Grand Day Out

 Earlier in the year we were visited by a lovely team from Channel 5, filming Susan Calman’s Grand Day Out.   There was, unquestionably a stand out star and that was Barbara.  Here is Barbara this evening, defying the elements in the wild, wet, windy North Pennines.

Barbara and co. have done an excellent job of stocking my online shop, so pieces of Barbara and all my other lovelies can be found there.

#GrandDayOut

Lifecycles

Since I have failed to post since the end of winter I realised I could almost justify a ‘lifecycle of a phone case’ sort of post.

So here are the sheep, still in their winter fleeces.

And here is the hay meadow that the sheep eat in order to grow their fleeces.

The fleeces, clipped for me this year by Farmer Sam.  A relief to not have to do it myself!

Kester, naked!

And more naked sheep.  Conor Murphy in the foreground, with Clement peering over his back.

Out in the fields.  Back in the haymeadow, to be more precise.  The regrowth has already begun.  This is Alder in the foreground.

Finished phone cases, also used as spectacle cases, drying in front of a woodpile.

Sheep in snow

 

Today there is a very light dusting of snow, but I have to confess that this was taken a couple of weeks ago - the deceptively regal-looking Conor Murphy enjoying a bright winter’s day.

Detectorists

If you’re a lover of Mackenzie Crook’s ‘Detectorists’ (and, let’s face it, if you have a beating heart, why wouldn’t you be?) you might be amused to learn that we have our very own Andy and Lance.

Several months ago an intrepid pair from Whitley Bay sought ‘permissions’ to detect in our fields. Since then, they’ve been six or seven times and we now have our very own ‘finds’ table.

If they bump into me, they hand me their muddy finds, otherwise they take them home to wash, then return them on their next expedition. On these occasions I get a phone-call from ‘Lance’ listing their finds. “We’ve got part of a spoon, a toy car, a ring pull, a steel toe-cap, three buttons of various sizes……..”

Honestly, I feel as though I’ve woken up in Danebury!

Mouse with Altitude

 

A handful of woollen mice have scurried into my online shop.  They are made entirely of wools and yarns from my little flock of rescue sheep and are handfelted and handstitched, with braided tails.  I love to embroider and their little bodies provided a perfect opportunity.

Originally I was going to name them ‘Coffin Mice,’ because that is, in fact, what they are.  Many years ago, the whole reason I began feltmaking was to make myself a coffin - and I did finally make one (and another and another) about 14 years ago.  It was made entirely from Shetland wools from my beautiful, little flock.

Now for the confession!  A few weeks ago, I decided to recycle the original coffin and started cutting out slices and turning them into mice.  

The ‘Coffin Mice’ became ‘Mice with Altitude’ and moved into their own little gift boxes.