Blue, cloudless skies, sparkling turquoise sea, empty golden sands, warm sunshine, the smell of suntan cream. It must be ......

SCOTLAND?!!!!  This is the world's best walk.  Start at Sheigra ...

Over the hill to Droman .... 

Over the next hill to Polin ...

The most right-hand house in the picture is apparently, according to my very reliable source, the most westerly house on the British mainland.  Then over the next hill, taking time to admire Foinaven, Arkle and Stack .....

to Oldshoremore. 

Good News and Bad News ...

First of all, the good news.  Shepton Mallet Flea was an excellent day but only for those fortunate enough to have an inside stand.  The rain was, on occasion, biblical and all the outside traders were regularly drenched.  However, every time the deluge came down, the buyers poured (unintentional pun) into the hall and brought their purses with them which was very nice for those of us lucky enough to be in the dry.

More good news!  I have been offered a new job with new challenges, new people, longer hours (to fill my children-free days) and, last but not least, more money.  The bad news?  I have been offered a new job with longer hours which means I won't have nearly so much time to knit, crochet, sew and paint.  But, life is never all hospital corners and, as I don't start until September, there will be no immediate change to the blogging.  

I didn't get a chance to buy anything new at the weekend so here's one I prepared earlier.  A couple of weeks ago I showed you my 'far side of the world' purchases and one of them was this delightful Thai handbag ....

Now as we all know, a girl cannot have too many bags or, come to think of it, shoes, frocks, coats, jewellery, make up .....  so I tend to have a bag for all possible occasions and some I haven't thought of yet just in case.  But after looking at my pretty Thai bag I decided that some of mine were a little boring and needed pepping up.  So this straw bag got a summer cornfield make over with poppies, cornflowers and a daisy .....

And this one got a rose garden theme with roses from Lesley Stanfield's 100 Flowers to Knit and Crochet.

This week I have been mostly ....

... finishing off my signs and cakes for Shepton Mallet Flea Market which is on the 17th July (bit of shameless advertising there).  Here they are ....

And some knitted cake trinket boxes.  These are stiffened and the tops open so that they can be filled with goodies, edible or wearable  .... 

 I have also knitted a special 'strawberries and cream' slice for my lovely boss who, sadly is leaving us at the end of the school term.  We've been together for 10 1/2 years - longer than many marriages - so it will be very sad but she is going on to greater things and we all wish her the very best even as we sob into our hankies. 

But of course, I got distracted half way through the week and decided to have a go at some really small knitted birds.  These ended up about 4cm long;  one with folded wings and one 'flying' .....

And so to this week's car booting activity which I did in my Skoda for the first time.  I am sure that many of you think 'I'd not be seen dead in a Skoda' and I must admit that it's a feeling I've experience of myself.  But, like trainspotting and fishing, it's probably something that should be tried before you say 'never'.  Ok, maybe not trainspotting.  But, I have to tell you that my Skoda is wonderful to drive and it has one major advantage which the manufacturers have, inexplicably, missed out of their marketing material: it's very easy to find in a car boot sale car park. Firstly, mine is bright  in-your-face red;  secondly it's slightly higher than your average saloon or estate car; and thirdly it has a very 'distinctive' (some say ugly but I like to think of it as quirky) outline.  So, I won't ever lose it when I'm laden down with goodies, which leads me on to a moan.   I don't know if it's just me but every summer at about this time the car boot season seems to go into a bit of a slump.  They are still held and people still go along to sell and to buy,  but there doesn't seem to be anything among the piles of goods on offer that I want to buy.   Come late summer things pick up again and there are bargains to be had.  And, my memory being what it is,  every year I forget that it's going to happen and it catches me by surprise.  But I did get a couple of things this morning that I want to show you because they make my heart happy.  Firstly some chenille pipe cleaner birds ...

and to go with them some vintage pom pom bunny rabbits which I love  .... 

I have a declaration to make ...

I love Northern Man.  Not Northern Man in general you understand (although I am sure that most of them are lovely) , but my Northern Man in particular.  Why?  Because my particular, wonderful Northern Man has bought his loving, devoted and, let's face it deserving, wife a brand new car.  

RRs of this blog will recall my whinging about the unreliability and rising cost of running the old car.  Now, a Zafira has much to recommend it; you can fit an awful lot of stuff in the boot of a Zafira and still have room for a thermos of coffee and a packet of chocolate biscuits.  You can sit in it, lie down in it, have a picnic in it, but one thing you cannot do, after it reaches a certain age, is rely on it.   Hence, there is bright red Skoda Yeti now sitting on my drive.  

Now there will be a scratching of heads among you as you try to think what a Yeti looks like.  There aren't many on the road and that could be because it is a fairly ugly car.  However, as Jeremy Clarkson demonstrated, it has a few positives:  you can get a tattoo done it the back of it while it is moving; drive it through a burning building while holding an ice cream which will not melt because the air con is so good; or land a helicopter on top of it.  I cannot currently foresee a moment when I would want to do any of these things but it's always good to have the option just in case, don't you think?

Another positive is that it has a slightly smaller boot space than the Zafira.  Why is that a positive?  Because it will ensure that I do something which I have been promising myself for some time - buy smaller things.   I've also promised myself not to buy anything else covered in gloss paint, which I only do because these things are generally very cheap.  Why are they cheap?  Because nobody else wants them!  They've all learned the lesson that gloss paint is more trouble than it's worth. Well, I shall be resolute from now on - smaller and matter, that's me.

So on to what I bought this week at the car boot.  Well, there was definitely an 'other side of the world' feeling about my purchases as you will see ....

Love that embroidered panel.  And still more ...

How do these things end up in a dusty Berkshire field? 

Old dogs and new books .....

I have been very busy this last week and a half painting signs, knitting cakes and sewing velvet strawberries.  One customer at Kempton Park on 14th June almost cleared my stall of signs, cakes, strawberries, tables, boxes and various other things.  This was, of course, wonderful and meant that packing up was easy but it does mean that everything has to be replaced before Shepton Flea Market on 17th July.  I've done all these things before so it's a bit boring for me (yes, I can hear your exasperated sighs - is this woman never happy?).  After all,  I want to have fun painting new things and designing new bird patterns to show you. 

This week's car boot finds included two vintage dogs ...

The first is, I believe, early 20th century.  It has a cardboard body covered with rabbit fur and its head comes off.  The lucky recipient would have found it filled with sweets.  Northern Man and Youngest Child both think he's ghastly but I think he has a charm all his own.

And the second is a wooden St Bernard complete with barrel ...

Many of you will remember the felt mouse pattern right back at the beginning of this blog.  Well, this felt scotty dog pattern came from the same source.  He's very simple to do and I was quite pleased with the result ....

And then there's the knitted poodle which comes from the wonderful Knit Your Own Dog by Osborne and Muir ...

Now, this morning I found myself with a spare 10 minutes and turned to browsing the latest offerings on Amazon.  I was very excited to find that Osborne and Muir have written a new book, Knit Your Own Cat,   This book is not available until September but, needless to say, I have pre-ordered it. 

There is also a new Fiona Goble (Knit Your Own Royal Wedding) book, The Twelve Knits of Christmas which looks great fun.  It includes a pattern for French hens, partridges, swans and geese and  a maid who doesn't look as though she'd have any truck with troublesome guests in hotel rooms.   This one is available in October and is also pre-ordered.  

So several ideas for your Christmas present lists and it is only June!

Hi Charlie ...

and welcome.  What took you so long? 

Readers may remember the pattern for the knitted birds I showed you some weeks ago.  This is in my note book under the title 'Charlie's Birthday Bird' as I designed and knitted them for her 18th.

In the pink ....

So I've come to the end of my second week of walking to work and I have to say that I feel good.  Not good in the I've-saved-lots-of-petrol-and-used-up-calories-good, but really healthy good.  Who'd have thought it?  Not that it's made any difference to my weight; my aft is looking a little leaner but my amidships and fo'c'sle are unchanged.  To mix my metaphors, I am still not so much apple shaped as orchard shaped.

I'm extra impressed with myself for walking because of the change in the weather.  When I was thinking about this in March and April, the weather was dry but there hasn't been a day in the last two weeks when I haven't taken my umbrella with me and quite often had to use it.  The British weather knows that Wimbledon is almost upon us!


On to crafting - pink this week.  I was interested at the response to my post with the felt daffodils which prompted a lot of traffic through google images.  There must be many of you out there who want to sew felt flowers so I thought I'd show you some more, also a pattern from my Dryad leaflet.

This pattern for freesia-type flowers is actually the one I used for the centre petals of the daffodils.