Flutterby Patch

On my desk - a sewing machine and some fabric

On my desk this Wednesday you'll find my sewing machine and some pretty floral fabric that I bought last week. I've been looking for a blouse in shades of plum and pink for some time but have had no success.

And so I'm making myself a blouse. I've been making clothes and toys since I was fourteen so I've had plenty of practise. Making pretty little dresses for my daughter when she was small was most gratifying as she loved everything I created for her and with no prompting would enthusiastically show off the fruits of my labours to friends and family. Good times!

 
After buying the fabric I was delighted to find that two of my necklaces were a perfect match. On the other hand, I suppose if they hadn't been a good match I would have had an excuse to go shopping for a new necklace. Hmm! That would have been fun!

Welcome sunshine

The sun has occasionally shown its face this week and and when it has we have taken the opportunity to get out and about. October is a month when a lot of new book titles arrive on bookshop shelves and my husband and I like to use it as an excuse to take a trip to the excellent Bluebell Bookshop in the nearby town of Penrith. There are several routes we are able to take but this week we opted for the speedy motorway route as we didn't want to get snarled up with the many visitors that have descended on the area for the school half-term holiday.

It doesn't take long to reach remote open countryside. No holiday crowds here, just the sound of the wind and the giant windmills. This wind farm is one of a growing number that are springing up in our county making the most of the high ground and the constant wind. Like them or loathe them, wind farms appear to be here to stay.

And here we are on the motorway. This believe it or not is our end of the busy M6. It has wound its congested way round Birmingham and ever northwards; by-passing Liverpool and Manchester whilst all the time depositing its heavy load of vehicles  And now, heading towards the Scottish border it has become an open road. Not only can you enjoy magnificent scenery as you travel but you also have the option of stopping for refreshments at the award winning Westmorland Service Station which has an excellent farm shop and the reputation of being the only English service station to be built and run by local people.

And in no time we have reached Penrith. I will be there for a longer visit some time soon but for now we head past the market cross and on toward the charmingly named Angel Lane.

Angel Lane contains a variety of shops all neatly tucked into a higgledy piggledy collection of old buildings. The one I'm heading for is on the right and painted blue.

 There is an inscription over the door of the shop dating back 245 years. I've never quite understood its full meaning but I love its quaintness.

 
And here we are at last. I can't wait to get inside and have a good root around. The shop is on two floors and as you enter the aroma of coffee rushes to meet you. It is served throughout the day together with homemade cakes and biscuits. In the large area devoted to music there is a piano which, when I arrived, was being put to good use by a young man taking a piece of sheet music for test run before buying it. As usual the Bluebell Bookshop didn't disappoint and I was able to make several suggestions to my husband about which books would make great additions to my Christmas stocking. Not too long to wait!

 
Apart from an excellent bookshop Penrith has a number of shops I like to visit. The little wool shop always has something to tempt me and recently I bought this gorgeous yarn. Its a mix of silk, kid mohair and lamb's wool from Japan and is knitting up into a lovely scarf in muted shades of lilac, purple and olive green.

All too soon its time to go home. But just look at this! On the homeward journey the skies opened and the car received yet another unscheduled wash.

In our mountainous region the weather can change rapidly. A couple of miles further on and the rain stopped and the setting sun peeped over the hilly horizon.

Event abandoned

Over the weekend our news bulletins were telling us how a huge group of 2,500 mountain racers in our area were forced to abandon their challenging race due to gale force winds and torrential rain. Many were stranded on high ground and local mountain rescue teams and helicopters were out in force for two whole days. Fortunately this was a well organised event that takes place each year and the competitors were all well equipped which is just as well as many of them had to spend the night in the mountains. There were a few injuries but thankfully no loss of life.

What a difference a day makes

And now the weather is beautiful. This is the bay at Bowness-on-Windermere close to where I live. A much visited place from Easter through to the end of October.

During the weekend storms the lake level rose several feet and the road was completely flooded but that didn't bother the gulls, ducks and swans.They thoroughly enjoyed themselves and today the many visitors ensure the birds are kept well fed. 

The wooden ticket offices are still flooded and jetties are still submerged

The little train that ferries visitors to the various beauty spots is kept very busy throughout the season. By next week the crowds will have returned home and the train will be empty.

and the area will breath a sigh of relief and settle down for a peaceful winter break.

Competition - win Bo-Peep and her 'woolly jumper'

On my desk this Wednesday is a basket of knitting yarn and a tiny doll I've knitted together with her sheep. I've named her Little Bo-Peep and she will be looking for a new home with one of the nice people who visit my blog. Bo Peep and her sheep will be my 'givaway prize' at the end of this post.

I live in a mountainous region of northern England where thousands of sheep graze and shepherds (and shepherdesses) wear warm woolly clothing to protect them from the wind and rain. The pretty dresses and straw bonnets Little Bo-Peep wears in traditional nursery rhyme books wouldn't be at all practical in our area.

I found nine pictures of Little Bo-Peep in various nursery rhyme books but not a single one is suitably dressed for 21st century farming. 

Here is my knitted Bo-Peep in her warm woolly clothing. Oh dear! She appears to have lost her sheep yet again. He's a rascally little fellow so perhaps we'd better look for him.
 
As we haven't ventured very far recently I thought you might like to see a bit of my local area and our wild windy hillsides that are home to a few people and great many sheep. On the way keep an eye open for the woolly runaway. The weather is fine at the moment but unfortunately the storm clouds are gathering so we must find him as soon as we can.

 First we will travel to the village of Troutbeck and then on up the steep hill to the Kirkstone Pass.

 
The most visited house in Troutbeck village is 'Townend'. It was built for a wealthy yeoman farmer 400 years ago at around the time the Pilgrim Fathers settled in America. It contains superb examples of traditional carved oak furniture and other household items. Now owned by the National Trust it is open to the public throughout the year. I love wandering round this house looking at the way people in those far off days used to live.

 This is the original 400 year old stone barn belonging to the house; still very much in use today

Around 300 - 400 years old, the houses in Troutbeck are built from local stone quarried from the surrounding hillsides. Walls are typically 2ft thick.

Rain clouds part and watery sunlight falls on Troutbeck Church.

For part of the day the high hills cast dark shadows on this scattering of cottages. The sheep in the foreground are taking advantage of the sunshine. No sign of Bo Peep's woolly companion amongst the flock.

Now we travel further uphill and are able to look down on a remote farmstead in the valley below. This is 'Troutbeck Park Farm' and it was bought by Beatrix Potter in 1923. She used it as a setting for her 'Fairy Caravan' stories. 

Even further up now and the vegetation is more sparse and there is very little shelter from the wind and rain but still the sheep graze.   

It's not unusual to see sheep walking casually down the road. I think they are wise enough to know that there is often longer grass on the roadside verges than in the fields.

At the top now and the Kirkstone Pass Inn has provided refreshment for weary travellers for six centuries.

 
This is the view from the top of the Kirkstone Pass to Brothers Water below. Once a rough stony track this route through the mountains has been used by travellers on horseback for many centuries. Today it is a steep twisting tarmac road and is used each year by many thousands of motorists.

Sheep grazing amongst the rocks are well camouflaged.

And look who we have here, its Bo-Peep's runaway sheep. Found at last and looking rather guilty or perhaps that should be " looking rather sheepish".

Delighted to have found him, Bo-Peep has decided to keep her sheep on a lead; though looking at the mischievous expression on the animal's face it won't be long before he finds a way to go exploring yet again.

Could you give a good home to Bo-Peep
and her rascally sheep?

Bo-Peep measures 6 ins (15 cm). Beside her is a piece of stone quarried from the area we have just visited. It is known as Westmorland Greenslate. If you would like to win this little lady and her sheep here is a fun competition you could enter. Simply try and guess the total weight (in grams) of Bo-Peep and her sheep together with this piece of Westmorland Greenslate which is 1 cm thick. To help you I can tell you that the total weight is somewhere between 100 - 300 grams. Now all you have to do is write your estimated weight in the comment section at the bottom of this post. NB.Sorry, the stone isn't included as part of the prize as it is rather too heavy to mail, I added it to make guessing the weight a bit more fun.

Entries are open to anyone living anywhere around the world. I will gladly mail the little lady and her friend to any distant shore. The name of the person whose guess was closest to the exact weight will be announced in my blog on Friday 24th October. Do give it a go and good luck.

Cottage gardens, fairies and rushy glens

Can you believe it? The sun is shining today and I have been able to get outside and do some of those little jobs around the garden that should have been completed (had the weather been kinder) several weeks ago. Sadly many of the apples in our little orchard have succumbed to the constant wind and rain but I was able to gather a basket of windfalls that I can cook and freeze for use later in the year.

This morning's apple picking episode brought to mind this little water-colour by Helen Allingham, the much loved painter of cottages and cottage gardens in the late Victorian era. The picture above was taken from an old book that I have about the artist that was published in 1903. It contains 80 coloured prints with information about each subject. This book is still available from sellers of antiquarian books.

The book below 'Victorian Flower Gardens' is a more recent publication and readily available. It contains a wealth of coloured pictures and information about many Victorian 'cottage artists'.

Helen Allingham was born Helen Mary Elizabeth Paterson in Derbyshire in 1848. At the age of 17 she became a pupil at the Birmingham School of Design and just a year later was accepted into London's prestigious Royal Academy School. On completing her course she became a much sought after commercial artist and came into contact with many well known artists and writers. One of her greatest friends was Kate Greenaway. In 1874 she married renowned Irish poet William Allingham.

When the Allinghams moved to Sandhill near Whitley in Surrey, Helen began painting the old cottages she found in the area and her portrayals of country life and cottage gardens became much sought after by the Victorians.

 

An abundance of flowers in a summer garden was always a popular subject but so too were such subjects as cutting cabbages from a kitchen garden.

The 'cabbage cutting' picture above is by Helen Allingham, the one below was painted by Myles Birket Foster. He was not only Helen's close neighbour but had been her college tutor in London. Between them these two artists popularised country cottage life and Whitley quickly became a centre for the many artists who were inspired by the cottage theme.

Helen Allingham's husband William was born in Ballyshannon in Co. Donegal, Ireland. Her portrayal of a typical cottage in this remote area can be seen below.

William Allingham's home of Ballyshannon is close to the wild Atlantic on Ireland's west coast. It is a landscape of distant blue mountains, wild windy pastures that are scattered with boulders and tree-hidden glens that contain bubbling brooks. The picture below depicts the nearby coast where a series of arches have been carved in the rock by Atlantic breakers. These arches are known locally as 'The Fairy Bridges' and it is this feature and the surrounding wild countryside that inspired William to write his most famous poem 'The Fairies' which begins, 'Up the airy mountain, down the rushy glen...' The full version can be found in my 'Poems and Wise Words' section, meanwhile the first two verses can be found below.

'The Fairy Bridges' near Ballyshannon inspired William Allingham to write his famous poem

 The Fairies 
William Allingham (1824-1889)

Up the airy mountain,
        Down the rushy glen,
    We daren't go a-hunting
        For fear of little men;
    Wee folk, good folk,
        Trooping all together;
    Green jacket, red cap,
        And a white owl's feather!

    Down along the rocky shore
        Some make their home,
    They live on crispy pancakes
        Of yellow tide-foam;
    Some in the reeds
        Of the black mountain lake,
    With frogs for their watch-dogs,
        All night awake.

I confess, I love Helen Allingham's work and that of other artists of that period who painted English country cottages and the peolpe who lived in them over a century ago. Their romantic images do not of course depict the widespread poverty that was found in rural areas at that time but today they are lovely to look at and allow us to fill our heads with dreams of our own rural idyll.

More information about Helen Allingham and illustrations of her many paintings can be found here