Another day out and a charity shop find

 I've not had chance to unpack properly from the weekend and we are already jumping into the car to head north. Ian's bike boots are getting old and leaking a little so we headed back to the Altberg factory to see if they can be mended or whether its a case of biting the bullet and ordering some new ones,.

After a close inspection it was decided that new soles and a seal round them would do the job so they have been left there for repair.

We took ourselves off into town to do our usual trawl of the charity shops and grab some breakfast.

Richmond ( Yorkshire) is a market town built on wool and the lead mining industry.

Small alleyways lead back up to the market place that has shops on all four sides

The castle that you can see in the distance is closed during the week at this time of year so we will return sometime to explore further;'

Taking a walkdown to the river you come across Richmond falls, a pleasant spot to stop and eat our sandwiches.

I managed to take a terrible pic of the castle as we left, another good reason to go back !

unexpected delight was the coffee cup printed with Yorkshire dialect.

and the charity shop find of the day was this lace book

it also has an assortment of lace patterns in it.

Gansey hunting and my weekend knitting

 I had hoped to go to Cromer museum to see if I could spot any ganseys but its now closed for the season so I had to be content with one of the boards of historic photos that can be found around the town.

Photos taken by Olive Edis 1876-1955 more info and links can be found here

I took a bag of oddments with me and by the end of the weekend I had another headband.

Typically, as we packed up to come home, the sun came out for the first time and as much as we would have loved to extend our stay we had to come home for an appointment on Monday.

return to Cromer

 We planned this trip maybe two weeks ago hoping for some reasonable if maybe cold weather, unfortunately its be overcast, damp and cool. We haven't really seen the sun since the clocks changed and that's nearly two weeks ago.

Consequently, I must apologise for the absence of blue skies in the photos !

We spent both Friday and Saturday shopping and wandering around the old streets. Our plan to visit the museum was thwarted by it being closed until April 2025, the same with the Art Space but plenty of coffee shops were open as usual.

There are currently works in progress to strengthen the sea defences up and down the east coast and Cromer is no exemption, In fact, judging by the number of people watching the diggers at work on Friday, it seems to have become a spectator sport.

However , the beach huts and the pier were still standing as usual.

Many of the buildings currently have scaffolding round them so it was a case of finding the right angles this time to show them at their beat.

or, with this building, finding an old photo

Coffee was sampled at the cafe at the RNLI station, very good it was too.

A faded advertisement painted on a wall led me to the local yarn shop, definitely worth a visit, spent quite some time chatting to the owner.

as ever, I'm always drawn back to the sea.

September tour - the fibre version part 2/4

 Onwards to North Berwick, this was one of my favourite places on the trip and co-incidentally one where we spent the most nights although that was more down to the weather than anything else, 55 mph wind gusts aren't fun when you are over 10 foot high and shaped like a brick !!

Anyway, I met a lovely group of spinners, members of the Haddington spinners and weavers group, no photos but they gave me an invite to go to one of their meeting which I hope to do in the near future.

Yarn bombing was very much in evidence down by the harbour,

You can find out more about the group responsible 'yarn cafe' here

I would also recommend the local knitting shop Chandlers, I treated myself to a ball of Jamieson  and Smith cobweb yarn ready for some fine lace knitting.

September tour - the fibre version part 1/4

 Now that I've pretty much recovered from the covid symptoms ( I never seem to teste positive but isolate anyway) I'm adding in a few details re textiles and fibres spotted on our last break.

First stop for thread related finds was Jedburgh, in the Jail to be more precise.

Where I found examples of Fine Cell Work on display and for sale. I remember this project being set up 25 years ago and I'm pleased to see that it is still continuing,

More details about Fine Cell Work can be found here,

The local knitting shop was closed due to holiday but I did spy some Fish in the window :-)

Later in the day I took my Nano into the Edinburgh Woollen Mill cafe across the road from the campsite and up to the town to a locals cafe and had some very enjoyable conversations with a party of visitors who used to work in the local mills and some ladies from Northumbria who were fascinated by the spinning.

I'm back, to be honest I've been back for a week

 Well just over a week but I've been busy washing , sorting, cleaning out the van ready for next time and spinning.

We went on a road trip at the end of August for a few weeks. Started in our favourite seaside town of Bridlington and wandered off into the Scottish borders.

Bridlington was busy with holiday makers, sunny and warm.

The model village reopened this year so we walked down from the campsite and wandered round with our quiz sheets hunting for characters and buildings.

Full of anticipation, we packed up the van and moved north to Gretna, the next day it simply poured with rain. The van turned into a damp hovel with steaming clothes haha. The weather improved a day later so we set off to explore, Ian to the Devils porridge museum about 1st Word War munitions factory and myself into the village.

Next stop was Jedborough, famous for its abbey.  Interesting campsite, long and thin with a track through it to the football pitches, early evenings could be lethal as parents picked up their youngsters from practise and totally ignored the 5mph signs.

Gentle walk into town by the river, small cafes and shops and a hill topped by the old jail.

We usually stay for three nights on each site unless the weather is too bad to travel so it was on to North Berwick next, what did I just say about the weather?

and the fog was to stay with us for a few days.

Finally, it cleared :-)

We both enjoyed being at North Berwick, we even stayed an extra night but that was due to the 55mph winds more than anything else.

Pretty place, friendly people and I did find some fibre type stuff but that's for a separate post.

Then it was off to Berwick on Tweed to visit a favourite book shop.

This was our last prebooked campsite so it was almost sticking a pin in the map for our next stop which turned out to be Bellingham which deserves its own post soon :-)

Back in Yorkshire, a quick stop at Leyburn, no photos as my camera battery failed then back to Bridlington where it all began.

Four weeks, nine campsite, around 900 miles and we are now booking the next one :-)