On Wednesday I pottered around the house, did some stitching and lace making, and cooked a lovely asparagus tart for tea (Louise came over to make lace). Thursday Eddy was also off, and we spent much of the morning in the garden and at garden centres - I bought (and planted) 3 parsley plants, a potentilla, an achillia and a lovely new rose (Lichfield Angel - a lovely creamy colour). Eddy bought us 2 (small) trees - a rowan and a silver birch - which are being delivered on Thursday (another job for the weekend). That afternoon I went to Leeds for a much-needed shopping trip. On Friday morning, not being able to keep up with our raspberry canes, we made a moderately small batch of raspberry jam (yum). We then headed off to Hardwick Hall, near Chesterfield, and looked around both the old and new halls - something we've been meaning to do for years - the tapestries and embroideries in the new hall were simply STUNNING.
We continued down the motorway to Birmingham to stay with Eddy's parents. Regular readers of my blog will know that Paul has dementia, and Margaret is very busy caring for both him and her father, who is blind. Saturday was Margaret's birthday, and we wanted to make sure she had some fun, so we went out for lunch in Aston Cantlow (where we did the lace making and bobbin turning course back in May) then spent the afternoon at Mary Arden's Farm - the home of Shakespeare's mother on the outskirts of Stratford. That evening it was Eddy's cousin's 30th birthday party, and I drove to make sure Margaret was able to have a drink - this having the added bonus that I could slightly keep my weight watchers points in check!!! We had a nice evening, but dealing with Paul at a party with lots of strangers was a little tricky, even as a team effort. Some of the people he went and talked to certainly looked very bemused!! On Sunday we went to see Eddy's Grandad, had lunch, watched the Grand Prix then headed home.
Although we were pretty busy, we did spend quite a bit of time sitting chatting - so I made great progress on Sunflower Charms:
Sorry, the photo is a little dark, and the lovely yellow colours are a bit washed out.
This week I'm attending a conference in Leeds (and working from home when the conference is dull)... and in the evenings I'm doing my best to progress Krista's wedding garter - I really need to get a wiggle on. So sadly my TW is being neglected, even though it's shouting to me... it's too big for a travel piece and when I'm at home I need to focus on the lace... Hmm, I'll treat myself to some TW as soon as I hit the 20 inches point!!