Night in the zoo

My parents recently very generously bought me a surprise treat, beforehand all I was told was a date to be at their house. That night my boyfriend and I were handed a bag each, inside were a torch and an animal 'onesie' and told to guess what the treat was ........ a night in a zoo! 

 We arrived at Whipsnade Zoo early evening just as the zoo was closing to beautiful views over the Chilterns.

We were then shown to the super cute pods that were to serve as bedrooms for the night and to meet our neighbours the reindeers and the rhino

 We then were taken on a trip around the zoo and were lucky enough to feed the bongos (shown below and no I had no idea what one was before we got there! and the elephants, as well as visiting the meerkats, lazy lions and super cute baby cheetahs (I can hear you ahhhing from here!)

 After our evening meal we were led back to our pods by torchlight to see just how different the zoo is at night, the first stop and one of my favourites was the flamingos but we also went back to see the lions as well as wolves. The second picture, although hard to see is Spike the leader of the lion pride but I think in this pose he just looks like a lazy dog.

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 We woke early to go and help give breakfast to some of the animals before the zoo opened, we fed wild boars, bears, wolverines and naughty chimps.
 

 You are then allowed to spend the rest of the day in the zoo and thought I would show you a super cute baby pygmy hippo.

 images courtesy of M Armstrong 2012

I can honestly say it was one of the most magical experiences of my life and can't recommend it enough.

A proper English seaside holiday

I decided to make the most of the end of summer with a short trip to the seaside!  I think the North Norfolk coast is one of the most beautiful part of the English countryside. It combines both the stunning atmospheric coastline of places like Blakeney and Sheringham, with the classic, retro seaside town of Great Yarmouth where we of course managed to eat chips on the seafront and play pirate inspired crazy golf - what more could a girl ask for!

I also thought I would give the details of the amazing place we stayed the pigs in edgefield, we stayed in one of their spa rooms which included a sauna, outdoor bath and firepit, I would highly recommend it.

I will also blog about my exciting night in the zoo soon.

(images courtesy of M Armstrong)

True tranquility

Last week I took time out from the crazy world of knitting to visit hitchin lavender fields. It was like stepping back in time. If you are in the area I would thoroughly recommend visiting, it was a complete bargain as the entrance fee also included picking a bag of lavender and 5 sunflowers! All in all a perfect day in the English countryside.

 

The new autumn/winter season has now been launched by Rowan so I thought I would show you a couple of my favourite pieces from a brochure I worked on for them. The yarn is called Frost and whilst I am not usually a huge fan of fancy yarns this one really appeals, its a chainette construction with a metallic effect and is really lofty.

The boy is out of hospital and so normal-ish life is slowly returning.

During my visit to Woolfest I managed to meet one of my knitting heroes, the talented kate davies. So imagine how much it made my day when this little parcel arrived!

Its a kit for the lovely Betty Mouat Cowl! If you haven't seen the finished item already I would highly recommend hot footing it over to her website to have a look.

I also received another lovely gift from knit you next tuesday. I have been really lucky with all the support I have had from my knitting friends so thank you all so so much.

And the last piece of loveliness for today was that the poppies in my garden. My good friend emma orchis told me that if you cut them whilst they are in bud you can use them as cut flowers without them just falling apart and its true! So now I don't have to trudge through the mud and rain to appreciate them!

An unexpected change of plan

I am afraid I won't be posting about Woolfest right now as things didn't turn out as expected. My boyfriend and I made in through the floods to get to Wool fest - the Lake District was truly living up to it name! and managed a few hours before I had to take him to hospital :(. Consequently I had been spending most of my time at the hospital which is a truly unispiring place so I won't be posting pictures of that and instead I thought I would share a couple of things I am really liking at the moment.

1 - quince and co are introducing a new shawl a day all this week and they are all stunning!

2 - brooklyn tweed has just launched wool people 3 so yet more lovely designs to drool over

3 - spoonforkbacon great food ideas

Woolfest - the build up

I have set myself the challenge that all my work must be up to date by the end of this week. This is no small task I have the last touches to do on two books to come out this autumn/winter, design specs to complete for a project for Rowan for next summer and two brochures worth of first patterns for SMC next summer! But there is a light at the end of the tunnel as I have promised myself a trip to woolfest this weekend. I have just cleared out a lot of my stash and garments so it might be rather dangerous being surrounded by all that beautiful yarn!

I hope to have some pictures to post about it early next week but in the meantime I am afraid its just more loveliness from my recent hols