October Happenings

This post will be another miscellany of going out and making things too.  Last week David and I had a short visit to St Austell, Cornwall to visit the Eden Project.  We had some Tesco Clubcard vouchers for our visit there and the offer of a cheap Premier Inn stay gave us the opportunity to visit.  There have been changes to the roads around the area so no twiddly lanes to drive to get to the Eden Project now and avoids the town centre.

The weather on the travel down wasn't good and return journey was even worse, which was followed by glorious weather in the days after we returned home!  Fortunately the day we visited Eden it was dry so that was good.

On our trip down to Cornwall we visited Castle Drogo, near Exeter, which is shrouded in covered scaffolding while work ongoing work takes place.  The castle has always had problems with a leaking flat roof and concrete mortar joining the granite blocks so a layer of the castle has been removed to make the building watertight before relaying the roof.  We took the opportunity to don hi-viz vests and hard hats to climb the temporary stairway and see the work being done from a platform at the top of the building.  The north side of the building is being worked on while the south side is open to visitors and below is the best photo I could take as on the far left you will just see the white of the covers over the scaffolding.

Then after a hairy journey from Castle Drogo down single track lanes with very small passing places until we reached the main roads we went onto St Austell.

I think this must the be third visit we've made to the Eden Project and there is always something new to see as well as familiar things like the allotments with vegetables grown that reflect the different cultures cooking.   There were also some changes to the biomes too with the Californian plants in the Mediterranean biome being replaced by Australian ones.  It just makes for an interesting visit.

 A version of the mud maiden

 Roul  Roul Partridges near the banana plants in the Tropical biome

 Orchid display in the Tropical biome

Loving the colour fade of the Grevillea that comes from Australia in the Mediterranean biome.

Going onto the Core building the mechanical ball run was replaced by the a large sculpture called Infinity Blue, which has blue ceramic panels with holes that blow out vapour circles at intervals to represent invisible bacteria called Cyanobacteria.  It was fascinating to both adults and children watching the puffs of vapour and seeing the rings float and disappear.  Theres a link for more information here

In spite of it being mid October there are some plants that are really putting on a good display like these dahlias on the slopes.

And changes to plants that are just spectacular this time of year, like the vine leaves that are turning

On Saturday I went on a coach trip organised by Happy Patchers to the Craft 4 Crafters show at Shepton Mallet.  It is a mix of crafts, not much knitting but fabric and papercrafts mainly, but also organisations are represented here such as Project Linus, West Country Embroiderers, Somerset Spinning and Weaving amongst others and textile artists doing demonstrations/mini workshops.  I didn't buy much, even came back with change from the budget I set myself.  I was looking forward to seeing 'Briswool' which is a community knitting and crochet project, but it wasn't there as the group had decided to retire the display but it was pretty big so I had to make do with Kevin the crochet crocodile!! He is pretty long and those crochet scales must have taken ages, but the imagination to make something like that as a group  project.  Here's a link to see pictures of the project and to Crafting the City

Just next to Kevin was this seagull

I'm not keen on seagulls but he did look spectacular.

There was a display of exhibits by textile artist Kate Crossley, famed for her grandfather clock at Festival of Quilts a few years back.  There is just so much detail in her work.

And I also like the quilts made from the same pattern but the fabric choices make the quilts different but still recognisable as the same pattern (if you get my drift!)

This is Cornelian quilt from a pattern (which was a block of the month) by Hugs 'n' Kisses which involves hexagons and embroidery so really intricate.  These were just 2 of the quilts on display by the quilt group. And no, I'm not going to have a go at this!

In spite of this gadding about I have made time to make things.  A couple of baby items for Flo, some small socks and a baby bonnet (she isn't keen on hats so a bonnet might stay on better)

Pictures were taken in different light but they are the same shade of pink.

I also made a Wee Braw Bag, which has been seen a lot on Instagram just lately.  I had a copy of the pattern from a past issue of Love Patchwork and Quilting.  It is basically a small drawstring pouch and having made a few of pouches recently it didn't take me long to put it together.