Easter Bumper Issue!

Happy Friday, Yarnarinnas!🌹

🐇I hope you all had a very pleasant Easter Weekend?🐇

First of all, apologies for the delay in getting the High Tea Extension text pattern to you on the deadline date ( which was Good Friday!). I can't believe I completely forgot all about the Easter long weekend and that I'd promised long-suffering Mr HooksnTales that he could drag me away for a few days to our teeny off-grid cabin in the beautiful Riebeek Valley.

I packed my laptop with every good intention of "working" through the weekend but you know what they say about good intentions! I'm not going to lie, I had an absolutely FABULOUS ( if somewhat a tad dramatic ) weekend and it was exactly what I needed, for ever so long! It's funny how we continue to push ourselves, well beyond the point where we should take a break!

We always take the back roads out of Cape Town. This way it really feels like our mini-holiday begins immediately. There's a lovely ( albeit longer ) madly-meandering country road that runs over hills and dales and in some places, the potholes are as big as a baby bath! Mostly though it's not bad at all and the scenery is worth the extra time it takes to get to our destination.

We always stop along the way for breakfast and coffee at de Malle Meule ( The Mad Mill ), an old wheat Mill in a village called Philidelphia, that worked right up until the late 1970's. The building and the interior have been preserved and beautifully renovated and it's now a very popular restaurant.

We sat way over in the corner and as it was still early the Sun had just begun to peek its head through the windows.

Much of the old mill inner workings have been left in place and next time we visit we'll do a proper exploration because there's still so much to see of this beautiful old building. You can take a visit HERE!


What I love especially about these rare weekend breaks is that it's like going home. The housie is off-grid but we've set everything up with solar panels and gas so that we're completely self-sufficient and comfortable when we stay over. Mind you, we mostly eat out in the village and over the years the friends we've made there are always happy to see us and us them and over a cold beer ( Mr HooksnTales ) and coffee ( coffee junkie me of course! ) we are caught up on all the local news and village gossip!

We'd heard that the local Flora and Fauna department had decided to do a controlled burn on the Kasteelberg Mountain which is right behind our house but we didn't expect it still to be going when we arrived on Friday morning! We also didn't expect a fierce wind to blow in from nowhere at around 3pm and fan those flames so that we had to evacuate ourselves and the doggies to a safer distance until the Fire Department arrived!

I made a video and you can hear how the wind is huffing and puffing to fan those flames!

As you can see, everything is tinder dry after the long hot Summer. Luckily clouds started gathering shortly afterwards and it rained buckets through the night. Hooray! By the morning there was no trace of smoke and the fire had been well and truly dampened.

Nothing speaks of Africa quite like the silhouette of a Witdooring boom ( White Thorn Tree ) against a stormy sky.

The next morning, breakfast at Paneras...you can't go wrong with a start like this! Just another lovely "busy" Saturday morning on the Riebeek-Kasteel high street! And not a whisp of smoke from the mountain!

The rest of the weekend passed peacefully and uneventfully. On Easter Sunday I found an Easter egg in the garden under the black-pepper tree.😄

Although the Riebeek Valley is Olive ( and Wine ) country and the Olive Festival is on the weekend of 5 May, I was still surprised to see a few Olives on our Olive tree! I'm such an Urban Bumpkin!

Roxy and I hung about with the High Tea Throw.

Roxy diligently checked my stitch count.

Of course...I have NOT forgotten that we have some Winners to announce! I just LOVED reading through all your Cabin Romance stories! It made me want to jump in my car and head straight back to Riebeek-Kasteel!! I really had a hard time choosing only 5!

💗THE CABIN ROMANCE WINNERS ARE💗

Tara from CrassNCrafty

Karen Sladen

Rosy

Julie Clemens

Michelle le Roux

( Please email me with your Ravelry names and I will send you your High Tea Extension pattern + a pattern of your choice! )

Next up, the Winners for Natalia Kononova's lovely Climbing Rose Top pattern!

lotrlover6989

Designerhook

Missymumly

💗 CONGRATULATIONS 💗

This Friday our Giveaway is this beautiful shawl pattern ( swooooon ) 

by Ana D called " Falling Blossoms".

All you need to do to enter and stand a chance of winning this pattern is to leave a comment below about your favourite flower ( don't forget to add your Ravelry name as well ).

Good Luck!

Happy Weekend

💗 Jen

PS: I am skipping the Colour Friday Mood today but you can head on over to our Group where Noelene has done the honours today ( again ). 😊

PPS: On Monday (29 April ) The High Tea Extension Text Version will be added to the Video PDF which is already released ( hope you are all managing! ).