Proper Autumn. Another WI walk.

Tonight we light our first fire of the season. However glad we are in spring to feel sun on our faces, this pleasure is surely eclipsed by the first flicker of flame in the wood-burning stove. How late in the season it is to light the first fire, but what a season it has been. Until this week we have enjoyed our regular WI walks in sun and warm weather. This week, out came the fleece.

We meet near the pub in light drizzle and are reassured that the weather is set to improve. Someone has been listening to those Met office reports (remember, they gave us "barbecue summer").

With a light heart then we head off to the car-park at Blickling Hall, he start of today's walk, led by Clare.
To the mausoleum. Very apt in this mournful weather. But we are not down hearted.

It is the start of a new National Trust initiative to get people walking. While we do not need encouragement I am sure that lots do. The visitor centre is closed, as we are keen and rather early. However, they are lovely folk at NT and the staff throw open the doors and hand out complementary maps that just happen to cover part of our walk. It gets us off on a good start along a new footpath cut into the parkland, off the beaten track.

 We might be the first people to take advantage of the new route and six of us are able to walk abreast, chatting as we go. This is such a social way of walking.

Most of the chat is about the usefulness of weather forecasting as hoods are up to combat the slightly more robust drizzle. "It is due to get better".

Soon we get to our first point of interest, The Mausoleum. We are too early for the little pop up cafe that should be open later in a tent at the site. But we seem to have it to ourselves. No other walkers or visitors yet, Obviously they saw the forecast. Estate workers are here and the door open, but this is an outdoor day, I will come back another time to visit with the dead.

Now we head off towards the Tower, now a holiday cottage, but apparently it was once used as a viewing platform for a day at the races. The site, high up surrounded by open ground within a woodland area, it would have been a perfect vantage point. The perfect place for mass entertainment.

The walk leads into the woodland and Clare leads us along one of many interlocking paths.

It is damp and gray but very beautiful. The overall green-ness of the surroundings are punctuated by shots of red berries, golden bracken and the rich yellows and browns of true English Autumn.

The glorious damp and decay of the year is echoed in this fallen tree. I feel a piece of embroidery coming on.

We spot a herd of friendly cows.

They spot us.

We move quickly on.

It is still raining but the last 15 minutes of the walk are a revelation as we have come full circle without our realising it, and much more than an hour has passed without our noticing the time. Suddenly the hall and Blickling church are in view, but from a point of view we have not enjoyed before. The walk is full of surprising vistas and perspectives.

And no sight is quite as good as that of the tea room.

The steam is coming off our waterproofs as well as the tea. The scones are up to expectations.

Holkham Heatwave

After 2 or 3 days of real heat and proper sunshine we finally agreed that there would not be too many days like this left to us this year. Out came the t-shirts packed away for the season and the practical but not really fetching hat, it was warm enough to burn!

Holkham is on the way to my in-laws so several birds were at risk of being hit by stones as we felt it a virtuous use of petrol to drive to one of our favourite places for walking.

At the start of the day so much seemed possible, the grounds around the house, for that 'Downton Abbey' moment, the deer park and the woods for an intrepid explorer experience, (more of that later) the wide expanses of beach and migrating birds to see, and a wander through the nearby villages, rich in history and hostelry.

We set out from the village car park and got as far as the hall's tea rooms. Of course this had to be tested for quality, and was much enjoyed.

A little later than planned and beneath a searingly blue and cloudless sky we headed off to follow one of the marked paths towards a giant obelisk that was impressive but seemed to commemorate nothing. We headed off into a wooded area, following an obvious path through the trees, enjoying their shade and getting thoroughly lost. It was quite and adventure showered everywhere by falling acorns that rained noisily with every slight breeze.

We reached a bit of a barrier when we got to the wall that surrounds the property and runs along the side of a roman road. Each gate out onto the path that would take us towards the nearby villages and places to eat was chained. The paths were very brambly and overgrown, and lunch was really calling so nothing for it but to hop on a fallen tree and onto the cap stones of the wall for a bit of intrepid escaping.

Much higher on the other side, remember to bend the knees as you hit the ground!

We hurried off towards the lovely village of Burnham Thorpe where wonder of wonders the pub serves lunch until 2.30. It is such a lovely place; the village as you reach it across the fields looks quite ancient. It was wreathed in smoke from a bonfire and looked altogether very soft focused. The heat and bright sun made the fall of auburn leaves look golden and quite surreal. A very strange autumn day.

We are not too far off of Trafalgar Day and in the pub garden, we raise a cold glass of beer to the Admiral.

It is too late in the day to walk as far as the beach so having had a walk around the ancient village with Nelson's Church and decorative stone work, we set off back to Holkham where I know that there is an ice-cream with my name on it.

Leaving the grounds the last lovely sight of the day is that of deer coming into the area around the fast emptying car park. As the visitors leave the residents take back their territory.

Off to tea with the in-laws!

Quilty Pleasures

If I sometimes give the impression on this blog that I am an active outdoorsy kind of person, do not be misled, as while I love walking and the countryside, and the company of other likeminded souls, my greatest pleasure at this time of the year involves fabric and needles. It can be wool and knitting, or any number of types of sewing and embroidery.

 It should involve a big comfy chair so that I can sit amidst heaps of fabric of all colours and textures, and a fire in the hearth. In the perfect world there would be cake of a sumptuousness to match the fabrics.

So often the perfect world gives way to a diet and the need for a big table in the practical world.

This particular pleasure is not really a practical one. In fact my creative life is one of unrealistic expectations, enthusiastic enterprises and unfinished projects.

I know the answer to the question “Am I the only person with more than 2 half knitted garments, an unframed sampler (or 3) a magnificent but undecorated dolls house and a range of cushion covers without filling? “ I know that there are lots of us out there.

There is a considerable guilt associated with this.

In 1977 I started a patchwork quilt using lots of small hexagonal patches of mostly Laura Ashley fabrics. Most winters in the 80s and 90s I found it again and added a few more sections. I lost it when we moved house 10 years ago, and found it with a threaded needle halfway along a patch seam, earlier this month. Of course I started work on it again at once, and put down the waistcoat that I was embellishing.

I started work on the upgrade of my vintage waistcoat because I had been working on last years half finished cable knit hot water bottle covers but took them with me when I visited my family recently (something to do in the evenings) and left them there when I came home.

I want to wear the waistcoat this autumn/winter because if I loose a few more pounds it will fit (no cake you see) so I will have to finish it soon. And there are all of those personal handmade gifts and decorations that I want to make for Christmas. Like my Union flag rag rug. I could not resist the tool when I saw it at a fabric event recently, and my mother-in-law wants a kit so I am just trying it out for her.

I have made an Autumn Resolution that I will start one project and finish it before I begin another, or at least, I will finish some of these projects this year. I know that I will not stick to this promise but I do resolutely intend to work at it in the hope that something will be finished and used.

Just think of the needlepoint rugs I can make, and the dresses for the occupants of this house. It has a conservatory extension and it will be such fun to create climbing vines and pot plants to fill it......before hell frezes over!

And if it doesn’t happen?  Well it will happen. Eventually. Although for me the pleasure is in the doing,  I know that I will rather enjoy wearing the waistcoat and having someone ask, “Where did you get that?” I know that when the winter arrives I will love slipping a scalding hottie into my new cashmere cable-knit cover, pulling the patchwork quilt over my knees and sewing a sampler and scoffing brownies by the fire. Just do not ask "Which winter?"