Summer Fun Bloghop With SewDanish and Unique Women In Business



Denmark, June 2011

We are now well into July. Amazing how quicky the time flies when one has fun :-)
After lots of travelling (Italy, Turkey, Greece followed by a trip to Denmark) in Juni and July having a wonderful time, I'm now back home in Britain for at least a little while.


Effesus, Turkey, June 2011 

Shortly after returning back home, we went on a hiking trip to Wales with friends. Had the most superb time, and for Wales, we had the most amazing weather. Did about 25 miles up an down the mountains over just about 3 days, so not too shabby.


Wales,  July 2011

Ever since the weather hasn't been all that fantastic. Actually it's been rather cool with a lot of rain. All the rain we didn't get in the spring with the beautiful weather we had for weeks on end has now caught up with us. At least the garden is happy :-)



Back home in GB :-)

 But to be honest I don't mind the iffy weather that much as it gives me more time to stay indoors, catching up on heaps of stuff that has been postponed with me not being home and not feeling guilty about it.


Freshly dyed threads and fabric

What a great feeling to being almost on top of things. Have done a lot of fabric and thread dyeing this past week. I now have this wonderful pile of color piled up on my worktable. Some of the dyed threads will be listed shortly in my little shop SewDanish others will be used in some of the many project that I'm itching to get on with and finish. 
Hope you are all having a lovely summer where every you are and enjoying what ever you are doing. Take care and stay safe.

Hiking in Yellowstone

The last week in August my husband and I spend the most fantastic time hiking. The first three days we hiked on our own in The Grand Tetons. It was absolutely great. We hiked from lake to lake up and down the mountain sides totally enjoying our selves.

Then we drove up to Yellowstone National Park where we joined a group for 4 days of hiking with a guide. When we had started planning our vacation back in the spring, we had talked about doing our own hiking in Yellowstone, but decided against it. Neither of us were familiar with that part of the US, nature and wildlife so we decided to do it the safe way. We had a superb guide who took us of the beaten track and introduced us to stunning areas of Yellowstone. She knew where the great wildlife spotting outlooks were and except for the very elusive bears we saw lots of wildlife. Even saw wolves in spotting scopes which was very exciting. And we were taught about the safety aspect of hiking which was great, as we now would feel very comfortable returning to Yellowstone hiking on our own.

I took loads of pictures especially of the geysers, hot springs and hot pools. Very fascinating areas and so different to anything else that I've seen. The colours and textures were stunning and I'm really pleased how well the photos came out. I've printed some of the in full size for my next body of design work.

Hiking in Wales.

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I were hiking in Snowdonia, the central and northern part of Wales. We had only been to Wales once before horseback riding, and that was quite some years ago. We had wanted to come back ever since, but never made it. An opportunity came up and we decided to extend the stay exploring Wales and doing a spot of hiking. We stayed in a lovely B&B
Aberconwy House
in Bewtsy Coed which was very centrally located for the areas that we wanted to explore. The B&B had the most amazing scramble eggs with smoked salmon and fried tomatoes on the side as one of their yummy breakfast options. It was delicious :-)



During our three night stay in Wales we covered a lot of ground, by car as well as by foot. Armed with our detailed hiking/walking books we averaged about 9 miles (12km) each day up and down the mountains. Great exercise and a nice change from our relatively flat local area here in Suffolk. There for sure is a big difference between a Suffolk mile and a Welsh mile!
Snowdonia/Wales was just as lovely as I had imagined. Fabulous nature, waterfalls, sheep everywhere, wild flowers coloring the landscape, stunning panoramic views. The stillness was stunning. The ladder stiles climbing over the beautiful typical Welsh stone walls were a lot of fun. I took at lot of wall photos as design inspiration for future works. We had a wonderful stay and we so want to go back.


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Out Hiking

A couple of days ago my husband and I went for a lovely 7 mile hike in the gently rolling hills south of where we live. Some years ago we came across this book with local pub walks. The idea is brillant. You drive to a pub often set in a small remote village, park the car, change into hiking boots and off you go following the trail set in the book. The hikes are circular so you will always end up by the pub and the car again. Sometimes we have a drink or a meal at the pub afterwards, sometimes we just head home. The one we did the other day is one of our favorites. Since we have done it before, we knew the trail, where to cross the fields, at what huge old oak break left etc. It was a beautiful weather and I ended up at times, doing a bit of stop and go, as there were so many great photo opertunities. My favorite photo is the one that I'm including in this post. I absolutely just love the contrast of the fresh lush violets pushing up next to the old dusty ivy leaves. The contrasts are so beautiful, so symbolic. I find walking/hiking very meditative and a fantastic way to clear my brain and just absorb my surrounding. Sometimes if I've come to a grinding hold with a project, a good long walk can inspire me to get going again.