JUST DREAMING.

OK,  not the only thing I'm doing, but settling back into normal life is hard at the moment.
I have been "doing", but nothing seems worth blogging about.  Have you ever dreamt of a beautiful garden, but just don't seem to get it right.  Well, that is how I feel just now.  This will be a post about a garden I visited whilst away & a catch up with mine.

EGGLESTON HALL GARDEN & NURSERY.

This garden & nursery is situated not far from Barnard Castle in County Durham and I enjoyed it, being a little different from others I've seen.  A quick walk through with photos. There is a marked path wandering past herbaceous borders & shrubberies, then into the secret churchyard.

Ruined chapel which dates back to 1612.

 Wandering on, we came to a part walled garden which houses the nursery, along with some small display gardens.

An old espaliered apple.

More espaliers clothe the wall.

An imitation 'Angel of the North" on one wall.

Lovely displays of potted plants for sale, above & below.

There are a giftshop, cafe & tearoom, so you may wander, purchase & eat here.  I wish I'd taken more photos, but the day was very overcast and threatening rain, but oh so lovely.

MY GARDEN.

I missed the flowering of most of my bulbs, but was rewarded with the garden being in quite good shape after being away for 6 weeks.  We evidently experienced quite a bit of rain over that time, so some things have really taken off & I've already started trimming & taking out some of that seaside daisy (erigeron).

'Tis a little bit of a thug, when conditions are right.  The pond is somewhere in there.

Just a few others that are doing quite well.

A dianthus brought over from Ballarat.

One of my Xmas presents last year.  Pierre de Ronsard is doing very well.

Jasmine on the back fence, planted in winter.

Miniature gladiolus, again brought with us.

Blue ixias.
  I had these in a pot for several years after receiving them from an elderly lady.  This is the best they've done.

Sweet peas, I planted from a punnet, not long before our holiday.  They are doing quite well, with all the wind we've experienced over the last 4 weeks.  A few more colours have appeared now.

This little posy (picked from our garden) is sitting on my little side table.

Although I'm still not back into my quilting mode, I do have this on the machine now & have actually done "2" rows.

Ah well, I will try, but now I keep thinking Christmas is fast approaching & want to try & have some small handmade gifts ready for posting.  Must also catch up on this blogging caper too, as before we know it, next year will be here and I've still not caught up on our UK holiday photos.

All for now.  Will I post through the week?  I do hope so and not let so many days go by before I sit here browsing photos and thinking up what to say.  Wish I had a way with words, but you have to take me as I come.
Take care all and hope you're having a good weekend.  Cool, overcast, breezy and occasionally damp for us.  I need to finish mowing the lawns before Tuesday.
Huggles, Susan.

HOLIDAY TO UK - POST 2.

First & foremost, I want to thank everyone who left comments on my last post.  We still seem to have ongoing internet complications.  Hope to deal with it next week.  I've done some catching up with other blogs, though not all.  Sorry!

STAYING IN BURNLEY.

We spent 3 lovely nights away in Burnley.  It was actually the only place we could find on short notice, that was close to some places we wanted to visit.  First day we went back to Skipton to take the train to Carlisle, but once more it was fun & games.  No parking found at the station, so we headed to Gargrave.  Plenty of parking, train caught & we were on our way, but there had been a landslip further up the line, so our trip was somewhat not what we had planned.  We did have a great day though, despite both the weather & change of plans.

Gargrave station.

From the window of the train.

Settle station.

Settle had been where we'd planned to start our journey & the above photo was taken about a week beforehand, when we were doing our homework on the Settle to Carlisle Railway.  This particular day, my camera ran out of battery after I'd taken this snap, so no more photos of Settle.  It is a lovely town & we sat & ate our lunch looking at some very high cliffs.  Lovely.

As the day progressed you can see what the weather, then threw at us.

This is where the gypsy's have their huge horse fair.

A field of black sheep.

Ribblehead Viaduct.

I've always wanted to go over the above viaduct, & although the day didn't go quite as planned, it's one to tick off my bucket list.  This photo was taken after we had been across it later in the afternoon. We thought a photo from the road would be appropriate as I just couldn't manage one from the train.

Friday saw us head to The Commercial Vehicle Museum in Leyland.  For some of my old followers, they might remember we tried to visit in 2014, and the day we went it was closed.  Better equipped this time and it was open.  Just a few pics of what we saw.

Not sure I'd like the taste of these, even though I love scampi.

A very shiny Morris Minor.  Of course I had to take a photo.

Must be from Yorkshire?

I love the colour and shape of this.  Also , those milk churns remind me of my early childhood days.

Now for something I didn't know. "Diesel" fuel was actually named after someone.  Hmmm?  What have I been thinking.  Probably nothing, as it never occurred to me to even contemplate where it got it's name from.

Here he is.

The afternoon was spent at Quarry Bank Mill, a National Trust property.  I LOVED it, but no photos as the camera died once again.  I certainly didn't have much luck with it.  We are members of the N. T. here in Oz, so could use our cards in UK.  That is a big bonus & we took advantage of it  and I will show quite a few others we went to, over the next few weeks.

When we arrived back at the motel, the receptionist asked where we'd been & then asked if we'd seen the Singing Ringing Tree.  No, we hadn't, so were given a sheet of directions and visited it on our way back to Leeds next morning.

This is a Panopticon, which does actually sing & ring in the breeze.  I found it 'amazing'.

View from the TREE.

A very lovely 3 days away.
Hope you enjoyed our short journey and I'll be back with more of our trip over the next few weeks, interspersed with what is going on now, too.
Take care all.
Susan.

WEEKEND WANDERINGS.

Well, actually one was Friday and the other Sunday, but I need to do some catching up with what's been happening in Oz.  The folk here in Melbourne celebrate a "horse race" on the first Tuesday in November and some even take a 4 day break for it.  Our weekend sort of began on Friday, by taking ourselves off to Ballarat to help Joy to remove some branches from a tree that had fallen on her fence.

FRIDAY.

Offending downed branches.

The little pony I nicknamed Cadbury, and hubby talking to each other.

Many branches Joy & I dragged to a pile that could be a bonfire.

Finally, the fence has appeared again.

It did not take hubby long  to cut up the branches.  Joy and I had a little time in her studio, whilst hubby got the chainsaw sorted with the help of above pony.  There are two of them trying to keep the grass down.

Snowy & Cadbury munching away.

SUNDAY.

The morning dawned quite cool and was supposed to be wet and windy.  We set off on the train to travel into Melbourne, where I was to meet up with Joy again and four quilters/bloggers who had planned to see a Quilt Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria.  The day certainly turned warmer than expected & not windy till about 3pm.
It was a wonderful day, meeting 4 new, lovely ladies & an exhibition which had amazing old quilts along with a brief description of their story.
I only took my small camera with me, so these aren't the best snaps & also we couldn't use our flash.  A very small selection.

This next pic is really not good & hubby did take one of the six of us later, but it is even worse, so this is it.

Lovely ladies, plus Joy.

A small section of Melbourne skyline across the Yarra River taken from the 3rd floor landing of the NGV  annexe, where the exhibition was being held.

This book, that accompanies the exhibition was on sale in the gift shop, so I purchased a copy to read more about these amazing old quilts.

Notice the dates.  Some of the quilts were very old, with exquisite workmanship.

Two odd photos from our garden on Saturday.  This was a day we popped to the shops, washed, did some pruning, mowed lawns and generally caught up on some odd jobs, but the camera did come out for these.

A King Parrot sitting on the railing, waiting to support the net for the blueberry bushes.  He has visited a few times lately.

One of my roses, Fiona's Wish, which is huge.  This bloom measured 7" across and if only we had smellavision too, as it is a highly scented one.

Enough of my ramblings today.  I have so much more to show of both the UK and our garden, but unfortunately not much sewing has been going on lately.  Lost some craft mojo somwhere, but I know it will come back, so won't push it for now.
Have a great week all.
Huggles, Susan.

OCTOBER SCAVENGER PHOTO HUNT.

Here we are again, already!!!!

Joining in with the lovely Hawthorn at I live, I love, I craft, I am me.

1.   A is for...



Arches.           The cellarium at Fountains Abbey.  Taken on our recent trip to UK.

2.   LUNCH.

A picnic in the park surrounding a dam in Ballarat. One from the archives.

3.   11 0'clock.

Taken last week on day that was chucking it down with rain and we were going to a quilt shop (oh dear), so I could get some backing fabric to finish a few quilts.  When I saw the sign we couldn't stop, so took it on the way home & it was still raining.  I thought this category was going to be a no, no, so I count myself lucky.

4.   BLACK & WHITE.

The lighthouse at Dungeness.  Taken on our recent UK trip.  The beach of shingle is amazing.

5.   LOOKING UP.

Ripon Cathedral.  This hand is lit up and looks quite spooky.  One of the volunteers did tell me why it was there, but I've forgotten.  Sorry!  Again, taken on our recent trip.

6.   T is for....

Train.  This little blue train is another from our time at Dungeness.

7.   LANDSCAPE

Another photo taken whilst in UK,  as we were heading home from visiting Timble, a small village in North Yorkshire near Swynsty Reservoir.  I did like this little village and would have liked to have explored, but time wasn't on our side.

8.   TWO.

Two odd thongs (flip flops for those overseas).  They were on the banks of the Cotter River near Canberra, taken last Xmas, whilst visiting our  youngest son who lives there.  Why?  I guess we'll never know.

9.   SWING.

This is the "Swing" Bridge near Sale in Eastern Victoria.  One from the archives.

10.  MY OWN CHOICE.

Now what is celebrated this weekend?  HALLOWEEN!!!!!  I thought this pile of pumpkins was an appropriate photo for my own choice.  Taken at a garden show in Melbourne in 2014.

I hope everyone enjoys my odd bunch of photos for this month's photo hunt. 
Thanks Hawthorn for these 'thinking outside the box', challenges, I do so like  taking  part and also see what others come up with too.  That doesn't sound right, but it will have to do.
Take care all and have a good weekend.
Susan.

PS.  Think I'm early with this one, but we have a busy few days coming up, so am posting tonight as we have an early start tomorrow to get to Ballarat, to help a friend cut up a tree that was downed in some wild weather a couple of weeks ago. 

FOUNTAINS ABBEY & STUDLEY ROYAL.

First I'd like to thank all who left comments on my last post.  With ongoing computer issues & not settling well after our trip, I've just been catching up with other blogs and leaving comments there.
Why our i'net providers can't leave well enough alone, I'll never know!
Onto a couple of wonderful days out.

DAY ONE.

We visited Fountains one day, then told S-I-L and she remarked we hadn't taken her, so we went again another day.  This particular day we just visited the abbey and grounds.

As you can see the ruins are beautiful.  Again I didn't take many photos.

DAY TWO.

This day we we started at the Studley Royal end, had a cuppa at the cafe and were about to start our wandering, when at a nearby table we overheard a conversation by some of the volunteers, who then said hello to us as we went by.  I remarked, as she told her co-workers that she'd baked them some Anzac Biscuits and offered them to us to try too.  As she went to explain what they were, I said I knew, as I was Australian and also baked them at home.  She then asked if she'd got the recipe correct, which she had.  As we'd just eaten, we didn't try, but we all had a good laugh about me passing at that moment.

The lovely lakes.

The Octagon Tower.

The Temple of Fame.

View down to Abbey.

Church of St. Mary the Virgin stands at the highest point of the Deer Par, though we didn't see any deer.

Now for something unforgettable.

This chandelier is in the Banqueting House and is only on display 'sometimes', but is definitely worth seeing.
It is lit by strobe lighting and is quite amazing when set in motion.  I am not going to try and explain, but if you get the chance ,try to see when it is open for viewing.  I'll tell that this space was also used for more than just dining.  Ummm!

OK, just a short post, trying to catch up on our holiday bits.  I'll probably be here again on Friday with our Scavenger Hunt Photos, so all have a great week and take care.
Susan.