A bit of culture...

Our second day in Amsterdam started with a tram trip to the Hermitage Museum, an off-shoot of the one in St Petersburg.  There were two exhibitions, the first linking Napoleon and Josephine to Alexander of Russia.  Accounts of the retreat from Moscow made it clear that the Dutch were part of the French army at that point.  Dutch and Polish engineers worked through the night to construct bridges to cross the freezing rivers.  This sort of detail was curiously juxtaposed by the glittering artefacts- Alexander's ring, gold rimmed china and so on.  Most surprising was the family tree showing that Josephine's descendants - not Napoleon's -  now include most of the crowned heads of Northern Europe.

We enjoyed the civilised environment of this museum, once a home for the elderly.

The second exhibition could hardly have been more different: huge group portraits of the civic dignitaries of the guilds, dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  The commentaries surrounding these made them surprisingly interesting. 

After lunch, I took a stroll along a rather seedy street leading to this fairytale building, once the weigh station.  On my way back, along a more respectable street, to meet my husband, I spotted a yarn shop, something I can never resist.  Inside, skein after skein of well-known yarns on display. 

And upstairs, the joint owner, Stephen West. 

Remember this unusual scarf?  This is Spectra, one of his designs, quite a conventional concept compared to his current output.

As chance would have it, I had happened down that street on the very day that the shop opened, having relocated from another street in Amsterdam.  What are the odds on that?

Did I buy some yarn?  Of course I did.  This is Malabrigo Rios, and Tosh Merino Light.  The colours in these fairly make my heart sing.

Amsterdam

Visiting Amsterdam for a few days....   Almost forty years ago, I was in Amsterdam for a week, starting off as a solo traveller using the Youth Hostel, then teaming up with an art student and moving on to some dormitory hotels, at the budget end of the spectrum. 

This time we were staying in a family-run hotel in the museum district, which sounds sedate enough; in daylight, the street was a shady avenue.  In the middle of the night, though, it was a different story.

Arriving from the overnight ferry, we started as we meant to go on with the Van Gogh Museum.  Recent visits to exhibitions in London have been spoiled for us by the press of people; here, a version of "The Sunflowers" passed almost without remark, among the full range of his work from every phase of his career.  We learned a lot.

In the shop, I was amazed to see how far merchandising has gone.  Bike saddle bags featuring sunflowers? A dog-coat? Amazing.

We settled in to sightseeing mode with a canal-boat trip.  All along these canals, are the typical tall, narrow houses surmounted by the gable hoist.  Some of these date from the seventeenth century.

There are 700,000 bicycles in Amsterdam, a figure which may be an underestimate.  Yes, there are bike lanes, but these are also used by motor scooters and are part of the pavement, not the road.  At every crossing, you take your life into your hands.

More later.

Day Trip

A day trip to catch up with an old friend - and to visit the Kaffe Fassett Exhibition at the Quilt Museum, in York.

Juxtapositions at King's Cross

After a hassle free trip, we walked across York, dodging very busy traffic.  The best-known streets were crowded with gawping tourists.

The concept of the exhibition was that Kaffe had selected twelve of the heritage quilts in the museum's collections, using these as inspiration for twelve interpretations of his own.  The palette was bright, although some had that bright pastel look of the 30's.  Some were cheaters, in the sense that striped fabric had replaced log-cabin piecework.  And, in the end, it was underwhelming, unlike quilt shows where the level of industry and creative imagination always amazes me.

On the way back my friend, who knows York well - sings in the Minster choir - took me along little streets packed with the sort of architectural interest which I love.

We took in the mason's yard with fine examples of newly carved stonework on display.

Just by chance we passed an Oxfam, and there, right by the door, was this pack, obviously with my name on it.  It's a ready knitted yoke, and enough sage green yarn for a jumper.  The pattern originated in Galashiels; I would date this to the early 70s.  I'm thinking that I will be able to improve on the rather predictable yoke design, especially with Kate Davies "Yokes" as inspiration.

All in all, a grand day out.



 

Beeleigh Abbey

Tis the season for garden visiting. We found ourselves planning a visit to Beeleigh Abbey, which is just outside Maldon.  Amazing that we have not visited before. 

This is the sort of garden where everything is at its peak: roses in full bloom, luxurious lawns, borders in which everything is graded in height...unlike our own plot, where everything grows through everything else.

And, of course, the building is the perfect backdrop.

Just to finish, we dropped down to the Bog garden, and there is a bend of the river complete with reed-beds.  This is the feature we most envied.

First in a series of children's mittens  - not for now, obviously, but for the winter months.   February in New York can be bitter, or so I am told.

 

Lank Rigg

First, some knitting, or rather, all the knitting done during my two weeks away.  I knitted during  the
long car journeys and while chatting to our friends in the evenings.

A pair of fingerless gloves made using Norfolk Horn 4ply.  I made these up as I went along, and am really pleased with the result.  I'm planning to wear these on colder days when on duty in the front, North-facing hall at the NT property where I volunteer.  It can be chilly in there.

Two versions of the Gidday Baby cardigan, the darker one knitted from the bottom up, simple reversing all the increases and decreases.  The border patterns are from "Charted Celtic Designs", by Co Spinhoven.

And two identical renditions of the Baby Sophisticate pattern.  Very quick to knit in Aran yarn.

So, we moved on to our own cottage on the Solway - and continued our walks.  We started with Great Cockup.  Yes, I know.  This meant climbing first over Little Cockup and eventually coming back by Trusmadoor.  Almost certainly these rounded hills looked like haycocks, to those familiar with haycocks.

Another day started damp, but cleared.  We set off at teatime to climb Lank Rigg.  Now, when I was a child, we lived on a farm just under Cold Fell, from which Lank Rigg must have been visible. But it would never have crossed my mind to climb it.  For one thing, the valley of the River Calder lay between it and us - and for another, we had our own fell if we wanted to climb anywhere.

 However, we drove to the Kinniside Stone Circle where we parked and walked in, fording the Calder and Worm Gill, then crossing the side of Whoap on a very narrow track.  Eventually, we climbed to the summit of Lank Rigg itself, where there is an ancient tumulus - and an absolutely stupendous view of the whole West Cumbrian coastal area, laid out like a map.  All those pit villages: Rowrah, Frizington, Cleator Moor.  On the way back, we got wet feet for the first time on this trip as Lank Rigg Moss lived up to its name.

So we had a rest day, visiting the osprey viewpoint on Dodd and then driving up Latrigg to the car-park near the top.  For those planning trips this summer, this is a wonderful opportunity.  For very little effort the top of Latrigg can be reached by a well-made path and the views over Keswick and the Newlands valley speak for themselves.

Finally, we returned to Ennerdale, the bit thoroughly between our teeth, and climbed Grike and Crag Fell.