Mat

I have completed the mat I was making.  I made up the design and feel that it raises as many questions as it answers.  The texture is convincingly carpet-like -it's a broken rib, ie one row k1p1, next row plain purl.  However, joining in the stripes leaves a weaker edging, not totally resolved by crocheting along as a binding.  The fringe makes it look more like a mat than a jumper that has ended up on the floor.  I think the idea has possibilities, if I can resolve how to join in new colours.

This last weekend to the Cotswolds to visit family.  Looks like a glorious day, doesn't it?

Yet already, here, the clouds are gathering.  So hard to know what to wear.  Sandals were the wrong thing, it turned out, as I crossed a street rapidly turning into a stream.

Some things in the garden are thriving: my favourite flowers.  I just love the range of colours on their faces, and the rich textures on the larger ones.

Suffolk

Yesterday, to the little town of Lavenhan, just north of Sudbury, to visit the Knitcafe which has opened there.  This is the Guildhall in the town square.

Lavenham seems to specialise in crooked houses, where the timber frame has shifted over the centuries, to a sometimes alarming extent.

Imagine living in this house where the angle of the wall is far from 90 degrees.  What kind of furniture would you need?

Pargetting, or decorative plasterwork is also much in evidence.  the whole place is quaint beyond words.

And everywhere the historic presence of wool - this is the Wool House.

My current knitting, likely to be the death of me.  This is a small rug, using Aran yarn knit doubled and a broken rib pattern.  It is certainly rug-like in texture, but quite heavy going to knit.  I'm over half-way now, so it's also been quite quick.

Deepest Essex..

 We don't actually watch "Come Dine With Me", but we did happen to catch a moment where one of the contestants, giving herself airs, said that she always described where she lived as "Suffolk borders", whereas it was, in fact, Essex.

Walking, as we do every Friday, in the Essex countyside you wonder why she felt so conflicted.  This is the old railway station at Rayne, now turned into a little cafe on the Flitch Way.  We began our walk here.

A perfectly level gravel path stretched before us, crossed at intervals by these splendid arches - this one crumbling away.

 All along the route, paths led enticingly across open fields.  Mature trees provided a constant canopy where we saw many squirrels.

 Finally we arrived at Little Dunmow, where we had parked the first car.  North Essex is full of houses like this one.  The second picture is of the "Flitch of Bacon" pub, where we ate lunch.