just a thimbleful

MESCH at the Museum

2011-06-11T11:06:00.000-07:00

The MESCH exhibition opened today at Royston Museum - here are four of us with the Mayor of Royston, Cllr. Robert Inwood. There is Liz |, Carol (the curator of the museum who has done a brilliant job of hanging our work), me, the Mayor, Margaret and Marian. Sadly, Vanda could not make it. It is a retrospective exhibition - because we were asked at very short notice to fill a gap in the museum's programme when someone else pulled out. The Mayor is very keen on art and he stayed for an hour or more - he told me he is having his legs waxed this evening for charity - ouch!

So there is work which was shown at the Gallery in Meldreth last month and some old pieces - we were delighted to be asked to step in and they, in turn, are excited about having textile work on display. Open Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday from 10 am. to 4.45 p.m. and Sundays 2pm - 4.45p.m. There are some very interesting exhibits and, of course, the Royston Tapestry which shows the history of Royston from prehistoric times to the present day and has been done on the lines of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Here is a shot across the room - it is a nice old building, a converted chapel and a very friendly museum too. I made Carol's day by taking along two pieces of dinosaur dung which I had found in my garden - copralite - and she has added it to the other interesting archaeological finds in the cabinet! Not a very usual gift.

We have been working hard in the garden and it looks lovely, the rain last night has freshened everything up. BUT we don't want rain tomorrow - it is our Melbourn Open Gardens Day. Although our garden is not open this year, we always ask all the garden hosts back to our house at the end of the day to have a drink and have a post mortem on how things have gone. The lovely Sandra is coming up from Ealing - she is a very keen and knowledgeable gardener and works as a volunteer at Kew. I've told her to get up here early so that she can do some tweaking in the garden before everyone comes! We have got 12 gardens open and if it is dry, a lady who has a large collection of antique prams and doll's prams will be displaying them on her lawn. Details on the Daily Telegraph Website, 1p.m. to 5 p.m. and teas in the hall behind the church.

I'm off to make a sponge cake and some scones!

R.A. Summer Exhibition

2011-06-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday George and I went to the private preview of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. That is George walking away from me - nice little bald patch. Well, quite big actually. We went at the invitation of Anthony Green (there - that is my name-dropping done!)

He and his wife Mary Cozens Walker were there and greeted us warmly (second bit of name dropping) What a charming couple, they live near us. After exchanging news about our daughters (we both have two) we armed ourselves with a large and healthy Pimms and went round the exhibition.

This is the large gallery where the artists meet their public, Anthony has one picture in here - Summer

Landscape, Autumn Lovers - a lovely title referring to himself & Mary. He is well known for his oddly shaped paintings and for always including himself and Mary in his pictures.

At the top right is Anthony's very distinctive profile - see what I mean about the unconventional shapes !

This, need I say it, is Tracey Emin. It is yours for £18,000.

And this, well I do hope you cannot read it, is only £12,000. I wouldn't photograph the other one. I do wish I could get my head round this. I happened to express my feelings to an elderly man standing next to me and he replied that he had bought one of her paintings last year! Ooooops.

Now this, called 'shopping', is divine and I would happily give it houseroom. By James Butler RA that is what I call £12,000 worth of arty

This is another mystery - it is HUGE, just a white canvas with a slash of grey. OK if you are into minimalism.

I just loved this - I do hope they found something they liked.

This was hilarious, so clever, the dog moved and made snuffling sounds as it rootled in the bin. 'Dog in a Bin' one of 3 by Simon Brundret £5,800. George liked the legs in the background. I felt a bit guilty taking photographs but I had not seen a 'no photography' sign and took my cue form the loads of other people taking pictures, lots of them with mobile phones so I was not the only one. I didn't see a single piece of textile art, I wonder if I should have a go!!!

The evening before we had been to Rachel Haynes Private View at the Tavern Gallery in Meldreth, just as enjoyable and every picture was a winner, which is more than can be said for the R.A.Sum.Ex which was a real mixture, as usual, of the good, bad and indifferent. It is a mystery, my next door neighbour has tried for three years running to get a picture in - lovely seascapes and boaty pictures which sell really well. But just don't make the walls of the RA.

We had a delicious lunch and then had a walk up Bond Street looking in all the jewellers, well, it is my birthday this month! Ha Ha. And then down Regent Street remembering old times when we both worked on the first floor of the Liberty Building. But it was hot and I had made the mistake of wearing heels so we were only too ready to get on the underground to set off for home. A nice young man offered me his seat - the grey hairs are not so bad after all!

Lovely to get back to dear old Melbourn, have a large glass of wine and kick off those shoes.

The Chelsea Chop

2011-05-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

I did a bit of brutal chopping down today. I had had a pretty frustrating day - at VERY short notice we heard that there was to be a meeting of officers, councillors, interested parties (us) and the architect to discuss a controversial planning application on the plot next door to us. We drove, oh, I don't know 15 or 20 miles to Cambourne only to find that the meeting was cancelled!! Not happy, especially as I had cancelled all the embroiderers coming to my house for a class this afternoon. Anyway we went to Morrisons and did some useful shopping and as it was nearly two o'clock decided to have lunch there. I was really hungry and ordered fish and chips which I hardly EVER eat. It was horrible. So I came home and went into the garden and got rid of my angst with some severe pruning. A Chelsea chop, in fact. This hanging basket from Scotsdales

was a present from my neighbour BEFORE CHRISTMAS. All through the winter the little pansies have smiled up at me and even recovered from sitting under 7" of snow. But now they have to go.

I have watered the basket well and added some growmore and we shall just see what happens! Will they come again? They have been replaced with vibrant pinks and reds, luscious. The clematis are fabulous at the moment, in fact the garden looks terrific

This is 'Campbell College' (George's old school rose) - isn't it beautiful?

And I make no excuses for showing my honeysuckle tree again - only this year the thatched roof has been done and we have the delightful griffon on the roof. What would I do without my garden to calm me down and soothe my troubled brow!
George is at a Rotary meeting so I am going to have a mashed banana, strawberries and Greek yoghurt and then perhaps a chocolate or three.

We need rain !

2011-05-16T14:49:00.000-07:00

Desperately. It has not rained in our village since the beginning of April, all our five water butts are dry and I despair of getting the seeds to grow - watering with the hose just isn't the same. Today it has been cold and we had a little dampness this morning, but it didn't develop into proper rain.

Last week I went up to town to see the Cult of Beauty exhibition at the V & A - what a feast. I was somewhat disconcerted to get on to the underground train at Finsbury Park and immediately be offered a seat (which, of course, I graciously accepted). I hadn't realised I looked so old! And that was in the morning when I was still fresh as a daisy. I met the lovely Sandra and we caught up with all the news over coffee before going into the exhibition. I do enjoy doing this with Sandra because, like me, she reads and examines everything - we really get our money's worth. I think the V & A is fantastic, I wish it was closer.

On Friday Stephen Cleobury gave a concert in our church with the Cavendish String Quartet and Paul Marion, a very distinguished double bass player. Both Stephen and Paul live in Melbourn and Stephen practices on our organ so they all most generously gave their services and we made a nice lot of money for the Supporters of All Saints. George managed to organise it all despite his three fractured ribs - a legacy from THE wedding party -

Actually, I know it is old hat now because it is all of two weeks ago, but isn't this a great photograph ;

I took it with my camera from the television - not bad, huh?

On Sunday we were at the Sawston Fun Run organised by George's Rotary Club - George's job is to get behind the microphone so he was still able to do that with his arm in a sling. I helped with the registration - we've been doing it for years now and with well over a thousand participants it is a busy day but good fun and a terrific atmosphere and we will have made a great deal of money for local charities. DD2 was there as one of the Sponsors promoting her Jazzercise classes - just saw her briefly and noticed that she had managed to get some burly young cadets to help her put her gazebo up! It was SO cold that when we got home about 4 o'clock that we lit the fire.

Well, I'm off to bed now - I have just started The Hare with the Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal. I've a Book Group meeting tomorrow when we shall be discussing Case Histories by Kate Atkinson which I thoroughly enjoyed. And then on Wednesday I shall be stewarding our MESCH exhibition at The Tavern Gallery in Meldreth. Anyone coming to see us ?

Back again

2011-05-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

It is so long since I did a blog that I am almost shy about coming back! But I have been really busy and life has somehow taken over. Our second MESCH exhibition has opened at The Tavern in Meldreth

I did three pictures with a Flamenco theme.

They are all made from silk and stitched with the machine. The hands were, of course, the trickiest bits to do - I quite neatly sidestepped the problem of faces !

Here is the cockerel which I started last year and seemed to get stuck on. However, I managed to get it finished it for the Tavern and there are some other pieces as well, including an Indian woodgatherer. Liz Evans is showing some of her lovely work inspired by wrought iron, Margaret Star has gloriously colourful hangings and pictures in dyed cotton, meticulously stitched whilst Marian Murphy has produced 'Mind Maps' mixing colours in the unique way she has. Vanda Campbell has a restrained minimalist body of work based on the recent exhibition at The Foundling Hospital entitled 'Care Labels'

The Gallery is close by the railway Station at Meldreth and is open from 10 until 4 every day except Mondays and Tuesdays and the MESCH exhibition is on until 22nd May. We are now thinking towards the next exhibition in June at Royston Museum!

We had a trip to Holland, not this time staying with Toine & Inki as we had friends with us, so we stayed in a hotel in Valkenburg. We had glorious weather and a great time - lots of lovely meals and rather too much genever. We stopped off in Bruges on the way back to Calais - it was heaving with Japanese tourists who pushed in front of us, snapped away with their cameras and moved on. It is such a beautiful little town but I think I prefer to remember it the last time we were there, on a cold and snowy day when it was deserted Then Easter came with lots of church flowers to do, and the family, followed by the private view at the Tavern - it was just one thing after another.

We watched, spellbound, THE wedding and in the evening had a party for about 40 people. Thank goodness it was a lovely evening and we were able to spill out into the garden. There was a cheminiere burning on the terrace and late in the evening George went off to get more wood. He loaded up a plastic recycling box from the woodpile round the back of the garage and then as he was walking back he tripped and fell, cutting his head and cracking three ribs. Well, we didn't know about the ribs until the middle of the night when he couldn't breathe and we had to send for an ambulance. It seemed to me an over-dramatic way of getting out of all the clearing and washing up the next day! He is wearing a sling, has dramatic bruises and is still in a lot of pain, having to sleep sitting upright in a chair. I have to put his socks on !!!

So guess who is doing all the gardening and dragging the bins down the drive and going over to the shop first thing in the morning for the newspaper - yes, moi.

Down to work

2011-03-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

I have been working !

These are the tail feathers of my cockerel - I must admit I started him ages ago but then ran out of steam. He is now finished and ready to be framed, as is

The Wood Gatherer. I am only showing small details because I want to save thm for the forthcoming MESCH exhibition at The Tavern Gallery in Meldreth. This starts at the end of April and I still have more to do.

Work this one out! I turned it before I selected it and on the way from there to here it has turned itself round. Why? Anyway, it makes it more interesting - it is a sideways-on Flamenco dancer, one of three, and I have really enjoyed doing them. It is a very messy process, with loads of scraps of fabric flying about, but very therapeutic and with all the dreadful news coming in from Japan it has been a relief to submerge myself in colour and stitch.

The last time I wrote I mentioned my great, great, great grandfather Lucking Capper Tavener and was excited beyond measure to receive a comment from a very nice lady who said she also had him in her family tree! What an extraordinary coincidence. I don't know whether she is a reader of my blog or whether her system is more sophisticated than mine and maybe she has a flag that pops up whenever Lucking Capper Tavener is mentioned in cyberspace! Do please make contact again - I did send an email. Maybe I should also mention Titus Angus (born 1760) on my father's side - who knows, I might get my complete family tree sorted.

We had a meeting of our Book Group this afternoon, here at my house as it was my book choice. It was The Help by Kathryn Stockett - a fabulous book. I was pleased that we all enjoyed reading it - I first heard it being read on Radio Four as a Book of the Week. It is all about the black maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the early sixties and is absolutely fascinating. I have been to Jackson and could imagine the atmosphere. Next book is Madame Bovary, I last read that when I was about 18, a complete change of time and pace. I cannot wait to get started.....

There be dragons.....

2011-02-21T13:48:00.000-08:00

We've been to London twice in one week! The first time was to go to the preview of an exhibition by a very old friend of mine - Romi Behrens. The gallery is in Bury Street just behind the Ritz and it was lovely to see Romi and her family - we normally only see them down in Cornwall.

Here is Romi in the middle with her son Peter - it was so crowded that it was very difficult to get a decent photograph - I took this from the gallery.

Wonderfully colourful and joyous pictures. I am pleased to say that we do have some of her paintings - she did a marvellous portrait of George some years ago and she painted me recently but she won't part with the picture! Just as well really as it is lifesize and goodness knows where we would put it! Anyway, I do hope that she does well with her exhibition - there were certainly crowds of people there and we were very happy to be there.

As we walked back to Piccadilly station we passed the windows in Fortnum and Mason - a butterfly

theme - absolutely delightful. I haven't been in London at night for ages and I found it so exhilarating.

But, as usual, it was lovely to get back home! And then again yesterday we were just having our mid-morning coffee and I suddenly remembered that 'Threads of Feeling' at the Foundling Hospital was going to finish in a week's time. So we dashed off down to London again - as it was Sunday we could take the car in easily. It is an amazing exhibition, very moving. Scraps of fabric dating from 1740 when the Foundling Hospital opened and these small tokens were left with babies to identify them should the mother ever be able to return and claim her child. There are over 5,000 swatches of fabric - making it the largest collection in the world of 18th century textiles. The notes left with them are very poignant too. There are so many untold tragedies on those pages.

We were very fortunate in that there was an afternoon concert by the Chiltern Trio and so we sat and enjoyed some very charming Brahms and Mozart. There is an interesting art collection and memorabilia from Hogarth and Handel who were both governors of the hospital - in fact, Handel left the manuscript of The Messiah to them. And a splendid installation by VV Rouleaux who were one of the sponsors.

I had an ulterior motive in wanting to go there - I have a sneaking feeling that my great, great, great, great grandfather may have been a foundling. His name ( and that of all the other greats ) was Lucking Capper Tavener. Not exactly a usual name. I've traced them all back but at the end of the 1700's the trail stops. I have it in my mind that it was a 'made up' name such as was given to some of the orphans when they had run out of ideas. However, I soon discovered that the archives are not held there and I have to go to the London Metropolital Archives - so that may well be the next trip to the big city.

In January I wrote about the little teacosy cottage visible at the far end of our garden which was being re-thatched. I ventured out into the garden one day last week and lo and behold -

There is a dragon on the roof! At least, I think it is a dragon although it might be a stork. I like to think it is a dragon and will keep the witches away. It looks lovely and, as you can see, there was hardly a cloud in the sky that day.

Winter Flower Festival in Melbourn

2011-02-05T11:36:00.000-08:00

I have just come back from the first day of our Winter Flower Festival. VERY successful - the write up in last week's Daily Telegraph brought people from far flung places - and they were not disappointed. Our chief Flower Arranger Rebecca Gatward has done a brilliant job, especially as she is at present working at Michigan University so much of the organising has been done long distance by email! This is my offering - Aladdin rubbing his lamp and the genie

not, I am afraid, a very good shot - this was yesterday when it was being put together. Today the spotlights were on but I was too busy to take photos! On Wednesday we went to Savin's to get the flowers - we spent hundreds of pounds - well, in February you would. I only intended to do the genie and the lamp but on Thursday in church when I was setting up the framework for the niche everyone said oh, you must have an Aladdin. I went home and rang Marian Murphy who was knee deep in the final dress rehearsal for Cinderella by Barkway Players (Marian is the brilliant wardrobe mistress and a fellow member of MESCH) Had she got an Aladdin costume? I went haring up to Barkway in the dark and collected the exotic brocade pyjama suit which Marian had bought in a charity shop. It was made by George at ASDA so goodness knows what Asda customers get up to in their leisure time.

So on Friday morning I started on the flowers - the bamboo was a wonderful find, the Thai restaurant in the village has just closed down (sadly) and the bamboo was just asking to be pruned. Two days up a ladder was very taxing and trying to construct a standing figure in a couple of hours was beyond funny. But we got there. I have got lights in the ectoplasm going from the lamp (eBay £4.99 purchased for me by DD2) and round the turban.

On Friday evening, dead on my feet, we went to the first night of the Barkway Pantomime. What a delight! What they lack in finesse they make up for in joyous enthusiasm and it was such fun. Nice to see Viv and Kevin from Art van Go also enjoying the show. Marian had done a marvellous job with the costumes.

And this morning bearing two cakes and a pan full of carrot & corriander soup I went over to the church at 9.30 to help with last minute jobs and then we opened at 11. Marian came over to see the show despite having got to bed at 2 a.m. and having a matinee this afternoon. Lovely of her to come.

Anyone for Jane Brett's cup cakes and Earl Grey?

This arrangement by Rosemary Gatward is on our beautiful 14th century Rood Screen

This arrangement by Julie Woods represents the three wise men

Kirsti Llewllyn Beard and Debbie Mutty did all the candelabras - it took the two of them two hours to wire all the little beads and crystals onto the silver birch branches. Sunday evening when the Festival is over we shall have Evensong at 4.30 and all the candles will be lit. Magical.

Mussels for supper tonight - George cooking. Me with my feet up. That niche is 13 feet off the ground and hard going for an old lady. And I have been on my feet all day, either stewarding or in the kitchen. In two year's time when we have the next festival - will I be able to get up a ladder? All I have to do now is make another pan of soup and do two hours stewarding in the morning and then out to lunch. But as we are lunching with a bellringing couple we have been told we must be finished lunch by 3.30 as they are ringing at 4. How lovely, bells and candles and Evensong and the scent of the flowers.... You forget the hard work.

Japanese Fashion

2011-01-25T11:27:00.000-08:00

I have just had a wonderful day in London with the lovely Sandra - we went to the Barbican to see 'Future Beauty - 30 years of Japanese Fashion' It was Fab-yew-lusssss.

We had an opportunity to natter and catch up and of course a delicious lunch as well. There was a graduation ceremony going on for Kings College students and there was good old Ede & Ravenscroft of Cambridge (and London and Oxford) est. 1689 or thereabouts, hiring out all the robes!

Some of the Japanese clothes were seriously wierd and I cannot honestly say that I could see myself walking down Kings Parade in anything on show, but it was all interesting - especially the Issey Miyake origami clothes. I wish I could have taken a photograph of those - the dresses all packed down into flat 2' folded squares. Some very clever digital photography showed how they morphed into garments.

Photography not strictly allowed and I had just sneaked this picture when my batteries ran out so that was poetic justice! Anyway, a most interesting and exciting show and you have until the 6th February to see it. There was one dress made from TWENTY layers of fabric! Paper and plastic dresses and a wonderful theatre coat completely covered in polystyrene beads. Many thanks, Gina, for pointing me in the direction of this exhibition !

Off now to the Church Womens Group AGM - my life is one long round of pleasure. It is Burns Night - should I wear my Angus sash?

Nearly through January!

2011-01-23T12:01:00.000-08:00

I have just finished knitting two scarves in Can-Can - a very curious yarn which I bought at the K & S show. It said 'instructions inside the band' but they were as much use as a chocolate fireguard and if it had not been for a very useful clip on You Tube I would never have worked out how to use it.

But with only 7 stitches to a row it grew very quickly and I got two scarves out of each ball. I know that Margaret Starr has made some and will be selling them at Scotsdales Craft Fair next weekend. George and I went to Scotsdales on Friday - he wanted to buy an axe for splitting logs as he had broken the old one. We looked good at the checkout - me still sporting a black eye from the biopsy on my cheek and him hefting an axe. I was surprised they sold it to him, we must have looked like a domestic violence event waiting to happen.

That evening we had a flower demonstration by Nick Grounds to raise money for our forthcoming flower festival. He did some spectacular arrangements and was very amusing. But oh, how irritated I got during the evening looking at those dreadful curtains. (It wasn't held in OUR village hall, but in Meldreth I am pleased to say!) We had lots of lovely nibbles and hot punch and hopefully raised lots to buy the flowers.

It has been a miserable week but I ventured out into the garden one day and saw the thatchers at work in the cottage at the end of our garden. What a job on a damp, cold day! I am so pleased it is being done because it has been swathed in blue plastic for the last year and will look splendid when it is finished. What craftsmen they are! And the dear little cottage looks just like a teacosy. When I went out into the garden I saw that spring is indeed on the way -

the aconites are through and so are the hellebores, very late this year. To church this morning and George and I both reading - I warned the vicar that each time I read this year I want to use the King James version - it is such beautiful language. But when I looked at my piece from Isiah this morning it was virtually double dutch so I reluctantly read the modern version. What a shame! Then we went out to lunch with friends and she had cooked (wait for it) roast lamb, roast potatoes, carrots and parsnips, sprouts, peas, cauliflower in white sauce followed by B & B P (bread and butter pudding made with brioche not bread, yummy) Well, after all that effort it would have been very rude not to eat heartily, wouldn't it? So now I feel stuffed and uncomfortable and guilty.

No Zen tonight !! Boo hoo.

Homework

2011-01-16T16:07:00.000-08:00

Glory be, blue sky and I was able to put some towels on the line - what bliss. In such simple things is happiness found! Of course, my mother would have frowned upon putting washing out on a Sunday - but then she also said 'the better the day, the better the deed' ! She had a saying for everything and a superstition for everything. I had hoped to get one of our many squirrels cavorting in the trees, but they are too quick for me.

I have been finishing off my homework. Well, Jeremy's homework to be precise - which we worked on at Christmas. He had to find an old person and talk to them about the Second World War! We spent quite a long time with me reminiscing and him taking notes, but today I had an urgent call for a couple more photographs for his presentation. I found a picture of my father William Angus

in his desert uniform with the skull and crossbones cap badge - he was in the 17th/21st Lancers. I also dug out his dress medals (my brother has the real ones) ooops, sideways on I fear. It gave me the

opportunity to look into the medals and it was really interesting. The Defence Medal second from the bottom has a ribbon with a flame centre, enclosed in green borders with a black line. Evidently King George VI (and I was particularly interested as I have just seen the marvellous film The King's Speech) chose the colours of all the ribbons himself. This represented the flames which came to attack England's green and pleasant land and the black line depicts the blackout. The Africa Star with the 1st Army bar has a buff background for the desert sand with Navy, red (army) and airforce blue stripe. The Italy star has the colours of the Italian flag. The overseas service medal has equal stripes for navy, army and airforce. I really enjoyed doing my research !

Then for good measure I sent Jeremy greatgreatuncle Frederick William Angus in his Gordon Highlanders uniform. I can quite clearly remember his son coming to visit us in his highland uniform and being terribly impressed. As a child I was perpetually dressed in kilts and tam o'shanters!

George's father was in the Irish Guards but he died when George was only 9 years old and all their belongings were lost so he doesn't have a single photographs of himself before the age of 14. Isn't that sad?

So I am hoping that we get good marks ! I did wonder when we were watching the film on Friday how many other people in the cinema could actually remember listening to the final speech ? I was only four but the memory is vivid because of my parents' reaction.

Hey ho.

Twelfth night

2011-01-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

I like being in church at night. I love the Midnight Mass service. There is something very mediaeval about being in church with the candles inside and the darkness outside.

I have just come back from the Epiphany service - the one service in the year where we use frankincense - and taken down the last of the decorations. The angels go in an old Clarks shoe box from one of the daughters - it is marked 29/11d ! The angel on top of the tree is called 'wide eyed and legless' because she is. The dizzy blonde with the pink feather skirt is a relic of the 60's when I had a very trendy silver tree with all pink baubles and a pink angel.

Then there are all the decorations which have come from travels abroad - President Clinton's cat Socks (or was it President Bush?), a shell from the Florida Keys, two from Russia, Niagara Falls, Prague and so on. I took the Christmas tree down yesterday and started the long process of packing them all away in boxes and then into the enormous hide case which used to belong to George's father.

These are my delusions of grandeur decorations - all gold and glitter and OTT. Alongside these is my collection of Harrods dated baubles - all in their Limited Edition boxes. One day maybe I shall sell them on eBay !

This one we bought in New Orleans on the Natchez Mississippi steam boat.....

Here are a couple given to me by a bellringing lacemaking friend , a little church from Niagara and

a key from my 21st birthday! Am I mad? and then a little angel made ingeniously from beads threaded

onto safety pins by my Dutch on-in-law's mother ! Now all that is left are the three kings...

and they only arrived tonight so they can stay a few days longer. Actually, the vicar told me this evening that they could stay until Candlemass, but I cannot have them around for that length of time! They'll get dusty!

Each year I unpack all the decorations greeting them as old friends and then a couple of weeks later pack them all away again in their tissue paper and back into their boxes. Each year I say I am not buying any more and each year I do and somehow I find room for them on the tree. I also have another suitcase full of baubles from my mother's tree - how can I throw them away?

I am a sight! I have a lovely black eye and it wasn't George hitting me although goodness knows I give him enough provocation with my piles of fabrics, threads and unread newspaper articles! I have been to hospital to have a small slice cut out of my cheek so they can do a biopsy. I had to have TWO local anaesthetics as the first one didn't work so I am swollen and bruised with a couple of bloody stitches. That was two days ago and it has got to the stage where it is itching like mad but I cannot have the stitches out until Monday. Some people are very polite and pretend it isn't there and others assume I have fallen over! Drunk again.

Twas the night before the night before Christmas...

2010-12-23T10:31:00.000-08:00

I spent the morning doing church flowers with the faithful band of flower arrangers. I did this arrangement by the altar

and then I did a little one by the south door....

And another one by the organ. We are very fortunate that our lovely vicar lets us do the flowers the day before Christmas Eve - in the past it has always been such a rush with visitors arriving, cooking to do and the live crib service at 3 o'clock to prepare for (people start arriving at two to get a good seat!) The church looks lovely, with all the windowsills and the font decorated.

And doesn't my Christmas tree look nice? It is absolutely jam packed with old friends which are unpacked year after year. And the lovely plumber has been to fix the radiators in the dining room and MY bathroom (I told George the only thing I wanted for Christmas was my radiator fixed. I have to tell you that the sectret of a happy marriage is his and her bathrooms!) There is a Mary Berry Mincemeat cake in the oven - never done it before but it sounded quick and easy and will fill a few gaps when the boys arrive.

I should be looking forward to Christmas, it is a lovely time of the year but this year I am so apprehensive. And on top of everything else, junior daughter, who won't be with us on Christmas Day, has just announced that on Boxing Day she wants to go to Heathrow to see a friend who is on a seven hour stop over from Chicago to Australia! Imagine anyone wanting to go and spend several hours in Heathrow instead of being in the bosom of the family.......! Ah well. Tonight I have to go out and deliver the last of the presents to the ladies in the Almshouses - I have made a phone call to make sure she will be in. Every single year I never manage to get them all in - I usually have to make several journeys! I woke up at 4 this morning remembering that I had left one of the gifts - a large poinsettia - in the car all night but fortunately it didn't get spoilt by the frost.

And tomorrow - Christmas Eve! The crib service in the afternoon and Midnight Mass both of which George organises and both of which will be packed.

Let the magic of Christmas come in.

Deep and Crisp and Even...

2010-12-20T10:10:00.000-08:00

This is how it started - just a light layer of snow. And then we got this...

Of course it looks beautiful when it is unsullied - like many people I've taken dozens of photographs but gradually the pristine layer is being destroyed as we come and go. I went to the shop this morning and the pavement is lumpy with impacted snow/ice - walking is so dangerous! I have just had an email from a Swedish friend who told me it started snowing there in October and has snowed pretty much every day since!

I have been training this Berberis into the shape of a Christmas tree for a number of years now - and this year it really does look like one! Well, it could be a sharper shape but George wouldn't cut the berried boughs off because the blackbird likes them! And he has been busy eating the berries (the blackbird, not George)- the window is our dining room and as we sat having lunch today we could hear him busily rustling around and see the snow falling off the branches. He also enjoyed the crusts from the smoked salmon canapes -

I am really pleased with this photograph - it is taken through my lovely new glass kitchen door - not bad, is it? Guess what we call him? Yup, that's right , Blackie. We had our Christmas party last night after the Carol Service - 45 people (should have been 50 but some out-of-villagers couldn't make it) came back for drinks. We have been doing this for some 40 odd years and it has become a bit of a tradition with our friends - they just assume that we are going to do it! Now it is getting harder - clearing the furniture to make room for everyone is quite a struggle. And we have been all day today putting everything back.

It looks cosy, doesn't it? This was taken after the first light layer of snow.

Oh dear, I wonder are we going to get any more? The vicar has just called to ask George if he has got enough shepherds for the Crib Service on Christmas Eve - will Noah the donkey be able to get down here from 'up in the hills' above Royston? The live donkey is the star of the show so fingers crossed. I am going to go and cosy up round the fire now and just DO NOTHING.

End of the year.....

2010-12-13T10:07:00.000-08:00

This is Margaret Starr's stand at the Scotsdale Garden Centre Craft Show near Cambridge. http://www.scotsdalegardencentre.co.uk/ It is held in the David Rayner Cancer Centre, a great venue for a craft show, warm and comfortable for the stall holders and easy access and parking for visitors. I popped over on Saturday (normally open the last weekend in each month, but every weekend in December) to see how Margaret was getting on. Her delightful bags were being much admired - and bought, as well. Well done, Margaret, and your initialled books are terrific and make a wonderful gift.

The garden centre was heaving with folk buying their Christmas trees - I do hope they all spare a few minutes to go and look at the high quality craft on offer. We've got a MESCH meeting this week and I have to confess that I haven't done much!

It was a busy week - keeping my mind off family troubles - a NADFAS lecture on Mozart at Churchill College followed by our U3A Book Group Christmas tea party at the Garden House Hotel. Well, they don't call it that now, but to us oldies that is what it will always be called. Beautifully situated on the banks of the Cam with punts gliding by, it is quite special. As was our tea, with dainty sandwiches, scones and lots of fancy cakes. And endless cups of tea whilst we discussed the book of the month - The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society.

This year we altered our format, reading three thrillers, three romances, three comedies and three historical books comparing the variety within the genres. But I don't think we shall do that again, we are reverting to our old ways. Anyway, everyone loved the Guernsey etc book and it was voted the best read of the year - but not by me! I have just read Friday Nights by Joanna Trollope for discussion by another group and enjoyed that and now I am reading Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson. I thought it very odd at first but as I got into it it has completely gripped me and I can hardly put it down.

I am fascinated by my fingernails at the moment! They are daringly painted with Chanel's Diabolical varnish which, as you may imagine, is practically black. I feel very adventurous and every time I look at my hands I get a surprise! Such fun. I may even go green.......

DO IT WITH STYLE !!! I think not.

2010-12-05T09:12:00.000-08:00

I wrote on the 5th October of coming back from France to find a leak in our conservatory. It had been leaking for some time and the man from STYLE came out to look at it - we thought it was a problem with the internal hidden gutter, but after the big leak it was eventually confirmed that it was a problem with the roof. Now isn't it peculiar that whilst the conservatory is under guarantee for ten years, the roofwork is only under guarantee for two years! So Style are not responsible. Just a minute, the roofers were their subcontractors , not ours!

It has proved very difficult to get through to someone who could deal with us.There have been many telephone calls and many absences from the office for 'visiting a sick mother' and the person who is dealing with our case 'is on holiday' and instances where our calls were not answered from our home number but were answered when I used a mobile phone. Eventually in desperation, and with Christmas looming, we got a man to come and do some work on the roof last week - but Style will not replace the internal cladding until we are sure that the leak is mended. So bizarrely we have been praying for rain - and what did we get? Snow. But yesterday it rained and yes, it is still leaking. So more work to be done. OK, I know I haven't turned the picture but you get the idea!

You can see the proximity of the big bookcase and imagine how the water crept up the paper and of course all the big, expensive art books were on the bottom row and some have had to be slung.
So you can imagine with what delight we had a leaflet through the door with the local paper yesterday -

I must confess that I did say something unprintable and handed it to George. He said something even more unprintable but hey, what is this he has spotted? Can it be? YES, it is. US, our very own conservatory -

No possible mistake, it IS us. There are the balloons we had for a party! Whaahey! Now if only I had known that they were going to use us for their advertising I would have asked them to put in a little note to say we would just LOVE people to come round and have a look. Now is a good time. We could show them the big watermark on the antique rug

some of the ruined Art Books, all the past editions of the Melbourn Magazine which were waterlogged and must be thrown away, the buckets - we would have so much to talk about to any prospective |STYLE customer !

I will be the first to let you know when/if STYLE come good and who knows, they just may foot the bill for the roof work. They may pay for the rug to be cleaned in the hope that the watermark disappears. (I have to say, they have been very good in the past about fixing doors etc) They may even apologise for all the ruined books. I just have a feeling that none of this will happen before our Christmas party when fifty people will be wanting to spill into the conservatory!

But with all the angst we have been going through just recently, you will understand that receiving that leaflet was the last straw. I LOVE my conservatory (or should I say LOVED). With a sittingroom panelled in wood, to go into the light & sunny room was a joy. We had lunch there most days. I used it for my Open Studio weekends. I want it back.

Honestly, if you didn't laugh you would cry.

Keep calm and carry on

2010-11-30T14:39:00.000-08:00

I haven't written for ages because, quite frankly, things have been so b----- miserable that I would just have moaned and been a misery. Families !!! You never stop worrying about them. On top of that, I went for my flu jab and nurse sent me off to see the doctor because I have high blood pressure. Not surprising.

Anyway, like the curate's egg, life has been good in parts. I did the church flowers for Remembrance Sunday which I was quite pleased with, then just before the cold weather really hit we had a new back door and the kitchen windows replaced. The double glazing had broken down and we have looked at the garden through a glass darkly for a couple of years now.

This was mid-day and I was really nervous that they would not get the windows & door fitted before nightfall. George had gone to London for the 150th anniversary dinner of his Rowing Club, Twickenham, and I was on my own for the night! However, the wonderful Roydon and his son got me all nicely padlocked and secure and I am delighted with the result. It is so bright!

Then on Friday we had our Rotary Charter dinner at Selwyn College - it was SO COLD even the men were eating dinner with coats over their dinnerjackets. One had a great deal of sympathy for mediaeval scholars dining in hall (yes, I know Selwyn isn't mediaeval but it is a large, lofty hall). Even a vest underneath my evening dress and a cardigan on top of it did not keep the cld out. I took lots of photographs and then asked George to take one with me in it. He did .........

We made him take another one but that was not much better - I think I prefer the first one. Ah well.

Unable to sleep at night I have been reading like mad to stop the worries circling round in my brain. The Return by Victoria Hislop and Friday Nights by Joanna Trollope have been read in quick succession, both of which we are discussing at a book meeting in January - I hope I haven't forgotten all about them by then! I enjoyed both, althoug I was not impressed by the beginning of The Return but it gathered pace and it was really interesting to learn more about the Spanish Civil War. Friday Nights was the sort of book where you begin to really care about the characters although JT does use inordinately long sentences with loads of commas and clauses.

Every year George does a quiz for Christmas and sells it for a pound a go at the church bazaar and elsewhere. There are always 100 questions and it is VERY hard, with cryptic clues, anagrams etc. He allows two months before the papers have to be in and people just seem to love it. He markets it as one to do after Christmas lunch, and for the sake of copying off 100 or so sheets it is an easy money spinner. We have covered so many subjects over the years, food and drink, clothing, entertainment etc. and this year the subject is The Sea, all that is on it and in it. The hysterical thing is that he has lost the crib sheet with the answers on, and as he started to do this quiz back in August the old memory is really being tested with the result that both of us are poring over the questions and complaining about how hard they are! What is the betting that just as we solve the last clue, he will find the answers !!!

So now we have a funeral this week of a dear friend in the village, sadly struck down by Motor Neurone disease at the tender age of 62. A great patchwork and quilter she produced exquisite work and was very active in the village. What a tragedy - and it has all happened so quickly. Then there is Christmas to get through - and I am afraid for the first time ever that is how I am thinking of it. I am even dreading doing the Christmas tree, usually one of my favourite tasks. I just hope the Christmas spirit manages to break through somewhere along the line. Doom and gloom all around I see. I don't think I had better write any more, I'm going off to count my blessings.

Half Term

2010-10-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

We have had our daughter and junior grandson staying for a few days. It is jolly hard persuading ticket people that this hulking great lad is still only 13 - 14 next week, actually. One day we went to

Ely Cathedral. It was a glorious day as you can see - not a cloud in the sky. I let him loose with my camera and he took quite a lot of good photographs. This is the great Lantern

and I love this mediaeval corbel

As we live in the Diocese of Ely we have a free pass - it is known locally as the Ship of the Fens because when the mists roll around at ground level the cathedral floats like a majestic ship, it must have been really awe-inspiring to the local folk in days gone by. It still impresses us now! We went to the Oliver Cromwell museum -

where Oliver and Elizabeth seem quite sanguine about having another son. I am a real pain, because I don't lose a single opportunity to drum in a history lesson. History isn't really his subject - he is keen on physics and maths just like his older brother. George took him to see a rugby match between Cambridge University and Cardiff - that was much more to his liking. We were going up to the Tower of London but actually had a day in Cambridge instead at his request. On Wednesday we went to Anglesey Abbey - another lesson about Hobson (of Hobson's choice fame) who was the first secular owner of the house after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The grounds were looking wonderful with the rich autumn colours and we walked along to Lode Mill where some delightful N.T. volunteers, seeing how interested we were, started the mill up for us and gave us a very interesting tour . Of course I had to buy some flour so I'm looking forward to making the next loaf. Needless to say food was involved and we had a super cream tea, why is National Trust food always so delicious?

I was sad to see them go back up to Stafford on Thursday morning but the Sawston Rotary Wives had a tour of Chilford Vineyard and a wine tasting followed by lunch so that helped to fill the void. Last night we went to a BRILLIANT concert run by George's Rotary Club - Rave On did a tribute to Buddy Holly ( or Buddy Holliday as George kept on saying - he is very square). The concert was a sell out and the

band was terrific, we were all bopping in our seats and then dancing in the aisles as they stormed into Peggy Sue, Blue Suede Shoes, and so on. Shades of my youth. We were all exhausted at the end.

So have I done any stitching, ask the other members of MESCH? Well, no. But I am doing a lot of thinking and at the moment I am going to sit in front of the fire making gift tags for the Church Bazaar. 50p for 10 - a bargain.

Diaghilev at the V & A

2010-10-17T08:19:00.001-07:00

On Thursday I went up to London to meet my good friend Sandra at the V & V to see the Diaghilev exhibition. It was BRILLIANT. I just loved it - every minute of it, and in fact we spent 3 1/2 hours going round so we certainly got our money's worth ! Fortunately, Sandra is just like me and reads everything, I don't think we missed a single item.

The cover of the exhibition notes shows costumes designed by Chanel, they were there on display alongside costumes from so many ballets, The Rite of Spring, The Fire Bird, etc. etc. Bearing in mind the fact that they had been danced in (strenuously) and were about 100 years old, they were all in remarkably good condition. I r4esisted taking photographs until the very end when I sneaked this photo

of modern haute couture which had been inspired by the ballet. I was completely overwhelmed by the films being shown and by the enormous stage backcloths which the V & A had bought back in the 60's. In fact, it would appear that most of the exhibits were from the V & A itself and not on loan. I always look for the provenance of the piece - it is interesing to see who owns these pieces of history. I was particularly taken with a small drawing by Picasso of Leonide Massine, a wonderful example of a pure pencil line. I bumped into Gina - or rather, she prodded me having recognised my backside ! She was there with her mother and I felt certain that we would see them again in the cafe, but we had obviously been so long in our examination of every single item that they had long gone! Did Gina, I wonder, indulge in one of these:-

When we emerged blinking from the last room, Sandra asked me what I thought the time was. It was 3.30 and I just knew that I was not going to make the train home (the one that stops me turning into a pumpkin) so there was nothing for it but to have afternoon tea and do a bit of shopping in the excellent V & A shop. Sandra bought a beautiful brooch, expensive but I know she won't regret it! Then I wended my way over to St Pancras where I wasted an hour having a drink and window shopping before going to Kings X and the 7.18 home. Dear George was waiting for me, had put the meal in the oven and lit the fire - what a lovely end to a perfect day.

Friday and Saturday nights we went out to dinner with friends so it has been quite nice to have a slummocky Sunday. Yesterday we had a tree taken down

It was a self sown ashtree which had been a real nuisance, three times we haave had it topped and it has grown again so quickly.

Just think how many lovely logs that will provide for the winter !

Ally Pally

2010-10-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I set off at 7.30 for my annual 'fix' at the Knitting and Stitching Show. First thing on arrival was a cup of coffee - boy, was it 'orrid. Someone told me later that there was a better coffee spot inside - I'm very fussy about my coffee! Anyway, I sat and read the programme and planned my day. I didn't have anything to buy (I could certainly stock one if not two stands with all my stuff) but inevitably I managed to spend money. As usual all the exhibitions were exciting and inspiring - I particularly liked Dierdre Hawken's fantastic miniature hats! I didn't take photographs because I don't really think it is fair on the artist. But I was amazed when Dierdre recognised me from a workshop I did with her some 10 or 12 years ago! What a memory. I had a lovely chat with Lizzie Houghton the felt maker - I have done several courses with her including a wonderful hat-making course. Such a nice lady. I lust after one of her jackets.... I had no scruples about taking a photograph at the Art Van Go stand - here is the wonderful Ruth Issett up to her elbows in paint as usual -

The Queen of Colour, I call her. It is so appropriate that she has those vibrant streamers over her head!

Art van Go have had two big stands for the last couple of years and they were busy, busy, busy. Good to see that Kevin was working hard -

I couldn't get near Viv because she was under a pile of customers! The graduate shows were exciting as was the retrospective of Julia Caprara's work and Margaret Nicholson's or nue. I looked in at the Chat exhibition, I was a founder member of that group and it was good to see some of them again. I really liked the knitted wire corsets. I bumped into lots of people I knew and at lunch time sat with some very friendly ladies from Kent. Talking of Ladies, I DO wish all the ladies loos were not on the first floor, after several hours trawling around the stands to climb up all those stairs is a real pain! The Global Paper Exhibition was terrific - in fact there was SO much to see.

I got home at about 7 to find that George had all ready gone out to our dinner date with friends, so I had to do a quick change and follow him. After we had eaten we played cards - I don't know HOW I kept awake! AND we had to be up early to 'sidle' in church Sunday morning. But Sunday was a perfect day - we had lunch in the garden and this was the sky -

over my head as I sat and ate my lunch - not bad for the 10th day of the 10th month, 2010 !

An autumn break

2010-10-05T05:05:00.000-07:00

We have just come back from

LA BELLE FRANCE

or more precisely, a friend's villa just above Caylus - a delightful mediaeval fortified town in the Tarn et Garonne part of France, right down on the S.W. corner. It is the third time we have bee there and we just love the area, no wonder so many Brits buy property there! This is breakfast with freshly collected bread, butter and Bonne Maman apricot jam - holiday treat.

Every village is a picturesque gem and the countryside is beautiful. We drove down stopping overnight at a nice little farm south of Dijon at St. Germain les Buxy. http://www.lafermette.org/. We were intrigued at breakfast the next morning to see a housemartin's nest above our heads in the beams of the dining room. Apparently the windows had been left open a bit too long! Our objective was to visit the wonderful Millau Bridge designed by Norman Foster. It is most impressive and flies gracefully across the valley, so high that as you can see from this diagram in the visitor centre (very smart!) the Eiffel Tower would just about go underneath the centre span!

We drove across it and back, 6 euros 50 each way but it was worth it. My only complaint was that the fact that it was designed by an Englishman was in VERY small print, but then we were in France. Whilst we were away George was reading '1000 years of annoying the French' by Stephen Clarke and maybe the Millau Bridge was the last straw !

The weather was wonderful apart from one rain and thunder storm, and we were able to lie around the pool reading and George even did some swimming. We visited lots of interesting markets, bought good, cheap wine and big, fat, fresh vegetables and we visited an English woman doing patchwork and quilting holidays at her villa near St Antonin Noble Val - my friend had spotted an advertisement in one of the quilting magazines. A very nice set up right in the middle of nowhere, there were about 12 women beavering away - one from Paris, two from California and three from Ashdon Quilters at Saffron Waldon! Of course we had friends in common - what a co-incidence! http://www.horsdesbrumes.com/. All the ladies said the food was wonderful....!

We were sitting in the 14th century market square in Caylus having a drink when we heard a sound above us - a cat had jumped out of the window onto the ledge and was happily sunning itself, not at all worried about the drop below him. A very good vantage point. I wonder if that is a bullet hole from the revolution behind him?

OOOps, here is the Millau bridge out of sequence !

The next village to Caylus is Septfonds, and the last time my friend Jenny was at her villa she went to an exhibition by the local patchwork group. They were very friendly and asked her to visit their weekly class next time she was in France. So on a Friday afternoon off we went - and what lovely ladies they were! Madame the leader insisted on showing us all over her house, we met her charming husband and her dog and saw all her work. Everything in the house was made a la main. My French is enthusiastic but lousy - I remember all the words but have a bad accent and rotten grammar - but I DO have a go, and often get myself into deep trouble by launching into a complicated conversation and then losing my way. Resolve: must go to French conversation classes.

Again there were about a dozen women sitting in a big room round a huge table, stitching away and all by hand. There was a very nice young woman from America who had married a Frenchman and she was able to do a bit of translating. We spent about an hour with them and had a cup of tea, it is amazing what warmth and friendship comes arm in arm with textiles. Thank you, lovely ladies of the Club Du Fil a L'aguille - les petites abeilles de Septfonds, for a really great afternoon!

Beyond Septfonds is the town of Causade - the berceau du chapeau de paille (cradle of straw hats) or in other words the Luton of France. But very different! A typical market, a good shoe shop selling designer models very reasonably (yes!), and a hat museum. Lots of very old hats lying around and on shelves, and the amazing thing was no one seemed to be there to stop you trying them on - so of course we did. Very carefully, as some of them might have been around during the revolution! And no, I'm not showing you the photo because I don't look anything like Marie Antoinette. But just to prove I was there...

We had just had a particularly good lunch, so I don't know why George is looking so fierce !

On the way home we stopped overnight in a farm at Bourg Beaudouin near Rouen - we stayed there three years ago and were charmed by the place and by the farmer's wife Benedicte. fermeducoquetot@free.fr. The house is full, and I do mean full, of stuff. Decoupage, doilies, paintings, books, cheese labels, chickens in every shape and form, old farm and dairy utensils - even the radiators are painted. I fell in love with this teapot at breakfast (note the cows on the tablecloth!) this is the front......

and this of course is the back! French style in all it's glory, n'est ce pas?

Last time we stayed we ate dinner at the farm but this time it was not possible so we drove, on Madame's recommendatition , to Les Lions de Beauclerc in the utterly delightful village of Lyons la Foret. Every building was strung around with flowers - this is the covered market -

The meal at Les Lions was first class and at 20 euros a head not expensive, and we were eating in a decor raffine et chaleureux ! It was dark when we left the restaurant, but I was amazed to see on the house opposite all these figurines on the OUTSIDE of the windowledges ! Amazing! I have never seen the like before. I hope they were stuck down.

Anyway, after a couple of glorious weeks away we came home to find a flooded conservatory, soaking wet patchwork quilts, cushions and armchair. A big water stain on the lovely old rug. Down to earth with a bang Yukkkkk. But........

The one ray of sunshine was this -

A Parcel !!! A PIF from the lovely Gina (what exactly is a PIF ?) Anyway I opened it up and there was one of Gina's delightful pincushion/boxes, some cards of her recent degree work AND some chocolate! And wrapped in my favourite colour combination of pink and lime green - how did you know? What is a wet conservatory compared to that!

Thank you so much Gina and I understand that I now have to pass this on to three people, is that right? Well, of course, I don't have half or even a quarter as many followers as Gina but if anyone is interested in receiving a mystery parcel from me (and it is a mystery to me, too, at the moment!)let me know, shall we say by the end of October. I can certainly do the chocolate bit! I am really thrilled with my pincushion.

Anyway, no more holidays now this year, it is WORK. House work, gardening and SEWING. And that's a promise. But not necessarily in that order.

And again out of sequence (I still do not seem to be able to master this thing) one last look at

Les petite abeilles de Septfonds

Going Nuts again

2010-09-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Once again we have a super-abundancy of nuts. I can't believe it is a year since I wrote about collecting the nuts from my garden, but here I am again, happily collecting up the fat little bodies - this is yesterday's haul...

Aren't they beautiful? As fast as I walk along picking up the nuts I hear a gentle plop behind me and know that if I turn round and walk back the grass will be strewn with even more. And if you are thinking I ought to be leaving them for the dear little grey treerats with big tails and good P.R. (squirrels) well, I cannot get easily behind the trees and don't scrabble in the undergrowth, so I reckon there is still plenty of food left for them. Anyway, stupid creatures just bury them all over my garden and then forget where they have put them and dig up my bulbs! You will gather I am not over fond of squirrels.

When I take the husks off, this reminds me of the vinyl floor covering I had years ago which looked like a pebbly beach! Incidentally,anyone who lives near me and wants little nut trees - well, I dig them out by the score!

I have also made MORE bramble jelly. This time I squeezed the jelly bag! I hope my mother wasn't watching from above, but I don't think with blackberry jelly you are aiming for a clear translucent W.I. prize winner and I am happy to have a cloudy jelly and more of it - especially the way senior grandson eats it!

I have fitted in some sewing - a friend asked me to do a picture for a neighbour who is having a significant birthday and is a keen bowler. I think I can show the picture in advance of the birthday as I am pretty sure she is not a blog reader!

Anyway, it was quite fun to do although anatomically I don't think she works !

Sutton Hoo

2010-09-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

It has been a really busy week somehow, going here and there but I have managed to spend some time in the garden and just look at this lovely purple morning glory amongst the clematis - magical!

The clematis (which I call Tanganyika but of course I know that is not the real name, it is Tangutica ) is in quite the wrong place and grows rampantly. Every year I cut it right back and wish I had the courage to remove it altogether and every year it comes back twice as strong and grows all over everything.

We have had some beautiful days this week - I call them God-given at this time of the year, when autumn is coming and yet after a cool start we get a warm sunny day with clear skies and the warmth is so precious when you know it is not going to last.

And I am very proud of this aeonium which I bought at East Ruston - I think the colour is superb. It has a little baby plant which I am going to take off and try to grow on. I believe that if I cut the top off this (it is a good 18" tall) I can replant the top piece and the bottom will sprout again. Yes? Anyone done it?

We have been saying that we don't use our National Trust and English Heritage cards often enough, so after breakfast we sat down with the books to decide where we should go. And we chose Sutton Hoo, I cannot believe that we have not been before! After a lovely drive throught the beautiful Suffolk countryside, we arrived at Woodbridge and then on to Sutton Hoo where we immediately had lunch. That was a clever move because it saved me cooking when we got home. I was fascinated by everything and spent ages poring over the exhibits,although I must confess I was disappointed that there wasn't a complete reconstruction of the boat. The quality of the metalwork in the 600's was amazing- such fine and intricate work. And we call it the Dark Ages!

This is a copy of the famous helmet for children to try on. I was sorely tempted! And this is the HUGE

image over the door of the exhibition. We had a walk out to see the burial mounds and then of course we had to have a cup of tea and drove home to get caught up in the exodus from the flying display at Duxford.
We have had an unexpected vacancy at the Almshouses, of which I have been a Trustee since 1976! The result is that we have to do a refurbishment before we get a new tenant and intend to strip out the kitchen and bathroom and refit them - so this week it has been meetings and site meetings and discussions with builders and decorators. It is quite a blow because we had a vacancy only two years ago and did a huge £25,000 renovation on that unit, followed by a completely new roof and chimneys, and now this has cropped up we can only afford to do a partial refit.
All this is a far cry from textiles and I have a commission to do a picture for the 17th of this month. Guess what I shall be doing tomorrow!

Travelling again...

2010-08-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

Guess where we have been this time !

another clue....

Yup, we've been staying with our lovely friends Inki & Toine in Maastricht - or more precisely in Landgraaf. We go there every year - George used to work with Toine and we have known them for many many years . The weather was kind and we did lots of exciting and interesting things - even though we have been there so often we still find fresh things to see and do. We always have to go into Maastricht - such a civilised town - and the smartest street is Stokstraat where I spotted this very stylish dress shop where all the models had their skirts hitched up like riding habits.

Opposite that is one of my favourite florist shops - walk through the shop to the back and there is this smart selection of garden ornaments. And of course I had to go to a garden centre! We were going to a

party later that day so I bought flowers for the hostess....

and we had to pay another visit to the historic Dominicanerkerk - an ex Dominican church which has been turned into a fascinating bookshop. The cleverly converted 800 year old church retains its dignity

and is really impressive and there is a huge section of English literature. There is also a coffeehouse there and it is a popular meeting place for young and old alike. I feel as if I am writing a travel brochure- but I am passionate about Limbourg! We went to visit the Textile Museum in Tilburg, housed in an old woollen mill. This is both a museum and an exhibition space and a learning centre. Both George and Toine spent a lifetime with textiles and were fascinated by this woven cloth - very difficult to see where the repeat comes and one of the weavers told us that it was a difficult one to set up. Some of the looms they are working on are two or three hundred years old. I bought a cloth in this pattern.

Then another day we drove to Valkenburg where we had lunch at the very beautiful Chateau St Gerlach. Mussels - yummy - with chips served Belgian style in little paper cornets sitting in their own wooden holders with mayonnaise at the side.

The Chateau has been very sympathetically restored as a five star hotel and, as well as looking round the pretty frescoes in St Gerlach's church we saw the display of sculpture in the grounds,

including this very wet looking cow - as you can see, by this time the weather had caved in and it was raining - so we went back to Landgraaf and sat & watched the DVD of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - in Swedish with Dutch subtitles !!! However, having read the books the characters were JUST as we had imagined them and we had no difficulty at all in following the action.

Home to Cambridge and a visit to Shakespeare's As You Like it in the the grounds of Trinity College - a picnic with more rain !!! It was a delightful performance and the actors ploughed on manfully (and womanfully) to entertain us. When we got home, DD1 and the two grandsons had arrived for the week and we packed a lot of visits and sightseeing in. This is Jeremy James in the Museum of London Docklands - if you haven't been there, do go. It is most interesting and it was hard to tear the boys away, although mention of lunch soon moved them. When we arrived at Canary Wharf I had lost my bearings, but spotted two young policemen and asked them to point me in the right direction. "I'll do better than that, madam, I'll take you there." So off we set, me in the lead with one policeman then the other four and a policeman with a dog bringing up the rear. The boys were very amused - they thought it looked as if we were being marched off for questioning. Later we went to St Pauls then over the wobbly Millennium bridge to Tate Modern - the boys were NOT impressed by the art but loved the building!

So now they have all gone back and it seems as though the summer is over. The garden is full of greengages and blackberries just asking to be made into jam, we cannot keep up with the tomatoes and beans, the weeds are growing apace and there was a mountain of washing to tackle. I haven't had time to any sewing or drawing, must try harder!

A bone of contention !

2010-08-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

This is a PILE

and this is A NOTHER pile

who would think that an innocent thing like a pile of weeds could cause dissention in a marriage? George doen't like my piles, but I say that if I didn't leave piles, he would never know just how much gardening I actually do! Does that make sense? It does to me.

In my own defence, I will say that if I go out on an Official Weed I use a trug for the weeds, but most of my weeding is unofficial, i.e. I go out to do something else and get distracted. I was checking on the greengages and spotted some phlox that needed to be cut down. It is a bit late after all these years to hope that I will change, so there. Anyway, my lovely Echinacea 'Green Envy' is in bloom - isn't it glorious !

I'm off now to finish a fruit salad for eight - it has taken me ages to cut up all the fruits and none out of the garden I am afraid. The greengages are not ready nor are the blackberries and I'm not sharing my figs! I'm just waiting for the caustic comments about the piles when George comes in ! (He's a pussycat, really)

FIG uratively speaking...

2010-08-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

Just look what I picked today in my garden! A beautiful plump, ripe, juicy FIG. And there are lots more on the tree. To think that for the better part of my life I thought I hated figs - and that was because my mother used to give me a dose of Syrup of Figs every Friday night when I was a child. I hated it so much I turned my back on figs but oh, how different a ripe fig straight off the tree is from the sickly sweet syrup I remember. I cut it in half and George and I enjoyed it after dinner - one of our five a day. And all five today came from the garden, tomatoes, runner beans and a handful of gooseberries cooked with a couple of fallen apples and served with a crumbled digestive biscuit and a spoonful of Greek yoghurt. Yummy.

And following Gina's instructions in her Blog Drawing Tutorial I had coloured some pages in a sketchbook ages ago, having been told that was the way to overcome the terror of blank pages in a new sketch book. Having painted them, I then did not know what to do with them! But there they were, ready and waiting for a little painting done with a kebab stick dipped in bleach.

A couple of little chicks - in this case the early bird didn't get the worm . And then a couple of aliums picked from the garden, it is fascinating to watch the bleach taking effect, I know Gina said it would ruin a paintbrush but I bet you would get some better effects . I got a bit carried away with the daisies

Whilst I was painting the aliums, some hover wasps came into the conservatory and clustered around the flower head. Notice my illicit Campari - I am on a promise to myself not to drink during the week, but it has been a hard day.

and I deserve it!

A nice day out !

2010-08-01T12:39:00.000-07:00

Today George and I went off to Audley End for the day. It is on our doorstep, and when we first came to the area some 47 years ago we went several times with various visitors, but I don't think we have been for about 20 years (apart from the odd concert). The Telegraph were offering 'two for the price of one' to Telegraph Subscribers and as they were doing a Recreation this weekend we decided to go. It is of course a lovely sight -

and when they are playing cricket it just looks SO quintessentially English. But this morning we headed for the kitchens, first the laundry rooms -

When we moved into Lordship Farm we found one of these dollies, exactly the same as this, and DD2 now keeps it in her ownstairs loo with toilet rolls on the handle!

I have to say that English Heritage have done a first class job with the films being shown on the walls, here showing a laundrymaid doing the ironing. Life must have been so hard for those girls, up to their elbows in water with none of our easy washing powders and detergents. Then we saw the kitchens where they were recreating a meal from 1861, with a very stern cook directing the kitchen maids. This reminded us that it ws time to go and have some lunch!

Then we attacked the house. Very grand, and when it was built it was twice or three times the size it is now. All the room stewards were very pleasant and happy to chat to us and we saw some portraits of George's Howard ancestors.......I think. There is an enormouse collection of stuffed birds which made me feel a bit squeamish but it was amazing to get right up close to huge eagles with frighteningly sharp beaks. But the little song bird were pathetic, I thought. This is looking down into the main hall - I don't think I should have taken it but I truly did not see a sign saying no photography.

This was a stable boy grooming Smiler, one of the good tempered horses they keep there and he was letting some of the children help him . The 16th century stable block is delightful. We walked round the kichen garden and into the glasshouses where we saw this lovely display of geraniums (or should I say pelargoniums)

Then we had a pot of tea and one piece of coffee cake between us (saving ourselves for dinner) and as we left for home the field behind the house was already packed with the picknicking audience for tonight's Prom in the Park. It would have been nice to stay but it was getting very overcast so I think they were in for a chilly evening. But we had a very pleasant Derby and Joan day out.

China town

2010-07-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

After the launch of the Carlini wine on Saturday I had PILES of china to put away. I kept putting it off, on Sunday I was washing glasses and too tired, on Tuesday I went to Saffron Walden, on Wednesday it was the U3A leaders lunch and today I just HAD to knuckle down. George said I have far too much china and should throw half of it away! He is sort of right, of course, but what happens when you have 30 people to feed? As you can see, this cupboard is already full and I still had all that to pack away.....

But I did it! Well, almost, just a few things on the floor which I really cannot squeeze in. What to do? Where did it all come from? Many years ago we bought a mediaeval farmhouse with ALL the contents which included lots of china, much of it quite old. There were two big dressers in the farm which were loaded with plates. I had a dinner and tea service as a wedding present - 18 of everything (and I seldom break things) and then I had all my mother's Golden Wedding china (a real pain because I cannot put it in the dishwasher)! And of course, here and there along the way I have bought the odd plate or bowl in foreign parts. But I have to confess it IS a bit excessive. I must have about 36 ramekin dishes, about 72 dinner plates, 60 small coffee cups etc, etc - I am not boasting, I am asking for sympathy! They are all part of my life and it would feel like throwing old friends away dispose of them. Heaven knows what I shall do if we have to downsize again! Hanging on the door, by the way, are bags with Halloween witches, Easter bunnies and so on. I want George to put narrow shelves on the door but he says that is just encouraging me......

Now if that isn't a masterpiece of packing it all in, I don't know what is. And what about the crochet edging then, Gina? Echoes of your crochet bunting! I have done enough for two shelves and there are five altogether, but it is a good travelling-in-the-car task. After all that hard work I found half an hour to take Gina up on her drawing challenge. I hunted for the Indian Ink which had gone solid in the bottom of the bottle, it is so long since it was used! I put some water in but unsurprisingly it was not very potent. I found a pigeon feather in the garden and picked a hydrangea head and had a go, then I found an old felt tip pen which the grandchildren used to use and tried again, that was much easier to use.

Then I put on a bit of colour and it looked better.........

Thak you, Gina, I enjoyed that - it was a good exercise and much more fun than packing plates away!

Five star weekend !

2010-07-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

I've just had a really good weekend! Starting on Friday evening when we went to dinner with some friends in the village and got into very deep philosophical discussions about God and creation and the universe. We decided we should form the Alternative Discussion Society - but that has rather unfortunate initials. Calling ourselves the Melbourn Alternative Discussion Society made us The MADS and that was even worse so we abandoned the idea! But it was a fun evening.

And on Saturday we launched the CARLINI LABEL! Our very own wine. Organised in a kick and a rush because the weather was going to be fine, George and Brenda invited a group of friends and so did we. I had both the grandsons staying so they were

roped in, putting up the bunting and getting out tables and chairs and so on. George-Next-Door put together a spoof presentation to show how the grapes were collected and trodden - here is Will at the practice run through holding an umbrella up over the computer to keep the sun off the screen - very technical stuff. Everyone arrived at 6.30 and my George made a little speech before giving everyone a glass of the liquid nectar. Well, the wine. It tasted a lot better as a component of a jug of Sangria but as it had a very high alcohol level we were all quickly in the party mood. Brenda and I had rustled up a buffet and the evening was so warm that we sat in the garden until midnight. Our lovely friends were very kind about our baby, but we did notice practically everyone brought with them a bottle of 'proper' wine to fall back on.

So this morning we didn't go to church because there was a MAMMOTH clearing up job to do. We had all the glasses to wash by hand because they wouldn't go in the dishwasher, and the garden to clear up and I have a washing machine full of stuff and loads of china to put away. But we all had a good time so it was worth the effort.

THEN this afternoon I left the boys watching the Grand Prix and drove over to see Silver Pebble's Open Studio - and what did I find ? Not only Silver Pebble but Dottie Cookie! Two for the price of one - but it got better. Shortly after I arrived who should appear but Purple Podded Peas! What joy - to meet three of my favourite bloggers in one fell swoop. Emma's jewellery was just delightful and several pieces were purchased whilst I was there including two of the Gina/Emma Hellebore brooches. We sat in the pretty garden chatting over a cup of tea and then the two adorable little pebbles arrived, I just wanted to eat them up. We got one of Emma's customers to take a photograph - here we are -

It was SO nice to meet you all and thank you so much for making me so welcome! You three and the two little girls made my five star weekend.

A day at the seaside !

2010-07-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

Junior grandson is staying with us for a few days so today we went to the seaside. He is a bit old for a bucket and spade but did enjoy fish and chips from the famous shop in Aldeburgh - all the better for being eaten from the paper. Delicious.

Then he was exhausted and had to have a rest !

But later he redeemed himself by finding THREE hagstones (in case you don't know, these are stones with a hole going right through the middle) and we actually saw this post in a garden near the beach with a whole string of hagstones. They are supposed to keep witches at bay!

Then we saw the lovely scallop shell by Maggi Hambling, it is incredibly beautiful and moving - the inscription is from Benjamin Britten's 'Peter Grimes' I hear the voices that will not be drowned...

I was amused by these knees which were just visible from where I stood at the top of the beach. I suppose they did have bodies.

Then we motored to Thorpeness and then on to Southwold for tea - and the sun shone all the time and it was warm and windy. I really feel that I have had all the cobwebs blown away with a breath of sea air. We came home and Grandad and Jeremy had sausage and mash (yes, still hungry after the fish and chips) in the garden and now we are going for a late evening walk to see the noctilucent clouds which should be visible all this week. I saw them Monday and Tuesday but they were not very spectacular - it is clearer tonight so I am hoping for better results.

Am I downhearted ?

2010-07-14T14:24:00.000-07:00

Well, yes, I was. But have I been idle? No! 8lbs of blackcurrant jam from my own bushes and I have been working on this fellow..........

And this is what he is looking like. I see immediately that his beak is wrong (the comb and wattle are only pinned on fortunately) and he obviously needs a lot more work. But he has kept me busy today and I think

I am going to be quite pleased with him ! My 'studio' (aka the conservatory for COS) is covered in scraps of fabric and I have the U3A embroidery women coming tomorrow afternoon and George has a church meeting in the evening so tomorrow MUST be a tidying up and putting the duster round morning. Yuk.

Open Studios

2010-07-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

All they had to do was walk up the drive..........

Follow the bunting......

into the garden.........and there is my studio (well, my conservatory) all ready with ice cold drinks and mint imperials

and me with a smiling face eager to show everyone what I do......

then follow a bit more bunting across the garden and round behind the summerhouse through a gate into George Meliniotis's studio......

where he was waiting with a smiling face to show all his lovely paintings.......

so where were all the people ?

I know it was very, very hot. And we did have one or two lovely visitors (faithful old friends and a few brave strangers) but on the whole it was like watching paint dry for two whole days! Most disappointing. We are open again next weekend and if it is cooler we MAY have more people but perhaps we are just too far out from the centre of Cambridge. One picture proved very popular and I NEARLY sold it three times, one woman wanted to know if my sunhats were for sale and another wanted to know if I had made the glass tea light holders and how much were they! Dear friend Sandra came up from London to lend a hand but in fact there was nothing to do although on the positive side we did have lots of time to talk, and she did do a lovely watercolour of one of my plants, and we did have a rather convivial evening with George and Brenda and some other friends sitting in the lovely balmy evening. And I was able to sit with my feet up and read all the newspapers so perhaps it wasn't a complete washout.........

Down by the riverside

2010-07-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

We've been to Henley - AGAIN! 57th consecutive year, I think - do we get a medal? Geoge is a member of Henley Stewards and of Remenham Club and it is a foregone conclusion at the beginning of the year that come hell or high water, we shall be at the Regatta. This year it was HOT. I took my new camera and took 126 photos but somewhere along the line I have managed to do something that will not allow me to put them on the Blog - I am still on a learning curve with this one. Every year we have a photograph taken in front of these roses - I have a picture of me very pregnant with DD1 and the rose bush comes up to my knees - it was newly planted. Look at it now!

We had a delicious lunch in the marquee - DD2 and DD1 looking very serious, I am really cross I cannot download the good ones, these are from the discard pile! We drank lots of Pimms and caught up with all the gossip from friends we have not seen since last July.

At one time it was all too much for William !

At the end of the day we retreated to the Hillside behind Remenham Club and had a barbecue until the darkness fell and then at ten o'clock the fireworks started, the river filled up with boats and there was a wonderful atmosphere. Then began the long trail home......

I was very good and stitched all the way down in the car, anxious not to waste any time because of course next week it is Open Studios. Today I managed to slip away for an hour to visit Gina Ferrari's O.S. This was a mistake, because it made me realise just how much I have to do between now and next Saturday. And by the time the family had left at 6 and we had supper and then Brenda and George came from next door for a drink and to tell us all about getting caught up in the Gay Pride march in London yesterday, well, now it is time for bed!
Gina's work is beautiful, artistic, appealing, colourful and so well executed. And her studio is SO TIDY! If you have the COS brochure and are in the area, do try to get to see her, her sketchbooks alone are worth the visit.. I am hoping to get to see Emma Mitchell during the 4th weekend - one of the disadvantages of having your own open studio is that you cannot get around to see other people, but I am only doing weekends 2 and 3 so will have the last weekend free.

What a lovely weekend (must try to download the picture of Jeremy in Sarah's hat !)

Happy birthday to me

2010-06-27T15:33:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday this week and I had a new camera! There was nothing wrong with my trusty old Pentax but the sexy new red Sony Cybershot was on offer and eldest grandson is hanging his nose over the Pentax so we shall all be happy. I have had a lovely week, I think I only had to cook one meal - how about that! Had a glorious day with my Mesch companons in Marian's lovely romantic garden and she made Delia's Morroccan cous cous & roasted vegetables for lunch - delicious. And we caught up with all the news which was great.

I had loads of cards - this one was from dear Sandra - one of her watercolour paintings of a 'Paphiopedilum' which she did at Kew where she is a volunteer. (I only know that because it is written on the back!) It is exquisite. We had a meal with Brenda & George next door, sitting in the garden until late and watching the huge yellow moon come up - very Van Gogh. Then we went out with friends who were celebrating their wedding anniversary, and we were out to lunch today with friends - this is a very sociable village! Of course, none of this has done my waistline any good at all. However, I still managed to do the splits on my birthday although I must confess it is getting more difficult to get up again !

My garden is looking beautiful at the moment and the smells are divine. We are having to water pots and vegetables but the rest of the flowers just have to cope with the weather. I hope it is still looking good for Open Studios for which, of course, I am working hard at the moment. Yes, I know I have left it all a bit late and working in this heat is not good. It's my own fault.

I took some beautiful photos of roses and put them on to Picassa but I just couldn't down load them onto the Blog - these photos come straight from the camera. I shall have to do a bit more research! It is too hot and too late to struggle with it now. We really appreciate the trees all around our garden as we can always find some shade.
Speaking of computer problems, does any one else get these irritating comments in some outlandish hieroglyphics? I suspect it is Japanese and I thought they were supposed to be very polite people, but I think it is extremely rude to write something which you know perfectly well cannot be understood. I don't want it to be translated as I have a feeling it is nasty - otherwise they would write in English!!! I don't always get the little dustbin symbol up - any answers?

Junior grandson has just come back from a school trip to Berlin - and he told me that he brought back a vuvuzela with a German flag on it! I do hope he doesn't bring it down with him next weekend.

I am struggling with our Book Group choice this month - Susan Gregory 'The Hand of Justice' I was really looking forward to reading it as it is set in 13th century Cambridge and it has a map in the front! I have always loved books with a map - must be memories of Milly Molly Mandy. I am off to bath and bed now and will try to read another chapter, it must be the heat putting me off.

2010-06-27T14:35:00.000-07:00

2010-06-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

Busy weekend

2010-06-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I am glad that this weekend is over ! It was a busy week altogether as on Wednesday George had his Rotary Kids Out when they entertained some 120 disabled children for the day at Wimpole Hall. I and a couple of other Inner Wheel ladies did the packed lunches in the morning and fortunately the day stayed dry until George came home - with an painted face of course. It is jolly hard work but he loves doing it every year, the children enjoy it so, with kite flying, clowns, miniature train, bouncy castle etc and a visit to the Home Farm.

On Thursday Anthony Green invited us to go to the Buyers Private View at the Summer Exhibition (not that we are in a position to buy anything, I hasten to say, either financially or space-wise) and we thoroughly enjoyed it after not having been for 4 or 5 years. It had become such a splash and daub show - in MY opinion! But this year it was better, very well hung and there was some very interesting work. I especially liked the gorilla made out of coat hangers - such a clever idea. But my friend next door was turned down again for the third year and I honestly could not, looking round, see how his pictures were inferior or less desirable than much of the work on the walls. There was a print in the small gallery by a certain lady and it was covered in red dots but it was, again in my opinion, downright ugly and rather nasty but she is a NAME! And as for her big piece of work....well, dear old Brian Sewell made his views plain! We met up with dear friend Sandra who is a volunteer at the RA and went out for a meal together which was fun.

On Saturday we had a Safari Supper in aid of our lovely Community Hall behind the church, now two years old. It was a lot of hard work making sure that no one met the same people at each course but a good friend helped me and quite a lot of wine facilitated the planning and it was a great success. We all met up at the Hall for cheese and coffee at the end and everyone was still chatting away until nearly midnight! It is the third year running that I have done this and each year it grows a little as people realise what fun it is.

We saw Sandra again when she came up to see our Open Gardens on Sunday (she is a very keen gardener and also a volunteer at Kew, a lady of many talents) which George organised in aid of the church. I was busy in the Hall taking the money for the teas but I did manage to slip away and see a couple of gardens with Sandra -

this one is Angela's and was delightfully neat - puts my garden to shame - and this one

is a little corner of Anita's

garden, a tiny garden but just packed with interest. At the end of the day all 10 of the garden owners and their partners came back to our house for a glass of bubbly and some nibbles and we did a post mortem on the day. Why didn't we have so many people going round? Was it the weather or the world cup? Should we hold it at a different time of the year?

Sandra is good at telling me what I should do and I MUST TIDY MY SEWING ROOM and throw away a LOT OF STUFF. Yes, Sandra, I do know that, but it is very hard. I am going to make a start tomorrow.....

Three coins in the fountain...

2010-06-09T14:55:00.000-07:00

Now guess where we have been - here flying over the Alps.......

Does this give you a clue? Note the little Smart car nestled in amongst all the Vespas and Lambrettas

And if that doesn't tell you, what about this...

which was an invitation to a general audience with

THE POPE !!!

Yes, we were in bella Roma for five days and quite co-incidentally when we went into the Vatican we got the opportunity of seats for the next day at a public audience - not bad for three C of E's and a Greek Orthodox. It was an opportunity not to be missed and it was surprisingly moving, watching the reaction of the mainly Catholic crowd. Behind the compound of chairs the rest of St Marks Square soon filled up with thousands of tourists and it was all very impressive. The Pontiff arrived and got into his popemobile and drove all around us in the seats so we had a really close view, then he went up to sit under the canopy as you see here and I understand that he mentioned the names of a lot of the people who had come specially from afar for this audience. Some bits of the ceremony were in English (and other languages) so the whole process was quite longwinded and I have to confess that when we noticed other people getting up to go when their 'bit' had been done, after 3/4 of an hour we too decided that the heat was too much for us and we needed to retire for a restorative drink. It felt very rude to walk out, but no-one knew who we were!

Rome was beautiful, heavenly weather, marvellous food, good wine and history at every turn. George used to go to Rome on business but I had never been before so I found it very exciting. In a narrow little street, the Via de Cappellini, we saw this mirror on the wall and people were taking photographs of themselves - what a clever idea! See George holding the camera up between us?

I think we look a bit like an Old Master (and Mistress)

I am always fascinated by shop windows when I am abroad and the shops in Rome are to die for. Clothing and shoes, oh my. I did buy two pairs of shoes - I'll take a photo of them later -fortunately George is a retail animal and enjoys the shops as much as I do. I really liked one of the shelves in a wine shop, the labels pictured Mussolini, Stalin, the Pope, Hitler - I mean, who wants to drink Hitler wine?

We stayed at a lovely hotel, very centrally placed, and it had a wonderfully old fashioned lift as well as a very modern one. We liked to clank up in the old one as it seemed a real adventure, but the modern lift was made by 'Schindler' - and it amused me greatly to be in Schindler's lift !!

In the Compo del Fiore there was a super flower, food and vegetable market - I have to tell you that I took nearly five hundred photographs and that most of them were of quirky things like this man sitting demonstrating kitchen gadgets which peeled and sliced and cored and coiled. What did he do with all those vegetables? Did they go into one of the restaurants to make minestrone? Only a quarter of my photographs are of classical views, but then we all know what the coliseum looks like, don't we?

But who could resist taking a photograph of this little fellow with

his golden wings, tastefully placed fig leaf and rather strange harnessess!

And this is what we came home to ! Down to earth with a bang. But lovely as it was to have (another) lovely break in the sunshine, it was oh so nice to get home again. Then we had that glorious rain which has done wonders for the garden - and we have Open Gardens in our village on Sunday which George organises and at the end of the day all the garden owners come to our house for a drink - and so of course, our garden has to be a bit spick and span as well. What with that and the Safari Supper on Saturday, it is going to be a busy time and Rome already seems a long way away. And yes, I did throw three coins in the fountain of Trevi !

Beauty & the beast

2010-05-30T07:26:00.000-07:00

After the wonderful rain which has at last fallen here in one of the driest parts of Britain, this morning I did some gardening .The rain has really perked everything up but with this morning's sunshine George was able to cut the grass and I planted another row of radishes and spring onions. . I am mad about clematis and at the moment the early ones are really putting on a good show. This is The President of course.

I was working near the honeysuckle tree - an old dead tree which George wanted to chop down some years ago but I persuaded him to leave it and I planted a honeysuckle and a climbing rose - Rambling Rector. In the evening this smells divine and when the honeysuckle has died, the rose takes over. This is BEAUTY!

And this is the BEAST ! a huge grub which I dug up whilst edging my island bed. Actually, I dug up two - but I am afraid I put the trowel right through the first one ! Oooops. Then I unearthed another - it must be the size of a fifty pence piece - I should have put one beside it for comparison. I bet there is some bright spark out there in the ether who knows what it is - a June Bug, perhaps? Anyway, I left it writhing on the grass and went to find George so that he could see it and when I cam back it had gone. I hope Mrs. Blackbird got it. It was breakfast, lunch and dinner rolled into one, a veritable feast.

Stitching ? No, not this week apart from the U3A class on Thursday and shortening the sleeves of a white blouse I bought in France last year.. But I have been thinking a lot - I must get cracking as I have to produce some new work for Open Studios in July. I put four items into the Fowlmere Art Show last weekend but they were not very well placed, in fact I had to really hunt to find two of them. A lovely show, but overcrowded.
On Tuesday George's Rotary Club (plus wives & partners) met for a meal at The Green Man at Six Mile Bottom (highly recommended) and then went on to have a guided tour of Tattersalls in Newmarket. Most interesting - it was founded in 1766 and is still a family owned business and, if I heard the figures correctly, they have a turnover of bloodstock sales of over two hundred & seventy million pounds a year ! Howzat! It is possible for members of the public to go into the selling ring and witness the horses being sold - I think that would be quite exciting. There would be no danger of accidentally bidding for a horse, as all the buyers are corralled into one segment of the ring. There are also some very elegant rooms which may be hired for weddings or product launches and everything, but everything was immacculate. We saw a portrait of the founder which bears a dent in the top corner - evidently where it was hit by a champagne cork when the sale of the first million pound horse was being celebrated. A very nice evening, but golly, it was cold. Come back, summer.

Sunny Spain

2010-05-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

Guess where I've been !!!

Yup, that's right - George and I flew to Gibraltar to visit my brother who works there, although he and Annette actually live just down the coast in Sotogrande in Spain. We had a wonderful time, the weather was perfect and Annette is a very good cook so we had some delicious meals. Their house is just fabulous with a delightful garden and pool and so many courtyards and terraces and arbours that I got very confused and frequently found myself lost! We haven't been to this house before.

This is one of the terraces - it is hard to realise that you can just go in and leave all the cushions and lamps out all night! And this is PART of the dawing room! There is a lovely garden and during the night pipes rise up from the lawn and sprinkle away so that the grass is always green. Sotogrande boasts the Royal Golf Course and several polo grounds and the whole village is within a cordon manned by armed guards who monitor who goes in and out - they are very security conscious, with iron grilles at the windows and electronic steel shutters. It took a lot of getting used to ! One day we went to the market and I spotted these - SNAILS

But more excitingly I also saw this wonderful stall full of the most vibrantly coloured fabrics - Annette told me it was all in preparation for the Flamenco season. Stupidly I didn't buy anything (I could fill a market stall any day with the stuff I've got in my workroom) but when I got home I thought what wonderful bunting it would have made for Open Studios!

There were mountains of rolls in every shade and pattern you could imagine! We went to Tarifa, the nearest village to North Africa where the Africans brought in their goods, which were taxed - hence the word tarif ! You could look across the straits and see all the houses on the opposite coast, it was so clear. It was a delightful little village where we had coffee and browsed the shops - I bought a very colourful cotton skirt for 10 euros. Then we went to find a little shack near the beach where we had plate upon plate of wonderful fish, including fried sea anemone! It was very windy on the atlantic coast and the sand was so fine it whipped against your legs and really stung. Oh, and I also bought that necklace that I am wearing !

It was lovely to spend time with Ian because he has always lived and worked in Europe and therefore I don't get to see him very often. They made us so welcome and it was nice to see how the other half live ! But it was equally good to get back home and smell the honeysuckle festooning the dead tree and the daisies growing in the grass. Sometimes things can be just too perfect ! I don't have a maid or a gardener but I do have lots of special friends and the lovely Brenda and George next door invited us in for a BBQ when we got back so I didn't have to think about cooking. Home, sweet home !

First of May - Muguet day

2010-05-01T05:30:00.000-07:00

Today is the First day of May and my maternal grandmother who married a Frenchman ('mais malheuresement il etait mort avant que je suis nee ' as I was taught to say) always had to have a corsage of muguet de bois - as I believe is the custom in La Belle France. Well, they can be jolly expensive to buy - so I grow it, the only trouble is it has a mind of it's own and grows where IT wants and I dont i.e. in the lawn! I always hope that there will be some to pick on May 1st and then I think with great affection of Grandma Daisy, who was a real character . I insisted on having Lily of the Valley in my bridal bouquet and in June, in 1957, they were extremely difficult to get hold of. Nowadays you can get anything at any time!

I don't wish to put the boot in (in this case a dear little Victorian green glass Wellington boot) but this morning I have picked some Lily of the Valley and it smells divine. And if the sun shines today even more will come out and I shall be able to give small bunches to friends - everyone is delighted to receive this dear little flower.

All gardens look lovely at this time of the year, especially after the welcome rain we had yesterday. Looking at this picture I have decided that the pink tulips are far too large for the island bed and when they have finished blooming I shall put them underneath that wonderful acid greeny yellow in the border at the back where they will look ravishing next year - I love that colour combination. We bought all our hanging basket plants at Scotsdales on Wednesday at the Rotary Gardener's Question time which George is involved in running - and they all have to be planted up - sooner rather than later!"

So I guess that this afternoon I shall have to knuckle down to it, although I would really like to go into Cambridge and mosey round the shops. George cannot understand this. But when I feel 'mongy' as I do at the moment I just want to go and be amongst lots of people and I suppose if I am honest, enjoy a bit of retail therapy. I need a friend to say, come on let's go. On the other hand, if I stay here and do the gardening I shall save some money! At least we are going out to dinner tonight so NO COOKING ! Have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend everyone - I'm off now to have lunch and do the D.T. prize crossword with George.

Into the Hop Gardens

2010-04-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Today we travelled down into deepest Kent to visit Aunty Win in Faversham. She had coffee and toasted teacakes waiting as she is certain that we will be starving after the 1 1/2 hour journey from Cambridge. Later we drove to The George at Newnham for lunch where I had some delicious fish and then we went back into Faversham and had a little poke around down by the quay. Of course, it was a lovely day so everything looked at its best. Can you imagine the wonderful views from the top of this house?

There was an interesting old building with lots of bric-a-brac booths selling all the things your mother threw out twenty years ago or more. Please note the trendy knitted muffins !

I nearly bought a 1930's dolls pram for £40 but common sense prevailed .

These are the hop gardens near Win's house - hop GARDENS, you note, not fields. Win was reminiscing about the days when whole families of Londoners came out in charabancs to pick the hops and stayed in tents or huts - this was their summer holiday. The area is now a housing estate. The George, where we had lunch, has bunches of hops all over the ceiling and they smell lovely, very soporific. A pillow filled with hops ensures a good night's sleep. I looked in vain for the carpets of bluebells I remember from childhood but apparently we were two weeks too early!

We found some horsey friends

We were also too early for the apple blossom but the countryside did look lovely, fresh and green and full of blossom. And I do like the Kentish houses with their pantiles and shipboarding (or is it clapboarding?) it is all very picturesque. George did a few little jobs for Win before we set off for home about five o'clock. We don't see her more than 4 or 5 times a year nowadays, but I speak to her on the telephone every Sunday morning at 8.30! She will be 90 in November, she keeps on reminding me !

Meanwhile, back in the real world, DD2 went to a Jazzercise conference last week and is stuck in New Orleans - a victim of the volcanic ash. I can think of worse places to be stuck!

Little red lily b-----s

2010-04-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

This is one of my lovely crown imperials - they are so beautifully exotic amongst the very cottagey daffodils and primroses - and what a glorious colour. And THIS, Gina, is a LILY BEETLE or as it is known in this household, a little red lily b----r
It is like a ladybird only more elongated and without the spots, and this is the damage they do -

They also have rather nasty personal habits in laying their eggs - not nice at all and we score big Brownie points for killing them. (I could never become a Buddhist, I kill these and earwigs and wasps). Needless to say, this is now an ex-lily beetle.

We went to church this morning and asked some friends to come back for coffee but they said no, they were going out to lunch. So we came home to sit in the sunshine and look at the papers over our coffee before planning what to do in the garden. We had just decided to think about lunch when the telephone rang - it was Pauline our organist. Aren't you coming for lunch today? How awful, we had completely forgotten - are we losing our marbles? We leapt in the car (fortunately we were already brushed up in church clothes) and dashed to the next village where all our friends sat in the garden waiting for us. So we did not get any gardening done but had a lovely meal and lots of village gossip and got home at half past five!

On Friday evening we went to the preview of the Cambridge Drawing Society Exhibition - what talent! We saw our friends Rachel Haynes and Anthony & Sylvia Hopkinson and their lovely work. We were most impressed by the standard, there was quite a crowd there plus delicious nibbles and wine. We couldn't eat too much because we were going out to dinner but it all looked very scrummy. Although it is the Drawing society there were oils and acrylics and pastels and prints BUT no textile art! I talked to the Secretary about it and he said they were quite open to all sorts of media so I am thinking of trying to join - it is a challenge, isn't it?

I am slightly worried about my son-in-law as I think he must be going through a mid life crisis. He has a new hairstyle and has shaved off his moustache (which all makes him look much younger) AND he is talking of buying a motorbike !!! He says I can only ride pillion if I have all the leather gear - watch this space.... There is a precedent, because my father had a motorbike at one time and there is a wonderful photograph of my mother in 1932 wearing a leather coat and helmet, big gauntlet gloves and long boots and looking VERY glamorous. It is very tempting. Can I keep my vest on I wonder?

Easter

2010-04-03T04:37:00.000-07:00

Two blogs in two days - I am getting beside myself! I have never done the Pascal Candle before but have just been given responsibility for it so this is my first effort. Flowers from the garden.

The candle goes in tonight so I just hope they wont dislodge the flowers or turn it round - this is the best side!

Happy Easter everyone.

Exhibiting at The Tavern !

2010-04-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

The big day arrived ! Yesterday was the preview of the MESCH exhibition at the new Tavern Gallery in Meldreth. It is the old Railway Tavern which David Chappell has turned into a really delightful and friendly art gallery. Sadly Vanda Campbell was not able to make the it, but the rest of us were there and an awful lot of lovely people who came to support us, including Mary Cozens-Walker and her daughter Kate and her granddaughter - we were very honoured that she found the time to come. The lovely Sandra came from London and stayed the night, despite the terrible state of the house - as not much work has been done in the past week! I am on a big promise to do some tidying up after Easter.

And guess what - I sold three pieces of work! I was delighted, it is so nice when other people like the work you have produced enough to BUY it - what a compliment is that! Gina Ferrari came, which was lovely of her because she is very busy at the moment, and George & Brenda from next door (George sold FIVE big paintings at the gallery last month and has been asked to go back next March - terrific) Lots of neighbours and friends and other artists and husbands and daughters so it was a really friendly atmosphere, with wine and nibbles to help the evening along.

This is the window hanging made by Liz Evans. I was absolutely exhausted when I got home - we were there from 5 until 9 so it was a long time to be standing in high heels.

Here is another view. Well, I wonder how it will go over the weekend? The Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and closed between 1 and 1.30 - also closed Mondays and Tuesdays. It is situated right near the railway station in Meldreth and the exhibition is on throughout April. In the meantime, I have the family here for Easter and am amazed again at the height of my grandsons (and their appetites). Where did those dear little baby boys go to?

Palm Sunday

2010-03-28T14:41:00.000-07:00

A lovely day for our Palm Sunday service, with a visit from our very own donkey Noah seen in the middle of the picture - just above his head is the entrance to our drive - that is how close we are to the church. We all progressed round the church clutching our palm crosses and singing, the choir leading the way are usually about three verses ahead of us by the time we get back into church ! We left straight after communion to drive to Banbury for lunch in this delightful pub, lovely scenery all the way with the trees just bursting with buds and blossom, everywhere looking so fresh and green. Banbury Cross isn't a cross at all - I took this picture through the front windscreen of the moving car - not bad, eh? I am not sure whether it is one of the 'Eleanor' crosses (I shall have to look that up) but I do know that the original one was destroyed in 1602 and that this is a replica. I stitched all the way there and slept some of the way home!

We went out to dinner last night and were pretty late home so it was rather hard to get up this morning an hour earlier than usual - and isn't it amazing just how many clocks there are to alter in the house? I counted 10 clocks, then there is the cooker and microwave (I always have to look at the instruction book to find out how to alter the time) not to mention watches and the cars. My car is so difficult that it often just stays the same throughout the year and I have to make the necessary adjustment in my head. Keeps me on my toes.

Busy week this week, with the exhibition being set up on Wednesday - I hope to goodness my framing is ready in time - and the preview on Thursday then the family for Easter, church flowers and so on. Oh, and the lovely friend Sandra is coming up for the opening. I had better get in an early night whilst I can.

Elvis

2010-03-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

I have often sewn Elvis, with varying success and mostly on postcards - but isn't it always the same, when you really want something to come out well it just does not go right? This is how it is looking, the cleft in the chin is all wrong and if I try to unpick it the satin will mark. Bother and double bother.
This is the sketch I am working towards. I've a good mind to put sunglasses on him then I won't have to wrestle with the eyes! Some years ago I did a series of six pieces based on music and they all sold except one, so I thought if I did another musical picture they would make a pair, hence the Elvis idea.

Maybe Beethoven or Chopin would have been a better bet!

My lovely friend Sandra came for the weekend and we had such a good time, especially on Monday when we went into Cambridge and had a bit of retail therapy. I bought a really nice linen skirt and jumper which I really, really needed and two T-shirts in a sale. She came up to see George Meliniotis's exhibition at The Tavern Gallery and then in the evening George and Brenda came in for supper so we had a very arty weekend. Sandra is a botanical artist and does delightful paintings of flowers and vegetables - if I were a bit more clever I would be able to give you a link to her photos - maybe when the grandsons are here at Easter I shall pick their brains!

Speaking of grandchildren, I have just been talking to Junior Grandson who linked me to the Facebook of Senior Grandson where I saw photographs of him with a green face and a bright green colander on his head??? Master's degree in Engineering? Funny way of going about it!

It has been a beautiful day today, the garden is full of buds now and we can really imagine spring is on the way. Daffodils, hyacinths, hellebores, snowdrops and crocus, even the pulmonaria is in bloom now. As soon as this exhibition is launched, I must get out there with a trowel.

Hey ho, back to Elvis.

Mothering Sunday

2010-03-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

Mothering Sunday - and a rather sad one for me as I didn't see either of my daughters - well, one of them IS up in Market Drayton and you can't exactly just pop in for tea. The poor girls must have an awful struggle buying a card for me, because they know that I would throw a wobbly if the card said 'MUM' ! On the odd occasion over the years they have had to resort to inserting '-MY' in biro. We went to church in the morning and the little children had, as usual, made these pretty nosegays and after they had presented them to their mothers they then ran round the church giving them to all the other ladies. For some reason I got very tearful, because it seems only yesterday that my two girls were doing that! Where have those years gone? We usually ask friends back for a drink after church but of course everyone was rushing off to have lunch with their families so we came home and had a stiff gin and then we had a second one! It was a drown your sorrows moment.

This morning we went to NADFAS in Churchill College - a very good lecture on Delacroix, Chopin and George Sand, three great Romantics of the 19th century. Fascinating. And this afternoon it was our book group when we discussed Vows of Silence by Susan Hill (we have just done a run of crime books) but we only gave it a seven - there seemed to be so many sub plots going on and so many dead bodies it was worse than Midsomer. The next one is Shattered by Dick Francis which should be a quick gallop of a read and then we go on to three historical novels. I have also just read The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru - an absolutely delightful book about an Anglo/Indian boy. It is funny and sad and very thought provoking, I loved it.

What WOULD we do without books?

Snowdrops and Vincent

2010-03-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

Until last year I had a veritable carpet of snowdrops, a delicious spread of brave little white heads in the grass under the trees where I could see them from the kitchen window. The -----squirrels have systematically rooted them up in their quest for the nuts they buried in the autumn. They have NO idea where they put the nuts, they just roam all over the garden digging here, there and everywhere in the hope that somewhere along the line they might unearth something. In the process they dig up all the bulbs and leave them lying on top of the soil, with their poor little green tips of shoots going nowhere. Stupid animals - rats with fluffy tails and good publicity, Beatrix Potter has a lot to anwer for So now I do not have a carpet, nor even a rug, but I do have clumps here and there and I still have a nice variety of flowers, open, closed, double, spotted, tall and short - what a joy they are.
And the hellebores too, are doing well - it is amazing just how much there is in the garden at the moment even though it is still so cold.

GUESS WHERE WE'VE BEEN !!! That's right - yesterday we went up to London to see the wonderful, magnificent, superb Vincent Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy. What a feast for the eyes - it took us over two hours to go round, there is so much to see and read, for of course his letters to his brother Theo are all there with delightful little sketches of the paintings he had just done. Little works of art on their own. It was quite overwhelming to see so much of his work all gathered together and so well displayed -we enjoyed it so much, despite the crowds. My lovely friend Sandra works at the RA as a volunteer and we met up with her after
we had been round and went off for a much needed pot of tea with scones! Sandra says that every time she goes on duty she goes back to gaze at her favourite canvases. Which to choose though, if you could take just one home with you! Anyway, I bought the catalogue and I cannot wait to sit down and have a good old read. We then went on to have a very good Chinese meal and finally got home at about ten o'clock exhausted but very happy! I do love a day in London but I am always so happy to get back home!

Now then, Vintage Rock Chick, you said I could upload the new version of Blogger but I am such a wimp that although I have searched I cannot find this 'ere facility. What do I do? Where is it hiding?

So much to do, so little time

2010-03-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

We have just come back from the Preview evening of George Meliniotis's exhibition at The Tavern - and a very nice exhibitionit is too! I am accustomed to seeing his paintings as they evolve when I pop next door, but seeing them in a gallery situation is quite a different thing.Most impressive. Now my feet are getting even colder as I anticipate our MESCH Preview in one month's time! Here is MaryLou, or SherriLee as I think she will be, complete with freckles and the shadow of my camera -ooops. Not very professional. And this is another thing I have been working on - a Matisse-type portrait. This is stage one

and oh dear, even less professional, she is sideways on. And if I delete it and go back to my camera and turn it round, when I download it it will go to the top of the page and not here where I want it. PERLEEESE can someone tell me how to get the download where I want it in the text !!!

Anyway, you can see where it is going (sideways). I am in too much of a hurry to get the post done and get on with the Community Hall accounts, as we have a meeting tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Then Gardening Club AGM which I was going to give a miss, but have just had a telephone call urging me to go. Then a 'cinema evening' when we are going to watch The Time Traveller's Wife' at a friend's house with a takeaway. Friends coming to dinner on Saturday - cooking all day - and another friend's birthday lunch on Sunday.
And our exhibition opens on 1st April...........

2010-03-01T12:37:00.000-08:00

Well, it was a funny old week, last week. I feel quite wrung out ! I was thoroughly fed up by Thursday, and then on Friday we had to brave the M25 to go to a funeral in Surrey which turned out to be a very odd affair - I understand that the will had upset the applecart. Honestly, families !!! But then things started to get better, on Saturday we drove up to Birmingham to hear Will play in another concert - an interesting programme of brass music, including Tam O'Shanter's ride by Dennis Wright and Glasnost by Dizzy Stratford, neither of which I knew, but both of which I enjoyed. All the family were there and Will had booked a table at a Nepalese restaurant where we had a very nice meal. Then we had to drive back to Cambridge through thick fog. Ugh. No chance of a lie-in as we had to be up early for church on Sunday morning, after which some friends came back to the house to sample our damson vodka and sloe gin. A little nap after lunch seemed a good idea. Then the lovely Brenda, who knew I had had a rough week, rang to ask us to join them for supper (which was roast pork) so Sunday was a good day as well.

Here are some of the bottles of Carlini wine - a lousy photograph but the wine is a lovely clear colour and actually tastes good. Brenda has designed some labels which we had a look at over dinner and we reckon we might be drinking it in a couple of months! What an achievement.

It has been a glorious day here - lovely sun shining on all the snowdrops and aconites blooming in the garden. I actually put sheets on the line and they dried - I do hate having to use the tumble dryer. I went out to lunch with some of the church ladies, we go and have a meal every time someone has a birthday, and now the husbands have decided they are not going to sit at home with baked beans so they meet up at another pub at the other end of the village. That's brilliant 'cos I didn't have to cook this evening!

I did some sewing this afternoon - I think the clue is 'Yee-haaa'
-

She has turned out to be quite a sturdy lass and is probably called MaryLou or SherriLee! I cannot decide whether to leave her as she is or paint her, like the old lady with the parrot. I quite like the simplicity of the brown stitch on the cream calico. I shall sleep on it.

Well, here we are in March already - I cannot believe it. One day of sunshine and you really do feel that spring might be in the air.

Cottenham

2010-02-22T12:50:00.001-08:00

Well, we five MESCH members thoroughtly enjoyed our three days at Cottenham - and congratulations to Pauline Verrinder for pulling off another really successful event. It was lovely to meet so many old friends and to make new ones, and it was amazing how far some people had travelled to be there. Two intrepid ladies had come down especially from Edinburgh! This is our bird tree, Marian Murphy on the left, it caused a great deal of amusement and interest which was exactly what we wanted. And here is a picture of it at the end of the show when many of the birds had been sold, but you can see it more clearly against a blank background. Everyone was most complimentary about our little exhibition and said it was a breath of fresh air! I sold a picture and several other items which was good.

Of course, it goes without saying that we were exhausted by Sunday evening, both Vanda and Marian had tutored workshops, and it is surprisingly tiring to be standing and talking all day! I did a bit of retail therapy and bought one of the delightful African baskets - of course, I REALLY need another basket -but I know I shall enjoy this one. I would take a photo of it now, except that I know that when I download it it will mysteriously go to the top of the page and I shall have to start all over again. HOW do I get the darn thing to come in where I want it, like here :-

Anyway, meanwhile back in real life the bottling has taken place and the wine is really very palatable. The bottles had to soak in Campden tablets in my George's bath for a couple of days

but George and Brenda from next door have been over this evening and the bottling took place. Brenda and I kept well out of the way. The wine will be called Carlini - a cross between The Carlings and Meliniotis. And I think the label should show my mad old lady with the parrot superimposed over one of George's landscapes on the label, Brenda is working on it. The bottles have been removed to the garage and then in due course we have to carefully select those people who will come to a party and be privileged to drink it.

I am feeling really seriously depressed today, a combination of weather, tiredness, February etc.

And the knowledge that we have five weeks before our next exhibition at The Tavern Gallery in Meldreth. My get-up-and-go will have to get up and come pretty quickly if I am to deliver the goods. Onwards and upwards.

Textiles in Focus

2010-02-18T12:33:00.000-08:00

I have been at Cottenham most of the day with the other members of MESCH setting up our exhibition - and very good it looks, too! Well, that's what we think. The theme was birds - hence the parrot in the cage, who is looking very annoyed because Madame has taken his best tail feathers for her hat and left him with a bedraggled tail. It is an extension of the 'When I am an old woman I shall wear purple' which I did in a much smaller scale for a recent birthday. In the centre of the room we have a large garden umbrella strung with birds - I will try and take a photograph of it tomorrow, I was so tired when we had finished covering the screens with calico and hanging the pictures that I forgot. Here are two

more birds - I really enjoyed sitting and doing a little gentle hand sewing after the intensity of machining this fellow strutting his stuff -

I am on duty for the next three days, I live closer than anyone else and I am sure I shall enjoy meeting all the people coming in. Will someone please tell me how to download a photograph so that it goes in the right spot ?! I have just decided to put in the photo of the lovely visitors book which Margaret Starr made for the group and the wretched thing has gone to the top of the page. Bother. So much to learn still!
Dear George, who spent the morning helping us set up, has gone out to a meeting. He took himself off for a proper lunch so did not need feeding this evening and we are out to dinner tomorrow - hurrah. So now I am going to sit down with my feet up and have a cup of coffee
and watch my Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.
I am really looking forward to this weekend!

Back in circulation

2010-02-16T10:56:00.000-08:00

I cannot tell you how much I have missed all your lovely blogs - Gina, Silver Pebble, Dottie Cookie, Magic Cochin et al - we have been off line, apart from one day 24th January, since 14th Jan. DO NOT ASK !!! Someone decided to save money by changing to Talktalk, but they did not cut the mustard and the trauma involved a 5 3/4 hour (YES, that is right) conversation with Mumbai and even four days without a telephone ! We took it in turns to go to the loo or have a drink! However, BT have taken us back and on a slightly better package so here I am. I have really felt disenfranchised.

Am desperately busy with hundreds of emails to deal with, getting ready for Cottenham, had the family here for halfterm and have just left the bedrooms as they all walked out of them! My mother would have a fit. So I don't suppose I will surface 'til Sunday evening but I'M BACK.

Parrot in a cage

2010-01-24T14:36:00.000-08:00

We have had no internet for a week and it has been really odd - I had not realised just how much we use this wretched machine ! When the new router finally arrived yesterday and we went on line again 170 emails came through, quite overwhelming, emails concerning George's Rotary Club, the church, Open Studios, Luncheon Club, MESCH, etc. quite apart from mail from friends and family. And DD1 came for the weekend so it was only this afternoon that I got to my sewing machine and produced this little fellow. It is part of the work I am doing for Cottenham Textiles in Focus, this is the third attempt as after I had disolved the Romeo the first two did not seem colourful enough. I then had quite a struggle to get him safely behind bars -

but I got him there eventually although he does not look too happy! I have called him Kevin and I am undecided whether to leave him like this with a rather weird stunted tail or to add a few feathers like this -

What shall I do? I think I am inclined to go for the feathers.

It has been a funny week, no computer, miserable weather, the funeral of a friend who died very suddenly, rotten news in the papers, a wonderful massage from one of my favourite people and a nice supper party. So a really mixed bag. I have just finished reading Marrying the Mistress by Joanna Trollope, I think it is the first book of hers I have ever read and I really enjoyed it.

My daughter brought me a super little gizmo which I saw in my grandson's flat at Uni - a sock dryer. It has 20 pegs suspended from a ring and I can peg all the socks onto the one hanger in the warmth of the kitchen then whop it on the line where it is easy to retrieve if it starts to rain! I'm tickled pink with it - it doesn't take much to please me! Funny though, when I came to peg the socks on somehow I had 21 socks, now how can that be? Why is there always one sock which lurks in the laundry basket? Another one of life's great mysteries.

MY chicken !

2010-01-13T13:16:00.000-08:00

Everyone seems to have been showing photographs of their chickens in the snow. Well, not to be outdone, this is MY chicken in the snow. She's not a lot of bother, she just sits. Of course, the downside is that the sitting does not produce eggs but then I don't have to worry about

feeding her or putting her away at night in case a fox comes along! So I am very fond of her, especially as she was a present from DD2.

I have been trying to get some stitching done during the snowbound days - the exhibition at Cottenham Textiles in Focus is getting ever nearer - but it has been so cold I just couldn't get down to work. However, I've now had a couple of good days at the machine and have just finished stitching these little blue birds. I put a blue sheer under the Romeo and I am just

hoping and praying that when I dissolve the Romeo they will be OK to use on a big piece I am working on. They ARE supposed to look like cartoon bluebirds!

George and I are addicted to crosswords and always do the Telegraph cryptic at lunch time and I have to say that with two heads being better than one, we do usually finish it. But today we were very frustrated because there were a couple of clues we simply couldn't solve. So I shall take the paper off to the bath now and ponder whilst I soak.

Happy New Year

2010-01-01T08:06:00.001-08:00

It seems only yesterday that we were celebrating the arrival of the Millennium and here we are ten years on! Where does the time go? In our younger days we used to always go to a fancy dress party but for the last 10 years or so we have been more than happy to settle for a nice grown up dinner party. There were five couples there last night, we all dress up - here you can see the rose between two very well dressed thorns - and we all make a contribution to the meal. Last year the party was at our house, this year at the house of a friend who revels in entertaining and goes to endless lengths and expense

to make everything cosy and welcoming. This was the table, you will notice that I am fascinated by table settings! I made a pavlova and as we only used half of it, this morning I squidged it all up and put it in a clingfilm lined loaf tin and stuck it in the freezer so it will see another day!
I shall call it raspberry meringue loaf.

We had a lovely evening sitting chatting with old friends we have known for 40 years - I cannot think of a better way of seeing in the New Year. We got to bed about 2.30 so were not up very early, but we have been for a walk (even if it was interrupted by a sherry stop with an old friend) and I am about to go and do some sewing so that is a good start.

Like Gina, we went to see Sherlock Holmes - a rattling good adventure but very violent. We combined the trip to the cinema with an expedition to buy a new dvd player and recorder which is now unpacked in the sittingroom, the only trouble is that we cannot understand the instructions ! HELP. SiL is still in Holland, next door neighbour is in New York, 13 year old grandson gone back to Market Drayton (guess what, this morning they had SNOW - he is very excited) so we are stuck. Maybe we just need to take the bull by the horns and plug it in and see what happens.

May I take this opportunity of wishing anyone who reads this blog a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year. Resolutions ? At my age I have accepted that they don't usually last beyond February but I WILL try to be tidier, drink less, walk more, and get on with some stitching. Now.

Boxing Day

2009-12-29T08:54:00.000-08:00

On Boxing day DD1 and family went to her in-laws and we went to have a grown up day with DD2. George says this is a silly photograph. Well yes, but it was Boxing Day and you are allowed to be silly. We had a very light and elegant lunch - these are balls of prawn risotto deep fried with a caper sauce - I think they were called ancini - does that sound right? Anyway, this was followed by smoked salmon steaks and asparagus with a whole bottle of wine in the sauce and then mulled wine jelly with crystallised ginger cream - another bottle of wine in that! Delicious. DD2 is an exceptionally good cook.

She has a large collection of Dutch candle houses mostly collected from the antique market in Rotterdam (I have got about a dozen) and here she is lighting some of them

and this is what they look like when they are lit.

After lunch we sat and watched Mamma Mia because George had not seen it and they have a huge TV set so it was almost like being at the cinema. It is a real feel-good film and ideal for postprandial viewing. Then we always play cards BUT Pim decided that we wouldn't play the traditional game we would learn an old Dutch game called Klaverjas which was SO complicated! If a suit is trumps then Jack is highest followed by 9, then Ace, 10,King, Queen , 8, 7. But if it is a non-trump suit then the ranking is Ace, 10, King, Queen, Jack, 9,8,7. As if THAT isn't hard enough to handle the scoring is totally illogical - trump jack scores 20, the 9 is 14 and the Ace 11. But - oh no, I cannot go on it is just too difficult. We never did get on to bonus points or points for runs etc but we did play until long past midnight and I think if we play again soon it just might begin to sink in. Pim was very gratified by our progress. He started playing as a schoolboy and it is played in every Dutch brown bar. Well, what can I say.
The day after Boxing Day DD2 always drives me down to Brent Cross where we hit the sales, we just love Fenwicks and we both manage to find something which is a bargain. We are leaving the men in charge of an 8lb piece of topside which hopefully will be ready to eat when we get back at 7. We have to keep on ringing to tell them what to do next!
(DD stands for Dirty Daughter - don't ask me why!)

2009-12-29T08:06:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas is over and all the family dispersed today. DD1 and the boys declared last night that they would leave soon after 8.30. They left at 10 past 12. The house was so quiet when they had gone and I was left with a very dirty pale gold carpet and piles of washing . Will gave me a great big bear hug when he went - lovely! DD2 has gone over to Holland as they always do to spend New Year with Pim's sister. So we are Derby & Joan now. Bliss!

Every year Christmas Eve is a busy day for me and George. At 3 we have the Crib Service which is the MOST popular service of the year and the church is PACKED, standing room only. And the reason is this..... We have a living Crib. People now start arriving at 1.45 to get a good seat. The Christmas story is enacted with the Innkeeper (George with a lantern and the church keys on a big ring round his waist) coming down from the vestry and being interviewed by the vicar - no room at the inn tonight! Then we sing Little Donkey and Noah our donkey, followed by Mary and Joseph, walks all round the church to the delight of the children. I wonder if we are the only church in England which has its own donkey? Last year we had to buy up yards of old carpeting to put round the aisles as Noah doesn't like walking on the flagstones! Then the shepherds (carrying toy sheep - we used to have a real sheep until Health and Safety said it was dangerous)come out and an angel pops up from the pulpit and delivers the Good News. All of them in turn process down to the bell tower where they are eventually joined by Baby Jesus and all the congregation file past to have a look. That is my job, to try and keep the crowd moving on! The children are funny as they wait to see the tableau, every year some little boy says to me it was a good thing the donkey didn't mess on the carpet. I have a feeling there would be great delight if one day he did! George has been organising this event for many years and says that it is a wonderful and moving experience to see the look on the faces as people gaze at the scene. But the responsibility rather goes to his head and he becomes very lovey, demanding equity cards and auditions etc!
The Vicar was telling me that for the first year in memory we didn't have a baby lined up - but nothing fazes our Andrew. He went down to the surgery and hung around until a suitable young mother turned up with a small baby and he accosted her -and as no one can resist our Andrew two days later they were starring in our show!

On trips to the middle east we have bought up djellabayas and head coverings etc. so no teatowels round the heads of OUR shepherds ! Anyway, the day doesn't end there because at some time or other all our family have arrived and have to be fed and then at 10 George and I go back to church to 'sidle' and to read the lessons at the Midnight Mass. This again has been George's job for some 30 years ever since the then vicar decided he needed a strong young man on the door to deal with any drunks or disruptive elements coming in when the pubs closed. For a number of years we did have trouble but not nowadays, the worst that happens is that a group of youngsters come in and after about 10 minutes make a noisy exit. But at least they come. Then we go home and fall into bed at about one o'clock - at least the grandchildren don't wake us at the crack of dawn any more.
This is one of the flower arrangements I did - all the flowers were white and gold this year and the church looked beautiful. I do like the thought that villagers have been celebrating Christmas there for centuries.

Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree.

2009-12-22T14:09:00.000-08:00

In common with just about every other woman in the country I have been busy, busy, busy lately. And cold! But this is my beautiful Christmas tree - or part of it - it is lovely to get all the boxes out and greet old friends, like the nutcracker prince and Socks the White House cat and a Black Pete from Holland, the green St Nickolas from Russia, the star from Krakow etc. I usually buy one or two new ormanents (not a typo, that is what my daughter used to call them) every year but last year I decided that the tree is now officially full. But then on Sunday we had our usual party after the Carol Service and a dear friend who is a lace maker brought me a very delicate little lace decoration. Always room for one more!

I worked like mad for the party - 60 people invited but one or two fell by the wayside because of the weather. We have been doing this now for more years than I can remember - 30 or 40 - and people very kindly say it wouldn't be Christmas without the Howard's party to start it off. Mind you, that puts a certain pressure on doing it all again the next year. Anyway, dear Sandra came up from London to help and the minute she walked in the kitchen she started making smoked salmon blinis. When most people had left at around 10 o'clock about half a dozen friends lingered and we had baked potatoes and chili con carne. Then we fell into bed exhausted.

On Monday after Sandra had gone home George and I drove to Milton Keynes to find Ikea. I LOVE Ikea and George hates it. We really are not suited. But William wants a bedside cabinet for his room at Uni and asked for it to be flat packed so that he could have the fun of making it so I siezed the opportunity of a visit. The weather was bad and the traffic slow and Milton Keynes is an enigma but eventually we found it. So that is now accomplished and we had a very nice Scandinavian lunch for about a tenner.

This is part of my back garden looking wonderful

and this is the front garden. Isn't it magical the way the snow transforms everything and you see it in a new light!

Sadly DD2 has just telephoned me to say a young boy bashed into her lovely new apple green VW convertible this evening - it was parked outside the house and he just slid into it. Her personalised numberplate is in pieces but I think that the big rubber eyelashes (YES, I am not kidding) are still intact on the headlights. She has daisies all over the boot - you cannot miss her and quite obviously this young man did not. Poor Sarah. But she said she felt really sorry for him because he was as white as a sheet and had to ring his mother and tell her what he had done! Fortunately he was insured but it is still a big nuisance.

I went out in my car today to deliver the Christmas presents to our Almshouse ladies and the side roads are lethal. I was glad to get home and light the fire, spending the evening wrapping presents whilst George is out at Rotary with DD2's husband.

Tomorrow morning I shall be arranging the flowers in church - wrapped up very warmly! Although we had a jolly MESCH meeting last week with a delicious lunch and I was all fired up to get on with the work for the exhibition at Cottenham in February, circumstances are just against me at the moment - but just watch me fly when all the celebrations are over!

Wearing Purple - Party time

2009-12-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I told you you would see me coming ! I had some very strange looks as we walked across Cambridge to the University Centre today, with my bright purple tights and red shoes, not to mention the red hat! The beaded handbag I got at the Church Bazaar last week for 50p - I thought it was worth that for the beads alone, but it was a very eccentric addition to my outfit.

We had a nice lunch at my friend's 70th birthday party - I had been asked to read a VERY long piece about growing older and seeing this other woman in the mirror who wasn't you at all, but looked suspiciously like you. It went down very well - largely because most of us there knew the feeling only too well of glimpsing an elderly lady in a shop window and realising that it IS YOU!. At the end gave her the picture of the plump lady in purple which I stitched a few weeks ago and I think she was pleased with it. Practically all the guests had made the effort to dress up and the whole thing was great fun.

We have just got home and George has made me a nice cup of tea and we will sit with our feet up & look at the papers before going off to a party this evening with our local MP Andrew Landsley. I shall NOT be wearing red and purple!

(Actually, the really scary thing is that I quite like the purple tights.....)

2009-12-01T10:30:00.000-08:00

I have had a LOVELY day today at Art Van Go with Clare Bullock making a hat ! This is the first stage, layering up the wool and underneath is the whole class wearing their hats

Not a bad day's work! I have previously made hats with Lizzie Houghton and this was a similar method - of course, I REALLY need a new hat! That is me in the red jacket.

This is my hat being blocked and then it was steamed and now it is just waiting to be worn to the 'Purple Party' on Saturday.

Must dash now as we are going to a Rotary Ladies Night and George is champing at the bit, but just had to show off the hats. We all had such fun.

The grapes of wrath

2009-11-30T14:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had another formal testing of the wine - the Man from Delmonte he say it need yet more sugar! Also, sitting in our hallway is not warm enough so the demijohns are now in our boiler cupboard and by the radiator in George's bathroom. Most sensible people go and buy their wine in an off license or at the supermarket - why, oh why can't I? It looks murky and bubbles in a really sinistser manner but the male elements of this venture are convinced that it is going to be a success and are talking of a production run of about 24 bottles!
Meanwhile the sloe gin and damson vodka (my little bit of alchohol production) is going along nicely with just a daily shake of the bottles.
George and I went to Blackthorpe Barn at Rougham on Saturday - what a lovely selection of excellent craft work. There were so many things I would have liked to buy and I had lots of interesting talks with stallholders. One woman had made some stunning patchwork cushions with appliqued circles and squares, jewel-like and glowing - I wonder if it was one of our fellow bloggers in East Anglia? Unfortunately (or fortunately for her) she was very busy selling and I missed the opportunity to talk to her. It was good to see Jenny, the daughter of my friend Pam A-K , there with her recycled art - I have one of her naive angel pictures from way back when she first started selling. I did some Christmas shopping and we had a very nice afternoon tea, scones and jam - delicious - I have begun to feel that Christmas is on its way.

Maharajas

2009-11-25T14:02:00.000-08:00

I cannot believe that six weeks have gone by since we set the mesch exhibition up at Art Van Go. On Monday we took the exhibition down - this is just a last glimpse of part of my work bfore we dismantled it. Then we all went and had a cup of coffee to celebrate because we had lots of positive feedback from the people who viewed our first exhibition.

Today I have had SUCH an exciting day - I went up to London to meet my dear friend Sandra at the V & A to see the Maharaja exhibition - fabulous. Absolutely fabulous and beautifully staged. What a feast for the eyes. Of course, we were not allowed to take photographs but it has been well reviewed in the press and I am sure you have seen images of the incredible jewellery, clothes and regalia etc..

We spent two hours examining EVERYTHING - how delicious to go round with someone who thinks in exactly the same way and likes the same things. Sandra does volunteer work at the Royal Academy and at Kew and she paints and draws - a very talented lady.

We were both enchanted by the watercolours, such minute detail and such marvellous repeat patterns - one lady was going round with a magnifying glass and, if you are thinking of going, I would urge you to take one!. The Rolls Royce belongs to friends of ours in the next village, although the label just says Private Collection. Of course, we had to have a look round the shop and there were lots of things we resisted buying, faux diamond rings and dangly earrings, loads of scrumptious books but I did just buy a Christmas present for a friend. Then we had to have a little something to eat and drink after such concentrated looking and then duly fortified we went up to look at the newly refurbished ceramics gallery. Who would imagine I had a knee operation in June?!

These were some 60 birds made in blue Wedgwood jasper, all that are left of an installation of 4,000. When it was first shown, visitors were invited to take a bluebird home with them so there must be over 3,000 lucky people out there with a nice little work of art.

Then we both loved the little donkey boy, the message being the contrast between the soft little boy and the heavy burden of life which he was to have to bear. I am ashamed to say that I cannot tell you the names of the two artists but by this time it was nearly six o'clock and we had to be literally thrown out of the gallery.

Over to the lovely St Pancras (we pretended we were on our way to Paris, because we used to go there a lot together) for a drink and some more chat before we both made our separate ways home, dear George waiting to meet me at the station.

We must do it again soon!

2009-11-22T09:17:00.000-08:00

We had a BIG NIGHT OUT on Wednesday when we went to the Charter Night of George's Rotary Club at Selwyn College. Don't we scrub up well ! It is always a pleasure to dine in the colleges in Cambridge and I think that over the years we have dined in most of them, although Selwyn is one of the newer ones. You can nearly always be sure of a good meal, lovely surroundings and certainly fine wines and this week

was no exception. We had an excellent dinner and a good excuse to get togged up - I'm afraid George does look a bit flushed, I think the port had been round a bit too often! He didn't drive home!

On Friday we had a brilliant day - a cousin whom I haven't seen since the last family funeral came to visit with his charming wife and son and I asked the widow of another cousin who lives just a few miles away to come for lunch as well and we had a real old wallow in family history. My mother was one of seven sisters, Audrey was married to one of the sons of the eldest girl Dorothy and she was able to put quite a few names to some of the old photographs. My grandmother was quite a charismatic lady - three marriages - I think we could write a book about what we do know about her, and another if we only knew about her life before she married grandfather. She was born in Calcutta, her father was in the army and she was sent to England to be educated under the guardianship of two ferocius looking maiden aunts. WHY didn't we ask all the right questions when she was alive! Anyway, we had a great time remembering things from our childhood and filling in gaps. Ancestry will be red hot this week as we delve a little further. It has been easy-peasy on my father's Angus line, straight back to 1530, no hassle. When Audrey arrived the first thing she said was, Gosh you DO look like your mother! Oh dear.

Yesterday George spent the morning rattling a Children in Need box for Rotary and when he got back we leapt into the car (leapt is a figure of speech only, you understand) and drove up to Birmingham to hear grandson William play his euphonium in the University of Birmingham

concert at the Conservatoire. Of course, you can't see William but he is the dark thatch of hair next to the blond boy sitting underneath the Big drum! Such is grandmotherly devotion! It was an excellent concert and we were so proud because this is his first term. Afterwards we went back to the flat which he shares on the campus with four other boys and this is the kitchen

Not too bad, I thought, on a Saturday night for five lads who have probably had mother doing everything for them for eighteen years. Will showed us the contents of all the cupboards - quite hilarious what the boys did or did NOT have in their cupboards. One lad just had a jar of coffee. One boy had everything labelled with his name. Will had a HUGE supply of food from his mother and, not being a bad cook, apparently often whips up a pasta or rice dish for the boys. He also showed me the big pile of soap Inga had given him and pointed out that in eight weeks he had barely used one bar. I said she had probably given him enough to last all the four years.

When we arrived in Birmingham we could hardly get out of the carpark for the wind and rain, all the umbrellas were being turned inside out - we made a dash into the Bullring which was HEAVING with people. And so noisy! Well, we had to look around the shops as there was no possibility of walking round outside and I just happened to try on a little black dress and a leopard print jacket which looked so nice I just had to buy it, and George bought some fine black cords so the afternoon was not wasted. We also got a big tin of luxury biscuits for William which he decided he would keep in his bedroom rather than in the kitchen! We didn't get back to Cambridge until well after midnight but had to be up early to go off to church this morning followed by the AGM of SOAS (Supporters of All Saints Church) of which George is chairman. Guess what, we made nearly £600 from the sale of our re-cycled cards and gift tags this year! There is about £25,000 in the bank which will be used at any moment now to replace the lead on the roof.

So tomorrow it is off with Marian, Liz, Margaret and Vanda to take down our exhibition at Art Van Go - it has been up for six weeks and we have had some good feedback so it was all worth while. The next thing will be our exhibition at Textiles in Focus at Cottenham, so I'd better get stitching before Christmas gets in the way.

I shall wear purple

2009-11-11T12:25:00.000-08:00

WOW - THEY ARE CERTAINLY GOING TO SEE ME COMING!!! The colours here are not too good, because the jumper is a real purple and the vest another shade of mauve. I have been wondering what to wear to this fortcoming party and spent the day in

Cambridge (oh, I wish I hadn't worn heels) looking for something purple, a colour which I never wear. I always find exactly what I want in East, in fact I am a walking advertisement for them, so I wasn't surprised to find my outfit there with the help of a charming young woman who knew all about 'wearing purple with a red hat that does not match' as it was her mother's favourite poem! I must admit the orange is a bit in your face BUT the whole idea is to wear a mish mash of colours, and the skirt looks wonderful with a black top - so roll on party.

I enjoyed my day out, I bought a very nice tweed jacket - I REALLY need a new jacket! I looked at the Spanx control pants but they were £67! I think I can suck my stomach in for less than that. A new ironing board cover, purple tights, some Christmas presents - I managed to come back laden.

On Saturday George drove all the way up to Ellesmere Hall to watch junior grandson play Rugby in a public schools league match - THEY WON! It was his birthday on Monday, thirteen - a teenager 5'8" tall. Meantime, I went to Chilford Hall and thought the quilts were better this year than they have been for a long time, much less gimicky. And on Sunday we went with friends to the Design and Craft show at Newmarket Racecourse where I could have spent a fortune, such lovely work on display there. We had lunch overlooking the course, I do like Newmarket. Monday was the Royston Ladies Luncheon Club and a talk on Sufragettes, and the latter part of the afternoon spent making up more packs of Christmas tags for the bazaar, Tuesday morning NADFAS at Churchill College with a lecture on Michaelangelo and Leonardo (very good). The battery on my car failed and we had to wait for the rescue man to come out so I only just made it to Book Group, where we discussed The Gang of Four by Liz Byrski which I enjoyed, but not enormously. We gave it 7 1/2!

Another two weeks to the purple party, I might let you see what the whole outfit looks like - if the camera can take the shock.

Cock 'o the walk

2009-11-05T08:27:00.000-08:00

Where has this week gone? Well, I have been getting ready for the Church Bazaar which is Saturday week, the 14th. Throughout the year I make recycled birthday and Christmas cards with a friend and every year we make well over £400 - £600 for our lovely mediaeval church. So we shall have a card stall, but I have just been busy making gift tags and threading them up and packing them into bags of twelve. I am careful to mix them up, so that each pack has a suitable tag for Grandma, and neice & nephew and neighbour, etc. so it is a bit of a fiddle. But I do sell loads of packs at 50p each! Talk about slave labourToday DD2 has flown to America for 6 days - she has gone to the Jazzercise Conference
in Chicago, so I have asked her husband Pim over for a meal on Sunday evening hoping perhaps he can work some magic with my computer - there are a number of little niggles to be sorted - the behaviour of my camera for a start since I dropped it on a marble floor in France! He knows he will have to sing for his supper.I have also stitched this little fellow - I am quite pleased with the way he has turned out - I just hope no-one will think I did it with one of those computer programmed images. No way! I think that is cheating on a major scale. I was supposed to be doing a bird - well, it is a bird of course, but I think I should have been doing a more flying sort of bird - but this just popped into my head. Now I have to find a frame for him, I do have several but none are suitable.

I have an Almshouse Trustees meeting tonight, and a Church Hall Trustees meeting at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning, followed by the U3A Gardening Club meeting and then in the evening it is supper and cards with friends. I would have had a Triggs Charity Trustees meeting on Tuesday but it was cancelled, so I had lovely evening in! Then I want to try and get to the Chilford Quilt show on Saturday because there are several things I need, and on Sunday we are going to the Design & Craft show at Newmarket with friends. And that is another week gone.

The Lockshun is still bubbling gently after another dose of sugar and is quite clear. We went for a walk last week and picked beautiful blue/black sloes, so sloe gin will sit alongside the damson vodka which is now looking a heavenly colour. It is a bit early for a thimbleful, but the time will come.....

Wearing Purple

2009-10-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we were going out to dinner so I did not have any cooking to do and spent the afternoon machining this little lady. We have been invited to a 'red hat' party for a friend's 70th birthday in November and this is to be a surprise for her. I am pretty certain she does not read my blogs! This is how she finished up - she reminds me of someone! I really wanted a vibrant purple for the suit but couldn't seem to get it mixing the colours I have! But it is roughly purple. She is about 10 " tall. I have yet to buy something purple to wear at this party (I am not really a mauve person) - but I believe it is the 'in' colour so it shouldn't be too difficult. I shall make a red hat and probably look ridiculous - but that is what it is all about.

Meanwhile, this is the noxious brew - or Lockshun as George calls it. It is bubbling away nicely
but it is right up against the big bookcase in the conservatory so I do hope that nothing explodes. George keeps on going in and bending over it and chuckling and the other George keeps popping over to inspect it - it is much loved!

I am much happier with my damson vodka in the kitchen which I keep shaking and sniffing, I think there is a much better chance of me drinking that than the above. That reminds me of Danny Kaye (with whom I appeared once as a very young girl - but that is another story) -

'the vessel with the pestle is the chalice from the palace - but the flagon with the dragon is the brew that is true'

2009-10-20T09:53:00.000-07:00

On Sunday the members of MESCH (that is, Marian Murphy, Liz Evans, Margaret Starr, Vanda Campbell and I) went to Art Van Go to set up our first exhibition under the new name. Viv and Kevin were on hand to keep us supplied with coffee and biscuits - they kindly gave up their Sunday to be there for us! Although it is largely retrospective, there is some new work and we do hope that people will enjoy it
This is the delightful poster which Marian has devised to publicise the exhibition, which runs until 21st November.

AND GUESS WHAT? I have won a prize! I am so excited - a hundred pounds to be spent at Art Van Go (not at all difficult in that Aladdin's cave of delights) and a certificate! This is a rather startled me receiving the certificate from the lovely Ann at AvG who was the Judge at the New Maynard Gallery 7th Open Exhibition.

No, it is not what you are thinking - there was no bribery or corruption involved as the pieces of work were submitted anonymously and everyone at AvG was really surprised when it turned out to be me wot won it!

This is my sistificate, which of course I shall have framed and hang in a prominent place (Hmm - don't know what George will have to say about that!) The piece of work was a shoe made entirely of machine embroidery - hours of work and three reels of thread - and beautifully box framed by Simon Robinson & Co. of Haslingfield. I haven't been so thrilled since I won first prize for my home made chutney at the village fete ten years ago!

Meantime, the evil brew has started bubbling, George keeps inspecting it anxiously. It is in my conservatory where it will be a great nuisance on Thursday when my embroidery class meets!
Off now to a village meeting to discuss the installation of double yellow lines down my street - having lost two beloved cats to the traffic I am all in favour! My Book Group met this afternoon

(discussing House of Mirth by Edith Wharton) all I have done today is change the bed, my poor house!

Dordogne and the Grapes

2009-10-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

We have been on holiday - staying with my brother in the Dordogne. In 52 years it is only the third time we have spent more than a day in his company so it was a very special week for me. My brother has lived in Europe all his working life, he has a farm on Exmoor and a villa in Sotogrande (neither of which I have visited) but is only allowed to spend so many days a year in the UK for tax reasons. On his way back to Spain he and his wife have rented a big house in Villefrance du Perigord for six weeks , and he suggested we should fly out to Bergerac and join them.

The house was beautifully furnished with antiques and everything was of the very highest quality - it transpired that it belongs to a Member of Parliament who has never rented the house out before - do you think he needs the money now?! There was an elegant salon furnished with the sort of chairs you perch on, but also a television snug where we were able to watch the British news each day. There was a huge terrace overlooking the valley where we ate in the sunshine, my sister in law is a very good cook so I put on several pounds. We packed a lot into the week visiting so many Bastide towns and villages, markets and vineyards, everywhere was so lush and pretty and CLEAN AND TIDY, no wonder the Brits want to live there. But, oh, expensive! Just as well Mr. Ryanair restricted our luggage so severely - we knew we couldn't buy anything. However, I did treat myself to a lucious tasselled tablecloth with matching napkins in a pink check with a lime green insert - very chic. I thought if the luggage went overweight I would wear the cloth like a shawl! My sister-in-law had it in red so I know it is in good taste!

When we got back home after a week of unbroken blue skies and sunshine we found it so cold and the pump on the boiler would not work. We are awaiting the arrival on Monday of a 'proper man' to fix it, in the meantime, a log fire and an extra cardigan. Whilst we were away our lovely neighbours picked our grapes as a frost was threatened - and today was the day of the Crushing. George is Greek Cypriot and a physicist so he is in charge of method and technology, my George was second in command, Brenda and I were the assistants. Brenda had purchased two big plastic tubs which were both full of grapes - what a bumper harvest - and George I dug out the demijohns we had used in our wine making days forty years ago. It was a freezing cold day and we women both refused to take our shoes and socks off to tread the grapes so George II did it on his own, although he did confess it was very cold and uncomfortable to begin with he soon got into a rythm, helped no doubt by Brenda and I singing the theme tune from Zorba the Greek We used an old net curtain of my mother's to strain the juice which, I have to say, looked most unappetising. Most of the time we were helpless with laughter, goodness knows what state we shall be in if any alcohol actually results. Lots of suggestions were made for the name of this grande cru, most of which I would not dream of sharing with you.

The juice has been left overnight and tomorrow some sugar will be added and it goes into the demijohns. All the disgusting mush (with a good few squashed earwigs and other insects I might add) is going to ferment and be distilled. Excise men, turn a blind eye. Do not fret - I have a feeling it might all be binned before long, or am I being unduly pessimistic? Perhaps if it had been a bright sunny day and I had got my own toes round the grapes I would be feeling more optimistic.
We may have a bit of an argument over the naming of the Domaine, after all they are OUR grapes but George II pointed out that they were HIS feet that did the treading. It may have to be double barrelled. I see many hours of discussion over a glass or two (from Waitrose)

Incidentally, the photo at the top is NOT Villefranche - I dropped my camera one day and it seems I have knocked all my photos off the memory stick! Is that possible? Where have they gone? I took the grape photos successfully today, but some 150 pictures of my lovely week with baby brother have gone into the ether. I am so upset about it, but it was a marble floor and it did go with a big bang. Even clever George next door couldn 't find them. C'est un mystere !

Sour Grapes

2009-10-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

The two Georges have devised a scheme to make wine from our grapes! Young George, who is a Greek Cypriot doctor of Physics, is obviously designated as the vineculture specialist and is seen here this morning testing the grapes in a very professional manner. Brenda and I were laughing our socks off - we called him the man from Del Monte. He say grapes no ready yet. However, we had a very pleasant hour sitting in the garden with a cup of coffee whilst the two men made plans and my George went to the garage and dug out four old jars from our wine making days forty odd years ago. Now I think it is just easier to buy it from the wine merchant. . However, it is going to keep them occupied and boys will be boys so I had to go and find an old net curtain which is somehow going

to be used in the manufacture of this Grand Cru. Next Saturday has been designated as treading the grapes day, Brenda has been deputed to buy a large pink plastic garden tub to put the grapes in. They were making wild plans for a still which thankfully I know will never come to pass - firstly where would we put it and secondly I am sure it is illegal! Watch this space.

I have had an email from William who tells me that he has joined the University Brass Band (he plays the euphonium - there cannot be too many of those around!) and the Canoe Club. He has had his first week of lectures and so far has only found himself in the wrong lecture room once!

Meanwhile I have done some stitching! This is 'an Elizabethan fragment' The cuff, on the bottom left hand corner, I made about three weeks ago on disolvable fabric, lots of stitching involved, I soaked it and put it out to dry. The following morning it had DISAPPEARED. Of course, George had not seen it, had not touched it, hadn't noticed it .....so I must have destroyed it or thrown it away myself! ? I searched in vain, so in the end I had to re-do it although I had used up all the matching bits of stuff - however, I think it fits in fairly well.

We had our Harvest Supper on Friday evening and very pleasant it was too. There must have been nearly 80 of us in the village hall and the food was all made by the ladies of the church. Someone very kindly brought me a big bag of green tomatoes 'as I know you like making chutney!' So guess what I have been doing this evening? Yes, that is right, and I don't want to see any more jamjars until next year.

Harvest Festival

2009-09-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

Another busy week - but the good news is that I have finished the commission and here it is -

I do hope my 'client' is pleased with it. I am sorry about the conservatory floor - I should have cropped the photo, but I am in a hurry as usual. I am really pleased that it is done and now I can move on.

On Friday I did another stewarding stint at the ERTF exhibition at The Shop in Jesus Lane. It was a lovely day and we had quite a lot of visitors who were all very appreciative - I think it has been a great success for a first venture. When it was my turn for a break I went in to Cambridge market and bought flowers for the Harvest Festival and then spent all of Saturday morning arranging them. There is always a lovely atmosphere in the church at Festival time with the flower rota ladies bustling about decorating the widowsills, the font, the organ - in fact, anywhere some flowers or a bale of hay can be put! It was my job to do the altar and I thought we would have some nice cheerful sunflowers

I liked the little row at the bottom, I thought they looked funny. They are listening to Pauline playing the organ.....

The grapes are from our pergola and there were grapes on the altar as well together with a loaf of bread. The church mice are going to have a real feast this weekend. Then I did the windowsills in the porch, one either side.

On Sunday morning George and I went to church for the Harvest Festival service and we 'ploughed the fields and scattered' with great gusto. The sidesmen forgot to turn up for duty so, as we are always early in church living, as we do, just across the road, we stepped in to fill the breach. It is a task I enjoy doing, standing at the door and handing out the books you get to greet and speak to everyone who comes in. I love to think that people have been attending All Saints for nine centuries, surely all that history must be locked in the stones?

After lunch (in the garden again, it was a glorious day) neighbour Brenda and I went to the Art Exhibition at St Peter and St Paul where her husband (the other George) was exhibiting along with Anthony Green and Mary Cozens-Walker - how much better can it get? It was a very good exhibition and, as I said to Gina, I am sure that they have made a nice lot of money for the church. We know only too well that these mediaeval buildings are horrendously expensive to keep going. Actually, I seem to have spent most of the weekend in church ! Then Brenda and George came in for supper which we ate in the conservatory because everywhere else was in a mess, what a good weekend.

So, today we had a MESCH meeting to discuss the forthcoming exhibition at Art Van Go in Knebworth - only two weeks away now. It is a retrospective exhibition and we were sorting out which pieces we would show, together with some new work. We were also making plans for Cottenham in February - isn't it exciting! Marian Murphy made us a delicious lunch, I took a salad and Liz a pudding so it was quite a jolly meeting. It was lovely to rediscover some of the delightful work the group has done in the past, we had forgotten how clever we were! And today senior grandson William started proper work at Birmingham, with Freshers Week behind him. He has joined the University Brass Band (he must have taken his euphonium up with him - DD1 will be pleased to get it out of the house!) and the canoe club. There are five lads in the flat and apparently Will has undertaken to do the cooking........

Fishy business

2009-09-20T14:44:00.000-07:00

We have had another super weekend! On Saturday we went to Burloes where the studios were Open and we met and talked to lots of artists and admired their work. Came home and were dragged in through the gate in the fence to our lovely neighbours for a drink. Well, one bottle of bubbly became two and then it was what have we got to eat? I dashed back and got some turkey escalopes which were marinading and a couple of courgettes, mushrooms and creme fraiche. Brenda had got sea bass and squid and I remembered I had blackberry & apple in the fridge so dashed back for that. So we had a splendid impromptu feast and a lot of laughter, these times are always the best.

Then today DD2 and lovely Dutch Son in Law came to pick us up and we drove to The Company Shed at Mersea. When we were in Cornwall in June DD2 bought some wool to make a scarf and every time I get in their car the scarf is mysteriously sitting there waiting for me - it does not grow at all in between my efforts, I just hope they take us out often enough for me to finish it before winter sets in. It was a gorgeous day for the drive down, DD2 had taken a cool bag with wine, and French bread & butter - we sat outside in the sunshine drinking until our table became free and then we had

Well that was for me - DD2 had the same and we also had scallops & bacon and king prawns.
The men had eels and smoked salmon and all sorts of other fishy things. Finger lickin' good. The place is very basic but the fish is DIVINE and the atmosphere great.

No table napkins, but a kitchen roll on the table which

as you can imagine came in very handy. These were more crabs waiting to go into the shop. Yummy. After stuffing ourselves until we thought we might grow fins, we took a little walk along by the sea and DD2 treated us to an icecream - then I really felt I was on holiday! The sun was

shining but the sky was wonderful - what sort of painting would this make!

I think there was some talk here of buying the old hulk and doing it up! George would be the Captain of course and SiL who was in the Dutch Navy would be Chief Petty Officer - DD2 would be The Organiser and entertainments officer and I could see me ending up in the galley doing the cooking so I put a stop to any ideas of becoming boat people. I notice how badly George needs a haircut - it is a good job the lovely Gary is coming on Wednesday to cut our hair!

So thank you for a lovely day trip to the seaside - it is great when your children take you on an outing - or is it just that she wants the scarf finished, I wonder?

Ladies who lunch

2009-09-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

What a lovely day I have had! First of all we went to church - George and I were Sidling, I was reading the lesson and George was doing intercessions - but I warned the vicar that I was leaving before his sermon - nothing personal, but I had to go to Jesus (I know it is corny, but the old ones are the best...) I picked up Marian & we drove to Jesus College to attend the ERTF lunch, thank goodness we were allowed to park in the College so that made life easier. We went to The Shop where the exhibition is being held for coffee and cakes

and another chance to look at the work displayed. I was stewarding there on Friday, so I had had a good opportunity to study each piece. It really excellent and very well worth going to visit. Then at 12.30 we all trooped down to Jesus College where we had the added bonus of seeing the Anthony Gormley sculptures, one came across them in the most surprising places and positions! They are very beautiful and strangely moving. We had a champagne reception in the Cloister Court This is Gina and I am terribly sorry but I cannot remember the name of the next member and if it was not so late I would ring Gina and ask her, then Marian, dear Mary Cozens-Walker whose work I greatly admire, me and Lorraine. Ladies Who Lunch! And what a delicious lunch it was - Sorrel, Pea and Lettuce Soup, an enormous amount of chicken with loads of vegetables, Creme Brulee served with a little dish of summer berries, coffee and truffles. And the wine, of course!

And after this feast we had an excellent talk by Michael Brennand Woods in which he spoke about the inspiration for his work and the reasoning and meanings behind various pieces - it was really most interesting and I noticed that everyone stayed wide awake!. I think there were about 30 people present (some husbands, I wish George could have been there) and a really nice atmosphere. No-one seemed to think I was too old!!! Or if they did, they were not rude enough to say so....... (that is a little, private hurt)I do hope that this group will be friendly and supportive , it is so good to get together with other like-minded people and there was a lot of enthusiasm amongst the members.

I told you that we found Gormley pieces in unexpected places and there were several men precariously perched on roof tops! After lunch, Gina, Mary, Marian and I walked round the grounds looking at some of the other sculptures by Anthony Caro and Kiefer Anselm - what a treat. But by 4.30 it was getting quite cold and we called it a day. I may have to be sewn into my vest soon.

Igot back home about 6.30 and dear George poured me a large Campari whilst I told him all about my day. I didn't have to cook for him because he had eaten the left-overs from last night's dinner party - what a star.

Yesterday was good too, we were invited to a lunch party for about 30 people as part of the 50th celebrations of Melbourn Village College, after lunch there was a huge party of ex pupils, members of staff, families and friends - anyone who had had anything to do with the college over the years. I was delighted to meet Arthur and Mary Behenna again - he was the first Warden of the College. They now live in Lincolnshire and Mary remarked that she had read a poem in an Inner Wheel magazine and had recognised my name, which was rather nice. George and I were given a tour of the school by FOUR very enthusiastic young girls, one of whom thought that the Great Fire of London was in 1956! The band played and the sun shone and then there was a dedication of a commemorative stained glass window and then I had to rush home and start cooking!

After dinner we played cards until 1.30 - not bad going for an old 'un, eh?

My garden

2009-09-08T13:29:00.000-07:00

Oh, how I love my garden! What a glorious day it has been, really hot and a clear blue sky. I would not have wanted to be any where else in the world! How fortunate we are. The tall thin apple tree in the fore-

ground is a Ballerina and I originally grew it in a tub, but then I felt so sorry for it that I planted it in the garden and now it is laden with apples, nice rosy red ones. On the right are the blackberries over the arch -

you have to make the most of them because once the devil has ridden over them they all shrivel up and you cannot pick any more! I am fascinated by the nut trees. Today must have been nut dropping day, because I don't think I have ever picked up so many in such a short space of time. These are the ones I picked up after I had put the washing on the line -they were just lying on the grass. Goodness knows how many more are on the ground in the bushes and flower beds.

Then after lunch I did another trawl and look -

I found even more! I was laughing out loud, because as I walked around picking them up, I kept on hearing a soft 'plop' as another cluster hit the ground behind me. I like to take the husks off before I store them, it is so satisfying when they slide out of their covering because it means they are really ripe and there is a good nut inside. I put some under the gate in the fence for Brenda, she has only got a tiny patio garden and likes a visit from the nut fairy, or the blackberry fairy or whatever else I have a surplus of. So yes, it has been a good day although I didn't get any sewing done - it was far too nice to be indoors. Now I am feeling really guilty because I am busy, busy, busy for the next five days and I honestly cannot see me getting anything done before next week - and the Art Van Go exhibition is looming..... I shall be burning the midnight oil, methinks.

Autumn bounty

2009-09-04T09:35:00.000-07:00

I was inspired by the sight of Silver Pebble's lovely silver hare to show you mine! Not a precious one (except to me, 'cos DD2 gave it to me for my birthday and she bought it at an Open Studio we visited in Cornwall this year). It is looking surprised because this strong wind which we have at the moment is knocking all the hazelnuts off the trees. I walk round the garden picking them up and by the time I get to the end of the nut trees and turn around, there is another load on the grass. There is a good crop this year. I like to chop a few up and put them in my porage - yummmy - it will soon be porage time again!

George was out lunching with the great and the good again today (he had lunch with Jesus on Tuesday, well, AT Jesus to be precise) and today he was at the grand opening of the David Rayner Cancer Care centre at Scotsdales Nursery. The Duchess of Gloucester did the formal opening and

apparently she spoke to just about everyone present. The land on which the centre is built was given by David Rayner of Scotsdales and it is indeed a lovely building and very well used already.

So I had a solitary lunch with the D.T crossword and this beautiful apple from our cordon trees. It is so pretty, when it is cut the flesh is pink and scented and very sweet. I would have to look up the original planting to tell you what it is called - I should just do that for my own sake. We planted the cordons when we moved here in 1987 and it is only in the last few years that they have been a success.

And here is another picture of our grapes, aren't they pretty?

George is pouring me my 6 o'clock Campari (just a thimbleful, of course) so I had better go and cook him a meal, now he tells me that lunch was just a finger buffet! Poor man. Lamb chops are called for I think, quick and easy.

August Bank Holiday Monday

2009-09-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

Our Bank Holiday Outing .....

Today George and I went with Brenda & George Melionotis (with whom I shared Open Studios) to Buckingham Palace - not, this time, at the Queen's invitation but to see the exhibition of Commonwealth Tours. And very interesting it was too, a tour of the Palace and an exhibition of some of the fabulous dresses worn by Her Majesty on the Royal Tours. What a tiny waist! Well, the Queen that is, not me and Brenda! Then we had lunch in the Bag O' Nails, a pub nearby, allegedly oft frequented by the Duke of Edinburgh and then we drove over to Greenwich. It was a glorious day and the sun was sparkling on the river which was busy-busy with tour boats, river buses and little dinghies. The two Georges spent a lot of time criticising the boatmanship!

We wandered round Greenwich Market admiring all the craft for sale, there were a lot of stalls selling food, especially foreign food which all smelled delicious - there was one little fellow who was doing well for titbits! There were loads of things we nearly bought. We sat and had a pot of tea on the pavement in a busy little street, watching the very cosmopolitan crown stroll by, it wasn't quite the passeggiata of Florence or Venice, but it was very entertaining nevertheless! We missed the Cutty Sark - so sad to see all the covers over the spot where the restoration is taking place after the fire, but one hopes to see it again in all its elegant glory before too long.

There were a number of people on the shingle at the side of the river - hardly a beach but certainly being enjoyed by children and adults and dogs, who were in and out of the water - it was a very hot afternoon. We sat again on the waterfront watching the world go by and speculating about people, who they were, what their lives were like and what their relationships were. We made up some quite scandalous lives for some of them! We were entertained by a young man who was highly inebriated but very articulate and frank about his drinking problem, all brought about because his wife had walked out on him (or perhaps she left BECAUSE of his drinking?). He kept on telling us he was harmless and wouldn't hurt us - he was a very sad case but I think he was just glad to have someone listen to him. He was on a curfew to be home by 8 so goodness knows what he had been up to! Drunk and disorderly, I daresay.

Eventually we decided to make a move and walk back to the car when, looking over the railings, we spotted this below on the beach

We chatted to this young lad who was about 15 or 16, the piece of work was part of his course
work - the pattern being made up of shells, broken glass and BONES! We said we hoped they were not human! but he assured us that he thought they were from animals but he had got a jawbone with teeth and some very recognisable bones, all jetsam which he had salvaged. He was eager for the tide to come in as the destruction of the artwork was all part of the ephemeral nature of the piece. He was very pleased to have our reaction (George M is a teacher and knows all the right things to say.) The boy's younger sister had done a smaller

design nearby and she was hopping about as well. It was so nice to see the river being used and enjoyed. We walked back to the car which was parked near the Trafalgar Pub - built in 1837 on the site of an earlier tavern, it was a haunt of Dickens and Thackeray and many others and is

apparently famous for it's whitebait. What a shame we were all still full up from lunch and tea! The pub stands right on the waterfront and looked so pretty and elegant with the bow windows and little canopies, and folk sitting eating and drinking outside, it was such a happy atmosphere. We got into the car and started to drive home when I realised I had not had an icecream, which would really have made my day and made me feel as though I had been on holiday! When we got home, it was still warm so we lit candles in the garden and sat and had a glass of bubbly to celebrate good friends and a lovely day.

The start of Autumn?

2009-08-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe it but, yes, here we are on 30th August with a FIRE! How cosy. I love it, the smell of woodsmoke is just delicious.

We have just come back from the second fabulous party in two days - yesterday in the next village, a drinks party with gorgeous nibbles and today at a friend's 80th birthday celebration, another lovely occasion with lots of our best village friends and other people to meet as well. The same caterers did the food for both occasions, only more of it today as it was a lunch party. The weather was kind until about 4.30 when we were walking home and it started to spit with rain. We must have looked odd walking down the High Street in our party finery (George looking particularly dashing in his Henley blazer and a battered sun hat) clutching bottles of beer! Not as bad as it sounds - they had had special labels printed for the birthday boy and we brought a couple of bottles away as souvenirs.

When we got home I must confess we had a little nap - yes I know, sewing to be done but it is hard to concentrate after a glass of wine or eight, and then I felt chilly so George lit the fire for me. Sign of things to come as we go into September next week.

We had some friends in for drinks during the week and we had ....

QUAILS EGGS - one of my favourites, with rock salt and pepper to dip them in - scrummy. They looked so pretty I had to take a photograph - they are pesky little things to peel, though.I just wanted to photograph the fire as I don't think we have ever done that on August Bank Holiday Sunday before, and now I am going to go and sit and enjoy it with a glass of Campari. I rather think I have gone over my limit this weekend!

Domestic Goddess

2009-08-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

I am on a roll here, but I promise I will not blog again until Monday! Where does the day go? This morning we took the curtains down and cleared the bay window ready for the man to come and fit the new blind. He still has not arrived! I have left several messages on his mobile phone - bother him. Stuff all over the coffee table and furniture pushed into the middle of the room!

Then I went shopping and whilst I was gone George helpfully peeled a HUGE bag of apples for me so after lunch I was duty bound to make CHUTNEY. I have just finished that task, another day with no sewing done, no housework done and I still haven't typed up the Almshouse Minutes Perhaps, you might say, I could be doing just that instead of typing this!!! Quite right, but not so much fun...

. This evening we are going to play cards with some friends We do it about once a month, with two other couples and we just have a simple meal first - I've been told tonight it is bangers and mash. George will love that, but I am not at all keen! The whole of the weekend is taken up with entertaining and visiting and church, I am exhausted at the thought - bring on Monday.

'A' level results

2009-08-20T08:59:00.000-07:00

Terrific news at 8.30 this morning - grandson William got three straight A's in Physics, Maths and Economics - we are so delighted and proud of him! So he will be going off to Birmingham to do a four year Masters in Mechanical Engineering. Now I just wonder where he gets all those brains from? I have to confess he only got a B in Geography which he was a bit upset about but I told him 'Who needs Geography? You can get around with a sat- nav!' Poor Jeremy still suffering with his arms, the wounds are infected and they have to take the scabs off every time they form - Ugh! Good job mother is an ex nurse.

And just look at my beautiful blackberries!
This is what we laughingly call the 'upper lawn' because it sounds very grand - or sometimes the 'orchard' because there are two apple trees and the fig tree there! The blackberry
is thornless so it doesn't attack you as you go through and there is a clematis climbing over it which was in bloom earlier in the year. I like the way the arch frames the thatched cottage behind us in Rose Lane. I tried growing roses over the arch but they just would not flourish.

When I was looking at the blackberries (and eating a few, I must admit) I saw something which I had never seen before in all my many years . A mummy and baby ladybird! The baby is SO tiny, I tried to take a photo of them but they were both moving so fast - can you see the little one? It was really cute. They were snuggled up together when I saw them and I felt quite guilty

disturbing them! Off to roll the pastry out now for the Rotary Wives' quiche.

A day trip to France

2009-08-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

We had a really super day on Monday - we went to Calais for dinner with DD2 and her Dutch husband Pim! Well, we did quite a bit more as well but the main object of the exercise was to have a lovely meal in a really nice restaurant we know - hardly any Englishmen there! We do this three or four times a year and over the years the places we have got to know and enjoy have been 'discovered' and then written up in the Telegraph and before you know where you are you could be eating in Cambridge. So I am not going to mention the name unless someone specifically asks me. So there.

We did some wine shopping, then bought some groceries, then we had a picnic of French bread and brie then Sarah and I did some serious clothes shopping whilst the two men sat and, well, I have no idea what they talk about but we leave them to their own devices for about three hours! Then our delicious fishy dinner - this is the cheeseboard. Whilst we were eating a man came in with a dog - he was shown to a table near us and the waiter immediately brought a stainless steel bowl of water for the dog! No Health and Safety rules in France, oh no. It was a very well behaved dog, we hardly knew it was there. As we sat and looked over the wide expanse of sand and the pretty beach huts, the sun slowly set in spectacular style - what a lovely day.

Today was the AGM of our U3A - and as the leader of both the Creative Textile Group and the Craft Group I had to be there manning the exhibition table. It was so hot! but the talk by stamp designer Ian Loe was very interesting. Delightfully detailed paintings of wild life from all over the world used on stamps, what an interesting man.

The Craft Group had been making boxes - this is mine, covered in a pretty Japanese cotton with a knob made out of two links from an old belt - I thought it worked quite well. The box is lined with a glorious pink raw silk - I don't know what I shall put in it but I am certain to think of something!

Tomorrow is a free day - hurrah - except for the AGM of the Rotary Wives Group in the evening, for which I have got to make a quiche, so I do hope that the weather isn't too, too hot.

Night time visitor

2009-08-14T13:44:00.000-07:00

I have been doing some more work on the Indian ladies - the tricky bit now is to get them sewn on to the background. I am quite pleased with the way it is going so far and I do hope that my prospective purchaser will still like it when it is finished! I really want to get them finished as we (MESCH) have an exhibition coming up at Art Van Go in Knebworth and I would like to get some more work done for that. MESCH is the new group formed by the five artists who left Small CHAT last year - Marian Murphy, Liz Evans, Margaret Starr, Vanda Campbell and me - the H at the end.

When I went to bed last night I turned down the bedspread and went to have my bath. When I came back into the bedroom there was the biggest, blackest spider you can imagine on the bed!!! I know that if you wish to live and thrive you let a spider run alive, and I would never kill one, but this was a bit beyond me so I had to call for George. Now HE normally picks them up in his hand and puts them outside, but this one he approached with a glass and an envelope!

Of course, I spent most of the night imagining him (the spider, not George) trying to get back into the house and back into my bed. What is more, I bet he has a wife and six children behind the headboard.

On the bright side, I picked three big ripe figs off the tree today plus a load of beans, apples and tomatoes. The pears are still very hard and the greengages have been overcome by wasps. Now I am a good (well, trying to be) Christian but I am sure that wasps are proof positive that God is a man. No woman would have created wasps, ants, slugs, snails, snakes or woodlice. Furthermore, a female God would have made sure it only rained at night thereby ensuring that washing got dry during the day and garden parties did not get spoiled. Ergo, God is a man - I am happy with that.

But I am not happy with this spider lurking about!

Summer vegetables

2009-08-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

Who is a clever girl then! Picked in my garden today - in fact, we picked a bucket load of greengages (more correctly, George picked them because I am allergic to wasps!) Forgot to put some of my tomatoes in. No sewing done - I had to make cakes this morning because the Book Club met at my house and home made cakes seem to be the requirement! Sorry, Gina, I didn't take a photo before the big cake was cut into and it looks very sorry now, but it was a lemon & ground almond sponge with marscapone & apricot filling and was delicious. The scones were a bit hard, I find them temperamental. Any tips?

We discussed Engleby by Sebastian Faulks - we gave it 8/10 - it was a very dark book but quite compelling and I liked the fact that it was mostly set in Cambridge. We sat out in the garden under two big umbrellas, it was perfect.

Now I am going out to lie on the table in the garden and watch the shooting stars!