A Local Walk For Archie

We often jump in the car and take Archie to lovely places like Lotherton or Temple Newsam, which I've posted about many times in the past, but we've also got some lovely walks on our doorstep without needing to travel in the car to get there. These are the places he walks daily so we rotate them. I'm going to show you the walk we took on Thursday.

A lot of dog walkers use this lane and it also leads to some stables, though there were no horses in the yard on Thursday, they were all tucked up indoors. A dog did come out to see Archie as we passed though and he wanted to come on our walk with us but he was very good and went home when we told him to.

The view to our right. We used to cross this field and it would take us to lower fields where we could continue on a circular walk. Unfortunately, back in 2012, sixty eight houses were built on the lower field and we're now unable to take this circular walk, we have to turn around and come back the way we came. I wrote about it in my A Sad E-State Of Affairs post.

The view to our left. This field is full of crops during the summer months but they've all been harvested now.

Archie's really good when he's off his lead, he does love a good sniff around but he doesn't stray from us very far, he runs to catch up as soon as he sees we've walked a few yards ahead.

I always try to get some good photos of Archie when we take him for walks but it's very difficult, he doesn't stand still for long so my efforts result in blurred snaps. If he does stand still he's usually eating grass!

I was expecting the lane to be rather muddy on Thursday as we'd had quite a bit of rain but it wasn't too bad, there was the odd puddle or two but we managed to avoid them.

It's not a long walk but it's long enough for one of Archie's daily walks, we don't take him as far as we used to these days. He's fine when we're out and about but it knocks him out when we get home.

I hope you enjoyed seeing one of Archie's regular walks. Perhaps I'll show you one of the others another day.

Zero Waste

A new zero waste shop opened nearby recently and at the weekend we finally managed to find time to pop in. What a lovely surprise we had.

It's such a well stocked shop, so many more products for sale than we'd imagined. There's dry food, everything from pasta to granola, many different kinds of nuts, dried fruit, all different kinds of flour, every spice you can imagine, and they also have a great range of eco friendly products too, reusable make up remover pads, bamboo toothbrushes, metal straws, reusable sanitary products, bamboo lunchboxes to name just a few.

You're able to take your own containers or use paper bags. There's also a very good selection of reusable containers for sale too.

There's a whole section of cleaning products as well as toiletries, soaps and body washes.

The shop has been opened by a local couple who are very friendly and knowledgeable about their products.

I like the idea of being able to purchase just the amount you need, it cuts down on food waste. Also, you don't have any unwanted packaging here. The prices compare very favourably with those in the local supermarkets, which is really good. It seems to be very popular already and it's somewhere I shall definitely be shopping in the future.

Yarny Advent Calendars

Following on from my last post, No Apology, about Christmas goodies coming to the shops, I just thought I'd mention that I've made my first purchase towards celebrating the big day, a yarny advent calendar. In fairness to the dyers, they have to put up the listings for these yarny advent calendars very early in the year as they have such large batches of yarn to dye so they need to know numbers well in advance and get them out to customers in plenty of time for the countdown to begin.

When I was a child I had a charming little paper advent calendar with a picture behind each window. It was very carefully opened so that when Christmas that year was over and done with, we could close up all the windows and pack it away ready for the countdown the following year. It was used over and over again. Advent calendars these days are big business, it's quite rare to see those paper versions which I had as a child, now there's chocolate calendars, candle calendars, even beauty calendars where the windows open each day to reveal a cosmetic product. I've never had an advent calendar since I was a child but I decided that I'd like to have a yarny advent calendar this year.

Many dyers offer yarny advent calendars so I shopped around a bit and finally settled on one by Hedgerow Yarns. I've had yarn from this dyer in the past and have been very pleased with it. Each little parcel is numbered one to twenty four and each one contains 10g of hand dyed yarn. There was also a little stitch marker and another couple of extras included in the box.

Some dyers offer twelve days of Christmas calendars to open from Christmas day onwards and I decided that I'd also like one of these. Again, I shopped around and settled on one by Craft House Magic for this. Again, there's 10g of hand dyed yarn in each parcel. The dyer also sent an extra mini skein in the Pumpkin Patch colourway.

I'm also taking part in an advent swap. I've been given a partner and it's turned out to be the dyer behind Down Sheepy Lane yarn. We'll be making up an advent calendar to swap with each other.

The mini skeins will be the perfect size to add to my scrappy blanket with plenty of yarn left over for other things. There's lots of patterns now which use oddments of yarn so I may take a look at those to see what I can knit.

I'm looking forward to the countdown to Christmas and the twelve days afterwards. Will you have an advent calendar this year?

No Apology

I make no apology for this post, after all, there are just 76 more sleeps until Christmas Day, and I do love Christmas!

Actually, I don't like to see Christmas in the shops too soon, the 1st of December is soon enough for me, but we popped to our local garden centre yesterday and they've just started putting out their Christmas display so I thought I'd snap a few photos to share with you.

I thought these (not so) little mice were so cute.

We've collected different Christmas decorations over the years but I'd like some new ones this year. We're going to have a proper look at what's on offer before making our choice.

We really need a new tree too but our old one will last one more year. Have you seen the price of Christmas trees? So expensive! I fancy a real one but Mick's concerned that Archie will be cocking his leg all Christmas.

We saw some good bargains in the sale at the beginning of the year so I'm hoping we can pick up something nice for half the price in January ready for next year.

It's not only the garden centres which are getting ready for Christmas, there's mince pies in the supermarkets already, along with other goodies.

So what do you think? Is it too soon for the shops to be stocked full of Christmas things or do you welcome it? Do you like to buy well in advance of the big day or are you a last minute shopper? Do tell.

Autumn

I had a lie-in yesterday. I'm usually an early riser but I've been waking in the night just recently with a bad back which is very tiring. Couple this with the darker mornings that autumn brings, I woke rather late, but decided to stay put and read my book for a while. Heavy rain was forecast for the whole day but, even though I'd heard the rain hammering against the window when I was awake in the early hours, it had stopped when I finally got out of bed. Not wanting to waste any bit of dry weather, we put Archie's lead on him and headed off to Lotherton.

There's no denying now that we're well and truly in to autumn. Leaves are turning colour and dropping from the trees and so is their bounty. We passed quite a few children collecting conkers, but there's plenty for everyone at Lotherton. The squirrels will be very happy too as there were lots of acorns underneath the oak trees.

We followed Archie's preferred walk, into the woods. Actually, you wouldn't know it was autumn looking at the trees here, still plenty of green around.

Usually, we turn around and retrace our steps through the woods because dogs can run free, off their leads here. Yesterday though, we decided to have a walk through the formal gardens. Archie was a bit put out having to go back on his lead but he did get to have another run before we headed for home.

I loved these little ferns growing out of an old wall.

There's still quite a bit of colour around, you don't have to look far.

They say that an abundance of berries is supposed to herald a harsh winter. Well, I think we should get our hats, scarves and gloves at the ready as there's lots of berries around at the moment.

We brought these little treasures home with us. Spider deterrents. Well, they're supposed to stop spiders from coming into the house if you lay them around doors and window frames but I'm not convinced they work. I still lay a few out each year though.

I'm so pleased that we got out when we did because the heavens opened when we got back into the car. It did stop again a while later only for the forecast rain to materialise later on in the day and it's here today too. I think we're going to have to get used to this soggy weather for a while now.

Setting Up A Nature Journal

I recently found Eleanor's old flower press from when she was a child. Mick and I had been looking for a flower press for her and was unable to find one, and then we were browsing in all the little shops in The Shambles in York one day when we came across this one. It was in a shop which sold all manner of wooden goods, but sadly, I don't think the shop's there any longer.

When I opened the flower press earlier this week there were lots of little flowers still in there. It took me back to a walk we'd taken years ago in some woods near where I lived as a child. Eleanor had collected a few flowers and pressed them when we got home.

It's got me thinking, I'd really like to start some sort of nature journal.

Wouldn't it be lovely to add pressed flowers to it.

I think the lovely Traveller's Notebook which Nikki from Notes of Life made me would be perfect to use as a nature journal.

I think I'll collect and press flowers throughout each month and then I can journal and use the pressed flowers at the end of the month. A project for the new year I think.

Nella Last's War

I saw a review of Nella Last's War on a podcast I watch and I thought it sounded intresting so I popped it on my wish list and Mick bought me it for my birthday. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Mass-Observation was a UK social research organisation founded in 1937. It aimed to record everyday life in Britain through a panel of around 500 volunteers who maintained diaries or replied to open-ended questionnaires.

Nella Last was a housewife who lived in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire. She wrote a diary for the Mass Observation Archive from 1939 until 1966. Nella Last's War is an edited version of the two million words she wrote during World War II.


' In September 1939, housewife and mother Nella Last began a regular diary that lasted for thirty years. The account that she left of life during the Second World War is moving, fascinating and unique.

While Nella's younger son joined the army, she and the rest of the family tried to adapt to the transformed rhythms of life in Barrow-in-Furness, which suffered terribly from enemy bombing raids. Writing each day for the 'Mass-Observation' project, Nella grows in confidence as a result of her new work, and her diary entries tell a powerful story about the war years, covering everything from sex to the genuine fear of invasion.

This was the period in which Nella turned fifty, saw her children leave home and reviewed her life and her marriage - which eventually she compared to slavery. This is the war as Nella Last lived it'.


I found this a fascinating read, not only hearing first hand how the war affected the ordinary person on a day to day basis, but hearing about Nella's worries for those around her and her fears for the future.

A further two volumes of Nella's diaries were published, Nella Last's Peace and Nella Last in the 1950s, which I'd now like to read.