Germany, the Black Forest

I would love to share photos of the black forest, we found some really beautiful roads to ride along but pictures of trees flashing by are simply not interesting,
We decided to stay overnight at Freudenstadt as it looked a reasonable size town on the map although without wifi we couldn't really check it out in detail so we did it the old fashioned way. Ride into a town, look for hotel signs or tourist info office, follow them , get lost, get off the bike, tum it around and try again!!! Usually we look for a small hotel/guesthouse near the town centre with somewhere to park the bike out of sight. The bike may be old but its our only means of getting home !



So when we pulled up outside this hotel, my first thoughts were 'ok, well out of our league here, lets try somewhere else' but then I thought ' we're grown ups now (that always comes as a shock !) lets just see how much for one night'

We stayed to enjoy the luxury for a change, bathrobes and slippers provided, baby grand being played softly in the bar, chandeliers in the dinning room although we did feel a little uncomfortable being welcomed in to look around wearing scuffed black leathers and a days worth of road muck!





The view accross the forest was impressive as was the blue sheep on the gardens on the other side of the road!!
 

 

We ate in the town, admired the fountains, enjoyed ice creams and earmarked this as a good base for touring round the Forest area in the future as we had to be in Ludwigsburg the next day for the highlight of our holiday.





more soon xx

finish the washing up and stack the pots....

 neatly on the ceiling...Thank you :-)

hehe xx

Road Trip....France....Buildings

So September started with me packing our bike with clothes and toys ready for a short road trip across the Channel. A few days less then usual due to family commitments but still plenty of time to pack in a few varied destinations. These post will probably be photo heavy as Biker Ted will be writing up the trip with all the details that I usually forget to put in!!

Our first destination was Colmar in France, a very picturesque town in France where , if you stare at the houses too long, you begin to wonder if its the houses leaning or yourself!!



our hotel for two nights



Bakery



Detail from the shutters

 

see what I mean by being a bit wonky!



A stream runs through the town



Small passage ways are always interesting although I had to wait a day for this one as the dustbins were out when we got there.



Still pretty at night time.

More about how we passed our time in Colmar (other than sitting in bars)  in the next post.xx

Lowdham Show, Part two, the sheepy bit!!

OK, so the real reason for being at the show was to do our spinning thing on behalf of the Notts branch of the Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers which makes us sound a whole lot stuffier than we really are. There were just six of us around today and unfortunately two had to leave early but it still left enough wheels to interest people in what we were doing.
Note the umbrellas , not just for decoration given the Met office forecast of heavy showers which fortunately didn't turn up until after we got home.

ermm..the two that left early had Ashford spinning wheels, these three are also Ashfords so where was my wheel, all on its own outside the tent and sulking.

I have been told off by other spinners about the state of my wheel, the dinner lady stickers are not very becoming, the other stickers just ruin it, look at the state of the wood and where is your wooden thingy that should be on the end of the bolt bit sticking out at the back??? Well, this wheel has been dragged halfway across the country on more than one occasion, its been on buses, trams, cars, trains and pulled along on a little trolley. Its been used in pubs, clubs coffee houses, art galleries, office staff rooms, fibre festivals,outdoor events, on camp sites and an ukulele festival to name just a few.

Why was my wheel sulking? because it's a Kromski?? no. it's because I was spending my time giving some tender lovin care to this..

 

And this cute little wheel belonged to the owner of theses lovely beasts :-)

Well, the rain mostly stayed away, lots of people came to see how to spin mainly because of a TV programme shown last night about spinning and weaving and we all had a good giggle including the clown who remembered us from last year when we got him spinning on a drop spindle whilst on stilts!!

Please forgive me if you have seen this picture before, all in all, a grand day out!!

Lowdham show, Part one, the flowery bits!

I've just got back from Lowdham horticutural show ( near Nottingham) where there guild have been spinning in public and avoiding the rain.(just!!) I grabbed the chance to disappear into the show Marquee for a few mins to look at the flowers and veg.

Look Hairy leaves!!

And they had a lovely section for childrens entries.

And more flowers !!

 and spikey thingies!!

coming soon, part two...the sheepy bits !!

at long last.....

The Celtic band is finished.......

eventually this will be a ukulele strap , once I have worked out how to attach it or bought the parts to do this.

I have many more projects in mind but also have a road trip looming so for once house work type stuff is going to have to be done!!

Have a great weekend xx

collectors item?

I fancied doing a bit of hand stitching tonight and reached into my box for some wool to stitch onto felt and saw this label..

so do I use it or not ?

shopping

During our wander round the festival last weekend, Bikerted spotted a book for me, well two books but I declined on one of them. This one is dated 1921/22 and is part of the collectors series.

 I think this may be my bedtime reading for a while and if I come across anything intriguing, I will share it with you.

 Also this beauty came through the door and we have been hanging our noses over it ever since.

In the mean time, I am still working on converting this

using this

into this

Only about 3 feet to go then I can play with the new patterns or would it be easier to get another loom???

Have a great weekend!!

a bit damp last weekend.

Hi
This post was going to be about the Nottingham Riverside Festival but like a complete dope I forgot to put a memory card in my camera. So all I can say is that the music was good, I did some spinning whilst in the folk tent, met hubby later in the afternoon and watched the street performers. The general idea was to go back the next day and take photos......until I saw the weather forecast!


Plan b...take two spinning wheels, one drop spindle and a set of knitting needles ( between four of us) into a local bar and chat.

The rain came down, the white spots are hail :-)

 and continued to come down

but coffee soon put things right ( and cider and beer)

We rounded the day off with a meal in the evening, perfect end to a lovely afternoon, thanks Laura, Rich and Pete xx

what I did last weekend...

Sun, picnic,music,chat,friends,bar,club,music,booze,taxi,home,happy,bed. Thanks guys xx

Down on the farm.... I spy with my little eye

a viking fighting

a girl with a very long bow

a metal bird

a chic scarecrow

chickens hiding from the sun

a man with an owl

some strange slow motion martial arts

all down at Stonebridge City Farm Grand Open Day