Fine Feathers

I love feathers.  I love their shapes and varied colours.  I like the fine detail of their design.  It makes my day to pick up a feather randomly discarded and of no further use to the bird.  This one is, I think, from a gull.

Whereas this fine white curl, edged with down, must be from a swan.  We have an arboretum with ornamental lakes just north of us and swans nest there.

A fancy, spotted pheasant from Sudely Castle...

And a common or garden pheasant from the woods.

Mallard, with iridescent blue/greens...

And a curious dainty feather precisely marked with sky-blue

A shell-like curl

Guinea fowl perhaps?

And my latest acquisition - about a foot long..

What bird dropped this fine specimen?

A change of scene...

So, where can this be?

This is Lyme Park in Derbyshire, aka Mr Darcy's little place, Pemberley.  Sadly, he wasn't at home the other day when we called in for refreshments after braving the Manchester ring road.  Nor was the house open, but we enjoyed wandering in the grounds, and taking tea in the café.

We were on our way to Castleton, our base for the annual family get-together at the home of my husband's cousin.  Castleton, because of course it has a castle  - Peverill Castle, up on its cliff above the town.

The next day, we walked out on to the tops by going up Cave Dale and along the ridge to Mam Tor.  By chance our visit coincided with that of an entire junior school, climbing their first mountain.  The noise on the top was deafening.

Just down the Hope Valley, we came upon this unremarkable street scene.

Unremarkable, except that every item of street furniture, including the traffic lights, was designed by one man: David Mellor.

We very much enjoyed looking around the museum of his work near Hathersage.

This is the factory where his lines of cutlery are still produced using traditional methods.  The whole thing was a feast for the eyes.

Progress

I'm knitting Arboreal by Jennifer Steinglass.  This is a top-down yoke sweater and I am using Batik by Stylecraft, a 20% wool yarn.  I chose it because the colour really spoke to me.  I bought the recommended size and length of circular needles.

So, last time I had cast on the neckline and begun the yoke of stranded colourwork.  I have begun topdown sweaters before but have never finished one.  I think this is because I don't like circular needles.

There I was at my knitting group happily knitting along when the stitches started to slide off the right hand needle somehow.  The cable had pulled out of the point.  I realised that it was a screw fitment and wrestled it back in place, picking up the stitches.  But then the joint began to fail because the cable was shearing off.  Fortunately I had a 4mm  circular to hand and was able to transfer the stitches before the cable finally gave out.

Now I am jogging along on the body of the sweater simply knitting round and round.  I decided against waist shaping as I don't want it tight across my stomach.

Batik is performing well for a budget yarn and I am happy with the speckle effect.  However, twice I have come across a major boggle, once at the end of a ball and once after a knot.

 Here the dye changed from a speckle to a solid, once light and once dark.  Knitted into the middle of  sweater body this would create a distinct and anomalous line.  I simply cut the yarn and removed the solid colour sections, but it was a surprise to find them there in the first place.

Day Trip

A little outing, a break from the endless round of watering the allotment and shifts at Paycocke's House.  We went by train to Norwich.

Our main objective was the Castle Museum where an exhibition relating to the Paston Treasure had been mounted.   The treasure in question is a large painting, dating from the 1680s, showing all the objects collected by the famous Paston family.  Alongside the ornate gold-mounted shells and timepieces are some odd items, notably a stuffed parrot and a huge lobster.  Also present are an African slave and a daughter of the family, so clearly the word "treasure" could be read in different ways.  We really enjoyed our visit; you might enjoy visiting the website for the museum where you can view a short video deconstructing the picture.

Norwich is always a delight visually because there are ancient churches everywhere, several repurposed as tea-rooms.

We ate lunch in the cathedral refectory.

On the way back to the station, this amusing shop - or shoppe, as it says.