Is it almost a month since I last wrote -

Goodness ,gracious me where does the time go. Since last I wrote ,we have had our 48th wedding anniversary , Easter has been gone and I have things to share and people to thank , So better get on with it .
Well my friends for our wedding anniversary we decided to go to Kingston Lacey to see the snowdrops,unfortunately they had finished, We did have a wander though through the gardens ,the house also was not open yet,but we had really gone just to wander in the garden. Kingston Lacey is a National Trust property and is just outside of Wimborne,not far from where Graeme and Sue live. They were working that day so we did not see them. Anyway here are some pics to give you a taster.

I could imagine this was Pemberley ,that Jane Austen wrote about. I am not sure  how many acres it covers but it is a lot!!

These were out everywhere and oh how pretty . I love Hellibores ,but we cannot grow them in our soil. They looked like tissue paper.

We wandered through a tree lined avenue of teeny tiny daffodils and look at the trees lining it.

Weird or what. Then we walked through here.

To see lots of these ,but I took a few too many pics so just share one.

All different shades and just so pretty. Then we came to the Japanese garden and that too was gorgeous, a little too early in the year to do it justice.

 The little thatched seating looked so inviting. We didn't though as time was pressing ,and we had to get back for Ollie. So we walked on,The culms on this bamboo were so striking.I think we have the same one in our garden.

 Part of the set piece of the Japanese Garden.

 Hope you like looking at gardens lol.

 They had lots of these Rhubarb Cloches all in rows,So that was our tour round the gardens. We did find a potting shed though which was a second hand book shop ,of course I succumbed,

 I got this for the princely sum of £1 ,well just had to have it ,

 Well just had to have sheep in the post didn't I. This pic from the book rather amused me, Ok you lot I am driving. What do you think they are saying.

On my last post I showed you a pic of a church window. This was at Moreton just outside Dorchester.

Himself got in the photo as I was taking it. This church was bombed out in 1940 , The windows were designed by Lawrence Whistler the church is the only church in the world where the windows are entirely of engraved glass. 

 The theme is light, candlelight, sunlight, jewel light,starlight ,lightning and go from candles to a spiral galaxy. 19 windows in all.

The floor too was impressive.

 I did not get a pic of all the windows as I bought a booklet,but this is looking toward the altar.

 This sign was on the wall .

 Also in Moreton is the grave of Lawrence of Arabia whose cottage at Clouds Hill is near.On the way to see it we saw this wonderful goat.

 We came to a small graveyard and here is the place where Lawrence lies.

I thought it might be more ostentatious ,but no just a simple grave really.Gosh sorry I do seem to go on don't I , I was so pleased to hear that many of you like coming with me on our outings ,I do have some stitching to share though. I can hear you saying at last ,that is if you are still with me.
The header is the latest finish April ,and now I am onto May , I will not show you a pic of that as I have only done her hands and a sleeve.The backing fabric was a piece sent by Kate for my birthday. Perfect I think.

SO lets see what I have been doing . I made some Easter Cards and they were well received.

Stitching wise the disaster first ,it is now in the bin!!

I had done a lot more than this and then found I had three spaces where i should have had 2 in between those windows on the right, I just could not fathom out where I had gone wrong , so I got very cross and thought as it is the 3rd time I have had to have frogged it ,do I start again or choose a different design argh!!!

Halloween night on Monday with Sally, I finished the second block of the Primitive Hare blocks, I will start L next Monday. Tuesday as I said I started May, Last night I stitched on Neighbourhood Friends with my Parlour Maids.Here is where I am with that .

This will be a lead holder I think for Ollie when it is finished. Tonight I am starting another Shepherds Bush Big one , The Earth Gatherers , I am a little nervous about attempting a big one again ,it has been a while. Sally will get on my case I am sure as will all of you if I give up. No I must tell myself I CAN not I CANNOT. You will be getting updates on that. Last Friday I started Christmas Cookies and I got the bowls done. The pic does not show the colour of fabric very well. I was a little unsure when I opened it as it is green.

The week before I finished Snow Love , I was so pleased with how this has turned out.

I stitched a little last Saturday on Secret Garden with Julie and Mr Stick but not enough really and I cannot show that one anyway.. Sunday was the big disaster so that is my week of stitching. 2 books have been bought this week ,now the weather is getting better I will have to get out in the summerhouse and read.

Lastly ,yes it really is, I had a new hair do for my anniversary and here I am trying to take a pic in the mirror. Dur.

On that note will say bye for now and I will try not to make it so long next time. Bless you for all your nice comments and please keep em coming.
Take care
hugs and stuff
Barb.

The wanderer returns

Here I am ,wandering back along the bridge to write a little on my blog to you my blogging friends.

Before I start showing you where we have been the last 2 outings ,I think I had better start on the stitching news. After all I expect that is really what you want to see. 

I had a belated birthday gift from my birthday twin Angela. I was so excited when I opened this ,not seen anything like it before,and she had made the cover too with a Sampler Girl design. Of course as some of you know  we are both Janeites and so what could be better than this quote from Jane Austen.

Sorry the pic isnt up too much but inside the pages look like this.The title inside reads Books I have loved.It has lots of information for you to fill in about the book, and any notes you would like to add. At the back it has pages for books you would like to read . All in all a lovely gift and I was delighted , I had an e mail from Angela saying she is hoping to come down to Lyme  and do the Jane Austen tour at Lyme ,perhaps we could meet up. She also sent me a lovely Jane Austen note book ,again thank you so much Angela. I think I may do the other quote about reading from Jane -" She has read too many books and it has turned her brain ",I could attach it to  the back of this book lol.

Another Classic author I like  is Thomas Hardy and when I went out with Kate my daughter last week we found ourselves in a book shop. Well it is hard for both of us to resist them. Anyway my grandaughter Caitlin gave me a voucher for Christmas and I got these 3. One of them is called Winter by Christopher Nicholson ,it says it is a portrait of the writer T.H in the depths of old age, It appealed to me . I am looking forward to reading it. I just need more time.

Sorry gone off on a tangent again, As I am talking about books though if you are after a good book I will recommend this one. 

This is what I am reading at the moment,

Oh dear forgot to turn it the right way up. Enough of books , I will get back to the 2 finishes to show you. I also had 2 yesterday ,just thought I would add that in ,as I had to leave this on Friday and came back to it today Monday ,the day after Mothering Sunday. 

This is The Stitchers Prayer ,that I had to have framed professionally because of its awkward size. I was very pleased with the result.  As soon as I saw the piece of frame I could see it would really set off the stitching . The one above it is a stitched design by Tina who sent it for me for my birthday a few years ago. 

All pics are clickable if you want a closer view, Then I finished and made up Dear Santa.

I liked the Santa fabric so used that to back it too.I have started Snowy love the next in the series ,these are done on Fridays with Sally. We are hoping to fit in an extra evening with Sally stitching Shepherds Fold and me doing the Earth Gatherers. Tonight it is our spooky night and I am doing the Primitive Hares Hallowe'en cubes. I have almost finished the witches boot.

 Tuesdays I am stitching April from the Calendar girls series . Wednesdays I am in the parlour with the ladies at NH and I am stitching Neighbourhood friends by LHN. Saturday sees me with Julie and Mr Stick stitching my secret garden as this may be a gift I cannot show it here. Sunday I am stitching along with a Blackbird design again over at Needlecraft Haven. I hang my head here as I did not stitch last evening as I was out. DD Kate and her daughter and Martin came too, we went to the cinemas to see The Second Exotic Marigold Hotel ,with cousin Judy in. VERY distant cousin I may add. 

Our travels have taken us to Corfe Castle ,which was shut for staff training as most of the village was.

I suppose it is still very early in the season.

In the corner of the field was this horse which was very interested in my coat!!

Of course being on the animal theme I just had to take a photo of sheep ,it wouldnt be my blog if I left out the sheep.

Not a good photo really but I was standing on a bridge and they were underneath ,just thought their colouring was a little different.

I took a photo of the inscriptions of the history of Corfe but won't bore you with the whole thing just to show you a taster if you like.

Pesky sheep get in all the pics , While we were in Corfe we just had to pop in to the Old fashioned sweet shop, be warned the jars were not about to tumble off the shelf, blame the photographer ,(I do not do straight\).

I think everything has a list to the left lol. We also wanted to visit here but alas it was closed.

Enid Blyton spent a lot of her childhood here and this shop had lots of her books etc ,we could just see through the door. In the window was  certainly different display.

This was The Golly Bill of rights , I do think it is a shame that these things of certainly my childhood are seen as such a racist thing now. The same window was in support of womens rights.

So our little tour of Corfe I think finished there , just to give you a flavour of the place. This on the day our son Graeme was sitting a panel to become a store manager for Sainsburys. He was really nervous as it was not the first time he had done it , He got to the interview a few years ago and despite jumping through all the hoops etc he failed. So it was a very big day for him ,his family and us.He works in Wareham and as it was on the way home ,we called in ,just to see how had got on. We knew it started at 9a,m and finished one way or another by 12. So we parked the car and walked to the store.

A very smart man was standing in the door, Of course his dad had to get in on the act.

I must admit to having a very proud Mum moment. We let him make his few calls then met him on the quay for a cup of coffee to celebrate. He has worked so hard and really deserves his promotion.

I think I have rambled on enough for now, I am not sure if to continue with the other news as well as stitching ,could you let me know in your comments if you are happy for me to continue in this vein. I do enjoy sharing my news with you but would hate to bore you. I am not showing you last weeks outing as it would be too much I think so I shall not take so many on Wednesday as that is this weeks day out I expect as it is our 48th wedding anniversary. So I will give you a quick peak of where we went this last week and if you want to see more let me know . Meanwhile thanks for popping by and the comments you continue to leave. You are so kind. Take care my friends and I shall see you again with another update soon.

Isn't this church window beautiful ,this is where we went this last week.