Sue had booked a leather craft workshop ages ago (before I got ill) and had to delay it until now. So we planned our trip to conincide with a visit to see Colin and Jane in Hereford and then a drive down to see Ben.
The Friday night turned into a right old food fest at Under the Nut Tree. What a fabulous location a few miles south of Hereford. We arrived early, to get full value , and sat out enjoying watching them prep our meal on the amazing BBQ and talking to the other guests ( we met 2 Hydrologists!) , Sue and Jane quoffing the fizzy white stuff, Colin on his butty beers and me ( the driver) on my 0% Leffes. You can see the menu in the gallery below. It is a supper club, so no choices, you eat what you are given, and it was very. special. We would highly recommend it! And here you can even see some of what we had to eat!
We stayed the night at Colin and Janes. Sue went off to her leather course and the rest of us went for a walk along the river and into Hereford for some lunch.
The leather course was a one-day handbag making workshop which I had bought with some of my 60th birthday money. It was an easy 9 mile drive from Colin and Jane‘s house and in a gorgeous country studio next to a field full of sheep. There were four participants, so we had plenty of individual attention. The lady who ran the course. (Sarah Williams of Williams handmade: https://www.williamshandmade.com/workshops) was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. There was a very nice packed lunch included from a local café and it was a relaxing way to spend the day.
Ben had given me some leather tools for my birthday and treated a deer hide, so it was useful to show her that and get some advice. She also gave us a very handy booklet explaining the various tools and their functions
We learnt quite a few techniques during the day. These included marking the patterns, cutting out, marking the stitches and punching them out, hand stitching, burnishing the edges of the leather, attaching rivets and measuring the width of a belt to fit it into a buckle. She also had quite a few small items on sale such as coin purses, keyrings, glasses cases and hip flasks – all of which could be good craft projects to try in future. I’d definitely recommend it if you love to craft.
Ben and his band , the Flamenco Folks, were playing at a mini festival in north Bristol. Sue had to leave her course early so we could go down in our vans and watch them. She dutifully turned up and we drove in convoy down to Bristol. Ben sent us a “pin” where he was parked and we bagged a spot near him and went to the festival. We were swapping messages with him and it turned out the the marquee had been blown away and they couldnt run the generator and the other stages were blasting out drum and base or some other xxxx so they couldnt really play.The best pictures I got were of graffitti and building art.
So we legged it back to The Sultan at Shirenewton, probably the best curry house I have been to in the UK! and I have been to a few. Atfer a fabulous meal we retired to the vans and chatted to Ben and Emma. We then had a quick beer and a chat before bed, where Sue had a bad nights sleep due to the torrents of rain. I slept like a baby!
The next day we went for a walk and saw some Alpacas!!!
