All sorts of crafty...

A trip into Colchester to pick up some Fired Earth paint - reduced by a whole 75% if poor old Kevin McCloud's signature is sullying the labels - and a little wander round town afterwards. Lunch at Poppy's Tea Room was lovely - a young, friendly staff, and homegrown (allotment) produce made into delicious soup and 'half a sandwich'. It took me a moment to get my head around this. I realise now that it is entirely possible to make one sandwich by simply cutting the slice of bread in half before filling it... So C could have a meaty one, and I could have a veggie one and we didn't have to share. It just took me a moment or two to work it out. Perhaps I was just hungry...

Afterwards we popped into the Church of the Holy Trinity, a Saxon church built around 1000 (that doesn't look like a proper date, does it?) of 'flint rubble, septaria, and Roman brick'. It definitely had an Italian air as we approached it - no doubt helped by the perfect blue sky above.

Inside has been transformed into a craft/antiques/vintage space, with a cafe - which we would have tried out if we hadn't just eaten at Poppy's. Friendly folk, and lots of good stuff to be had, so going there on a motorbike is a great way to stop any large impulse buys!

Home via Lavenham and Cafe Knit, part yarn shop, part cafe. It's titchy tiny, but very sweet - I had a great chat with the young woman in charge about crochet versus knitting, her library of pattern books and types of yarn, whilst C sat outside with tea and lemon drizzle cake! The shop is very small, and the first time I visited the cafe was very busy, so it was a little awkward to get to the yarn without knocking someone's chocolate cake out of their hands, or causing great cacophonies of chair shuffling whilst apologetically explaining 'I just need to reach that shelf right behind you...'  But 'busy' is good, 'busy' means it won't close down, so I'm very happy about that.

 

Home again to late afternoon sunshine lighting up the ongoing project - the blanket for the GG's new baby sister, which has turned into a bit of a saga, but will hopefully be finished just when it gets cold enough to be used. My intention all along, of course.