3 posts tagged “holiday”

J and I  decided we would probably spend most of our holidays in the UK this year to help local economies during the recession and cut down on flights for environmental reasons.  This is what led to our holiday in the Lakes originally although the final location was chosen because I haven't properly visited before and J wanted to show me round one of his main childhood holiday locations.  While we were there we also make a big effort to shop and eat locally, choosing local, independent  bakeries, butches, restaurants etc where possible rather than stocking up for cheap at Tesco's.  So far we have sampled the following, amazing local food:

    - Grasmere Gingerbread which is like a mix between a cake and a biscuit
    - Cumberland sausages
    - Herdwick Lamb
    - Eden Sunset local mature cheese
    - Local handmade butter
    - Local Bacon (very good quality - great flavour and no shrinkage)
    - Poppy seed bread
    - Smoked Stilton
    - Ewe's Cheese
    - Sticky Toffee Pudding (invented in the Lakes apparently)

All very yummy!

I also discovered a very small knitting and fabric shop about 5 mins walk from our apartment. There is a lady who weaves, spins and knits with yarn from her own sheep.  This was amazing and I just haunted this place.  She told me all about the diffferent breeds, and I got to watch her weaving rugs on a peg loom out of her own fleece.  I ended up buying 1.5kg of aran weight shetland wool in a natural cream colour from her own herd which she spun herself in an old mill.  I am planning to use it to foray into the world of dying and I want to make Wisteria out of it eventually. 

Of blogging that is as the knitting hasn't really let up.  My blogging has fallen off a little for a couple of reasons firstly my cat had a little accident on my macbook and I had to bleach the keyboard.  This has happened twice before and everything was fine but this time the keys "w", "s" and "c" stopped working and it is incredibly hard to type long and erudite blog entries without these letters.  This is being typed on my new plug in keyboard that I am making do with, but it took a while for me to order the new keyboard and set it up nicely.

Then work has been a lot busier lately and I have been working longer hours and more intense hours at that.  I can still knit on the way to and from work but I have lost the energy to blog or otherwise write.  I am therefore blogging this from my holiday in bonnie Scotland where J and I are sequestered away eating mutton from the farm we are staying on, hiking in the Pentland Hills and doing lots of creative writing.  Fantastic!

I need to catch up on all the items I have finished since I last blogged my FOs.

Firstly there is my Tree Jacket Jumper in  New Lanark Aran Yarn - colourway bramble.  The yarn is super cheap £2.99 for 100g of pure organic wool and the jumper is incredibly warm.  It was something I knitted to keep me warm up here in the hills and it was a total success, by far and away my best jumper to date - I think that Raglan decreases agree with me although they are not as nice and fitted as other shapes. I have however warn it almost everyday since I finished it.

Secondly the Eesti HIking Socks from Favourite Socks (more New Lanark Yarns (great value as I say).

Some plain 2x2 rib socks from my Dad (those size 13 feet kill me everytime) in Mountain Colours Bearfoot.

I made my first dishcloth from the Mason Dixon knitting book.

Lastly and very lately I made a carved Jack O' Lantern for Halloween as I do every year.  This is probably the most traditional design I have done for a while but I still gave it a little twist.

The trip to Scotland also forms part of my 101 in 1001 challenge (which I have also been a little slow on completely recently).  This was my challenge to visit Scotland on the Sleeper Train (no. 72) which I am pleased to say I have now completed.  It was great fun, relatively cheap, very green! and most importantly pretty comfortable.  it was a bit of a squeeze but it as amazing waking up in Scotland in the morning and feeling that all the travelling was done whilst I was asleep.  It made it feel like the travelling didn't happen at all.  The holiday itself is brilliant so far; great weather yesterday which gave us the perfect opportunity for a hike in the the Pentland Hills which is were we are staying and on the day we arrived (first thing in the morning off the train) we picked up our hire car and headed straight for Rosslyn Chapel.  We got there as soon as it opened and stayed until our cottage was ready for us to move in.  We are staying at Eastside Farm here which is incredibly beautiful and feels really remote (despite being a very short drive into Edinburgh.  

I have started planning our trip to Scotland (no 72).  I have always wanted to go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and much to the shock and surprise of Captain Boo I have never been.  J is equally keen to have a holiday in Scotland more generally as it is part of the world he is very fond of.  My compromise solution is to travel to Edinburgh for the last weekend of the festival and spend Saturday, Sunday and Monday enjoying the festival and the rest of the week doing the usual tourist activities in that part of Scotland once the crowds have gone home.  This of course has the added benefit of meaning that I will get to see lots of plays to tick off against challenge no 53.

Some seasons festival goers have warned us that we will wish we went for a week but there is always next year for that I want to ease myself in gently at first.  

A combination of environmental concerns and a frustrated sense of adventure has led us to decide to take a sleeper train from Euston to Edinburgh.  We could go up overnight and after work on Friday and wake up at about 7.30pm in Edinburgh ready to start the day with a big Scottish breakfast.  I love this idea as I have never been on a sleeper train before and have long had fantasies of going on the Orient Express (I read too much Agatha Christie).  It isn't too expensive either at about £99 each for a return.  I now only have to remember to book it 3 months in advance.

The schedule doesn't start filling up until May so I will hopefull be coming back after that with a list of things I want to see but in general I want to catch a play in a weird location (e.g. telephone box) just to see if it is all gimmicky or whether it enhances the experience, I would want to see some comedy and some poetry.

Now I just need to book accommodation, book the time off work, get myself over-excited and pick the cool, unusual and creative clothes I shall make myself for the trip!