Outings and The Last Straw

I had a lovely week with Nella staying and Nessie loved the company. I made lemon curd then thought about how I could attempt to make vegan lemon curd for Nella using custard powder. Nella had a couple of weeks off Uni, waiting for dissertation results so she went to stay with Freya then came here via her friend, Daisy’s house in Ilkley. She had a relaxing week doing crochet projects and despite worrying about her marks, was awarded a First which is fantastic. With the big essay out of the way, she has the rest of the year to tackle her major textiles project. This involves wool so we visited an organic, very ethical sheep farm where she bought a whole sheep fleece that she will have to wash and process.

We both rejoined the National Trust so we could go and see the amazing flower garland at Cotehele, made from 38 000 dried flowers. It seemed that a lot of people had the same idea so there was a lot of reversing up and down the lanes leading to the property. Apparently 4-wheel drivers can’t go backwards. 

In order to get our money’s worth we visited Buckland Abbey with my Hampshire cousins, home of Francis Drake. That was a lovely property, having been converted from a Cistercian abbey. The layout was quite odd, particularly the stairs. There was an Arthurian legends Christmas event on in the Great Barn. The weather forecast had been dire but we had a lovely, sunny day wandering around. 

Instead of having a gentle Sunday afternoon reset, I decided to have a go at making a giant wreath, initially wrapped in straw. The straw that I got from a friend seemed to have been chopped up into tiny pieces so it was a daft idea for me to think I could do this in my kitchen. My hoover got clogged up, I ran out of straw and got rather annoyed. Maybe next weekend I will try to cover it all up with greenery or just give up;)