for the lovely chart, the committee members love the look of this one and are hoping they win it!)
With the sampler finished, I was back to the stocking-a-long stitching on Friday with Linda. This time I added the red flower on the bottom left. I had a bit of a panic when I put it on the frame and looked at what I have left to stitch down the left hand side, there is going to be hardly any fabric left on that side, good job its only got to be sewn into the stocking shape with a minimal border.
This month is passing me by at the same rate as last month did but I can say that I have packed quite a bit into it so far with family times and outings and some relaxing reading and stitching time. I hope you too have had some lovely moments so far this month.
Thanks for stopping by and welcome to the new visitors that have come along since my postcard was sent to Penny at Larkspur Lane in Jo at Serenditious Stitching's summer blog hop, it's nice to see you. Pop on over to Jo's to see who else has been in the blog hop if you haven't already, wonderful stitching blogs to drool over.
See you soon ....