Here are a few pics from our Garden Appreciation Group’s April trip out. We went to a lovely Bluebell wood near Whalley, then to the village of Downham which is set in the Ribble Valley District and hailed to be the most beautiful village in Lancashire with its gurgling brook running past the village green and stone built cottages. The village was used as location for Whistle Down The Wind and Born and Bred.

We finished off the day in The Garden Kitchen at Bolton by Bowland for afternoon tea. We managed to dodged the rain and saw lovely blossom and lambs. Gorgeous! 

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We invited a sewing buddie of ours to come along to a meeting to talk to us about India, the food and its people. I think we all know it is a densely populated country but certainly didn’t know it is the seventh largest country by area, the second most populous with more than 1.3 billion people. India has 29 states and its official language is Hindi, however can you believe there are 21 further languages? We were fascinated to hear details first hand of the social caste system Indians are born into, Europeans would probably call it a hierarchical system. The Brahmins (priests), Kshatriyas (military), Vaishyas (merchants and farmers), Shudras (peasants), Dalits (untouchables). Vatsala bought along a case of saris and fabulous jewellery for a dressing up session. Honestly we were like kids in a sweet shop. As a keen sewer and quilter Vatsala told us of Project Linus – an initiative to provide handmade blankets for babies who are seriously ill and wondered if there were sewers amongst us that would like to help. Let’s see how many we Scarlets can make.