Frosty mornings

We have been enjoying the walk to work for the past couple of days. We walk through Eaton Park every day which is lovely on frosty mornings, and on crisp autumnal mornings with bigs piles of leaves to kick through.



This week we have been busy preparing things for a stall at the Pick n' Mix Makers Market in Holt on Saturday - we'll have a few new things on our stall as well!


The Market is in St Andrew's Hall from 10 until 4, and there will be lots of other lovely makers there, including Robin Glass, Red Red Blue and Silverpebble.

Do come and say hello if you're in Holt on Saturday!

A new block

Today we had some spare ink on the Adana after printing a special order, so we did a quick print of our newest block - a rather nice deckchair in the garden with a couple having summery drinks.


The block is slightly worn in places, so the first print was a bit patchy, plus we didn't bother to redo the packing on the press first... Hopefully the next one will be more uniform!

Still, a nice reminder of summer days now that we're on the cusp of autumn.

Starting all over again

A couple of weeks ago we had a lovely week in Northumberland, staying in an eighteenth-century farmhouse thatched with heather. We walked many miles along Hadrian's Wall and blew the cobwebs away.


We were certainly in need of a break - I have just finished my doctoral thesis after four long years! Hurrah! It's nothing something that we've often written about on here, but it has taken up a significant portion of our lives (and our creative energies) for the last year in particular.

So, now that's it over, we're ready to pick up our tools again. Jon has worked on a few commissions over the past year, but, apart from the odd bout of letterpress printing, I haven't touched any lino or wood, or our cutting tools since last December.

So, for the first time in nearly a year I'm planning a new print, which is exciting but also slightly nerve wracking. What if I've forgotten how?

Motivation

A lovely package arrived in the post this month wrapped up carefully with this nifty packing tape...


And with lovely extra little things inside...


And once I'd unwrapped all the bubble wrap (and popped it)...


Something to inspire me through the last weeks of writing my thesis...


Visit Rob Ryan's website here, and his Etsy shop here.

Camping!

Last week we took our new tent for a whirl in the Peak District, and fortunately our first camping trip coincided with some of the hottest weather we've had this summer.

This is the view from our tent - a lovely sight to wake up to every morning.


We walked along the old course of the Leek and Manifold Valley Light Railway which is now a footpath and cycle path. The railway only lasted for 30 years (from 1904 to 1934), and included a stop near Thor's Cave which was a popular local tourist destination. We climbed up to the cave along a slippery paved path and some steep steps, and had the cave to ourselves.


It's quite big inside, but we didn't explore too far without a torch. The walls inside have become smooth and slippery from years of visitors like us.


We also had the Neolithic henge at Arbor Low to ourselves, apart from the company of the cows and sheep.

Haddon Hall, near Bakewell, was a bit busier than our other stops, but we still enjoyed looking around the house and gardens - the Tudor kitchens were brilliant, and the tea shop was well stocked with yummy slices of Bakewell tart.


We've put the walks we did on a Google map - eight miles in the Manifold Valley felt like a lot longer in the heat, plus our ankles aren't much used to Derbyshire gradients compared to our favourite Norfolk footpaths...

Books, Cake and Sunshine

This week we have been working on a big batch of these letterpressed notebooks to take to Big Blue Sky in Wells next the Sea.


They will also be available in our Folksy and Etsy shops soon!


We have also been enjoying the fine weather which means we can have breakfast, lunch and dinner in the garden, which is looking nice and tidy at the moment with some new hanging baskets.

Tomorrow we're off to the coast, via Holt to pick up Jon's new jacket from Old Town. Fingers crossed that it stays sunny long enough for us to dip our toes in the North Sea!

We'll be having a big wodge of this coffee and ginger cake on our picnic - it's fast becoming a favourite recipe, which you can find here.

Seed Packets

This month our hand printed seed packets are featured in Country Homes and Interiors, which is very exciting! Their shop of the month is Big Blue Sky, a lovely gallery up on the North Norfolk coast, which stocks some of our prints and other bits and bobs.


This weekend we've been printing yet another big batch of seed packets, as well as planning a nice long walk down in south Norfolk for tomorrow - we feel the need to get out into the countryside after spending the last weekends working! Fingers crossed for sunshine and big, open Norfolk skies!