Monthly catch up - June 2026

So I am the very proud owner of a stunning British Short Haired cat.

 

Her name is Luna and she is already four.  I have no idea where the time has gone, from initially bringing her home from the breeders. 

She is predominantly an indoor cat, but I do put her on a harness and take her out in the garden and also in a cat rucksack, which unless you knew she was in there she is very well hidden as her coat is the colour of the rucksack.

So besides my own garden I do love to go to a local garden about thirty minutes drive from home.

 

The weather was grey and overcast, which was perfect as it meant the gardens would be quiet.  Luna is not used to lots of people, so is very wary, unless she's in the rucksack, where she lies and watches the world go by. 

 

The flowers where looking incredible.

The size of this Oriental Poppy shows how huge it is, as for scale there is the tiny fly sat on the petal.

 

 

I am a big fan of these hardy Geraniums, I have some in my garden, the only slight downside is that they can spread very easily.

 

 

Nature is such a wonderful place for inspiration.

 

The variety of colour on these leaves and then the red stalk that holds them I just love. 

 

 

On the Sunday I was back at my favourite spot, WWT Slimbridge.

 

As part of Pride month, they had put on mix of events, one of which was a talk by an ecologist Connor Butler 

Connor handed out a handheld lens, which you hold really close to your eye and oh my goodness the detail when you really slow down and observe things is incredible!

 

The above pictures are the lichen growing on the little bit of twig that Conor picked up.

 

 

I then spotted this stunning coloured beetle and watched it whizzing around on a piece of wood next to me.

 

 

I of course had knitting with me, and found a new place to sit and just take part in one of my lovely past times of people watching.

 

 

When I got home I had my first ever go at wet felting for the next module in my knitting course.

 

I really enjoyed the process, I just needed to have agitated the fibres more so that it shrinks to at least a third of the original size and all the fibres are fully bonded together. 

 

Week three was one I have been looking forward to for months, as it was my first trip away in my camper van this year.

 

I arrived on the Saturday and the weather forecast was for lovely, not too hot.

 

The campsite, is one where you pick your own pitch, which is not normally the case, when I have been away, so I picked a lovely one based by the trees, for shade and to be near the birds so I could hear them, morning and evening.

 

After setting up the first thing I did was take a walk, which I remembered from the previous year to the local beach, which was only fifteen minutes walk.

It was around 6pm and just perfect temperature.  Not too many people about, but enough that when sat was interesting to people watch, a pastime I love to do.

The next day I had no set plans.  I had brought my, new to me felting equipment, some hand spun and knitted sample I had made and fleece.  I spent a blissful morning sat in the van listening to the comings and goings and just felted away with no set pattern in mind.

For the afternoon, I again had a walk to the same beach, with a detour into the local church.

Just look how thick the walls are, they don't build places like this now! 

I had a dip in the sea, oh it was so refreshing and spent time looking at all the different coloured stones on the beach.  They are not the most comfortable to walk on, but I do love to just sit and look at them and wonder how old they are.

I also took a short walk along the coastal path which is eroding very rapidly.  I am not sure in a few years if that caravan will still be there! 

I made slow progress on my sock knitting as I was too busy relaxing and walking!

The following day I decided to do an eight mile walk along to the next town called West Bay.  I really enjoyed the walk, it was perfect walking temperature with a nice breeze.

For my final full day, I had planned to do a much longer coastal walk, but there was a very low sea mist, so I would hardly have seen anything.

So instead I decided to head to Lyme Regis.  I am not really a "town" person, but it was a lovely size and not too busy being the week day and not full sunshine.

There were lots of independent shops which were interesting to look in. 

I absolutely loved the mix of houses two, just fascinating the amount of history in one town.

When I got back I decided to head down to Hive beach again for the last time, and goodness look at all the different things I discovered on the beach!

Just a perfect trip away in my perfect home from home.

I have been long overdue a haircut and am lucky enough to know a great hairdresser, albeit he is booked up months in advance.  So on my last annual days holiday I took a trip over to Gloucester and was treated to a lovely hair wash, cut and blow dry, not something I do often!

I could not believe how long my hair is now, or how many shades of grey you can get!
 

As the weather was just perfect I had a little wonder around the town as I had time left on my parking.

I stopped by the Cathedral and saw two classic vintage cars outside as there was a wedding happening, what a venue! 

I also stopped off at the "rugby" cafe Mozo and had a delicious Hazlenut Latte and did a little more sock knitting.

For the last weekend of the month I stayed local.

On Sunday I met up with a good friend first at my favourite coffee chain Nero and we had a lovely catchup, before heading to a new craft market that has started up by small team who have gone from strength to strength in the space of a couple of years here in Cheltenham.

They started off with a haberdashery as a pop up shop whilst a building in the town centre (Cavendish House) was still open.

This building then shut and undeterred they set about finding a new venue.

Whilst the location is a short walk down the main high street, the building itself is very grand, with a huge parking area at the front.  Just right they felt to hold a craft market, so they set about asking vendors if they would like to be part of this new venture and of course many people applied.

So not only were there local craft stalls, but the haberdashery shop, which honestly I think literally covers every craft you could ever thing of was open too.

They had a lovely mobile coffee vendor and home made cakes and a very talented singer.  The weather, albeit a little windy was so much cooler than it had been, so just perfect for the visitors that popped by.

They are set to have three more confirmed fairs in July, August and September which is great.

On my walk home I spotted this incredible art.  

I have lived in this town for thirty eight years and it is finally starting to feel like home. 

See you in July!

Monthly catch up - May 2026

The beginning of May was a lovely treat as it involved a trip to a great yarn shop!

 

Alterknit Universe has been trading for eleven years.  Based in a lovely part of Somerset, between Bristol and Weston-Super-Mare, it combines hand dyed yarns from producers all very local to the shop.

 

They also stock the generic wool and have a great area for a weekly knit and knatter within the shop that takes place on a Sunday afternoon. 

 

 

Pixie Yarn  Sophie dyes small batches of the most stunning yarns from her studio.  Her background having studied textiles; printmaking, knitting, weaving, before focusing on embroidery.  Launching her business in 2017, Sophie has gone from strength to strength and now attends several shows a year.

 

 

 

Whilst I was there I purchased this recycled plastic hank and not only is it incredibly soft, but it is so easy to spin with.  I am looking forward to seeing my idea come to life. 

 

Along with the trip to the yarn shop also stopped off at this lovely cafe for lunch, was very restrained and didn't have a cake at Heathers Coffee Shop  although they looked very tempting!

Living in the Cheltenham we are lucky enough to have several festivals each year.

Although the town is synonymous with the racecourse and in particular the Gold Cup in March when thousands of people descend on the town, including a lot of Irish.   

Then in April the Jazz Festival comes to town.  I have never been before, but I did have a wander up this year to have a look around.  It was nice to hear the music coming from the tents and there were lots of places to sit and people watch.

It is interesting seeing a town I have now lived in for thirty-seven years as a visitor with the street art, the impressive buildings and the lovely yarn bombing done by The Kiwi Fruit Is Cute haberdashery shop, which runs a big variety of course and stocks almost everything you could think of when it comes to haberdashery.

The second weekend in May the weather was just glorious sunshine, not too hot and just nice to sit out in.

I spotted a lovely Lilly that had flowered whilst sat eating my breakfast and reading my current Agatha Raisin book, of which there are now 37.  I am only on book 7 so a way to go yet!

They are all based around the Cotswolds it a gentle murder mystery series and I enjoy as within the writing they do not change the names of places so you know where they are talking about.

On Sunday I headed over to the Forest of Dean, only thirty miles from home.  

Having looked at Google maps I spotted there was a footpath that ran parrell to the road.  It turned out to be a lovely walk and I came across river that runs down and meets the River Severn estuary.

Once again I used my Merlin app and recorded a variety of birds in a short time. 

Another fun thing I like to do is stand at a place and take a picture of where I am and then see in relation on the map what is opposite me.

I have almost always been on the other side, as this is where Slimbridge is, but it is great fun being on the Lydney side as you have a really wide view down the river to the two bridges and beyond on a clear day. 

Obviously I took knitting with me as I was working on my third project.  It was so nice to watch the birds and see the people walking along.  

I also do love my photography and really like how the black and white pictures have turned out. 

We then move in to a weekend I have been looking forward too for a long time.

I took a days holiday and joined for the first time in an event which incredibly, has been going on since 2009 and I was completely unaware until recently.

So I joined the a five mile walk that went on part of the Cotswold Way and then down into Winchcombe Potter.

We were given a guided tour by one of the three members of staff who work on the site.

The site is situated on private land which has had pottery on it since the 1800's.  Winchcombe pottery was established in 1926 on the site.

They have an on site shop aswell as online that sells a lovely range of pottery.

The ethos behind their prices stems back to the original Arts and Crafts where they believed beautiful items should be accessible to all, so the price you pay in the shop, would be the same price that a wholesale customer would pay to stock there items.

On the Saturday I then headed to a yarn show that is now in it's second year The Big Flock.

Held at UWE Frenchay campus it was a nice easy drive down the motorway.

Over the years I have been to many yarn shows, but I have to say I really enjoyed this one.  There were two halls with vendors, with a lovely mix of yarn dyers, stands with lovely knits on, along with many different accessories and buttons to buy and fleece for spinning.

I really liked how there were many places you could take yourself off and just sit quietly and people watch and relax too as especially on Saturday it was very busy. 

There were some beautiful knits, too many to photography, but I did get these.  I do love short row knitting and cables and the colour contrast was just great.

I have been following Pixie Yarn for a number of years, and she has only in the last couple of years started doing shows.

To me, I love that she brings along her sketchbook, which shows her inspiration and colour process, something you rarely see, and her eye for colours and creating variegated ones is exceptional.

 

 

Jeanette Sloan  is an icon in the knitting world, with over 30 years of experience, having taught at Knit Stars Season 6, where she taught bead knitting and now has a book dedicated to this.

I have recently on my last sample knitting used beads and they do add a lovely additional dimension to knitting. 

Sunday morning I attended a workshop run by Rachel of Cat and Sparrow.  I attended a workshop a couple of years back to learn drop spindle spinning, but this Turkish drop spindle was different to how I had learnt.

Amazingly Rachel produces her own spindles on a 3d printer and you can pick from a wide range of colours and sizes that she has available in her shop. Mine was the medium size called Persian that we used in the class.

For me what was a game changer was being able to ply the yarn and I am so looking forward to taking some fibre and my spindle when I go away and just sitting quietly spinning away!. 

My afternoon photography class was run by one of the organisers Jon.  It was a great class learning all about how important light, direction of leading the eye into a picture and many other elements in taking a good picture.

This was my image I took on the day, which I really like of my latest sample I have knitted. 

May is a great month as we get two bank holidays!  The weather has also turned from being extremely wet, to the forecast of temperatures in the high 20's reaching low 30's over the weekend.

So a perfect treat in the morning to take some time, which I have failed terribly in the past to just sit in the garden to have breakfast.

I do so love my garden, seeing what pops up and I really need to invest in some more big blousy Rose's from David Austin My only problem is I have no spare soil that is not planted, so they will have to thrive in a pot.

I then cycled into town, a journey that would take 45 minutes to walk, but only 15 to cycle, and in the heat a much better option!

While they are deciding what to do with the icon Cavendish House, a once incredible department store for 201 years, I still remember the amazing fall hall in the basement and the haberdashary upstairs, along with lots of lovely indepentent stores inside.  It then became a "pop up" stall, which I never really enjoyed, it seemed so out of place, with vast areas just left empty.  To now an empty building.  However thankfully the council commissioned for it to have a beautiful mural to be painted while they decide what to do with the building.
 

 

At the end of the Promenade is Neptune's fountain  unveiled in 1893 it has gone for a long time with the fountain not working.  So it was so lovely to see it back to it's former splendour.

I then headed to my local LGTB monthly cuppa to meet up with friends for a few hours and made some great progress on my second Stripes Are Us sock pattern that I designed.

Rejoicing in the fact that I would still have two days before returning to the "day job", and of course never failing to enjoy a trip to Slimbridge.  I stopped off at my favourite Caffe Nero and had the great surprise to see my lovely friend who had gifted me the best sticker for my mug, who made me, as always a delicious drink for my drive.

It is incredible how much the garden has changed and the new planting has just bloomed, if I have space, I really feel I should try and fit some Alliums in my garden, although I do remember planting a bulb, but not sure if it flowered!

I took my DSLR Nikon and normally use my 75-300mm lens, but this time I decided to just use the standard 50mm lens and work on getting good quality images using just this lens.  I am so pleased how they have turned out and some will be printed so I can view them again.  I find we rarely print images anymore, but this is something I have started to do as it is so lovely to get away from everything being digital.

 

There were so many baby Goslings it was so sweet to see them so close and watch them develop with there adult feathers coming through.

I would so love to work at Slimbridge, seeing the changes day in day out as the seasons change, but I am also happy that the site is only a 20 minute drive to home that I can pop to whenever I want.

For the last weekend of May I had no plans at all.

The weather was still due to be sunny, but so much cooler, thankfully as I am really not a fan of heat over low 20's temperature.

The morning was spent tidying the garden, sitting in it and reading and then as I always like to get out, my first stop was Castle farm shop on the outskirts of Evesham.

The garden section is an absolute gem, with a huge variety of plants and pots along with a great farm shop selling lovely fruit and veg.

 I treated the garden to two lovely grasses and three lots of Carnation flowers for my containers.

It was then just a scenic 12 minute drive to Snowshill Manor and garden.  I have been a few times over the years, and been into the house.

So this time I wanted to just enjoy the gardens.  I was amazed in the time I was sat knitting away in the shade enjoying the lovely view, how many people either in couples or family groups were here on holiday from a real mix of countries.  So I had no idea what they were saying.
 

There are so many places you can now purchase second-hand books, and the National Trust sites are one of these places.  

I have in the past added some great finds to my collection. 

I could not pass up the opportunity to take pictures of the about different pictures, which were all taken in the toilet block at Snowshill!  Never before have I been in a loo where they had such unusual displays on view!

Sunday was a much more overcast day.  But one I really enjoyed.

I am working on a new knitting design that I can take away in my van, as you always need a lovely knit to have when your away on your holidays.

Then in the afternoon, I took the short drive out to Tewkesbury.  The Roses were looking incredible and I was really lucky to hear the choir practising in the Abbey.  The atmosphere and acoustics in such a building always makes me appreciate how lucky I am to live near such an incredible building.

I can not believe we are now halfway through the year already!

So on with whatever fun June has installed for me, I shall report back.