Cogges Farm

Had a lovely day out and visited Cogges farm, the walled garden is wonderful to walk round, they have a variety of chickens and ducks to see, a few goats, two Shetland ponies and pigs. I will say we were rather disappointed with what we could see in the house, the only rooms set up are the kitchen and pantry which are interesting but that is it. We didn't realise that the farm scenes for Downton Abbey were filmed there, knew they filmed at Highclere Castle, the home of the Carnarvon family, which for those that know there ancient Egyptian history, will recognise the names Carter and Carnarvon for their discovery of Tutankhamum tomb.

They have a new greenhouse and I want one! I don't have space for one this size but loved the style and size of it!

Now M has been expressing an interest in photography and asked if she could us my camera, so the rest of the photos are hers, think she has done very well.

On our walk we came across this sign, when we got home we spent some time learning how flax was made, we watched this video on how they would of made linen fabric from flax seed and this  a shorter version. I always wonder when I see things like this just how did we come up with this process to start with, what were they doing that made them realise that they could produce some sort of thread from a plant. Since then we have looked at cotton production and talked about the conditions in  the mills in this country, the various work conditions in Victorian Britain. Perfect time to introduce M to North & South, so covering history, working conditions, Victorian life as well as introducing her to the works of Elizabeth Gaskell.

As well as photography M has asked to do some dressmaking, she has chosen rosari skirt, paper pattern cut out and pinned, will share photos as she starts to sew, she has chosen the jean style pockets.

So chatting with my wonderful Aunt about various bits and mentioned the shawl I had made for my friends birthday, turns out she would love something like that too, doesn't take a lot of encouragement to start a new project, so knitting silverleaf for her in a nice soft baby acrylic, doesn't do natural wool fibres as they are too itchy. Have also ordered some new wool from our local wool shop, she had some lovely new patterns in, so that should be 3 Christmas presents sorted, as long as I get round to knitting them in time. So joining in with Kat for Unraveled Wednesdays

As it's L's birthday next week, I have been busy making her doll some new outfits, using up some of my fabric stash.