Inspired to be crafty

After making Idris' mountain picture I kinda got the bug to felt some more. 

It's such a lovely free medium to work with- it comes together so easily and feels intuitive, almost as if the wool shape-shifts at the will of my imagination with very little effort consciously. It's  So completely opposite to knitting or sewing which, for me takes a great deal of concentration and effort.

Having a lazy lie in this morning in bed with William watching a movie on the kindle- I whipped up a little sheep using some wool tops- made sense to make a sheep!

I made a little pumpkin too- bit rubbish- but got me thinking about Halloween and maybe something to add to the decorations I've collected over the last years.

So, inspired by some Waldorf dolls on Pinterest, I made a little autumn witch character who I love!!!

Only a couple of puncture wounds inflicted during the course.

Maybe ill make her a little cat tomorrow.

Or a tiny cauldron or broom. Excited!!!

I love Halloween!!!

And look who's come down from the loft to join in- beautiful knitted witch I treated myself to last year- knitted by a clever lady in the knitting shop in town.

Idris

My sweet friend gave birth last week and called her baby boy Idris Tirion- named after Cadir Idris a beautiful mountain near by their home. Idris in legend is a giant who sat in his mountain chair and watched the starlit skies- a poet and astronomer.

I couldn't decide what to get her for his birth so decided to needle felt the mountain instead.

 

I really enjoyed doing the work and am happy with the outcome too. I hope little Idris likes it in the years to come.

Tirion means gentle- the perfect name to accompany the strength and power of the welsh giant.

I wish them a lifetime of happiness and joy and hope to be invited to their trips up the mountain path in the future x

Foraging walk with ranger steve

Surprise sunshine on what had been forecast to be a rainy Sunday, made our foraging walk a real delight.

'Yes man steve', the ranger at Baggeridge who never says no to any of my cheeky requests took us on a guided walk around part of the park pointing out types of fruits and trees and generally treating us to his fantastic knowledge of the park.

First up was 'chequers' or 'wild service tree' a rare tree for the area and one that bears fruit that can be used to make a type of jelly.

Can't remember the name if this tree but I do remember that it had the word 'purge' in it which is enough to stop me eating those berries!

Medlars! Again useful as a fruit to make jelly. Not native- somewhere in Europe I think they originate- or Asia? 

Mallow! So pretty, edible- gonna have to look up those properties as I'm sure there's something to be made from that.

Maple- Norwegian variety- we talked about trying to tap it for sap in the spring to have a go at maple syrup!

The many virtues of the humble nettle- as a spinach substitute, tea, soup, for thrashing cold Roman limbs!!! Or as in this photo making very strong rope or thread that can be knitted/crochet into clothes/fabric etc.. Who knew?

Beautiful boy and woody with an apple x

The poisonous yew tree- did you know the bark, needles and fruit seeds are poisonous but the actual snotty fruit is not? Still I'm not going to test that theory.

Yew is used to make a breast cancer chemo drug!!

The boys- James steve and mark- a countryside degree student who Came along for the trip.

The boys and their puddles- so muddy, so much fun!

Teaching us about Hazel/ for building, wattle an daub, fencing. Apparently it makes a wicked handle for a broom stick and if you tie the birch sticks on with a hazel twig it even flys!!! 'Not many branches you can do that with! So flexible steve wrapped it around the tree to demonstrate.

Muddy face!!!

Sea buckthorn - myriad uses, high vitamin content, make jams syrups etc.. Gonna look that up too!

Can't remember the name of this fungi- I'm purposefully not going to attempt any fungi eating- way too risky for me. 

Dee dee having a bath :)

We also found loads of sweet chestnuts which I'm going to make a nut loaf with for Xmas, might mix it up with some walnuts we found in himley too.

We got some sloes for gin and some rose hips for syrup.

We paid steve in cake and all went to the cafe for dinner.

Literally as we packed to leave the heavens opened and it chucked it down- torrential!!!

I'm writing this post as William snores in his car seat- covered in mud from he'd to toe.

Time to wake him up and chuck him in the bath.

Ace day!!!!!

A weekend of woodlands and parks

A lovely beginning to the weekend at Baggeridge with my sisters Jen and Nik and wills cousins Niamh and buster.

The usual route, fantastic sunshine! Duck feeding...apples for horses

And lots of puddles and sticks of course!

We acted out 'room on the broom' which confused Jenny a bit- she said he felt like she should have bought a ticket as the performance was so impressive! Ha ha

The next day me William and daddy went to Cannock chase for a bike ride and a walk.

It's really pretty there in the tall pine woods.

We saw so many different types of fungi

Played look for the gruffalo...again! Julia Donaldson has a lot to answer for!

We foraged for more blackberries- William is great at it now- but doesn't obey the rule of avoiding the low ones...eugh!

We found fairy palaces in a magical thicket with fairy dust all over the floor and letters and gifts left for the fairy folk.

Tiny doors! Exciting to open and see what the kids had left.

Monday is the day for the gang- great times as always. We took them all to Baggeridge for the first time. Hot choc and cakes then a ramble along.

William loves making the others laugh!

Pass the juice was a fave game

 Adventures in the undergrowth with puff balls and sticks!

Dee de and mommy x

Tom and mommy

Quick paddle before it got out if hand!

Playing who knows what bit it looked fun!

Will and his girl rose.. Too cute for words!

Lovely weekend xx

Foraging on bilberry hill

For bilberries and blackberries.

Look at these beauties! 

Will and I spent a morning in beautiful autumn sun up on bilberry hill in the lickey hills in Birmingham. 

I'd never been before and decided to explore as we dropped of my bezzy Jude at a conference in brum and were really near by. 

Ayls Fowler's lovely book 'the thrifty forager' had a page on bilberries with photos of bilberry hill and it had been on my mind to go there when we could.

It's such a beautiful place- views of the city on one side and of the countryside the other. 

It took a while for me to find the berries as they are so small and hide well beneath the leaves but once my eye was trained I found hundreds!

It's lovely meditative foraging- you have to get knee deep into the bushes and really poke around and feel your way. No thorns or prickles in this beautiful plant- maybe a spiders web or two.

Bilberries are really similar to the blueberries I've grown in the garden- smaller, an more bitter when raw but William loved them just the same.

We also found lots of blackberries- they made a tasty crumble with the apples scrumped  from my friends garden.

We found a secret fairy door in a random tree- I was so excited- William indifferent! Ha ha- we couldn't open the door- guess we didn't have a fairy key!

He left some cones he found for the fairy folk and carried on picking his berries and chasing around in the woodlands.

We also found a fairy toadstool! 

What a magical morning- I think the fairy folk are doing a grand job of protecting and nurturing this beautiful place- and the park rangers probably help them out too!