May Round Up !

Well its time to grab a coffee and pull up a chair as I guess this will be a LONG entry as I have not posted since the last May bank holiday. Yes, it is the end May almost and we have another bank holiday on our hands.

So what has had me too busy to post a message ??

We have been on holiday to the Isle of Mann (And yes it should be two 'n' - its the Manx spelling).
We caught the ferry from Liverpool and rented a cottage for a week. My parents-in-law joined us. MIL is manx and had not visited the island for 24 years. Above is the centre of Manx goverment since 900AD at St John's - known as Tynwald Hill. We travelled around most of the island, but then you can drive from one end to the other in about 1.5 hrs !

This is Peel harbour with the lifeboat just going out. Peel is the only city on the island as it has a catherdral. In real size its a large village. The next two pictures are of the surviving structures of Peel castle.


We walked some of the coastal path. Below is my hubby at Creagnesh Village. Which we walked past as part of an 8 mile walk. Its a protected area where the crofts are maintained as they would have been in 1700. We stayed in Port Erin which made a coast walk so easy. As part of the walk we went to the Sound which looks out on the Calf of Mann. You can not go on the calf as it is a bird santurary.
This is the Point of Aire light house. The most northern point of the isle. The beach is very rocky , but its quiet and wonderful place for a walk.

You can not visit the Isle and not visit the Laxey Wheel. This is the largest water wheel in the world. We did start to climb up. You allowed to the top, there are a couple of flags you can see. But both of us only got as far as the first main level.


This is Castle Town on the South Coast looking across the harbour at Castle Rushen which used to be the the seat of the King of Mann.

We tried to visit many of the viking/celtic crosses which have been found on the isle. There are 200 pieces of various sizes. The are held in many church yards round the isle.
These two are quite large pieces. As these date from 9th Century onwards when the viking settlers were converting they old ways were still remembered as they using their viking decoration and write in runes down the side to add the names of who made the stone and who is was for.
DH and I caught the train from Port Erin to Douglas and visited the Manx Mueseum. We had a great time there. A special exhibition of Archibald Knox Art Nouveau silver work for Liberties of London and drawings/lettering was there. REALLY love his work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archibald_Knox_(designer)
http://www.archibaldknoxsociety.com/index.html
Have a look at the manuscript work too ... My work doodles have become celtic patterns. Knox was inspired by the celtic cross from round the Isle of Mann.

We also spent three afternoons in the record office tracing DH's familly. We made quite a bit of progress =) Which has got us moving to start again on the work.

While away I have been working on Teresa Wentzler Wedding Sampler kit. This will be for DH and I ... Its 10 years this year !

While we are on stitching- The next two parts of the Garden Sampler has been published. I finished off part 5 yesterday. I have stopped beading as it stops me using a frame each time.

This is part 4 and 5 ....and below is the whole sampler so far !
I have also been working on a postcard exchange where I need to work with grey and bronze. Sorry can not show you that one as needs to go off to its new owner first. BUT yesterday I found I had no villen or buckrum left to make the backing of the card. So while in town went to buy some from the Fabric House in Petersfield. The ladies were supprised to hear why I wanted it.... So I made an extra on to post to them. The house on the front is simular to the one on their logo =)

On shops, I found the wool shop in my village has a web site and is advertising in the wool magazines. http://www.lisswools.co.uk/

Also - for my altered art work I often use Tim Holtz products. This week discovered his web site. Head for the DEMO section where he has on-line videos on how his products can be used. I am very interested in grunge board. http://www.timholtz.com/demos.html

AND FINALLY ... an up date on the garden.
After coming back from over a week away EVERYTHING had grown SO much. Above is the tomatoes. We have already got the first fruit starting to set. Below is the potatoe and onion patch. Last weekend earthed up the potatoes. Everything is up =)

Out side the green house the greens are growing really well. Just need to keep the slugs and pigeons off them. Below are the cucumbers as they were when we got home but in the last week they have put a huge amount of growth. We have LOTS of fruit set on the two plants.

May Day Weekend

Its May Day weekend. Already my peach tree has set 10 peaches .... this will the best year for fruit if they all stay. Its also a fitting that the peach tree was a wedding gift and on Friday was our 10th Anniversary. DH bought me a lovely braclet set with amber =)

Last weekend we were with the familly for my Mother's 80th Birthday. We suprised her with a garden party and about 35 friends and familly.

I have been busy stitching the last door for the Master Class. Yes finally getting round to finishing although it was hard to put the doodle work down. I have also done 99% of my jumper. Sadly did not finish it yesterday morning as it would have been great for going to Butser (see below). If I can get the jumper made up by Monday morning, perhaps I will post a picture too !

The garden is generally coming along well. As the weather has been kind this weekend I have been working in the green house and veg patch. After moving the staging around I have planted up cucumbers and tomatoes into pots. I always use ring culture methods for watering. The tomatoes were grown by my sister M. I know I have two plum, two tiger and two ermmmm well other ....but not sure which is which right now. There is also a cherry on the staging too.

Out in the veg plot I have put out arious greens to mix with the onions and potatoes which are already outside and well established.

http://community.webshots.com/album/563299058NuyVNT More pictures of the garden here =)

Yesterday joined hundreds of others at Butser Ancient Farm for Beltain Festival and burning of the wicker man. A wonderful evening, which we felt past far to fast. The weather was purfect and the wicker man burnt at 9pm once the sun started to go down. Here are some friends from the day. DH and I were joined by our friend S. They had a main stage this year which had preformances from folk band, dancers and mummers. Around the site the round houses had fires in, there were flit napping demonstrators and other crafts. More food stalls this year and the ever popular beer tent.