Fun

It is difficult to think what might be top of the list but gardening would probably be close. However we do like walking even though we find the distances we are able to cover are becoming shorter and shorter. We live in the Chiltern Hills where there are so many wonderfully marked paths that allow us to explore the beautiful countryside around.

Having built a log cabin in the garden (check the Gallery for pictures of that) I now have a space for my floor loom and other weaving and spinning stuff. I have been spinning fibre for almost 30 years but only started getting into weaving in the past ten years or so. in 2008 I took a one week Summer School in Tapestry Weaving at West Dean College. This has really spurred me on and I am now working towards the Certificate of Achievement in tapestry weaving awarded by the Association of Guilds. I am also a member of the Berkshire Guild of Spinners, Weavers & Dyers which has a remit to maintain these traditional crafts.

For both Howard and I the garden was what we really loved about this house when we bought it. It remains a focal point of out activity. Over the years we have gradually re-engineered various parts of it as well as establishing a fairly productive vegetable plot. The overall objective is to devise a low maintenance garden that we will be able to manage in our dotage - we still have some way to go towards low maintenance whilst dotage seems to be coming up fast! The vegetables, under Howard's watchful eye, are very productive and we always seem to have a freezer is full of both fruit and vegetables. We seem to be able to keep ourselves in vegetables for most of the year.

Part of the problem with the garden is that we are also still 'doing things' to the house. Projects undertaken so far include completely re-flooring the living, hall, bathroom and utility with tiles or wood; creating a new kitchen from scratch in what used to be a bedroom and creating a new 'wet-room' with sauna. The building of the Log Cabin meant that we also had to build a new workshop for Howard's tools. On top of that the acquisition of a wood burning stove has led to the construction of a wood store. A never-ending story!

For my self I have a sad pleasure in things related to computers - I don't understand any programming or hardware aspects but I just like using them, especially for accessing the internet. Social netoworking is a particular focus as can be seen from the links on the left-hand side.