written in stitch

Well after so many posts on Guernsey, I thought I prove I was still doing something creative!

This is a project I did in 2010, which is a diary of the whole year, stitched.

It was quite a year, we moved house, I started a new job, we got married (and I got tied up with the volcano mess when collecting my wedding dress!), my darling Aunt sadly passed on, trips to London for country Living Christmas Fair and Newcastle to visit my new step son, on and getting stuck in St Lucia due to snow!  Just to point out the snow was in Gatwick!

Oh and I made my first Christmas Pud, and I will never by shop brought again, so easy and delicious.

I have also done embroidered birthday notes.

and anniversary ones

and now I am now doing them through Lovely Pops (Mill Street, Gsy) or direct.

So if you have something special you would like to say, or remember, and would like to preserve it in stitch, send me a comment!

Chapelle dom Hue

It was a beautiful day on Sunday and we were pootling around the west coast. Just past Lihou headland we saw that the tide was low enough that we could walk out to

the islet of La Cappelle or Chapelle dom Hue.

Its that tiny area of pale rock and grass on the horizon, had never walked out there, so why not!

Would you believe that this isn't low tide, it had another two and a half hours to go!  There was a tidal range of nine and a half meters that day!  We are at the edge of the bay of St Malo which is featured in the top 10 largest tides 3 times!

As we approached, we could see a rough cross at an angle, and we wondered if was an unofficial memorial to some one lost at sea.

But when I go home I googled the islet and discovered that it was actually the site of a 12th century monks cell, well that makes sense, its so close to the monastery on Lihou.

about the chapel

 Its beautiful tiny place, covered in rock sampire, an edible sea shore plant, with a unique flavour, I like nibbling it but wouldn't want to eat lots!

Stunning views up the coast to Fort Houmet at the north end of Vazon, where the shell grotto was. 

Enjoying the early Autumn sunshine, with Lihou island behind me.

Back on Guernsey side, I thought I would show you the amazing stone work of some of our slipways.

These weren't built to get boats up and down from the beaches, but for horse and carts collecting vraic or seaweed which was used for an iodine rich fertiliser.

And at the top you can see they were preparing for the high tide later on, hope nobody ended up with wet carpets!

Dehus

The whole reason for my drive last Tuesday was to revisit Le Dehus dolmen.  I first discovered it last year, it really is amazing how you can live in a small island for so long and still discover things you hadn't seen before!  Since I started running the Tapestry Gallery, I try to make a point of seeing 3 of our tourist attractions every summer, that way I know what to recommend to our visitors.  I don't think we visit enough of what's on our own doorstep.  And I think that is the case world wide, we only do it if we have people visiting.  So lets change that!!!

Le Dehus doesn't look much as you approach it, after all it is a burial mound, so it looks pretty much like, well a mound!

But its worth stopping for



You go inside, turn the lights on (its free entry during daylight hours), and you are entering into this amazing feat of Neolithic engineering, I have to crouch to get down the entry tunnel, then you are able to stand and admire the sheer size of the granite stones used to build the tomb. 

Then turn the light on, on the left and look up at the long stone above the pillar, and the light will reveal this mans face.  We know its a chap cause he has a small goatee!

And that goatee makes him rare!  Cause most carvings are female. 

 His name is Le Gardien du Tombeau ( or guardian of the tomb)

Outside is a very helpful diagram to aid your interpretation of the carving

And this diagram shows you the lay out of the tomb including beautifully constructed side chambers (see above)

As you leave don't forget to turn out the lights as you leave.

And the view from the top of the mound is pretty good too!



Bordeaux harbour

A few days late, but we had stunning weather at the beginning of the week, and on Tuesday I had the morning off, so I had to get out the house, who knows how many days we will get like this

. Driving up the east coast was stunning, I has heading to the Dehus dolmen but I will come back to that later. 



Bordeaux Harbour was looking magical so had to stop for a little wander, 

Its tidal and so more of a safe haven for small fishing boats than what we tend to think off as a modern harbour

Just south of the narrow entrance is Vale Castle which in days gone by probably made it even more of a safe haven!!!

pootling out for a mornings fishing

It really is very pretty, good walking and great bird watching, though definitely at high tide!



its nearly harvest!

Well I mentioned that on Sunday we spent a good few hours inn the garden getting the jungle back under control!  The warmth and showers have meant everything has gone crazy, the cosmos was turning into a tree, so had to go, as had the pelargonium (thought they just had a harsh haircut). Discovered the Japanese anemonies were flowering as the back, but couldn't see them because of the cosmos! 

But a lot more interesting were our edible crops!

 Chris's tomatoes are doing really well up on the roof, remarkably we have a few red ones, even though they aren't under glass.  Thought I was going to be making loads of green tomato chutney, that will still be happening, just not quite so much, which is a pity as its yummy.

Look a red one! So proud!!!!

Don't know if we can pick it, it looks so gorgeous, oh Caro don't be silly, you soft sod!

These squashes appeared from our compost dug into the flower beds, Mrs Ephgraves, thinks they must be happy to have seeded them selves, and that we should wait till the foliage dies back and see what they are like then, so we will wait and see.

Getting a handful of Autumn raspberries every morning, just enough to go one our cerial, but not enough for jam.

What a treat, the taste is sublime.

The fig crop still keeps coming, its definitely been our best year, think we must have had about 100 by now.

Little wild strawberries still keep reveling themselves from under their leaves.

And the rainbow chard just goes on and on.

We have decided to give the tomatoes alittle help with a little plastic greenhouse, so lets see if we can get a few more red ones!!!!!