Wednesday Sky

Not much improvement in the weather today, in fact it got quite cold, about 13C/55F. We visited the Crich Tramway Museum where we ended up feeling quite chilled so we came home!  The trams were very interesting to see and we had a ride on one.  The pub and cafe were very small for the number of visitors that were there so we couldn't get a drink or something to eat.  Came home and had a bacon sandwich.



Sky

After taking the picture of the sky yesterday I decided to keep a record of the sky for this week.  Yesterday I took the picture at about 2 pm, today I took this one at about 4.45 pm.

August Bank Holiday

I don't usually bother going anywhere on a bank holiday, mainly because in the past Graham has worked on the bank holidays, so we never really got into the habit.  Another reason is that you can almost guarantee that the weather will be bad.  Here's a picture I took this morning...

Not very nice for being outside is it!!!

So, the Lowdham Horticultural Show was out, didn't fancy wandering around outdoors at all.  Nearby there is a place called Patchings Art Centre where they have shows and exhibitions.  At least we'd be indoors here and there was a teddy bear show on, not that I wanted any teddy bears but at least it was a trip out.  There were some beautiful handmade bears, mostly very expensive, and plenty of bear making supplies.  I bought a piece of leather that I will use for making doll shoes.  Also there was a lady of 87 named Ida, she had a stall of bears that she was selling to raise funds for animal welfare.  Here's a picture of part of her stall...

I did buy a bear from her even though I didn't really want one!

On the way home we stopped off at a show house just to see what they had on offer.  It is a small estate, build on land where there had been two beautiful Victorian houses.  It is so sad when they knock these lovely old houses down and cram in an estate of new houses.  Anyway, the only house that we could look at was the four bedroomed one.  It was very nice, downstairs a hallway with downstairs toilet, breakfast kitchen and dining room off.  There are French doors leading to a tiny garden.  First floor has a nice big lounge with full length opening windows, a master bedroom with en suite and a small dressing room area.  Second floor has two double bedrooms, one en suite, a single bedroom and a family bathroom.  The whole thing was beautifully done but none of the rooms was particularly big.  I still prefer the size of the rooms in my own house, I just need to smarten it up a bit.



Tunisian Crochet

I'm not doing a very good job at keeping up with this blog.  This is because I'm spending a lot of time making dolls clothes and talking about it here.  That doesn't mean that I'm not doing my other usual things.  The other day I decided to try Tunisian crochet ....

I love how this looks and feels, it is much softer than usual crochet and is more dense, no gaps at all, more like a knitted fabric.  When I bought the hook the lady at the shop said that they had workshops on this technique so will be going if I can.

The polytunnel has been a lot of fun, currently I'm clearing and resowing in there.  Next year I will make sure there is a screen over the doors to keep butterflies (or should that be butterflys?) out, but let in bees and hoverflies.  We have had quite a few caterpillars but not nearly as many as outdoor crops get.  There are a couple of things I wouldn't grow in there again, one is fennel, it didn't really develop the 'bulb' that I expected and got rather tall and woody.  Also, because of the failure with the dwarf French beans, I put in some climbing French beans and they've got much too big.  But overall I love the polytunnel.

The 'Riots'

I just have to comment on the so called 'Riots' that occurred in England last week.  I say 'Riots' instead of riots because they weren't riots.  They were criminal acts that were committed.

In some of our neighbourhoods and on our streets in general certain elements commit these acts on a small scale every day.  It just so happened that they all got together this time and rampaged together.  Near where I live shop windows, bus shelters and telephone boxes are regularly smashed.  This is in a so called 'decent' neighbourhood.  Our church has the rubbish bins regularly set alight.  The church is in a middle class neighbourhood.  I'm regularly woken up in the early hours of the morning by drunken yobs, who also commit acts of vandalism, like nick car aerials, smash bottles and spew up on the pavement.  All this goes on in an area that is not deprived inner city.

At least we don't get youths congregating outside our houses hurling abuse and worse at residents as they do in some areas but the church car park is frequently used at night by a certain element selling 'stuff' and by 'stuff' I'll leave that to your imagination.

So, what happened?  Lack of discipline and self restraint is what happened.  Certain people these days do not fear the consequences of their actions.  Certain parents will not take responsibility for the actions of their children.

Does anyone know of a country where decent, law abiding, responsible people live?  I want to live there too.