The weekend before last was lovely and sunny and so we joined a walk from Middleton-in-Teesdale. we climbed steeply up the Hudeshope valley into the old lead mining areas. These hillsides are heavily scarred with "hushes" and "dumps". The hushes form deep vees in the slopes where the soil was washed away from the lead ore and the waste dumps make the rest of the landscape look very lumpy. The double line across the middle of the picture is the dry stone walls on either side of the road. 
The mineshops still remain but in ruins. Ponies were so valued that six lived in the stables on the ground floor of this one at Coldberry and 42 miners lived on the next floor up. They were easier to come by! 
The roof went on this week and it is all beginning to look less like a building site and more like a building.
I have finished spinning and knitting the merino tops I bought. They have become a large shopping bag. It spent a few days being just that, because I have never felted in the washing machine before and as I have a front loader, I needed to read the manual to work out the pause mechanism. Also, after such a lot of spinning and knitting I was a bit worried that it would be a disaster. 
But it worked. It is now out in the sun drying, with newspapers inside to keep the shape right.
So I have embarked on spinning the blue-faced-leicester tops. There is a mixture of natural shades and I have spun and plied them randomly and am knitting them into a jumper. I always hope I shall look like the model in the picture, when I wear my version.I shall spin more today so that I have some knitting to take south to visit C. I haven't been far from home for a few months and it will be fun to get out on the road again. DJ will stay and keep an eye on the cat and the builders and I shall do the same next week when he goes off visiting.
We are keeping up with our resolution to go to the gym three time a week and although I'm much the same size and weight, I feel fitter and see no reason to give it up. We shall also walk more again as the weather improves but I excuse myself in wet weather by complaining that it is hard to see in the rain when you are wearing glasses.
I don't like wind either.
Cheers for now
Gillian
6 comments:
Not to be annoying, but I really liked the bag before it was felted..............
I "felt" that I would look a bit neanderthal dragging it along the ground when it was full of shopping. Boom Boom!
Cheers Gillian
what a fab little extension.
it's coming along beautifully.
can't wait to come and walk through those french doors.
Weather's been beautiful in London this week. Almost got a tan by the river in Hammersmith today... almost.
PS. I used to skip uni classes whenever it rained!
Amazing landscape - lunar almost. There is talk of making a Cornish tin mine accessible to tourists - shan't be going down, but I do find that sort of thing interesting.
If I buy from a clothes catalogue I always expect to look like the model.....
Your bag is beautiful! Love the wavy landscape picture. I'd rather cut off a digit than go underground. The roof and skylight have me curious and I can't wait to see inside pictures. Scritches to Tigger!
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