So that was Christmas

 Hi,

Armed with a bag of food ( no chocolates, no alcohol )we made our way to Ferry Meadows campsite just outside Peterborough. This site is a bit of a favourite with us and this was our sixth visit, in fact it was our 3rd and last Christmas visit as we were advise that it will no longer open for the winter.

The reason that we return here is that the site is only about 60 mile away and is next to Nene country park giving us both to go out and explore, Ian on his bike and myself by foot (via the parks cafe)

Christmas day itself was a bit dismal and wet but looking at the forecast on boxing day we booked a extra night and headed out into the park.

Knitting wasn't on the agenda as I wanted to make some progress with the big red thing, my challenge is to get it finished asap especially since its been on the go for a couple of years now,

We didn't avoid Christmas altogether as there was an invite to join the wardens for dinks and mince pies on Christmas Eve and a knock at the door Christmas day by two wardens armed with Buck Fizz, thanks guys xx of course we accepted the offer.

Next post will be in the New year, speak soon.

Good news on the creative front

 Hi,

My wrist is beginning to feel a lot better and I have spun a couple of skeins of lleyn as I suddenly realised that I am going to be short of yarn to knit with during our upcoming road trip.

I've started on the lace edging and made some small amount of progress on the cross stitch however on the very hot days I've not felt like doing anything really constructive.

On the cooler days I have picked up my needles and knitted a pair of mitts as I'm still aiming to use up as much of my hand spun oddments as possible.

 This weekend we've pitched up at Ferry Meadows camp site just outside Nene country park, one of our regular sites.

The main reason for this trip is to make sure that everything is ok with the van .It's been serviced, new timing chain in the engine and new gas pipes around the living area. Even the aircon has been regassed but since we've never used it we were completely unaware that it needed doing.

We emptied the van before the service, giving me chance to check through all the trash that had accumulated during the year and now I'm making sure that everything has gone back in. Nothing worse than setting off and forgetting the oven shelves or pillows.

We've been into Peterborough this morning on the Nene Valley Railway which was running diesel rather than steam today ( maybe because of the fire risk ?) and now we are back at the van. I'm thinking about doing some spinning until tea time..

Whilst in Peterborough we visited the Cathedral which turned out to be quite surreal as there was a visiting dinosaur exhibition so rather than quiet choral or organ music, we had the roar of dinosaurs!

We spent an hour or so wandering round the town before heading back for the train.

The rest of the afternoon was spent spinning with some cute visitors.

An early evening walk in the park followed, a look at the Roman ruins and the wild life spotting board.

We had seen an quick flash of green and the board confirmed a rather unusual visitor to the park.

Did you spot it? Ring Necked Parakeet, not usually amongst our regular birds here in Cambridgeshire.

We are now back home, looking at a pile of stuff to sort out, and a few things to order before the next trip. Next weekend is a Bank Holiday so I'm not sure where I will get to whilst Ian is away on his bike.

Speak soon x

warning.. Almost non crafty blog post

 Hi

We managed to get back out in the van this weekend and headed off to Ferry Meadows campsite next to Nene Park near Peterborough. We have used this site a few times, a couple of Christmas visits and a couple of pre holiday van checks. This time it was a pre holiday/post service check to make sure that everything has gone back into the van and in the right hidey hole or cupboard. Most things were ok except that we didn't realise that the dealer had left the water tank full ( usually they drain it down after doing checks ) so by the time we had added out customary weekend amount it was almost over flowing !! At least we now know that the gauge works.

As for forgetting things, human error came into play as Ian forgot his book ( that he's desperate to finish) and I forgot the rice so we ended up with bacon and veg baguettes on Saturday night rather than the bacon risotto dish that I had planned.

Friday afternoon I sat spinning and managed to spin and ply 120gm of Texel, not a bad afternoons work.

The nest day we headed off to the park, Ian on his bike and myself on foot.

I was too early to catch the small train but did catch a glimpse later.

you just have to love a train timetable that reads.. trips every 10 min from 11 am until it starts to rain !

Apparently I was spotted walking into the bushes, in my defense, I was taking photos of pretty things.

and the wildlife, in the swans case very wild as she was letting everyone know that they were her cygnets

A very different species of swan was also spotted on the lake.

The soundtrack for the weekend came from two other engines making their way up and down the track at the back of our van, we couldn't see them but could definitely hear them.

The steam locomotive is Bahamas, built in 1934 and on loan to the Nene Valley railway from its usual base on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. The second is a Class 14 Diesel, 1212 Swedish Railcar which is really quite pretty for a diesel.

Sadly we had to come home today but at least Ian had some company whilst draining off the full tank of water. 

And I did get some knitting in whilst enjoying a cuppa at the station.