Monday 9 July 2012

Tea and Crochet

I was trying to think of a lovely title for this post, as it is a post about lovely things, but inspiration seems to be lacking today! Perhaps I should have called it lovely tea and lovely crochet!
Today is the first day of our week off properly, as we would have had the weekend off anyway. The Grand Prix yesterday was amazing, and as spectacular as the driving was, there was also a display by the Red Arrows which was breathtaking. The rain held off for the race, and we had amazing seats, but afterwards it did rain a lot and was very muddy, but it all added to the experience!
It took twice as long to get home as it did to get there, as a National Express coach had broken down on the M1, so we arrived home rather tired, and decided that today we would have a gentle day.
We had lunch together in town, and then got coffee to take away and took a long stroll through the park. The park in Chelmsford is really pretty and seems to go on forever. There is a small part near to the town, which is where the crocuses blossom each year, and then you walk along the river and under a bridge before you end up in the much larger park, where there is a really big pond. It is too small to be a lake, but too big to be a pond...I wonder if there is a name for it?! There were lots of ducks wandering about, some baby Cootes were peeping away, and the scruffy grey looking cignets we have been watching growing up are almost full sized swans now. We sat by a weeping willow and breathed the slightly cool, slightly damp air, and just felt really relaxed.
On the way home, we noticed new shops are springing up along the railway arches. We popped into the new delicatessen, and I was really excited to see they stock Tregnothan Tea. I enjoyed a pot of this a few years ago when we went to Claridges for afternoon tea, and I wanted to buy some to bring home, but they didn't have any. When I looked online, the postage and packing was more than the tea, so you can imagine how pleased I am to have a local source of it! At £3.75 for a little box it isn't a tea to drink every day, but is really, really lovely. It is refreshing and light, and is the only tea grown in the UK. We are enjoying a pot right now. It isn't quite raining yet, but it feels like it soon will be, so it feels like the perfect cosy afternoon.
While I was watching Three Go Mad, the new programme from River Cottage the other evening, I felt slightly at a loss as I have run out of wool for my crochet ripple blanket, and although I ordered more it has not come in yet, and although technically I am knitting Noah's Ark still, I have hit a dry spot for inspiration. I have been thinking that I need a small project to keep me amused, just something quick and easy that I can work on, but wasn't sure what. I finally visited www.themakingspot.com and downloaded a free pattern for a crochet necklace. One of my friends had made a crochet collar earlier in the year that I thought looked really nice, and I have some background thoughts about buying or making the same dress in a variety of colours, and then customising with different buttons, trims, etc, so I am going to sit and drink tea and crochet a collar necklace this afternoon.
I have also discovered a lovely new blog, and plan to make this for dinner tonight http://tastyherbalist.typepad.com/modernhousewifevoli/2012/01/smokey-meal.html with a few tweeks, as I have spinach but not kale at home today, and some River Cottage flatbread. That seems like the perfect overcast Monday food to me.
Blogger seems to object to putting paragraph breaks in at the moment, so apologies if this comes out as one big clump of text. I have tried telling it in html but it definitely seems to have its own mind!
I hope that it isn't raining where you are, and that you have a delicious pot of tea to drink, love Mimi xxx

2 comments:

Debbie said...

Isn't blogger a pain? Sometimes I can't get my photographs to line up, it wants to have one in a certain place and WILL NOT let me put it where I want it no matter what I do. Other times it decides to put huge gaps between my paragraphs and won't let me change them. I think we need a less capricious blog host!

I spent a lovely day with friends in Chelmsford park once, I seem to remember my son getting soaked playing in a little stream. Of course I didn't know there was going to be water and so was completely unprepared with dry clothes! Fortunately he soon dried out in the sun.

I think next time we are over that way I will check out that delicatessen, and buy some of that Tregnothan tea. I'd like to try it, and I also think it would be a nice treat to send to a friend in the USA.

Have a lovely week off!

Dinahsoar said...

Lunch in town followed by coffee to go and leisure in the park...very nice way to spend a day of vacation.

I haven't been able to crochet for months due to a trigger thumb--will be getting it surgically repaired in a couple of months and am looking forward to crocheting again. (I think crocheting is what caused the problem--due to overuse, when I took up crochet I was a mad woman with it, and did far too much). The collars sound nice. I like projects like that, which can be completed in a short time frame.

Blogger often drives me mad...I usually manage to get it to cooperate but not without a lot of frustration on my part. The trick to the paragraphs seems to be putting more spaces in between the lines than you need, and that on the html page. It takes me several tries of inserting the extra spaces, then previewing only to see nothing has changed, redoing, and on and on. Very aggravating and such a waste of time. I should just let it go.