Well that was a wonderful weekend! We're planning a family ascent of Snowdon (A mountain in Wales) in 3 weeks time, so the in-laws came over for the weekend to get a couple of practice walks in - as we live near the Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains there's plenty of practice hikes near us! No weekend is ever completely knitting/crochet free in Claire Clutterbug land though, so I spent the 5 hours hiking up The Skirrid Mountain in Abergavenny thinking about yarn bombing!
My husbands cousin is a fellow knitter & crocheter, but she's much younger & cooler than me & is into yarn bombing. As she'll be coming on the Snowdon trip, we have decided to do a joint venture - we're going to decorate Llanberis with knitted & crocheted pot plants! So en-route I took a few inspiration photo's & I plan to design pot plants based on these flowers I saw along the walk from Abergavenny to the foot of the Skirrid:
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| Dog Rose |
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| Wild Geranium |
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| Blue Geranium |
I had lots of thoughts on how I could make the stems & leaves & stamens...amazing what your brain comes up with when you're refusing to let it think about how much your thighs hurt! The Skirrid isn't that high - 1,129 ft from the foot of the mountain, but it's very steep - about as steep as you can get without needing climbing gear!
But the views from the top were worth it!
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| Abergavenny is to the far left, Sugarloaf Mountain is in the centre |
And we couldn't have picked a better day - it was sunny but not too hot with some amazing cloud formations, breezy but not too windy & perfectly clear - we could see for miles & miles!
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| Sugarloaf mountain to the far left & the Brecon Beacons |
Isn't South Wales just beautiful? I'm so lucky to live here!
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| Herefordshire - England looks so flat compared with South Wales! |
Once we'd made the steep climb, there was a long gentle climb along the ridge to the highest point - to the left was Wales, the Black Mountains & the Brecon Beacons, and to the right was the flat fields of Herefordshire & England - the difference just looking to your left, then to your right was amazing!
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| I love clouds - I find them fascinating! |
I could have sat up there looking at the views & the clouds all day long...
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| An arty black & white photo of Sugarloaf from Skirrid |
But we didn't have any food & were running out of bottles of water!
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| The top - finally! |
But we finally made it to the very top :o) All I was fit for when we got back home was eating my dinner, snuggling on the sofa with my husband & sleeping! So I didn't get to write down any of my design idea's...so I'm very glad I took the photo's - can't wait to get started on them tomorrow! I only have 3 weeks to make them, so I'm hoping to be able to add a new pot-plant pattern each week for the next 3 weeks - hope you like them!
Well, we've been for another 6 mile walk around Penarth Marina, the Barrage and Cardiff Bay today & my legs are starting to feel rather achey, so I think it's time for a long soak in a hot bath. And I think I deserve a treat so I may take a glass of Baileys & ice with me! Oh I hope I'm not in too much pain tomorrow...
Love & hugs
Claire Clutterbug xx
Hi Claire, Thank you for sharing this journey :) My Nana was born in Wales and we were very close. I was able to visit with her and my Grandfather, many years ago, and it was so very beautiful! I loved the photos :) I always remembered Wales looking like a 'patchwork quilt' and the photos still make me think of that. She was born in Pontypridd, Glam. I can't wait to see the flowers you design. The foxglove is beautiful. I shared it on my pages.
ReplyDeleteHugs from across the 'pond', Rhondda