It is a good day

Happy Mother's day !!!!

to all the Mothers out there who celebrate Mother's Day today as they do in this part of the world!

“In a child's eyes, a mother is a goddess. She can be glorious or terrible, benevolent or filled with wrath, but she commands love either way. I am convinced that this is the greatest power in the universe.” 

N.K. Jemisin

Beautiful !!!!
.....and the wonderful thing about a mother's love is that it is the same worldwide. There are no barriers whatsoever; it makes no difference your position in life,age ,race or beliefs as WE ARE united in this sentiment  !!!!!

As one mother to another,another and another ....my love goes out to you all and ...... we will endure through thick and thin .

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Plans for today!!!!

I am out of here to enjoy the beautiful blue sky and Spring sunshine!!!  :-)

Amanda :-)  xxx 

Traditions...old...old traditions!

Putting my hometown on the map!
I've heard people say Minehead in West Somerset is in the back of beyond,nothing there,rural,small and it's behind the times ect...ect...    Which I certainly disagree with but ... THEY can say what they like!!!
However there is no getting away from the fact that Minehead is beautiful!

The Gateway to Exmoor park!!

 






 




 

 I'd jump at the chance to buy a little cottage there!

Right so what has bought about these poignant thoughts of home ...there is a reason!

 I shall be giving another Public talk at the Business College at the end of this month and this time I have chosen to  focus on   "Familiarity with English Culture and Traditions is imperative in English Language Learning" as the topic of the talk and being a Somerset gal from Minehead I am going to talk about a very old May tradition which takes place in my hometown.
The Hobby Horse... or as we say in the West Country dialect "obby oss" .

 

"HAIL TO THE ANCIENT KING OF MAY"

I believe there are just two places left in the British Isles where this tradition still continues, Minehead and Padstow in Cornwall. I have been doing my homework these last few months and the deeper I delved into this tradition the more interesting I found it. 

Do you know Minehead has been welcoming the King of May (The Hobby Horse) since the 9th century! The origin of the Hobby Horse is somewhat blurry but it seems it goes back to some jolly celebrations after a victory,that of scaring away some rather nasty Vikings who had their eyes on plunder! 

There is more of course but I'll leave you this link so you can read all about it

The Hobby Horse

Amanda :-)

Reluctant model

A very very reluctant model! 


Goodness me what a fuss!! It was only for a minute or two so I could have some pics for my blog!!!

The modelling also came with strict conditions..... no showing model's face. The drape of the shawlette wasn't exactly as I wanted it either but I was under duress as model was getting irritable!!!  Tch!!!

A Perle cotton shawlette for cool summer evenings although the colour is much nicer than in these photos.

 I made this shawlette as a little something for my Cookie's American Grandma who lives in Florida and I know it must be hot there so I thought a light mercerized cotton shawlette would be practical for the occasional cool evening.

I bought this pattern from Etsy. It is called the "Rosa-rosae shawl designed by Angéle Lumière .
Although, to some it may look intricate it isn't you just have to be careful (counting continuously) that the flowers coincide with each other and you don't miss a row.  I used a size 4.00 hook and Katia Brisa Nº 53 Light maroon x 4.







The girls(daughter and grand-daughter ) will be off to visit Cookie's American family on Friday so I have managed to get the shawlette finished just on time. It took me three weeks to complete which I didn't think was too long at all considering I crochet at intervals when work allows.





During blocking.

Happy Easter to you all!!!

Amanda :-)

PS: I'm scrolling down...down my blog roll to catch up ...Easter school holidays gives me that bit of extra time.......:-)   Housework can take a run and jump!!!!