Don't be scared of colour

I often have e-mails from customers worrying about whether the have the right colour for a project.
And also worried about whether one colour will go with another.
So I thought I'd write a blog post about it.

Firstly DON'T be scared of colour.
I bet you are not really scared of colour, even though you think you are.

Have you ever bought a dress and then needed to find a pair of shoes to match?
The dress and shoes probably aren't the same shade, its difficult to find leather and cloth in the exact same shade as both materials are dyed in a different way, so different dyes will be used.
Have you ever planned flower beds? You may know you wanted a pink here and a yellow there, but  nature decides for its self and even if you think you know the colour, you will end up with a different shade.
Or have you planned a wedding with a colour theme?
Buying bridesmaid dresses, napkins, flowers etc to match will end up a series of similar shades, but not the exact colour.

The wool photo below shows you an example of several different shades that go together and would be interchangeable.

See its not so difficult afterall, you do it all the time without even realising it.

For some reason knitters and crocheters can get incredibly stressed about using the right colour for a project. Personally I don't think there is right colour, as colours look different in different light.
If you are trying to use a similar colour, compare the new one to the old by squinting at them, its easy to tell which are the wrong colours as they will stand out from the right ones.

This bit is the advice to my customers who worry about getting the right colours for my designs.

I am lucky because I have a huge stash that is also known as shop stock, so I have a massive amount of colours to choose from. But I quite often find I have run out of colour and have to replace it with a different shade,.
If you look at my designs carefully you will find that I use lots of different dyelots in the same project.
Its easier to blend colours with crochet motifs, especially multi coloured ones.
For example the photo below, I have raised the contast so it's more obvious. The 2 motifs marked with crosses have backgrounds that are slightly different shades, it more obvious if you see the blanket in the flesh.
But its not too obvious for the motifs to stand out as being wrong.

You might be making a 3 round motif, the 1st round is pink, the second is purple and the third orange, maybe you run out of pink, you can add a different shade of pink, the motif will still look right with the others, there will just be a subtle difference.
I like the subtle differences I think they give a project more depth and detail, without much effort.
Another good thing about motif's is that you are only making a small piece 1 at a time, rather like jigsaw pieces. If you find a oolour that is wrong you can easily start again with a new colour.

I hope this post makes sense, I have a lot to say about colour, but its very jumbled in my head.
I really need to write it all down and do some proper blog posts about it.

New book?

I promised to tell you more about my colour experiment plans.
As you may have already realised I am doing lots of work with a triangle motif.
All of my recent designs use the same motif, sometimes I use 4 rounds, sometimes 6.
But its still the same basic motif however many I use.

The difference between each design is colour, shape and pattern.
I am so obsessed with the motif and what I can do with it.

This is the starting point for all my designs

So far I have made 2 lap blankets and am working on a lace scarf.
But I have layouts for another 3 blankets, 2 shawls and 2 scarves and I think if I play with photoshop for too long there are more designs lurking.

I'd like to do a book of some of my triangle designs, but am not sure if people want books on colour, shape and patterns. I haven't seen any, but that doesn't mean to say there aren't any.
I've always been a huge fan of Kaffe Fassett, his thing is colour and pattern, I could spend hours looking at his books, not for his knitting patterns, but for the colours and shapes.
I'm not saying I'm want to be Kaffe, but I would love to be as talented and as inspirational.
People love Kaffe, so maybe my book would be ok.

I am worried that you might be disappointed with a crochet book with only one motif in it and that pretty diagrams and photo's might not be enough.
What do you think? I'd love to know.

Although I would say I am going to be guided by your opinion's before I make a decision as to whether I should do a book or not.
But I think I'm far too obsessional to listen.
But I am really interested to know what you think........

More time....

I follow some knitwear/crochet designers on Twitter, they talk about their new designs and pattern writing exploits.
A lot of them seem to publish new patterns every few weeks
I want to do that too, I wish I had the time, but I don't

I can't publish patterns every couple of weeks for two reasons.
The first is because most of my designs are blankets which take weeks and weeks to make.
I could get them made for me so I could design more, but to me they are like pieces of art and I don't know what they are going to be until I have finished them.
I change my mind about colours and stitches and shapes designing and refining as I go along.
So blankets are my first stumbling block.

The second is I'm too busy.
My mornings are spent running NDS and dyeing, in theory my afternoons should be spent designing.
But most day's my mornings finish at 5 pm and thats only beacuse we have to go back down the hill to the post office to catch the last post.
If it wasn't for the last post they would probably finish about midnight.
Occasionally I manage a whole afternoon and very very occasionally I manage a whole day.
So all my designing and crocheting is done in the evenings, we tend to stay up late, Phil knitting and me crocheting.
Not because we want to stay up late, but because we want to cram as many hours of playing with wool in as we possibly can.

I love my life and wouldn't want to do anything else.
I live the dream even though its hard work, every second is worth the fight.

But even still I get slightly jealous, every time someone talks about their latest pattern and shares photo's.
Wish I had more time.......

Spare a thought for Verity

I'm sitting here on my nice snuggly sofa crocheting in front of the fire.
From where I sit I can see the top of Summer House Hill, its not very summery today, its cold and bleak with horizontal rain, we have snow forecast so its going to be even bleaker soon.

The bleak coldness reminds me of the day we went to see Verity a couple of weeks ago, I meant to blog some photo's at the time, but then Ted got ill and died and I forgot.
But I've remembered now so here is the blog post.......

Verity is a 65 foot bronze Damien Hirst sculpture, she was stands at the entrance of Illfracombe harbour.
She was erected last October and we have been meaning to go and see her ever since.
We finally found the time just after Christmas when all our babies were here.
It was a bitterly cold bleak day, the sea was boiling, Verity must of been freezing, but I'm sure she's a lot colder today.

Orange Triangle Obsession

I promised a post about orange triangles yesterday, so here it is.

I am struggling with an orange triangle obsession, at the moment they are the only thing I want to make.
My first orange triangle's design was Lecchi that I also blogged about yesterday.
Here it is in case you missed it.

I finished Lecchi and immediately started on a new blanket, which at the moment is still secret so I can only show you tiny detail shots.
This new blanket started off with a Withypool/Woody Bay background.
It doesn't look too bad in the photo below, but this is the centre and the further out it went the worse it got.

I kept crocheting even though I wasn't 100% happy and eventually decided that I hated it so much I had to frog it, so I did and replaced all the Withypool/Woody Bay background. with Lundy (orange).
As a result I was a million times happier :-)
And I'm extra happy with the finished piece.

Number 3 design of my orange triangle obsession was frogged.
It was going to be an aran blanket, I tried sooooo hard not to use orange triangles, I wasn't happy so I kept frogging. Eventually the wool looked Like I had used it to clean the floor with and I still hated the blanket.
So I binned it all.
Sometimes things just don't work and I have found its better to bin and walk away than keep frustrating myself further. I hate doing it, but it always makes me feel better when the binning process is done and dusted.

I started crocheting number 4 design last night.
Its made with Dazzling lace, I didn't think I had a Lundy so thought I was safe with an slightly orange/gold instead.
But today I discovered some Lundy Dazzling Lace in stock that I didn't realise we had, so I'm taking a skein home with me. I'm kind of hoping it will be too bright so I can't use it..
The design will be a ripple scarf, sorry the photo is a bit rubbish, it was taken with my phone this morning.

The other thing all these orange triangles have in common is that they are the same motif, its very simple and plain.
But is perfect for colour experiments, but I'll tell you more about those another day.....maybe tomorrow......

Very proud day

I've been very quiet about my crochet projects recently.
You might be forgiven for thinking I had given up and taken up sky diving instead.
But I haven't, all my recent projects have been secret one's, these include 2 new blankets.

Today I can finally share the first blanket - Lecchi.
Lecchi was designed and started while I was on holiday in Tuscany last year.
Lecchi marks the beginning of my orange triangle obsession, which I will blog about in the very near future.

Lecchi has just been published in a brand new British crochet magazine, its called Simply Crochet and comes from the same stable as Simply Knitting and The Knitter.
I was asked if I would like to be involved months ago and I was delighted and excited to be part of it.
But I had to keep it a secret.
Today is the day that Simply Crochet is launched in the shops - so I'm doing a happy happy dance.
Not only has Lecchi been published, but its also on the front cover.

You can find Simply Crochet's website HERE

Ted's end

Firstly I would like to thank everyone who messaged and mailed us last night.
It was very much appreciated and we felt very grateful for all the sympathy and well wishes.

We took him to the vet and within a couple of minutes she told us he was dying and putting him to sleep was the best thing we could do for him.
It was hard but I knew in my heart she was right.
He lay on the floor whilst we cuddled him and it was all over in a couple of seconds, seeing how quick it was  gave me comfort and I knew we had done the right thing.
Dais and I came home and cried and Phil took Loki for a walk and buried his collar at the top of Hollerday Hill, then he came home we drank lots of beer and all three of us cried.

This morning is a new day, the sun is shining and the sky is blue.
Phil has taken Loki out for a long walk over the moors and I am here alone supposed to be working on writing patterns, but I really don't feel like it.
So I'm going to postpone the pattern writing until tomorrow and snuggle on the sofa with Billy, crocheting to "Waking the dead".
I feel sad, but I also feel relieved and comforted that he's not in pain or distress anymore.

So here are some photo's in memory and celebration of Ted Bad Poodle

His first photo when we brought him home for the first time. I just loved his little monkey paws :-)

Ted with Dougal who loved and protected him from the minute I brought him through the front door. For the first few weeks Dougal would pick him up by the scruff of the neck and take him out of the room if anyone new entered the house.

Ted with Dougal and Splash, both of whom are long gone and still remembered with lots of love.

Ted's very first christmas in the snow.

Ted on his chair, when we lived in our house in Hollersley he used to sit on his chair looking out of the window, waiting for horses to go past so he could bark at them.

Ted at hydrotherapy, he had really bad hip dysplasia and swiming helped build up the muscles around his hip joints, which meant he could live a happy and active life. He hated it, but we forced him to swim as he needed it.

Ted and Fep last week, taking their last walk together at Illfracombe, he had a lovely day out with all his family and I like to believe even though he was probably already dying he held on for one last christmas to be with us. He was always her dog, and I think she takes comfort in the fact that they had these last few day's together.

And finally Ted 2 day's ago waiting for the end.

I've managed to write this whole blog post without crying, which is a good thing and makes me feel kind of happy in a sad way.

Crochet distraction

We are whiling away the hours until the dreaded vet visit this afternoon.
Ted hasn't really improved although he did eat a piece of ham he has refused all other food.
To distract myself I thought I would share my latest blanket.

 I've had a very crochetless couple of weeks.
Before christmas I had flu, then after the flu the babies came and I couldn't concentrate on anything, so only did a few motifs here and there.
When they went I managed to make the whole scarf for the triangle scarf club.
Then our woolly friends arrived and I only managed to do a few more motifs.
Last night I settled back down to do some serious crochet, trouble is the christmas blanket I had been playing with looked dull and uninspiring.
So this morning I took photo's.

I think the artificial light is muting the colours and they don't excite me at night when we have the light turned on.
They look a lot better in day light.

It doesn't have a name yet and is only in its very early stages. It's made with Dazzle Aran, I want it to be quick and easy to make. It is the replacement for the triangles blanket, I've had a few false starts and a lot of frogging to do, but I finally think I am happy with it.

Celebration and sadness

Firstly I hope you all had a lovely christmas and new year.
Ours was blissful in our new hobbit mansion.
All the babies were here for christmas and it was wonderful to be able to spread out and enjoy each other's company, even though it was chaos it was relaxed and happy :-)
They all went home after christmas and were replaced by our dear woolly firend's who we never see enough of, so the time we spend together is always really special :-)
They stayed for Homer's 50th birthday yesterday and we had a brilliant evening with our bestest woolly friends.

But our new year has also been tinged with sadness, I hadn't realised how sad I was until someone made an innocent comment about my grammer, it wasn't a bad comment and was meant in the best possible way, but has pushed me over the edge.
I have dyselexia, I can't spell I can't punctuate and number's are a mystery.
When I was at school dyselexia didn't exist and  I was told to I wasn't working hard enough and I needed to concentrate and try harder.
I muddled through and all was well with my world.
I was good at being creative and still am, I know my limits and know my faults.

But being dyselexic is totally irrelevant and not the thing thats making me sad, its just the thing that has triggered my realisation of how sad I really am.
My sadness is about Ted Bad Poodle.
He's at home, laying on the floor dying, its his time, he's had a good life and now is his time to go.
He's always been faulty he has really bad hip dysplasia, it was diagnosed when he was 11 months old, the vet told us he wouldn't make it past the age of 10 due to his problems.
He's now 11 and a half so has squeezed and extra 18 months of living in.
He has always been a really happy friendly dog, but was a family pet rather than devoted companion.
Since we moved to Lynton I have taken over walking him, he walks very slowly and so do I so we are well suited and he has become my dog.
A few months ago he was bullied by the Exmoor ponies in Valley of the Rocks, we thought he wouldn't recover, but with lots of love and persistance I managed to get him back on his feet and enjoying life again.
But this time its different, he's stopped eating and is slipping away slowly.
We took him to the vet yesterday and she gave him some injections, she said they may help, if not to take him back tomorrow for his final trip.
He hasn't improved over night and time is ticking away.
And there is nothing I can do to help, I feel so helpless

Here we are on Christmas eve, enjoying one of our last walks together.

First NDS update of 2013

I was going to write a blog post about our new NDS Cluedo type game, but then I decided to cut and paste our newsletter as I'm feeling very lazy today.
Obviously conserving energy for tonight's marathon pub crawl.
I've decided to drive rather than drink as our final destination is the Rising Sun in Lynmouth at the bottom of the hill.
I don't want to start of 2013 in an ambulance due to climbing 500 feet at 1 am to get back home.
Lynton's taxi driver is having a few day's off over new year and so we have no taxi service in the area until the 5th of January :-)

New Year's Day 2013 Update

Dear All

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our customer's for tonight.
We hope you have a lovely night with lots of fireworks.
And HAPPY NEW YEAR to all our Customers "down under"
We hope you had a lovely evening :-)

We have done a lot of brainstorming over christmas and come up with some exciting new idea's for 2013.
We have decided to make 2013 a NDS year full of murder and mystery to run along side our "Murder on the Moor Yarn Club".
The first is NDS version of Cluedo, which will run all year.
There will be a prize each month which will be 100gms of mini skeins and one 100 gm skein of our choosing.
There are at least 4 weekly updates each month, you will find the clue in one of the descriptions of the newly updated yarn.
This means you will need to read all the yarn descriptions to find the answer.
The first week in the month will be the name of the murderer, the second week will be the weapon used and the third week will be the location of the murder.
During the fourth update week you will need to place an order with NDS, simply e-mail us with your answer and order number, there is no minimum order amount which means you can enter regardless of whether you buy a pattern or yearly club
The winner will be the first e-mail we receive with the 3 correct answers.

So onto tomorrow's update.
We have the last remaining Great British Wool Club wool, which is British Alpaca/Exmoor Blueface.

Both dyed



And naked



Plus some odds and ends including Withypool Angelus




Don't forget our free postage offer ends tonight.

And you have 24 hours left to sign up for the yearly and quarterly 2013 clubs. Sign ups for the April to June quarter and February's clubs will open tomorrow subject to Phil's hangover :-)

You can find all 2013 clubs HERE



Tomorrow's update preview HERE on Flickr.
There isn't a yarn of the week this coming week, instead of which we will have a mini 30% sale which you will be able to find it HERE at 7 pm (uk time) tomorrow.
You will be able to find all the updated wool and the first cluedo clue in our New this Week section.

Happy Knitting and crocheting

Amanda, Phil and Daisy

Some advice to newbie indie dyer's

We frequently have people sending us e-mails asking questions for help in regards to starting their own dyeing businesses, most of the questions are innocent enquiries.
And most of the time I am really flattered that people think I know the answer's and like what I do enough to ask my advice.
Some of the questions asked are unknowingly asking for my trade secrets, the questioner's don't realise how long it has taken us to get NDS to the place it is now and that sharing all our knowledge would be a bad thing for NDS.
Success takes a huge amount of luck, skill, determination and dedication.
After 11 years I'm still learning, I still make mistakes.

So I thought I'd write this blog post to share some of my thoughts and experiences.
I'm writing this post in answer to questions from a mythical newbie indie dyer.

Identity and Customer's
I believe that at the moment the indie dyer market is saturated so you will need a product that is something totally new and exciting to gain customer's attentions.
Look at the indies you think you will be competing with and go out of your way to make sure you don't copy them.
Compare them to each other and see the how different they all are to each other, each dyer has their own distinct image and colour palette.
DO NOT copy their colours of sales techniques, it won't help.
The established dyers have very loyal customer bases, most of their customers will stay with them through thick and thin.
NDS is lucky to have customers who have been with us ever since the very early day's on eBay.
Many of our customer's have become friends and its always lovely to see them at shows
You need to understand that knitters and crocheters are an incredibly loyal and caring bunch of people.
Give the customer's something new and you will build a loyal following of your own.

NDS's very first major show was an embroidery show at the NEC in 2004.
At the time I dyed fabric and embroidery threads plus a little bit of yarn. I did some research and decided my competitors were Steph Francis and Oliver Twist's, so I thought that in theory if I undercut them a little bit I would sell loads and loads.
But I was wrong the show was a disaster. The NEC was expensive, we were completely out of our depth, we didn't have a following. It didn't matter how much under cutting we would of done our product, presentation and marketing weren't in the same league as the big names.
We made a huge loss, but I was too stupid or too stubborn to give up and luckily I had a husband who believed in me (although at that time he didn't believe in NDS - little did he know what his future held....)
so NDS carried on to fight another day.

This photo is a mock up of the NEC stand taken in 2004

So I went back to the drawing board and started dyeing wool instead of embroidery threads.
At that time there weren't many indie yarn dyers, the only hand dyer I knew was Colinette and I knew there was no way I was ever going to be them.

Understand your product
Do not be too eager to jump into the market place and start trying to sell.
Work on your identity and your craft, make sure your confident in your product and able to answer any questions that might be asked.
In the very early day's I unknowingly gave the wrong answer to a question, I thought I knew enough to wing it and I was wrong.
Also I didn't fully understood customer service, so rather than offer a full refund I tried to negotiate - bad move!
Since then I have tried to fall over backwards to make all my customers 100% happy, occasionally I don't, but at least I've tried.

If you are dyeing you need to know your yarn and dyes, will they fade, are they safe to wash etc etc
I don't know anything about chemical dyeing, so can only comment on natural dyes.
My dyes are very complex, each one has a character, it takes many months to understand a new dye we are testing.
For example we moved to Exmoor in May and we are still re-learning about the dyes we used in Suffolk.
A lot of newbie natural dyers use hedgerow dyes, which are fine for hobby dyeing.
But if you want to turn your dyeing into a business you need to use consistent and reliable dyes.
For example dandelions, onions, eucalyptus etc etc are great fun to experiment with, but can you guarantee the yarn will be the same colour in a year or even next month?
I recommend you do a lot of research into the dyes and the mordants you use, there are plenty of really good books and the Internet is full of information.
I spent several years experimenting and reading before I started dyeing yarn.
You have a responsibility to your customer's, if they are giving you their hard earned money you need to give them a product that you know intimately and have confidence in.

Website
There is nothing worse than a half built website, it looks really unprofessional.
If you don't have time or money to build a site, open an Etsy or Folksy shop.
My very first site in 1999 was very amateurish, but it had all the essential pages.
I've spent the last 13 years refining my site, and researching what makes a good user friendly site, search engine optimisation, social networking etc etc
I've also spent that time learning and improving my photography, good photographs are essential to any Internet business.
Buy a good camera, I'm afraid point and click camera's just aren't professional enough, I believe you need to invest in a good quality SLR.
We have only had ours for a couple of years, but it makes a enormous difference
Make photo shop your best friend, remember the colours need to be as true as possible or you will end up with disappointed customers.

The  photo's below show my development, they were all dyed with madder

Don't run before you walk
Take it slowly, let your business grow organically, remember we are still in a recession and its just not sensible to invest lots of money in something you might not make work.
Wait until you are established before making major financial decisions, such as renting business premises.
You will need to dye and sell a minimum of 15 to 20 kgs a week just to pay the bills.
If you want a business like NDS you will need to dedicate your whole life to it, that means money and every waking minute.

And finally love it and have fun, if you don't love it and don't enjoy it, its time to move on and find something you do love.
Life is just too short.....

Blast from the past - Deer 2002

Or rather I should say art from the past.

If you have been following me on my old blog, Twitter, Facebook Ravelry etc etc you will know we have moved home several times in the last 2 years, some of them traumatic, none of them permenant until (fingers crossed) now.

We've just come back to Exmoor from a christmas visit to our family in Suffolk and have brought a van load of boxes back with us, I haven't seen the contents for nearly 2 years.
So as you can imagine its really exciting unpacking them.
The boxes we brought this time are nearly all boxes of books, my poor long suffering Dad still has boxes of treasure filling up his spare bedroom back in Suffolk.
I keep finding embroidery and quilt books, which has made me reminise about my past life.
Back in the day's when NDS was just beginning I used to be a textile artist, I started dyeing fabric for my embroideries and quilts, at the beginning most of it was brown or yellow and dyed with whatever I could find in the hedgerows or in my garden.
I thought it might be nice to add a record of my art work and early dyeing attempts to my blog as they no longer have a website of their own, that disappeared when NDS took over my life.

My earliest dyeing attempts were in 1998/9, but I can't find any photo's.
The earliest example of my dyeing I can find is the photo below, it was a quilt called "Flower's for Tower's" and was made in response to 9/11 in 2001, I think it ended up in a private collection in America.
The pale pink/beige colour was probably dyed with bracken or tea or maybe even eucalyptus. The gold was onion skins.

The following photo's are of a series of quilted embroideries inspired during a holiday to Scotland.
One evening we came across a huge stag standing in the middle of a road, our local Suffolk deer seemed to disappear in the summer which made me think that maybe our deer went on holiday to Scotland too.
The bottom layer of these embroideries was pieced with my naturally dyed fabric and then I added layers of lovely nylon net to add more colour!
If only I knew what I now know about dyeing things might have been a bit different :-)

The trouble with free patterns

Like a lot of professional designers I have another job to support my designing career, which like many of you probably already know is managing The Natural Dye Studio

NDS dyes and sells yarn, luckily its a successful business as it supports the 3 of us.

Pattern support is an essential part of a yarn company, my designs are designed to help sell wool (and of course, I do love to design!)

A few years ago I decided to offer a couple of free patterns to encourage new customer's to try our yarn.

My most successful free pattern was the Angel scarf

On reviewing it a few weeks ago, I found it has 2657 hearts and 264 projects on Ravelry. It pleased me to see that many people love my designs and are inspired to spend their time making them, however I was a little shocked to find that there's only 1 project out of 264 made with NDS's Angel lace.
So, in these financially tight times I decided to discontinue offering it for free as it wasn't encouraging wool sales.
Since then I have recieved 3 or 4 messages a week asking for the free pattern and am shocked to find a couple of the messages have been quite stroppy, one being down right rude! As you can imagine it has made me a little fustrated being harrased by one or two irate crocheters who have feel it is necessary to demand from me. The pattern was on for two years, I believe that was a generous amount of time to offer a pattern for free and hope that the majority of customers felt satisfied with this.

However I've decided, due to the patterns popularity, to re-offer the pattern for free but only if accompanied with a purchased skein of Angel lace, therefore trying to appease the demand and also help it benefit NDS.

Hobbit hole & moving on

Today is our last day of living in the hobbit hole.
We are moving a couple of doors down the street to a much bigger flat.
I'm sitting here surrounded by boxes, I should be cleaning our new bedroom as it hasn't been used in years.
But I need to drink coffee to wake up, so I thought I'd fill my waking time with a bit of cathartic reliving the past.

The hobbit hole was a new chapter in our chaotic life, the perfect escape from the nightmare we had been living through for the past 3 years.
If you don't know the story you can read all about it HERE on my old blog or you can follow the links below to the individual blog posts.
Its a story of .....
Redundancy and imminent repossesion
Making ourselves homeless
Living illegally part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
Despair

The hobbit hole was the place we finally relaxed into and felt safe.
It was behind a big gate, down a little alleyway, hidden behind an old pub and had its own private courtyard.
I still felt really stressed whenever Loki barked at the sound of the gate being opened and still dreaded answering the phone just incase it was someone threatening me with eviction or a court order.
I guess it takes a long time to recover from what we had lived through.

This is the lounge and was taken on the day we moved in, its almost the entire flat,

There are also 2 small bedrooms and a bathroom

We have lived here in Lynton in the hobbit hole for 7 months.
During that time we have been made to feel welcome and accepted into the community. I doubt our new friends will ever know just how grateful we are to them for accepting us with open arms.
The summer was amazing even though it rained constantly, every weekend there was something new to do.
Raft race, dog show, fishing competitions.
But the hole is now cold, dark, damp and cramped as we have shut the french doors.

And its time to move on to better things, into our new hobbit mansion.

The new flat is massive and only 2 doors away so we will still be living in the old part of the village.

This is the first landing and gives some idea of just how huge the flat is.

 Its 2 floors of huge rooms and has a huge kitchen

 and even larger lounge along with a fireplace and shutters.

And a view or rather several views

The only problem is it doesn't have an outside, but we live in a small village cradled in hills, with the sea on one side and the moors on the other. Our outside is only a 2 minute walk away.

I think I've drunk enough coffee am now off to clean some windows and my new bedroom.
:-)))))