Visit to Stratford

I'd planned this for a few days....my first visit to the Stratford knitting group, primarily to surprise my friend.  I  caught the bus and enjoyed a ride with views out to the countryside, and even saw catkins out in the hedgerows.  For how long have I been saying I would do this...what a lovely time I had.  There were a few familiar faces at the group and it was nice to catch up.

Afterwards I visited a favourite place: Lakeland, the Kitchen shop.  I had a little browse round with my friend, then again by myself.  I came away with a little stash of goodies: small items and some of their baking parchment, their largest reel lasts me years. My current peeler I have had for over thirty years, but the new ones are so very sharp so I am very pleased   As for the tart tins, I now have some deep ones which will be good for meal sized savoury tarts.  Here you are Diane you wanted to know what I bought...you know about the wooden pastry push, the last one in the shop, which does fit the tins I have.  Since I came to enjoy woolly things, some moth stop to add to my drawers of shawls and jumpers.  I have not had any further moth damage since I started using these, and top them up each year.

With some time to spare before my bus, I popped into a couple of shops to look for a handbag.  My current one is starting to show signs of wear, but what can you expect.  Its been my sole handbag for several years now, and gets put in and out of my bicycle panniers etc.  I had just had to send back a bag I had bought from Hotter.  It was too large, too heavy, and very dark inside.  The trend seems to be for big handbags.  I like ones with a bright lining as this makes it so much easier to find things inside, large enough to hold my essentials, but small enough to go into my pannier. 

 

This medium sized Fossil bag is very close to my old bag, so I'm not really keeping up with fashion trends, not having a bag for every coat or outfit but I err on the side of functionality.