The Sparrow Chick Rescue

Early on this evening my eldest boy found these two sparrow chicks in a grid at the side of our house. They must have fallen from their nest in the eaves. I'm surprised they lived at all falling from that height but they were certainly lively, cheeping with their beaks open ready to be fed.

I rang the RSPCA for advice on what we should do with the chicks and was told by the automated doo dah that we should contact a local vet who would then take them in so that is what we did. It all made a pretty exciting tea time for Little L.

This week we were visited twice by this little fella. We've not spotted a hedgehog in own garden for years. He made his appearance in broad daylight at around 4pm on both occasions which I thought was a bit unusual for a hedgehog. I've only ever seen them at night before. The chickens snuck up on him both times, just for a nosey but they scared him so he froze on the spot for a while then slowly crept under the hedge. It is the first time Little L has ever seen one so she now keeps her eyes open for her prickly friend.

A Night In Betws-y-coed

To celebrate our wedding anniversary ( our 9th last Wednesday )this year we booked a night away. When we do this we are never too far from home so if an emergency ever arises we can be back home within a couple of hours. This may strike others as being a bit odd to stay overnight in a place we can visit in a day but we like to explore and generally do things that teenagers and little kids have no interest in.
On the way we stopped off at Fairy Glen. A popular place for artists and photographers to visit and the image is featured on lots of postcards and art work. This Fairy Glen print that hangs in our house we bought about 11 years ago on our travels. 

To reach the Glen you need to descend some rather steep stone steps. The sun was out so I again was wearing flip flops, not great for the steps and certainly not when my husband suggested clambering around on some moss covered rocks to take some photos. I did but I probably would have been better off doing it in bare feet. It was a beautiful place, the water was lovely and clear though icy cold (I had to dip a toe in to check).Climbing back up the steps seemed worse than coming down, they appeared to be made for a giant. My husband was fine though, he has legs like a stork.

We arrived in Betws-y-coed too early to check in to the B&B so we went for a wander around the town. Considering it was a normal Friday with no school or bank holidays, it appeared very busy. We had a quick look around the shops then off to the B&B. This was the view from the front. Two other couples who were staying were also celebrating their wedding anniversaries.

After checking in we were off out again. We walked over to St Michaels which is the oldest building in Betws-y-coed

then over Sappers suspension bridge which is right next to the church.

 Anders took a quick look at his maps to find any other places near by to visit and found this chapel. I can't remember the name of this one though.

Then we grabbed a bag of chips and sat on some flats rocks on the bank of River Llugwy. The chippy is only across the river so there were quite a few people doing the same thing.

This photo was taken from the bridge. When I was down there I managed to bruise my knee by trying to climb over a rock and kneeing it when I cocked my leg over it.

The next morning my legs were refusing to cooperate, they felt like they had seized up. On the way home we stopped off at Swallow Falls. It was around 9:30 so we were the only people there. I saw the steps and just groaned. There is a barrier to prevent anyone from going in to the water but you can still get close enough to feel the spray from it.

After our night away I think the only thing not hurting on my legs were my shins. Anders watched me bend over to pick something up the other day, said I looked stiff and offered to get his oil out of the shed. They are almost back to normal now but I can't remember the last time I ached so much, must be my age.

Visiting Sis

Last month we paid my sister and her family a visit in their new home. They moved due to my brother in law starting a new job and in his line of work the house comes with it. When I was visiting their old house last summer and asked if she would miss the views as this is what you could see looking out from one side of her back garden.

She told me that the views were more spectacular where they were going to move to. I was dreading the visit as the house is on the top of a mountain and the only way up is on a narrow lane that only has room for one car so if another car meets you on the way, one of them has to reverse. Plus there is no wall or fence next to the road, its just open. I don't know how they can drive up and down it everyday, my nerves couldn't take it.

It is beautiful there and the house is a lot nicer and bigger than her last one. Even though the garden is a bit overgrown you can see that someone did care for it at some point. My sis has already cleaned out the pond and dug over the veggie patch. Little L loved the tree house that they found and was straight up there with her older cousin.

These are some of the views from their back door.

Plenty of lambs to been seen.

After we had been there a while and after they had made me a coffee, my sis started talking about the water filter and how she doesn't think it works right. The water comes from a natural spring and she said you can get odd bits coming through in it like tadpoles, little shrimps, etc. I think they make people a brew first then tell them about the water supply.

It is a lovely place to live but if I lived there I'd probably venture off the mountain about once every six months to avoid the trip up and down.

Dressing Dolls

This week I had my sewing machine out to make some quick clothes for Little L's dolls. Both the patterns that I used were free ones which I found on the internet.

These dresses to fit a LaLaLoopsy doll were lined in plain white cotton and fasten at the back using velcro. I've never sewn velcro on using a machine before but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The stitches look slightly wonky on the loopy side but I don't suppose Little L will notice.

 There doesn't seem to be many patterns about to fit this type of doll and I'm not sure if they sell them in shops. I've not seen any. Little L now wants me to kit out her boy doll with a new set of clothes so he can get changed as well. I'll have to see if I can rustle up a pattern using the existing clothes. The pattern for this dress can be found here.

The other thing I made were these dolls nappies. Some were lined with blue cotton, others with flannelette from one of Little L's cot sheets. Little L loves these as she has been playing with her baby doll more lately. I think that might be because she had her first hold of a real baby a few weeks ago, she loved it and wants us to have one. Not a chance, my baby days are over so Little L will just have to be content playing with her dolls and visiting real babies that we don't have to bring home with us.

Retro Rabbits

These week I wanted to make something that I would actually finish quite quickly and not be added to my wip collection. After a look though a couple of books I settled on these retro bunnies because I still have a vast amount of the floral fabric left over from some sheets that my Gran gave to me. The pattern which I used is from the book  All Sewn Up by Chloe Owens. The patterns needed enlarged and I did that the old fashioned way by drawing a grid and copying square by square.

All the pieces were sewn on by hand and just used my sewing machine to sew the body pieces together. I used glittery buttons for eyes

and made some pom poms for tails.

Another thing which I made this week was this sleep mask for Little L. She had been looking through craft books with me, seen a mask and told me that she really wanted one for bed. I don't know why though considering she is scared of the dark. I found the pattern for this one here on Cut Out And Keep. 

Liebster Blog Award

Last month I was delighted to find that I had been nominated for a Liebster Blog Award by the lovey Star of the Pink Sovereign blog.  Thank you so much Star.

The Liebster Blog Award Rules

- Thank the person who nominated you and post a link to their blog on your blog

- Display the award on your blog by including it in a post and/or displaying it using a 'widget' or 'gadget'

- Answer 11 questions about yourself which will be provided by the person who nominated you

- Provide 11 random facts about yourself

- Nominate 5 - 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have less than 1000 followers (You can always ask the blog owner this as not all blogs display a widget showing this information)

- Create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer

- List these rules in your post. Once written and published you then

- Inform the people/blogs that you have nominated them for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so they can learn about it.

My 11 Answers

1. Seeing as this blog is Pink Sovereign - what is your favourite colour and why ?
Purple. I don't know why. It doesn't suit me to wear but I'm drawn to anything in purple bottles like cleaning products and the last couple of houses I have lived in, I have decorated at least one of the rooms in some shade of purple.

2. What is the most expensive thing you have ever bought?
Just for myself, it was a sewing machine.

3. What song(s) do you associate with your childhood?
My parents always had music blaring when I was little, usually stuff from the 60's or Motown. Though my Dad used to try and sneak on a bit of Pink Floyd which my Mum can't stand.

4. What food if any tempts you into eating it because it's appearance was so appetising?
If there is anything that I can't resist food wise which sometimes finds its way into my shopping trolley, its a nice gooey looking chocolate cake. It don't do it often and I don't get to eat much of it with there being 5 of us in the house but that's no bad thing.

5. Are you a cat or dog person?
If both myself and eldest boy weren't allergic to cats, we would have had a cat years ago so I'm a catless cat person.

6. Who is your idol?
I don't think that I have one.

7. What do you hope to have accomplished by the end of this year?
More blog posts.

8. To get from A to B, what is your preferred method of transport?
Walking. The price of using public transport here is disgusting so I would sooner use my legs.

9. What is your lucky number and why?
4. I don't know if it's lucky or not but if I have to pick numbers I always go for anything with a 4 in it.

10. What TV show, song, film or personality is guaranteed to make you laugh?
My husband and kids are guaranteed to make me laugh. Someone always comes out with something daft in this house.

11. What achievement are you proud of?
The one that I'm most proud of is too personal to share.

11 Random Facts About Myself

1. I'm not really into sweets but I can't resist a Drumstick Lolly.
2. I love analogue cameras and have a small collection of 17 ranging from old waist view cameras to the more modern toy cameras. I didn't set out to collect them and received most as presents.
3. Even though I live in trainers and boots, I have a thing for pretty and unusual high heeled shoes. I never wear them out because I don't want them ruined so I just trot about the house in them.
4. I never eat breakfast because it makes me feel queasy eating first thing in the morning.
5. Over the past few years I've got into watching Studio Ghibli films with Caleb. The last one we watched was Panda, Go, Panda which Little L thought was hilarious.
6. This is something that bugs me - when people say a percentage over 100. You can't get higher than 100 so when someone on TV comes out with 120% or 150%, it drives me nuts.
7. I'm pretty short, almost 5' 1". About 10" shorter than my husband.
8. My oldest item of clothing is almost the same age as me. It is a hooded jumper that my Mum knit for my Dad when I was a baby. I have the original pattern that she used for it as well but it would probably cost a small fortune to make one these days. It's a really snuggly jumper and still gets worn on the odd occasion.
9. I love going out and exploring new places even if they aren't far from home.
10. My favourite author is Clive Barker
11. One of my biggest hates is people ruining books by folding down corners, leaving them spread face down so that it ruins the spine, etc. In fact I tend not to open books fully when I read them because I don't want to crease the spine. I always thought I was a bit weird with my book thing but one night I was reading and my brother in law visited, he saw me and started laughing because he does the same thing.

My Nominees

Anne of A Little Fur In Paint
http://alittlefurinthepaint.blogspot.co.uk/

Kate of By the Babbling Brook
http://bythebabblingbrooke.blogspot.co.uk/

Jenny of WINNIBRIGGS HOUSE
http://winnibriggshouse.blogspot.co.uk/

Paula of Homemade Life
http://paulashomemadelife.blogspot.co.uk/

Carol of the cow jumped over the moon
http://taraegon.blogspot.co.uk/

My 11 Questions

1. What was the first record you ever bought ?
2. Where is the most beautiful place you have visited ?
3. What is the strangest food you have ever eaten ?
4. Why did you decide to start blogging ?
5. If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be ?
6. What was your favourite book as a child ?
7. If you could live any where in the world, where would you choose ?
8. What has been the most disastrous thing you have made or baked ?
9. Do you collect anything ?
10. What is you favourite snack ?
11. If you could get rid of any modern technology, what could you happily live without ?

Phew ! I think that has been the longest post I've ever done.

Ruthin Castle

Last Friday my husband and I enjoyed an over night stay at Ruthin Castle. We have visited before but it was our first time staying there.

 We arrived too early for checking in so we set about exploring the grounds searching for the Grey Lady's grave. The Grey Lady is the castle's famous ghost. The story is that she found her husband having an affair with a local woman and in a rage killed her with an axe. She was then sentenced to death and no local clergymen would bury her on consecrated ground so she was buried outside the castle walls and is rumoured to haunt the castle and the grounds. After a fruitless search we asked a grounds woman if she could point us in the right direction and it turned out the the grave was behind a locked gate so we wouldn't have found it anyway but she had the key and kindly let us see it. The woman also told us that the mistresses head had supposedly been buried with the Grey Lady .. no wonder she's not in a great mood then.

This is what is left of the grave. It is thought that it was a built up tomb long ago. I was standing just outside the entrance when I took the photo. The grounds women then asked if we wanted to look in the dungeon while we were there. We weren't going to say no to that so she nipped off to grab us some torches. The dungeon wasn't anywhere as large as I thought it would be. I think I was expecting something like I would see on a film. We were shown some of the tunnels that would have been used for escape if the castle got attacked. There are quite a lot under the castle which have either been blocked off or collapsed. The woman then asked if we wanted to see the bats that live there. I really wanted to take a photo but I thought the flash would startle them then it would be like the beginning of a Scooby Doo cartoon with them all flying at me. I did love seeing them all tucked up, hanging there.

After all the wandering about, it was time to check in. While I was busy 'oohing' at the chandeliers one of the guests asked us if we had seen this oil painting. He told us to look at the painting

and then look at the painting's reflection in a mirror and it looks as though she has aged. I took these photos but I couldn't pick it up very well. 

The room was lovely, the bed was absolutely massive. We could do with a bed that size in our house with Little L still climbing in with us at night. There was a little gift of ear plugs on the bed along with a postcard from the peacocks that wander the ground apologising if we get woken by them in the morning during the mating season. 

We had been watching them earlier on in the day trying to catch the females eye with their displays but it didn't seem to be working.

These ones with a lot of white feathers were some of last years young. The peacocks had 18 young last year but only 6 have survived with the others falling victim to birds of prey, cats, foxes,etc.

They don't seem aggressive at all and they were walking within six inches of us. I think they must be that used to people trying to get close with their cameras, they know that they won't come to any harm.

We loved our night away and Little L has asked if we can take her to see a real live peacock so I think a quick visit is on the cards. The best part for me though was seeing the bats. Although we see them every Summer flying about, I've only seen them roosting before on TV.