Glastonbury, referendum and Tyntesfield

It has been a rather crazy week;

Wednesday - build up to the wonderful Glastonbury Music Festival (the largest of its type in the world) - after so much rain, the festival site was a sea of mud. OK, nothing new here, we had been here before, with English weather anything has to be expected. And yes, we always get a huge amount of traffic on the local roads.

But this year was much, much worse. With vehicles being delayed by the condition in getting onto the festival site, the local roads just clogged up. Some people were stuck in their cars for 12 - 14 hours, hardly moving during that time. The organisers were blaming festival visitors for coming too early, despite the fact they had asked them not to. 

Many locals could not get to work, school buses were running late or not at all, some students missed their A level exams. It took DH and me only an hour longer than usual to get from DD's house home; our knowledge of small country lanes saves us from being stuck too.

Glastonbury Festival is good for the local economy, but what happened on Wednesday wasn't good for anybody, locals or visitors. 

The Festival is well in under way now and all is forgotten, but the local council will want some answers, how to avoid the same happening in the future.

Thursday - THE REFERENDUM DAY - after all that campaigning by both for and against UK leaving EU,  we get to vote.
This hasn't been a clean campaign, many half truths or simply lies told by both sides. I have lived in this country for nearly 48 years, but it took me by surprise that so much hate and racism was being whipped up.
The murder of MP Jo Cox seems to had been a tragic result of that.

Friday morning - the results are in - UK voted to leave EU. A sad day as far as I am concerned.

Not a decisive vote  - 52% for leaving, 48% to stay - this is a very divided nation. And about 30% of those eligible did not vote. Generally there is a huge mistrust of the political establishment.
Our Prime Minister has announced his resignation.
 At the moment none us know what will happen next, and only history will show if UK's decision to leave EU was good one or not. 

I have tried to stay away from the politics on my blog in the past, because that is not what my blog is about. But my blog is also my journal, so I feel I have to acknowledge such an important day.

I have my blogs printed and hopefully my blog books will stay in the family; my 11 year old granddaughter is already reading them.
Apparently it was mainly the older generation which voted us out.  I want my grandchildren to know that this grandmother voted to stay in. As one who witnessed an invasion of my country of birth by foreign armies (not somewhere in the Middle East or Africa, or the other side of the world all together, but right in the centre of Europe), I wish for my grandchildren to live in a secure Europe. My believe is, that if we "play" together, we are unlikely to fight each other. Again, only the future will show...

OK, I am getting down from my "soapbox" now.

I was fortunate to be able to spend the rest of Friday with DD and grandchildren.

The children had a free day, because the teachers at their school volunteered to help out at Glastonbury (for a fee, which will boost up school funds). So we packed a picnic and drove to Tyntesfield (NT property - one of their most recent acquisitions ) near Bristol.

With the forecast rather unpredictable, we were prepared for anything. As it turned out, we had a lovely day. 

There are play areas for children in the woods;

               We didn't go inside the house this time, but DH and I have been here before and you can see some pictures  here .

It was a nice day after all; even picnic (between rain showers) was a success!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2016

more of Les Fleurs du Mardi

After a brief and oh, so lovely, summer spell, here we are again - rain and more rain, and it is not very warm either. 

So stitching in the garden is on hold, for now, but not for too long, I hope.

It is fair to say that the garden needed a good soak, but it is looking lush enough now, 

so can we have some sunshine again, please.

But some stitching indoors - block no 10 for Quiltmania's BOM, 

Les Fleurs du Mardi.

One of our small garden friends; this bee was clinging to the scabious flower for a long time, probably too cold.

 Just a quick note re my "followers" problem, mentioned in my last post.

It seems that this has more to do with my PC then Blogger, because when I view bloggs on my tablet, I can see my followers in my sidebar, but when I go back to PC - no show; strange. 

Why this should suddenly happen, I have no idea, but at least I now know that I haven't lost you!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2016

summer baking

I like when the summer fruits start coming to our shops; apricots and English plums are my favourites, I like eating them and baking with them.

Apricots are here, plums we still have to wait for.

I like recipes from this book, Amber Rose is using honey and maple syrup instead of sugar - the result is just enough sweetness.

Today I am trying out a new recipe -

but using apricots instead of nectarines (or peaches, suggested as an alternative); I think that apricots, specially cooked, have much stronger flavour.

Honey instead of sugar, and ground almonds, so to be able to cut down on butter - lets see what happens.

Result -

what can I say? Success -

just moist enough without being too wet.

Delicious served with a good quality (usually less sharp) creme fraiche.

I will definitively make this again.

What is the blogger up to now? Not sure when this happened, but I seem to have lost all my followers from my side bar!?

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk  2016

it rained last night

 and most of the day today

                                           Another block (no 9) for Quiltmania's Les Fleurs du Mardi is finished.

I wish you all a safe stitching week!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2016

stitching in the garden

It must be summer, my "summer playcloth" has come out of the storage. If you have been following my blog for a while, you will know this project - it comes out only in the summer, when it is warm enough to enjoy stitching in the garden.

The plan is to fill in each block with a different embroidery or applique, or something like that.

I have also included embroideries from women of Afghanistan (Afghanistan Initiative ), and from South Africa ( Tambani Project ). There is no particular plan or pattern here, I make it up as I go along, that's the fun of it.

 At the moment I am playing with Shishas.

I am not sure where it will go from here, yet.

We have been having some good summer weather for about a week now and the best place is our little garden.

Last week I finished another block for Chateau Hexagon,

and with my granddaughter's "help" we made her a new summer skirt. 

The garden has really come alive now,

A box arrived this week from Wildegoose Nursery , with several new viola plants.

Chelsea Flower Show 2015 - one of the exhibitors I saw on TV were a lovely young couple, who won Silver Gilt Medal that year, for their lovely violas. 

I went straight online, but so did many other people; I managed to get this pretty blue one, which gave us a wonderful show all summer.

This year I got my order in early, and today I planted all my new violas into pots.

I will show you the progress as they grow.

This beautiful viola is one our last year's finds and already in flower this year.

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2016