More Isle of Wight Photos

Sunday last weekend while on the Isle of Wight David and I visited the steam railway there and it also featured a classic car rally.  Another lovely though windy day a nice drive through the island countryside to get to Haven Street, between Newport and Ryde.

Here's the steam engine Colbourne, named after a village on the island

The local falconry society was there with the birds they care for

Photo taken with me holding an owl.

We think that they were not so prepared for the number of people going on the railway as a result of the rally and the one train they had running was always full.  We took one return journey from Haven Street to Smallbrook Junction where it joins the main line.

Here are some of the cars that I saw at the rally

Not sure what this lorry is but it was in pristine condition

A campervan with red metallic paintwork

A Rolls Royce, there's class

An E-Type Jaguar

Not really a classic, but I think the owner likes Winnie the Pooh's Piglet

More flash Smart cars

Looks as though this camper van is ready for a journey

The Ford group with their cars - I remember my Dad had a Ford Anglia in that shade of blue

Someone with excellent taste - a Morris Minor with a quilt draped over the back seat with some cushions

Before leaving the railway, we had a chance to look around the carriage workshops where they are restoring an old carriage here

Isle of Wight

Last weekend saw David and I going to the Isle of Wight for a weekend break.  It's just about three quarter of an hour's drive from home to Lymington to get the ferry to Yarmouth.  We stayed in Shanklin across the other side of the island.

The ferry just coming into Lymington

David said "Must take a photo of this" it looks like the car is in the water!

 Saturday we explored a couple of English Heritage sites, Carisbrooke Castle near Newport and Osborne House in East Cowes.  We were surprised about how much there was to see at Carisbrooke Castle, thinking is was a ruin, but in fact it's last occupant, Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Beatrice lived there and she created a museum and also had a garden there.  What was also fascinating was the St Nicholas Chapel. which not only had a memorial to King Charles I who was kept prisoner at the castle but also memorial to the armies that fought in the First World War, with regiments listed around the top of the walls of the chapel.

The two photos above are the outside of the castle

Memorial to King Charles I

Inscriptions on the ceiling of the chapel

The gate outside Princess Beatrice's garden

Looking towards the gate from the garden

Just had to take a photo of these poppies, they were gorgeous

A quilt opportunity - this was made in the 1980's by a group of local embroiderers (this photo is dark as I couldn't use the flash

And these are some of the drawings of the layout of the quilt

More views outside

Looking through the arches

Hungry bird looking for something to eat from the cafe

In the afternoon we then went onto Osborne House the island home of Queen Victoria, which we visited many years ago and it was a lovely setting overlooking the Solent at East Cowes.

As we arrived in the car park we saw a group of Triumph Stags, two of which are in the photo here.  We were to see them again the next day when we visited the Isle of Wight Steam Railway.  We couldn't take any photos inside the house so the following pics were taken in the gardens.

From the front, with the Italianate tower

From the gardens looking at the back of the house

View of the Solent from the garden, you can just make out the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth

Queen Vistoria's bathing machine

This was the cabin of the boat that took Queen Victoria from the Isle of Wight to the mainland for her funeral

When leaving Osborne House, we went along the coast back to Shanklin stopping at Ryde. What's at Ryde? It's the hovercraft ferry that goes between there and Portsmouth.

Before setting off

Getting ready

And away it goes!

I'll do another post tomorrow about our time at the Isle of Wight railway.

Knitted Garden in Bournemouth

Earlier this week my friend Penny e-mailed me about a knitted garden that is being exhibited in Bournemouth Library until 4 June, called Blooming Marvellous.  Not sure I'll have the time to see it which is a shame, but I have enjoyed the pictures and the lady co-ordinating this has a blog that I can share with you here.

Last weekend David and I went to the Isle of Wight for a weekend break.  I'll come back sometime this week and post some photos.

PS - Did go out in the afternoon to Bournemouth - managed to see the Blooming Marvellous exhibition, but didn't take my camera - doh! If you are in the area do go and see this - it's spread over the 3 floors of the library with knitted hanging baskets, potted plants from the corner of the shelf units and on the librarians' desks, in fact plants everywhere!

Bag making again

Not much to blog about this week, so this is just a catch up.  This afternoon I decided I could do with another bag for work so I'm making a black one with some flying geese on it.  So making a start with 2 strips of these....

Flying geese has to be my all time favourite quilt block and this version is called "Migrating Geese" from Karin Hellaby's book "Fast Flying Geese Quilts".  These strips will form the middle strip on each side of the bag.  I've yet to cut out the main fabric. wadding and lining, but it's a start.  The bag that I'm making is a re-visit of one of the BQL challenge bags the February one, which can be found here: h.ttp://suewilduk.blogspot.com/2008/03/february-bag.html

Giveaway alert

I've signed up to a giveaway on Needles and Lemons here. Judith is celebrating her first quilt anniversary. Why not go over and have a look.

Monkey World and Stourhead

Catching up from last week's post here are some pics from Monkey World near Wareham, where I went with Alex, Mary, Sophie and Isobel when they stayed last weekend. It has been a long time since I visited there (Alex was just a youngster then) and a lot has changed of course.  It is difficult to take photos of the monkeys are they are in enclosures behind wire fences or else taken through a viewing window so there are reflections, but here's a few of the best... (and thank you to Sandra for correcting the mistaken identities of the monkeys!)

A Siamang Gibbon

Squirrel Monkey (just turned his head when I took the photo)

A cheeky little monkey!

Some Macaques

and one of the Orang Utangs

After a difficult week workwise for David and me Today we went out to Stourhead, in Wiltshire not far from Longleat, a National Trust property, with not only a large house, but also vast gardens with large lakes and temples around the main lake. It is unusual that a road runs through the estate which also houses a pub and church. It was only just over an hour's drive through the Dorset countryside to get there and a lovely walk around when we got there.

House taken with some rhododendrons to the left

This fantastic window was in the library

Tbis was the Pope's cabinet = with inlays of coloured stone

Just some of the many pelargoniums in the greenhouse, which once boasted the largest collection

They are just some of the views,  I have a few (at present) on my flickr site. It was a great day out and a chance for relaxation.

I have not totally neglected any sewing and I had a go at making a pencil case from the current Popular Patchwork magazine bag special.  Here's my effort below:

And this is a little Japanese snap bag that I bought a while ago from the Quilt Museum 

Oh well, back to the fray tomorrow.